Melani Blazer

First off, huge apologies for falling off the face of the earth last week. Had weather related damage to the house… and no power. Couldn’t visit other blogs…

Thirteen Things about Melani So, say the girls and I decided to get together for a writing weekend at some mystical, remote log cabin. It supposed to be a weeked of work–and fun. We’ve got goals to meet, but you just KNOW putting online friends together in person will result in some hilarious hijinx. Here’s 13 items I’d DEFINITELY be packing! 1) tazer. Titanium. Encrusted with Diamonds, Rubies, Emeralds and Sapphires. Packs a serious get-your-ass-writing-punch. First I can’t get Emma OR Shan to get their arses in gear and do this TT. How the heck are they gonna even make it TO the cabin, much less get any writing done? Jaci’s exempt. She hasn’t been told about this impromptu vacation… yet. 2) The matching DMMCOT (Don’t Make Me Come Over There) t-shirt Emma bought several of us some years ago. Dr. Suess. Says it all. 3) My gun. Someone’s gotta ward off all the creepy crazies that are just waiting to attack innocent romance writers when they venture into the wild. 4) Gummi bears, Bottle caps, sweettarts and a case (at least) of pepsi. Nutrition is a must. 5) laptop. That’d be a good idea, right? 6) Copy of each my friend’s books so I can get them to sign them for me. 7) Camera. Thousand words X 24. Who wants to bet there’ll be some writing weekend psuedo mastercard commercials roaming the web after we get done, eh? 8) Flat screwdriver. I am DYING to remove Emma’s delete key from her keyboard. 9) Gas can, box of matches and marshmallows. You know those rejection letters? Bonfire, baby! 10) Deck of cards. One can only work so much. 11) Modem and wireless router. See #10. Besides, I can’t write without being connected, if you know what I mean. It’s a ….hangup. Must…be…in…touch. And I know the others will be too busy packing Captain Morgan and Diet Dew to remember the important stuff like internet connection. *sigh* 12) Cell phone. You know I’ll sneak a love you, no love you more, no miss you, no miss you more phone call to my husband. 13) Tyvek, Goats, chicken feet, pens, bookmarks, valium, music, bull whip, and all those other things collected from years of IM’ing with these chicas. What would you pack in your suitcase?

Sorry I’ve been AWOL. Had a run in with the big momma and she retaliated by taking a switch to me—actually, sent a nice tree branch down along the back of my house, part of which punctured through my bedroom ceiling and made it rain inside. No good. But power’s back on (obviously) we’ve got temporary patches and it’s been sunny, so we’ll survive pending repairs.

I took the opportunity to read by candlelight and devoured Karen Marie Monings’s Dark Fever. I love her work, so I was in virtual heaven despite Mother Nature’s temper tantrum.

But I’m blogging today because one of my Dearest and loveliest friends, Jaci Burton, has a book releasing today. Her Demon stories are exciting, face paced and the characters are amazing.
Check out her blog, which has an excerpt and details. Next time you’re at the bookstore, be sure to pick it up! You won’t be disappointed!

My local paper had this article. It had my blood running cold.
Mothers and Fathers–give your children books at a young age–and then keep giving to keep them reading. Give books as gifts. If you find a “keeper” buy another copy and share it with a close friend. Talk about books with people. Instead of weather chit-chat while in line or waiting, ask if they’ve read anything good lately. Those of us who know the magic of books need to share it with others!
Can you imagine a world without books? I don’t even want to! Yet if these trends continue, reading for pleasure might go extinct!

One In Four Read No Books Last Year

By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - There it sits on your night stand, that book you’ve meant to read for who knows how long but haven’t yet cracked open. Tonight, as you feel its stare from beneath that teetering pile of magazines, know one thing - you are not alone.

One in four adults read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and older people were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices.

The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year - half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn’t read any, the usual number read was seven.

“I just get sleepy when I read,” said Richard Bustos of Dallas, a habit with which millions of Americans can doubtless identify. Bustos, a 34-year-old project manager for a telecommunications company, said he had not read any books in the last year and would rather spend time in his backyard pool.

That choice by Bustos and others is reflected in book sales, which have been flat in recent years and are expected to stay that way indefinitely. Analysts attribute the listlessness to competition from the Internet and other media, the unsteady economy and a well-established industry with limited opportunities for expansion.

When the Gallup Poll asked in 2005 how many books people had at least started - a similar but not directly comparable question - the typical answer was five. That was down from 10 in 1999, but close to the 1990 response of six.

In 2004, a National Endowment for the Arts report titled “Reading at Risk” found only 57 percent of American adults had read a book in 2002, a four percentage point drop in a decade. The study faulted television, movies and the Internet.

Who are the 27 percent of people the AP-Ipsos poll found hadn’t read a single book this year? Nearly a third of men and a quarter of women fit that category. They tend to be older, less educated, lower income, minorities, from rural areas and less religious.

At the same time, book enthusiasts abound. Many in the survey reported reading dozens of books and said they couldn’t do without them.

“I go into another world when I read,” said Charlotte Fuller, 64, a retired nurse from Seminole, Fla., who said she read 70 books in the last year. “I read so many sometimes I get the stories mixed up.”

Among those who said they had read books, the median figure - with half reading more, half fewer - was nine books for women and five for men. The figures also indicated that those with college degrees read the most, and people aged 50 and up read more than those who are younger.

Pollyann Baird, 84, a retired school librarian in Loveland, Colo., says J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter fantasy series is her favorite. But she has forced herself to not read the latest and final installment, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” because she has yet to file her income taxes this year due to an illness and worries that once she started the book, “I know I’d have to finish it.”

People from the West and Midwest are more likely to have read at least one book in the past year. Southerners who do read, however, tend to read more books, mostly religious books and romance novels, than people from other regions. Whites read more than blacks and Hispanics, and those who said they never attend religious services read nearly twice as many as those who attend frequently.

There was even some political variety evident, with Democrats and liberals typically reading slightly more books than Republicans and conservatives.

The Bible and religious works were read by two-thirds in the survey, more than all other categories. Popular fiction, histories, biographies and mysteries were all cited by about half, while one in five read romance novels. Every other genre - including politics, poetry and classical literature - were named by fewer than five percent of readers.

More women than men read every major category of books except for history and biography. Industry experts said that confirms their observation that men tend to prefer nonfiction.

“Fiction just doesn’t interest me,” said Bob Ryan, 41, who works for a construction company in Guntersville, Ala. “If I’m going to get a story, I’ll get a movie.”

Those likeliest to read religious books included older and married women, lower earners, minorities, lesser educated people, Southerners, rural residents, Republicans and conservatives.

The publishing business totaled $35.7 billion in global sales last year, 3 percent more than the previous year, according to the Book Industry Study Group, a trade association. About 3.1 billion books were sold, an increase of less than 1 percent.

The AP-Ipsos poll was conducted from August 6 to 8 and involved telephone interviews with 1,003 adults. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

AP Manager of News Surveys Trevor Tompson and AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

I’m back on track now, actually working on a book I have listed in the sidebar. I paused to write a novella to submit for a cat-shapeshifter anthology Samhain Publishing will be doing in the spring. I’m actually pretty proud of myself for finishing a 23K book in a little over two weeks. I stayed on course and got it done.

Now I’m back to WF1, tho’ I did pull out the vamp and review my notes. I’m at a big transition scene there, and while I know what I want to happen, I haven’t mentally orchestrated how it’ll work out. That will be a full length book, and I’m sooooo close to finishing up WF1 (only to move on to WF2) that I made this next attack.

It’s been a rainy weekend here, but we’ve been busy. Had a date night Friday night, which was fun and different. Yesterday was a birthday party for a three year old–always fun, even though the hubby got a call from work to stop in and check on something so we had to leave before the ice cream cake. Bummer. Still, went home, made cupcakes and vegged out.

That’s about all I can report on. My life is pretty routine. But if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some characters begging for my attention.

C-ya!

Brand Name Dates was a FUN book to write. I came up with the concept of “shopping” for men but also the idea of a central relationship between Jill and Benny that was truly a comedy of errors. It was the first book in which I wrote several vital scenes and then connected those scenes and ideas together to form a complete book. One of those first scenes was the meteor shower scene. It got tweaked big time in edits, but it still remains one of my favorites.

I was reminded of it today when talking to a co-worker about the meteors we’d witnessed over the weekend. I totally smiled when I remembered Jill and Benny out at the edge of a field staring up at the stars. What else could I do then, but share it with you!

As weekends go, mine was pretty basic.

The highlight was laying a sleeping bag in the back of the pickup and the husband, daughter and I laid there for about two hours Saturday night, staring at the night sky. Why?

It was the night before the peak of the Perseids Meteor shower. I look forward to it every year, but this was the first in eons I actually got out there and did nothing but watch for meteors. There’s something so awesome about seeing them streak across the sky. Plus, we had some great family time, looking for constellations and trying to figure out what the heck is floating across the sky slow but unblinking. (Still intend to research satellites, cuz it’s our best guess…)

Did a grill out at a friends, watched Nascar and a little bit of the preseason football game. And wrote. Worked my way through a sex scene–one which had a huge impact on the future of the characters, so I wanted to make sure it was “right”. Now I’m back to writing plot and it’s flying. I love the muse when it’s like that!

Anyway, how was your weekend?

If you are a writer (or engage in any other sort of work-from-home job/hobby/escape) then you T-totally need to get thee to Emma Wayne Porter’s blog and read her flowchart on…well, you gotta read it.

Monday again. How’d it get to be Monday already?

Last weekend, Angie, my dear editor at Samhain Publishing, mentioned the deadline was fast (as in superfast) approaching for an anthology. Somehow my brain read that as “CHALLENGE” and I scraped together a submission. While it does feel good to have things “out there” again, I really need to stop doing that.

Last night Shan and I were talking and she mentioned the Brava contest. I guess I don’t hang out on the right blogs or something. (Maybe because I read blogs on my lunch at work). Either I’d forgotten or never heard the Brava contest was going on, but seems I do have more time on this one… September 30th to enter. I wouldn’t even do it if I didn’t already have something “enterable”. I’ll be doing some reading and working to pick up a good 750 word excerpt.

Not writing wise, I’ve been helping the husband (and daughter) in the garage. The Chevelle is running. Well, it’s been running. Big joke is that it’s had GO power but no STOP power. That’s been fixed, we got a battery FOR the car and we actually took it for a spin around the blog block. Dang that car has some giddyup power!

I was really itching to do some photography this weekend, but didn’t make it. Had killer headache yesterday, plus it rained. There’s a gorgeous sunflower field just on the outskirts of town and I HAVE to get there and capture it. Of course, if I do, and anything’s worth sharing, I’ll post it here.

Well, that’s it. If I don’t get moving I’ll be late for work and I don’t wanna start the week on THAT note.

Ciao~!