Love to Read

Do you like to read? Do you like to write? Suzannah from Write It Sideways suggests that writers will write better if they are also readers.

Read the excerpt below. Contact suzannah@writeitsideways.com

to read the rest of the article.

1. Renew Your Love of Reading
Do you remember the first book you ever loved,
perhaps one that was read to you over and over again as a child? Or the first
book you read all by yourself? Or that love
story you read as a teenager that made you fall in love with falling
in love?
“All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really
happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that
happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the
ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather
was.” — Ernest Hemingway
I’m wiling to bet there isn’t a writer, dead or
alive, who hasn’t been transformed by reading. But when was the last time you
got lost in a wonderful story?
If you believe, as I do, that writers do half
the work and readers do the other half, then the act of reading is an act of writing.
Maybe we need a new word to describe this
phenomenon, but for right now, make a writerly commitment to enjoy reading on a
regular basis. Make a date with the library or that pile of books on your
nightstand, and rediscover the joy of reading.

Defining a Paragraph

How do you define a paragraph? Jessica Crockett, a member of YAWRITE@LISTS.PSU.EDU>
gives her view.

There is no hard and fast rule, but a paragraph should generally contain a
single 'thought' or 'idea'. This could be a phrase one character speaks, the
description of a place (which may be quite a long paragraph), or a coherent
bite of something like action where one major thing is happening.
Sometimes there will be one point in a paragraph, but sometimes there may
also be several unified points (this tends to happen more often in formal
writing like essays or other non-fiction works rather than in fiction, where
very long paragraphs risk slowing the pace of the work). A paragraph break
is also used to give readers a pause where one seems to be needed.
You really have to do it by feel.

I was told when I began to write - one new paragraph for each character's dialogue. This was
turned on its head when in some classic novels more than one character spoke in
the same paragraph. I have decided on a new paragraph for each character
in my writing. Like Jessica says - you really have to do it by feel.

Night Meeting

Free short story read - a bitter sweet love story.

"Damn," Darren cried aloud when he stopped the motorbike in frustration and realized what he'd suspected for the last twenty minutes. He'd taken the wrong turn.
He rode along slowly, looking for somewhere to camp, when in the
fading light he noticed the cottage by the river. He traversed the little used
track leading to the building. Getting off the bike, he stood for a moment
outside the broken gate, staring at the small garden enclosed by a tumbledown
fence. The grass grew thickly as it tried to smother the sprawling lavender
bush and straggling red geraniums. Pushing open the gate, he went along the
stone path and up the few wooden steps and knocked on the weather beaten door.
When no one answered, he tried the door handle. It opened protesting. "Is
anyone home?" he called a couple of times.
The room was sparsely furnished with a wooden table and several
chairs pushed into it. Against the opposite wall was an open stone fireplace.
Beside it was a small stack of wood.
He called again buy no one answered. The place looked deserted.

Read the rest of the story at www.authorsden.com/laurellamperd

Read my short story, Night Meeting, at www.authorsden.com/laurellamperdRead my short story, Night Meeting, at www.authorsden.com/laurellamperd

Waiting Women

WAITING WOMEN


She saw the young woman
Seated next to a lamp.
A painting by Harunobu.
And knew it was her
Waiting for her lover.

Read the rest of my poem at www.authorsden.com/laurellamperd

New Books to Read

Looking for an interesting book to read? You can't go past http://museituppublishing.com

New novels just published.

Rosalie's Skinner's fourth book in her saga Exiled: Battle for Enderseer Hold
The Man in the Boat by Cheryl B Dale
Nic Brown's A Grave St. Patrick's Day
Earrings of Ixtumea - Kim Baccellia
Balance by Peter Giglis

Read about the books on http://wendylaharnar.blogspot.com.au
Wendy Laharnar's latest book is, Billy the Bonsai Bull
Download from www.kindlebooks.com & www.smashwords.com

My latest book, Journey from Walara, the second book in the Hennessy family saga is available for download at www.sonybooks.com
It is WW Two. Danny and Will, the two sons of Jack Hennessy, are off to fight for king and country leaving Jack to manage Walara, the huge Hennessy sheep property.