On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King ~ Audio Book Review

Book Description:

“Long live the King” hailed Entertainment Weekly upon the publication of Stephen King's On Writing. Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer's craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King's advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported near-fatal accident in 1999—and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it—fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.

Purchase a copy on Amazon. 

About the Author: 

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Drunken Fireworks, Finders Keepers, Revival, Mr. Mercedes, Doctor Sleep, and Under the Dome. His novel 11/22/63, adapted as a 2016 series on Hulu starring James Franco, was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. King is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and the 2014 National Medal of Arts. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

Connect: Website | Twitter | Goodreads |

Review: 

I am reviewing the audio download of this book, read by Stephen King himself. As a lover of books, I read as many as I can squeeze into my time, I have always loved to learn how and why someone does what they do. Reading memoirs are a great place to start to get to know someone a little better. I love that the first few chapters we are taken down memory lane with King. We learn more about his time growing up as a kid and where his writing started. He was so young when he first started writing stories.

Chapter 4 to the end is the bag of novel tricks from the writing master. Listening to the audiobook was like sitting down with Stephen King, talking over a coffee about how to write well. King is to the point about what he does to make his novels how they are, not adding any fluff to make it a longer book. He is straight to the point and tells the reads this is how he has become successful.

Do you know that writers should have a tool box? What should go in there and in each level? This is all explained to a tee and makes a lot of sense when you hear King talk about it. I found this novel to be great for all readers, not just people who want to write. I think this would be great for bloggers and book reviewers alike. It gives you an idea of story, narrative, characters, dialogue and so mch more that you can really use that when critiquing your next book for review. 

I devoured this novel over a few days and I am sure to listen to it again soon. I am actually going to pick up a paperback copy to have on hand to go back through. If you are a Stephen King fan you will also love the memoir part of getting to know your favourite writer a bit better. 


I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars and also a 5 out of 5 stars for the narrations by Stephen King. 



~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Genuine Jenn. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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Crowdfunding for Social Good by Devin D Thorpe ~ Book Review

Crowdfunding for Social Good: Financing Your Mark on the World

 

  Summary:

by Devin D. Thorpe
Over the last year of writing my Forbes blog, I have had the opportunity to really dig deeply into the world of crowdfunding. I’ve just completed my first draft of my new book, Crowdfunding for Social Good: Financing Your Mark on the World.

The book is a guide to successful crowdfunding for people who want to change the world.
The book is not a sequel to my book, Your Mark On The World, but it is written in the same spirit. I’ve studied a dozens of successful crowdfunding campaigns, interviewing the people behind them to learn their secrets for success.

Devin’s Book, Your Mark on the World, was downloaded over 75,000 times and reached the #19 spot on Amazon’s free book list–among all free books. It remains on the top 50 free nonfiction books at Amazon.

 About the Author

Devin D. Thorpe thinks he is the luckiest person alive. After being “let go” from the best job he’d ever had—as the Chief Financial Officer of the multinational food and beverage company MonaVie—he and his wife ended up living in China for a year where he wrote Your Mark On The World and embarked on the career he’d always wanted yet hadn’t dared dream.
Now, as an author, a popular guest speaker and Forbes contributor, Devin is devoted full time to championing social good. His current life isn’t much like his past.

As an entrepreneur, Devin ran—at separate times—a boutique investment banking firm and a small mortgage company. He served as the Treasurer for the multinational vitamin manufacturer USANA Health Sciences years before becoming CFO for MonaVie. Over his career he led or advised on the successful completion of $500 million in transactions.

Devin squeezed in two brief stints in government, including two years working for Jake Garn on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee Staff and another year working for an independent state agency called USTAR, where he helped foster technology entrepreneurship during Governor Jon Huntsman’s administration.

Devin is proud to have graduated from the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business, which recognized him as a Distinguished Alum in 2006. He also earned an MBA at Cornell University where he ran the student newspaper, Cornell Business.

Today, Devin channels the idealism of his youth with the loving support of his wife, Gail. Their son Dayton is a PhD candidate in Physics at UC Berkeley (and Devin rarely misses an opportunity to mention that).

Review:

If you are a fundraiser, artist, activist, or anyone else looking to start a crowdfunded campaign and don't know where to start, this is the book for you.  Those with more knowledge of the subject will still find some valuable information in the book but may not want to read it cover to cover.  Mr. Thorpe covers all of the major topics that need to be addressed - how much time, energy and money you should be prepared to invest, how to get other people to help share your message, how to use social and traditional media to your advantage - and mixes in some great success stories of different types of crowdfunding campaigns so that you can learn from what has worked in the past.  There are some great tips in this book on how often to update your supporters on your progress, why it is pivotal to have strong financial support as soon as the campaign launches by securing a few major donors prior to the campaign going live, and how to build a strong team of supporters.

There are also some troubling aspects of the book.  The first is that any book referencing social media is bound to have issues staying current.  Social media is constantly changing and new networks are popping up on almost a weekly basis.  The value judgements in the book - promoting Facebook as the 'unquestioned king of social networking" even adding the caveat "as I write this" (59)makes the book seem less relevant when constant changes to Facebook are driving people and pages away from the platform.  The author doesn't distinguish between a personal Facebook account and a cause-based page.  Most of the tips are more based towards building a personal network, completely ignoring the utility of a Facebook page for a cause that is separate from your personal account.  The second troubling aspect is that there are unreferenced statistics.  On page 62, the author states that "Twitter is used by barely more than 10 percent of people on Facebook" but there is no reference to where that number came from.

Overall, if you are looking for a starting point for a crowdfunding campaign, this book is a good place to start. The success stories are great motivation and it's a good base of information with which to start planning.

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Learning to Knit: Part #1 - The Washcloth

I have always wanted to learn how to knit. Growing up I was a crafter, I admit I tried my hand at a lot of different crafting projects. Some projects I finished and did well with, others well lets not really talk about them today. 

Over the last few months I have been watching all the neat things my friend JoAnne has been coming up with - socks, mitts, hats, shawls, scarves. I have been wanting to learn for so long how to knit but really didn't have anyone to help me. I tried a few times and each time I got frustrated with how long it took and how hard it was. Guess what? Basic knitting isn't hard I was just doing it wrong. 

Now that I have been shown how to do a basic knit I have finished my very first knitting project! It feels wonderful and I am very excited to learn more stitches to make other things. 

I want to share this with my you as I know a few of you are knitters - if you are leave a comment below and let me know if you are on Ravelry.com or have a knitting blog.

JoAnne had said the best thing for me to start with was a dishcloth and the very basic Grandma style cloths we all grew up around. Here is the pattern I used and my progress. I finished this in two days. I would say it likely 4+ hours maybe a little more. I didn't check the times. I am sure I will get faster as I make more. 

Yarn: 100% cotton 

Needles: 8 or .5mm

Instructions: 

Cast on 4 

Row 1: Knit 4
 
Row 2: Knit 2, yarn over, knit rest of row.
 
Repeat Row 2 until you have 45 or 50 stitches on the needle (depends on how big you want the wash/dishcloth, I did 45). 

Now you are going to start the decreasing rows as follows: 
Knit 1 Knit 2 together Yarn over Knit 2 together again and then knit to end of the row. 

Repeat until you have 4 stitches left. 

Knit 2 together 

Knit last 2 together 

Tie a knot you are finished! 

A BIG Thank You to JoAnne for getting me going on this project and pointing me in the right direction. I look forward to making tons of great crafty knits! 

My next project? Another washcloth as I have 2 kids and my son wants one too! I am sure I will likely make a bunch as I love them for dishes. I also want to make a cute handband - just a basic thin one. I hope you will follow my adventures in learning to knit.


~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Genuine Jenn. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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How to Enter a Rafflecopter Glveaway

Lately I have noticed, actually I am not the only blogger noticing that people are having a difficult time entering Rafflecopter giveaways on blogs. I love Rafflecopter forms for both hosting giveaways and entering as I find them quick and simple.

I want to do a quick a run down on how to enter a giveaway on Canadian Coupon Mom. I am sure some of you are thinking, “I know how to enter a Rafflecopter giveaway”, then that is fine. I am writing this out of frustration as I have had to redraw names for winners in some of the recent giveaways. I don’t know if it is because people don’t know how to enter or maybe people are cheating. If you are cheating then you will not win. I do check each and every entry. It is very time consuming but I want to make sure that the person winning has done what was asked and is making it fair for everyone. If this continues to happen, the giveaways on Canadian Coupon Mom may stop as I invest a lot of time in setting up and running giveaways.

I enjoy being able to offer my readers a chance to try out great products but it isn’t fair to other people who honestly would love to win and have entered the giveaway as asked.

How to Enter a Giveaway

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