Material Girl Monday…on Tuesday?  Hey, get over it.  It’s not like Santa forgot Christmas or something.  ANYWAY, going on the all writers are readers theory (I totally just made that a tag), which I have invoked several times, I believe, I found these adorable custom name stamps while looking for book plates on etsy.  Also, one of them has the sample name “Blythe,” which called to me since my mom harassed gently attempted to persuade me to name one of my daughters that.  Maybe I’ll use it in a book.  But she’ll probably be a totally evil villainess.  Or the catty town slut.  Oh, yeah. Read More →

I just needed to somehow commemorate that it’s been one year since my beautiful incredible friend, Lea, left this world to spread her awesomeness throughout the universe. Lea battled cancer, a benign brain tumor, a rare genetic disease, much personal tragedy, and was a single mom for a long time until she met her love.  And she was an amazing, wise, generous, loving person.  I learned more from her about life and living it in the seven years that I knew her than most people will in a lifetime. She taught me: how to make homemade chicken noodle soup that life is about passion andRead More →

She’s my new BFF.  Well, if by BFF one means a person who has no idea that *I* exist, but I’ve spent 19 pages so far reading her every thought and act and added in her comments section that I was totally devoted to following her anywhere, but not in a scary stalker way.  Seriously.  She’s awesome. The Bloggess The Bloggess on Twitter The Bloggess on Facebook (Not to be confused with Thel Boggess, who I’m sure is a very lovely person, but probably not as funny.) Read.  Laugh until you nearly pee yourself.  Repeat.Read More →

I found this hilarious widget at The Frisky, an edgy and awesome website about love, relationships, and sex.Read More →

I got my first no from an agent today.  It’s actually more frustrating than soul-crushing.  They didn’t say no to my writing or to my manuscript.  They said no to a one page description of my story. I’m going to work some more on that one page description.  It’s only bad when everyone says no.Read More →

A friend (an awesome friend who I love, fyi) bought this book, Revision & Self-Editing, for me after I featured it on Material Girl. I was correct in my assessment that it would be helpful.  It is, in fact, extremely informative.  James Scott Bell covers all the elements of writing: character, POV, scenes, plot & structure, etc.  Each chapter offers valuable exercises and techniques.  I couldn’t recommend this book more. (Thanks again, Jen!)Read More →

Not advocating the writing of such, but I found this Erotic Thesaurus – A Guide to Purple-Prose for the Literary Artist. Edit 08.19.2012: Recently this site has been down for exceeding its bandwidth. If it’s not working, my site will (usually) strike-through the link text. If that continues, I’ll remove the link.Read More →

A friend directed me to this site Tuesday. It’s dozens of desktops, very nice desktops, with a March calender to boot. (I got the underwater one, if you’re interested.) Smashing Magazine: Desktop March Wallpaper CalenderRead More →

This book, by Kelly St. John*, broke several big rules. There was no clear antagonist. The majority of the book, the heroine and hero’s relationship doesn’t immediately progress to HEA simply because of verbal misunderstanding and some insecurity and doubt on both parts. And the end? The black moment is based on a huge misunderstanding that the heroine won’t give the hero a chance to explain. It breaks all the rules I’ve read, and yet… it’s a really good book. I love the characters, I enjoyed watching as they fell harder for one another (since they both basically start with major crushes). Despite the misunderstandingRead More →

Cafepress gifts for writers! I can’t decide which is my favorite, but it’s a toss up between I’m a famous writer (which I’m so not!) and The Voices In My Head Tell Me What to Write (which is so true!).Read More →