First and foremost – HALLELUJAH, it is Friday! And secondly – IT’S THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING! Winter wasn’t as bad as it could be in the hinterlands of Minnesota, but when you’re the mom of two toddlers – any extended periods of time spent indoors is just cruel to all involved.
Without further ado – here’s the articles that piqued my interest this week:
What common editing mistakes are you making? Lourdes Venard is a member of the Sisters in Crime Guppies (Great Unpublished) online group that I am a part of. Recently, she wrote a blog post that encapsulated some of the common mistakes that editors see when editing fiction. Confession: I know I’m guilty of a couple of these!
Wow – I haven’t read any of Adrian McKinty’s books, but need to start based on the soundtrack for his Detective Sean Duffy’s books alone.
I do a decent amount of research for some of my stories – I’m nowhere near as detailed as someone like Diana Gabaldon is, but some of the things that I write prompt me to consult subject matter experts or look up articles / various sources to find out random things like the history of embalming (don’t ask.) Sometimes, I’m simply bookmarking articles for future information – storing little nuggets of information in my head that could be relevant in future stories. Like this article about a super-secret policing gadget that can listen in on cell conversations. Hel-lo big brother.
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Listening to: As I finalize this post today, I have Simon and Garfunkel’s Concert in Central Park playing. My parents had this album on cassette when I was a kid and I wore it out. If I ever had to exist on a desert island, this is probably one of the albums that I’d bring with me. This one and Paul Simon’s “Negotiations and Love Songs.”
Reading: I have a couple of books that I picked up from the library – Sanctum by Sarah Fine and The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty (see the link above that got me interested in reading Mr. McKinty’s books). I am 99% sure that I’ve read Sanctum, but need to page through it to see if that is the case. If so, I’ll do a quick re-read since this is part of a larger series of Young Adult (YA) fiction.
Fiction update: Edits, edits, edits. I’m still on my April 1st deadline. Just got to keep plugging away to that goal line and not let life derail me.
Also – I’m getting ready to go to the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) conference next month in Minneapolis. I had been on the fence regarding my attendance, but they have a Saturday pass for $40. With my work schedule and with my family, that’s going to be the best option for me. I’ll be writing more soon regarding what I hope to get from the conference, but honestly – I’m just looking forward to rubbing elbows with some of the Minnesota writers that I’ve befriended over the past few years and drinking with my Writer’s Guild at the conclusion of Saturday’s festivities. 🙂
michellekubitz 