Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Grab-A-Line Monday on Tuesday, and some catching up


I scheduled yesterday's entry a few days earlier, fully intending to add my quote before it got posted. But I forgot. So here is the quote, again from Olive Kitteridge (I highly recommend this book, BTW):

...had figured something out too late, and that must be the way of life, to get something figured out when it was too late.

The Piano Player, from Olive Kitteridge
by Elizabeth Strout
Now to some other business. First, Cybils 2009 is up and running. The panelists are in place and nominations are open. Last year's Cybils introduced me to some books I would otherwise have not read and I look forward to this year's nominees.

You can post this handy dandy button on your blog to help publicize it.


Here's another event worth publicizing: the Genre Wars! It's a writing contest run by the fab three at The Literary Lab. If you have some short stories in your drawers, or if you've never written a short story before, you may consider using this as a starting point. Who knows, you may find out hat you were born to write short stories.

And of course, handy dandy button.



Another event, this one to take place in November. Yes, of course you knew about NaNoWritMo. I haven't ever taken the plunge but the people I know who've done it once keep doing it again. So maybe the act of churning out a novel in a month is worthwhile, or at least addictive.

The ALA reminds us to celebrate the freedom of reading during Banned Books Week. I reckon I should celebrate it every day, but I appreciate the focused efforts to raise awareness. Words that float around in head as I look at the lists of banned books: fear, disbelief, prejudice, responsibility, and of course, freedom.

12 comments:

Annie Louden said...

I added Olive Kitteridge to my library account. I'm 131 on the waiting list!

Also, I recommend you try NaNoWriMo. This will be my 6th year doing it, and I love it. Chris Baty is awesome, and the website has fun stuff like author pep talks and WrimoRadio.

Michelle D. Argyle said...

Thanks for the shout out for Genre Wars! Am I supposed to be doing a line for today? I missed yesterday.

I'm not doing NaNo this year. Ugh. I'm still working on the novel I did for NaNo last year! I'm thinking NaNo will be an every other year thing. :)

Yat-Yee said...

Annie: I waited for my copy at my library as well. After reading it, I bought my own copy.

6th year! Wow. This year, for family reasons, will be impossible for me to do. Next year may be the year.

Michelle: Whenever you want to do a line is fine with me. I'll re-post it on the next Monday's post. Is Monarch your NaNo from last year?

Michelle D. Argyle said...

Yep, Monarch is my NaNo, and really, it's nowhere even close to being publishable. I'm almost finished with this rewrite, though! So that's getting somewhere. :)

Yat-Yee said...

If I were to do NaNo, my first draft will be so very rough, I don't know how long it would take to tidy it up, much less get it polished. Yay to the completion of your current rewrites.

Michelle D. Argyle said...

It was an interesting experience. It got me over the "have to write everything perfect the first time" stage. So now I can free write a lot easier. But in the end, I think it created a lo more work for me because I didn't have the proper amount of "thinking" time while I was writing, and that's where most of my story magic happens. In the shower, thinking, LOL. But I took really short showers all of November because I had so many words I had to write! It was a bit insane.

Yat-Yee said...

Write a novel, save some water. :)

Michelle D. Argyle said...

LOL! I need to do a post about shower thinking. Seriously, all my good stuff comes to me in there. It's weird. I think it's because I'm toddler-free and it's quiet and comfortable. Unlike bed, where my husband is either snoring, kicking me, or taking all my blankets.

Yat-Yee said...

I do a lot of thinking in the shower as well, even my pre-kid days. It's a kind of dreamy, non-linear kind of thinking that doesn't occur to me much, except just before I fall asleep.

Oh, and my husband and I each have our own blanket. Worked out really well for us. :)

Michelle D. Argyle said...

Okay, two blankets it is.

MG Higgins said...

Fascinating conversation, Yat-Yee and Michelle! I LOVE shower creative thinking and I just posted about doing NaNo this year for the first time. I'm really enjoying reading people's comments about their NaNo experiences.

Kelly H-Y said...

Thanks for the heads-up about the Cybils!