reading interrupted – Britt Skrabanek

Books Were There to Protect Me

No matter how many times I got lost in life, books were there to protect me.

Through my childhood years when my parents abruptly parted ways. Through my overly dramatic teen years when the world seemed against me. Through my self-destructive young adult years when I was trying to find my way.

More than anything I associate books with my beautiful mom, who I will always imagine with her nose happily stuck in one—exuding warmth, comfort, and love.

When my lovely friend Letizia at Reading Interrupted asked me to share a special reading memory with her, I felt privileged to write at her beautiful blog. I follow it religiously and it never fails to inspire me.

Any bookish memory I reached for, there was my mom.

As most of you know, my mom has been on my mind a lot this year after battling her second stint with breast cancer. And when I was by her side to find out the test results, a magical memory helped me get through it all.

Read “A Castle Filled with Stories” over at Reading Interrupted…

Goat Repartee

Like anyone else, there are moments when social media chaps my ass.

The time sucking factor. The guerilla warfare book marketing tactics – zombie erotica…I think I’ll pass. But, it’s free on Amazon this weekend. I’ll still pass. And, the selfies. So many, many selfies.

For better or worse, social media is a communication tool.

Whether we love it or we hate it, it’s there for us to interact with people anywhere in the world, to express our thoughts, dreams, and opinions, to try to make it out there when you’re a one-woman indie author show like yours truly.

I admit it. At first I didn’t know how in the hell to use social media properly, especially Twitter which was a complete mystery. No, I wasn’t ever the hardcore zombie erotica book salesman that you wanted to strangle.

I always understood that social media was about reaching people from a personal standpoint, not by going apeshit and throwing poop at their faces while screaming “Look at me, damnit!”.

Instead, you have to go the baby chimpanzee route: make odd and adorable faces constantly, cling just enough to show your softer side, build a kick ass community to keep you warm and safe, and share the love for cyber hugs.

(Not sure what’s going on with the primates in this post…my sincerest apologies. I’ll get to goats soon, I promise.)

Anyways, I used to try to keep up with everybody and everything and I almost lost my damn mind. That’s not how you use social media, unless you want to end up in the loony bin trying to rub off that hashtag forehead tattoo you thought was a bitchin’ idea.

Over the past six months, I’ve scaled back a lot of my social media playtime. I’m a busy gal, so I tend to concentrate on deeper connections with some and let the rest just keep on streamin’.

Yet, last week something truly magnificent happened, a legendary dialogue, one for the social media history books. While feces flew all around, the baby chimps were making cute conversation and playing social media the right way.

I simply had to share…

The Players: Sheila, Carrie, Letizia, and Me

The Scene: Twitter

The Muse: Goat

The End

Clearly if you’re not following us gals on Twitter, you’re missing out. Feel free to chime in about goats or other subjects if goats aren’t your thing.

Sheila – @SheilaHurst11

Carrie – @carrie_rubin

Letizia – @readinterrupt

Me – @brittskrabanek

Phone Reading

My beautiful friend Letizia has included “Beneath the Satin Gloves” as her e-book photo examples on her latest post…”Phone Reading”. I am grateful for her support and hope you will check out her blog in return. She is a phenomenal writer who offers clever insight into reading habits.

Please feel free to chime in with your thoughts about phone reading.

Happy weekend to you all!

reading interrupted.

I love hearing about people’s reading habits (see previous post) and often ask people if they prefer traditional books or e-books.

One conversation that struck me was with a man I met at a recent conference. He told me that while he reads paperbacks at home, when he travels he reads novels on his iPhone.

“Oh, you mean your iPad,” I replied. “No, my iPhone,” he replied amiably, taking his iPhone out from his pocket to show me.

True enough, he had a few novels on his iPhone. I was fascinated! Didn’t the tiny screen bother him? Nope, he replied. Did he zoom in to make the words larger? At first, he said. But then he got used to it, and now just read the text normally.

I was surprised and intrigued that he felt comfortable reading entire books on his iPhone. I sometimes look up a short text…

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