Look and Listen

Biography

I've been an *avid* reader for only the last 10 years, approximately. Before that, I still loved to read, but I wasn't necessarily passionate about it. I wasn't one of those people who stayed up late hiding under the covers with a flashlight so mom wouldn't catch me reading after it was supposed to be "lights out". LOL. My tastes in reading have really changed and grown in the past 6 years, thanks to my participation in online book groups, book blogging, a face-to-face book group, and also thanks to my book reviewing. I started book reviewing in 2005, when Bethany House publishers took me on as an Independent Reviewer. I still review for them. Also in 2005, I did a short stint of reviewing for "Romantic Times BOOK REVIEW Magazine". Lastly, I signed myself up to review for both HarperCollins' "First Look" review program, and LibraryThing.com's "Early Reviewers" program. I love reviewing, as it introduces me to a lot of books I might not otherwise have read, and it gives me new things to blog about. I love to read, and I love to write. What more can I say?

Inspiration

I'm really not sure, yet, what's influenced me as a writer. I don't write for publication, yet, though I do have a novel in the works. It's almost complete now (in its first draft, anyway), thanks to National Novel Writing Month, which I participated in --and won-- in November 2006. There is a quote I love, though, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It says, "No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books."