Reviewing the Situation

Well, after the talk of not-so-good books last week, today I got a package that drove me crazy - trying to pick which book to read first! Among the choices were Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge, Club Sandwich by Lisa Samson, A Table by the Window by Lawana Blackwell, and With This Ring, I'm Confused by Kristen Billerbeck. Yes, advance copies, all (go ahead and drool). The latter was easily voted out since I still need to get the first two books in the series out of the church library. Chick lit and its companions have fascinated me ever since I read Flabbergasted, but it's so much fun to read that I think of it as book candy and feel guilty about indulging. Solution? Pick the last book in the series to review, that way with my perchant for reading books in order, I'll have to read all of them. Guilt-free.

I finally chose Captivating since I have several fiction books partly reviewed and I didn't want to mix one more in the bunch. It's good so far (btw, all of these reviews will be put online, so look for their links in a month or so).

I've been hearing a lot about how most published authors can't support themselves full-time. A bit discouraging for an unpublished author. Yesterday marks one year since I sent out my first book query. No nibbles, but then I've been concentrating mostly on book reviews this year. It's hard to find a balance between long- and short-term writing projects. I do better consistently working on one big project, but reviews have deadlines. I wouldn't want to give up reviewing, though, unless a publisher was waiting for me to write my next book. Then I might have money to buy the books I love when they release. Or not, considering the first sentence of this paragraph. Perhaps if I split my work into weeks - 1-2 weeks of novel writing followed by 1-2 weeks of reviewing. That might work.

Does anyone get the idea that my problem-solving is done through writing things out?