Reading & Writing
Dec 7th 2007
Claudia DainOn Writing!
I am a gulper. I read romance novels in gulps. Two books a day for two weeks and then nothing for six months. I can’t read romance while I’m writing one, so that explains my system (if gulping can be called a system).
I know people who are sippers. They read one romance novel at a time and they read it at a certain time, like just before bed, and when that one is finished, they pick up another. They sip.
I know people who are intravenous romance readers. They have a book going at all times, usually multiple books, and they read it whenever they get the chance, like while driving. Like when the rest of the world is sleeping. Like when they’re being paid to work.
I would love to be a gulp writer. I would love to get an idea, sit down, and write it in one long gulp. If I could gulp write, I’d be able to write a book in four or five weeks. I am not a gulp writer. I am a sipper writer. I sip at one book and eventually, slowly, months later, I drain the glass.
Which are you? Which kind of reader? Which kind of writer? What are you reading now? And, here’s the million dollar question, is it possible to train yourself to be something else?
64 Comments »
64 Responses to “Reading & Writing”
Ellen on 07 Dec 2007 at 8:16 am #
Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!
In everything I do. I tend to enjoy reading a book so much more if I can just knock it off in one day. However, once it gets into my system, one day is not enough, so I have learned to buy five books at a time. It is rare that I get five days in a row to read, so I usually have two left over to savor and sip at while the rest of my life is happening.
The same is true of my writing. The idea is always there. I don’t do well mapping things out, so when the desire (and opportunity) present themselves, I can sit down for 12 hours straight and immerse myself in my own universe.
I am going to TRY to retrain myself with the writing. I want to see what kind of writer I am if I spend 1.5 hours a day doing it. I’ll let you know.
Karen Hawkins on 07 Dec 2007 at 8:41 am #
Ohhhh! Interesting topic, Claudia!
I’m a gulper both in reading and writing though I’ve never gone six months without reading a romance. I’d shrivel up and die. I HAVE to have my romance fix! I can go a month, maybe, and then I’ll read three in one weekend.
When I’m writing historicals, I read contemporaries and when I’m not writing historicals, I read nothing but. And oh, how I LOVE to read a stack of long awaited books! They beckon me from across the room . . . reeeeaaaad meeeeeeee! reeeaaaaaad meeeeeee! It’s scary, but I must heed the call!
Keri Ford on 07 Dec 2007 at 8:41 am #
I’m a gulper. A book just isn’t as interesting if I have to pick it up/put it down/pick it up/put it down. I’d spend too much time re-reading to figure out where I was.
When writing, I get an idea and it sticks with me until I see it through. I write as often and as long as I can (which usually isn’t often or long enough). If I don’t, I spend a lot of late nights tossing in bed while my characters haunt my thoughts and dreams.
Emmiebee on 07 Dec 2007 at 8:57 am #
I fluctuate. During some periods I read up to 2-3 books a day (on a day off), and then I become obsessed with another hobby, like making home-made Christmas cards, and drop off to a book or two a week. By the way, lumpy, glue spattered Christmas cards are ARTISTIC, not pathetic. Please let me continue to believe this. I also go through genres like the colors change on one of those old christmas tree color-wheels. Romance fades into paranormal fades into fantasy fades into sci-fi, then a break with something else (mystery, young adult, non-ficition), and back to romance. I read alot, so I often depleat a section, and need a while for new books to be published!I will often gulp an authors back-list as well, then sip the newest novel, knowing that I will need to hold on for months until he/she can offer up the next delight. Kind of like sucking on the last chocolate in the box after you have devoured the rest (um, or so I have heard).
-Emmiebee
KariE on 07 Dec 2007 at 9:09 am #
I’m a gulper!
If I’m reading a story I want to know how it ends NOW. If I don’t finish a book in a relatively short period of time (2-3 days), I loose the effect or magic of the story. With everything else in life there is no way I would remember all smaller details that make a story great if it took me 3-4 weeks to finish it.
I just finished Forever After by Catherine Anderson last night.
I tend to save series books for the weekends so that I can read them all in those 2 days.
I think it is easier to train yourself to be a sipper than it would be to be a gulper. Finding the time to do a marthon read would be harder than finging a hour here or a half hour there.
Caren Crane on 07 Dec 2007 at 9:15 am #
I am an IV reader and a sipper writer. Writing is much, much harder than reading, IMO. At cruch time when I’m writing to a deadline, I have to slow the IV reading to a drip…or is that a sip? *g*
I love books and when I get hooked on a new author or series, I tend to begin by gulping one or two, but I have so much else going on that it becomes the IV. Read while eating lunch, while getting ready for bed or work, while sitting at a traffic light, while waiting in line at Starbucks, while waiting for the kids to get out of whatever the activity du jour is. You get the picture. I would waste away without a book–or three or four–going at all times!
FreshEChelle on 07 Dec 2007 at 9:20 am #
I’m an IV reader when the market supplies the fix. I read waiting for & on the bus, in a cab (if the driver isn’t a brake-slammer), on a plane, at the gas station (we only have full service here), waiting at one of those traffic lights where all 4 streets get their own turn, on a long line at the supermarket. If it’s mediocre book or by an author who is phoning it in, it doesn’t get that such attention. When there isn’t much interesting stuff being released, I’ll give my non-romance reads more time but they’re usually hard cover and my handbag is heavy enough already.
As for going into training to become another type, I don’t know, habits are hard to break. One can be a little of each demanding on how riveting the read and how much time the rest of life allows.
doglady on 07 Dec 2007 at 9:30 am #
As a reader I am definitely a gulper. I can usually finish a book a day. I read at work before I clock in, during my two breaks and at lunch. Then when I get home, I settle in right before I go to bed and finish the book. On my days off I write and I try to get at least an hour of writing in every day that I have to work. Doesn’t always work. So, does that make me a gulping writer or a sipper. Sometimes it seems like I write in gulps and sometimes it seems like I sip. I don’t think I could retrain myself when it comes to reading. I get so involved in the books I read I HAVE to know how it ends!! I really want to learn what it feels like to be a gulping writer all the time which means getting rid of the DDJ (dreaded day job)!!! Hear that Santa????
SuzyQ on 07 Dec 2007 at 9:33 am #
I am usually a sipper. I generally read my books at night before bed. The kids are asleep and it’s just my time to relax. However, if the book is so good that I cannot put it down, I turn into a gulper. It’s at those times I will be up until 4:00 in the morning finishing the book. So I guess you could say I’m a mix of the two.
Claudia Dain on 07 Dec 2007 at 9:41 am #
Ooooh, I love these replies! So few of us are the same, as in, gulp reader/gulp writer. I wonder if that has more to do with the realities of life than personal preference. It sounds like most of us (me! me!) would love to be IV gulpers (take the brakes off the IV!!) and read all the time, book after book. Forever.
Claudia Dain on 07 Dec 2007 at 9:43 am #
Caren Crane, I agree with you 100% that reading is far, far easier than writing. Take me, for example. I can read a romance in 3-4 hours. I can have a lovely, happy time doing it. That works out to 100 pages an hour of my life. If I could write 100 pages an hour and have it turn out as a wonderful, cohesive romance novel, I’d be…Nora Roberts! LOL
Claudia Dain on 07 Dec 2007 at 9:47 am #
Karen H, I have so many romances calling out to me. Reeeeddd meee! Like some weird Alice in Wonderland moment. My problem, as an avowed gulper, is that once I start to read one innocent little romance novel, I don’t put it down until I finish it. And then I reach for another. And another. Wasn’t there a chocolate reference to this phenomena? Emmiebee?? *G* But I don’t get any writing done! That’s why I shove the romances into a box on a shelf and make them wait until I have Finished The Book. Then I get to play.
Julia London on 07 Dec 2007 at 9:51 am #
I sip the books I read and the books I write. I wish I were a gulper, too. I rarely read romance–I guess I just write too much of it to want to read it for pleasure. I read maybe five all year long. For my reading tastes, I like to read outside the genre altogether. And since I don’t have a lot of time, I tend to read at night or on the elliptical, about an hour each day. Sip.
As for writing, it takes a ridiculously long time to churn out a manuscript, because I sip through it, too. I write a scene, then think about it. Rewrite scene, write new, then think about it. But once the draft is done, I gulp down revisions.
Claudia Dain on 07 Dec 2007 at 9:54 am #
To all you sippers out there, the only kind of books I can sip are history books. I LOVE history books, but I can put them down at will and pick them up again later without losing my place. I always have at least 5 history books going at once, one in every location in my house (or garage) with a comfortable chair and good light. I read one while I’m eating lunch in the kitchen. I have another going in my bedroom. Another one in the sunroom (it’s been so cold I haven’t read that one in 3 weeks). Books, books, everywhere.
Hey, that reminds me, I love watching those home decorating/organizing shows where the designer comes in and jazzes everything up, usually by throwing out piles of junk and painting a wall. So there’s this one designer whose favorite idea seems to be to throw out books. She always comes into a room with books stacked nicely in bookcases and says, “What’s with all the books?” And then she makes the owner throw them out!!
I’m getting to hate that woman.
Sonja Foust on 07 Dec 2007 at 10:12 am #
I guess that would make me a sipper reader and a gulper writer. I have a MUCH longer attention span when reading than when writing. If I take too long to write a book, I get bored and quit. But I read slowly, so if it’s a long book and I don’t have much spare time, it can take me months to read one.
Claudia Dain on 07 Dec 2007 at 10:16 am #
Sonja, that’s amazing!! For a writer, it sounds ideal. I can’t imagine taking months to read a book, though; I think I’d lose the flow completely. You must have a wonderful memory.
Stacy ~ on 07 Dec 2007 at 10:32 am #
I sip and gulp, depending on my mood. I just devoured a bunch of books while on vacation, now that I’m back at work, I’m sipping. Sometimes I do go for weeks without picking up a book. My brain gets tired of the sameness of it all, so I think that’s why I do both.
Stacy ~ on 07 Dec 2007 at 10:33 am #
Oh and I am reading Lara Adrian’s “Kiss of Midnight”. I’m rather OD’d on vamps, but I heard good things about this series. So far it’s not bad. Next I want to start reading Nora Roberts’ Chesapeake Bay series. I’ve not read a lot of her books, though I love her JD Robb series.
Claudia Dain on 07 Dec 2007 at 10:45 am #
Stacy, I can’t imagine going for weeks without picking up a book. I think I’d feel naked. But I can really understand the need to take a break from reading the same kind of book. I do like to spice it up. I delved briefly into alternate history books since my son LOVES them. I really liked them, but could only read one or two before burning out and running back to romance. I’ve heard great things about the Chesapeake Bay series, btw. Hope you enjoy them!
Gannon on 07 Dec 2007 at 10:45 am #
I definitely fall into the gulp/I.V. reading mode. Once I get started, it’s hard to stop. Greedy, greedy me!
As for writing, when I do it, it would definitely be sipping. Wish I was a gulper when it came to that!
Karen Rose on 07 Dec 2007 at 10:48 am #
Gulper – gotta go gulp now! Villains, victims, heroes and heroines – so little time!
Mia Rose on 07 Dec 2007 at 10:52 am #
Wow, such an interesting topic! Personally, I’m a little of all of them mixed into one. I sip AND gulp out of my IV.
I can’t go long periods without reading a book… I’m one of those people that will read a book WHENEVER I get the chance, even if it’s when I should be working. I am constantly reading.
And If I’m not reading, I’m writing… and I’m the same way with writing. I write whenever it strikes me, even if I’m at work or watching TV or cooking dinner, but the sad thing is it doesn’t seem to stick around for too long. It’s always in small, random spurts.
I do believe you can train youself though. I recently started something new and I was so proud of myself… I actually wrote down an outline for the entire book (Big Deal if you’re me). It wasn’t as detailed as it could have been, but it was a start. I’m working on training my writing self. (wish me luck, it’s quite difficult)
Nicole Jordan on 07 Dec 2007 at 11:00 am #
Fun question, Claudia! And I love your designations for our syndromes.
I’m an IV reader, no question. Can’t stand not having something to read at all times, although newpapers and magazines qualify as reading material also.
As for writer, definitely a sipper, even though I would love to be a gulper.
Claudia Dain on 07 Dec 2007 at 11:29 am #
Julia, I’m so glad that there are other sipper writers out there! I know it’s evil, but misery does love company. Your writing process sounds a lot like mine.
I wrote one book in a gulp. One. And according to my fans, it’s one of their favorite books, in fact, it’s being reissued now. The Marriage Bed. I wrote that book in 5 weeks, finishing it just before Christmas. I don’t know what happened to me, if my hormones were in overdrive that month or what, but I want to write every book like that. It gushed out, needed no revisions, and everyone loves it.
Is there magic in being a gulp writer?
Claudia Dain on 07 Dec 2007 at 11:30 am #
Karen R and Suzanne, I’m thinking that you two are gulp writers. Gulp! Gulp! Oh, look, I just wrote another book!
Pass that goddess ability this way. I’m trying to be nice about it. Share your powers!!!
Claudia Dain on 07 Dec 2007 at 11:33 am #
Mia Rose, doing an outline for a book *is* a big deal. Congrats! I don’t think it matters how detailed it is as long as you have the skeleton of the book. I hope it works for you.
Julia London on 07 Dec 2007 at 11:53 am #
Claudia, that is so interesting — that Guiding Light book I wrote happened exactly like that. I had six weeks and just churned it out without thinking, and its been very well received. Why can’t I ALWAYS do that?
Claudia Dain on 07 Dec 2007 at 12:02 pm #
Julia! This is horrible! Why can’t we do it that way every time? It would be easier to understand never being able to do it than to do it once and never again.
Karen Rose on 07 Dec 2007 at 12:25 pm #
My most successful books were written in less than 4 weeks. My May release came out of me in 25 days, so I’m hoping it’s well-received, too!
Kasey on 07 Dec 2007 at 12:47 pm #
I am a little of both. When I am busy with school work I tend to sip read and read romance a little on some weekends or at nights before bed. But that is just becasue I am an English major and I am assigned to read all these other books that I Have a hard time fitting my romance reading in.
When school is out for break I get really excited that I have free time to read again and I definately gulp. I read as many books as I can over my breaks just so I can get my fix before the next semester starts.
Kasey on 07 Dec 2007 at 12:48 pm #
Wow Karen – 25 days….I hope my thesis gets written that fast next semster. Probably not though…I can be such a procrastinator and drag it out.
TheNightPoet on 07 Dec 2007 at 1:09 pm #
I am a sip reader. I can’t read more than one book at a time, because I get confused on which story I’m reading. I’m a sipper for writing as well. When I write a poem, usually when the idea comes to me, I write it out in the amount of time it takes me to get it down on paper, once I’ve thought of the poem.
I am currently reading “The Devil Who Tamed Her” by Johanna Lindsey. It’s going to take me a little bit to read it though, since finals are next week, but so far I’m enjoying it. It’s quite hilarious.
As for being able to train yourself to be something different, I think you can, but it might take awhile for you to do it. If you kept at it, you could more than likely do it.
Andrea
Meg on 07 Dec 2007 at 1:19 pm #
I am a sipper. I read only one book at a time so as not to confuse the stories. I ususally read a book a week. If I have a free weekend and a really good book, I can do one in two days. That’s as fast as I can go. Right now I am reading The Passion by the Goddess Nicole Jordan. And enjoying it. I did start my first non-romance since high school a few months ago and am in the middle of it right now too. It’s My Boring Ass Life by Kevin Smith. It’s not really a story (more like reading a journal) so I don’t feel bad putting it down and reading a romance while in the middle of it.
Claudia Dain on 07 Dec 2007 at 1:25 pm #
25 days?! I want to be Goddess Karen Rose!
Kasey, I was an English major as well and by the time I graduated I’d lost count of how many books I’d read. I do remember that I did 35 papers in the last semester of my senior year. I got a job in retail management and never saw my apartment in the light of day. It was sometime in January that I picked up a romance novel to read (my first, btw) and it hit me. I hadn’t read *anything* for 8 months. I was that burned out on reading.
Happily, I’ve been reading ever since. *G*
Caren Crane on 07 Dec 2007 at 1:25 pm #
Okay, I’m not *always* a sip writer. I did write one book in 7 weeks and that one finaled in the Golden Heart and got loads of requests. Maybe there is some magic in those books that simply flow. No idea. I think more than anything, writing in gulps helps you stay really connected to the characters and their GMC. It’s easy to lose focus if you are forcing yourself to move forward and you’re trying to remember what your heroine thought or how she felt in a chapter you wrote two months earlier. Sheesh. Did I mention that writing is hard? *g*
Claudia Dain on 07 Dec 2007 at 1:27 pm #
Meg and Andrea, if you can read anything at all while in school that’s not a school assignment you’re doing better than I ever did.
Meg on 07 Dec 2007 at 1:33 pm #
I always have a book with me when I leave the house. I am not one to read in traffic, but if a longer chance to read presents itself, I take it. And I have come to call my slow reading as: “Savoring the Flavor”
Sabrina Jeffries on 07 Dec 2007 at 1:53 pm #
“Rewrite scene, write new, then think about it. But once the draft is done, I gulp down revisions.”
I tend to be like this, but I swear, I’m a little of all. When I’m cooking, I can write as many as 14 to 20 pages in a day. But that’s at the end of a story–at the beginning, it’s exactly as Julia has described. So I’m a sipper at the beginning and a gulper at the end.
Come to think of it, I read that way, too. It takes me a while to get into a story–I read a few pages, put it down, come back the next day, read a few, etc., etc. But once I get past the halfway point, I have to finish (if the book is any good). Then all I can do is read, read, read.
I guess i just hate beginnings. *G*
Claudia Dain on 07 Dec 2007 at 1:58 pm #
At least you’re consistent, Sabrina!
Caren, you’re scaring me. It’s beginning to sound a lot like gulper writing is the only way to go.
Ladytink_534 on 07 Dec 2007 at 2:21 pm #
I’m an intravenous gulper. Once I start a book I won’t put it down until I finish it. I read Eragon during Hurricane Katrina (although it wasn’t too bad in our area we did get some wind that shook the whole house, literally).
Kasey on 07 Dec 2007 at 2:32 pm #
Claudia, I was burnt out reading in my undergrad too. I didn’t read mych on winter breaks or even during the summer because I just couldn’t anymore. But now I find that reading romances on my breaks revitalizes me and I am ready to takle the next semester because I start to love reading again.
LauraR on 07 Dec 2007 at 2:35 pm #
My name is Laura and I am an I.V. bookaholic.
You people have to keep writing all those great stories so I can feed my addiction. When I was younger I developed the ability to read multiple books concurrently. I’d only have to reread a page or two and I was right back into the swing of the book.
Also, just as an example, I couldn’t find the 2nd and 3rd books in Suzanne Enoch’s Lessons in Love trilogy so I *had* to buy them as ebooks! Kind of hard to read in the bathtub, let me tell you!
Ok I have to go sit down and read now…
KariE on 07 Dec 2007 at 2:50 pm #
“Also, just as an example, I couldn’t find the 2nd and 3rd books in Suzanne Enoch’s Lessons in Love trilogy so I *had* to buy them as ebooks!”
What is this?!? Buy AND read books online?? Seriously? Any book?
LauraR on 07 Dec 2007 at 2:59 pm #
BooksOnBoard.com is what I used.
download the book to your computer and read it there. They have a few different formats. I got mine in a pdf. Instant gratification, gotta love it!
Claudia Dain on 07 Dec 2007 at 3:00 pm #
Isn’t it fun all the new formats for books now? I’ve “read” all the Harry Potter books as audio performances. Such a great way to turn a long car ride into a treat!
LauraR on 07 Dec 2007 at 3:14 pm #
Audiobooks are wonderful. Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series is even better when you hear the Scottish accents and how the Gaelic is supposed to sound. Listening to a book is the only way I can ‘read’ and drive at the same time. heh.
Darla on 07 Dec 2007 at 3:15 pm #
I’m not a writer…don’t even like to write letters! LOL
But reading is a different story…I have sometimes 3 books going at the same time, not to mention my audio books I listen to when I exercise. I don’t leave the house to go anywhere without a book…what if I get into an accident, or get held up in a like etc. etc. etc. I need to have that chance to read! Plus there is the e-books that I can sometimes read at work (((hummm…you didn’t read that)))!!
Claudia Dain on 07 Dec 2007 at 3:41 pm #
Darla, you and everyone else I know! I think it must be something that happens in school, some universal mishap that puts people off letter-writing for the rest of their lives. I do an annual Christmas card letter, a basic catch-up on my year that I send to family and distant friends. They all say they look forward to it, but do I ever get a Christmas letter in return?
No.
~~Scrooge McDain
Paula on 07 Dec 2007 at 3:44 pm #
I’m a sipper although if I get gripped by a book I can be a gulper. Iwas a gulper with both suzanne and Karen R’s books. At the moment I’m ploughing my way through the JD Robb series with a big pile of books waiting to be read. I will be a sipper now until Christmas as I start my new job on Monday.
I usually read in the evenings (once the boys are in bed) and also I can’t sleep without reading first, I know what you mean Suzy Q. Sometimes I read until the early hours if I can’t put a book down.
Claudia Dain on 07 Dec 2007 at 4:01 pm #
I love it when I get so caught up in a book that I can’t put it down. It doesn’t happen to me as much as it used to, so it’s extra wonderful when it happens now. I read Die For Me in one sitting, yea, Karen! One of my mini-treats between my own writing assignments.
Karen, not sure I’ll ever get over you writing a book in 25 days. Knowing me, I’d be blazing along, the words just flowing, and then I’d go, “Hey, I’ve written half the book in 2 weeks. What’s wrong with this book?! I need to reread it and figure out why it’s going so easily.” Yup, I’d slam on the brakes, sure something had to be wrong with the book.
I need to stop thinking so much.
DebMarlowe on 07 Dec 2007 at 4:22 pm #
I’ve been sipping–uh, writing–and missed all the fun!
All I can say is I wanna be a gulper!
I’m with you, Claudia. I’m reeling over the 25 days! Karen, I bow to you. I think my brain would explode!
Karen Rose on 07 Dec 2007 at 4:33 pm #
Claudia, to be fair, I wrote the first pass in 25 days. It was about 15% too long and I had to cut it back which took about 10 more days. So 35 days total, or 5 weeks, so I’m in there with the others in the pack.
I WISH I was a sipper and could write a few pages at a time, but I lose threads and just can’t get lost in the story that way. When I’m “in the hole” it’s rough – I don’t see the world and the world doesn’t see me. Although I did post to TGB during that last book – it kept me aware of what was going on in somebody’s world, Mt. Oly LOL. When I come out of the hole somebody will say, “So and so died.” Like an actor or something and I won’t ever have known.
Karen Rose on 07 Dec 2007 at 4:34 pm #
Thank you Paula! Good luck on the new job!
Claudia Dain on 07 Dec 2007 at 4:58 pm #
Karen, it’s too late now. You’re the Queen Gulper. We all want to be you. The fact that you wrote the whole book in 25 days and it was TOO LONG only makes it worse. Or better.
Believe me, you don’t want to be a sipper!
Kay on 07 Dec 2007 at 5:14 pm #
I am a gulper when I read or write. I must have hours of uninterrupted tome to get through either!
That’s why I do so much reading or writing at night. LOL
I’m taking two days off from writing to read and it is heaven!
Karen R, I can’t wait to see SCREAM FOR ME in print.
Karen Rose on 07 Dec 2007 at 5:34 pm #
I’m telling you, Claudia, it’s the TAB. Nectar of the goddesses.
Karen Rose on 07 Dec 2007 at 5:35 pm #
Kay – you’ll be first in line as one of my key advisors
I’ve seen the mocked up artwork and it is AWESOME!!!!
ladydawgfan on 07 Dec 2007 at 6:21 pm #
I am a definite IV reader!!! I have to have a book with me everywhere I go, even if there is little chance of me actually reading it!! And sometimes I even take more than one on the off-chance that I finish the first one before I get home! I tell ya, I’m absolutely hopeless on this one!!
As for writing, it depends on what I am working on. I have gulped my way through several papers for school, including one that my muse had pouring out of me in about an hour (we discussed the particulars of it while I was in the shower that morning!). Kinda cool how that happens. Unfortunately, with my WIP, sipping doesn’t quite describe the experience. I am more likely licking a photo of the keyboard than I am doing any actual “sipping!” But I am finding my way through it, I know where it wants to go, and I have hope that it will eventually be finished. Here’s to the hope that never dies!!!
Claudia Dain on 07 Dec 2007 at 8:08 pm #
Oh, ladydawg, you have my heartfelt sympathy on the book that is causing you such grief. I’ve had my share of those!
Karen R, I knew there was some missing piece in me: Tab. I’ve never liked the taste of Tab. I’m sure this is the source of all my sipping problems.
Dot C on 07 Dec 2007 at 9:08 pm #
I gulp, consistently. I’ll have a dvd spurt…right now I’m watching the second season of 21 Jumpstreet
I saw something today that made me laugh outloud. In Walmart, and then again in CVS I saw a musical and motion holiday decoration. It was a deranged, crack headish looking reindeer on a rocking horse that, when you pushed his button rocked back and forth maniacally and sang “Grandma Got Runover by a Reindeer”. I stood there, mouth agape, until the whole song finished. It sucked my brain out! Then, when it was quiet again, I thought of the person in this forum that couldn’t stand that song, and had a hearty chuckle. It made me think about how everyone at some time has their own personal vision of hell!!!!
J/K, merry christmas to all!
I don’t write anything except blogs and professional correspondences, so I can’t really comment on the writing part. I’ll leave the romance writing to the lovely ladies in here that do great at it!
Dot
Judy on 07 Dec 2007 at 9:49 pm #
I used to be a sipper…and then I became an intravenous reader…and after that I became a gulper. Which is to say that before school started, I was a sipper, but I’d read a book a day or two, and then start the next one. And then I knew school was gonna start so I started reading multiple books at once, an hour of this, an hour of that. And then school started, I became a gulper. I’d read one book in a weekend, then I took a break to write essays and study for midterms, and then when there was a lag in my schedule, read another book and start the cycle again. So glad this semesters over.
I currently started reading Lynsay Sands [b]Love is Blind[/b] I’m new to Lynsay Sands. But I’m loving her, she is refreshing. Can’t wait to start her vampire series!
And to answer the million dollar question, Claudia, I’d say you can, I did it, though I do admit it was unconscious, but hey sometimes you have to adapt to your surroundings.
darkshire007 on 08 Dec 2007 at 11:43 am #
First off, I don’t write. I’m terrible at it. Secondly, I am a voracious reader. I have books all over the house that I’m reading all at the same time; just depends on which room I’m in. Whatever book is in that room is the one I read while doing whatever it is I’m doing (laundry, vacuuming, dusting, cleaning windows). It takes effort to put a book down to watch the TV for the news. I could happily get rid of my television but my husband would be upset.
alarwyn on 08 Dec 2007 at 1:26 pm #
I’m an IV personality all the way. I’m multitasking ALL THE TIME (even now) but unfortunately, it doesn’t mean that things get finished any faster they would if I was a gulper or a sipper, I just have more stuff to do all the time. The sad truth is that most of the time things don’t get done just because I find something more interesting/easier/more urgent to do and the thing I was first working on is put aside for a while. For a long while, in some cases.
TheNightPoet on 08 Dec 2007 at 5:35 pm #
Claudia, you know this is the second non-school book I have read while still in the semester. (The Devil Who Tamed Her, that is) I read Christine Feehan’s Dark Possession over Fall Break and that’s all I’ve read. lol This semester I’ve wanted so many times to pick up a romance book and start reading it, but I haven’t been able to because of my homework load and the readings I have had to do for my classes. I’m so looking forward to Friday of next week when I can pull out all the books I’ve wanted to read over the semester, pick one out of the pile, and then read over Christmas break to my hearts content.
Andrea