Nikki Loftin

Archive for November 12th, 2009

Grounded From Books

I’ll admit: I have a problem. It’s not one of those fashionable ones you can talk about at parties either, or that goes away with diet, exercise, or Botox. I have a book problem.

When I was a little girl, my parents tried just about every punishment in the world (because I was a very naughty little girl, of course), but their fallback was grounding me from books. You see, I didn’t really care all that much about losing TV or telephone. Oh yeah, and this was way before computers, because I’m dinosaur-old. I always swore I would never ground my kids from books, because I think it’s inherently evil, and far too effective. I have a kid who has a bit of a reading problem, too, so I know how tempting it can be.

But I may have to ground MYSELF from books this week. I have so many good books… and the one I need to concentrate on is the one that’s half-delivered, its head on my computer screen, the rest of its little self still lodged in my mind.

Ah, birth analogies. Did I ever tell you about my 23 hours of back labor? Hey, where are you going?

Okay, I’ll stop. I have one piece of very good news today, though, so hang around until you read this: I sold three short stories to a new enterprise. Remember those books your aunts and uncles gave you at Christmastime that had your name typed in them as one of the characters? I had Snow White, the Seven Dwarves, and Nikki Loftin. It was totally one of my favorites ever, and my kids still think it’s awesome. Well, a new business called storysomething is going to do this online — with personalized books you can download to your phone or computer. I can’t wait. But I’ll have to; they’re still in Beta testing.

Still, very cool. Of course, I used my own kid’s name in the drafts I sent them!

Now, I’m off to sign that work-for-hire contract… and then to finish giving birth to another snarky, very naughty MC. If I can stay away from my TBR pile…