Writerland

I’m continually amazed by stories like Tawna Fenske’s who “In the last eight years [has] written nine full manuscripts and six partials.” Whoa! In the last eight years I have written exactly ONE memoir and revised the hell out of it and still haven’t finished it. Sure, I earned an MFA, got married, and had [...]

I love my iPad, and I’m reading more books now that I can download them instantly and read them in bed at night with the lights off, but one of the downsides (besides the difficulty of reading in bright sunlight of buying ebooks is that you can’t resell them, buy them used, or lend them [...]

Today we have a guest post from Rachel Howard, author of the memoir The Lost Night: A Daughter’s Search for the Truth of Her Father’s Murder, described as “enthralling” by the New York Times. Her personal essays have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle and O, the Oprah Magazine. Her advice is quoted extensively in [...]

This is me reading a book on the iPad at the beach. It was an overcast day, and I did discover that if I tilted it at the right angle, I could read without the towel over my head, but still, a Kindle would have been nice. Would I rather have a Kindle than an [...]

I read a great book recently, Snow Mountain Passage, about the quest and fate of the Donner party as they traveled from Illinois to California in the mid-1800s. Until then, my familiarity with the Donner party had been limited to driving through Donner Pass to rock climb on Donner Summit overlooking Donner Lake (near Truckee [...]

So now that I’ve had a little more time to read books on the iPad, here are some thoughts:
Pros
It’s VERY easy to buy a book. It’s easier through iBooks, but it’s not difficult through Amazon either. I haven’t tried the B&N app yet. Just one click and you own it. And you’re reading. Right there [...]

I meant to write an “I’m going on vacation” post three weeks ago, but I got caught up packing and voila—three weeks have passed! I have lots of great posts coming in the next few weeks, but first of all here is my latest book review in the San Francisco Chronicle. Enjoy!