Well, that's nice to hear.
One of the judges of the Backspace Query Letter contest wrote this on her blog today:
Those bits of encouragement are like plutonium: a tiny chip goes a long way.
February 2011
7 posts
Joseph Finder on learning from criticism
Joseph Finder is the bestselling author of . In addition to his commercially successful novels, he writes a candid and enlightening blog. I just read a post I’d like to pass along: Listening to (and Learning From) Criticism
He seems like a smart and genial fellow, and if I ever bump into him ‘round here in Beantown, I’m going to buy the man a drink and have a chat.
Joe, if you’re reading, consider that an invitation.
Good sentence!
“The girls’ preschool this morning was a miasma of excitement and antibodies.” -Stephen Yoder
Mike Doughty makes a great case for Twitter as writing boot-camp
Mike Doughty, the brilliant singer-songwriter / poet / Teutonophile / erstwhile lead singer of Soul Coughing, makes a great case for Twitter as writing boot camp in this thirty-six minute interview on New Hampshire public radio.
In summation, use Twitter to force yourself to write only in complete, grammatically correct sentences, with no abbreviations or numerals.
I think Ernest Hemingway would approve.
The future of Somerville, MA
Tim Devin is a visionary artist who works in non-traditional media. It’s not performance art exactly (except when it is), but it’s always thought-provoking.
One of his recent projects was to record the future history of Somerville, MA by inviting residents to speculate what would happen there in the next 100 years.
It’s a really interesting idea, and the project was written up in Wicked Local, complete with a quote from yours truly.
Why you can't take it personal
I just learned that James Lee Burke’s novel The Lost Get-Back Boogie was rejected 111 times over a period of nine years, and upon publication by Louisiana State University press was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
That's how it's done, people.
Two great sentences from The King:
“The moon came up, an orange eye above the pines, and beat a bloody path across the swimming pool.” -The Dead Zone, p. 332
“The windshields of the parked cars were blinded with cataracts of frost.” -The Dead Zone, p. 373
I love good sentences like that (ok, the first one’s a little over the top). I keep ‘em in my mind like a lucky pebble in my pocket, rubbin’ ‘em smooth.
