Well, it looks like I took a brief hiatus there. That wasn’t planned. I had a short streak of regular posting and then, hey look it’s August already. I don’t think they gave out awards for regular attendance when I was a kid in school like they do now, and if they did I doubt I was a recipient. And so it shouldn’t be a surprise now that I’m an unlikely candidate for any regular blogging awards, if such a thing exists. It’s always good to have something to aspire to though. If there is an organization out there for underachievers, that should be their slogan.… Read the rest
Here’s a video that I thought was pretty darn funny. It’s about book promotion and even though I haven’t been there yet, it had me laughing out loud. If you’ve had the experience of promoting your own book I think you will either 1.) laugh in solidarity with Mr. Cass or 2.) curl up in a ball on your kitchen floor, pound your fists and wail, “It’s all too much!” I’m not sure which.
And I’ll tell you, I hadn’t heard of Dennis Cass before, but after watching the video I visited his author’s website/blog and now I want to check out his book.… Read the rest
Well this is cool. Over on Chasing Ray you can see the master schedule for a Summer Blog Blast Tour. Each day she features snippets of and links to interviews with different authors (and I think maybe other people who work in the world of books? I’m not sure. It looks like today is all authors.) Anyway, visit Chasing Ray and click around on all the different interview links. And watch as Poof! an hour of your time magically disappears. But your brain will fill up with a wealth of information about writers and their habits. And you never know when you’ll find something that will resonate–I already found a little tidbit from one of the authors that helped soothe my poor bruised revising soul.… Read the rest
I’m visiting my parents in the Bay Area and my trip fortunately coincided with an appearance by Shannon Hale and Libba Bray in San Francisco through the Not Your Mother’s Book Club. Yay! Their tour won’t be going to Colorado so I was super excited to get the chance to see them. Most especially Ms. Hale. I love, love, love The Princess Academy. Such a great book. I bought her latest one too, but I haven’t had the chance to read it yet although I’ve heard many good things.
My mom went with me to the reading and we had a fun day in the city.… Read the rest
Have you heard of The Grotto? No, not the one of Playboy Mansion fame. The writer’s grotto in San Francisco. It’s a collaborative workspace filled entirely with writers and filmmakers, started initially by Po Bronson, Ethan Watters, and Ethan Canin. I love this idea—an office of artists. Maybe not financially feasible for most, but I love the idea of having a place to go every day where I’d have my own work space and could get writing done, but also have regular, in-person access to a community of like-minded, creative individuals.
This was one of my favorite things about the SCBWI summer conference: The sense of community.… Read the rest
