Robin Brande, Author, Dog Lover, Coffee and Chocolate Addict. Living an Interesting Life.

Fiction author Robin Brande talks about writing, reading, and other vital matters

For writers, readers, and independent thinkers–book talk for readers and writers, life chats when we need them, writers’ motivational articles, secret behind-the-scenes stories from the publishing trenches, and more.

Archive for January, 2007

Are you tribal?

Thursday, January 11th, 2007

I went for a long walk this morning with my friend Amy, catching each other up on all things career and personal, and when I got to the part about how the holidays used up my last nerve because I was always around so many people, she said, “It’s a good thing you never had [...]

If we were in charge of these people’s careers

Wednesday, January 10th, 2007

If I were in charge:
1. J.K Rowling would take a year off after writing her last Harry Potter, and then start us on a whole new series of seven delectable books to carry us through the next decade;
2. Director Peter Jackson would come up with another trilogy to satisfy us as much as [...]

Why the Tuesday 50-book challenge?

Tuesday, January 9th, 2007

Author Paul McKenna talks about a study done in the 1930s to evaluate the effect of increased lighting on the productivity of factory workers. The workers were separated into three groups: one group received better lighting, one received worse lighting than usual, and the third kept the existing lighting.
As expected, the group [...]

Trading Lucy for Matt

Monday, January 8th, 2007

It’s been a while since we talked about the List of 30. You can read the longer post I’ve linked to if you want the whole lowdown, but briefly, it’s a list you keep on hand of the 30 people you’d like to meet. The theory with this as with any list of [...]

Three things you need to know right away

Saturday, January 6th, 2007

1. Re-reads absolutely count for the Tuesday 50-book challenge. If you love a book so much you want to read it more than once, then good for you and good for the person who wrote such a fabulous book. Count it.
2. Just saw the movie Freedom Writers. LOVED IT. [...]

The end of The End

Saturday, January 6th, 2007

Yesterday I showed up at my niece and nephew’s house, prepared to read just a few more chapters of The End, Lemony Snicket’s final book in A Series of Unfortunate Events, and I ended up reading out loud for four straight hours to get us all the way to the end.
I LOVED it.
Loved the plot, [...]

Vacation from responsibility

Friday, January 5th, 2007

A friend of mine travels a lot for business, and when I asked her if she doesn’t get tired of it, she confessed that to the contrary, she needs those trips just to get out from under the daily heap of responsibilities she has. The good thing about traveling alone, she said, is that [...]

No book snobs allowed

Thursday, January 4th, 2007

Several people have asked followup questions about what qualifies for the Tuesday 50-book challenge.
So here’s my chance to state once and for all that reading is reading. Period. I don’t care if it’s reading the newspaper, reading a magazine, reading cozy mysteries or saucy romances or the Great American Novel (whatever that is [...]

What made you the reader you are?

Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007

Those of you who read Bookseller Chick already know the sad news that her store is closing. Last night she posted the most beautiful homage to the bookstore of her childhood–the one that turned her into the reader she is.
For me it was the library a few blocks away. I’d go there every [...]

The Tuesday 50-book challenge

Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007

Okay, are you with me? Maybe I didn’t do so great at this challenge last year–I ended up at 41, my co-challenger Barry Lyga was somewhere around 62 (Barry, spare us the gloat), but this year will be different. This is the year I really do read a novel every week. I’m [...]