That's What (S)he said: Weekly Round-Up

I didn't get around to posting a weekly round-up last weekend, because I was out doing some awesome things. In real life! Away from the computer! I know, it's weird. I thought my skin would burst into flames from the shock of the sunlight hitting it.

I was hanging out with this little guy:



And on Saturday I went to the Brazos Writers workshop on "The Art and Science of Investigation." How often have you been at a workshop and said, "No, keep talking! Lunch will wait!" Never, right? Four speakers, and I could've listened to each one all day long. Do forensic entomologists have groupies? 'Cause that might be my new hobby. And I was inspired to try my hand at forensic artistry in the creation of the shot-up nutria picture shown in my invasive species post. (It would be inappropriate to show his "morgue photo," you know.) Seriously, I think I missed my calling.

Back in computerland, here are some favorite things from this week:

Bookavore posted a fabulous five-part series about organization for the disorganized-- really simple, easy-to-follow stuff. Here's part one about how the plan got started, and you'll want to follow through with the whole series. It's helped me a lot already, and my brain is made of hamsters running on those squeaky metal wheels, so it's hard for me to keep track of stuff. I'll do a post next week about things that have helped me be better organized. (And yes, that task is on my list!)

For some great advice about how to promote yourself without being an annoying jerk, see these posts by Nathan Bransford and Livia Blackburne.

Need some motivation to get off the couch and start exercising? How about adding zombies to your run?

This is the largest audience these musicians have had. Who cares that they're cows, just look at how rapt with attention they are:

But is there anything cuter than an orphaned baby elephant wearing a raincoat?

Speaking of elephants, here's an update on my Elephants: The New Vampires post. Look what was waiting on my front porch for me when I got home from work on Tuesday, from Susan The Lovely Assistant Editor:

Isn't it pretty? It's such a fun read, too. How can you not love a book about a boy who's raised by an elephant?

And I saw a newly-released elephant picture book I didn't know about before:

Wendy Henrichs' WHEN ANJU LOVED BEING AN ELEPHANT (Sleeping Bear Press) is about an elephant who's taken from the wild in Sumatra and sold to a circus, then a zoo. Now she's riding on a truck to someplace new, after fifty years of captivity. And I love the name-- CHAINED has a backstory about a circus elephant named Anju!

Writerly types, be sure stop by the Read For Relief auction if you haven't yet. Lots of items like critiques from authors, editors, and agents, signed books, and other fun things up for bid to benefit The Red Cross. Bidding on items posted on Friday will end Sunday, and new items will be announced on Monday.

Have a great week, everyone!

That's What (S)he said: Weekly Round-Up

The other day I wrote about several recent and upcoming elephant books for kids. Thankfully, you can never have too many elephant books, and none of them look similar to my own book. But maybe you've had that problem--you had a great idea for a book, then discover that someone else (or a few someone elses) wrote a book a lot like it. Now what? See Jen Nadol's guest post on the Cynsations blog, "Oh No! Someone Used My Idea!"

A trending topic on Twitter that's funny for some reason we can't explain and might have stolen some of my productivity this week is #replacebooktitleswithbacon. Some favorites: Are You There, God? It's Me, Bacon, How Stella Got Her Bacon Back, and Something Bacon This Way Comes.

One thing that keeps me reading a book is wondering how in the world the character is going to make it through his predicament. Are the stakes high enough in your own book? Not until the reader can't see a way out. Kara Lennox has a great article, "Is Your Black Moment Enough?" on Anna DeStefano's blog.

If you're interested in author marketing, be sure to bookmark Kristen Lamb's blog. We authors are really good at networking with each other, but it's harder to reach out to our readers online. "The Secret to Selling Books Part I--Let's Get Sticky", shows how we can better connect with our audience.

Here's a video I just saw today, but I have a feeling it'll go viral. Perfectly captures the emotional stages a writer goes through when writing a novel. I especially love the editing stage:


What happens to an elephant who survives a land mine explosion? If she knows the right people, she gets a giant prosthetic leg! Edited to add: Just saw that there's a documentary being made about the hospital that cares for this elephant and others injured by land mines. Learn more and see the trailer on the Eyes of Thailand website.

In other animal news, how can you not love a girl who punches a bear in the face to save her dog?

Have a fun and safe holiday weekend! Watch out for bears. But if you do see one, you know what to do now.

That's What (S)he said: Weekly Round-Up

Hi, people!

It's an exciting time around here lately, with moving the daughter in to her new place for her sophomore year of college, listening to colorful descriptions of what it's like to assemble Ikea furniture, and maybe seeing a sketch of the cover art for CHAINED. (Nothing to share yet, but if I did see such a sketch, it's really awesome.)

Meanwhile, here are last week's favorite things found on the Internet:

I hope everyone on the East Coast is staying safe from the hurricane. Those who still have electricity (or plenty of battery life) are staying updated and sharing storm humor via Twitter. Here are a few funny tweets about Hurricane Irene from The Huffington Post.

Do you keep meaning to connect with people online, but feel like you don't have the time? See "7 Tips For Finding Time For Social Media" from Inkling Media.

Getting an agent is a huge step toward getting published, but what happens if your book doesn't sell? Edan Lepucki has a great "Shutting the Drawer" post on The Millions blog about that heartbreaking problem.

Now, a couple of fun elephant videos. This is fascinating-- an elephant's problem-solving when the fruit on the tree is too high:



And I love Ricky Gervais' take on elephants who have been "caught swimming:"



Reminds me of the cat who was caught barking:



I feel like a big tease giving you book recommendations this week, because the books I've been reading won't be out till next year! A perk of being in the Apocalypsies is that I'll have a chance to read some of the books before they're released. But put THE MAPMAKER AND THE GHOST by Sarvenaz Tash on your list if you'd like a good midgrade adventure, and FRACTURE by Megan Miranda for a young adult paranormal thriller you won't be able to put down.

Speaking of awesome paranormal YA novels, Gretchen McNeil's POSSESS was just released, so pick up that one if you haven't yet! But you'll probably want to sleep with the lights on.

Have a great week!

That's What (S)he said: Weekly Round-Up

Hi everyone! Here are a few favorite links from the week:

Agent Rachelle Gardner has an excellent blog, and she recently asked her clients to participate in a "Parade of Blogs," in which they each post on a particular topic. See the list of links for the first Parade of Blogs topic, "How does an author go about building a platform and marketing books?" There's so much good information there, it's one to bookmark for later revisits.

I love Twitter, but I have a few pet peeves about how it's used sometimes. Like the ones listed here in "My Top 5 Twitter Turn-Offs." Add "people who follow and unfollow the same day," and you've got my list.

And how's this for a rejection? Ever get your submission blown up?

Kate Hart's Field Trip Friday, Twitter Version includes some of the week's best tweets about publishing, writing, the SCBWI conference, and other entertaining things, like the #kidsbookorADULTbook fun some of us had on Monday.

The inspiring and entertaining article about THE HELP author Kathryn Sockett's rejections has been making the rounds all over the place, but check it out if you haven't seen it yet.

And my exciting news of the week-- I found out that CHAINED has release date! Because it's up on Amazon!

Here's how it felt to see that:

That's What (S)he said: Weekly Round-Up

It's been a busy couple weeks lately, but yay, copyedits are done! (If you don't know what copyedits are, it's the last round of edits before the manuscript goes to the typesetter, and takes care of all the dots and commas and people without matches lighting torches.) It's an exciting time but also a scary one--it's getting closer to being a real book that people are going to see in real life and read!

Last weekend I went to a write-a-thon at the home of Diane Holmes, where we had workshop presentations by Diane and Lorin Oberweger, then worked on our own stuff in the afternoons. In addition to finishing up the edits, I went to a brainstorming session to figure out the plot of my next midgrade novel; I had a character I like, her family, some things that they're doing, but not one of those pesky "plot" things. I can't believe how helpful the brainstorming session was--within about twenty minutes I had some great ideas about where the story needed to go, and this non-plotter now has a skeleton of a plot to work with. I'll do a post about the brainstorming session next week.

Meanwhile, here are some of my favorite things I saw online this week:

For those of us who wish we were at the annual SCBWI conference in LA, we can follow along on Twitter with the hashtag #LA11scbwi. It's almost as good as being there. Ok, not really, but we have Shark Week.

Check out "You're Kind of a Big Deal" by author C.J. Redwine if you haven't yet--an inspiring post about her rocky road to publication.

Do you want an "editorial" agent, or one who's more hands-off? Agent Jennifer Laughran has a great post comparing literary agents to real estate agents.

Jay Kristoff guests posts on the YA Muses about writing like a girl even if you're not one in 5 Tips On Writing Outside Your Gender. (And if you're interested specifically in male-female dialogue differences, see the "Dude Talks Like a Lady" post I did last year.)

Now for some fun videos. First, there's the beluga whale dancing to mariachi music:



And the New York City construction worker who entertains the crows during his lunch break. How long before this guy gets a recording contract?



Have a great week!

That's What (S)he said: Weekly Round-Up

Here's the stuff I found this week that I want to pass along:

You may have seen the post by The Bloggess about the metal chicken since it went viral (or "bacterial," as she suggests), but you must check it out if you missed it. It's not often I'm laughing so hard I'm crying while reading a blog post.

Here's a great contest to pass along to teachers and librarians: in author Caroline Starr Rose's book club kit giveaway, one lucky school or reading group will win a kit containing ten copies of her debut novel MAY B., a discussion guide, lesson ideas, bookmarks, a Skype visit, and more. Everyone who enters will get a set of bookmarks, and the giveaway ends November 1st.

If you're wondering what should be on your author website, see agent Kathleen Ortiz's post, Author Websites: The Basics.

Other cool things I found about social media and websites and such:
If you like the new floating share button I have now on the left side of the page, you can go to these step-by-step instructions from Howbler to get one for your own Blogspot blog. There are several colors to choose from, and it took almost no time to add it.

I have a new email signature I love, with little icons people can click on for the different places I can be found online, and it updates with a link to my most recent blog post. Here, I'll show you:

Nice, isn't it? It's also really easy to set up (otherwise I wouldn't do it). You can make your own with Wisestamp, and customize different signatures for work and personal emails if you'd like, too. I found Wisestamp from this article on the Biztips Blog.

Wonder what you tweeted way back in 2007? Galleycat had an article this week about the TweetScan backup, which lets you archive your old Tweets.

Some good posts about writing:

Chuck Wendig's Terribleminds blog is educational and hilarious, so it's one worth bookmarking. They have a "25 Things" series for writers, which includes articles like "25 Things You Should Know About Character (AKA Anatomy of a Character)."

Yesterday's post from Veronica Roth was about why you should stop listening to advice. But listen to her, 'cause she's awesome and smart.

Fun stuff:
Whatever you're doing, it's not so important that you can't stop to watch penguins jumping on and off an iceberg.

See more funny videos and TBT at Todays Big Thing.

And did everyone love The Voice as much as I did? All the finalists were so good, I'd have been happy with whoever won. Actually I felt like that the whole season-- I hated to see anyone go home. Here's one of my favorite performances, the coaches singing "Under Pressure." For one scary moment I thought it was going to be "Ice, Ice, Baby."



Have a safe and happy 4th of July weekend!

That's What (S)he said: Weekly Round-Up

Hi everyone! Here's the latest "interesting things I found around the interwebs" post:

I'll start with this fascinating article from ScienceBlog, "We Actually 'Become' Happy Vampires or Contented Wizards When Reading a Book," about how our need for social connection causes us to identify with the characters we read about in books.

In The Hunger Games casting news, we found out that Woody Harrelson will play Haymitch Abernathy, mentor to Katniss and Peeta. I don't think anyone pictured him as Haymitch, (I was thinking of someone more like Phillip Seymour Hoffman or Nick Nolte), but I bet Harrelson will play the role so well we won't be able to picture Haymitch any other way after that.

Are mermaids the next vampires? Sounds like they are, from all the upcoming mermaid novels I keep hearing about and from this article in USA Today. I think the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie will contribute to mermaids' popularity too. Have you seen the creepy mermaids in the new trailer?

Glee fans, check out E.M. Kokie's post, "Don't throw yourself around like you don't matter," about the Brittany/Santana storyline and why it hasn't the attention Kurt's journey has.

I love hearing about how other authors like to write. We all do it differently, but the goal is the same--write an awesome book that readers don't want to put down. I write a lot like what Roni Loren describes in her post "My Ten Steps to Novel Completion." I tend to edit as I go, but I'm trying to write first drafts now without editing so much. The revising works out better after I've written the novel and know the story and characters better. Characters always come to me before the plot too. Still have no plot for the next novel I want to write, although I have the characters, maybe a setting, and some random stuff that happens.

Because of Blogger's recent meltdown, the Help Write Now folks have extended the bidding time for their Day 7 items, which includes the second package donated by the Apocalypsies and a critique and phone call from SuperAgent Joanna Volpe. Bidding for these listings will end Monday night.

From Blurb is a Verb, here's author Emily St. John Mandel's Five Questions Never to Ask at a Bookstore Signing. Are you guilty of any of these offenses?

Speaking of bookstore signings, Will Write For Cake buddy Christina Mandelski's debut YA novel, THE SWEETEST THING was released this week, and she had her first book signing yesterday! So happy for her but sad for me since I had to miss it. (College graduation of niece and nephew took me out of town.) Thankfully Vonna Carter was there and put up a blog post about the event right away, with pictures. No word on if anyone asked her the forbidden questions.

Have a fabulous week!

That's What (S)he said: Weekly Round-Up

Just realized that my last blog post was also a weekly round-up, but I've just emerged from a revision cave, so that's ok, right? Round two edits are done! Yay! Of course it was after hitting "send" that I realized I left all my deleted scenes tacked on to the end of the manuscript. Oops. Literally smacked myself in the forehead while driving when I remembered I hadn't taken those off.

So now I'm catching up on some of the great blog posts that were out there this week.

Please stop by the Help Write Now auction and browse through the awesome items you can bid on to benefit The Red Cross' relief efforts for storm victims around the country. The 2012 debut Apocalypsies have donated two packages; the first is up today, and includes critiques of 50 pages, a query, and a synopsis from several members, plus two ARCs and a 10-page editor critique. I'll be in on the second package and will post the link here when that's posted.

I don't know if I'll ever be able to write a good picture book, but I've always loved reading them. Here's a fabulous article from The Horn Book, "Why We're Still in Love With Picture Books" by Allyn Johnston and Marla Frazee.

Agent Kristin Nelson has one of those bookmark-worthy blogs. Her informative post this week about requesting book blurbs from authors is a good one for those in the "I sold a book; now what?" category.

Or, if you're at the query letter stage, check out agent Janet Reid's post about how to format an e-mailed query letter. Also, her Query Shark blog should be regular reading for anyone who's working on writing a good query letter.

The post "Why I'll Never Be An Adult" isn't new, but it's my favorite from Hyperbole and a Half. What is new is her book deal!

And now that she finally has permission to shout her good news to the world, I can out Nikki Loftin as the part of "Rational Bunny" in this post. Her debut novel, THE SINISTER SWEETNESS OF SPLENDID ACADEMY, will be out next year from Razorbill. How awesomely spooky is that title? Congratulations, Nikki!

Lastly, how excited are we about the next Harry Potter movie? But sad too, since it's the last one.



Have a great week, everyone!

That's What (S)he said: Weekly Round-Up

I'll be doing weekly posts about some of my favorite things I saw around the blogosphere during the week. Many will be writing-related, while some will be about other fun or interesting stuff I found.

Usually I'll put these up on Fridays, but I've been out of town since Thursday with limited Internet access. It was horrifying.

So here's the list of last week's awesomeness:

Do you know about Spaghetti Agents? Maybe you have one. Maybe you've queried one. Read Nathan Bransford's post to find out what to look for.

You've published a novel, now what? Here's a great article by Tayari Jones, "Five Things I Wish I Had Known When I Published My First Book."

When my daughter took the SAT, she said the hardest part was having to write the no-cheatin' oath in cursive before the test started. There was a collective gasp in the room when the students got that instruction. They learned cursive in third grade, but they hadn't been using it much. Some schools now aren't teaching it at all. Some people get really emotional about this, but it doesn't bother me, really-- we're just adjusting with technology that's available now. I'm sure there were people who lamented the loss of quills as writing utensils. A bigger problem might be that people aren't going to be able to read cursive. Maybe handwriting analysts will have trouble finding work in the future, but imagine the possibilities for those who can read cursive for those who look at it like a foreign language. The New York Times had a fascinating article about the disappearance of cursive this week in "The Case For Cursive."

Feel like you suck? It happens to the best. Here's Libba Bray's post about self-doubt, including a hilarious I Suck Playlist.

And because baby animals make everything better, I'll leave you with these baby marmosets from The Daily Squee.

See some fabulous blog posts this week? Please share in the comments!