[SEPT UPDATE] Cephalopod Book Club & Goals

~ The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : September Edition ~

I read five books this month. I was travelling, so I had a bit more time to devote to reading. Also, I was trying hard to catch up on my reading goals (I was 6 books behind at one point). This is one of the books I downloaded for free (or very cheap... can't remember which) in recent weeks. I have been on a bit of a 'free books' binge, which is helped by a mailing list I'm on for free / discounted books. There is quite a lot of mediocre stuff out there, but this was one that I really liked (one of three this month actually!).

The book did have some (but not many) typos and things that could be fixed with a good line edit, but they weren't enough to piss me off particularly. I loved the story so much - and the writing! and the characters! - that I could move past the imperfections fairly easily. I love the whole zombie apocalypse theme - and the fact that Adrian takes that on board with enthusiasm. Reading the very first scene, I did wonder, IS this book actually about a zombie apocalypse? But soon enough I found my footing and knew there were no zombies about.

I loved Deanna Eshler's witty writing, and I really love the character of Keegan. Adrian, of course, was totally adorable, and it was great seeing their story unfold. I haven't read Book #1 (which focuses on different characters), but having read this one I hope I will find #1 to be just as entertaining, when I do get around to reading it! For now, I recommend this book if you like quirky humour and wacky characters (like Robert. That guy was hilarious too).

~ Do You Have Goals? : September Edition ~

Last month I reported that I had been doing some work on SUNDOWN III. This is still the case, but it's been slow going. I did manage to do a bit while I was travelling. The latest thing I did, was remove all of the hero's POV chapters. I want to try doing this book with just one POV. But I will do something with the hero's scenes, it just might not be a full length novel. So now I have some gaps to fill, from the heroine's POV.

I am also still in the midst of editing it back to 3rd person. I always go back & forth on this. Deanna Eshler's book that I reviewed above is written in 1st person, and I really do have a soft spot for that perspective. But I've committed to 3rd person for SUNDOWN III, and it does seem to be working quite nicely.

Next month is October, "the month before NaNoWriMo". So I'll be doing some gearing up for NaNo during October. But I hope to have a lot more to report on my editing of SUNDOWN III too, for the October check-in.

Reading my own books on the Kindle

I am fairly new to Kindle, so I'm learning things all the time. One thing I learned recently was that I could send my novels as rtf documents to my Kindle email, and they would soon show up on my Kindle. Not only this, but they actually looked good.

This is probably old news to you guys, but to me it was a revelation. I had no idea it could be so easy to get your novel on your Kindle - that you didn't need .mobi format. And I only found out this simple truth after a friend and I swapped novels, and she sent me this in an email:

I want to ask if you do anything special to make the documents so easy to read on the kindle? Is it just saved as rtf and nothing else special? 

My response was as follows:

I had no idea you could read just a document like the ones I sent you on Kindle, so I'm not the one to ask. haha. Maybe .rtf is the trick? I just use that format because it's supposed to be universally readable on different machines, i.e. Mac and PC.

Since then, I have in fact been gleefully sending my own novels to Kindle, and dancing around waiting for them to appear on my little screen. Also for the last few days, I've been foregoing reading all of your books and the mountain of others I should be reading, just so I can read my own. ;)

I feel almost silly staying awake way past lights out for this purpose, and dragging my carcass to work the next day, sleep deprived and longing for my pillow. But I can't help myself! Not only is reading my work on the Kindle a great motivator to dive back into editing - some of those dodgy lines have needed editing for years now - but I'm also hooked because I think my stories are cool (yes, I'm biased, and I'm fine with it). And seeing them on a Kindle, even my own Kindle, makes me feel quite special!

So yeah, this Kindle thing is pretty cool. Even if I do still prefer paperbacks.