Writing Resources Part I- And a Giveaway!

Congratulations to Jan Brent, who won the audio CD of "A Secret Sky."

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If you are a writer you know the Internet houses more writing blogs then you have hours to read. Add to that the number of books about writing and you can be overwhelmed with just learning the craft! To help you out, over the next two weeks I plan to share some of my favorite blogs and books. And since I'm on a decluttering mission, I plan to give away a few craft books of my own.

After schlepping boxes of books from Charlotte to our rental home in
Greenville, I'm determined to divest myself of a
few more book before we move again!

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My top two blogs on writing craft, the publishing world, and the ins and outs of writing life are Janice Hardy's Fiction University and Writer Unboxed.

Janice Hardy appropriately named her blog "Fiction University." She consistently provides thought-provoking content about voice, character development, beginnings, world building-- you name it. I appreciate how each of her blogs links back to previous blogs on similar topics and her a once-a-week feature entitled, "Real Life Diagnostics" where readers submit a writing sample and she provides a critique. I've used her blog on writing scenes  over and over again.

On the other hand, Writer Unboxed is a blog featuring a host of well-known (as well as lesser known) writers with equally amazing articles about craft. Study the posts that pertain to your work; the comments are often just as informative as the articles themselves. I've used Donald Maas's recent article on Stirring Higher Emotions  to dig deeper into Kate and Lillie's negative--as well as positive--emotions. 

Writers Helping Writers is exactly that. Becca Puglisi and Angela Ackerman are co-authors of several thesauri that need to be on every writers' bookshelf. Another cool feature is that they highlight different occupations and/or talents and delve deeply into each one. A recent post on farmers gave me great insight into Kate's background making me think about aspects of her personality that I'd missed.

My list wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention two of my favorite children's writers blogs.

Kathy Temean is the regional advisor for SCBWI-New Jersey.  Her blog, Writing and Illustrating, offers a wealth of information on writing, illustrating, and publishing work for children and young adults. Every Saturday she invites a different illustrator to demonstrate their work--a frequent source of amazement to me! In addition, she interviews agents and hosts critiques from editors or agents.

Speaking of good blogs for children's' writers, Last summer Kami Kinard and  Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen hosted a month of blogs about character development on their Nerdy Chicks Write site. The daily lessons and worksheets were invaluable and I still go back and use them to probe my characters' psyches. If you subscribe to their blog you will receive information when registration for next summer opens up.

What do all of these blogs have in common? They are all free resources from writers to writers--with the sole purpose of helping you improve your craft. Pretty amazing! 

I want to help you too. So, this week's giveaway is a gently used copy of:

Leave me a comment by January 22 and I'll enter your name to win a book by an award winning author. If you tell me your favorite writing blog, I'll enter your name twice. Make sure you leave me your email address if you're new to this blog!