Category Archives: personal

A small book promotion(ish) opportunity available to anyone interested

2 Replies

Little Free Library

In my front yard, boarding the road, I have two large trees. They’re beautiful sweet-gums (we just won’t speak of the endless time I spend raking up artillery-worthy spiky balls) and for years I have looked at these trees and thought one of them would be perfect to mount a Little Free Library on.

WheeeeThe problem is that I’m not really the crafty type and, though I know I can buy a LFL for a couple hundred bucks, I’d still need to mount it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not helpless. I could manage it, but it would be inelegantly done, to say the least.

Even if I involved the husband, it wouldn’t be much better. He doesn’t work with wood. Need a bicycle frame welded into perfection? He’s your man. So, while he could certainly make me a mount, it would probably weigh more than the LFL, including all the books. (Plus, steel isn’t exactly cheap!)

OK, I probably won't get the fancy, super expensive one, but a girl can dream.

OK, I probably won’t get the fancy, super expensive one, but a girl can dream.

But I see an opportunity in the future. The husband’s family is coming to visit early this summer and his uncle, though now retired, is a builder. I’ll have my LFL this summer. <Insert wild applause here.> That means it’s time to prepare.

This brings me to the opportunity I suggested in the title. The whole idea of a LFL is that friends and neighbors borrow regularly, always taking one book and leaving another. As an example, below is a short film from British Columbia in which the library’s steward states it rotates roughly 100 books a week, in the busy season. I’m guessing ‘the busy season’ means spring and summer.

My road isn’t quite as busy as the one in the video, so I don’t anticipate quite that much traffic.  Though I am close to a main road and there are a number of dog walkers, so you never know. But I intend to ensure that there is at least one indie/sp book in it at all times and I’m open to authors sending me a copy of their book to be included.

Now, I can’t guarantee that this will result in a review for those authors who take me up on this offer and, since I don’t want to make this an indie LFL, I won’t be putting them all out at once. Therefore, it could take a while for your book to make it into the LFL, but it will get a book out there and into circulation. Which you have to admit is something.

If you’re interested in sending a book, email me at LFL@sadieforsythe dot com. I would suggest only stand alones or first in series, please. Unless you and your series are particularly well known, I can’t imagine a second or third book in a series no one knows circulating well.

On a side note, whether you’re interested in my future LFL or not, the LFL movement is a worthy one. Until May 21st they are running a Kickstarter to earn money to post libraries and books in book-deprived neighborhoods. Why not check it out?

Have questions or comments, feel free to drop me a line. I’m open to discussion and/or suggestions.

Just an FYI placeholder

1 Reply

so-i-went-to-the-library

Soooooo, I went to the library. This is sometimes a dangerous activity for me, mostly because I never ever come home with just one book. I picked up the 2nd and 3rd books in the Parasol Protectorate series, #7 in the Fever series, books #5, 6 and 7 of the Kate Daniels series and I requested the Alpha & Omega series (#1-4) when it’s returned.

Complicating the fact that I’m greedy is the fact that I’m a literary glutton. This means I’ll want to read all these books NOW, with no more breaks than required by biology.  But being as these are all latter books in popular, traditionally published series that I started at various times in the last year or so, I can’t imagine many of them warranting full blown reviews.

My eventual point is that, unless something unexpected happens (one of the books is exceptionally good or bad or something in real life calls for a post) I probably won’t be updating this lovely little hobby blog of mine for a weak or so.

If you’re desperate to know what I think of any of the above books, you can check my Goodreads page. I’ll at least rating them, maybe throwing out a loose opinionated sentence or two about them. In the mean time, just know that posts will pick back up in about a week. (That’s about how long I anticipate it will take me to read 6 novels.)

Totally petty, personal book-irritant of the day

2 Replies

please-just-stop--1

Ok, I’m gonna admit upfront that I’m being ridiculous. Novels are fiction, so there is absolutely no reason for this to annoy me as much as it does. But, as is often the case when you encounter something repeatedly, it simply does. What’s more, once it’s sneaks into your (or my) awareness you start to see it everywhere.

Bottled-Water-2What is it that I’m seeing on the pages of so many books that I feel compelled to write a whole blog post to complain about it? Characters that get thirsty and then go to the fridge to grab a bottle of water.

I know, you’re probably confused. It’s such a small thing. But it has started to feel like every book I read lately, that’s set in any sort of contemporary setting—be it paranormal, urban fantasy, romance, comedy, etc—has at least one scene when someone grabs a bottle of water. But why bottled water?

Sure, plenty of real-world people drink bottled water; some might even keep it stocked in the fridge at all times. But I’d be willing to assert it’s far more common for thirsty people in their own home to drink water from a tap, a refrigerator filter or Brita or PUR type container. In other words, get a glass of water. How many of us really always drink bottled water at home?

I keep imagining these imaginary characters filling their imaginary land fills with billions of imaginary plastic bottles (or worse, their imaginary oceans). I want to run in and give them an imaginary Nalgene and scream, “It’s reusable.”

bouteille8

You see this on television too, but I’m willing to excuse it on set. I realise a sink would require plumbing, which most sets don’t have. Similarly, I suppose an author could argue that getting a glass of water, as opposed to a bottle, requires a character know where the glasses are and then to get one before filling it. It takes more words, more description, sure. But if that’s really the reason, it’s just plain laziness.

With some places banning the disposable plastic bottle, I’d like to see it go the way of the cigarette. Few newly written characters smoke. It’s just not cool anymore. Could we perhaps see fictional characters becoming environmentally aware and forgoing the Evian anytime soon? I sure would hope so.

greenberg21