If you haven’t seen them yet, please go check them out.

Do you have a favorite writing program? What are your favorite features? Feel free to post below in the comments, I’d love to hear your favorites. Tweet This! Subscribe . . . → Read More: Loving yWriter]]> I wrote a guest post over at Jessie’s Writing on What yWriter Offers Writers. She wrote one about Scrivener first.

If you haven’t seen them yet, please go check them out.

Do you have a favorite writing program? What are your favorite features? Feel free to post below in the comments, I’d love to hear your favorites.

So what are my thoughts about it?

First, I cannot think of a reason . . . → Read More: New NaNoWriMo iPod and iPhone app.]]> I guess enough people expressed an interest in having an app. developed for their iPod or iPhone for National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo). Netphase developed a .99 app for the special program that runs through November each year. You can read about it here.

So what are my thoughts about it?

First, I cannot think of a reason that any writer would need this app unless they write away from home a lot.

After I downloaded and opened it. The first thing you do is add your user  id # from the National Novel Writing Month website. It shows my user name, profile photo and a big fat ’0′ since I haven’t written any words yet.

Next spot is a place to add all your buddies. You have to add them manually by their user # (found when you are looking at their profile at the end of the URL). Seems you can probably add as many as you want. Great, okay so it updates your word counts for you the same way it does using your writing buddies page on www.nanowrimo.org.

The next spot is NaNoNews which is pulling the RSS feed from the NaNoWriMo blog, which is great, but it needs to access the ‘net to pull the entire post – it just gives a brief summary (about the first two sentences).

The next area is ‘reference’. With this, you are able to connect to www.dictionary.com, www.thesaurus.com and www.reference.com, which enables you to search any word, definition or whatever you would need from this.

That’s it. No bells and whistles, no writing platform, etc. It is absolutely a WYSIWYG app.

But hey, it’s only .99.

Honestly, I don’t foresee using it very often. Maybe when I’m at the local coffee shop writing and I don’t feel like connecting to the wireless I can use my iPhone to find out what my friends word counts are? Probably not.

Maybe if I’m driving down the road and wondering what another word I could use for the word obsequious, I can use the NaNoMoJo app to look it up. But then again, probably not.

So it’s on you whether you decide it is a good idea or not. As I said, .99 and I had a credit, so I got it. More than likely I would have gotten it even if I hadn’t have had a credit. I like new apps.

Chris Baty, founder of National Novel Writing Month, released a book a couple years back titled . . . → Read More: No Plot? No Problem!]]> NaNoWriMo has been on my brain for months now, and while it is fast approaching, it seems to be that I want it more this year, than I have in any former year that I have participated (5 years, so far).

Chris Baty, founder of National Novel Writing Month, released a book a couple years back titled No Plot? No Problem, which I have read cover to cover once. I actually enjoyed the book a lot, even though it is completely different from any other writing or novel writing book I’ve ever read.

I picked it back up the other day. Funny, I couldn’t put it down. Apparently it was just what I needed to get through until NaNo. So I’m about halfway through and I don’t want to finish it quite yet, I need to prolong it. Perhaps it is time for another library visit, so I can at least find something else to read at the same time.

I highly recommend this book, just for an easy, humorous read – puts you in the mood to get started, has great advice and tips and really gives you a lot of inside info to NaNoWriMo.

Have you read the book yet?

Most people who know me personally can quote my favorite author. Some who don’t know me as well, will quote a favorite, but not my favorite. My favorite author has always been Lurlene McDaniel. When I was a pre-teen, struggling through middle school, I discovered her . . . → Read More: Book Review: Breathless by Lurlene McDaniel]]> What is the toughest request anyone can be asked to fulfill?

Most people who know me personally can quote my favorite author. Some who don’t know me as well, will quote a favorite, but not my favorite. My favorite author has always been Lurlene McDaniel. When I was a pre-teen, struggling through middle school, I discovered her books and got lost for hours at a time reading and re-reading them. I loved them because they could be read in a couple of swallows. I loved them because I couldn’t put them down, because each page begged me to continue turning to the next. And I loved them because they were real. Real situations that I knew were happening to people. She didn’t sugar coat anything, but you always completed the book with a satisfaction, a lesson and knowledge you didn’t have before.

The best part about Lurlene McDaniel is that I have been reading and re-reading her books for about 24 years now. That’s a long time to consider someone your favorite. It was Lurlene in fact, who gave me the courage to write what I wanted, and the drive and desire to be an author.

This book review is for her just released novel Breathless. The review itself does contain spoilers.

Title: Breathless
Author: Lurlene McDaniel
Pages: 176 pages
Genre: Young Adult
Jacket Description: Travis Morrison is a champion diver and one of the most popular kids at school. On the first day of summer vacation, while boating on the lake with his friends, Travis attempts a silly stunt dive that goes wrong. He fears he has broken his leg. Instead, his trip to the hospital reveals he has a rare form of cancer, and to save him, the doctors tell his parents they must amputate. In an instant, Travis’s life and the lives of everyone around him are forever changed. Travis is determined that he and only he should decide the course of his life. He has a plan, but he can’t carry it out alone. Will he convince one of his friends to fulfill his most important request?

Review: Lurlene McDaniel has once again tackled a controversial subject, digging deep into the issues of right or wrong, and of personal choices vs. the quality of life.

I was drawn in by her lovable characters immediately. You couldn’t help but sympathize with his situation. How can anyone imagine living without a limb, and one that plays so importantly in his desire to dive. It was in a sense, the shattering of a dream and the ending of his life, although not physically.

The story begins as Travis, his best friend Cooper, his girl friend Darla and his sister Emily head to the lake on their first day of summer vacation. A tragic incident follows and the story just goes from there. The thing is, its not like a typical story – there is winding and weaving and you get a good look into the lives of the other three main characters who’s home lives aren’t all they should be.

Shortly into the story we learn that Travis has given up. He does not want to continue to live if he cannot truly live. He has been diagnosed with cancer, he lost a limb and now his life appears over in his eyes. The story then turns into a choice to live or die and who has the power to decide when it’s time.

I really do not want to give away the book so what I will say is that it was truly a page turner. I loved every moment of the book, and ever windy turn she took us on. The ending was a complete surprise, and you’re left with your own thoughts to figure out who is talking in the last chapter. I loved that.

The only bad thing I have to say, is that at the end of the book, I was wishing I had known the characters just a little bit better. I was wishing there was a sequel to find out what happens next. This isn’t exactly a bad thing, it means she did her job pulling me deep into the book. However, I felt like I still had some unanswered questions surrounding the other three main characters that unfortunately never be answered.

I give this book 4/5 stars. It was an EXCELLENT read.