A Couple of Things

We had another great meeting of our writers group.  You writers out there, if you don’t belong to a writing group, I strongly suggest that you do so, soon.  There is so much to be gained by membership: the feeling of sorority (or in some cases fraternity), really good feedback, continuing education, and so much more.

Today’s meeting had a very specific workshop about first sentences.  This is a subject that Ava and I have been struggling with at great length on Seeing Love Clearly.  We met a prospective member, whom I sincerely hope joins, who actually gave Ava and I the most helpful feedback we’ve ever received.  Ava, Isabella and I are too close to the story at this point and, now sometimes, we can’t see the forest for the trees.  So, Jess, if you read this, thank you!  You were a great help.

On an unrelated note, I am reading Dan Brown’s latest, The Lost Symbol, on my Kindle.  I enjoy his books, they are a great mystery romp, and I’m always up for an engaging story.  The only thing though, I want to read the darn thing in front of my computer.  I constantly find the need to soothe my curiosity by looking up references on line.  My capacity for getting side tracked is well documented on this site.  It will take me 20 minutes to look up something in a dictionary because I aways get lured away by interesting words or illustrations.  And an old fashioned encyclopedia (do they even make those anymore?), forget it.  Reference books are the love of my life and the bane of my existence.  However, if I ever get on Jeopardy….. Anyway, it’s taking me way longer than usual to read this book since I spend half the time looking things up on Wikipedia and Google images.  I’m only 53% done with the book. 

That leads me to one of my few complaints about the Kindle.  It doesn’t tell you how many pages you are, but rather your percentage of completed pages.  The other thing is that I’m a page flipper.  I like to flip back and reread something, or look up a previous passage, that kind of thing, and the Kindle is not really user friendly in that manner.  The last thing is totally my own fault; as soon as someone sees me reading it, they want to ask all kinds of questions about the reader, and I allow myself to be interrupted and gush about how much I love it.  Really, AMAZON, if you’re listening, I ought to start receiving a bonus check or commission from you people.  I’ve sold more of these than I can believe.  Feel free to contact me for where to send the check.