From An Island Life:
  In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.
  If you’d like to participate, visit An Island Life answer the question and then post your own question on your blog and leave your link below. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

My Question:

What is your desktop picture?

My Answer:

My 4 kids..my 2 sons and their girlfriends.

Are you a blogger over 40? Yeah, welcome to the club!  Please join in the fun and get to know your fellow bloggers!!

  In the spirit of the Twitter Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and find new book-related blogs that we may be missing out on! This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books! It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs that they may not know existed! So, grab the logo, post about the Hop on your blog, and start HOPPING through the list of blogs that are posted in the Linky list below!!
The Hop lasts Friday-Monday every week, so if you don’t have time to Hop today, come back later and join the fun! This is a weekly event! And stop back throughout the weekend to see all the new blogs that are added! We get over 200 links every week!!
Your blog should have content related to books, including, but not limited to book reviews.
If you start following someone through the Hop, leave a comment on their blog to let them know! Stop back during the week to see other blogs that are added! And, most importantly, the idea is to HAVE FUN!!

“What are your feelings on losing followers? Have you ever stopped following a blog?”My Answer:
When that happens, I wish I knew why. It feels like I am losing a friend but don’t know what I did. However, I have stopped following some blogs if they haven’t posted in a month or so. I also may stop following if we no longer have the same genres in common

From An Island Life:
  In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.
  If you’d like to participate, visit An Island Life answer the question and then post your own question on your blog and leave your link below. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

My Question:

What is your desktop picture?

My Answer:

My 4 kids..my 2 sons and their girlfriends.

Are you a blogger over 40? Yeah, welcome to the club!  Please join in the fun and get to know your fellow bloggers!!

  In the spirit of the Twitter Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and find new book-related blogs that we may be missing out on! This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books! It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs that they may not know existed! So, grab the logo, post about the Hop on your blog, and start HOPPING through the list of blogs that are posted in the Linky list below!!
The Hop lasts Friday-Monday every week, so if you don’t have time to Hop today, come back later and join the fun! This is a weekly event! And stop back throughout the weekend to see all the new blogs that are added! We get over 200 links every week!!
Your blog should have content related to books, including, but not limited to book reviews.
If you start following someone through the Hop, leave a comment on their blog to let them know! Stop back during the week to see other blogs that are added! And, most importantly, the idea is to HAVE FUN!!

“What are your feelings on losing followers? Have you ever stopped following a blog?”My Answer:
When that happens, I wish I knew why. It feels like I am losing a friend but don’t know what I did. However, I have stopped following some blogs if they haven’t posted in a month or so. I also may stop following if we no longer have the same genres in common

Today’s Question:
I’ve seen many bloggers say that what draws them to certain books or authors is good writing, and what causes them to stop reading a certain book or author is bad writing. What constitutes good writing and bad writing to you?
My Answer:
  Good question!!  I just had this happen.  I picked up the next book in line from my request pile, liked the synopsis, liked the title and then started to read.  Fifty + pages and had to put it in the DNF pile.  It was very wordy, and in my opinion rambling at times.  I still hadn’t been pulled into the story line by the 50+ pages.  Picked up the next book, same thing, good synopsis, good title, started reading and was hooked by the first page and a half.
  If I can’t connect with the characters, storyline and/or visualize the scenes through the author’s written words by the first 50 pages, then I can almost guarantee it will end up a not so good and/or a DNF.  I used to have 100 pages as my cut off point, but an author told me that a reader should be “hooked” within the first few pages. 
 

  As I hang my head in shame and shake it no, I didn’t.  First time that ever happened, I swear!!  Since I am still not allowed to drive and hubby didn’t leave work until very late, he went straight to the polls and just made it himself.
Where do you get news about what’s happening in the world? (Newspapers, Internet, Local Television Stations, Cable News, etc.)
Morning routine includes booting up computer, grabbing coffee mug and turning on TV first for local news then to a cable news station, which stays on all day, just in case there is breaking news (have done this ever since 9/11).  I also subscribe to CNN Breaking News for my computer.
Do you read in bed before you go to sleep?
Most of the time, but lately no, by the time hubby gets home, we eat, clean up, talk, we are asleep by the time our heads hit the pillows.

Today’s Question:
I’ve seen many bloggers say that what draws them to certain books or authors is good writing, and what causes them to stop reading a certain book or author is bad writing. What constitutes good writing and bad writing to you?
My Answer:
  Good question!!  I just had this happen.  I picked up the next book in line from my request pile, liked the synopsis, liked the title and then started to read.  Fifty + pages and had to put it in the DNF pile.  It was very wordy, and in my opinion rambling at times.  I still hadn’t been pulled into the story line by the 50+ pages.  Picked up the next book, same thing, good synopsis, good title, started reading and was hooked by the first page and a half.
  If I can’t connect with the characters, storyline and/or visualize the scenes through the author’s written words by the first 50 pages, then I can almost guarantee it will end up a not so good and/or a DNF.  I used to have 100 pages as my cut off point, but an author told me that a reader should be “hooked” within the first few pages. 
 

  As I hang my head in shame and shake it no, I didn’t.  First time that ever happened, I swear!!  Since I am still not allowed to drive and hubby didn’t leave work until very late, he went straight to the polls and just made it himself.
Where do you get news about what’s happening in the world? (Newspapers, Internet, Local Television Stations, Cable News, etc.)
Morning routine includes booting up computer, grabbing coffee mug and turning on TV first for local news then to a cable news station, which stays on all day, just in case there is breaking news (have done this ever since 9/11).  I also subscribe to CNN Breaking News for my computer.
Do you read in bed before you go to sleep?
Most of the time, but lately no, by the time hubby gets home, we eat, clean up, talk, we are asleep by the time our heads hit the pillows.

Hollywood Savage by Kristin McCloy
Published by Washington Square Press
A division of Simon & Schuster
ISBN 978-0-7432-8647-3
At the request of Simon & Schuster, a TPB was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Synopsis (from back of book): “Meet me at five,” the voice said on the answering machine, Four ordinary words yet, when heard by the wrong person, enough to change the course of a marriage.
  Marooned in Hollywood while writing a screenplay based on his latest bestselling novel, Miles King, records in his journals his escalating conviction that his glamorous wife, a New York-based journalist named Maggie, his having an affair.
  Amidst the un-buffed egos and the longing for connection and fame he encounters at every cocktail party and no-name bar in Hollywood, Miles finds unexpected comfort in an affair if his own with Lucy, a young mother whose open, eager mind sparks an irresistible passion in him. Miles’s constantly shifting emotional state-a potent brew of lust, guilt, anger and betrayal- is only one of the perils he must navigate as his fantasies become increasingly hard to distinguish from reality.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: When I first accepted this book for review, I thought it was going to be the typical Hollywood life style that is the basis of many books, the gossip in magazines and on entertainment TV shows. The following opinion is mine and only mine. I read 50+ pages, and at that point, I still had not been pulled into the story. I found the narrative of first-person very wordy, that at times, I would have to reread sentences to process what was really being said. I felt that the storyline was slow paced in the pages read. Unfortunately, this book had to be put aside in the DNF pile.

Hollywood Savage by Kristin McCloy
Published by Washington Square Press
A division of Simon & Schuster
ISBN 978-0-7432-8647-3
At the request of Simon & Schuster, a TPB was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Synopsis (from back of book): “Meet me at five,” the voice said on the answering machine, Four ordinary words yet, when heard by the wrong person, enough to change the course of a marriage.
  Marooned in Hollywood while writing a screenplay based on his latest bestselling novel, Miles King, records in his journals his escalating conviction that his glamorous wife, a New York-based journalist named Maggie, his having an affair.
  Amidst the un-buffed egos and the longing for connection and fame he encounters at every cocktail party and no-name bar in Hollywood, Miles finds unexpected comfort in an affair if his own with Lucy, a young mother whose open, eager mind sparks an irresistible passion in him. Miles’s constantly shifting emotional state-a potent brew of lust, guilt, anger and betrayal- is only one of the perils he must navigate as his fantasies become increasingly hard to distinguish from reality.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: When I first accepted this book for review, I thought it was going to be the typical Hollywood life style that is the basis of many books, the gossip in magazines and on entertainment TV shows. The following opinion is mine and only mine. I read 50+ pages, and at that point, I still had not been pulled into the story. I found the narrative of first-person very wordy, that at times, I would have to reread sentences to process what was really being said. I felt that the storyline was slow paced in the pages read. Unfortunately, this book had to be put aside in the DNF pile.