Bits and pieces of things that caught my eye not only for my own interest, but enough to want to share with you, too…
First of all, I offer my deepest respect and awe for Boston and greater Boston-area law enforcement… and all other related agencies and unnamed investigators involved with apprehending the second primary suspect of the Boston bombing. When I consider their jobs in the past 5 days, all I can think of is just – wow. Hopefully, the most dangerous part is now past.
Onward.
Reading Stuff
The future of e-reading may lie in a program that I might liken to a Netflix subscription. UK bookstore, Waterstones, has plans to roll out an e-book subscription service that will start with short fiction. There are certainly hurdles to cross for it to expand to full-length novels, but I think the model is sound.
Writing Stuff
Literary agent Gemma Cooper shares some of her editorial notes that she most often writes on client manuscripts – or simply sees on submissions. She has several good suggestions on description – such as visual imagery and figurative language – but the tidbit I found most interesting for my own purposes were her thoughts on “noise”. It’s a good reminder for me on remembering all the senses, since I definitely don’t spend much time on “hearing”.
If it is any wonder why it is so difficult to capture an agent’s eye when shopping your novel around, then this post from literary agent Kristin Nelson might help understand it. It is not meant to be discouraging (although it certainly can be), but it certainly puts into perspective just how much your query and first pages have to really have the “wow” factor.
Song of the Week
Y’all, I live in Minnesota (and grew up here), so I’m a hardy sort when it comes to long winters, but man, we just got about 8 inches in the past couple of days and it’s testing all of us this year. It was one of my MN friend’s birthday yesterday, so we shared songs about sunshine with each other. Here’s hers – Natasha Bedingfield, “Pocket Full of Sunshine”:
It'll All Work Out 
Loved the article from Gemma! Definitely need to work on the sounds in my writing, too. Always happy to read what you post! 🙂
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