E-Book Talk at the Sierra Club

On Monday, I presented my e-book talk to the local Sierra Club. After all, e-books save trees and prevent waste in landfills. My listeners were very attentive. They really were not familiar with e-books and asked a lot of questions. I passed around my eBookwise reader so everyone would understand exactly how simple it is to use.

They were a wonderful audience! However, I realized I should have had a handout for them with a page of URLs--places to go for e-books like www.fictionwise.com, www.ebookwise.com, or www.gutenberg.net or www.epicauthors.com.

Oh well. Next time.

Great Presentation by Jane Porter

On Saturday, I attended the New Jersey Romance Writers meeting. Jane Porter presented a talk on the Alpha Male and the Unforgettable Heroine. It was an entertaining and informative talk. She used video clips from a variety of well-known movies to illustrate her points.

She was a wonderful speaker! You can find Jane Porter at Jane Porter (She has a great website, too.)

I sat next to Shirley Hailstock and Mo Boylan at lunch. Each of them have an Alphasmart keyboard and they let me play with their gadgets. I want one of my own now. I had thought of getting one a while ago, but now that summer is here it seems an even better idea. I could write anywhere!

Clean Dolls

I teach a pre-k class when I'm not writing. The school year ended last week and, as usual, the teachers had to clean up the classrooms. The dolls in my room were really filthy--and probably full of germs and other nasty stuff. I put them in the washing machine with bleach and hot water. They all survived. The genuine Cabbage Patch dolls fared the best. One other type of doll needed its hair glued back on its head. Another needed a few stitches, but that was it. They are rather hardy.

I put them on the line outside to dry, which looked rather strange. But now they are all ready for September and another class. :^)

Autographed Copy

I love to go to used book sales at libraries. My stack of books to be read is formidable, but that doesn't stop me from looking for more books. Daughter #1 is an zealous reader, too. Actually, she's worse than I am. I swear she inhales books. The nice thing is that we know each other's taste in books. So when we go to a sale together, we help each other find exactly what we like.

When the library in the next town put tons of books out on the porch, we happily planned to spend our Saturday morning searching for more wonderful books. We were not there very long when Daughter #1 pointed out a book that had one of my stories in it. I was rather surprised to see the book there. I picked it up and opened up the cover. I had autographed the book.


I felt a bit sad that the person who had purchased the book no longer wanted it. Of course, I do the same thing all the time. I regularly donate books that other authors have autographed after I read them. I cannot keep every book. I simply do not have the room for them all.

However, I could not leave that book on the shelf. I only had two copies of that particular book at home. So I bought the copy at the library sale.

It brought back a lot of good memories. The book is full of recipes for interesting dates and many of the stories were written by my New Jersey Romance Writer friends. I think I'll have to re-read it. :^)

Reunion

There's me on the right with hubby and some of my former classmates. We attended my fortieth high school reunion on Friday night. Hubby wound up spending a lot of time snapping photos since he was not a member of the class. He stood patiently in one place with five cameras on his arm and took the same shot over and over.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed the evening. It was so nice to catch up with everyone! One of the memorable moments occurred as we were all posing for a group shot. Hubby was standing on a chair in the center of the room to get the best vantage point. Then someone started singing "In The Still of the Night" and everyone else joined in. :^)



I hope we all get together again soon.