Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers - February 7, 2014 Edition

> When Ann Patchett is asked a slew of personal questions during an interview about her new book of personal essays, is that on point, or off topic? And is it gender-related? Laura Harrington weighs in on "The Sorry State of Author Interviews" at Beyond the Margins.

> Submittable seems to be the submission service of choice for literary journals, writing contests, anthologies and other writing-based projects (I use it as both a writer and editor, and have always been pleased). Now, an Indiegogo campaign is underway for a possible future competitor, Submittrs. 

> A new service, Book the Writer, is scheduling certain authors for book club appearances--for a fee. So far, just in the NY metro area. Yay or nay? 

> Women writers of a certain age have been reacting to Fay Weldon's essay in the New York Times' Book Review, about bias against older female characters in fiction, and the publishing industry's focus on author images. Lisa Robinson Bailey has a few things to say at Thoughts Like Birds.

> The Fearless Fifteeners is a place for authors whose middle grade or young adult novel will debut in 2015.

> Ah, the EM dash, just about my favorite form of punctuation. C.S. Lakin explains.

> Sublime: Sonya Huber, with an especially insightful, spot-on second person essay, "Your Book is Taking a Long Time to Write."  I especially love: " You open the file of the draft, which is now named with the book’s fourth or fifth title, which is sometimes named “final” or “new final” or “newest” or appended with a number like 6 or 8." And: "You are dragging your fingers slowly in the water with this book as the canoe of your instinct skimming across the surface. You will get there when it is right."

> Humor is an art, but there's logic to it as well, which Teddy Wayne explains in "Dissecting a Frog: Writing a Humor Piece," over at the New York Times' Draft blog.

> The Positive Writer presents its list of 25 writing blogs to check out.

> Literary Manhattan explores many of the city's resources and places that appeal to book lovers, writers, readers. 

>  Fun:  The Why Not 100 -"Rankings of Everything Literary." And, ahhhh..."18 Bookstores Every Book Lover Must Visit At Least Once."  I've been to only three of them--so far.

Have a great weekend!

Image: G&A Sattler/Flickr Creative Commons

Guest Blogger Jennifer Walkup on 11 Ways Publishing a Book is Like Having Kids

 I met Jennifer Walkup for the first time at a gathering at The Writers Circle in northern New Jersey, where we both teach, and was immediately drawn to her warm humor and generous spirit. She is the author of Second Verse, a young adult romantic thriller (Luminis Books 2013), winner of the Gold 2013 Moonbeam Children's Book Award for Teen Mystery. Jennifer's work has also appeared in Genre Wars Anthology, and Gloom Cupboard, and she serves as fiction editor for The Meadowland Review.  A fellow New Jersey resident, she lives with her husband and two sons, and is at work on her next book.

Please welcome Jennifer Walkup.

There are two things I blog about most – having babies and writing books, which happen to also be the two most wonderful and difficult things I’ve done in my life. Here are the top 11 ways I have discovered that having a baby and being a parent, and writing and publishing a book, are eerily similar.

1. You're never done. Almost as soon as you give birth, everyone asks when they can expect the next one. You’re barely home from the hospital and Dear Aunt Martha is peering over her glasses asking when the little bundle will have a sibling. Same for books and readers. At every book signing, at least one person asks about the next book. I do love that people are interested in my books and my babies, but can I breathe?  Anyway, it takes me a bit longer to write a book than have a baby – but I am most certainly always at work on my next (book that is)!

2. You think you're done for good.  Speaking of doing it again – there’s something curious about both books and babies. After delivering either one, it’s nearly impossible to imagine going through it all again. By the time I’m on my last draft of a book, I’m looking forward to a break, letting my mind rest. I’m also usually exhausted and swearing I can’t go through this process again. But then, soon enough, there I am, opening a blank document. Same goes for babies. I am a classic example of this. My older son wasn’t even two before I starting yearning for another. And as for writing, I can’t stop. At this moment, my latest draft of the Second Verse sequel is out with my trusted beta readers for one last critique before turning it over to my editor. This was going to be my take-a-break-from-writing time. But guess what I did this weekend? Yep, 5k words on a new novel. I can’t help it, it’s what I love!

3.  It hurts. Childbirth and parenting – both are painful. Writing can be too. Critique hurts, rejection hurts, reading through and revising each and every draft can be cumbersome and painful. BUT! There is good news indeed; the pain, in both cases, is always, always worth every second.

4.  Work, work, work.  The amount of work required to get books or children into presentable shape is intense. Whether you’re a two draft writer or a ten draft writer, it takes lots of practice, skill and incredibly hard work to make a book a book. Same goes for kids, they don’t come out knowing how to function and behave. And figuring both out is often trial by fire – flying without a net.

5. And more work. Books and babies = Sleepless night and lots of coffee.

6.  Everyone's a critic. Ah yes, book critics are a necessary part of the publishing process, and sometimes if the right critic likes a book enough, it can help launch or revive an author's career. As for parenting critics, there are plenty of those too, though not nearly as useful!

7.  But not everyone is an expert.  There are way too many writing and publishing experts out there telling you how to do it better or do it “right.” While there is often value in such advice, too much can easily be overwhelming and stifling (and a lot of it is sometimes downright wrong). With both writing and parenting, you sometimes need to just trust your intuition.

8. You will never be the same again. For better and for worse, birthing a baby or birthing a book will leave you a changed person. Both are incredible accomplishments that take a lot out of you, and give a lot back as well. Life changers, through and through.

9.  Comparing yours to theirs is futile.  Some other author, some other parent always seems to be doing it better or with more ease. Comparisons are lethal and dangerous. Don't do it. Seriously. This is some of the best advice I was ever given in life and I try and stick to it. Keep your nose to the ground and work hard, learn as much as you can, hone your craft, find your path and soak in all the knowledge. But don’t compare your book to someone else’s, or your parenting path to another's. Some people get huge advances, some people get an agent on the first try, and others write five or 10 books before they break out, or self publish, or land an offer from a small press. Some kids walk and talk early and some don’t. It’s okay, just live your life.

10.  The fruit of your labor: pretty fabulous!  While the work is hard and relentless, it is beyond rewarding. For me, writing books is very much like raising my kids—it's what fills me up and puts life in my days, what make me whole.

11. Do your job well and poof, you're invisible. Making it look easy is the goal. If you do a good job with either parenting or writing, you end up with a smooth and seamless finished product – one that seems to have sprung into perfect form with  hardly any work on your part at all. Right.

You can follow Jennifer on Twitter, connect on Facebook, or Goodreads.  

Writing Tips from Teen Spy Author Anthony Horowitz: Another Night in the NJ Suburbs

Last night my sons and I saw the novelist Anthony Horowitz at a pre-launch event for his book, Scorpia Rising, the last in the British teen spy Alex Rider series, released in the U.S. today. Instead of reading, Horowitz talked about being a writer, peppered with plenty of puns and obvious half-truths, and took questions from the mostly teen and tween audience, answering in a lively prattle. At one point, he noted how much he'd disliked school and that he'd put every one of his teachers in his novels, where they each promptly met with a painful death. (Note: the event took place in a middle school with many teachers in attendance.)

But then Horowitz got serious for a moment, giving advice to the fledging writers in the room. To me though, his tips are just as relevant to writers of any age or experience. Horowitz, who also writes for several British television shows, and is currently working on an adult novel about Sherlock Holmes, told his fans there are five basic things one must do to be a writer (I'm paraphrasing):

First, read. Second, write. Third, go out and have fun, have adventures. (Do something illegal! Don't get caught.) Or else you will have nothing to write about except someone alone in a room typing. Fourth, believe in yourself and what you are doing. There will always be someone telling you that what you are writing won't work. Ignore them. Fifth, never stop. The difference between a successful and unsuccessful writer is the unsuccessful one stopped writing.

Horowitz also talked about the connection between the mental state of the writer and the experience of the reader: "Writing is telepathy. If you are bored and miserable while writing, the reader will be bored and miserable reading."

The kids asked such great questions, and Horowitz gamely answered every one:

- He writes "anywhere and everywhere," but his favorite places are at a secluded vacation house and in his London home office, where he has a view of St. Paul's Cathedral.

- "The best thing about being a writer is thinking of new ideas. The writing itself is not so much fun. Writing is hard."

- Best places/times to work out new ideas are while walking his dogs and while in a hot bathtub. 'Or in a hot bath with the dogs," he joked (I think).

- In teen adventure books, "First chapter: kill all the parents. It's impossible for kids to have adventures with parents around."

- He liked the movie Stormbreaker, based on the first Alex Rider book. But – "No movie is ever as good as the book."

- Don't ever let anyone tell you that reading is passive. It's one of the most creative things you can ever do. Your mind is at work all the time when you are reading.

- Though he'd published many books before the Alex Rider series shot to global success, when he wrote the opening line of the first (of 9) books in that series, he had a strong feeling his life might change.

- He writes first drafts by hand.

- How to get back at movie producers who decide not to greenlight a second film from your series: put them in the next book, with thinly veiled names, and have them roll around in a mud puddle--while on fire.

Horowitz stayed on for more than an hour, signing 100+ books, greeting every kid by name, posing for photos, shaking hands, answering questions at the signing table. Kudos to Watchung Booksellers (my local independent bookstore), for brining Horowitz to Montclair, where he completed a circle of sorts. Ten years ago, the bookstore hosted him when he was only a moderately successful YA author, and immediately after, the Alex Rider series exploded across the globe. Coincidence? Cause? That didn't seem to matter to the large and enthusiastic audience of young readers, parents, teachers and librarians last night. All in all, a pretty terrific way to spend a Monday night in the New Jersey suburbs.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Tech Tasks for Writers, Literary Roads not Taken, Poetry in NJ, Memoirs & More

• This list, found at the 10,000 Words site (“where journalism and technology meet) is designed to keep recent journalism school graduates busy sharpening skills while job hunting. But I think it’s even better advice for anyone who graduated from J-school more than ten years ago (uh, that would be me). I groaned at some of the suggestions, but by tackling at least half, I’ll be more valuable to future editors and clients in any area of media or literary life. And I might add, it wouldn’t hurt any newly (or soon-to-be) published authors to try their hands at these skills for the sake of savvier do-it-yourself book marketing.

• Some rare literary insight over at Daily Finance: the career road not taken, tweaked for writer types.

• Working on a To Be Read list for summer? If memoirs are of interest, this list of 50 suggestions might be useful, from Library Journal, where I often find gems, and not just about libraries.

• Crowd-sourcing a book. Hmm.

• I live in New Jersey. (Yes, not far at all from those hideous Bravo housewives, but please, hold the condolences.) When people ask where in New Jersey I live, I say Montclair. Not because it’s true, but because almost everyone has heard of Montclair, the urban-like suburb, known for its racial-, social-, cultural- and economic-diversity, the liberal little cityburb full of literary types, media elites, artists and low-key celebrities, a hip hamlet with a thriving downtown, nightlife, and direct 30-minute train service to Manhattan. The tiny obscure town where I live, which borders Montclair? None of the above. Now, it looks as if Montclair has a good chance to be the new home of the Dodge Poetry Festival (the largest poetry event in North America), which is vacating its usual venue some 20 miles west.

• Write Young Adult fiction? Eileen Cook’s blog will be of interest, and be sure to check out her link list to find more blogs of YA (and other) authors.

• Read these Five Common Flaws of Memoir Projects. Actually, it’s not all about you.

• If you are on Twitter (like me @LisaRomeo) and you are a magazine junkie (again, me), and you want to add some magazines to your Twitter feed, you might find want to check this out.

Have a great weekend.