Posts made in August, 2009

Writing can be a pretty lonely thing. Most of the time it’s just you and your computer (or if you are more like Harriet and yours truly you and your notebook.) Yes, we tend to be the quirky, iconoclastic ones always at the fringes of things, watching everything that goes on and recording, recording, recording. Sometimes, though, it’s nice to take part in things too, and to have a little human interaction. Some social activities frighten me terribly, but there is something comforting in a writing group. It’s a place where I can go and meet other people like me. These people get it! I found my new writing group thanks to Meetup when I was looking for things to do in my new for-now home. There are a host of online writing groups as well, but...

Bibliofreak has a book give away running until August 16. Hop on over and tell the world just what sort of geeky (or incredibly cool) clubs and activities you were involved in during high school, to be eligible to win a a signed copy of Drama Queers! by Frank Anthony Polito. Click here for more information.

I used to work full time in a library, and continue to volunteer for the library because I enjoy it so much. The library has an annual lock-in event for loyal teen advisory board (TAB, if you want to speak library lingo) members. The evening begins at 9 p.m. (a little bit earlier for us chaperones) and ends at 8 the next morning. We spend the night in the library playing a bunch of fun games, eating, making up skits, eating and having a great time. It’s a night of complete sleep deprivation that is always a blast for the teens as well as the chaperones. The days of stodgy old librarians shushing everyone are long gone. Libraries are bright and inviting places for folks of all ages, and the librarian profession attracts some of the most talented, creative and...

I’ve been flipping through a book called The Making of a Bestseller: Success stories from authors and the editors, agents, and booksellers behind them by Brian Hill and Dee Power. The book is something of a mish-mosh, and most of the information is not relevant to me, but something said by the only YA author quoted in the book struck a chord with me this afternoon, and prompted me to put down the book and get on the internet. In the section on promotion authors were talking about in-store signings. Christopher Paolini said that in-store signings are not very lucrative for writers and can be real hit or miss affairs. He pointed out that he has always done much better with school visits. Paolini noted that at store signings he would be lucky to sell 40 books,...

The Eternal Kiss: 13 Vampire Tales of Blood and Desire is an anthology of vampire short stories by some of the best young adult authors out there (no not her, but there are some great writers in this anthology like her and her and her.) I’ll be honest I’m not a big fan of vampire stories. I have a hard time taking them too seriously. That said, I enjoyed most of the stories in The Eternal Kiss. I also was impressed by how each story was so different from one another. Vampire stories don’t need to be formulaic and trite. That said, there isn’t much new under the sun. So, if you’re going to write some shocking scene of vampires or demons, there’s a good chance that someone’s already imagined it before. As Stephenie Meyer...