Friday Fridge Clean-Out: May 14th Edition

► Over at Digital Book World, there is an excellent interview with Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project (a NY Times bestseller), about the ever-increasing value of social media to today’s writer, how she managed to engage thousands of readers several years ahead of her publication date, and tips for keeping all that outreach from making a writer unhappy.

►I've been lax in regularly relaying to my readers other writing blogs I’ve come across and think are worth the time, depending on your interests. Please do check out: Write it Sideways, Writer Unboxed, Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers (not just for fiction folks), and MamaWriters: Raising Kids, Writing Romance.

► The 10,000 Words blog has a list of helpful, (mostly) free web tools to solve various tech dilemmas, including resizing photos, embedding audio, and turning a spreadsheet into graphics.

► Pimp My Novel offers this insider’s explanation of what the various departments do within a major traditional publishing house.

►I admit it, I love the comma, so I’m grateful to Fog City Writer for pointing me to this vintage piece by Pico Iyer piece, in which he praises this humble piece of punctuation. I also love FCW’s sometimes cheeky Friday posts, too.

► Don’t forget, if you want to win a signed copy of the new novel Cars From a Marriage by Debra Galant (I interviewed here yesterday), please leave a comment on that post (NOT here). You have until May 20 to try your luck.

► And finally, what writer hasn’t, at some low point, appealed for divine intervention to get through the next chapter, page, sentence? Check out Jenny Rough’s A Writer’s Prayer. (I chimed in on the comments, too, with my own slightly less-reverent, highly pragmatic version).

Have a great weekend.