Q:What do introverts get for Christmas?
A:Violets!
Check out the Shrinking Violets “Twelve Days of Christmas, Introvert-Style.” Twelve days of fun giveaways, and reminders that it’s okay to take time outs, breathers, disappear and do what you need to, to save your sanity!
There’s all kinds of fun distracting stuff online today – but the most distracting thing for me is trying to finish a WIP while another story idea is edging around in my brain, waving its hand and asking to be written. WHY is it that every time the WIP gets tough, there’s another idea trying to flirt with me, waving its arms, winking, and leering at me from around the corner??? WHY!??!
Sigh.
My muse is occasionally a faithless pain in the behind.
Onward!
Via Buzz, Balls & Hype, NBC Nightly News reports that library usage is up 46%! Who knew — in tough times, there’s still a place you can get books for free! The report is a little cloying; a librarian says that sometimes things are a little wild with so many patrons. Says the voiceover: “‘Wild’ is not a word you normally associate with the library.” Um, obviously this person hasn’t been to a library lately. Try going over when school’s out, and there’s a bunch of kids needing homework help, or trying to find something halfway interesting for a book report. And the shallowness just keeps on coming. “There’s Wi-Fi, and movies!” Really? Duh. NBC News: you should get out more.
Congratulations to Lorie Ann Grover on her new board books! SO very cute! I knew Lorie Ann was a YA writer… how did I totally miss the artist thing?!
I had the most fun this weekend going through all of our blog posts for the last year! We chose one of our best (after much waffling) for the Blog Carnival at Jen’s place. Please go over and check out our favorite, as well as the favorites of a whole bunch of others, and definitely wish Jen a happy blogversary! We had so much fun interviewing Sherri L. Smith that we’re doing it again in February — more talk about race and writing YA literature. Definitely stay tuned for that, we had a great, engaging conversation last time.
Speaking of engaging conversations, there are some really great suggestions on revision going on — I’m taking notes, too!
Much to my shock, the word is that Ursula LeGuin is going to allow someone to film another one of her books!! After the SciFi Channel basically firebombed Earthsea and then spat on its remains, I’d be a bit wary, but …she’s apparently going to try again. And good luck to her. (Hat tip, Galleycat.)
I’d never heard of the Unesco Artists for Peace project, but UK author Lauren Child has traveled the world on their behalf in the last eighteen months, meeting kids everywhere, and basically doing school visits with them — in homeless shelters and orphanages. It’s a pretty neat project, really, to travel the world and tell stories.
Two more days ’til I get on a plane and go back to Sunny California — hah, hah! It’s now colder in my home state than it is in Glasgow!! What’s wrong with this picture!?!?
Back to work.