Heat wave in Portlandia continues. I was up before 6 to beat the unforgiving sun and because my office faces east.

Recommended movie for a heat wave escape: Mud. Coming-of-age story. Loved it.

Here's a thought from BrentCalderwood.com:

Writers Build the Fire.

Editors Clear the Smoke

I don't link

Every day I receive requests from people to connect on Linked-in.
It's a site I signed up for a few years ago, but just never use. I use Facebook most days for connecting with friends and colleagues and sometimes tweet, but am erratic tweeter. It seems to me that it's impossible to use all the social media and contact media that's available. Instead, it makes more sense to choose wisely. It makes sense to say no to what doesn't serve or appeal. Save the time and energy for writing and creating.

Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart

The Truth about Authors and E-book Sales

Can be found here at Writer Unboxed: A Major Publisher Jumps the Shark.

Thanks again to the brilliant Porter Anderson for addressing this issue."[Publishers'] savings on printing, binding and distribution make up for the lower revenue from lower ebook prices– and increased profitability is coming entirely off the backs of authors." Brian DeFiore

Keep writing, keep dreaming, keep paying attention to your royalties....

How to Promote a YA Novel as told by Kari Luna

If you're new to writing YA and want to promote your novel, take a look at this video.
Directed by David Bessenhoffer and full of awesome. Kari Luna's The Theory of Everything will be published July 11 and this is the perfect way to create buzz.

Read more: "The Theory of Everything" is a new novel from eclectic literary superstar Kari Luna (whose talents also include world traveling and the professional-grade consumption of apricots). In it, a teenage girl named Sophie Sophia finds herself falling down an intellectual rabbit-hole—except that instead of rabbits, the rabbit-hole is full of pandas—as she tries to retrace the steps of her father, a brilliant physics professor who had a habit of seeing unusual things before he disappeared. Curious? Us, too! But the book doesn't hit shelves until July 11, so for now, let's all peek at the interest-piquing book trailer and place bets on the probability of finding the perfect panda suit to wear for the big debut. (Trailer music provided by Marmoset; Forgetting Goodbye by Medium Size Kids.)

Creative People Say No

Creative People Say No

If you don't have enough time for writing, or just feel pressed by too many demands, you need to read this.

"Time is the raw material of creation. Wipe away the magic and myth of creating and all that remains is work: the work of becoming expert through study and practice, the work of finding solutions to problems and problems with those solutions, the work of trial and error, the work of thinking and perfecting, the work of creating. Creating consumes. It is all day, every day. It knows neither weekends nor vacations. It is not when we feel like it. It is habit, compulsion, obsession, vocation. The common thread that links creators is how they spend their time. No matter what you read, no matter what they claim, nearly all creators spend nearly all their time on the work of creation. There are few overnight successes and many up-all-night successes.

Saying “no” has more creative power than ideas, insights and talent combined. No guards time, the thread from which we weave our creations. The math of time is simple: you have less than you think and need more than you know. We are not taught to say “no.” We are taught not to say “no.” “No” is rude. “No” is a rebuff, a rebuttal, a minor act of verbal violence. “No” is for drugs and strangers with candy."

Keep writing, keep dreaming, say no

How Do Traditionally Published Authors Complete the Sentence "Self-Publishing is?"...

Their answers might surprise you. Find the article here.
Written by guest blogger Paul Goat Allen {I'm dying to ask him about 'Goat' aren't you?} it begins:

"I thought it would be interesting to ask a bunch of established authors — writers who have found some semblance of commercial and/or critical success through traditional publishing — to finish this simple open-ended statement “Self publishing is…” to see if there were any prevailing responses or attitudes.
Would these writers respond with disdain, ridicule, or pity, or would there be some level of acceptance?
Although the responses were varied, collectively they offered profound insight and enlightenment into the future of self publishing."

If you're a late-blooming writer you're racing time. Read the piece here.

Last call to register for Summer in Words 2013

You've got until June 15th to register for Summer in Words. 

For more info go here.

The Humble Hyphen

  English is a dynamic, ever-changing language. As the language changes, sometimes punctuation changes too. Which brings me to the lowly hyphen. Some of the words that were once hyphenated are now unadorned. Or would should we say undivided? Here's a neat guide for hyphens that will be a great help. 

Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart

In Case You Missed It: Does Great Literature Make  Us Better?

Another piece in The New York Times Opinionator series asks a provocative  question:
It's part of series running in the Times written by contemporary philosophers. It begins:

"You agree with me, I expect, that exposure to challenging works of literary fiction is good for us. That’s one reason we deplore the dumbing-down of the school curriculum and the rise of the Internet and its hyperlink culture. Perhaps we don’t all read very much that we would count as great literature, but we’re apt to feel guilty about not doing so, seeing it as one of the ways we fall short of excellence. Wouldn’t reading about Anna Karenina, the good folk of Middlemarch and Marcel and his friends expand our imaginations and refine our moral and social sensibilities?"

I veer on the side that literature makes us better. What about you?
Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart

In Case You Missed It: People Read With Their Ears

William Zinsser who wrote the classic On Writing Well is now 90 and blind. But he still coaches writers and still carries, the passion, the flame for the written world. In case you missed this story, A Writing Coach Becomes a Listener, in The New York Times find it here.  On Writing Well  was based on a writing class he taught at Yale University taught me about delicacy, the importance of every word in every sentence.It was a life-changing book. 

“Clutter is the disease of American writing,” he declared in one passage that tends to haunt anyone daring to write about Mr. Zinsser. “We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon.”

June