Romancing the Genres: Spring Cleaning

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Spring into Action While Listening to Audiobooks

by Madelle Morgan

It’s spring! Like the crocuses, we northerners are emerging from where we’ve been holed up all winter.

So much for enjoying hours of reading while wrapped up in blankets. It’s time to get going.

Spring chores cut into our downtime. There are gardens to prepare, patio furniture to set up, spring cleaning of your home, garage and yard, and more. There's less time to indulge in reading.

AUDIOBOOKS FOR WHEN YOU'RE ON THE MOVE

We can be active and still get our romance novel fix. Audiobooks have become very popular and more affordable.

Compare the costs and apps of these retail distributors where you can buy, stream or subscribe:

Apple Books

Lifehacker describes their top picks of audiobook services and features in this article.

Top Ten Reviews offers their selections of best audio services here.

FREE AUDIOBOOKS

Rakuten, owner of Kobo, additionally purchased OverDrive in 2015, making the Japanese company the largest distributor of quality free audiobooks. In North America you can borrow audiobooks from your local library for free via the Overdrive/Libby app.

Hoopla is another library streaming media platform.

LibriVox offers free downloads of books in the public domain; i.e. books published before the early 1930’s.

There are many other online sources of free audiobooks, including YouTube, of course. However, don’t expect every recording to meet professional quality standards. Many are uploading self-narrated efforts.

Money Talks News compares features of five popular free sources in this article.

Audiobooks – a way to make those spring chores more bearable!

Happy Spring. Happy Listening.

Madelle

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Madelle Morgan is a Canadian author who writes romance set in Canada.

Unfortunately Madelle's books are not yet available as audiobooks, but you can read them in paperback and ebook formats.

BORROW Caught on Camera and Seduced by the Screenwriter from your library via Overdrive.

CAUGHT ON CAMERA BUY LINKS

SEDUCED BY THE SCREENWRITER BUY LINKS

Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com.au

Kobo | Apple Books | Walmart

Madelle's romantic thriller DiamondHunter is a free read in Kindle Unlimited.

Follow Madelle on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Pinterest, and Wattpad. For giveaways and new releases, subscribe to Madelle’s blog at www.MadelleMorgan.com.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Clean? Do I Have To? by Judith Ashley

No, not our house in the background

I grew up in a family where my Mother had certain standards of ‘cleanliness’. We didn’t have plastic on furniture nor did we take our shoes off just inside the door, but we did

         - change our clothes as soon as we came in from school or church on Sunday,
         - do the dishes every night right after dinner, and
         - clean our rooms every Saturday morning (unless we wanted to miss getting our allowance and going to the Saturday Afternoon Matinee).

There were more chores than listed above but the biggest challenge for me was meeting my Mother’s high standards for cleanliness.

In my fantasy life, my family (whoever is in that configuration at the time) pitches in with housework, yard work, cooking, whatever needs doing. Over the years, I’ve tried Family Meetings, Chore Lists, Rewards (dinner out for example). Nothing my creative mind came up ever really manifested my fantasy. Even with just my youngest granddaughter and me at home, it still isn’t happening.

Why?

The truth is that neither of us likes housework/chores and neither of us have a ‘clean gene’. In the past, I’d clean if I knew people were coming for a meeting or to visit. I’m less fussy now and really don’t care what friends who stop by to visit or spend the weekend think of my housekeeping skills.

What about cleaning this one?

My granddaughter and I sit down every few months, write up a plan to keep the house clean. We commit to it and even follow it for a few weeks or even a month and then something comes up and we put the plan aside for just today or this weekend. Except we never really get back to it. We still have times when we do clean – it just gets too messy and dusty for even us. But for the most part, we just live in our house, keeping things up (we aren’t hoarders, you don’t need hand sanitizers if you stop by, and you will feel comfortable using our toilet) to a standard that would horrify my Mother.

In my dreams, I’m published and my books sell well. The first thing on my ‘dream list’ I’ll do with that extra income is hire someone to clean the house! Do you enjoy cleaning house? If you do, please share why. I’m curious to know. Maybe it will help my granddaughter and me to do more in our home.

Pictures by Mariah Klefman