Bad Bookish Habits

 

Greetings. 

I've felt very busy lately and wanted to just talk about some fun things as opposed to doing any of the more deep posts I had planned.

So today, I'm going to tell you about eight of my bad habits relating to books. 

Pausing Books Partway Through

We'll do this one first because it's something that I know the majority of readers are guilty of. Maybe you're in a slump, on a book hangover, or just found another book more interesting, so you mark your page, set your book down (perhaps even with the full intention of continuing reading it while reading other books too), and then promptly forget to continue it. 

I currently have about seven books I've done this with, not including the book I most recently picked up (for I am still reading it). I also have three books that I DNF-ed, but left the bookmarks in in case I would like to continue with them (and in some cases they were temporary DNFs so I had every intention of coming back to them and of course never did).

("DNF" refers to books that you "Did Not Finish." If someone "DNFs" a book, it means they chose to put it down before finishing it. A "temporary DNF" is to imply pausing a book to return to it whenever you feel like finishing it.)

Leaving Dust Jackets Everywhere

When I get a hardback, I often take the dust jacket off of it for while I'm reading it so that it doesn't get damaged and whatnot. 

However, due to the bad habit listed before this one, this means I have a lot of dust jackets laying around while my bare hardbacks sit in piles. 

This actually can damage the dust jackets, as I just pile them up where ever, and often times end up accidentally putting other things on top of them. 

Using Inner Dust Jacket Flaps As Bookmarks

I often times will just randomly pick up a book and start reading it without actually planning on reading it. I'll start it knowing "I'm not actually 'starting' this book right now, I'm just curious and a bit bored so I'll read some pages" (which I suppose is a whole separate bad habit relating to the "pausing partway through" habit). 

When I do this I don't usually have a bookmark handy (because I wasn't actually intending to read at the time). So if I don't have a notebook to tear a page from, don't have a stray ribbon, and don't feel like pulling my own hair out to make a bookmark, I'll just use the inner flap of the jacket as a bookmark. 

This isn't necessarily a bad thing if I'm only reading the first few pages, but I did once get really far into a reread and still used the flap as a mark and it caused the jacket to be a bit out of shape.  
 

Buying Books Without Paying Attention to the Quality of the Copy

When I buy books, I usually just take the first copy on a stack/display or just pull a random one from the shelf. I think I built this habit from buying the majority of my books second-hand at thrift stores and the like.
This is something I was partly aware of doing for a bit, but realized that it was actually a fairly bad habit on my aesthetic adventure. 

The she-elf had found a copy of Nadine Brandes' "Fawkes" and was going to buy it, but found that the only addition the shop had was damaged (the dust jacket was tearing a bit at the bottom and along some folds, and I believe the corner of the hardback was crushed). She went and asked a worker if they had any other copies of it she could buy, and they said they did not.  
And then, they gave her a discount. 

That is when I realized it was a very smart thing to ask for undamaged copies or for a discount on the damaged one, for saving money equals being able to buy more books! 

Hopefully I can remember this lesson from the she-elf and stop buying so many damaged books. 

Buying Books Without Reading Their Descriptions

I like to go into books as blind as possible. I've found that a fair amount of books that I really like, I like because I read without any expectations (usually because an indie wrote them and I bought it before really knowing the book, or because I just found a family member's book laying around the house and impulse read it). 

So I try to read next to nothing regarding a book, and often end up skimming the actual synopsis. I especially do this when a book is by a popular author or if the book itself is popular. 

Because of this, I bought the book "All The Crooked Saints," started reading it (in fashion of the "I didn't really plan on reading this but did anyways" fashion mentioned in #3), and almost immediately DNFed it. I do intend to finish it at some point, but it struck me as rather pretentious and generally dull and weird (in a not good way) so I was in no rush to continue it. 

Had I read the description better I probably (for I still haven't read the description so I do not know for sure) wouldn't have bought it at all.

Buying and Collecting Nonfiction But Never Actually Reading Them

I have a lot of nonfiction books, largely historical nonfiction because while I am a fantasy geek, I'm also a history geek (note I say "geek," not "nerd." I am not intelligent enough to say I am a history "nerd," but I do thoroughly enjoy history). 
However, fantasy is much easier for me to read than my various nonfiction books. So while I have every intention to read all of my archaeological books, all of my Allison Weir books on the Tudors, all of my books about writing, and my one self-help book about dyslexia (I find it amusingly ironic that it's a book to help people read better), I just never seem to get around to it. 

Failing to Actually Review Books

I read a lot. 
I review very little. 
The story of the majority of reviewers.

Book Piles on the Bed

I think all book collectors can relate to having various piles of books on any available surface. I unfortunately accumulate a great number of them on my bed, as I sleep on a bunkbed and it is quite inconvenient to bring things up and down it.
So over time I develop a great hoard of books on the bed which makes sleeping rather uncomfortable. 

This is not healthy for the books or for me, so it is a habit I do really need to break.

 

Do you have any bookish bad habits that I didn't mention? Can you relate to any of the ones I did?  I'd love to hear from you.

Well my friends, that's all for now. I shall see you next time. 

Ever,

- E.P.

I Return From A Very Aesthetic Adventure

Greetings, reader.

Did you miss me? Of course you did. 

Well, not really. Because honestly my posts are usually this spread out anyways so surely you've come to expect this by now. 

Anyways.  

I have recently returned from my ten-day unofficial writing retreat thing with three of my good friends. It wasn't exactly meant to be a writing retreat, but more of a writers' retreat, and yet in between the occasional sword fight and long walk in the woods we spent most of the time writing together in our cozy cabin. It was quite nice. 

Over this vacation, I (as I've already mentioned) wrote, bought books, read, and generally had a good, cozy adventure.

Except for the time when we had to walk from nigh five miles by the side of a street after accidentally snubbing a semi-rude coachmen. That was a less cozy adventure and a more "questing to Mordor" style adventure. Except for it was only 4.7 miles, we had no cursed jewelry, we were headed home, and we actually did have an eagle (well, sort of) come rescue us about halfway through and take us back to our cabin. We also had a lovely conversation with a darling human who allowed us to stay on her porch whilst waiting for said sort-of-eagle. Looking back on it, it reminds me of the Hobbits staying briefly with Tom Bombadil. Though this human was just a human (not to insult the human race or anything) and she was a she, and she also was not magical (although it is very possible that she in fact was magical and simply had no reason to use said magic while we were present). 

That was quite fun, all things considered, though I was having a dreadful time breathing as I have two dreadful curses: exercise induced asthma, and a lack of athletic ability in general. Supposedly the former can be solved with breathing exercises and a legendary artifact known as an "inhaler" (which I don't have any great desire to go on a quest for any time soon), and the latter with something called "exercise." Though as you may have noticed, my asthma is the kind that is induced by exercise, and so I can't rightly exercise without the legendary artifact, and so I won't. 

(*cough* this is only semi-true as I can actually get through most physical things without the legendary inhaler so long as I can rest before it gets too bad and drink lukewarm water, but we won't discuss that part as it makes too much sense and will expose me for the *lackadaisical goldbrick that I am.)

*Why yes, I did find this words through a thesaurus in attempt to make my lack of physical strength more amusing, and yes, I do intend to use these two words far more often as I find them hilarious.

In any case, we survived the half-trek to not-Mordor, my companions fairing better than I as one is an elf, one an immortal who I am convinced can face anything with only the mildest of "oh dears" and tilts of the head, and one a quite muscular *she-hobbit **shadeslayer. 

*Forgive me for making another joke regarding your size, ***Arya

**Yes I did just merge Eragon and LOTR, what of it?

***I can neither confirm nor deny the fact of whether she is or isn't a descendant of Arya, or if she is Arya herself, for I don't rightly know. If she is the former, she is a combination of hobbit and elf, which is intriguing. 

How I managed to secure such whimsical friends when I am a mere man, I knoweth not. 

Moving on from that ramble, the she-elf and I had cause to visit a grand collection of documents, scrolls, and legends which may or may not be true. That is to say, we visited a book shop. Two, to be precise. The first was large, and in addition to being a place where one could purchase and study documents, it was also a place in which scribes sat to write down their various prophecies, legends, record the happenings of the world, and weave the key to existence into words which they printed on paper. 

We then visited a smaller one, where I nearly purchased a rather pricey yet pristine, finely-bound copy of Great Expectations. But the she-elf, having the wisdom of her kind, helped me to later choose a different and inexpensive copy of the book, which worked out wonderfully later on as I bought two more classics which were all in the same series. 

Later, when our trip was moseying on to its close, our Immortal had need to return to... well, wherever Immortals go. I think it highly likely that she needed to fade into a crowd, lest her immortal-ness be noticed (I can speak of it here for I have not used her name, so you do not know that Jane is the secret immortal. Wait. I just. Drat.) 

As I was saying, the Immortal needed to go do immortal things, and once we had seen her off on her dragon, we elected to go to another bookstore, similar to the first one we attended, whilst we were out and about. 

There, the shadeslayer bought an excessive amount of books while the she-elf and I encouraged her to (we are wonderful influences as you can see, and I reminded her many a time that one simply cannot have enough books, and that indeed books should not be counted as material items and an overflow of them is perfectly acceptable). 

She she-elf struggled, through each of these visits, to find a book which contained information on phoenixes (I do believe it highly likely that she is attempting to locate, tame, and fly a phoenix, though you didn't hear that from me). While she didn't find any (perhaps the archives are incomplete), she did manage to find another book which I hear tell she has become quite smitten with. 

I myself found three books (tallying up each bookshop trip) which made fine additions to my brand-new classic collection (for I didn't start collecting them until that copy of Great Expectations crossed my path), and one action-adventure low(?)-fantasy potentially-fiction novel (for you never know when a work is fictional and when it is actually a retelling of true adventures in a different light, aye?) which contains several things that made the shadeslayer, the elf, and myself all agree this book may very likely have been made for me. 

These are the books which I obtained on this fine expedition: 

The top three are my classics, which I am quite happy to possess as they are three of my favorite classics! I am debating whether or not to remove the sticks of Alice and Her Adventures in Wonderland and Pride and Prejudice. I think I'll remove them since Great Expectations doesn't have one. 

(By the by! Did you notice that the clock on Great Expectations is stopped at a certain time that directly relates to a certain cooky old woman in the book?? BECAUSE I MUST SAY THAT I DID AND I FEAR MY COMPANIONS THOUGHT ME RATHER RIDICULOUS FOR BEING SO EXCITED ABOUT IT.)

The book below them is the curiously me book, which I have only begun but am quite enjoying.  

What else do I have to tell you... Oh, yes, writing. 

As I said that I said that I said earlier, I wrote on this holiday. And what did I write, you may be wondering (though you probably are not as it's quite obvious if you have ever received my letters before or know me personally). Why, Roslyn, of course! 

I have made significant progress. It turns out that having three of my favorite humanish creatures together actually made me more productive, not less. The occasional sword fight and walk as a break was especially helpful, as it cleared my mind right when I was starting to need it to.

I have so far condensed Roslyn's amount of chapters and cut a few scenes, and yet somehow the word count has still managed to increase. I do believe that reading so many classics has effected my writing, and that Tolkien, Austen, and Dickens (and to a degree, Carroll) are largely to blame for my very lengthy document. 

Still, progress is progress! And I am now about at the halfway point from my old draft (which you may recall was unfinished when I stopped it). I have changed up quite a few scenes, gotten to know my world even better, and seen my characters grow significantly between drafts. Although this doesn't always show; I believe at times my scenes have actually become worse than they were before, which is rather discouraging. But still, this is only a rewrite of the first draft, so I am hopeful! 

My current word count is now 60,364, which about 5,890 more words than the last draft was at this point. And once more, we're only about halfway through, with the last bit of the book being unwritten, so I cannot even guess at how long it'll be once it's done. The ideal length will be 300k (ideal for me, not for my poor alpha, who was a member of my adventure's party). 

While on this adventure, I got practically no reading done. I read a bit of the Curse of the Specter Queen, and I also read work of the Immortal, the Shadeslayer, and the She-Elf, but that aside I read very little other than my Bible and my own work (for the sake of rewriting said work). 

Now then, what's the plan for moving forward? Well, I need to get back into my grove of regular existence, which hasn't been too difficult. I've been working on cleansing my disastrous living quarters, writing nightly with the she-elf via magic mirror (for she, the shadeslayer, and of course the Immortal have all returned to their sadly distant lands), and today is the first day I will be returning to my job as the keeper of schedules for a local business.  Oh, and I really must return to my studies, for I am pathetically behind on them.

And of course, I will be continuing Roslyn throughout this journey of routine life. And I have some exciting things for Bleeding Ink as well, which will hopefully be ready in time for the anniversary this December. 

Speaking of, happy anniversary to R.M. Archer of "Scribes & Archers." Her blog is now four years old, and you should absolutely go read her post in honor of the exciting day. 

Mary of Wild Writing Dreams  and Julia from Julia's Creative Corner both had anniversaries recently, as well! And Julia has started a writing channel, which you should most definetly go observe with your lovely eyeballs.

Also, Christine Smith has returned from her hiatus, and Maple//JHD Paul's last post was a really beautiful, unique poem that you should go read!

Lastly, Fae Crate has announced that Dragons' Bane by Melody Jackson will be September's featured ebook in the coming month's crate! How exciting for the slowly growing fandom!! 

Is that enough links for you? No, well then, have one more.

I do believe that is all for now. How has your existence this past week been? Have you any exciting news? Would you like more links? What have you read recently? Do you know how to yodel? 

I'd love to hear from you. 

In the meantime I remain, most strangely and humbly, 

- E.P. 

P.S. Will I ever include thumbnails in my posts again? Will I ever continue to actually read through and edit my posts before I post them? Who knows. In the mean time, I make no apologies. 

Why My Posting Schedule Isn't Consistent

 

Greetings, 

Today's letter is a brief one. I just wanted to tell you why my posting schedule is so very inconsistent, and assure you that though it is inconsistent I have absolutely no intention of quitting Bleeding Ink. 

You see, I have a pesky mental illness (maybe you've heard of it) called "clinical anxiety." "Clinical" is a fancy, official-sounding word which here means that I am anxious regardless of whether or not I have a reason to be. I have general anxiety as well as obsessive compulsive disorder, both of which run in my kin's bloodline. 

Being perpetually anxious is very tiring. That exhaustion leads to another mental illness you may or may not have heard of called "depression," which brings apathy and often causes one to lack motivation, and which also runs in my blood.

These things make sitting down to write out a coherent post that properly portrays what I am thinking, editing the post, and creating a banner for the post rather difficult. Because of this, I seldom ever keep to a consistent posting schedule. 

However, I have no plans to abandon Bleeding Ink altogether. I'll disappear for a while, then eventually come back with something else to say or update you on. Is this bad for my brand and marketing? Yes. But you know, it's actually good for you. If you follow Bleeding Ink, you don't have to worry about getting swamped with notifications from me twenty-four seven along with all the other one-thousand-and-ninty-two-point-one blogs you follow. 

This means you don't really lose anything by following me. Just a thought.

Anyways. Now you know. 

Last thing: I am going on vacation and thus will be unable to post for a bit. I'm not planning on being away from posting any longer than my holiday lasts, but we shall see how that goes.

Best regards, 

- E.P.

BY MY TEA TAG'S TAIL, JOHN! WHAT'S THAT ON YONDER HORIZON?? COULD IT BE?? MELODY JACKSON'S P-

 

READER, TURN AROUND!

No no, not that way! Your other way- Oh for goodness sake, here, it's right here! 

DO YOU SEE IT? It's... it's.... A NEW POST BY MELODY JACKSON!  I thought the sea took her back in '18 after Dragons' Hope was published!! Yet here she is, penning her readers a note!!

And not just ANY note! An- An announcement? About? A NEW BOOK? By the jarl's sweetroll! Surely I have perished and been brought into the kingdom above, such good tidings can't exist in the living world, can they?? 

They can?

BY ALL THE DRAGON'S FANGS, THEY CAN?!

I don't even know what to say.

Melody Jackson has returned to the writing scene, and I am here. for. it. If you have never read any of her books, I'm literally hosting a giveaway for her trilogy as we SPEAK. Or as I PEN. WHATEVER. You have until the 30th to join so do it now so you can read it and be in the Melody Jackson fandom for when she publishes her next book!!

ALSO!! GO READ HER POST!! And comment on it! And share it! And spread the word! 

Seriously, this is a big deal. I've been in this author's fandom for... I don't even know how long. Since a VERRY LONG TIME. I joined when I was late middle school, or maybe early high school. I don't even know, it's been a WHILE. 

And she hasn't given the public any news since Dragons' Hope. That was in 2018. And when she comes back? IT'S AN ANNOUNCEMENT FOR A NEW BOOK?

I may just die right now. 

BUT I CAN'T BECAUSE I HAVE TO BE ALIVE TO READ THIS BOOK. 

Okayokayokayokayokay. 

I'm okay. I'm totally not not breathing and not dying from pure excitement.  

If you are reading this I am BEGGING YOU, nay, begging is pathetic, I ORDER YOU to go CHECK OUT MELODY JACKSON'S CONTENT. or *ELSE. 

Spread the word, companions, the Crazy Dragon Lady has returned!

Most excitedly, 

- E.P. 

P.S. If you want to check out her other content, here's a list! 

The Dragon Within by Melody Jackson 

Dragons' Bane by Melody Jackson

Dragons' Might by Melody Jackson

Dragons' Hope by Melody Jackson

*or else you're going to have a sad existence because you're missing out on wonderful content and you won't even notice it and you may think that's a reason to not care but it ISN'T because now you know you know that whenever you are sad, you may have instead been happy if you had read her books.

Dragons' Bane Giveaway Updates - Now Open To Canada!

 Hey there, you mystical book-loving creature. 

I've got news regarding the current giveaway that Bleeding Ink is running. Let's get right into it. 

Now Open To Canadians

Is your wonderful self dwelling in the syrup-laden land of Canada, and were you thus upset when you saw that you couldn't enter the giveaway? 

If so, I have excellent news for you, my frosty leaf friends. 

Through a dear Canadian of mine (you know who you are), I have discovered that you can get on the Canadian Amazon site and gift the books to the Canadian you desire to receive them, much like I can when I am gifting within my own country. 

Because of this, you Canadians can join the giveaway! When you email me to confirm your entry, say something to identify yourself as Canadian (without saying you're from Canada; make it interesting) so I will know (not because I will need to know until I know if you've won or not, but because I find it amusing). 

The only thing is that I'm not sure if I can get you a digital copy, so this may be limited to physical for you. Hopefully I will have an update for you on that soon. 

Ad 

In hopes of getting more attention, I've put together a few things to share around. If you have social media, please do share these as much as you can! 

Here is one on Pinterest: Dragons' Bane Giveaway Promotional Pin

And here is a still that has all the information on it for you to post and share: 

Photos

Here are some photos which you can save on Pinterest and share on social media, just be sure to include the link to the giveaway (the page or the post, it doesn't matter). 

The first image features the bookmarks, cards, and the Dragons' Bane trilogy, all of which can be won in the giveaway. Note, not these exact copies. These are signed and thus to get them from me you'd have to kill me first, then fight my zombie, and then fight my ghost, because there is no way I'm parting with these.  

(Was this just an excuse for me to take pretty pictures of some of my all-time favorite books? But of course.)

Alright, that's it. If anything else changes (and when I figure out whether or not I can get digital copies to our dear Canadians) I will be sure to let you know by editing this post when I find out. That is, I will update the end of this post, so be sure to check back here throughout the month. 

- EP

P.S. Are you excited for the giveaway? If so, be sure to send a link of it to your favorite Canadian so they can join in on the excitement!