Writer's Report 2.0

Heather Armstrong began blogging in 2001. She was fired after writing about her job and co-workers on her blog. After eight years, more than 6,900 posts and 1.5 million visitors a month, Heather’s brutally honest and often hysterical musings have been turned into the memoir, ‘It Sucked and then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita’ published by Simon Spotlight Entertainment.

It’s a humorous look at life, relationships, dealing with depression, childbirth and parenthood.

In this recent USA Today interview, Heather talks about her blog and the new book:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2009-03-25-blogs-heather-armstrong_n.htm

Or listen to Heather on this Podcast interview from the bat segundo show:
http://www.edrants.com/segundo/heather-armstrong-bss-276/

Even better, read Heather’s daily blog entries and pics at Dooce. You are guaranteed to be entertained.

This is from the blog Lying for a Living, published by one of my favorite up and coming crime novelists, Meg Gardiner. She has a humorous matter of fact no-nonsense approach on many subjects. On these posts she describes Character Building she did for her newest book, The Dirty Secrets Club and how she did it without a ‘so-called’ muse

Some writers claim they don’t construct their stories. Instead, they say, when they sit down at the keyboard the characters “just take over.” These writers describe this occurence with whimsical amazement at the way their creations spill themselves gloriously onto the page.

I don’t believe it. If writers truly think their characters seize control of the story, they’re either playing with a ouija board, off their meds, or listening to so much Carrie Underwood that they’ve thrown their hands in the air, crying for somebody to take the wheel. Gosh, it wasn’t me… this book is just a transcription of THE VOICES INSIDE MY HEAD. (more…)

Cool Blog: DeepGenre.com has a great article for newbie SFF novelists on what it takes to make a career out of writing Science Fiction & Fantasy novels. The true key to it all? Love what you do.