Some Helpful Places to Visit

Nearly every day something appears in my email inbox or I run across something on the internet that is helpful to my writing. I’ve been thinking about how I really need to share this with other writers, so today is my day. Make sure you read to the end for a special treat.

Today I received an email from Jon Bard. He and his partner, Laura Backus, put out a newsletter called Children’s Book Insider. I’ve been a subscriber for a number of years. It’s a most helpful newsletter for those who write for children of any age. Through an article in the newletter, I made my first sale recently. They also have a free e-zine that arrive via Jon’s emails. Today’s has several videos chock full of helpful info. You can view them here: http://www.youtube.com/cbiclubhouse.

Hope Clark is another favorite person in my writing life. She has two free e-newsletters full of information on writing contests, places to sell writing, as well as interesting articles and links to other helpful places. If you go to http://www.fundsforwriters.com and click on the link to newsletters, you can sign up for free e-newsletters. I receive the Funds for Writers and FFW Small Markets newsletters, and I think they’re great. I had a short story accepted to an anthology that I read about in one of her newsletters.

Some of the outfits I receive things from are trying to sell me something, but as an old salesperson, I know the way to a customer’s wallet is with giving her something of value for free. Gotham Writer’s Workshops hopes I’ll sign up and buy a class someday (maybe I will), and they send me e-newsletters with lots of free fun and useful information such as contest info and links to other good writing stuff. You can sign up to receive the newsletters too. Go to: http://www.writingclasses.com/index.php?gclid=CPSmqeDq56cCFQtPgwodNi9Oag. The latest issue has a mini-interview with Wally Lamb, a wonderful author with some interesting things to say. This issue also included a link to The Writer Magazine on line and their free newsletter. Check it out: WriterMag.com.

Going to a writer’s conference any time soon? I know I am – April 2^nd – the Spring Spirit Conference put on by the local SCBWI region. Before you go, give this a read: http://donnabowmanbratton.blogspot.com/2011/02/dos-donts-and-stuff-of-attending.html.

Worth your time. (I know – her blog looks like mine, but that’s just because we have the same great taste and used the same template.)

Writing non-fiction? You should know about this: http://www.hbook.com/magazine/articles/2011/mar11_stone.asp

 

Someone (wish I could remember who!) put me on to Wikimedia Commons – a place to find pictures and photos you can use for free to dress up your blogs. It’s easy to navigate and, while some things require giving credit to the artist, a lot don’t even require that. You can find it here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page.

Jane Friedman, former Writer’s Digest publisher and editorial director has a blog at http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/. You can subscribe to receive notice when she posts. You might want to wander through her archives. Great stuff.

I have some friends who write blogs about writing and some blogs I’ve found to be particularly interesting and useful. I think they are all good. Take a look.

http://thefirstgates.com/

http://elizabethvaradansfourthwish.blogspot.com/

http://enterthebetween.blogspot.com/

http://thewholemegillah.wordpress.com/

http://tmarchini.wordpress.com/

http://emusdebuts.wordpress.com/

http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/

I hope all this is helpful to you. And now, in case you haven’t had a laugh lately, try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9fc-crEFDw  Every writer should see this. In fact, every writer has probably met this guy!