One of many beautiful sunsets:

Our second day a neighbor warned about a storm coming. So did the sky and lake.

I’ve been working on The Charming Man (Q.C. Davis Series No. 2). Hoping this bug did not die from reading it. But maybe that’s good. Like The Worried Man (Q.C. Davis Series No. 1), it’s suspense/mystery.

We’re using many different spaces.

Here’s a mini-office my niece created, my writing space, the kitchen table moved outside for dinner, and another view of the lake at sunset.

There’s a bench in the foreground of the photo on the bottom corner, just out of the frame, that’s good for sitting and reading or writing.

Maybe we’ll see  fireworks tonight.

The post This Year’s Retreat appeared first on Lisa Lilly.

A couple years ago, a friend from a book group sent me the perfect solution to my book problem. (Thanks, Andrea!) She invited me to join Goodreads.com.

What’s On Your Friends’ Shelves?

One of my favorite things about Goodreads is I can check out what other people have put on their shelves when I am trying to decide what to read next. I also created separate shelves for types of books I’ve read or want to read, including Wiscon 2014, which lists books recommended at the conference panels I attended; mystery-and-private-eye, a genre I love, so these are books I’ve already read and reviewed; and books discussing Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Most of the Buffy books are on my actual shelves, too. I created the virtual shelf to make it easier for other Buffy fans to find them.

Detailed Info On Likes And Dislikes

I find Goodreads reviewers tend to be more specific than readers on other sites about what works and doesn’t for them. Once toward the beginning of Doctor Sleep by Stephen King (the sort of sequel to The Shining), I felt less interested than I’d expected. I didn’t like the main character much, and I wasn’t sure I’d finish given the many hours I was working at the time. But enough people on Goodreads said they’d felt the same at the start but ended liking the book that I continued. It still isn’t my favorite Stephen King novel–that’s The Dead Zone–but it was worth finishing Doctor Sleep. I’ve also occasionally bought a book based on a negative Goodreads review because I figured I’d like exactly what the reviewer did not about the novel.

Free Autographed Books

Periodically, publishers and authors offer giveaways of books on Goodreads, often autographed ones. (If you list a book on your To Read shelf, sometimes Goodreads will email to let you know a giveaway is happening.) Right now, as part of preparing to publish Book 3 in my Awakening series, I’m offering 10 autographed trade paperback editions of The Unbelievers (The Awakening, Book 2) to readers in the U.S.

For a chance to win, sign up here by February 13, 2016.

Enter today, as the giveaway is only open until February 13, 2016. Watch this space for announcements regarding Book 3 of 4 in The Awakening series, The Conflagration, and/or connect with me on Goodreads. Happy reading!

The post How To Peek At Other’s Bookshelves And Win Autographed Books appeared first on Lisa Lilly.

My first memory of visiting downtown Chicago involves my mom taking me to a protest. I was about nine or ten. My mom was strongly pro-life (or anti-abortion, depending how you frame it). The rally took place at the Daley Center. Groups of people waved signs and shouted slogans. I also remember my mom pointing out The Picasso in Daley Plaza. (She asked me what I thought it was supposed to be. I said a bird. She told me a lot of people held different views about what the sculpture was and struggled to explain the concept of abstract art. I still saw a bird. Really — look at it, it’s a bird.)

When I was in grade school, our suburb’s village president was charged with income tax fraud and extortion. My mom helped form a citizens’ group to seek more information about the charges and spread the word as, in true Chicago-area style, the man and his political party remained extremely popular. The former president was eventually convicted, and the citizens’ group morphed into a competing political party. My mom never ran for office herself, but I remember her going door to door talking to neighbors about the issues, distributing political literature and posters, and organizing fundraising events.

When then President Nixon was impeached over the Watergate scandal, my mom had me watch hearings about it on television though I was in third or fourth grade. She told me I needed to pay attention because I’d never see a president impeached again in my lifetime. She also took me to the movie All the Presidents’ Men. While what I mainly remember from the movie was the popcorn tasting like buttered cardboard (and while my mom was wrong about never again seeing a president impeached), that experience prompted me to read All the Presidents’ Men as an adult as well as In the Arena by Richard Nixon.

I’m grateful to my mom for letting me know early on that being a citizen is a privilege and imposes responsibilities. And that if I don’t think something in the world is right, I need to go out and try to change it, not wait for someone else to do something.

Today (September 26), is my mom’s birthday. This post is one way to remember her. Another way I honor both my mom and my dad, whose lives were ended in 2007 by someone else’s choice to drive while intoxicated, is to support AAIM, an Illinois non-profit that works to prevent DUI-related deaths and injuries and to help victims of DUI drivers. If there’s a woman who influenced you in a positive way, please consider donating to a cause today in her honor. And if she’s still here with you, please take a moment to let her know how she inspired you. I wish I had done that more often with my mom.

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Lisa M. Lilly is the author of the occult thrillers The Awakening and The Unbelievers, Books 1 and 2 in the Awakening series. A short film of the title story of her collection The Tower Formerly Known as Sears and Two Other Tales of Urban Horror was recently produced under the title Willis Tower. If you’d like to be notified of new releases and read reviews on M.O.S.T. (Mystery, Occult, Suspense, Thriller), click here to join her email list.    

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