May 2020 Around the Web

What a month! I hope you’re starting to get back to some sense of normal or as normal as possible.

Enjoy theses May posts.

INSPIRATION:

Have you ever been faced with something difficult and, in looking at it, didn’t want to be bothered with the hardship? In Marlys Johnson’s post “What If the Hard Road Contains Beauty?” on the Renew/Repurpose blog, she challenges readers to look beyond the difficult to the surprising good along the way.

Do you have your shield? Your fortress? A little history, a little faith in “The Flying Fortress” on Sandy Kirby Quandt’s blog.

Are you “Looking Up or Looking Away“? A good reminder on Snark and Sensibility for those tough days.

READING:

In my April newsletter I created a poll, asking if reading habits had changed with the change of everything else in life. A slim majority said no, followed close behind by those who said they’re reading lighter stories. “Bookish Question #153 | Have Your Reading Habits Changed During Lockdown?” by reader, author, and reviewer Iola Goulton has her take on the subject.

This is a fun and in-depth review of Whatever Happens Next by Jaycee Weaver from Phyllis Helton on Among the Reads.

If you’re a self-publisher who goes wide with your books, “Apple Books For Authors Launches – With PC Access” on David Gaughran’s blog gives an update for PC users (as opposed to Mac) who want to upload their books directly to Apple rather than using an aggregator.

Have you written a series? Does your series have its own landing page on Amazon? “How to Create an Amazon Book Series Page” by Ricci Wolman on the Written Word Media blog takes you through the steps of creating a series page where readers can find all books in a series in one location.

I just finished a book that ate my lunch. It took too long and needed major changes to the plot. So, I found “Plotting Your Novel Down to the Scene” on the ProWritingAid website to be encouraging for this next novel, now in the planning stage.

Break out a new box of Kleenex for this month’s video.