Tag: Writers & Authors

Friday Night Link Fest

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OK, for lack of having a topic to write about this evening, I’m going to share with you some other blogs I like to visit.

First up on the blog is Ad Hudler and his blog is titled Ad Libbing. Cute and clever, yes. I love his humor and his honesty. He has written several books; Househusband, Man of the House, Southern Living, and All This Belongs To Me. I am ashamed to say that I have not yet read any of these books but they are on my immediate list! This guy sounds like my kind of writer. Go check out his blog, and his books!

Next we have Susan Cushman. She writes at Pen and Palette but also guest blogs at a numerous other sites as well. I love, love, love, love her blog and try to read it immediately, as soon as she posts a new blog entry. Susan has several published essays, has a couple of novels in the works, and served as a panelist at the Southern Writers Women’s Conference at Berry College, Georgia. She is also the director of the Memphis 2011 Creative Nonfiction workshop to be held in September this year. A workshop in which I will be attending and very nervous about! Please put Susan’s blog, Pen and Palette, on your daily reading list, it is a must read.

Julie Buxbaum is next. I somehow stumbled upon her blog one day. Anyone who can start off a blog entry with, “Holy crap!” has won my heart immediately. This is another author who I have not read their books, shameful I know. She’s on my list. She hasn’t made a blog entry since May but hang with her because when she does post it is amazing stuff. She recently took a hiatus from blogging and the Internet in general so she could finish her first draft of The Modern Girl’s Handbook. Again, another writer with a great sense of humor. I think my most favorite thing of all time is a writer with a sense of humor whom also blogs. Love them!

So there you have it. Enjoy.

Other Writers

Since I’ve been hitting a brick wall lately with what to write on the old blog I thought I would give you a list of other writing bloggers. Enjoy….

Susan Cushman at Pen and Palette talks about Thoreau on the Writer’s Life. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Susan via the internet. She is living the writing life I’d like to live.

From her current blog post:

I want to make a home for myself with my writing—especially in other people’s minds, but also on paper and in time. And so I blog. Three times a week for the past three and a half years I have shared my art, my life, my musings, book reviews, family news, my ups, my downs, with whoever will listen, whoever will read the words I have poured onto the page. When something big happens—whether it’s good news or trauma—my first instinct has always been to share it with someone, to write about it.

Susan just got back from a month long writing retreat from the beach too! I love reading her blog and Facebook status updates. She always has something good and positive to share, she keeps me inspired and encouraged.

Next up is Allison Winn Scotch, she has an awesome Question Of The Day, where her regular readers can email her their questions and she’ll answer them on her blog.

Currently on her blog she is giving thanks.

I have a lot, A LOT, to be thankful for when it comes to my career, and as I’ve repeatedly stated on this blog, no author achieves any modicum of success on his or her own.

It’s nice to see a successful person giving credit to others.

And then we have Julie Buxbaum who has no qualms whatsoever to put it all out there for all to see. In one of her most recent posts she talks about a struggle she has with a main character.

In the Modern Girl’s Handbook, one of my main characters finds herself practically friendless. Since she’s a good person, and I love her, and I want my readers to love her, I’ve been thinking a lot about how someone could accidentally become so isolated.

I love the type of writer Julie represents, fearless.

There is another trait that these three writers have that I admire, their honesty. Their ability to share with the rest of us what is really going on with them at any given time, they are all fearless in their honesty. I love that.

These ladies have inspired me, at the same time they have validated me in the fact that writing is definitely something I need (and should) be doing on a regular basis. I just need to “get over myself” and get to writing, fearlessly and honestly.

So thank you!

Coming Out!

I’m fixin’ to have a little coming out party…… with Chick Lit.

No, I am not thrilled with the label “chick lit” but I am willing to over look the term, for now, because that is a whole other topic for a blog entry… but I digress.

So, I’ve been absent of late on the blog. I’ve been doing some heavy research. Recently, another writing friend of mine said something to me that made me think again about chick lit. I used to snicker at chick lit, and I’m ashamed to say that I never did any research on it, before now.

I would see those cute little pastel book covers of shoes, lipsticks, and cartoon women in the book stores and I would think to myself, “No, that’s not for me.” Not once did I ever pick up the book and read the back cover or read the first few pages. I know, I am ashamed.

For the record, chick lit comes with other covers too – I have learned through my research.

Yes, I am educating myself about chick lit because apparently my work-in-progress-novel is chick lit. LOL Who knew?! Apparently, I have been a chick lit fan all along and never knew it. Can one do that? I mean how can you know if you like, or don’t like, chocolate-covered cherries, for example, unless you’ve tried it? Right? The thing is, I have tried chick lit before and didn’t realize what it was at the time.

The Devil Wears Prada, Lauren Weisberger
In Her Shoes, Jennifer Weiner (by the way, I could SO play Georgia, check out her weblog to see what I am talking about)
Bridget Jones’ Diary, Helen Fielding
PS, I Love You, Cecelia Ahern
And um, hello? Sex and The City, Candace Bushnell? Yes, it was a book before a big HBO hit.

And I don’t know if Anna Quindlen or Alice Hoffman are considered chick lit authors or not but I sure did love One True Thing and Practical Magic, respectively, as well.

When The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood came out. I walked right by the book on the shelf, saw the cover, raised my eyebrow at it and kept walking. Then a year or so later, when I saw the movie trailer I was so moved by the preview. I thought, “OH WOW, I didn’t know that is what the book was about!!!” The next day I went to the book store, purchased the book, and read it in about a day – and I’m a slooooow reader. I was hooked. I did the same thing with Eat, Pray, Love too. I need to literally stop judging books by their covers. Shameful, I know!

So you see, I do this all the time…. I think I’m all smarty pants and know some stuff. When I am proven wrong, for the good, I love it.

In my Google account I have set up alerts for Chick Lit. Today I got my very first alert. It was an interview on She Knows Entertainment where Joel D. Amos interviewed Allison Winn Scotch. The interview led me to her blog, which led me to a lot of other blogs by writers and authors. So now I have a whole new flock of chick lit books to add to my reading list. YAY for me.

You know what else I am learning through my research of chick lit? That is is OK to be me. 😉

She Knows Interview with Allison Winn Scotch

By the way, my writing friend who helped open my eyes to chick lit is Susan Cushman. No, we’ve never met in person but some day I hope to soon. Check out HER blog at Pen and Palette.