Welcome to Blog Treasures, my weekly roundup of the best of the blogsphere from the last week. I’m working hard, gearing up for NaNoWriMo, so for you NaNoites I’ve added a section of links just for you (although the writing advice contained in them applies to all writers). Enjoy the links!
Featured
Four Steps for Organizing Plot Ideas Into a Novel by Jody Hedlund, hosted by the ever-fantastic Jenny Hansen. This is the post that helped me the most during the past week. I hope it helps you as well. My thanks to both of these great ladies.
NaNo Fever
Larry Brooks continues his 30 days of Nanotips over at Storyfix. Here is a link to get you started: Tip #15 Try This and Move Forward.
Carrie Mumford has a few very helpful NaNo links that I haven’t featured (because you should go look at her site, it’s cool). NaNoWriting Mania!
From Kristen Lamb: Structure Part 3 – Introducing the Opposition
Alexandra Sokoloff: NaNoWriMo: Narrative Structure Cheat Sheet. Alexandra has an entire series of incredible NaNo prep posts that can be found by scrolling down the side column on her site, such as, The Elements of Act One.
On Publishing & Social Media
Catie Rhodes has smart suggestions for net travelers in Catie’s Social Media Do’s & Dont’s.
From Bob Mayer: Readers Rule: The Ultimate Gatekeepers of Publishing
Lynn Kelly explores the many facets of My Options in Publishing. Great information!
Dan Blank interviews Angela James in This is a Great Time to be in Publishing.
From Susan Bischoff: Does Anybody Really Know What Marketing Works?
Jane Friedman hosted Kristen Lamb this week with 3 Blunders That Can Kill Your Author Platform.
From Kristen Lamb, an in-depth look at the the scary part of publishing: Numbers Are Our Friends – Writers and the Wild World of Metrics.
Jami Gold provides a great article on The Insanity Behind the Pressure to Have “Numbers”.
On the Craft of Writing
James Killick takes an interesting (and humorous) look at 5 Ways To Banish Drama From Our Scenes.
The Bookshelf Muse brings us: Character Trait: Witty & Weather: Mirage.
From Janice Hardy: The Sum of the Parts: Writing a Synopsis. Also from Janice Hardy: Tightening Your Narrative Focus.
From Write It Sideways: 6 Ways to Reconnect With Your Work-In-Progress.
Mystery Writing is Murder author, Elizabeth S. Craig brings us Changing our Routines for Writing and Life
Amy Shojai gives us a purrfectly written post on Traditional Media & The Brave New (Internet) World.
On the Writing Life
How Bad is Plagiarism? Jami Gold explores this topic and its damaging ramifications.
Judy Duarte guests at Writers In The Storm with 9 Lessons for the Publication Road
August McLaughlin tells us about How I Met My Agent (And You Could Too).
Roz Morris brings us: Can I Trust My Agent’s Advice On My Book?
Write It Sideways offers us 5 Tips to Get Inspired when we inevitably hit “The Wall”.
From Writers In The Storm: 10 Power Tips for Critique Groups.
Shea MacLeod provides us with an awesome Author Interview featuring M. Edward McNally in Farscape, Polynesian History & Tillamook Cheese.
From Kait Nolan: An Open Letter to Barnes & Nobles (find out the ups & downs of distribution).
Fun & Interesting Links
Art can inspire thoughts of stories, other realms not seen with the eye and emotion buried deep inside of us. Mary Jo Gibson’s Cabinet of Curiosities always inspires the the imagination while bringing us interesting history and artifacts. Mary Jo also has a great overview (including lots of art) of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
As most of you know, I have teenagers. As parents we all want to protect our kids from the dangers of the modern world. Cate Woods brings us great information and advice on one of the dangers in: The Ultimate Wake-Up Call to Parents: Want to Go Private?
Jen L. Kirchner is back with an exciting Vote Your Own Adventure. Join us for The Mark.
Piper Bayard brings us Bayard/Lamb 2012 – Because Blonde is the New Black. Polls are open.
JM Randolph takes a cool look at an awesome motorcycle in Full-Assed Friday: Ural.
Tiffany A. White has the best TV over views around, like this one: Revenge is Sweet! (yes, yes it is).
Kait Nolan explores the Season of Temptation (beware the holiday crack, er, sugar fest).
We all have our geek points (at least if we are interesting we do). Kathy Owen takes a humorous look at this subject in Get Your Geek On!
That’s all for this week. Join me Wednesday when we take a look at the cryptic meanings of an ancient metal scroll in my Designing from Bones series.
Peaceful Journeys!
Gene Lempp ~ Writer 
Gene! Our Mash-Ups are going to look very similar this week. I guess we like to read the same stuff.
That said, I should read some Nano stuff. It can only help for writing. And I wish you luck as you prepare for that adventure!
Great mashup as always ROWbro. Have a great weekend. ~clink~
Another cool mashup, Gene! Thanks for the linky-love, fellow geek!
Great mashup, I’ve read about half. HAGW!
Your mashups are such fantastic resources, Gene. Honored to be a part of this one!
Love it! Have already read half, and now have the rest of my weekend reading planned. Thanks!
Gene, I’m behind on my reading this week with getting ready for NaNo and you’ve just saved me SCADS of time by gathering it all in one place.
Plus, you honored me with serious blog love. Featured post?? Dang dude, I feel like I won an award! *I’d like to thank the Academy of #myWANA and #ROW80* Wait till I tell Jody…
Thanks too for the shout outs to the Writers In The Storm (WITS) posts. We appreciate it. 🙂
Have a great weekend, my friend!
Fantastic links! Thanks for including my posts this week. And now I have a bunch more reading to do. There was a lot of great stuff this week, wasn’t there? 🙂
Gene, thanks so much for including me and steering me to these other great blogs! I did NaNoWriMo last year for the first time and didn’t finish it, but did get a great start on my current WIP. I wish you the best with it!
Thanks so much for the kind words, Gene! And for the amazing links, once again. I especially enjoyed ‘Four Steps for Organizing Plot Ideas Into a Novel’. I love this NaNaWriMo fever! It’s resulting in some fantastic writing advice.
Thanks for including me in your mash-up. I hope you’re having a great Saturday. I have been pretty unproductive, but it’s been nice. 😀
Thanks to you all of you 🙂
This was an awesome week in the blogsphere and each of you prove why by your fantastic posts or incredible support.
I’ve been locked in NaNo prep for most of the day and yes, the links for that are helpful for more then just NaNo. One can never have too much craft knowledge.
Have a great weekend!
Gene, thanks so much for including my link in your awesome mash-up! Also, thanks for the NaNo links. I’ll check them out when I get my laptop fixed. It died on me yesterday. What a bummer. I feel like I’m handicapped, out of touch with everything! I’ll catch up with your posts when I’m back in business. Have a good week.
Fahhhbulous round up Gene – thanks for taking the time to put this all together for us. It’s like one-stop shopping. The Wal-Mart of blogosphere. Love it!
I had a busy weekend, so I’m behind schedule reading my favorite blogs. I wouldn’t miss this though, and made sure to stop by as soon as I could. As always, great mashup, Gene and THANK YOU for including my Revenge post. I hope you had a great weekend and have a good week. I look forward to next weekend’s treasures.