Archive for the ‘Blogging’ Category:
April Updates
It’s hard to write and read and edit and blog. Not that I’m making excuses…although I am.
Here’s the latest from me.
I have a short story, The Kindness of Neighbors, published in Grey Sparrow.
I’ll have another short story, The Apron Strings of Amber Sweetly, published in Rose & Thorn Journal in a few weeks.
I’m reading manuscripts as an acquisitions editor for Aqueous Books.
I have new freelance editing clients.
I have added some responsibilities for my job with Backspace: A Writer’s Place.
I’m revising my novel. Again.
I’m blogging about women’s fiction. Just writerly stuff for writers. I’m worn out on writing essays and personal blog posts. I’d rather live my life than write about it. At least for now.
I, I, I.
Geez, you’d think this blog is about me.
You talkin’ to me?
With the myriad of manuscripts on my hard drive, books in my TBR pile and TV shows DVR’ed I’ve noticed a trend. Writers like to talk to viewers and readers. You know the shows where the character turns to the camera and talks to you? Writers do that to. It’s a casual tone, like in a blog…only it’s not a blog, it’s a book. It can make you feel like you’re the only one reading or it can make you think JUST TELL THE STORY ALREADY, PLEASE!
I’m looking for what to call this trend, if it is one. It works for me quite often in TV and books — but more and more it’s not appealing to me. Maybe that’s because of the proliferation of it – maybe because like anything else it has to be done well.
Is there a name for it?
My tweeps (people on twitter) have offered some suggestions but I’m thinking it’s simply “when the author talks to the reader” makes the most sense.
What do you think? 
So, yea, um, it’s me. Here. On the blog. This one. Uh huh.
Know what’s harder than going back to the gym after Thanksgiving?
Going back to the blog after a month. Truly. What is up with that?
So I’m going to give it another whirl, just as everyone is gearing up to slow down online for the holidays, I’ll be here trying to keep myself in check and in touch with cyberspace. I think that my forays on Facebook and Twitter sometimes enable me to forget that I’m not blogging since I’m still in touch with so many people whose blogs I read. Shame on me. It is NOT the same thing.
I’ve been writing like a banshee (didn’t know they could write, did you) for the past month and am coming to the end of my WIP. I think that diverted my attention from writing anything else. I also have, in addition to editing manuscripts for a few clients, taken on the esteemed (in my own mind) position of intern/reader for a literary agent whom shall remain nameless — but let’s say that I am having a blast and a half spending my free time reading first pages and partials and using my critical eye and ear and putting on my editor’s hat to discern what I think is good and perhaps not-so-good about each one, and offering my opinion. My opinion. Agents are way busy these days and I can only hope that my input lightens the load a bit for TA (This Agent). I’m learning so much it’s like getting paid. Only not really.
So yes, I am a 45-year-old intern.
I’m also beta-ing. And because I’m a writer it’s ok that I made up that word. That means I’m reading manuscripts of friends and offering them feedback. I love that because it helps them and also means that they have to whether they like it or not can’t wait to beta for me.
Oh and after all the writing there’s the mom thing. My son has gotten into 4 colleges so far — which seems to have effected his hearing, strange as that may sound. His workout pants have been on the family room floor for two days and no matter how many times I say please pick them up, he doesn’t hear me. Couldn’t be that he’s simply not listening, could it? Nah.
So there you go. That’s me. After a very thankful Thanksgiving with my family and an amazing night out with old long-time friends I’m ready to do something with this blog again.
Because I’m thankful for it, too.
Confessions of lapsed blogger
Forgive me blogosphere for I have sinned. It has been almost three weeks since my last blog post.
And I’ll be honest, I’m blaming two things:
Facebook and my WIP.
The blogosphere used to keep me connected to people I knew and those I didn’t. I *saw* and chatted with friends, expressed opinions, shared experiences, looked at photos, laughed and thought. I stuck around if interested and clicked away when not.
Now Facebook meets a lot of those needs. And blogs don’t have that handy *ignore* or *hide* buttons which I use with reckless abandon.
Then, when it comes to writing a post, I find I have not been in the mood to multitask. I have used a lot of my writing energy lately in my own WIP and in WIPs of editing clients. In my own work I’m rolling merrily toward THE END, and my clients are spit-shining and submitting to agents.
When I finish a day of writing – or editing – I have just not felt like doing anything else remotely related to either. Lazy? I don’t think so. Uninterested? Sort of. Mostly it is the necessary preservation of a limited resource. Me.
I don’t want to give up blogging about writing. So I won’t.
It is harder for me to keep my personal blog because I have teenagers and frankly, they don’t do too many cute things worth blogging about. We’re steeped in the college application process and that’s not fodder for the masses. I’m not one for blogging about what I did today because I think the fact that my washing machine broke and that I dropped a chair on my toe are not what people want to read. Or really, it’s not what I want to write about. Those are the kinds of posts/whines that have driven me far, far away from the blogs I used to enjoy.
But in honor of my history with blogging (almost 4 years now) and the application process going on around here — I’m going to give blogging here the ol’ college try.
Mark as read
A few months ago I started using Google Reader to keep track of the blogs I read. I have categories for the blogs – Writing Blogs, Mom Blogs, Single Mom Blogs, Technical Blogs, Book Review Blogs, Publishing Blogs and the ever-popular Regular Blogs.
I don’t spend as much time reading blogs as I once did. There are blogs I read every day, blogs I read when I see there is an update and there are blogs I catch up on when I have time and energy — and the blogs in each of these segments of my reading psyche don’t fall under one category.
This morning I realized I had over 850 “mom blog” posts unread. I hadn’t read any technical blogs since April and no book review blogs since June. I zipped through some of the mom blogs and the publishing blogs to see what I’d been missing — and then I took a huge and very controversial step.
I clicked the elusive little box that would signify a false sense of completion. That works for me. So I did it.
“MARK AS READ” Click.
All my blogs are back to zero. I deleted a few that have fallen off my radar. I decided to take myself off the Internet Snark Patrol — blogs that are snarky every single day just don’t do it for me. Gone. Blogs that are preachy? Deleted. Blogs that are sorrowful in terms of someone only feeling sorry for themselves? Poof! Kept are the blogs that make me think and laugh. If I have to question motives or intentions, frankly, I’m not interested. No one knows if you stop reading – and I don’t think anyone cares. But for me going back to zero means that as I see posts emerge on these sites I can start to de-clutter my Google Reader. It’s kind of time intensive but much less so than a garage sale or making donations to a veteran’s organization. Though somehow, it’s just as cathartic.
The whipping post
We are a global society of storytellers — no matter our race or religion or the amount in our bank accounts or under our mattresses.
And for many of us that’s what a blog post is — a story. As personal bloggers, we are internet storytellers.
In a recent group email someone asked how long it usually takes to whip out a post.
Whip? I had never considered such a thing. Wasn’t whipping for egg whites?
To read more, check out Suburban Kvetch.
Where am I?
I’m guest blogging.
As many of you know, I write all over the world wide web and in many print publications. Sometimes I do jabber on about it. Sometimes I don’t.
This one’s a ‘do.’
One of the coolest things about being a writer?
Having writer friends who write books you can read and enjoy – if only you could get it away from your kid.
Congratulations on Magickeepers, Erica! And thanks, as always, for everything.
The vocabulary of blogging
I am as precise as I can be in my use of words. I don’t say sky blue if I mean turquoise. I use affect and effect correctly (even if I have to look it up every time). I strive to find the best word to express a specific meaning, but as we know, some terms are ambiguous, which can lead to some confusion.
Take the word BLOG, for instance.
Is BLOG a noun or a verb? Do you blog or do you have a blog? Do you write blogs or write posts that appear on a blog?
I have a blog. You’re reading it.
I also blog. I’m doing it now.
But, I do not write blogs. To me, that seems redundant like sit down or stand up or shrug your shoulders (what else one can shrug I’ve yet to determine).
I write posts.
I contribute to many blogs by writing different posts. I publish those posts on blogs. (Don’t get me started on the ambiguity of publishing!)
I am a blogger.
I am a blogger who needs more coffee.
#Agentfail
If you haven’t seen the Bookends blog lately, there are over 200 comments to their response to the Twitter disaster/phenomenon known as #QueryFail.
Been under a publishing rock? #Queryfail was the brainchild (or brain fart, depending on your POV) of a Tweeting literary agent. Other agents signed up and they gave live examples of queries on Twitter and said why they “failed.” Hence, QueryFail. The “#” is the way you follow a thread on Twitter.
#QueryFail got tons of negative attention — people saying how agents were blasting poor writers for stupid queries and doing it on the www. For me I thought it was like preaching to the choir — because the writers on Twitter and reading all the blogs were not the ones making absurd queries and requests. I believe if you don’t like it, don’t read it. BUT, people were appalled. Writers were screaming (virtually of course).
So now there’s a place writers can say all the awful things about agents they want to say. And I have to tell you that most of them are pretty darned awful. Not surprisingly, the comments are anonymous and no one is naming particular agents — just referring to “this agent” and “that agent.” Personally, I’d like to know who this and that are — so I can one day go into the query process with my eyes wide open. I know there are sites that offer warnings — but this would seem like a fabulous opportunity for writers to out the agents who were rude and made a writer cry at a conference (I saw that several times in the 200 comments), the agents who were drunk and unprofessional (yep, saw that too) and the ones that hold manuscripts for months on end and the ones who consistently lose emails containing fulls and partials.
It’s a bitch session over there, and I feel like it’s a blind one – giving lots of crap without cleaning it up – meaning – there is no substantial information and no way to clean it up or change it.
That being said, I’m going to go back and read more.
