Month: March 2015

New Clean Reader App Removes “Offensive Language” From Your Books

John Guillen18 Comments

Most books I read have some cussing. Not pages and pages of it, but some. Well (if you don’t like characters cussing) you no longer have to read those words. You know the ones I’m talking about. There’s a new app called Clean Reader that essentially barricades you from cuss words in your books. And it’s easy to use. All you do is download the app and set your settings based on how much or how little you want the language to be changed. Oh, the app isn’t only for cussing. It covers A LOT of different words and phrases and is constantly adding more.

But you have to purchase the books through the app. So you can’t read on your Kindle, Nook, and I’m not sure what the app is like on iPhones and iPads.

I understand that some people don’t like “offensive language” in their reading, but I’m not a fan of this. How many rounds of edits and rewrites did it take for the book to reach its final state? Plenty. And all along the way the language could have been changed but wasn’t. I just don’t think an author’s work should be changed (drastically, in some cases) without his or her permission to cater to some reader. If you really don’t like the language THEN DON’T READ THE BOOK. How hard is that?

Anyway, what do you think of an app that essentially censors books? I hope it fails miserably.

You can read more about the app here. It is available in the App Store and Google Play. I won’t be linking to it.

On this day in 2014 I published What’s That one Series of Books you Won’t Forget?.

 

What Kind of Reader are you?

John Guillen45 Comments

e1ac95d2bebb08f7818b7225fe87edc9

I came across this graphic a long time ago and decided then that I wanted to write a post for it. So, here we are. I don’t have any great wisdom to go with this particular question, so I’m just going to go ahead and answer the question myself.

What kind of reader am I?

I am most definitely not a polygamist reader. As evidenced in this post.

I am also not an extrovert reader because I’m not grabbing everything in sight.

I don’t recommend books so I’m no altruist reader.

I’m not a neurotic reader because I don’t switch between books.

Now the last two are the tricky ones. I only read one book at a time, but I don’t reread. And I generally stick to one genre. So I guess I’m an introverted monogamist reader? Ha.

What about you? Based on this graphic, what kind of reader are you?

Graphic first published here.

On this day in 2014 I published Not Your Typical Case of Writer’s Block.

10 Ways to Improve Your Writing Right now!

John Guillen27 Comments

Come on. Really?

I know you’ve seen them. Those posts with titles like: “10 Tips to Improve Your Writing!” or “Five Things You’re Doing Wrong as a Writer…and how to Fix Them!”. These are unavoidable if you spend any time browsing on WordPress. And they just make me laugh.

Because reading what amounts to a list is not going to improve your writing. And I really hope you don’t think it will. First off, who came up with the list? And second, how do you know if it can really be applied to you? It’s like giving EVERYONE the exact same advice, without taking into account the fact that no two individuals are the same. Hopefully you don’t read or write those posts, but good luck to you if you do.

On this day in 2014 I published Picking Your Reading Device.

 

2500 WordPress Followers and Surprise!

John Guillen65 Comments

The following will be a short letter to you. And then I have a great surprise for all of you! Seriously.

To you,

Just recently Write me a Book, John! surpassed 2500 WordPress followers. I know so many bloggers talk about not caring about followers or site views and all of that and that’s fine, but I’m very open about the fact that I do. Think about it. There wouldn’t be any reason for me to post just about every single day if it weren’t for you. Maybe you read half my posts or a quarter or a tenth, but it doesn’t matter. You read them. You may disagree with some of what I say and I may have even offended you at some point along the way, but you’ve helped me reach this point.

And I understand that plenty of people (bloggers included) don’t take blogging seriously. I know of bloggers who will post a week straight and then not again for a month, and that’s fine. But it’s just not what I want from this whole experience. What I really want is to keep you constantly entertained and informed as much as I possibly can. I want you to wake up each morning looking for what I post each day. I want you to share my posts on Twitter or Facebook of whichever social media site you prefer. I want you to have to think before posting a comment on one of my posts. I want this little spec of the internet to become a little part of your day-to-day routine. And maybe all of that is me wanting too much, but you’ll never be able to tell me that I don’t take you, your opinion, and your blog seriously…because I do.

All I’d like to say is thank you. For reading my rants. For disagreeing with me. And mostly just for reading. It means the world to me that you spend your valuable time on this little blog of mine.

Your fellow blogger,

John

Now for the surprise.

I want to ask you something. And in return I want to GIVE you something even better! I realize that a great many of the 2500 followers on here don’t hardly interact with me, if at all. But many of you do. And many of you have been around here for many months and several have been here since early 2014. And for every one of you I’m talking about there’s a reason you’ve stuck around. Maybe it’s my direct nature of writing my posts. Maybe you think I’m sometimes funny. Maybe you just like books and put up with me. I don’t know, but there IS some reason you read my blog.

And I want you to tell me! I want you to tell me why you like my blog as much (or little) as you do. And I’d like for you to really think about it before posting your response because the person who I determine writes the best response will get to name a character in my WIP! You can name he/she after yourself or after your dog or after whatever you want (within reason) OR if that isn’t enticing to you, then I’ll buy you two paperback books of your choice (and throw in a signed copy of mine).

What do you think?! All I want to know is what you think I’m doing right. That’s it. I really hope you’ll take a minute to comment.

PS: You’ll get the two books or the opportunity to name one of my characters ONLY if I get at least ten individual responses.

On this day in 2014 I published 200 WordPress Followers!.

 

 

Amazon Launches Write On

John Guillen5 Comments

You should be well aware of the fact that Amazon wants to dominate the book industry just from my past posts about their other programs. I don’t think they want to dominate traditional publishing, but just about everything else seems to be in their wheelhouse.

Just recently they launched Write On. The simplest way for me to explain it is to say that it is their version of Wattpad. Almost exactly. Users can upload stories as they write them and readers can follow along. Pretty simple, huh? You also should know by now that I’m pretty much in Amazon’s corner when it comes to anything they do. That isn’t changing, but I won’t be using this site. Actually, don’t let me lie. I know for certain that I won’t be using the site to read other stories. But who knows, I might use it once I have more written of my current WIP? I doubt it, but I can’t say for certain one way or the other.

What do you think? Will Amazon pull away from Wattpad or just sit back in its shadow?

You can learn more about the new site here.

On this day in 2014 I published The Stigma of Self Publishing.

 

What Would you do if you Didn’t Have Books?

John Guillen37 Comments

I’d just die. Okay, kidding.

Honestly, I’d pretty much be exactly the same. Shocker. I like reading and books and everything that goes with them, but I already spend many more hours in front of my TV than I do reading or talking about books. Y’all know I watch every single game of the Astros, Texans, and Rockets. That’s a lot of hours. And that doesn’t even include all the nationally televised games that don’t include any of my hometown teams.

Besides my obsession with sports, I like TV shows. I watch a million different shows. I usually have something set to record every day of the week except for Saturday. And there’s Bosch on Amazon and House of Cards. I just can’t get enough TV.

So if I didn’t have books I’d just find my entertainment elsewhere. Because at the end of the day that’s what reading is to me, entertainment. But what would YOU do if you didn’t have books?

Was 1925 Really the Greatest Year of Literature?

John Guillen14 Comments

Last week the BBC Culture website declared 1925 as the “greatest year for books ever”. Ernest Hemingway published his first book, a collection of short stories called In Our Time. Virginia Woolf published Mrs. Dalloway. And F. Scott Fitzgerald released The Great Gatsby. There were a few more prominent titles released, but these three are the top of the class.

So now to answer the question as to whether or not 1925 was the greatest year of books ever. Well, I guess? I really have no idea. Partly because I don’t know publication years for hardly any books, but also because I think it might be close to impossible to get down to one year. Think of all the books released in 2014. Then think of the books that stand out above the rest either because of popularity or quality. Then do that every single year. I think it’s cool that they tried to decide this, but I don’t know if it’s necessarily true.

The other years said to be in contention were 1862, 1899, and 1950. You can read about 1925’s releases and also those from the other years here.

Do you think 1925 was “the greatest year for books ever”?

You (poem)

John Guillen10 Comments

You

You used to not know me
And I not you
But that changed quickly
It was then me and you

But that wasn’t the case
No, not really
It was more of a chase
And I couldn’t see

That I’d never catch you
You were too fast
I was just a fool
Who could only finish last

I was done chasin’
What I thought could be
I made my declaration
And you spoke honestly

My worst nightmare
Had finally come true
I could only stare
At the person I thought was you

On this day in 2014 I published Amazon’s List 100 Books Everyone Should Read: 29. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Terry Pratchett has Died

John Guillen14 Comments

I have to be honest. I don’t know anything about him. I couldn’t tell you a single book he wrote. I couldn’t even tell you the name of any series he wrote. Now I bet you’re wondering why I’d write about him if I know nothing about him. Well, because every time I opened WordPress yesterday I came across posts written about him. I’m talking dozens. And it would appear to me that he made a lasting impact on a great many people.

I’m not going to talk about his death. I’m not going to talk about some of his best books that have been mentioned countless times over the last 24 hours. I want you to do that. I want you to tell me about this man who is so beloved by so many. Tell me anything you want. Maybe you have a favorite book of his? Maybe you have a story about how one of his books helped you during a difficult time? Maybe you were lucky enough to meet him some time ago? Anything. I just want to know about the person who has now left the literary world at a loss.

On this day in 2014 published You’re Currently Reading Something…Tell me About it!.

 

Stop Posting DNF Book Reviews

John Guillen23 Comments

Everyone knows that WordPress is overloaded with book reviews. The only reason I can see for writing book reviews would be because you’re getting ARCs. But all these people on here are not all getting them. They’re just writing terribly written book reviews because they want to. And you know what, that’s fine. What do I care? I don’t read them.

But something that bloggers seem to post almost as often are DNF book reviews. And I’m telling you to stop it. Read the following sentence very carefully, okay?

YOU CANNOT REVIEW A BOOK IF YOU DO NOT READ THE WHOLE BOOK.

Especially when I see people writing about how they couldn’t get through the second or third chapter. And they think they can write a review of the work? The fuck? Seriously. The practice of writing DNF reviews is a joke. And the next time I see one I’m going to copy and paste the link to this post without any other remark. So they have to click. And then they’ll probably give me some crap about they can write whatever they want blah blah blah, and I’ll just laugh to myself.

Stop this terrible practice.

On this day in 2014 I published Why do you Write?.