Literary reading rates on the rise

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What great news!!!

Washington, D.C. — For the first time in more than 25 years, American adults are reading more literature, according to a new study by the National Endowment for the Arts. Reading on the Rise documents a definitive increase in rates and numbers of American adults who read literature, with the biggest increases among young adults, ages 18-24. This new growth reverses two decades of downward trends cited previously in NEA reports such as Reading at Risk and To Read or Not To Read.

Adults up 3.5%, young adults (ages 18-24) up by 9%. Full article here. Full report here (with nifty graphs and tables).

They attribute it to reading programs. Perhaps. I’m sure JK Rowling phenomenon had something to do with it. Whatever the reason, it’s good to hear.

“Bright Waters” forthcoming for free in audio on PodCastle

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PodCastle.org is the world’s first fantasy audio magazine. Each week they deliver audio stories by published authors. But they make the deal even sweeter because not only do you get to listen to great stories, you get to listen to and share them for FREE!

I’m happy to announce that they will be publishing “Bright Waters” in the near future. If you recall, this is my story about a fearsome Dutch trapper, a spunky Irish woman stolen as a girl in an Abenaki raid, and a small Iroquois tattoo…

Keep an eye out.

An absolutely perfect and maddening turn in the story

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You’ll note the word count on CODG is steadily rising. Today, I experienced a delightful AND maddening turn.

I find outlines to be immensely useful tools for story development. Of course, there are many more tools in the box–outlines can’t do everything. For example, there are times when you’re drafting a story that you write something and it suddenly generates new options for the story that you in no way could have imagined without getting to that point in the draft. You can get a lot of ideas with an outline, but drafts generate still more. Sometimes the options that present themselves while you’re drafting are so right they give you goosebumps. I got one of those today. Of course, part of why it was so good was not only that it put the character in a perfect dilemma and the reader in a perfect chapter cliffhanger, but also because it was completely unexpected yet logical. 

This all sounds so good, right? Well, the story turn was so unexpected, it startled me. It’s thrown my outline off. Which means I’m going to have to now revise the working outline. I was tempted to make the story fit. After all, I DO have a deadline. But this story turn is so freaking juicy that I cannot justify the hackery. Besides, working outlines are made for revision.

I’m riding by the seat of my pants today folks, and it’s exciting. I think readers are going to love this turn.

Buffett’s Letter to Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders on 2008

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I got my masters degree in accounting and information systems. While going to school I started an investment club and learned about a man named Warren Buffett.

Warren Buffett is humble, full of folksy humor, and trades places with Bill Gates as the richest man in the world, depending on the year you’re counting. His annual letters to his shareholders are a delight to read. This year’s is full of wisdom about the current financial crisis. Moreover, within a few minutes of reading you will be able to get some key insights that can help as you evaluate the plans being hatched in Washington and how to prevent this particular type of crisis from happening again. 

If you’re not that into finance, I recommend reading:

 

  1. The introduction starting on page 2 and ending on page 3
  2. The “Finance and Financial Products” section starting on page 10 and running through page 12

Once you’ve read those, if you want to laugh and see Buffet’s humor, skip to page 21 where Buffett talks about the annual meeting of shareholders. Tell me you wouldn’t want to attend.

The Berkshire Hathaway homepage

This year’s letter to shareholders (you will click on 2008 because he’s discussing the results of that year)