down the writer's path

The 2005 National Book Critics Circle Awards winners announced

On March 3rd, the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award announced this year's winners: E.L. Doctorow, The March (fiction); Svetlana Alexievich, Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster (general nonfiction); Francine du Plessix Gray, Them: A Memoir of Parents (autobiography); William Logan, The Undiscovered Country: Poetry in the Age of Tin (criticism); and Jack Gilbert, Refusing Heaven (poetry). For a complete list of the finalists or for more information visit National Book Critics Circle.

TALK TO THE SNAIL and other publishing offerings make Publishers Lunch a valuable service for writers

If you're a writer and you haven't subscribed to the free Publishers Lunch (PL), you're missing out on an excellent resource. Delivered to mailboxes every day, twenty thousand "publishing people" already read these reports, and they are full of the info writers want. Learn who sold what manuscript to which editor and through which agent--even what year the book is scheduled for printing. Entries such as this one will fight for your attention:

Canadian rights to Stephen Clarke's TALK TO THE SNAIL, a short gift book offering humorous advice on dealing with the French, including dealing with the complexities of the many different forms of address, how to converse with a French waiter, days on which you can't expect the French to work, and of course, advice on love and sex, to Helen Reeves at Penguin Canada, in a nice deal, by Susanna Lea Associates. [email protected]

Anyone actively looking for agents will find Publishers Lunch a must resource. The truly serious might want to consider the website, Publisher's Marketplace, where professionals read the up-to-the-minute reporting on who, what, where, and when. Authors can even track certain sales of their books. There is a cost to the website service. At the very least, make sure you subscribe to the free Publishers Lunch service.

Writers, Furl it!

While I don't post much on technology, every once in a while I find something that has the potential to make a writer's life easier. Such is the case with Furl! Thanks to Kevin Whited over at BlogHouston for this handy Internet tool. Writers and researchers will find this a dream. Roam the Internet, easily keep up with all your stops, then categorize them to suit your own system. It's so much better than simply bookmarking. I've already set up fifteen specific topics to categorize my Internet findings, but I'm sure there will be more. One quick use is for me to Furl all the online book reviews for my books. With Furl's search features, I'll readily find them whenever I need to pull a quote or even the complete text. Before the day is over I'm sure I"ll have a hundred more uses. I also have a category where I can dump potential article and commentary pieces. At last, I have my giant file cabinet in the sky. Have a look!

It takes mere minutes to set up and will save you thousands of future hours.

Books, blooks and blogs: Do you have a blook in you?

In the old days it was said that everyone had at least one book in them. Not today. Apparently the book has now been replaced by a blook--you just don't know it yet. Blooks are books from blogs. Now we have a new reason to answer the newly-eternal question: Why blog?

Recently Jeffrey Goldfarb reported on the new Blookers, "the world's first literary prize for books based on blogs." The trend has had sufficient growth to generate The Friday Project, a new firm dedicated to combing the Internet in search of blogs with book potential. Want to know more? Check out a blog, of course, that is dedicated to the award: Lulu Blooker Blog.

Meanwhile, authors, reconsider your blogging potential. Instead of blogging about the road to publication and the new-author journey hawking your book through the bookstores, think blook. What can you blog about that might lead to a blook?

And you thought e-books were the most recent writing fad. . . .

Austin hosts AWP National Conference and Bookfair

Next week Houstonians have an opportunity to easily attend a national writer's conference that is held in various cities around the nation. AWP (Association of Writers and Writers Programs) is an organization that sits in the more literary end of the pond. If you have an interest in lit fic or creative nonfiction, then you might want to spend a day or two or three in Austin next week at their conference among thousands of other folks with similar inclinations. The 2006 AWP Annual Conference and Bookfair is in Austin March 8-11, 2006 at the Hilton Austin and Austin Conference Center.

You'll find panels ranging from Between Heaven and Hell: Writing at a Catholic University to Three Debut Authors on Partnering with their Publishers to Where Genre and Nongenre Meet: Texas Writers on Texas Writing. Walter Mosley will present the Keynote Address. Tim O'Brian, the author of the well-read short story, Things They Carried, and novel of the same name is one of many presenteres. Other presenters include Antonya Nelson, Donald Hall, Naomi Shihab Nye, Jane Hirshfield, Tony Hoagland, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, and many more. With more than 300 events making up the conference and 250 publishers and presses at the Bookfair, the AWP conference offers Houstonians a wonderful opportunity to explore the world of literary fiction, mingle with authors and publishers, and catch up on all the recent publications currently being offered.

If you're up for a heavy dose of literary conversation, drive up for a day or more. AWP's 2006 PRE-registration has closed. But you will be able to do so on-site, March 8-11, at the Austin Convention Center, Trinity Street entrance. One-day passes will be available at the on-site registration desk. On-site registration rates for the full conference are as follows:

March 8-11, 2006 Onsite Registration

Member $175
Nonmember $195
Student $45
Spouse $85
Presenter $85

Here's to good converstaion.

Video Magic and the expanding universe of blogging and the potential PR opportunities

The opportunities for friendship, exchanges of information, and synchronistic happenings are a few things that make having a blog a terrific experience. As I mentioned earlier, a fellow blogger, Will Hoffacker at Youngest of One, ordered my two teen novels when they came out, enjoyed the reads, sent me "fan" emails and posted positive reviews on his blog. While Will is at the top end of my targeted readership and my books deal with much more than the opening moments of a new teen romantic relationship, I had never considered sending him review copies of Divided Loyalties or Video Magic--clearly an error on my part. So the fact that he was a good enough online blogging buddy to order the books and read them on his own made receiving his positive emails and reviews all the more rewarding. It's also important to me because a local teacher who is developing school curriculum recently asked me if I thought the books would work in the classroom with both male and female students. I now have actual comments from a "real teen" to pass on.

The ever-expanding universe of blogging also promotes synchronistic moments such as the one I had yesterday. Serena, a co-worker, came in and told me she had seen a post on a site she frequents that provides recent blogging news/entries that talked about an author's response to a "fan letter" and how fan letters are a boost to bloggers, as well. She said she suddenly realized, "hey, I work with her" and clicked over to my blog from the link provided. She couldn't remember the site or the blogger but said she would let me know. (I had never discussed my blog and only casually mentioned my books to her--we work in a chain bookstore.)

When I got home last night I ran a Google-search on my name and found Wayne Hurlburt over at Blog Business World had written up a response to my blog entry. Not only had he posted, he inserted my photo and the cover of Divided Loyalties. As I was researching all this, my co-worker apparently had gone online, found the website and posted the link on my blog. This turned out to be Wayne's blog entry that now showed up, in full, on WebPRNews. The blogging relationship worked out like this:

A co-worker saw this article at WebPRNew when she visited WebProNews; which referenced this post on Wayne's Blog Business World; that refers back to my entry on my blog at Down the Writer's Path; which was the result of Will's blog post at Youngest of One.

Now, I don't know how many readers visit Youngest of One, Blog Business World, or WebPRNews, but I do know that my books and my blog now have a new opportunity reach new readers. I have to say once more: The blogosphere is an amazing place. And many thanks to Serena, Will, and Wayne for their generous support.
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Note: If you want to order my books but aren't into the e-book format, you can go to Booksurge or go to Amazon.com for the teen and the travel books.