I heart GalleyCat. Yes, I do and I’m not ashamed to say it. It’s one of MediaBistro’s many blogs and in my opinion, it’s one of the best. Between the insider info on the publishing world and the great interviews, I feel that it’s a must read for writers and authors. No, I don’t get a check from them for saying this. When I find something I like, I feel the need to share it.

One of yesterday’s articles, entitled “Writers: Making a Living Off of Kindle?” caught my eye for a variety of reasons. Anything that has “writer” and “making a living” and “Kindle” is probably going to stop me in my tracks. I clicked on the link and lo and behold it’s an interview with J.A. Konrath, author of the Jack Daniels detective series. The interview was inspiring. Here’s an excerpt:

Is it really possible to make a living from selling eBooks on Kindle? Could someone actually give up their day job? And if so, how long would it take to do so?

I’m currently selling 180 ebooks a day on Kindle…

180 books a day, without a publisher backing him. Wahoo!

You can read the rest of the interview here.

Julia Cameron is the author of, “The Artist’s Way.” The book/program is supposed to help unblock the blocked and discover the undiscovered artist in each of us. It may sound a little woo-woo for some people, but oh well.

I’ve started and stopped this program about twice now. However, I have restarted it and am determined to finish this time, as I discussed in an earlier blog post. So far, so good. I know I will finish it this time. I expect you to yell at me if I don’t. We can yell at me together. It’ll be fun.

Anyway, below is an interview with Julia Cameron, primarily about “The Morning Pages.” (In other clips linked on the page, she discusses other aspects of The Artist’s Way as well.)  The Morning Pages are one of the key stepping stones in The Artist’s Way path. Seriously, when I first started the course, I thought they were pointless. I’ve always resisted free writing. I’m more of a stare out the window till inspiration hits, incubate the ideas for a while and have them pretty much solid before I ever commit them to paper or screen. Staring at a blank page freaks me out and tends to scare away my already flighty muse.  I arrive at the blank page armed with ideas, but that’s not the point of the morning pages.

Last week though, I had a breakthrough.  I’d been doing the morning pages, but filling them with ho-hum journal-ish type things like how I wish I had a cup of coffee, and, oh dear god why won’t the cat make me a cup of coffee, or if I could just use the force to make myself a cup of coffee I’d be so happy. You get the point.

However, last week I actually wrote a piece of fiction. Not a story really, but a little slice of time. Just a page long, more of a descriptive piece than anything, but there it was. It came from nowhere. I hadn’t tossed it around beforehand, I hadn’t developed a mental sketch of anything. I just sat down and wrote, and it was great. Can’t wait to see how the rest of this journey unfolds.

Click here to see Julia Cameron on The Artist’s Way.

Not my interview with him, although I wish!

It’s a very entertaining interview, and I want to give a big thank you to my friend Ann for sending it along. In the interview, Cormac, author of “No Country For Old Men,”  talks about the apocalypse, love and his new book, “The Road.”

Here’s just a snippet, the link to the full article is below.

WSJ: How does that ticking clock affect your work? Does it make you want to write more shorter pieces, or to cap things with a large, all-encompassing work?

CM: I’m not interested in writing short stories. Anything that doesn’t take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing.

Click here for the full interview.