I’m learning how much it helps my own writing “groove” to spread the word on great sites to others who are trying to improve their own “groove.” It seems writers are big into helping eachother out, as the folks at the sites below have done for me. I won’t repeat that overused, but catchy saying, but I will hope that you pass it on!

I’ve been submitting a few stories, poems and such to a friendly site, http://fictionaut.com/  that has been great practice for me.. I’ve had a good number of readers, a few commenters, and a couple of favs from the writing community there. I’m still on the lookout for a way to get more readers and/or to find other sites that might work better for me.

Two days ago I got brave, I mean really brave, and joined the campers at National Novel Writing Month. You can find them here, http://www.campnanowrimo.org The next writing starts in June, so I hope to have my act together enough to participate. They are very serious about getting writers to commit to a completed 50,000 word novel in one month. Yikes.

Good ole Robert Lee Brewer is the bane of my existence lately. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m following along his April challenge for writers to build their platform. He can be found here http://robertleebrewer.blogspot.com if you want some great step-by-step help in building your platform. I’m thinking I’ll just get a box to stand on and shout at people to buy my damn book. Now there’s a platform I could get behind. Seriously, he has links for his links to every useful site a writer could ever want.

Sue Mitchell at www.AnUntoldStory.com has me doing memoir work every few days that seems to be building into something…although one trusted critiquer in my local writing class thought my first stab sounded “clinical.”  I have even had counselors tell me that in the past. Come on people! Do you think I’d be walking upright if the horrors of life struck me full force like a rogue wave? Uh, nooo. Okay, I’m working on it.

My 3-week writing class is going well. We’re learning a lot and getting to know the other local writers that are at the class. We’re talking about doing some community work writing the stories of some of our local seniors, after this class is over. Here’s a link to the dog book that my instructor, Rex Paul Martin, co-produced with a friend,

http://thedailyworld.com/sections/news/local/local-author-and-photographer-let-dogs-tell-their-tales.html

Last but not least, I’m still working on biz cards as challenged by the leader of my monthly writer group at the local library. I’m looking for cool writerly clip art, if you know of any, please leave it in a comment.

Peace,

Patti