Are We There Yet? Yes, We Are.

Me on the deck of our new home! (Thanks, Murphy, for taking this!)  

Live from the I-5

A Really Great Writer's Web Site at, of All Places. BBC News

This site is so much fun! It has mini-courses on all kinds of writing: radio plays, fiction, horror, everything, each with some good useful links; online community, message boards; humorous, earnest encouragement; places to post your work and get workshop comments; advice on publication; et al. Go to BBC - Get Writing - Homepage and poke around. They even have a BBC - Get Writing - Screen Saver, with drawings based on classic books and a way to make reminders about starting and finishing writing projects pop up on screen. I could spend all day on it.

National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo

Re: the book I mentioned in my last audblog, below. I love these guys. They've been mentioned in other blogs, too, including Neil Gaiman's. Their philosophy is that you take a month to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. It doesn't matter if it's bad. You can fix it later. But it helps you get past all the self-doubt and perfectionism and have fun. I can't possibly do justice the charm and humor, and all-out usefulness, with which they approach this, so go to National Novel Writing Month. They do it in November, in an on-line community, but you can do it anytime. I may do it myself, just for fun. It could be very freeing!

Greetings from Starbucks - and No Plot, No Problem

I'm Ba-a-a-a-a-a-ck!

Will spare you the gory details, but doing better now, and hope to begin updating as regularly as I did before my break. Busy-ness abounds, as my husband and I are moving back to the Bay Area, due to a confluence of job situations, housing opportunities, and good old-fashioned homesickness. But you know how it is, sometimes the busier you are the more you can get done, so I'm looking forward to writing and blogging again with a vengeance.

Meanwhile, here are three articles by agent Richard Curtis that are must-reads for anyone seeking to understand the nature of the publishing world today:

Backspace - The Writer's Place -1

Backspace - The Writer's Place -2

Backspace - The Writer's Place - 3

I got these links off Publishers Marketplace yesterday. They are the best snapshots of the reality of the publishing business today, explanation of how it got that way, and vision of the future that I have seen. Remember, I've worked in publishing for almost twenty years as well as being a hard-working writer, so I see this from both sides. These articles will really help you understand where agents and editors are coming from.

And through it all - don't forget - it seems that there are a lot of obstacles, but that doesn't mean you can't overcome them, especially if you think creatively and with an eye toward the future.

See you (virtually) tomorrow!