Wednesday, April 13, 2011

A quick hello, a plug for a blog, and Seuss news ...

Well, it's been rather quiet around here of late, hasn’t it? Unfortunately, we’re all of us struggling with deadlines and “real life” busyness (or a nasty combination of both), but this situation is only temporary and normal programming will soon resume. ... and I have an inkling that Claire may be popping by very soon to announce the winner of our give-away book, BEREFT by Chris Womersley. You still have a chance to win – just go HERE and leave a comment to be eligible for the draw. Go, now!

In the meantime, I want to do a shout out for a blog that is rapidly becoming one of my favourites – Writer Unboxed. A whole slew of talented writerly people contribute to this blog, both writers and industry types alike, along with the occasional guest blogger, and it is always chock full of useful advice and stimulating blog topics for writers. Here’s a quick sample of posts from recent weeks:-

Don’t Try This At Home, about the perils of writing too far out of your reach; The Struggle For A Rising Plot Line, a discussion on how to maintain rising momentum and gather strength and interest in your plots; and Beautifully Written, uber agent Donald Maass' musings on how for him, beautiful writing is no longer a nice extra - it has become a critical component of high- impact fiction.

There's much, much more. Go forth and read - but don’t forget about us! :-)

Until next week, I leave you with this – the happy news that seven stories by Dr Seuss, previously only published in magazines in the 1950s, have been gathered into an anthology and will be published in book form this September. I don’t know about you, but that bit of news just made my day! :-) Indeed, glad, I am!

7 comments:

  1. Beautiful writing is a must? Really? Does he even read books? Just look at some of the garbage that gets published. Hard to believe people swallow and regurgitate such nonsense.

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  2. --Hard to believe people swallow and regurgitate such nonsense.--

    Course, I think the same thing about raw oysters, and plenty of people love those. Now bitterness? That _is_ a hard pill to swallow, eh?

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  3. short but packed full - beautiful writing - dr seuss and writer unboxed - thanks

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  4. I love Writer Unboxed, too. Always thought provoking. Take care, ladies. We'll read you when programming resumes.

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  5. I hadn't seen that site before! Thanks for the links Rachel.
    I love the idea of beautiful writing. I think it relates to what Diana was trying to say in her thread on classics - the stories that linger on an on over hundreds of years.

    I hope I have even a wee scene or two that qualifies.

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  6. @ Kristen - (G)

    @ alberta ross, Zan Maire, Deniz - thanks, ladies. I think you can never have too many good writing resources at your fingertips, to make you think in different ways, even if ultimately you don't agree. Keeps the grey matter active, and that has to be a good thing!

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  7. Hmm… I interpret blogs on a analogous issue, however i never visited your blog. I added it to populars also i’ll be your faithful primer. Drillable Frac Plug

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