Word nerd alert: The word lovers’ radio program & podcast, ‘A Way with Words,’ starts its season this weekend with a new one-hour show. Check out their website for details:

http://www.waywordradio.org/

Strap on your dictionaries, and be there or be square. (Oh heck - do both. I know I will!)

Technorati Tags: A Way with Words, podcast

I’ve had a run of unusually good luck recently with my favorite blogs and podcasts, through no special virtue of my own. First, I got a note from one of the uber-cool podcasters I love to recommend, Charles Hodgson of Podictionary fame, advising me that he was asking his publisher to send me a copy of his newest book, Carnal Knowledge, coming out in August. It’s all about the words we use to describe body parts. Well … bless my enormously callipygian self.  ;o) And bless his kind heart.

Then I won a monumental stack of books, magazines and more in a giveaway at Lynn Viehl’s Paperback Writer blog.

And then, before I’d finished dancing about that book glory, I got a note from The Writing Show podcaster, Paula Berinstein, saying I’d won a signed copy of C.J. Box’s new novel, Free Fire, for several show ideas I submitted. Woo-hoo! Woot! This rocks! (Have I embarrassed my children enough yet with my lame execution of cool sayings?)

I’m awed at having so many great new things to read and very grateful for the generous gifts. When I’m not writing, I’ve been reading book after book lately like a desperately thirsty sot locked in a liquor store for the night. Or — a more familiar scenario — like a Weight Watchers member on the ice cream aisle the day *after* weigh-in. Romances and paranormals and gardening and literature, oh my. I wanna taste them all, and they’re all good.

Of course, my husband’s now starting to look skeptical when I squeal and yell out, “I won more books!” Pity he’s not more gullible … there are several items from Target I’d love to sneak into the house.

And now for something completely different …

I made it to my weekend goal already; I’ve cut down to 150 blogs in my RSS reader. *whew* That still sounds like a lot to my hubby, but it’s a sight better than the 262 I had gotten up to. Just 50 more snips to go before July 31, and I’ll be right on goal.

What are your best ideas lately for carving out more time in your life?

Technorati Tags: winning books, savage blog cuts, time management

Things I learned from digging through the archives of The Writing Show podcast — in particular, the April 2, 2007, show:

• There’s a difference between signed books and inscribed books. It inspired me to do a web search on the topic, and I found a thoughtful article on the topic here.
• There’s a free search engine called Bookfinder.com that is dedicated just to helping people find books. It searches more than 100,000 bookstores’ inventories to provide results. And it works; it turned up 12 copies of a rare book on crossword puzzle design I’ve been seeking for years.

Live and learn!

Technorati Tags: signed books, inscribed books, book inscriptions, book search engine, podcasts