Link Link Here and a Link Link There....

First! The delightful and beautiful Kimmi invited me as a guest to her blog, where I tried to spiffy myself up for her - she's had some really great guests, so I feel humbled, but proud to be there. Go by and visit - read her previous guests, take a look at her book soon to come out "The Unbreakable Child."

(Photo taken on my mountain walk this past summer- moon in tree!)


Meredith Lopez is a former Rose & Thorn staffer - I took over the newsletter duties after she had to go on a leave of absence. I never knew she wrote articles for The Huffington Post until I followed a link after she'd emailed me about something. So, those links you attach to your signature in your emails really do work.

I stumbled across The Anonymous Publishing Venting Club. Lucky for me, I don't have a thing to post there, for Bellebooks is a dream to work with. Interesting to read, though, about other's experiences.

I can't remember when I put up the link to my Woman Inside Out story on Sotto Voce if I'd also included Nannette Croce's "Zuni the Pueblo Dog" story. So, just in case, here it is. If you enjoy it (and I'm betting you will!) vote for her to be included in a print anthology.

I'd bookmarked this from Folio Lit Agency on Query letters and then forgot about it, until today when I saw it while looking for another link. So, maybe something they say will help you with your query letter, and maybe, like me, you'll still detest the query letter, and as well, you'll read the first two paragraphs and think, "They just don't get it - don't get the idea of why even really good writers with good books still hate to write query letters (and synopses)." But, read and see what you think.

I love Java Logs - and am having a hard time finding them...dang it all. They're those "cheat logs" you use in your fireplace when you aren't lighting a real fire - and they are made from coffee grounds!

The Pen Guy!

An article on lay versus lie by Martha Brockenbrough

Childhood chants and taunts - yup someone has a website where they compiled all kinds of stuff about those kinds of things. I stumbled on it while doing research on something for Tender Graces - I am a stickler for making sure I have things in the right era or whatever.

I haven't seen this - but there is a lot of hurt feelings and anger and talk about Diane Sawyer's Children of the Mountains. When I wrote Tender Graces, which is about an appalachian mountain family in WVA (and with South Louisiana in there, too), I didn't want those stereotypes to be what my story was "about" - I didn't want the stereotypes to be a Character in the novel - and I hope I was successful. There are always some "stereotypical" behaviors or characters in a work, I suppose, but I hope I celebrated a proud people as much as I could, even when bad things happened: but, they really are universal behaviors. WVA is my homestate and I love the mountains and its people. From reading some of the comments about this show, there are tender hurts and anger over the portrayal of a Proud Mountain People--I think most of it has been centered around Kentucky (so far? or only? I don't know yet). I haven't seen the show, only a few clips, so I cannot comment as of yet. But, I do hope there isn't exploitation of what is always only a portion of who a People are - we'll see. But, my hope is when people read Tender Graces, they know I wrote out of love and that I know there is much much more to a Mountain Folk - they are complicated and proud and lovely.

Now - visit some links, and then Go Do The Day!


PS! I'm adding something -- Reduce Footprints has two videos - the first one made me LAUGH! the second one is an Earth-Green video about turning out lights around the world on 3/29