THE WRITE PLACE…

to find Patti Singleton these days.


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A-Z April Challenge; P is for Postcards

 

A delicate leaf skeleton from a nature walk with Kevin last month.  PHALL PHOTO 2014

A delicate leaf skeleton in a bed of moss, from a nature walk with Kevin last month.
PHALL PHOTO 2014

First of all, I want to thank everyone who has read, commented, shared and/or “Liked” my posts, A through O, for the A-Z April Challenge. I’ve met a lot of new blog friends these last two weeks, which makes the whole thing well worth tearing my hair out, and trying to lift the alphabet to a new level of weird, interesting, and hopefully, entertaining.

I’m switching it up for P, by giving my writer progress update. It’s an exciting one for me. My priority project, which has sat on the back burner these long months of romance and caregiving and travel, is now in the hands of a reliable editor. More on that later.

Here’s the scoop and a reminder of the project:

Postcards of Action and Hope; Preparation for a Medical Crisis

A Preview Booklet excerpted from Book 2 of “Souvenirs from My Heart; The Patient Patient Advocate

This booklet version is from a portion of my three-part memoir-in-progress. An edited version of this work was first published in serial form, here on my blog site, The Write Place. I have included selected comments from my blog community, using initials only. This booklet is not intended to slam the medical profession, nor will I be singing any inspirational happy songs. My intention is to inform and motivate readers to prepare an emergency medical file for each member of their household; to learn from the lessons my late husband, Paul, and I, learned the hardest way.

I intend to work the kinks out of it over the next few months. It will still have to be formatted for ebook and hard copy distribution. Still many decisions to make and actions to take, but we’re closer! I will probably be asking some of you veteran’s for some advice along the way. Of course, I’ll be sharing the journey, in hopes of helping the next writer in line.

Thank you for your patience,

Patti

 

Hey, I hope you find time to check out some of the other A-Z April Challenge blogs here:

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/a-to-z-challenge-sign-uplist-2014.html


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My Favorite Writer Resource Sites, What are Yours?

The moon from my porch a few nights ago.  Click on this and be amazed. I was! PHALL PHOTO 2013

The moon from my porch a few nights ago. Click on this and be amazed. I was!
PHALL PHOTO 2013

Add your great writer links and we will soon have a comprehensive community-built list! I think the value of this is sharing resources that we are using ourselves. Putting this list together gave me motivation to visit some of these resources more often, to make better use of what they offer. It’s always hard for me to maintain a healthy balance between researching and actually writing. How about you? Do you get carried away with researching and learning more about the craft of writing?

GREAT WRITER LINKS!!!!

Here is my list of great sites for writers. Please leave a comment to add other great sites to this list. Also, if you find some that are right up your alley, don’t forget to check out their other social media homes; FB, Twitter, Linkedin, Google +, etc.

http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com/  Freelance writers can look here for job leads, writing tips and more.

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/  Look on the resource page for helpful writer links from a published author.

http://www.fundsforwriters.com/  From Hope Clark’s site, “This website has been awarded as a Best Writing Website. Sponsored by Writer’s Digest,Writer’s MarketWriter’s Digest University & Writer’s Digest Shop. Selected for the last 13 years in a row.” Hope is another no-nonsense writer’s friend who has valuable resources to share.

http://www.rachellegardner.com/  Rachelle says about her site, “My passion is partnering with authors to bring worthwhile books to publication. I started this blog as a way to create a community of writers, both published and seeking publication. I write about a wide variety of topics of interest to writers, and I consider the reader comments even more important than my own posts.”

http://annerallen.blogspot.com/  Anne’s is another well-known Best Writing Website. I get her newsletter and it is always helpful and engaging.

http://kriswrites.com/  Kris is a prolific (I mean really prolific!) author and has very cut and dried writing business advise, along with other helpful writing tips. Her newsletters are very wordy, but worth every minute spent reading them. There are no pretty pictures of fluffy fill, she just gets her point across.

http://winningwriters.com/index.php  Writing contests, free and otherwise. Regularly updated with reliable contest information.

http://www.everywritersresource.com/literarymagazines/  I love this place. I’ll use their own words to explain who they are, “We hope that everything we do benefits publishers, editors, and writers. We are concerned for the well-being and preservation of literary magazines and small publishers. Writing and editing is a business, but it is also a passion. Here we hope to promote both the well-being and community of writers, editors, and publishers. Everything on our site is a free public service.”

http://zguta.wordpress.com/2013/09/27/indie-review-sites/  Elisabeth Zguta’s Indie Review list. She is friendly and has many other resources for writers.

http://editminion.com/  EditMinion is a robotic copy editor to help you refine your writing by finding common mistakes. You just cut and paste a sample of your writing.

http://figment.com/   A community where you can share your writing, connect with other readers, and discover new stories and authors. Whatever you’re into, from sonnets to mysteries, from sci-fi stories to cell phone novels, you can find it all here.

http://janefriedman.com/   Jane has an article for every writer’s interest. She is up-to-date on all things writing, publishing, and editing. She’s big, but I did find a number of broken links. No worries, because there are always more links about the same topic.

http://grubdaily.org/  The blog is filled with great articles by a list of professionals in the business. Here’s part of their long, but worthy story, “Grub Street is the second largest independent center for creative writing in the United States. Our mission is to be an innovative, rigorous, and welcoming community for writers who together create their best work, find audience, and elevate the literary arts for all. We accomplish this by offering the highest quality classes and services for writers at all stages of development, by educating writers through the entire writing process from inspiration to publication and promotion, by putting a premium on teaching excellence, by welcoming as many writers as possible through generous scholarships and free outreach programming, by creating fulfilling employment for writers, by connecting people and ideas through writing, and by empowering writers to fully embrace new opportunities ushered in by the digital age.”

http://beyondthemargins.com/  Speaking of the former listing, these folks at BTM came from Grub Street. Here’s a bit of what they are up to, “A blog, a sounding board, a daily dose of insight. It offers essays on the craft of writing and the business of publishing. There are tips on creating memorable scenes and great dialogue. Interviews with authors, editors and agents. Humorous pokes at the craft, the industry and at ourselves. Think literary magazine run amok.”

http://nathanbransford.com/   Among the best and most well-known writer’s helper on the web.

http://writerunboxed.com/   Tons of good info here. In my top three best sites for writers. As a matter of fact, many of the people on my list are contributors on this site. Okay, and all of the people I missed are also on this site! When you are done exploring the general contents, start at the top and work your way down the list of contributors on the right-hand side of the main page. See ya in a few years :>)

http://pred-ed.com/  Preditors & Editors. A guide to publishers, and publishing services for serious writers since 1997. All writers should get familiar with this site.

http://www.swensonbookdevelopment.com/  Jill has some very good advice, and free or inexpensive downloads, and specifically;

http://www.swensonbookdevelopment.com/blog/2013/building-your-author-brand-checklist/

http://www.swensonbookdevelopment.com/blog/2013/ten-tips-for-building-an-audience-platform/

Please let me know if you have issues with any of these sites.

Peace,

Patti


30 Comments

Request Advise and/or Feelings About Using Your Comments

My dog pals; Gertrude, in back, the late :>(Tanner, and Roo in front. Another photo with no relation to my post :>)

My dog pals; Gertrude, in back, the late :>(Tanner, and Roo in front.
Another photo with no relation to my post :>)

As you all know, I’m publishing  the Souvenirs from My Heart “Postcards” serial, which I posted here in July and August. I feel that it would add a lot to include comments that you made as I ran the serial on this blog.

I’ve done some research and can’t find a definitive answer about adding your comments. Here are some of the questions that I’m pondering:

1-Is it legal? ethical? to add your comments?

2-Do I add them all anonymously, or include the name you used to post the comments?

3-Should I offer to include your blog links to your comments?

4-Do I have to have signed releases by everyone?

After a final professional edit, I’m ready to publish the “Postcards” serial, so what do you think, should I hold off and add comments or not? Frankly, if it is going to add a lot of time to the project, I will probably not add the comments…

Thank you for your input!

Patti