This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Have you ever wanted to write a book? If so, what genre would you choose? And…have you been successful in writing a book?

Hopefully all regular readers know that my answer to this question is an emphatic YES. 🙂  I have written and published three novels, with my fourth to come out in October.  Check out my Novel News page for the details!

The three (soon to be four) novels I’ve published are all Young Adult Fantasy, inspired by fairy tales.  I’ve also written historical fiction and science fiction–both some old drafts that will probably never be published, and some recent writing that I hope to put out over the next few years.  As in my reading, I love visiting worlds unlike the one I live in.

Writing is more work than reading, but (when it’s going well) it’s more fun too.  I get to create the characters and stories I want to read about.  Characters I write live in my head in a way that even the best-drawn character I merely read about doesn’t.

I know at least a few of my readers are writers too…did reading draw you to writing?

This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: When you set a yearly reading goal, do you set it high to force yourself to meet that goal or do you keep it low and normally go over that goal any way?

When I tell people about my reading goals, especially if I’m saying all this out loud, I’m sure it sounds like I set very high goals.  And I do set something that I have to put some effort into reaching…but I always set goals I feel are very attainable.  If it gets stressful, that just defeats the whole point of reading.  My intention in setting a reading goal is always to encourage myself to read books I really do want to read, I just don’t think about.  If I said I vaguely wanted to read more parallel universe books, it might happen (but probably not); if I set a goal to read twelve in 2016, I have to pay attention but it’s pretty easy to do!

This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Do you have books stacked in every room of your house or are you strictly a believer that books belong on bookshelves?

I had to think about this to decide just what my beliefs around book storage are.  Books that are not currently “active” belong on bookshelves, and that’s where all of mine are.  Except for my overflow L. M. Montgomery books that are stacked next to my (small!) L. M. Montgomery bookshelf.

The “active” ones are in stacks—books currently out from the library (or my own that I plan to read shortly) are in one stack.  Books that are currently being read are in a stack by my bed (not a very tall stack, but there are generally at least two).  Books that have just been read and need to be entered into my book journal wind up stacked on the corner of my coffee table.  And books that are due to be donated are in a stack in one corner of the living room.

But in terms of permanent placement, bookshelves.  I’d worry about tripping over stacks and breaking something—myself or the books!

This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Can you say this sentence describes you? READING IS MY PASSION.

It’s certainly a passion of mine.  I feel like writing is my more significant passion, but reading supports the writing too.  And purely in terms of time spent on an interest, I spend more time reading than I do on just about anything else!

This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Do you read via eBook and if so which one(s) and why?

I suspect all my book-reading friends who know me off the internet have already heard the answer to this question…  I do not read ebooks.  I still hang onto my paper ones.  I very, very rarely read a book on my computer (usually beta-reading for a writer friend).

There are a few reasons I haven’t switched to an ereader.  The big one is that reading is my one major activity that doesn’t involve a screen.  I work at a computer for most of the day, and in off time I write novels and blog posts, then relax with television…  Socializing doesn’t involve screens, but my one solitary leisure activity that doesn’t require a screen is reading.  I’m not prepared to give that up!

Advocates of ereaders tell me that it’s not really like a computer screen…but it feels like one to me, when I’ve looked at other people’s devices.  People have also pointed out that they can carry 1,000+ books around with them.  But I don’t need a thousand books.  I carry one book, and the only time this question is really relevant is extended vacations, which only come up about once every two years.  Last argument?  Ebooks are cheaper than paper ones—but the library is free, and that’s where I get the vast majority of my reading material.

I’m not anti-ebooks for anyone else, but none of the arguments in favor have ever weighed much for me personally.  And paper books have a charm and a character and a warmth that no device will match!