Guest Contributor



                               

Editor’s Note: On this Mother’s Day, I’m happy to feature one of our own — a writer and mother who has written a parenting book.  Meet Genny:

When I started my parenting blog several years ago, I was struck by the sense of community I found online. There seemed to be such an openness, and it taught me to be more open as well.

It also helped me to find my writing voice.

I was encouraged and inspired by the stories and comments from women on my blog, and I wanted to find a way to bring more moms together and encourage them back.

So I began writing a book.

Many months later, I finished the first draft of Finding Mommy Bliss and, just recently, my book was released via a new reading app called Snippet.

Snippet is free in the app store and provides a new, multimedia reading experience on  iPads and iPhones – sort of a cross between a book and a blog.

Each title in the Snippet library has 1,000 words or less per chapter, along with “discoverables” which are icons that readers can click on to view things like videos (here’s an image of the video icon and video that goes with it):

There are also discoverables for things like photographs, audio clips from the author, graphics, and other interactive features.

In addition, Snippet has a unique social feature that pulls conversations from twitter based on hashtag. So, for example, when someone tweets using the hashtag #mommybliss, their tweet can be seen within Finding Mommy Bliss by readers.

To get a better idea of the new kind of reading experience Snippet provides, check out this quick video:

Snippet from Snippet App on Vimeo.

While the new app is still in the beginning stages of launch, there’s been a great amount of enthusiasm around it (it reached #7 in the app store a couple weeks ago).

As an author, it’s been really exciting to be involved with Snippet, and I love how the new format works so well with my vision for Finding Mommy Bliss (to bring women together and encourage them). The way Snippet allows readers to connect with the author and other readers all in one place is really unique.

And I have to say, as a busy mom who likes to be able to read on my phone and iPad, I’m not only a Snippet author, I’ve become a Snippet reader too.

If you want to learn more about this new reading platform, or check out the books in Snippet’s library, you can download it for free in the app store, or follow the direct link here: http://appstore.com/snippetapp

You can also visit the website here: http://www.thesnippetapp.com/

Guest contributor Genny lives in Northern California with her husband and two kids, where she balances writing with motherhood and loves both. She’s an author, speaker, blogger and coffee lover. Stop by her blog and share a cup!

To find out more about Genny’s Snippet of Finding Mommy Bliss, click here. Or to download it, click here. 



                               

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The Joys, Bonds, and Benefits of Reading Aloud to our Children {On Reading}

My three year-old snuggles in close to me on the floor, draining his sippy cup of milk while I open the first of tonight’s bed-time selections: That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown by the talented Cressida Cowell. I don’t believe in spoiling my children—I’m not the kind of mom who gives him cookies every day or any toy he begs to have—but when it comes to reading time, I’ll admit: he’s a little spoiled. He gets long stories (as long as his attention holds); he gets mom’s best and most dramatic voices, accents, and animation; and he’s even been known to negotiate successfully for a few more stories and in turn, a later bed-time.

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Books to Make You a Runner {On Reading}

running and beingIf you want to become a runner, don’t start running.   Start reading.

Too many people never become runners because they start out by listening to well-meaning people who tell them about training and hill work, heart-rate monitors and fartleks, and the worst running term of all:  miles.

To sedentary people, a mile is pretty much the distance to the moon and back: an unfathomable, terrifying expanse they could never cover on foot, unless they were on skates, being pulled by a team of sled dogs.

Running your first mile is daunting.  Heck, for some people, so is running to the mailbox.

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On Reading: Shopping at the Department Store of Ideas

People often ask writers and other creative people where they get their ideas. There’s a sense that there’s something mystical about getting an idea, or magical, or at least not exactly straightforward. If you haven’t read it, Neil Gaiman has a killer post about answering this question. He started telling the truth. “I make them up,” he said, “Out of my head.” People didn’t like this answer. They wanted something jazzier.

This question – where do writers get their ideas? — is at the center of my novel, Perfect Red. It’s the 1950s, the golden age of consumerism in America, and my main character, Lucy, imagines that there is a Department of Ideas, where book ideas are displayed under shimmering lights, in gilded niches on the walls.

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Safe Haven set visit in Southport, NC

One advantage of living in what’s called “Hollywood East” is observing new movies as they’re being made. I was beyond excited to represent 5 Minutes for Mom on a set visit to the new film, Safe Haven. Safe Haven is the latest Nicholas Sparks novel to be made into a film. It stars Julianne Hough, Josh Duhamel, and David Lyons and filmed in the summer of 2012 in Southport, NC.

Alex's House on the set of Safe Haven

Southport is a quiet, sleepy town on the southeast coast of North Carolina. The town sits at the mouth of the Cape Fear River and almost seems to be surrounded by water.

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Interviewing Author Nicholas Sparks about his book and movie SAFE HAVEN

I love Nicholas Sparks and was so excited to have the opportunity to meet him in person and interview him at the Safe Haven press junket in Los Angeles a few weeks ago. He was so awesome to talk to and did such an amazing job with Safe Haven! Check out some of the interview questions we asked Nicholas Sparks at the press junket:

Nicholas Sparks Talks About How the Idea of Safe Haven was Born

Nicholas: “All right. Safe Haven started with the germ of an idea. Years ago, I had written a novel called The Guardian, which had an element of danger in the novel.

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On Reading: Deconstructing an Affair

Reading a good book is like having an affair.

One of the many definitions of “affair” is a romantic or passionate attachment typically of limited duration.

Which is exactly like reading.

Whether a book takes me two hours or two days to read, it is often a far too limited duration as everything else in my life seems to disappear.  A good book, like an affair, is all consuming and everything else often pales in comparison to its excitement and newness.  It is also a secret, perhaps guilty pleasure, shared between two people – the writer and the reader.

I am a passionate reader.  I have had a love affair with books from the moment I learned how to read.

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On Reading: Autographed Books

I always get a secret thrill when I open a book to find a signature written across the title page. I like to think of the author’s hand, resting on the paper, ink turning into a name. There’s a connection there, even if we’ve never met. I know we both spent time with that page, even before I turn it and start a relationship with the words inside.

It’s the same reason I like to go to author readings. If I have fallen in love with a story, I like to see the person who wrote it. The book becomes richer when I view it through the author’s eyes, and every once in a while, I hear something I am meant to hear.

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On Reading: The Importance of Writing Space {with Giveaway}

Editor’s Note: We are happy to welcome guest contributor Syrie James, author of The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen (linked to Jennifer’s review), discussing the importance of her writing space. Check out her thoughts (and my review of her fun new novel), then leave a comment below to enter to win your own copy.

I have an office upstairs in my house, with windows overlooking our back garden and the treetops and rooftops of the neighborhood. The room is filled with light and lined with wall-to-wall bookcases that are stuffed with books. It includes a comfy white couch for lounging (and thinking) and a big L-shaped desk with space for writing notes by hand as well as working at my computer.

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On Reading: How to Set and Keep a Reading Goal for 2013

With the New Year upon us, you may decide that reading more in 2013 is your goal. Making the choice to read a full novel each day is going to be a bit too daunting, even for the most avid of readers. Therefore, try these tips to set and keep a goal of reading 10 pages a day of a book (in my opinion, the perfect amount).


Choose Beloved Subjects

Do not feel as though you must read Jane Austen’s Emmasimply because it is noted as one of the best novels of all times. Select a book in a genre that you love, whether it be comedy, romance, horror or nonfiction.

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On Reading: The Youngest Children, Pre-birth to Two

I have been blessed with a 16-month-old who loves books. Here are some of the techniques we have used as a family to enrich his life with reading.

It’s never too early to start

As early as the second trimester, your child can begin to hear your voice from the womb. At this stage, reading is more about the baby bonding with your voice, so rhythmic poetry and picture books are good choices, but don’t be afraid to read what you like. My husband isn’t a huge book reader himself, but one of his favorite poems is Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.” While I was pregnant, he would snuggle up to my belly and read this dark tale.

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On Reading, Flash Fiction: Literature in Miniature

It’s taught at Stanford, Brown and Cambridge universities. More than 300 print and online publications are devoted to it. A day of national celebration is named after it in New Zealand. Writers from Ernest Hemingway to Raymond Carver to Margaret Atwood have excelled in the genre. Yet no one, it seems, can define it precisely.

It’s flash fiction.

Ultra short stories have caught on as a social phenomenon, a literary discipline and as an attractive and rewarding–albeit fleeting–read.

I became attracted to it when a friend was using 100-word stories as an exercise in a writers’ group he was leading. It seemed a daunting assignment to write a complete story in only 100 words.

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