Now on Facebook too

I’ve just started a Facebook page, Janette McCormack-Blogger , that’s the big news for today. There’s not much there yet but at least it is started and I will work on filling it out.

If you like to follow on Facebook I look forward to seeing you there.


This week has been a time of heavy thinking and I’ve needed a little distraction; some of these books have done it for me,  a couple of lighter reads along with.. a not so light read.

It has been a good week for downloads too. Some weeks are slimmer than others so a week with lots of good choices feels like Christmas!


Books Read

A Bradford Sisters Novella  – Then Came You – Becky Wade

Modern Conveniences Series – Lost in Love book 3 – Leah Atwood

The Mystery: Finding True Love in a World of Broken Lovers – Lacey Sturm…..  this is non-fiction, the poignant story of  a life of struggle.

Christmas Mysteries Book Series – Christmas Mystery – James Kipling

Be an avid reader, to become an excellent writer

This is my advice to aspiring writers with a promising story inside.

Read really good books, and only good books. You time is valuable and in short supply, don’t spend it on a book that is less than excellent. I know excellence by the way it captures my interest. Genre doesn’t matter, nor does the reputation of the author. The only thing that matters is the way the story draws you in.

Avidly reading excellent books will impact your writing. It’s like eating gourmet food, it spoils you for anything less.

As you experience phrases like “the blue and red colours of the neon sign bled into the wet street”, from The Poisoned Rose by Daniel Judson, they will stick in your mind and you will automatically know a better way to say things.

Don’t spend too much time over-thinking the choice of  book to read. Some of my best finds have been when there was little thought at all, just the seizing of an opportunity.

BookBub, Amazon, Instafreebie, and Gospel eBooks, have become my best friends, I’ve found so many treasures paying attention to their offerings.

Read anything and everything, and then read more of the authors you want to be like, spend enough time with them and you will begin to write like them.

That’s what I am doing…. all of the above, and it is changing me.


Currently reading “The Bone Orchard” sequel to “The Poisoned Rose” by Daniel Judson

To good reading!

New pages added to this blog

More new books at the end!

I’ve created some  new pages as a place to list books read. It’s great to list them at the bottom of each post so we can easily identity what’s new, but afterwards, they kind of get lost. Maybe a separate page would be a good way to find them again. We’ll give it a try.

The new pages are Romance….. Mystery/Thriller……. and.. Other Genres.

Other Genres is pretty much a mixed bag. If ever another category clearly shows up in this list, it can have it’s own page.

Mystery/Thriller has been published for you, the other two are still under construction.

If you find these pages helpful or interesting, leave a comment and let me know. Feedback would be useful I think.


Books read this week  –  all of them good reads

Unwritten: A Novel – Charles Martin……… as always, this novel is intensely real and engrossing, and, as always with his books, once started I couldn’t stop. I am putting this book under romance because it fits better than in mystery but it’s really not a romance. It’s about people facing life, trying to find a way to live through it.

One Last Summer – Jo Noelle…….. a short romance

The Seventh Sergeant (Three Rivers Ranch Romance Book 6)  – Liz Isaacson and Elena Johnson …… I think I’ve read most of the previous ones, this was a good story.

The Hideway – Lauren Denton ….. a romance centered around a group of unusual characters, mixed with family secrets.

Black & Blue (Lord and Lady Hetheridge Mystery Series Book 4) – Emma Jameson ….. I’ve read other book in this series and enjoyed them all.

Finding Courage (Love’s Compass Book 3) – Melanie D Snitker ……. a romance faced with intense family issues, will they survive?

Her Mother’s Hope (Marta’s Legacy Book 1) – Francine Rivers …… we grow up in difficult circumstances and run away to flee that kind of life, but in the end, have we really left it behind? or does history repeat itself anyway?

I started a new blog the other day…

I have more than one passion I wish to share with the world and, so far, it has been an interesting but unproductive time trying to figure out how to make it work the way I visualize.

It seems to me these passions would be most effective if they were kept somewhat  separate, like food on certain people’s plates – not touching. It may be possible, on this site, to do what I have in mind, I won’t declare it isn’t, maybe I just need to learn more about the technical side of blogging to find there is a way it could be done. But so far it isn’t happening for me.

Another option just sort of jumped out at me a couple of days ago, I went with it and started a whole new blog. We will give it a try to see how it goes. Not everything in life is cast in stone, in my opinion, so changes can always be made later if it doesn’t go as smoothly as hoped.

My parallel passion to reading, is music. Two passions that have been with me pretty much my whole life, keeping me sane and happy, through thick and thin.

There are many days a song plays in my mind and I wish I could share it, as encouragement to someone who could use a glimmer of hope. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I have to throw some songs out there if I want a chance to encourage.

The other day I heard a song and wanted to share it here but the only blog option I could see for sharing looked to be on Blogger……. hence the new blog. musictonourishmysoul.blogspot.com   …………….. posting as “music lover”

I will keep the discussion of music, and genres enjoyed, confined to the new blog.

If you are booklover reading this blog and you love music too, drop by for some encouragement, and maybe even a little fun now and then.  I hope to post more frequently, songs aren’t as time consuming as books, and posts will add up more quickly.

Books won’t be taking a back seat to music anytime soon, there is no threat of that!

Several books  are ready….with more on their way.


Any book listed here was read and enjoyed…… just saying!

Drowning For Rainbows – Kristoff Chimes …..   impossible situations threaten the tenuous peace in Bosnia. Follow a police chief, a peace keeping doctor, and a young couple from both sides of the conflict, as they struggle to stay alive.

Any Blooming Thing – Marisa Logan….. a romance ,  these two books were downloaded from InstaFreebie. it is working out better for me than I at first thought. Give it a try if you are looking for more free stuff

 

Instafreebie and Autism

*there is a list of books at the bottom of every post*  

A friend told me about a new site called Instafreebie. I am all over freebies so I’ve signed up and downloaded a few things. It hasn’t gone all that smoothly, compared to BookBub. There are more steps to be taken, there’s a bigger learning curve, and sometimes the authors require the reader to sign up for a newsletter first.

It’s unclear, at this point anyway, what the quality of the books will be, I expect the standard could be lower than usual for inclusion in the list and they may all be self published, which may or may not mean anything.

I think I will give it a whirl, to see if it’s worth the extra effort. Many of the books seem to be a little on the fringe, but that could just be my first impression. There could be some real gems in there……. I’ll let you know how it goes.


One of the books to come my way this week is on Austism and is written by a doctor as a story which helps demonstrate concepts she wants to get across. I don’t know enough about this subject to be a good judge of information being presented but this book  seemed to make sense to me. And since we need to spread all the knowledge possible on this subject I hope you will give this book a try. I think these concepts will give the general public a better understanding if they should happen to meet up with an autistic person; knowledge and understanding is always a good thing.

Books

Candyfloss Guitar  (The Reluctant Pilgrim book 1)Stephen Marriot…….. he describes this book as the story of a modern day pilgrim taking the first steps on a journey of discovery. Stephen Marriot is a British author inspired by travel and walking the roads less travelled. This was on Instafreebie, and I liked it a lot.

Two Tocks Before Midnight – Clay Boutwell ….. a historical mystery from Instafreebie, a unique and enjoyable mystery. A scholarly club of men with strict rules for their members, and a puzzle to solve.

Autism Goes to School – Book 1 of the School Daze Series – Dr. Sharon A Mitchell…... A single dad facing many challenges……not only is his five year old son an autistic child he has never met, he knows nothing about being a dad and is totally on his own with this, at first anyway.

A Discovery of Hope (A Coming Home Again Novel Book 3) – T. I. Lowe….. another fresh take on life, an engrossing story.

A Fresh Start – Trisha Grace……. Paige leaves everything she knows to get away from something threatening. The theme sounds very familiar but it didn’t feel like I was reading the same book, again. Enjoyed this story.

As always, look these books up on Amazon, or other sites you may know of, for a fuller description, to help give you inspiration. That’s how I get my mine.

Happy reading!