Links of the week #32

Posted on August 18, 2012 by S. J. Maylee

It’s Saturday and time to review the treats from the week. SYTYCD was back in a Mia Michaels kind of way. I’ve picked a powerful performance for you and you’re not going to want to miss it.

Story

Jami Gold : Michael Hauge’s Workshop: Are These Characters the Perfect Match?

Grammar

Liz Bureman at The Write Practice : Do You Use Quotation Marks or Italics for Song and Album Titles?

Place Descriptions

Sharla Rae at Writers In The Storm : Place Descriptions: Waterways

Body Language / Character Development

Darcy Pattison at Fiction Notes : 10 Body Language Tricks for Deeper Characterization

Fight Scenes

Rayne Hall at Clarion Blog : Writer’s Craft #85 Writing A Great Duel Scene

Editing

Linda Yezak at Writing Fiction Right from novelist Gail Gaymer Martin : Pet Peeves of a Professional Editor

Conferences

Gwen Hernandez at The Edited Life : Workshop takeaways from the 2012 RWA conference

Hook / Query

Mary Keeley at Books & Such Literary Agency : 8 Tips for Writing a Powerful Hook for Your Book Proposal

Images

Sarah Arrow at For Bloggers By Bloggers : Finding Timely Images for Topical Blog Posts

Promotion / Marketing

Jenny Hansen at Writers In The Storm : QR Codes ~ A Sexy Marketing Technique for Your Books

Rachelle Gardner : 8 Tips for Promoting Your Book Online

Cassandra Carr at Hot Blogging with Heart : Thursday Thirteen 8/16/12- 13 promos that worked for me

Writer Business

Amy Sorrells at The Writers Alley : Beyond Sticky Notes: A review of Scrivener for writers

SYTYCD

This week the great dance show was back and all performances were choreographed by Mia Michaels. Oh, bells!! Love Mia’s choreography. But the Top-14 faced a great dancer-challenge. They’d be performing previously performed routines, routines choreographed for past seasons, making it really easy to see where this year’s dancers fall short in direct comparison to past contestants. It may have been a bit cruel, but so is the life of a dancer. One performance stood out. It was not better than the original, but stood on its own. This routine made me cry when Kayla and Kupono performed it in season five, so powerful. I do suggest watching both performances, but please watch Lindsay and Cole first.

Both performances made me cry, how about you?

Lindsay & Cole performing “Addiction” choreographed by Mia Michaels

What you might have missed here:

Six Sentence Sunday #29 – see Janna melt in want

Tantalizing Tuesday #2 – The flick of a cloak

Flash Fiction #20 – She deserves it

Links of the week #28

Posted on July 21, 2012 by S. J. Maylee

Hello and happy Saturday. I gave the hubs the week off, because I wanted to share a routine from SYTYCD!

Before we dig in, I wanted to congratulate Bonni Sansom on her latest release, The Bank Job, out today! She was a guest this wee k and her giveaway ends tonight. Please stop by the post, check out her latest offering, and leave some comment love.

MUST READ

Roni Loren: Bloggers Beware: You CAN Get Sued For Using Pics on Your Blog – My Story <–the viral must read post

Grammar

David N. Walker : Dangling Participles

Queries

Lynette Labelle : Why Agents Reject Query Letters Part 2

Synopsis

Casey Herringshaw at The Writers Alley : Five Tips to Make Your Synopsis Stronger

Prose

Jodie Renner at The Other Side of the Story : Guest Author Jodie Renner: Appeal to the Senses—and Emotions

Act I / Chapter 1

Margo Berendsen : Hook with humor and 6 other first chapter hooks

Flashbacks

Tim Kane at San Diego Professional Writer’s Group : How To Write Killer Flashbacks in 3 Steps

Scenes / Plotting / Pacing

Janice Hardy at The Other Side of the Story : When Less is More: Taking Away Elements to Fix a Problem Scene

Roni Loren : Figuring Out Where Your Pacing Went Wrong

Writer’s Life

Rachelle Gardner : Interval Training for Writers and Professionals

SYTYCD

Season 9 continues to be a winner. The show was knocked down to one show a week this season and the format changes really work for me, I’m quite pleased.

If you are only going to watch one performance from this week, this is the one. Sonya Tayeh’s choreography is somehow getting even better. Audrey and Matthew give a spectacular performance with countless moments of awesome. Enjoy.

What you might have missed here:

Flash Fiction #16

Links of the week #23

Posted on June 16, 2012 by S. J. Maylee

Happy Saturday and thanks for stopping by today. I’ve got some of my favorite links of the week for you, but I’ve given the hubs the week of from his music picks. He’s been working hard all week so I guess that’s okay Instead I’ve picked an audition from this years So You Think You Can Dance.

Love learning from folks who have been there and done that

Cassandra Carr : Thursday Thirteen 6/14/12- 13 things I’ve learned about writing

M J Wright gives 5 tips that have worked for him : Conquering that dreaded blank page

Prose

Roz Morris at Nail Your Novel : Repetition – a two-ended hammer

Ollin Morales was at The Bookshelf Muse : 5 Techniques for Adding Subtext to your Story

Social Media

Marcy Kennedy : The 9 Steps to Switching From WordPress.com to WordPress.org: Part 1

Query

Lisa Burstein : PRETTY AMY Original Query Letter AND Query Tips!

Plot & Character

Martina Boone at DIY MFA (great worksheets too) : Plot vs. Character: Leaving Room for Magic – Guest Post by Martina Boone

SYTYCD Season 9

Lots of memorable auditions this year. This one stands out because she’s a mommy who has not given up on her dream. Listen to her story, watch her beautiful moves, and stay till the end, because her daughter dances too.

What you might have missed here:

Six Sentence Sunday #21

Spotlight: Enchanted Spring by Josee Renard Excerpt & Giveaway

Spotlight: Never Say Just by Katie Harper ~ Q&A by the Rat Bastards

Flash Fiction #11

Links of the week #22

Posted on June 9, 2012 by S. J. Maylee

Back to my regular patterns this week. I have writing links for you and a music pick from Jeff. The video is a funny clip from Fred Armisen’s show “Portlandia”

The coolest thing: Kristen Lamb you are awesome! She has created a place for writers to not be alone you can chat with other writers in your genre and it’s a place to learn from WRITERS. Hurry, click away, come back to my list later I Bring You…A Gift–A New Era for the Digital Age Artist

Cassandra Carr : Thursday Thirteen 6/7/12- 13 cool phone apps for authors be sure to check the comments too

Aimee L. Salter at Seeking the Write Life : The Three Things You Need to Make Your Book GREAT

Roni Loren : How To Write Love Scenes That Don’t Suck – A Free Class!

Titles

M J Wright : Worldbuilding: top tips for tantalising titles

Show/Tell

Shannon Donnelly was at Writers In The Storm this week : When to TELL the Story

Motivation

Sharla Rae at Writers In the Storm : Does Your Story Lack A Heartbeat?

Scene Breaks & Transitions

Janice Hardy from The Other Side of the Story : Moving Forward: Writing Smooth Transitions

Plotting

This week via Stina Lindenblatt and her cool links Friday, I found Margo Berendsen : 21 ways to make your plot more compelling

Book Trailers

Lynnette Labelle : Do Book Trailers Sell Books?

Pitch/Query

Jami Gold had a fabulous post this week with a big collection of ideas: The Ultimate Guide to Pitch Writing

Social Media

Kristen Lamb : Can Facebook Hold Your Fan Page Hostage? Fallout from the IPO Debacle & How It Affects YOU

Music from Jeff

“Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood” by St. Vincent, from the album “Actor”

St. Vincent is actually Annie Clark. I think she got her break playing with the Polyphonic Spree. She’s a wonderful singer/songwriter/guitarist.

Her music is so interesting to me. I can hear the influences, but the way in which she stirs them up and spits them out is very unique to her. I think it starts with her guitar style and musical knowledge. She’s not the average singer/songwriter nor is she the average guitarist.

I’ve heard that she writes the tunes on the guitar and then deconstructs them in the studio. I really like that idea and the end result. Sometimes it can be a little too out there for me but then, after a few listens, I’m back in again. That’s the point, it seems – draw the listener in right away but also give us something to discover over time. I think all truly great music does this.

I’ve also seen some clips of her playing her songs stripped down to just voice and acoustic guitar. It’s clear that all the studio production is merely a means to create interesting layers to already great tunes.

Plus, she has Matt Johnson (Jeff Buckley’s drummer) on drums. Musically, you can’t go wrong with that guy in your band!

What you might have missed here:

Six Sentence Sunday #20

Spotlight: Sara’s Smile by Sandra Bunino ~ Q&A and Giveaway

Flash Fiction #10

Links of the week #20

Posted on May 26, 2012 by S. J. Maylee

Happy Saturday! What? It’s Memorial weekend? OMG, what am I doing inside. I have weeding to do, plants to put in the garden, roses to train, books to read, a MS to edit…and more blogs to read I have a pretty collection for you today and don’t forget to listen to Jeff’s music selection today. You won’t regret this listen, it’s powerful.

Writer Business

Suzanne Rock at Romance on a Budget shares a tip Do you have Business Cards?

Plots

Darcy Pattison at Fiction Notes had some great reminders 5 Plot Fixes for Peace Makers

Alan Chin posted this week Writing Tip #36 Story Starter Questions. Very interesting collection of 12-questions. A quick test to see if your plot is missing something.

Janice Hardy at The Other Side of the Story had a brilliant line at the beginning of her post on plots this week: “The house is story. Decorating is plot.” Loved the rest of the post too Author, We Have a Problem: 4 Tips on Plotting Your Novel

Dialogue

Writers It The Storm had Tiffany Lawson Inman yesterday!! Dialogue is King

Editing

Janice Hardy is talking my kind of talk. She uses some simple math and cut and paste to help her in trimming her MS. Interesting read even if you don’t need to trim Break it Down: Trimming Words From a Too-Long Manuscript

Query & 1st Pages

Roni Loren answered What Will Make An Agent Gong Your Pages, tips from the DFW Writer’s Conference

Grammar

DIY MFA spelled out the different ways to punctuate dialog. It’s easy to see the differences in this post: Demystifying Dialogue: Perfect Your Punctuation and went on to the Nine NO’s of Dialogue

Pitch

Vickie Motter from Navigating the Slush Pile described the points of the pitch and how it’s different from your query: May Conferences: The Verbal Pitch. Don’t miss her next post either for help with the twitter pitch Speaking of pitching…

Social Media

Ashley Barron added another post in a series and this one includes hashtag strategy #helpful Blogging: Twitter & The Hashtag

Roz Morris was over at Author’s Electric this week with some good reminders: How to get on well with Twitter – by Roz Morris

Music from Jeff

This is a tune called “Surely” from the group Black Dub. It’s Daniel Lanois’ passion project. He’s a super famous producer (U2, Bob Dylan, the list goes on and on) known for his warm and unique sounds. He’s also a great guitarist, songwriter, and singer.

He formed this group after he heard the singer, Trixie Whitley, during a recording session. Her father was a famous singer/guitarist/songwriter named Chris Whitley who, sadly, passed away several years ago. It’s clear that she has music in her blood – an incredible talent.

The drummer is one of my absolute faves, Brian Blade. He became known as a jazz player but has since played with quite a vast array of artists (Seal, Joni Mitchell, etc…). He has his own groups – a jazz group where he plays drums and a solo outfit where he sings, writes the tunes and plays guitar. He’s an unbelievable musician!

So, you can see that with this sort of line up the music is going to be amazing, and it really is! With all of these unique voices they still have such a great group sound. I think they record live together most of time which is very cool and a bit of a lost art. I think it really comes through on the record – a live vibe, real musicians reacting and playing together in the moment.

Hope you enjoy it!

What you might have missed here:

Six Sunday #18

Flash Friday #9

Links of the week #11

Posted on March 24, 2012 by S. J. Maylee

I’ve gathered a little bit of this and a little bit of that this week. Hope everyone finds something.

One of my fav reviewing sites, Delighted Reader, is taking applications!! Check it out: Taking applications for reviewers!

Editing:
Systematic Revisions (redux) from Sierra Godfrey

Over at Anne R. Allen’s Blog: When Should an Author Hire an Editor? How to Avoid Scams

Grammar:

Freshen up on word confusion with Julie Glover this week and her post Miss Spelling Returns: Words that Get Confused

Promotion:

Toni Kelly at Nights of Passion is back this week with Promotion: Stage 2

Social Media:

Love Kristen Lamb, you know that, right? When Jacqui Murray mentions Kristen in her Write Anything post How to do Social Media Right I had to click through and it was excellent food for thought.

Roni Loren asked this week: Are You Hiding Behind a Wall on Your Blog? she provides examples AND solutions

Query Letter

Scott Eagan lists the points that need to be caught in the troubling blurb paragraph: Your Story Blurb Has To Be Precise – Rejections Come When These Aren’t

Plotting

I enjoyed Lydia Sharp’s post this week about The Secret Plot immensely, must read for plotters!!

Characters

Janice Hardy from The Other Side of the Story provided: What’s My Motivation? Tips on Showing Character Motivations

Write Fresh

Jenny Hansen’s blog had Margie Lawson this week for #Writing 50,000 Inimitable Smiles by Margie Lawson

Place Descriptions

Janice Hardy from The Other Side of the Story also provided: The Literary Tour Guide: How Much do you Need to Describe Your Setting?

Everyone needs a good laugh