Echo Echo

Wow, my brain is seriously empty today of anything pithy, writerly, or even mildly amusing to say.

I could blame it on anniversaries, or birthdays, or sick kids (the kind where they barf all over the school nurse and then confess that their breakfast consisted of leftover flat orange soda – that will earn me points with the school for sure), or winter dance performances (which went fabulously for my little munchkin, I must say).

But truth be told, it’s completely my fault. Night before last I stayed up till after 2am reading my first ever Jim Butcher Harry Dresden novel – I know, what rock have I been hiding under to miss that series? It’s great stuff. Loved the voice. It reminded me of Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos books, so of course I had to go pick up Jhereg again, too. Another late night/early morning. My alarm clock has been most unsympathetic and continues to ring at 5:30am no matter how much I beg it to stop. And the day begins again.

So, to recap - brain dead, defunct, kaput, gone.

I think to make this bleary rant worthwhile to you, I’ll post some links I’ve found of interest recently:

I know I haven't been too happy seeing ebooks cost more than hard cover, and now it looks like a few other people, like the Justice Department are wondering about pricing issues as well.

As someone who has struggled to get even a sentence of my WIP down this week, I found Shannon Whitney Messenger's post on 20 ways NOT to write your first novel very honest and hopeful.

I watched this lecture by Dan Wells (author of I am not a Serial Killer) on story structure a while back and had a few eye opening ah-ha moments (this is the first of a five part youtube series).

Almost finally, Verla Kay has a very good message board for all things kid lit related. There are a number of published authors and, in general, everyone is very friendly and helpful.

And truly finally, here is, I think, the best Christmas card ever (hat tip to Brian Cuban).

~ Susan