Miscellaneous Monday

How's your summer going so far? Getting much writing done? It's been a while since I shared a few links, so thought the beginning of summer was a good excuse. :) Hoping you'll find one or two that you like.

The Insecure Writer's Support Group site offers great info, blog posts, books, contests, marketing tips, and more. IWSG is all about supporting writers of every level and genre. One recent blog entry is Lynda Young's thoughts on 10 Ways to Maintain Writing Momentum. Good stuff.

The Coffeehouse for Writers offers year round opportunities to stretch writing skills. From fiction and blogging to editing and ebooks, they have an assortment that appeals to writers at most any level. Check out their offerings here.

Though aimed at fiction writers, K.M. Weiland's post, Learn How to Make the Most Out of the 5 Stages of the Writing Process shares valuable insight and tips for other dedicated scribes, too.

Ever wonder how the ISBN factors into publishing?  L. Diane Wolfe, owner of Dancing Lemur Press, provides an overview in Why ISBN Ownership Matters.

How much do you know about authors and literature? Literature Trivia and Quizzes will test your expertise on famous writers, fiction, poetry, and books.

What are you writing this week? Do you have any special summer plans?

Happy writing,

Karen

News and Notes

Instead of the usual Thursday's This and That feature, I decided to go with the title News and Notes for a change. I know, I'm a wild woman, right? :)

Blogger Extraordinaire Alex Cavanaugh was the subject of a recent ambush blogfest - one I missed because of a previous commitment. However, I figure it's not too late to give a shout out to Alex, and to thank him for all he's done for the blogging community.

In the words of those who ambushed him, "...Alex is an awesome blogger, he's also an enigma." True enough. There have been few sightings of Alex, so one might think he is a figment of the imagination. But he's not. He's a real live inspirational and encouraging member of the blogging community. He was among my early followers, and to a newbie blogger like me, that meant a lot. Congrats and thank you, Alex! I'm grateful for your support.

Congratulations to Angela Felsted! Her YA book Chaste hit the shelves this month. If you'd like to view the trailer, click here.  Special note - from December 12-15, Angela is donating the proceeds of the book to Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. To buy or view more details about Chaste visit Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Frustrated by punctuation? Check out this post at The Writing Life, Can You Take Artistic License with Punctuation Rules? 

Here's another tricky one - ensure versus insure. Are there set rules or are they interchangeable? Brian Klems shares a simple fix in Ensure vs. Insure.

Free Software for Indie Authors has a list of great resources from word processing to converting documents to saving files and more. You don't have to be an indie author either; these tools will help writers of any level or genre.

Time for fun! Check out these Online Games for Writers. Article author Sarah Turner says, "Writers are expert procrastinators." (Um, yes I am. How did she know?) Turner goes on to say that these "procrastination tools" will put your "language skills to work." Sounds good to me!

Do you procrastinate when it comes to writing? What fun things are you doing this weekend?

Happy weekend,

Karen  :)



 
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