Around Town

Sailor Boy is out of town right now, which is an excuse for Rio and I to stay up until all hours and eat junk food (seriously, you should watch this pup do EZ Cheez out of the can).

On the work front, I’ve been streamlining some timeline problems, which I’ve discovered is always an issue for me in revisions. What happens when and long passages of time — I’ve always got to go back and add those words in.

Here’s what’s piqued my interest on the internet recently:

YA FOR OBAMA: A group of YA writers spearheaded by Maureen Johnson and including such luminaries as National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr (whose essay, “Red State Jesus Freaks for Obama” was truly enlightening), New York Times Bestselling Author Scott Westerfeld (who explains clearly and concisely why the Democrats are better for the economy here), Printz Award winner John Green (who talks about the intersection of faith and science), and literary deity Judy Blume. It’s an incredible undertaking and a great place to talk politics.

And the only other thing I’m going to be saying about politics on this blog is ARE YOU REGISTERED TO VOTE? Please, please register, and VOTE. The deadline for many states is almost upon us. This is going to be an incredibly close election. YOUR VOTE MATTERS. (In passing, if you are a student, registering to vote in the state in which your college is located does NOT affect your parents’ ability to claim you as a dependent on their tax return. Nor your scholarship, health insurance, auto insurance, or other issue you may have heard a rumor about to the contrary.)

Back to book talk.

Jennifer Barnes has a good post up about emotional authenticity in your writing. It’s definitely a big step to take in your development as a writer. I comment on her thread about one particularly painful instance, but something I’ve been thinking about recently is how when I wrote fanfic, I was pretty good at the whole “bleeding on the page” thing. It helped that the work was completely anonymous and that no one would connect the things I wrote to me. When I began to write for publication, I had to learn that skill all over again. It’s a lot harder to say certain things when you know that your loved ones and elementary school teachers and that guy you dated for two weeks freshman year are going to look at it and know that you were the one who wrote that. What I find is that occasionally when I do access that stuff, I get really nervous about keeping it in the story, even though deep down, I know it has to be there.

Shannon Stacey tears a slightly sketchy start-up epublisher a new one for a poorly designed website whose very slogan presents the first of many, many typos.

Have a great weekend!