Friday Fridge Clean-Out

►Like your book reviews short? How about 140 characters short? Check out Littweets.

►My friend Kathy Briccetti is posting sections of her memoir-in-progress, a nontraditional book of lyric essays and poetry reflecting on her life as a school psychologist working with children on the autism spectrum, as well as the mother of a boy with Asperger's Syndrome.

►Most writers, and almost all of those who compete for freelance writing assignments, are protective of our ideas. Sometimes too protective, as one long-time magazine editor, Michael Caruso says in an interview over at Mike's Writing Workshop:

"I know a lot of writers are skittish about this. They think their ideas are going to be stolen. Believe me, at major publications, theft of ideas is not really a huge issue. So don’t be worried about losing an idea. And if you are, if you’re too attached to one thing or a couple of things, then you don’t have enough ideas. You have to become better at coming up with them. If you’re really having trouble coming up with more than one idea at a time, you need to work harder at that skill. The people who are the most successful at this are the least afraid of someone stealing from them. Their attitude is, “Okay, I dare you, steal this one. I have 20 more.”

If you think one of your ideas is so precious, you probably don’t have enough of them to make it in this business. You have to be a little more cavalier, and less attached to your ideas, just as you need to be less attached to your words during the editing process.And just because you have one really great idea doesn’t make you a writer. Just like having one great idea for a movie doesn’t make you a filmmaker."

►Stumbled upon Good Books in Bad Times. Need I say more? If so: "a resource for books that provide comfort and serve as a force for good in difficult times"

►Have a bit of fun with Literature Map. Type in the name of an author you like, and get a visual "map" to other authors you might like. The closer their name floats to your author, the greater the chances their books will also appeal.

Have a great weekend.