Bloggadoodahday

Psst! I want to let you in on a little secret: I don’t blog. Shocking, some would say. Good grief, worse still, it’s unwriterly. Everyone knows a writer needs to blog.

I’m not sure who makes these Every Writer Should…rules. Once in a while, I take stock of the ones I adhere to. I don’t always find they work for me.

Sure, I started blogging. I grappled with the fiendishness of blogspot, racked my brains for daily outpourings a reader could find useful, read up on blog etiquette, joined memes, and visited my visitors’ blogs.

After a while, I began to realise the time I spent on blogging was time away from writing. Yes, blogging is writing, too, but it is writing-related writing. It’s not bum-on-seat, working-on-the-manuscripts writing. And to what avail? Not much. Occasionally someone would leave a comment at my blog, I suspect out of politeness or encouragement. If they did, blogiquette insisted I must return the favour. More often, my blog shot out into the stratosphere with a deafening hush.

I resented the time blogging took. Both the writing and the reading. Call me curmudgeonly, or just plain cranky if you can’t spell it, but so many of the blogs I read were narcissistic meanderings, therapeutic for the writer maybe, but of no use to the reader. Worse still, I suspected mine was just the same.

I stopped blogging, and the pressure of the treadmill ceased. I had another hour a day to spend on my writing, and it felt great.

However, my new anti-blog stance weakened a little when I began to stumble across blogs that had value to me as a writer. I didn’t need to leave comments, though I did so occasionally. Instead, I found certain blogs that were a great source of information for my writing.

All writers have limited time for writing-related activity. Just the same, we need to stay in touch with what is happening with technology, with the publishing world, with markets and contests. Even more important, to me, is the need to continually hone my skills as a writer. So the blogs I make time to read, usually address one of those issues. I think of it as being lazy, but in a good way: I let these bloggers do the hard work for me while I reap the rewards of their skill.

Some blogs I visit on a regular basis:

http://cwim.blogspot.com/

Not-quite-daily news and musings from the editor of Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market.

http://inkrethink.blogspot.com/

I.N.K. Interesting Non-fiction for Kids A bunch of authors and illustrators share their expertise and slant on non-fiction for children.

Query Shark

http://queryshark.blogspot.com/

Editorial Anonymous

http://editorialanonymous.blogspot.com/

Some blogs I visit occasionally:

http://educationwriting.blogspot.com/

Laura Coulter’s Education Writing blog

http://www.write4kids.com/blog/

Write 4 Kids blog, from the editors of Children’s Book Insider

http://www.publishersweekly.com/blog/660000266.html

Shelftalker: a children’s bookseller’s blog

http://flashfictiononline.com/cutting_blog/index.html

Jake Freivald’s blog about writing tight

Blogs work for some people. They are one way for a writer to have a professional-looking online presence that promotes a product. When they are frequently updated with great content, they can attract visitors who come to read and stay to buy. Like most things in life, bloggers need to work hard to make a success of their blogs. Right now, I need to work harder on my writing!

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Quote of the Month

"The great art of writing is knowing when to stop."

Josh Billings

Have you been to these sites?

One Sentence - True stories, told in one sentence.

http://www.onesentence.org/

New Kids Magazine

http://www.worldstodiscover.com/#

Worlds to Discover is a new US fantasy adventure magazine for kids age 8-14. This is a paying market.

StoriesThatLift.com - Submit Stories
http://www.storiesthatlift.com/STL-routines/submitstories.htm

Pay: $5 - $20
We are always interested in new short stories. If you have authored
short stories that entertain and/or lift, we would love to hear from
you. StoriesThatLift.com is a family oriented site with content for
children, youth, and adults. We will only consider stories we consider
to be child-safe. Child-safe is a judgment we make that a story is safe
for children to read.

Travel Writing Contest
http://www.transitionsabroad.com/information/writers/travel_writing_contest.shtml
Deadline Oct 08

Musings Contest

BLURB IT!

Rose McQuestion’s blurb of her novel, Once In a Blue Moon, has won the Blurb It! Contest for 2008. It certainly points to a wild ride for heroine, Aubrey McRory. There’s a promise of love, laughter and quirky characters – what more could a contemporary woman ask for?

Read the blurb below and watch out for forthcoming publication. Congratulations, Rose!

ONCE IN A BLUE MOON

(Genre: Contemporary Women’s Fiction)

Happily-ever-after ended for Aubrey McCory the day her husband died—while she was six months pregnant. Emotionally damaged with an unhealed heart, she sometimes fantasizes about seeing her husband one last time, like in her favorite movie “Ghost” when Sam said his final goodbye to Molly. Then five days before the seventh anniversary of her husband’s death, an accident renders Aubrey unconscious. But she never expects to wake up and find out she’s made a psychic connection with the dearly departed—namely her deceased husband. As fate would have it, she meets hunky Gavin Donnelly, whom she feels might be the next Mr. Right, and her life becomes topsy-turvy.

Aubrey’s hippy parents, the Abbie and Anita Hoffman of suburbia, have her questioning her sanity after they leak a secret that Aunt Millie threw herself off the Brooklyn Bridge after hearing voices. Then there’s the fiasco of Aubrey trying to hold a connection with the dead when her new psychic ability doesn’t come with an instruction manual. And she can’t lean on her best friend, a former debutante who inhabits the heady spheres of society, without looking like a kook. Alas, dating for Aubrey was tough enough before glasses flew off restaurant tables and photos rattled off bookshelves. Soon Aubrey’s juggling a demanding career, a freaky spiritualist, and the belief that her husband’s spirit is trying to tell her something of great importance. All while trying to reclaim her heart and not lose the next love of her life.

Bio: As a copywriter for over twenty years, Rose McQuestion wrote corporate brochures, catalogs, ads, public relations pieces and corporate press releases. She currently works in an advertising and marketing agency, however fiction is her first love. Once In A Blue Moon is Rose’s third novel and the one she had the most fun writing.

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Until next time, write on!

Susan