Tag Archives: yingle yangle

Thank-Yous, Shout-Outs & Gil Mantera’s Party Dream

Posted in Musings from a Massanutt, The WriteBrained Network, Writing by

I am extremely lucky.

First of all, my parents blow me a away.  Operation House Demo commenced over the weekend and, in the midst of all that craziness, as I said in my previous post, my husband’s grandmother passed away.  This prompted a 38-hour trip (19 of those hours, which were spent in the car) to Ohio and back for the wake and funeral.

While we were gone, my parents:

  • Took care of Molly (our beagle), so she wouldn’t have to endure unnecessary car travel (she gets very car sick)
  • Found plumbing issues in the bathroom and fixed them
  • Organized all the crap we bought for this project from The Home Depot that was piled all over our bedroom before we left
  • Cleaned pretty much our entire house (my mom was bored!)
  • Cut the grass
  • Bought us take-out for when we got home last night (What? Shouldn’t we have been buying them meals?)

Thanks a bunch!

And they did all this only to return home to Cleveland this afternoon to find that their entire basement floor (most of it brand-new hard wood my dad had just put in, like, a month ago) is ruined due to flooding that happened while they were gone.

I. Feel. Horrible.

The thanks I’d like to extend to them makes me also want to thank some writerly peeps for being so completely awesomesauce.

I’ve had three blog mentions (that I know of) in the past month, and I’d like to return the favor.  (If I am not mentioning you here and you’ve given me a shout-out, I swear I didn’t know!)

This faboo chica has made my life a lot easier over the past few months.  One of the most active members and always willing to help me out with wonderful content for Shenandoah Writers Online, Bridgid has been an absolute Godsend to me. And, as if that weren’t fantastic enough, she also provides me—as well as the rest of the SWO members—with motivation to keep going.

She and her co-contributors are doing some great things over at Inky Fresh Press, a group blog geared toward new writers, so please check them out.  She even mentioned this blog in her recent post, Great Blogs for Writers.  Thank you so much for everything, Bridgid!

Paulo is one of our newest SWO members.  Along with co-contributor Stephen Maher, Paulo runs yingleyangle, a writing blog which features (among a wealth of valuable posts on craft) a daily 10-minute writing prompt.

Paulo also mentioned this blog in his recent post, Recommended Blogs: Writing-Focused Blogs Worth Reading Regularly.  (Thanks, Paulo!)

yingleyangle definitely belongs on its own list, so make sure you stop by.

Martina, too, is a newer SWO member, and we are lucky to have her!

Along with co-contributor Marissa Graff, she offers one of the most comprehensive weekly industry round-ups I have come across to date.  Seriously—the first time I ran across their round-up, Best Articles This Week for Writers, I was floored; I don’t know how they have time to write any of the other amazing posts they do (not to mention, you know, how they go about their daily lives) after they’ve compiled this weekly behemoth of a blog post.

Also, I was extremely humbled to see that this blog made the cut last week.  Whether or not children’s publishing is your area, I’m sure you’ll find the blog useful.  Please check out them out!

ONE MORE SHOUT-OUT

  • GMPD

This has nothing to do with writing, but I’d like to thank Gil Mantera’s Party Dream, a kick-ass indie band from Youngstown, Ohio, for their albums (and, in particular, the following song, “Get Sirius”) which provided several hours of entertainment during our long drives the last few days.  The hubs gets to go see them in Philly this weekend, and I’m mega jealous!

In the Blogosphere: 4/26-5/21

Posted in This Week in the Blogosphere by

“In the Blogosphere” is a series, which lists links to writing-related blogs I’ve stumbled upon throughout a given week (usually).

It’s been a few weeks since I did one of these posts.  As I’ve mentioned, it’s been busy, busy, busy.  I’ve been saving posts, but I haven’t been sharing them—how inconsiderate of me!

RESOURCES

This oldie but goodie post is from John Robert Marlow’s Self Editing Blog, and it deals with something I’ve seen a lot of lately: bouncing eyeballs.  Many writers—especially those writing young adult lit—have eyes and jaws and stomachs (and such) doing all sorts of things they couldn’t possibly be doing.  And while expressions like “she rolled her eyes,” “his jaw fell to the floor,” “his stomach dropped to his knees” are simply that—expressions—idioms—they can sometimes be jarring to the reader, and it is recommended by many that writers avoid using such phrases.  Marlow’s post does a great job of explaining why.

I mean, this is an eye-roll according to Morfland of OpticalFantasies.com!

And, my absolute favorite example of this comes from when I attended book doctor Bobbie Christmas’s class at the 2008 Southeastern Writers Association conference.  Christmas said she was editing a romance novel, and one of the lines read, “Her eyes were glued to his crotch.”  If you think about that image—the literal image—that can definitely take you out of what I’m sure was supposed to be a hot-and-heavy moment!

But I digress. 🙂

In this post, Paulo Campos of yingle yangle suggests using film to expand your use of body language.

WRITING FOR YOUNGSTERS

Since I write YA and am a recovering high school (and middle school for one year) English teacher, I have a soft spot for all things kids’-lit related.

In her guest post on the Guide to Literary Agents blog, Jewel Allen offers some tips on writing middle-grade lit kids will dig.

To swear or not to swear?  Andrea Brown Literary Agency’s Mary Kole discusses this very question in a few posts over at her blog, Kidlit.com.  Here is the first of those posts.

LOGLINES & YOU

In the quest for representation, I have discussed queries and pitches and loglines a lot with other writers as well as here on the blog.

Over at Writer Unboxed, Kathleen Bolton explains why you need to be able to boil down your novel to one or two sentences.

Curtis Brown Ltd’s Nathan Bransford concurs.

Here, Bransford tells you just how to do that.

Perfect your pitch! (Yes, Kyle, this pic is for you. Sadly, though, I have no idea who this player is. Sorry - I'm trying, though!)

PEP TALK

And what would the writing world be without pep talks?

Over at TotallytheBomb.com, YA author Jamie Harrington uses Rick Astley to keep us going when writing gets tough.

Sick of Nathan Bransford yet?  Get over it!  Here, he ‘splains that willpower is the greatest strength a writer can have.

Seekerville’s Camy Tang gives some ways one can balance writing and, well, everything else in life.  Stress not—it *can* be done!

PLATFORM

What’s this whole platform thing everyone’s talking about all the time?  Well, YA author Jamie Harrington will tell you.  She did a great little series over at her blog.  A must-read/view for all writers.