Welcome to Writing Blog Treasures! Here you’ll find the best of the blogsphere from the past week. So, grab your coffee, sit back and above all – enjoy *smile*
Featured
This weeks Featured post, by the incredible, multidimensional August McLaughlin speaks for itself…
Excerpt:
We hear a lot about creating a sense of urgency in our writing. But do you have it in your writing life?
A recent ADOBE study showed that 8 in 10 people see unlocking creativity as vital to economic growth and nearly two-thirds consider creativity an asset to society. Yet only 1 in 4 people worldwide believe they are living up to their creative potential. Yipes. Though it’s refreshing to hear that creativity is valued, those results are frightening. And I couldn’t help but wonder how many writers feel similarly.
…The following steps have helped me ignite it when the swing set seems slightly out of reach… Read more of August’s brilliant post at…
Urgency to Write: How to Keep the Fire Burning by August McLaughlin
On Publishing
Using Your Self-Publishing Success to Find an Agent with Elizabeth Mock via Lindsay Buroker.
Making a Living with Your Short Fiction by Dean Wesley Smith.
Self-and-Indie Publishing as Business (An Overview) by Susan Spann. Excellent post!
Kobo’s Writing Life: The Long-Awaited Self-Publishing Portal by Jen Talty.
2012 Book Sales Strong for Both E-book and Print by Joel Friedlander.
Myths About Traditional Publishing by Gemma Halliday.
On Aspects of Publishing
Are You Making This Marketing Mistake? by Jason Kong via Jane Friedman.
The 8 Steps on my Publishing Journey by Alan Shelton via Joel Friedlander.
Two Books a Year? by Alexandra Sokoloff.
Can Writing in Multiple Genres Hurt Your Sales Potential? by Lindsay Buroker.
Trademark is NOT a Verb: Guidelines from a Trademark Lawyer by Brad Frazer via Jane Friedman.
Lines in the Sand: The Business Rusch by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
Being Your Own Literary Agent: Negotiating Your Own Contract by Theresa Ragan.
On Social Media & Platform
Fight Hate with Love, Not More Hate by Kait Nolan.
The Great Twitter Experiment. What Does “More Tweets” Really Get You? by Janice Hardy. This is a beautiful post full of excellent insight and much of it I personally agree with from my own Twitter observations. Absolutely worth the read if you use Twitter as part of your Author Platform.
7 Networking Tips for Authors by Joanna Penn.
Insulting Your Writer Friends by Dean Wesley Smith.
How to Keep Your Twitter Account Safe by Carrie Mumford.
Developing Your Writing Presence on the Web by Susan Bearman.
Author Blogging 101: Keyword Basics by Joel Friedlander.
Something Special
Hundred Zeros for FREE E-books via Digital Inspiration. Excerpt: Hundred Zeroes is a comprehensive collection of free e-books on all subjects from History to Arts to Computers.
On Writing Craft
Suspense vs. Thrillers – Easy-Peasy, Right? by Stacy Green.
3 Steps to Naming Your Characters by Gabriela Pereira. Also from Gabriela, Finding Names that Capture Your Characters.
Simple Ways to Create Page-Turning Conflict by Kristen Lamb.
Fixing Episodic Chapters by Janice Hardy.
What’s the Worst that Can Happen? Your Characters Biggest Fear by Laura Drake.
Do Your Characters Fight in a way that Advances Your Story? by Jenny Hansen.
25 Things You Should Know About Writing Fantasy by Chuck Wendig.
Why You Need to Stop Rewriting by Ava Jae. Also from Ava, How (Not) to Write Amazing Villains.
Janice Hardy On Style, a blog takeover at the Bookshelf Muse with Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi.
On the Writer’s Life
The Beauty of Something New by August McLaughlin.
30 Dr. Seuss Quotes that can Change Your Life and 5 Fun Links by Marcia A. Richards.
It’s Not My Job to Convince You by Mhairi Simpson. Great post!
Letter to a Writer who is Losing Confidence by Roz Morris. Beautifully said!
Summer Writing – Writing Around Children by Elizabeth S. Craig.
Why I Love Beta Reading by Jami Gold.
Movie Reviews
Jillian Dodd reviews Rock of Ages.
Gloria Oliver reviews Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.
Gene Lempp ~ Writer 
Good Morning, Gene! You’ve got a plethora of fabulous links. Chuck Wendig is always awesome and I liked the post about writing in multiple genres. Now I’m off to see why Jami Gold likes being a Beta (I do too!), then I’m heading over to Mhairi’s blog. We’re so lucky to have all these excellent blogs to choose from, and even more lucky that we have you to keep us in the loop!
Hi Gene,
Your Saturday Treasures are a treasure chest of week-end wonder. Thanks for the double blog love!
-Fae Rowen
What a great list, Gene! Janice Hardy’s posts are always worth a read. Elizabeth S. Craig’s will be passed on to some friends who were just talking about “how will they fit in their writing time this summer with kids at home”. Going to read Mhairi’s Dean’s first! Thanks so much for including mine in your fab mashup, my friend! Hope things in your life continue on the upswing!
Wow, Gene. Thanks so much for your kind words and support! Between that and the plethora of awesome links to check out (especially eager to read Janice’s Twitter post), you’ve made my Saturday. Have a fantastic day and weekend. 🙂
Thanks for this Gene – you make my weekend blog reading so much more enjoyable! (And thank you for including my post too 🙂
Your Blog Treasures is one of the highlights of my weekends. I can always trust on you to deliver recent publishing gems. And despite combing through a lot of author platform links, I’m always on a lookout for more. And you had some new ones for me. Yay.
Thanks so much for the mention, Gene! And this post is perfect for me – I’ve been on vacation and have so much catching up to do!
This list is like is treasure for writers! Thank you for taking the time to find these llinks for us. Your work & connections are appreciated! 😀
Gene, I LOVE the weekend mashup!! I usually read it on Sunday morning – it’s my writing paper and I look forward to it all day Saturday when I’m rushing to get my stuff done. 🙂
I’m glad you all are enjoying the links and finding them useful – which is precisely why I love doing this post. 🙂
These are some seriously great links, Gene, thanks for including me. Could you please now tell me how I’m ever going to have time to READ all this? 😉
Hello, Alexandra. What an honor to have you stop in! I wouldn’t expect anyone to read all of the posts. Read what seems relevant to your interests and current writing direction/struggles. By the way, I’m reading a book of yours currently, Writing Love. Love the process detail in it 🙂
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