A Few Favorite Sites

Whenever I find an interesting website or blog about writing, or books in general, I bookmark the site with the intention of returning in the future to learn more. These bookmarks go into one of two folders, either “Book Stuff” or “Writing Stuff.” To prepare for today’s blog, I counted the number of sites in each folder: 29 for “Book Stuff” and 78 for “Writing Stuff.” This tells me a couple things. Most obviously, I have bookmarked WAY more sites than I can possibly visit on a regular basis! It also reminds me how many terrific sites are available to anyone who has an interest in exploring online resources. Even with all this Internet overload, however, there are a few sites I regularly visit, such as:

Nathan Bransford’s blog. Former agent turned author who blogs about all things related to the publishing world.

Evil Editor. Lots of great (and humorous) information on a range of topics, but most helpful (to me) when it comes to dissecting what works and what doesn’t work in queries.

The Purple Crayon. A storehouse of information, interviews, and advice related to children’s literature.

Bookrags. A site with online “cliff notes” for hundreds, if not thousands, of titles, including many children’s books. There is a charge to get full access, but it’s still cheaper than buying each of the notes separately.

Bookfinder. This is the site I use to find the best prices on books, new or used, when I’m in the mood for shopping!

Edie's Favorite Book-Related Website

There are a number of blogs and websites I have bookmarked on my computer, all of which offer helpful information to writers or suggestions and reviews for readers. But the one I have to call my favorite is Darcy Pattison's Fiction Notes. If you check her archives, you can find helpful posts on almost any "craft of writing" topic. I have found her series on revision particularly helpful.

Darcy is an accomplished author in her own right and has two new books out this year: IT'S ALL DOWNHILL (Stone Arch Books) and PRAIRIE STORM (Sylvan Dell Publishers). She also created a popular Novel Revision Retreat, which she teaches across the nation. I'm still hoping to get her to Maryland for a presentation to our region of SCBWI.

If you pay a visit to Darcy's site, plan to take your time. It will be worth your while...

Favorite book-related website

For this round of posts, we are listing our favorite book-related websites. This turned out to be a harder topic than I thought. I have plenty of children's literature sites bookmarked on my computer, but to be honest, I don't visit them regularly. Part of me wants to appear "literary" and "in-the-loop," and list a site such as Read Roger from the editor of Horn Book, but in reality I haven't checked his site in months. So much for being in-the-loop. To be honest, the book site that I use the most is simply Amazon.com. Not very original, but it's a handy source for book synopses and reviews.

There is one other website which I've been visiting almost daily, and that is Extended Shelf Life, a blog by my dear friend and expert school librarian Julie Reimer. She writes daily musings on her experiences as an elementary media specialist. It's a great way to stay in touch with a good friend...and if I feel hard pressed having to come up with a blog entry every two weeks, I remember that Julie is blogging on a daily basis!

One quote of two words

Writers write.

One quote that grew to three . . . betsy woods

" . . . beside me, . . . before me . . . behind me . . . within me . . . beneath me . . . above me . . ."
--St. Patrick

"What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" --Mary Olivier

"Love is the absence of judgement." --Dalai Lama XIV

A Few Current Favorite Quotes...

I have favorite quotes in files and favorite quotes on the walls of my studio, in notebooks and sketchbooks. I yearn to collect them all in one place, especially when I am about to lead a workshop or a class and I want to offer some of them as inspiration or to press a point with more authority than just my own words.

This morning the first quote I offer, I came across a couple of weeks ago and it feels very timely. The second one I have taped to my studio wall and sticky-noted on my computer. I don't know who said it, but a friend sent it to me when I was doubting my writing capabilities and it helps. The third is absolutely true and inspires me every time I read it!

“Stop thinking this is all there is…. Realize that for every ongoing war and religious outrage and environmental devastation and bogus Iraq attack plan, there are a thousand counter-balancing acts of staggering generosity and humanity and art and beauty happening all over the world, right now, on a breathtaking scale, from flowerbox to cathedral…. Resist the temptation to drown in fatalism, to shake your head and sigh and just throw in the karmic towel…. Realize that this is the perfect moment to change the energy of the world, to step right up and crank your personal volume; right when it all seems dark and bitter and offensive and acrimonious and conflicted and bilious… there’s your opening. Remember magic. And finally, believe you are part of a groundswell, a resistance, a seemingly small but actually very, very large impending karmic overhaul, a great shift, the beginning of something important and potent and unstoppable.” --Mark Morford, columnist and culture critic for the San Francisco Chronicle

Just give yourself over to setting stories in motion –

you will soon know which stories

capture your imagination

and seem unstoppable,

which stories demand to be finished.

Till that time, begin and begin and begin.

"You must write for children in the same way as you do for adults, only better." - Maxim Gorky

Pick a Quote, Any Quote

Rather than have any particular quotes to serve as inspiration, I tend to seek out new quotes depending on what I "need" to "remember" at a particular moment in time. So here are a few I have recently found helpful:

"I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter." James Michener

"If you start with a bang, you won't end with a whimper." T. S. Eliot

"Books are never finished. They are merely abandoned." Oscar Wilde

"I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil." Truman Capote

"We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down." Kurt Vonnegut

And one final quote that seems like very good advice indeed:

"Never throw up on an editor." Ellen Datlow