Three Blogs Worth Following

I follow way too many blogs (all of them writing related) and there are three that stand out, again and again.

Don't Pet Me, I'm Writing by Tawna Fenske
Tawna is hilarious. Her quirky wit comes through on every post, making me want to comment. I can scroll through a hundred blog posts on Google Reader and when I come to one that makes me laugh, more often than not, it's hers.

Adventures in Children's Publishing
Even if you're not writing for kids, this blog has a weekly feature called "Best Articles This Week for Writers" where they go through all the trouble of linking up great blog posts, tweets and other writing-related items of interest. Save yourself time and follow this blog to get the weekly download!

Literary Rambles by Casey L. McCormick
Casey has put together an impressive collection of agent bios, and has them tagged by the genres they represent. The work she does in putting together her agent spotlights saves hours of doing research yourself on potential agents. The YA list she has is the most comprehensive I've seen, and she keeps them up to date. Invaluable resource for the aspiring author!

Congratulations to these blog owners and well done! You continue to light up the writing blogsphere with your contributions.

Do you have a favorite blog (or three) that you can recommend? Be sure to tell us why you like it!

NaNoReaMo update

I quickly realized that NaNoWriMo was not within my grasp, so I decided to buy a boatload of books and have a reading month instead. I've been streaming through them at a pretty decent clip, to be honest. Some have exceeded my expectations, others have fallen far short. I have had a couple of 4 stars, a 3 star, a 2 star and a 1 star that was so bad, I didn't finish it.

The one I just finished earned a 2 star, I'm sad to say. It started out well, but over the course of the book, continued to drop in my esteem until it barely eeked out 2 stars when all was said and done. Funny thing is, I'd say she was a skilled writer.

It was the story that sucked.

I've been noodling on that the last couple of days. This writer had a knack for a descriptive turn of phrase, her dialogue was believable, and the tension between her characters was palpable. However, I didn't really love any of the characters and ultimately, I didn't like the story. That's it.

I might really like something else she wrote.

I received a critique note on a contest a while back where the reviewer said I had "definite potential". I think this writer had definite potential as well. Maybe I should give her another try, and myself as well. Hmm... we'll see.

Books, Books and More Books!

So I signed up for NaNoWriMo (National November Writing Month) in which I, along with 300,000 of my closest writerly friends, did steadfastly swear to commit the month of November to writing at least 50,000 words. I'll save you the math: that's 1,667 words per day. For some, that's no big deal; for me (who writes at a snail's pace), that's crazy.

Turned out it was. It's the end of the first week and I've barely surpassed the word count required by the end of Day One. No catching up now. So, I could feel bad about it, stress out, eat a bunch of ice cream and get down on myself... Or I could get over it. In the interest of sanity and family harmony, I have chosen the latter.

I still have a good story idea I plan on fleshing out (one excruciatingly slow word at a time), but I no longer fancy that I might claim victory in the NaNoWriMo winner's circle. Instead, I rejoiced in the 40% off Used Book Sale at my local store and went Book-Bonkers!

Welcome to Cyndi's NaNoReaMo! Yay, me! *grin*