Loving Literary

I might have loved to get into those gruesome horror stories from Stephen King as a youngster, but it was when I had a particular English teacher in high school when I found my true love in books. This English teacher thought it would be great to assign banned books all year - no books that were not banned were allowed. He received a lot of angry letters and phone calls from parents, other teachers and the school district. Somehow though, he managed to make it all year without getting fired.

That year I read To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Cage, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, The Bastard Out of Carolina, The Catcher in the Rye, and Fahrenheit 451. I am sure I could remember more if it weren’t so long ago!

That one year was the best reading I had ever had. It was shocking, tear jerking, laugh out loud reading. I learned about other people’s life situations that I had no idea even existed. I became wiser from it.  I have read them all many times since then and became quite the advocate against censorship on books in my school.

However, there was and still is one favorite censored book of mine: 1984 by George Orwell. What a fantastic story!  It made me gasp, cry, laugh, and most importantly think about the world around me. You grab a copy for yourself here .

Until next time,

What is your all time favorite book?

Intimate Voices From The First World War

Edited by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis

The history in this book is real, raw and amazing.

It effected me when entries stopped because I could only imagine what happened to that person. Did they get killed? Did they lose their journals? It was emotional for me when one person’s journal entries just stopped short.

There are so many issues and situations today that can relate to the first world war. It is so relevant and I think it always will be. The issues highlighted in each person’s entry was easy to relate to. This book makes the reader see how important it is to support soldiers no matter how futile the wars will be.

I remember books since I was very little. I was lucky to have a mother and father who read to me every night at bedtime. It was usually my favorite part of the whole day. I loved to hear how each story presented its own set of characters, how everything was described, and how the main character always solved the problem they were faced with before the story was over.  Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein were my favorites, but that didn’t last long…

My mom was (and still is) an avid reader. I watched her read her favorite crime and mystery books and loved to poke through her enormous book shelve full of these fiction stories. I caught onto reading very quickly and by the time I was about seven years old I was sneaking my nephew’s Stephen King books into my room. I would curl up on my bed with a Stephen King book and my dictionary (so I could look up those hard words!) and enjoy the stories.  By sixth grade I was writing horror short stories in writing class where my teacher thought I should grow up to be an author. By my teen years I was writing poetry and experimenting with other genres.

High school was difficult. School guidance counselors wanted me to choose a career to focus on and start applying to colleges. I couldn’t choose something, so I ended up working in various retail and customer service jobs. I always knew I could do better. I just didn’t know what to do.

In 2000 I started dating this man who I fell head over heels for. He was everything I was looking for in a companion. I wasn’t sure of myself when I met him, but he persisted in asking questions so I could ponder the answers: What makes you happy?  What do you truly enjoy? ETC.

I had no idea how to answer these questions. Finally, when we got our own apartment together I was trying to figure out what to do with my life. I was all over the place. One day he suddenly said, “If you enjoy writing so much why don’t you just do that?”

What a concept! I could actually make money as a writer! That was it. I think it was that same day that I started preparing myself for a career in writing.  I have now been a successful, full-time freelance writer for six years and we have been married for almost two years!

Sometimes the answer is right in front of you the whole time waiting for you to realize it is there, even if it takes someone in your life to point it out for you.

I watched in awe, fear, amazement, and excitement each time Michael Phelps won a gold. He is an amazing athlete. It was great to see his mom in the stands cheering him on. It was all truly nostalgic. Michael Phelps is an Olympic swimmer and now holds seven world records. He has a total of fourteen medals.

Now, Michael Phelps, the eight time gold medal winner in Beijing and the world record holder, is going to publish his own book!  Of course, he is writing his book about those eight awesome and record winning gold medal swims. Free Press will be the publisher.

We will also get to learn more about Michael Phelps personally, not just as an Olympic athlete. He’ll tell us about being raised by a single mother and dealing with Attention Deficit Disorder.

Built to Succeed will hit the shelves in December, so get those gift orders ready!

It is already listed here: http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.cfm?tab=1&pid=646938&er=9781439130728