www.NinaPierce.com/Blog

I absolutely love the movies. I think they’ve stayed true to the series. And I am looking forward to the next movie ECLIPSE. And before you start wondering I will happily share with you … I’m team JACOB all the way! (And yes, I’ve read the whole series. What can I say? It’s the only thing Ms. Meyer got wrong in the series *vbg*) But I digress.

I saw NEW MOON a month after it was out with my sister-in-law, two neices and my daughters. And yes, I was the sighing woman in the seats when Taylor Lautner took his shirt off. Now don’t get all squicked out. I’m not lusting after the child, he’s younger than my son, but I do appreciate a nice work of art. (See this post.) Okay, maybe it was more than a sigh since my daughters completely slumped into their seats. LOL! And as much as I’m looking forward to ECLIPSE, I’m not sure I can convince my twenty-something daughter to join me. Anyone have a tweenager they’d like to let me borrow? I’m sure my sighs of appreciation over those werewolves will go completely unnoticed among the screaming in the theater.

So what about you? What do you think of the Twilight series? It’s okay, you can be honest, you’re not going to hurt my feelings and Stephenie Meyer certainly doesn’t have time to swing by my blog. Will you be among the theater goers this week taking in Eclipse?

Oh, and if you can’t wait … like me. Here’s the link to the official movie trailer.

Mainly because it’s really close to Ellora Cave’s offices. Which we totally got to tour. Very cool. We saw the printing presses running and got to meet a couple of the editors and see Patty’s HUGE python (and yes, it’s in a cage). And they even opened the doors to publisher, Raelene Gorlinsky’s office. You wouldn’t believe, but she has … ah, nope you’re not getting that out of me. There are some things you’re going to have to check out for yourself.

Anyway, besides being near the offices, the town of Richfield is beautiful. Quiet (well, except the hotel where we were playing…er…staying. Where the EC authors and staying.) Yeah, that’s it. Anyway, Mr. Nina hung out at the golf courses during the day while I hung out with cover models and authors and cover models and readers and cover models and editors and I’m thinking there were a couple of cover models there … It was amazingly fun. I can honestly say the BEST conference I had ever been to. I think mostly because it was EC authors mingling with EC readers. Everyone there loved erotic romance.

Which of course brings me to some of the workshops. Since it was alllll about erotic romance we talked about reader likes and dislikes including a workshop on word “turn-ons” and “turn-offs”. I laughed so hard as woman let loose and talked very frankly about sex and kink and words that worked for them. It was SUCH an eye opener. And fun! Did I mention fun?

Friday night was a 60′s theme party and dance. Saturday night was a more formal dinner with awards and of course plenty of time for hanging out in jeans at the bar and continuing the party. Sunday night ended the weekend with a pizza get-together and Bingo games with the models handing out the prizes.

And of course I didn’t mention that there was plenty of time for authors to meet and greet and readers to have an opportunity to sit and chat with their favorite EC authors. In a nutshell… it was FUN! Very relaxed and just a TON of fun hanging out with friends. I don’t want to miss out on the party so I’m going to be there again this year. Registration is still open. Won’t you join us at ROMANTICON 2010? Ooookay, here’s one more thing that may just tempt you to join us …

Wow. I mean, wow, did that ever resonate with me. I may be trying to get my name out there, but people actually enjoy getting something from an author. This has made me more thoughtful of what I’m choosing for promo.

Let’s first talk about the paper products. This is the least expensive, easiest to find and cheapest to mail type of promotion. I start with VistaPrint for all my paper products. First things first people, don’t and I mean DON’T buy anything full price at VistaPrint. Ah. No. Stop. Never. There is no excuse. Just get on their mailing list. And yes, this can be a little annoying … live with it. There are always free standard postcards (cover flats) and business cards and t-shirts and hats and pens and magnets and … Okay, you get the idea. And yes it’s true, nothing is completely free, but the “shipping” covers their costs.

I get a high resolution copy of my bookcovers from the art department. (Just ask, they’re happy to do it.) Use the design template and upload the bookcover on the front of the postcard. On the back I upload my blurb and website information and voila! instant postcard to send or send out as promotion. I also use the same hi res jpg to upload for magnets. I’ve found my readers really enjoy this item. I also have bookmarks. I have a design that puts two bookmarks on one postcard. When they arrive I take them to Staples and for $2 they cut them in half. Sure, they’re not exactly the size of a bookmark, but they’ve worked for me.

I have also started making CHAPTER SAMPLERS. I got a heavier stock 8 1/2 X 11 paper to print the cover and back cover. On the inside of that I put the copyright page and my bio. Then I print off a few thousand words from one or two chapters in a book form, fold the whole thing in half and staple it together. Readers enjoy this mini book of excerpts from my books. It gives them a taste of my writing style before they make a purchase. With the cost of the ink and the paper, they are a little more expensive to make, but worth it in my opinion.

These paper goods I send out to conventions across the country. Reader and writer events. Remember, this is about people seeing your name. The new flat rate boxes are working very well for me to ship these out. Now keep in mind (and we’ve all been here) that goodie bags at writer’s conferences are FILLED with paper goods, coverflats and bookmarks. If you can do something to make yours standout, it’s more likely not to get dumped in the recycle bin.

Which brings me to my next point. If you can find some THING that fits your brand and/or the book you’re trying to market a few well placed promotional dollars goes a long way. I got an emery board from an author that read “nail biting suspense” and her website … great gimmick. That file went in my purse and I held onto it for a loooong time. Find a brand of pen you like and there are reasonable places like National Pen and Earthly Charms that are great for pens as well as other promotional items. It’s taken me a couple of years to find a pen I really like, but now that I have … I’m sticking to it. Hopefully people will know it’s mine when they see it. And as a side note, both of these companies offer other promotional items at reasonable prices.

I also pick up quirky items at specialty stores that I can throw into gift baskets (a great author promotion tool at conferences) and prize packets I give away randomly at chats and such. (I’ve found a source for some great bookbags that have my logo and I love sending these to readers.) And I always put a label on the items with my tagline (Romance so hot … it melts your Heart) and my website. I want people to see my name and to think of me when they’re using these products.

THINGS in goodie bags at conferences are more likely to get tucked into a purse or set on a desk to be reused. But of course they will take more of your promotion money as well.

And there you have it. Just a tiny taste of some marketing tips for you. I hope these posts were helpful. I’d like to thank all the thoughtful readers who have been stopping by this week to share what they enjoy and how they go about making book purchases. It has been very helpful.

So readers and authors, what makes something a keeper for you? And have you ever bought a book from a new author based on a promotional item you received?

That certainly seems daunting.

I can only share with you the things I have done to get my name out there. I don’t think there’s any silver bullet answer here so I live by the shotgun method, shoot so it sort of spreads everywhere and hopefully hits something that works.

Besides blogging here I also do a lot of guest blogging. That is, I visit other sites sometimes doing an interview with the owner, sometimes writing a blog post that I hope readers of that particular blog will enjoy. The benefit of doing this of course is tapping into the reader base of that blog. Hopefully they will interact with you, comment on your post and perhaps learn a little bit about you and in turn become interested in your books. How do I find these opportunities? Author and reader loops. There are always authors out there looking for guest bloggers. I host authors here on the Writer’s Block (anyone interested?). It’s a benefit to the owner who hopes the guest will also carry some readers over to their site.

Now, don’t get me wrong, these posts also have their downside. Too many interviews means the readers hopping from blog to blog with you may keep reading the same information and that becomes a drag no matter how pithy and humorous you make your answers. I mean there’s only so many times you can share with the world that your Aunt Joan was actually your Uncle Jim before the outhouse accident and even the most devoted reader is going to lose interest. There’s also the question of whether you have enough interesting things to say about varying topics that relate to your newest release. Can you continue to make it new and fresh so that each blog encourages readers to comment?

I gotta tell you, when I started blogging three years ago, my first book had just been contracted and the whole process was new to me and I could share all that with fresh eyes. I just kept chatting for nearly a year with no slowing down. But blogging has become difficult for me. I feel like I don’t have as much to say. So I do try to keep my guest blogging down to once a week for a month or so after a new release and then no more than twice a month when I’m not pimping a new book.

The other type of blogging that can be very successful is group blogs. The benefit of course is having readers from many authors visiting a group blog. I’m still in search of a successful blog that I can also participate in. I tried a couple of group blogs, but the readers weren’t there and I found myself ignoring this blog to be sure I posted other places where it seemed no one was hanging out anyway. I politely bowed out after sticking with it for six months or so.

Another very successful way to have readers find you is offering a contest. These vary as much as the romance genre itself. I’ve offered contests where readers read an excerpt on my website, answer a question and their name goes into the hat. I’ve seen great contests where readers get one entry for signing up for your newsletter or friending you on facebook, another entry for commenting on blog posts and so on and so forth. Contests can also be run on your blog post or on a loop chat that you participate in. Who doesn’t love a contest? I love sending out little prize packets to winners of my contests. I fill them with all kinds of “Nina Pierce” goodies. And on Friday I’ll talk a little bit about where I get my goodies.

Unitl then, let me know what kind of contest you like to participate in or run.

Nope. There’s that four-letter-dreaded word … marketing. (Yeah, okay, not really four, but it shivers through most of us like a curse.) This week I’m going to focus on different avenues of marketing and today I thought I’d start with the online variety.

Even NYT Best selling authors need to go out and press flesh at book signings. Adoring fans want to meet the person who whisked them away to another place or time or helped them remember what it was like to fall in love again. New authors have it even harder as readers don’t normally flock to the table of an unknown entity to buy a book they know nothing about and get the signature of a writer they’ve never heard of. Yeeeeeah, that’s the nightmare booksigning of authors.

And what if you don’t have a print book? What if it’s only electronic? Obviously marketing at bookstores isn’t going to help you. You need to go where your readers are and that means the internet. Marketing your book on the internet can be as time consuming as writing it if you use all the social media avenues out there. Besides your website there are a couple of places where your readers will be looking for you. And that’s facebook and twitter. These two avenues offer you the opportunity to interact with readers and let them get to know you and your book. (There is also the lesser known/used Linked In and GoodReads … I didn’t bother to mention MySpace because I think it’s gone the way of the video player) … but these two biggies are where you’ll find the tech-savy reader who will very likely being buying their books online.

Marketing effectively in that medium not only means touting your newest book, but spending time talking about yourself, not necessarily that you just finished your third chai tea and no have to pee, but interesting snippets of your life that engage people. And “chatting” with people on these sites also brings them into your world.

Readers are more likely to pick up your newest book if they know that you went to your local fire station to talk to the fire chief and you managed to trip up the paved walk, skinning your knee and requiring a bandage or two from the EMT guy before you could go on the tour. It has nothing to do with your hawt fireman vampire, but it does make them feel a little more connected to you. Those types of anecdotes are just the things readers love to share with other readers. Besides that makes your tweets and status updates humorous and engaging. Trust me when I say people will stop following you if everything you say is about your latest book and where to buy it.

Another place ebook authors hang out is Yahoo loops. There are more Yahoo loops for readers and authors than there are leaves on the maple tree outside my office window. And here again, I caution you to go easy. No one wants to read the same excerpt on 18 loops for a month. If you’re on a yahoo loop, try (and I know it’s not always easy with our busy schedules) to respond to the posts of other people now and again. Don’t be that author (or promotion company) that becomes an auto delete just because your name showed up in my inbox. Trust me when I say I have search parameters that send certain emails directly into the DELETE file, never to be opened. If you’ve become one of “those” then no matter what you post, it becomes moot because I won’t see it.

Marketing is a tightrope we all walk. After all … if you’re not writing you’re not really doing your job. But if you’re not doing some promotion … readers won’t know you’re out there.

On Wednesday and Friday I’ll talk about paper products vs “things”, contests, blog hops, multi-author promotion and whatever else I can think to cover. Feel free to throw out ideas as well.

I’d love to hear what you think of marketing both as a reader and an author. What methods do you find work the best?

Review from Pen and Muse:

Bonded Souls by Nina Pierce was a great little story. Hot and sexy with a little suspense to keep you turning the pages to the end…When it comes to shifters, I love seeing an alpha male meet his mate. Cole gets hit hard but then things get complicated when his duties put him in direct opposition with his desires.

Please enjoy this excerpt:

Cole pushed away from his desk and stood to stare out the window at the empty parking lot. It had taken a couple of hours after Hansley had spirited Jayda away last night to convince his neighbors that Armageddon was not coming to Lonesome Fork. It seemed shifters wanted revenge for the murder of their pack mate and humans were simply running scared. Add whispers of unholy creatures and the gathering outside the police station had nearly become a lynch mob. It had taken all his sweet-talking to calm them down and convince everyone that justice was best served by allowing the courts to decide the woman’s fate. Though he wasn’t entirely sure he believed that himself.

“Come in,” Cole shouted at the soft knock on his door. Lady lifted her head.

Aaron stepped tentatively into his office. “Do I need to wave a white flag?”

“Eat shit.”

Lady stood, stretched and trotted over to the detective. “Who do we have here?”

“Jayda’s dog Lady. Jayda had the gall to ask me to look after her before she left with Hansley. Not sure why she didn’t just swing over to the cabin and pick the dog up herself. Whatever. I’m a sucker for a cute female.”

“Tell me something I didn’t know.” Aaron settled in one of the utilitarian chairs across from Cole. Lady laid her head on his thigh, her tail thumping happily against the side of Cole’s desk. Aaron absently scratched the dog’s ears. “Don’t you find it a little odd that Hansley showed up at the Bull only hours after Jayda sauntered into town?”

Cole leaned against the wall and stared at Aaron sitting casually with his foot bouncing on his knee. “I’ve been going over and over that all day. I can’t help thinking that she set me up. But for the life of me, I can’t figure out why. There’s something I’m missing here.”

“You sure she didn’t know about shifters? She could be one hell of an actress.”

“I wouldn’t know. I was going to shift to prove it to her, but the station radioed to say things were getting out of hand here so I didn’t take the time. Everything just sort of fell apart when I arrived.” His head fell against the wall and Cole closed his eyes, trying to sort through everything he knew. “She could be playing me for a fool.”

“You look like shit, Cole. Go home and get some rest.”

After two nights without sleep, exhaustion permeated deep into Cole’s bones. “I wouldn’t be able to sleep even if I did.”

“Look, Jayda went with Hansley.” Aaron dropped his foot, settling his forearms on his thighs. “Nothing you can do about that. She’s obviously made her choice. Chances are she’d made her choice before last night and you were just some kind of pawn.”

“But it doesn’t make sense, Aaron. Why tip their hand two nights before the blue moon?”

“Like you said, there’s something they needed from you. Maybe the kid put a glitch in their plans. Maybe Jayda went rogue last night. Who knows?”

“The pack’s going to be looking for some answers tonight. What the hell am I going to tell them?”

“The truth.”

“What, that the legend is true and we lost? Or that some polymorphic shifter led their leader by his dick before screwing him and his pack over?” Cole’s fist landed solidly against the wall and made Lady whimper. Aaron crooned softly and scratched behind her ears. “How the hell could I have fallen for that whole ‘Oh, I’m an orphan…feel bad for me…I don’t know who I am’ bullshit?” Cole said in a high-pitched imitation of a whiny female.

“Stop beating yourself up, Cole. She had us all fooled. Shit, I was the one drooling over her at the Whip and Bull.”

“Yes, but you figured who she was from the get-go.” Cole let out a derisive laugh. “I was blinded by hormones. Obviously, Hansley’s been planning this for a while. She all but fell into his arms last night when he swooped in to rescue her from the clutches of the evil wolf shifters.”

“So, what do you think he has planned now?”

“Besides giving her a congratulatory fuck?”

Aaron arched a brow.

“Honestly, I haven’t figured that out. As a polymorphic shifter, Jayda has the power to dominate both wolves and cougars. Even if she’s acting as if she doesn’t have a clue. We both know whoever she claims as mate will have the power to rule with her.”

Aaron leaned his elbows on his thighs. “You didn’t claim her?”

“I was working on the assumption that she was telling the truth and didn’t even know what a shifter was. It wasn’t my place.”

“But you told me you thought she was your—”

“I know what the hell I told you!” Cole shouted as he pushed away from the wall and began pacing. “Apparently I haven’t a fucking clue about life mates and shit.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BUY THE BOOK
I love Cole’s best friend so much I’m currently working on Aaron’s story.

No?

Well maybe it’s just me and maybe it’s because I’ve become rather fanatical about the male torso since I started writing. (That’s my excuse. Actually I grew up on a beach and my fondness for the shirtless male came at a very young age…but I digress.) In my stories I don’t have the luxury of a picture to show the detail. It’s the description that drops the reader into the arms of my hunky heroes. The words that create the visual stimulus that makes a reader sigh with satisfaction. I know you’re thinking “well DUH, way to state the obvious Nina”.

But here’s my confession as I’ve gotten older it seems I’m moving farther in age from those really hunky young guys that totally make me drool. But I’m okay with that. It seems though many around me aren’t. Some get squicked out with the whole “he’s too young for me” thing. Well, yeah, that’s true. But I’m not talking about sleeping with the guy, just admiring him. Beauty is ageless in my opinion. And a great work of art whether it’s a brand new painting or a classic by Renoir should be enjoyed at any age.

I do have the added curiosity of REALLY looking at men (and women) now to see the subtle nuances of an alluring body. It gets kind of boring (for me and the reader) to paint every man or woman with the same broad brush strokes of the cliched descriptions. It’s the newness, the fresh angle that keeps the words flowing for me and (hopefully) the pages turning for the reader. So I stare and I admire.

That’s just how I see it. It has nothing to do with the young man’s age or whether it’s appropriate for me to be with him. It’s about the beauty of the package. (Okay … now YOU need to get your mind out of his pants and back to his chest.) I meant the WHOLE package. Is it really so wrong to outwordly admire someone who is the same age as your children? Or am I way off base here?

I’d love to know how you see it. And while we’re at it … what part of the anatomy catches your attention?

“The good is the enemy of the best.” Anonymous proverb

I’m sure most readers have encountered the maxim above. The point? That it’s a mistake to be satisfied with “good enough”. By exerting only the minimum effort needed to fulfill the requirements of some task, you’re missing out on the opportunity to produce something truly great.

Personally, I subscribe to this philosophy―up to a point. I believe that when you commit yourself to something, you should be willing to devote 100% of your effort to meeting that commitment. That means not making excuses (except of course in extreme situations like illness or family crises). It means seriously applying yourself to the problem you’ve shouldered, spending whatever time is realistically necessary to solving it.

In the so-called real world, I’m a teacher (among other things). Nothing upsets me as much as a student who’s happy just to “get by”. That sort of student is wasting his own time as well as mine. (Please pardon my choice of pronoun. I don’t mean to imply that this pattern is limited to males.) I don’t know why he bothers. Sure, he may get a passing grade, but aside from that, what will he have to show for the months he’s spent in my class? I’d much rather put my own effort into a poor student who is really trying to understand the material despite the difficulties than a more talented individual who isn’t willing to work.

So I definitely think it’s important to do one’s best―up to a point. At the same time, as an author, I’ve seen many examples of the perils of perfectionism. I have friends who have been working on the same novel for years, rereading, revising, going through periodic crises of confidence about whether their book is really worth publishing. It’s sad. I feel like shaking them. “Stop already!”, I want to say. “Submit the darn thing! You can’t publish your work unless you submit it!”

New and aspiring authors, pay attention! You can’t publish your work unless you submit it. Which means that at some point you have to stop polishing your prose and say enough is enough.

The French playwright Voltaire is credited with the reverse of the saying above: “The best is the enemy of the good.” When it comes to writing, I think this statement holds a good deal of truth. There’s no such thing as a perfect story. If you’re like me, every time you read one of your stories you see some change that might improve it. Don’t give in to the temptation. Decide ahead of time how many drafts you’re going to do and stick to that decision. Otherwise, you’ll get bogged down with one tale and never get a chance to write the others that are clamoring for your creative attention.

One thing I’ve learned is that it’s not worth agonizing over a single book. You have to submit it, let it go and move on to your next. If I don’t like what an editor or publisher has done with something I’ve written, I don’t get my knickers in a twist. There are more stories where that came from, or at least I hope there are. This attitude helps me deal with rejection, too. Maybe I’ll find another home for a rejected tale. Maybe I won’t. In any case, I need to move on.

Readers are hungry. You have to keep them fed with a continuing stream of good material. Good, not perfect.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not excusing sloppiness, poor grammar, spelling errors or wildly-veering point of view. If you’re a professional writer, you have a responsibility to learn your craft and apply it to the best of your ability. The fact is, though, the more you write, the more you hone your technical skills. If you get hung up revising one work to death, you’re missing the opportunity to keep learning.

Compared to many authors I know, I do relatively little editing. I rarely do more than two drafts. I do have a tendency to edit as I write, reviewing and modifying material from my last session before settling down to attack the day’s goals, so my first draft is probably more highly polished than some authors’. I’m also pretty good with the nuts and bolts―grammar,spelling, punctuation and the like―so I can focus on higher level issues like characterization, pacing and emotional impact even during the initial pass.

Deadlines are a huge help, by the way. If you’re new to the writing game, let me assure you: deadlines are your friends! Once you’ve made a commitment to submit a work by a particular date, you can pace yourself. You can make rational decisions about how much editing is feasible. You’re not likely to be caught in the perfectionist trap.

So now I’ll make a possibly embarrassing admission. I just submitted a 20K story after producing only a single draft. Am I being lazy? I don’t think so―I’m looking at another deadline in a month, and I don’t have the time to massage this piece any more. In any case, I’m pretty happy with it. I wrote the last 12K in three straight days, without my usual breaks for other responsibilities. I’ve found that my best stories tend to be the ones that I write quickly, the ones where inspiration carries me along.

I thought I’d end with a quick, unedited excerpt from the tale, a M/F BDSM romance called “The Understudy”. I’ll let you judge whether I should have spent more time polishing this one, or whether it’s good enough to satisfy a hungry reader.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“You’re still here, Sarah.” Hart wheeled to face me, breaking into my bitter internal monologue. “Good. After all, I didn’t tell you that you could go.”

Amusement lit up his handsome features. He towered over me, close enough that I could feel the heat emanating from his body. Embarrassment washed over me but didn’t quite submerge the undercurrent of arousal. “May I leave?” I asked, my voice a weak quaver that disgusted me. Why was I asking, anyway? Who was he to tell me what to do?

“Not yet. I need your help unpacking. Go open the bag you carried up. It’s not locked.”

No, I wanted to scream. But I obeyed him anyway, pressing the chrome-plated catch on the sleek grey Samsonite case and flipping up the lid.

I gasped when I saw the contents. “It’s true!” I blurted out.

Hart came up behind me and looked over my shoulder. He didn’t touch me, but his mere presence was overpowering. “What’s true?” I heard laughter in his voice.

I pointed at the leather restraints and the rubber paddles, my hand shaking. “That―that you’re kinky. Into S and M, just like Adele said.”

“I prefer the term ‘D and S’. Dominance and submission. My focus is on the exchange of power, not the administration of pain. Though I’m not averse to using pain if that’s the right thing to do.”

“The right thing to do?” I turned to face him, hiding behind my indignation. “Are you joking?” He was close, too close for comfort, deliberately invading my personal space. I tried to step backward. I succeeded only in banging my shin against the luggage rack. “Ow!”

His eyes drilled into me. “I’m completely serious. D and S is not a game, despite the way it’s portrayed in popular culture. It’s not a fashion statement. It’s much, much more, a new way of being in the world. A doorway into a new kind of relationship, deeper and more intimate than anything you can imagine.”

“Right,” I muttered. I couldn’t bear to look at him. I stared down at my sandals, feeling the blush crawling up my cheeks and across my chest. “I’m sure that’s what all the perverts say.”

He caught my chin under his forefinger and raised my eyes to his. I trembled when his skin met mine. “I can’t pretend it’s not exciting, of course―trying new implements, pushing the sub’s limits, testing her devotion. But that’s not the main point.”

I burned in the heat of his stare. I felt myself begin to melt, the crotch of my jeans growing damper with every beat of my pulse. I didn’t want to listen but I couldn’t hide my fascination.

He stroked his thumb across my cheek. I held my breath, wanting him to stop, dying for him to go further. “Aren’t you curious, Sarah? Wouldn’t you like to drop your diligent, high-achieving, good little girl persona and find out what’s underneath?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What do you think, readers? And authors, have you fallen prey to the perils of perfectionism?

While Lisabet sits back and enjoys a nice massage from the pool boys don’t forget to check out her website and her blog.

So this week is the celebration of reading in the bathroom. I gotta tell you, this soooo isn’t in a “woman’s” thing in my opinion. Woman pop into the bathroom in hopes of having at least two minutes to do their thing before someone knocks and yells “Moooooom”. Trust me when I tell you children have radars that can home in on a mother chatting on the phone, closing her eyes or trying to find a private moment for nature.

But men? Men seem to find their zen in the bathroom. Guys gather a couple of magazines, the daily newspaper and the mail before heading in for their “quiet” time. And EVERYONE knows it’s best to steer clear of that corner of the house for several hours after that door opens and the green fog drifts away.

Now, my guilty pleasure? Soaking in the tub with some fancy candles burning around me and slipping into the lovely water with a wonderful book. *sigh* Since I was a library gal prior to being a writer this meant worrying about ruining a library book. When I started buying my books there was less worry, but still I had to be diligent about making sure the pages didn’t curl from the steam rising off my bubbles.

With the advent of e-readers bathroom reading is even easier. Slipping that e-reader into a gallon sized baggie allows one to read without worry of getting the reader wet. And flipping those pages from one hot scene to another? Easy peasy.

So grab that book, a glass of wine and some candles and settle in for a long hot soak in the tub. Just tell the family you’re helping to celebrate National Read in the Bathroom week and don’t disturb!

And of course I’d love to know if you’re a closet bathroom reader?