Tag Archives: reading

There’s a Need for Large Print Books

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Yesterday, I went to my local library to have something printed. Honestly, I could just buy myself a printer and not leave my house, but then I wouldn’t have the experiences I do at my local library. Plus, our local libraries need our support hence the reason why I prefer paying the library to use their copying machines. Not to mention, checking out a few books while I’m there.

I live in a small country town. Majority of the patrons I meet at my local library are elderly and retired individuals. I love to listen to the stories they share while they check out their books at the front desk.

One of the stories I listened in on included the lack of large print books. They told the librarian that they enjoy reading books, too, and that at their age, it is harder to see the print on regular paperback books.

As an author, I hadn’t put much thought into large print. My list of published titles consists mostly of ebooks. I do have two books that are paperback, Dana’s First Fish, Chaos: Supernatural Realms; one is for children and the other is for young adults.

As I prepare one of my recently published books, Rancher’s Daughter, for a paperback release, a thought came to me. I have a chance to broaden my readership if I also publish it in large print.

I had to look this one up and stumbled upon a website that I had visited a few times before. Joanna Penn is a wonderful author, who explains how to publish large print and how it is actually more popular than I realized. You can view her post here.

 

Amazon Kindle Fire for Kids

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Kindle Fire

For Christmas my daughter (8 year old) and I each received a Kindle Fire. I needed one for myself for work and I thought I would get her one as well thinking that it was time for her to upgrade from her original Kindle. However, her older Kindle, which I had purchased back in 2012 still works, amazingly! I had written a post a while back on it, which you can read here. It is still going without any issues, scratches, or cracks.

Now, she has two.

Her newer Kindle is smaller in size, yet has some really neat features that her older Kindle does not have. There are two profiles you can switch to; a kid side and the regular side. The regular side you are able to set up a pin code to use to log into it. You can also have the parental controls set on this side as well, which is an awesome feature that I love! Thank you, Amazon!

The kid side is brightly colorful and very kid friendly. It has five features; home, books, videos, apps, characters, plus a camera and a search bar. The books feature is one of my favs, as well as my daughter’s. She can download whatever children’s ebook she wants to her kindle and read it anywhere we go. It’s just like using the Kindle Unlimited program, but with children’s books. You can download as many ebooks onto the Kindle, then once you’re done reading them, you can delete them off of the device.

My only recommendations is that if your child loves to read or play games, get the Kindle with more space, or buy an SD card (which is a new feature compared to her older Kindle that I love). Also, you can purchase a shock proof case with a handle, which is a nifty tool as my kiddo carries it easily wherever she goes.

A New College Semester Begins

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books

Last week I visited the college bookstore to pick up my books for class. This time I was stunned to see how many books I had ‘piled up’ for four classes; eleven in total. Unbelievable isn’t it? Two classes require four books each, one classes require two, and one class, that I’m taking online, thankfully requires one. Three of the four classes, as you would’ve guessed, require a lot of reading. Online articles and several pages of one of the books must be read before the start of the next class day. I thought to myself, Wow! If I didn’t have enough to do outside of college, I wouldn’t mind sitting back and reading a little. But, my plate continues to pile up.

I’ve signed up to intern at the Little Rock Zoo, in the large ape enrichment program, a program which I love, as I am not only an animal lover, but it’s part of the wide range of Anthropology. Last semester, I declared my major, Anthropology, physical anthropology to be exact. It took me a long time to narrow it down to that field as there’s so much in anthropology that I would love to do, cultural, archaeology, primatology, forensics, just to name a few that interest me.

The other day, someone from my college admin requested that I join their work study program. I had used up my entire GI Bill before I started last semester, without knowing. Plus, I didn’t sign up for any scholarships, as the GI Bill was covering all cost, so I was having to pay out of pocket for my classes last semester and this semester. Looks like someone saw this and decided to give me a little help in paying for college. This isn’t the usual work study program that students sign up for. It doesn’t have to do with financial aid. Instead, I am going to be working in the anthropology department, since that’s what I decided to major in.

work

I continue my search for the right agent for my young adult fantasy novel. Several have said no, with a few that were so close to being a maybe. I stopped querying and decided to edit the first chapter, rearranging some paragraphs and adding more words here and there. I should have 60,000 words after I’m finished with the final draft.

It’s a start of a new year. I have three semesters left until I receive my bachelor’s degree. I continue to work on other writing projects in my spare time. And once I finish my final draft of my YA fantasy novel, I will begin querying again.

Wishing you all a happy hump day. Stay warm!