Category: Reading

Thursday Thought-Self Help: A Whack on the Side of the Head

Years ago, in my incarnation as a local TV worker bee, I went to a conference for promotion and marketing types. I wasn’t really a promo person, but the TV station’s general manager decided that since I was a writer, I could do the station’s promo. I was also a smoker in those days. I didn’t know anyone at the conference, but struck up conversations with people in the smoking section of the lobby.  Net working with those folks was more valuable than the workshops.

I ended up with my very first laptop as a result of that conference (and when I left the station, I negotiated the laptop as part of my package). And I learned about A Whack on the Side of the Head.

The book isn’t self-help for personal or even profession growth in the traditional sense. There is no advice about how to manage your in box, your email, or delegating to your underlings (of if there is, the rest outweighs the arrogance). Instead, Whack is about learning to look at situations from another angle. Turning problems upside down, sideways, and inside out. Stretching the limitations of your creativity.

I rushed home and ordered the book and the Creative Whack Pack from Amazon.  The Whack Pack, according to my favorite on-line merchant, is going or has gone out of print. It’s a deck of cards using the methods/ideas from the book to assist in choosing a method to deal with your situation. Example: I just drew the SUBSTITUTE card. There is a small blurb, then the question: “What can you substitute?” The purpose is to not only get the reader to think outside the box, but in some cases, destroy the box.

The book is full of gems, such as “Sacred cows make great steaks.” (Richard Nicolosi, businessman), and “All art is a series of recoveries from the first line. The hardest thing to do is put down the first line. But you must.” (Nathan Olivera, artist).

The book is from 1983, so parts of it are dated, especially when it comes to technology, but the premises are sound. And I believe it has been updated and expanded.

 

 

BOOK REVIEW-LINDA HOWARD: TO DIE FOR

Image credit: tieury / 123RF Stock Photo

To Die For is the first book in a two-part series Linda Howard wrote in first person. The heroine. Blair Mallory, is a ditzy but savvy former cheerleader who now owns her own health club.  A murder at the health club returns her to the attention of a former NFL star-turned homicide detective she once dated three times before he vanished from her life without a word.

We get to tumble around in Blair’s highly disorganized mind. I found I had a lot in common with the health nut Blair. Scary. The laugh-out-loud moments in the book are constant.

Remember the TV show, Heroes, where the tagline was “save the cheerleader, save the world”? That was in 2006. Linda Howard’s (former) cheerleader saved herself in 2005.  Kind of made me wish I’d tried harder to be a cheerleader. (Not really.)

Five stars.

Thursday Thought: Book Cover Heroes

One thing I’ve noticed when reading (older) series/category romance is the cover models frequently resemble actors. Now, this may be true of new issues, but I don’t know newer actors.

Here are a few examples (from the late 1990s/early 2000s:

Probably the least well-known, this guy looks like John Shea. I know John Shea from the TV show: Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman in which he played villain Lex Luthor.

Alec Baldwin, anyone?

Richard Gere?

And the most recent (in my personal collection):

Will Ferrell.

What do you think? Have you spotted actors on the covers of anything you’ve read?

Book Review-Linda Howard: Son of the Morning

Image credit: tieury / 123RF Stock Photo

I once listened to an RWA workshop in which the presenter, an editor, said just once she’d like to read a submission where time travel was voluntary. My immediate thought  was you’ve never read Linda Howard’s Son of the Morning.

I love this book. It has time travel, a Scottish hero, a modern day (circa 1997) heroine on the run from some “deep state” thugs, murder, Knights of the Templar, instructions on how to live off the grid, and a true battle between good and evil.

The scenes in the beginning of the book alternate between 20th century USA and 14th century Scotland. The heroine is seeking; the hero senses someone is watching him, but doesn’t understand how. Of course, he knows why.

The heroine is a scholar who must develop other attributes to survive. The hero is a warrior with a secret.

Five stars.

Thursday Thought-Self Help: Deep Work

Deep Work by Cal Newport was recommended in a recent class I took. A bunch of fellow like-minded people started a book club and chose this title as the first to be read.

Okay, maybe I’m not as deep a thinker as the others. Or maybe I’ve read too many “self-help for productivity” books over the course of my life. This book didn’t do anything for me, except annoy me. I liked the first part of the book, and thought perhaps I’d found something useful, but once again, the author is more into delegating crap work so they con focus on the “important” work.

As if the “crap” work isn’t important. What happens when you don’t have staff or a wife? You’d have to order in your own damn sandwich. Oh. I forgot. You’re too important.

The author totally lost me when he complimented himself for doing “deep work” while helping his wife out around the house. After all, he does walk the dog every night.

To be fair, he did have good suggestions. The best was saying, “no.” Some of us do need to be more protective of our valuable time. Example: RWA and how its current issues are impacting my local chapter requires a lot more energy from the local board (although I am far from the person doing 98% of the heavy lifting) than I had anticipated; it is draining my energy. I would hate to be a chapter president right now dealing with that time suck. (Shout out to Kerrie of CNYRW!)

Women, especially, need to practice saying NO more often.