My thoughts and sympathies are with everyone hit so hard by Hurricane Sandy and her downward spiral into destruction this week. My agent sister Kate Messner (who is generally amazing) has started the KidLit Cares auction to raise funds for relief efforts. I'm currently trying to decide what to donate, but will post here once my contribution goes up in case anyone's interested in bidding.
And Happy NaNoWriMo to those participating! I'm not doing it, but I am finishing this revision this month, hell or high water, as they say, and plan to suck all that novel-y energy that's in the air right in. Annd another member of the household just might be officially word counting in order to novel finish, not novel start. (If you're hoping it's Emma the Dog, well, you'll have to wait a while longer for her opus, I'm afraid. She has no thumbs.)
Some links:
- For the NaNo-ers, a helpful post from Sarah MacLean.
- How old is that bourbon? Why it probably doesn't matter, and may even be better younger.
- Famous writer maladies revealed! (My favorite book like this is the excellently titled Boswell's Clap and Other Essays.)
- Creepy Wikipedia entries.
- Real-life Island of the Blue Dolphins cave found?
- The delightful Sarah Rees Brennan talks cliffhangers.
- A great post from Robin LaFevers on creating character, which invokes Michael Hauge's theory of identity vs. essence, and other really helpful things.
- I loved Robin Wasserman's post about what scares her. Yesss, amorphous evil. My favorite kind.
- The one and only Beth Revis is running an ENORMOUS giveaway, a library of about fifty signed books from everyone she's done an event with this year, to celebrate the upcoming release of the last book in the Across the Universe trilogy.