Hello, everyone! It’s been a very busy couple of weeks here at the Palatial Horvath Estate, but I’m delighted to let you all know that the next TWO books in the Hardy Falls series are out and available now!!!
First, Trusting Love – Welcome to Hardy Falls book 2
Hello, my friends! I’m so excited to share the cover for my new book, which will be coming out soon. Here it is!
Now, you may ask me WHEN it is coming out, and at this point, I can’t set an actual date, but it will be by Christmas unless something really goes wrong. But since things DO go wrong, and planning, thy name is Betsy, I can only say it will be soon. How soon is soon? Hmmmm…..
Some day I’ll get this whole timing thing under control. Some day…. Hope springeth eternal. (more…)
I haven’t had time to blog this past week because I’ve started to sell books. I don’t mean I’ve become a bookseller. I mean I’ve started to sell my own books.
I had a lot of books. A LOT of books. At the time HOLD ME was published, one of the fun facts I gave the publisher was that I had well over 3000 books. Since then, the number, um, swelled.
A LOT of books.
I love books. Freaking love them. I think every house should have lots and lots of books. If I get interested in a subject or latch onto a new author, I purchase EVERYTHING I can find about that subject or from that author.
That’s not necessarily bad, but my acquisition of books had gone well beyond the point where it was healthy. I can’t tell you how much credit card debt I’ve acquired from purchasing books and e-books. I’m a publisher’s dream. I distinctly remember a time when Amazon was delivering boxes to my house EVERY DAY. Once sanity raised its head, I found I had charged well over a thousand dollars for books. And don’t even get me started on Kindle’s One Click purchasing system…
The worst part was, I didn’t always READ the books I bought. Don’t get me wrong – I always wanted to read them, I always intended to read them. And I kept them because I told myself I would read them. Someday. Besides, what if I needed them?
I want to be clear here – collecting books – even books you don’t read – is not a bad thing. But for ME and in MY circumstances, it wasn’t good anymore.
A few weeks ago, I had one of those dreams. I dreamt I was struggling to walk down a road, but I could hardly move because I was weighed down by my books. They were strangling me. When I woke up, the dream clear in my mind, I realized I had begun to think of my books as a burden instead of a joy.
After thinking some more, I saw that I thought owning a lot of books meant I was happy. If I wasn’t happy, I just needed to buy more books to become happy again. I had tied my happy to books.
Now, I know books CAN make you happy. If you read them, and they work their magic in you, they are wonderful. But if you just own them and give them space in your house, if you resent them because purchasing them has put you in more debt, then they don’t make you happy any more.
I also realized I’ve held onto books simply because people have mocked me for owning a lot of books. They haven’t understood the importance books have in my life. So part of it was stubborn pride on my part.
But you can’t let the things you own strangle you just because of stubborn pride.
So I’ve started to sell my books. Not all of my books – NEVER all of my books – but the books I owned for the sake of owning a lot of books. So far I’ve gone through my hundreds and hundreds of reference, literary and various scholarly-type books. I’ve even made money from them (thank you, book buyback sites) and what I couldn’t sell I’ve been able to donate. I haven’t really touched the paperbacks yet, but I’m making progress.
The books left on my shelves mean something to me now. They aren’t just owned.
It’s so easy to think that you have to hold onto something without considering why you’re doing it. It’s so easy to get to a place where we work to support our possessions because we think we need them to be happy.
But sheer quantity of possessions – even books – can’t make us happy.
And lifting all of the boxes of books to ship or donate them sure has built up my muscles! Here – let me flex for you.
I know not everyone will relate to this, but I’ve made it a practice to give up things for Lent. Every year I pick one or two things I consider to be important, and try to give them up for the seven weeks between Ash Wednesday and Easter. I’ve done this for years, with varying degrees of success.
This year, I had the bright idea to give up fiction. For seven weeks, I would give up all fiction but my own. Books, television, audio books…all fiction.
First, let me say I didn’t give up fiction because I consider it to be bad. Quite the contrary. I knew I loved fiction so much it was going to be a real sacrifice. And I’ll admit I was hoping the “fast” would force me to focus on my writing.
I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.
To be honest, it’s been an interesting experience. I don’t think I ever really understood how vital fiction was in my life. That was pretty stupid. After all, fiction is what I do. Not only do I write, but I read constantly – fiction – and listen to audio books – also fiction. If I watch television (which I don’t do too often), I’m usually watching movies. Fiction, fiction everywhere.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve still been reading and listening to audio books, but I’ve confined myself strictly to non-fiction. For the most part I’ve stuck with history, books on writing, and spiritual/self-improvement-y type stuff.
I knew I used fiction as a way to escape after dealing with the usual crap all day. I didn’t realize it was essential for my mental stability. I don’t think that’s bad. Sometimes you just need to be swept up in lives that aren’t your own and taken away from what’s ailing you. Most non-fiction doesn’t do that for me. It’s too fact-oriented. Plus, it really happened, so there’s no fantasy.
I was also surprised to realize how much I learn from fiction. To be honest, I’m feeling kind of browbeaten by my strict diet of non-fiction. Everyone is so serious and…certain.
Fiction tends to teach you more obliquely. See this person? See what they’re doing? Let’s watch and see what happens to them…
Now, don’t get me wrong. Non-fiction is awesome. But I’m more than ready to have my fiction back too. I need the balance it brings me.
I guess my point is – be careful what you give up. You never know how important it is to you until it’s gone.
Can someone read a novel and let me smell your fiction breath?
When my sister and I were little, my mother used to read us books almost every night. I especially loved it when she acted out all the parts. She made up a song for “The Best Nest” that still haunts me, lo these many years later.
That’s probably one reason I love audio books so much. It takes me back to when I was a little girl and my mom was reading (or singing) to us before bedtime.
I didn’t start listening to audio books until after I read Stephen King’s “On Writing”. He said that many of the books he read each year were audio books and I thought – “Hey! That’s a good idea.” I started checking them out of the library, and I was hooked. Now, between my Audible account and other direct download sources, my iPod is jammed packed full of audio goodness.
There are several other reasons why I think audio books are wonderful. For one thing, listening to them means that you can read while you are doing other things. With the way my life goes, that is a huge plus. In fact, I have to say that most of my reading is done with audio books these days. I listen to them in the car, at home, even at work, if the task permits.
Another big advantage of audio books for me is that they force you to listen to every word. When I read, I tend to skim in certain passages. You don’t skim an audio book. I’ve listened to books that I had already read, and realized I’d missed a great deal just because I was reading the paper book too quickly.
As a writer, listening to audio books is good training for dialogue and pacing – the pop and snap of a story. We are told to read our books out loud as we are writing them for just such a reason. Listening gives you the music that is inside a book.
In other words, I love me my audio books. If you’ve never listened to one, why not turn off the radio or the television and give it a try?
And if you see me wearing my headphones (earbuds hurt my ears), apparently laughing or crying for no good reason, you’ll know what I’m doing. I’m reading a book!
Nothing hurts my heart quite like realizing I have to get rid of some books.
I think I feel the same about books as I do about cats – if I’ve committed to them, if I’ve decided to take them home, I want to keep them. I want to hug them and love them and squeeze them and call them George….*cough* Anyway, I like books.
You may be saying to yourself, “If you like books so darned much, why get rid any?” Well, I used to have 3000 books crammed into this place. Now I think it’s probably closer to 3500 and growing. I find that I don’t have “rooms” anymore. I have paths through my house that go to various places.
There’s a scene in my book (HOLD ME) where Katie sees Luc’s bedroom for the first time. No, it’s not for that – get your mind out of the gutter. This is her description:
But she had to admit what really surprised her were the books. Not only were there bookcases full of books, there were piles and piles and piles of books in every position, covering every surface, seemingly on every topic. She wandered farther into the room, intrigued and, in a way, enchanted. There were books on the floor, books on the dressers, books on the nightstands, and an impressive stack of volumes teetering next to the bed.
This, my friends, is taken from life. I have books EVERYWHERE. And it’s time to cull the herd a little bit.
The first step is the hardest – figuring out which books to keep and which books should go.
For example, do I really need a book on grooming horses? True, I’ve never even ridden a horse, but what if the zombie apocalypse comes and all machinery fails and I need to rely on my trusty steed to escape from having my brain eaten? Shouldn’t I know how to use a curry comb?
And, yes, I have 15 books on herbal remedies, and yes, they all basically say the same things, but what if I get rid of some of them and then I get a rash or something? What if I only have 5 books to refer to?
Then there are the romance novels. What if I get rid of books I don’t read or don’t like and then find out they’re part of a series and I want to read the whole series in order and the library doesn’t have the book or I have to WAIT to read them until I can borrow them?
I think you understand my dilemma.
There’s also the problem of where to put the books while you decide what to do with them. I always end up with boxes of books sitting around, get tired of looking at them, and put everything back on the shelves.
As a side note – that’s one of the big advantages of a digital reader, as far as I can tell. You can have thousands of books and it never takes up more room.
Fortunately I have many potential good homes for my books. In fact, I might even be able to sell some of the reference books and make a little money.
And if I don’t get rid of some books, I will find myself smothered under a pile of art and knowledge.
Getting rid of books. It’s hard. But if I’m strong, then maybe, someday, all of my bookshelves will look like this:
