100 Sites for Fiction Writers: #84 - Bookfessions

This is an ongoing series looking at websites that can be of help to fiction writers with their craft and career.

Bookfessions

There are all kinds of sites out there for fiction writers. Some are about the craft of writing, others about the business end. Honestly, after wading through them time and time again, some of it becomes monotonous. Sometimes a writer just wants to have a little fun.

That's where a site like Bookfessions comes in.

Bookfessions is the tumblr page for writer and avid reader Justyna. In 2011, Justyna set herself a 50 Book Challenge of reading 50 books in one year, and you can follow along to see what she read and if she met her goal.

But that's just the beginning.

What's really fun about the Bookfessions site are the confessions about books that have been sent to Justyna. As of this writing, there are 786 such confessions, many of them touching, a large number of them poignant and hilarious. The nine most recent book confessions appear on the front of the Bookfessions site at a time, being updated as Justyna receives and approves them. Readers can look at Older Post for the older confessions.

Want an example of a confession about a book? Here is number 784: "When I finish a really good book, I take a minute to sit on my bed and weep my heart out."

There are hundreds more, and a number of them will make you think and/or chuckle.


Truthfully, this site is as much for readers as it is for writers, but writers need a break from the drudgery sometimes, and Bookfessions can offer that, as well as some insight into readers' minds.
While you're at the site, you can also check out Justyna's book Recommendations or check out what books she will be reading soon.

Thoughts on job hunting and setting one's own destiny

I had been thinking about getting a job lately. You know, a real job. I don't have to. I make enough from my writing to keep the bills paid. But it's been three years since I've had a regular job job, and of late I've kind of missed working out of the home, being out among people. My thinking was I'd get some little, part-time job somewhere working 20 hours a week, just enough to help a little more with the bills and to get me out of the house.

After a few months of looking and a handful of interviews, I've changed my mind. I no longer want to get a job job.

Here's why: It has come to my attention that the workplace today is sheer insanity.

I look back upon my life, 20 years of working in an office, and now I realize most of that was a waste of my time. Other than some friendships I made as a journalist, I have nothing to show for it. Let me repeat, nothing. No, I do not have a pension because most companies did away with those. I used to have a 401 (k) but I had to cash in on that when I got laid off a few years ago, so that's gone. I guess someone could argue, "Well, yeah, but what about all that stuff you bought over the years?" You mean all that stuff I sold, gave away or junked because I realized I didn't need it anymore? That stuff?

I don't want to come off like some Occupy Wall Street protester, but seriously, I can't imagine ever working for anyone else again. In my opinion, unless one has children or has some possibility of special benefits looming (retirement or tenure or the like), working for someone else is bonkers.

Every damn job I saw, from high-end corporate positions down to the lowliest toilet scrubbing jobs, wanted someone with "high energy" and "available to work any and all hours" including weekends and holidays and getting no extra pay for it. No benefits. No chance of promotion. No guarantee of even having a job in a few months. Uh, yeah, when I was 20. I'm not 20 any more, not by a long shot. And no, I'm not willing to scrub your toilet at three in the morning for minimum wage.

Call me lazy. Call me a radical. Call me anti-American. I frankly don't give a shit. Selling one's soul to the company store is highly overrated and gets you nowhere in the long run but to an early grave.

Screw that. At my age, after what I've experienced in my life, I'd rather be homeless on the street than working my ass off to make someone else rich.

Never again. I'll keep writing.

My apologies to my friends who find themselves still stuck in the working world. I'm sorry you're there, but please, please, try to find something where you can set your own destiny. If that happens to be within the corporate world, so be it, but do your own thing.

Books read in 2011: No 56 - Old Man's War

by John Scalzi

Started: December 6
Finished: December 9

Notes: For some time I've been meaning to read this military sci-fi novel. I've read other works by Scalzi and enjoyed them, but somehow had missed this novel, his best-known work.

Mini review: A damn fine book. Scalzi at his finest. Any military sci-fi fans should read this, and even those who aren't big into the genre should love this novel. It's well written without being difficult to read, emotional with plenty of action to keep the interest high. The ending I found a little bittersweet, but then I've read novels later in the series, so I know how some things turn out later down the road.

Books read in 2011: No. 55 - The Price of Numbers

by Thomas K. Carpenter

Started: December 6
Finished: December 6

Notes: Why did I pick up this freebie e-book? Honestly, I don't remember. But it's a story pertaining to the author's Heron of Alexandria series, and that was possibly enough to draw my interest. I love finding new authors, so here goes.

Mini review: This was a delightful historical mystery tale, the Greek Heron here being portrayed as a sort of ancient Sherlock Holmes. For some reason this story seemed familiar to me, but I do not recall having read it before.

100 Sites for Fiction Writers: #83 - Scribblerati

This is an ongoing series looking at websites that can be of help to fiction writers with their craft and career.

Scribblerati

As a fiction writer, do you ever feel a bit lost over at Facebook and Twitter? With millions and millions of members, many of which are not regularly interested in fiction or writing or even books and e-books, such sites might seem daunting to some. Wouldn't it be cool if there was an online social network just for writers?

Guess what? There is. It's called Scribblerati.

Created by author Lia Keyes, Scribblerati sets out to be just what it claims, an online social network for writers of all genres.

As might be expected, the site contains a Forum, Chat, a Blog, and an area about Groups. To access any of these links at the site, membership is required. Also to be found here is the latest News concerning publishing, as well as information about Lia, including photos. There is also a list of Events.

Some might grouse that this site is just another a writer has to keep track of, but keep in mind Scribblerati is specifically for writers. This is not like every other social network site out there. Here one does not have to wade through millions of members to find those with similar interests. At Scribblerati, you can be assured there will be members who share many of the same interests of yourself as a fiction writer. All genres of writers are welcome, so no one should feel left out.

"Demon Chains," my latest writing project

Without much of a break, once I finished my recently released fantasy novels Ghosts of the Asylum, I jumped right into the next novel involving my Kron Darkbow character. It is titled Demon Chains. That's the current working cover there on the right.

Once I realized I was nearing completion on Ghosts of the Asylum, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I wanted to write next. A while back I was feeling a little burnt out on fantasy because I've spent almost all of the last year writing fantasy. But while working on Ghosts of the Asylum, I knew the basics of what the next Kron tale would involve. And that story kept going over and over in my head until I had the plot and the major characters fleshed out. So I kept right on chugging along with more fantasy work.

I'm 22,000 words into this story, and I'm realizing it will likely only come to about 60,000 words, maybe not even that. But this is somewhat a relief because the last Kron novel was nearly double that length.

With each novel I try to do something different stylistically, and Demon Chains is not different. I'm trying to pick up the pace quite a bit. Most of the tale takes place in only a couple of days, but a lot happens in those two days. Kron will be one tired dude once the story is completed.

That is, if Kron survives.

Ah, hell, who am I kidding. He's a serial character. He'll survive. I've got plenty of stories left to tell concerning him.

But I do know when, where and how he dies. It's just a ways off yet.

Books read in 2011: No. 54 - A Space Between (A Tale of the Endlands)

by Scott Fitzgerald Gray

Started: December 5
Finished: December 5

Notes: This little e-book is a freebie preview of a larger collection from Scott Fitzgerald Gray, a fellow member of the Monumental Works Group. I couldn't turn down an opportunity to read another member's work.

Mini review: This was simply awesome. This is the best work I've yet experienced from an independent fantasy author. There's tons of intrigue, enough action to keep my interest, magic that overlays but doesn't overtake the story, a darkness I found chilling and more. Simply well written. My only slight complaint would be that I did not care much for the characters, but then, I don't think these were characters we are meant to like.