I don’t know about you, but I go to my library almost weekly. It’s a great way for me to check out different books for free. Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of audio books to keep me company on my commute. I’ve listened to books I probably never would have picked up before, just for sheer lack of time, and because of this, have made some great discoveries.

My daughter also loves going to the library and not only does she love the books, she likes to participate in many of the activities that the library puts on like story time and even Lego event!

No…it’s not library appreciation week. Yes…there is one, it’s in April.

But…Galleycat has put together a great list of The Best Library People on Twitter.  It’s a very comprehensive list including writers, library students and even some libraries themselves. Be sure and check it out.

I know many of you are writers, but we’re also readers, right? And who is going to turn down the chance to win a free book?

The Girl From the Ghetto blog has a giveaway going on now. The deadline is May 16th, at midnight, and the book is “Manhood for Amateurs” by Michael Chabon.

I have the book on my “to-read” list on Goodreads.com (friend me if you haven’t already), and it sounds great. The blog post for the giveaway (click here) mentions various ways in which you can enter the contest. So get to it. The book sounds like a lot of fun.

I was thinking the other day about what helps me most as a writer. What have I done that has helped me improve my writing. I broke it down into, reading, writing and feedback.

…Reading not only books about writing, but just books in general. Seeing how other writers put sentences together, weave stories, etc.

…Writing of course…as the saying goes, “Practice makes perfect.”

…Feedback. I feel like I made and continue to make big strides after I joined a writer’s group and got feedback. Not the ‘Oh you’re awesome’ variety,  (because let me tell you, it’s rare!!) but the constructive variety. Here’s what’s wrong with it, and here’s how you can make it better. I don’t know how writers DON’T go to writer’s groups, honestly.

There are other things that help, workshops, etc. but those are my big three.

What are yours?

Happy Tuesday everybody! Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I’m postponing your regularly scheduled feature writer today. *sigh, groan* I know. But fear not, the series will return next week.

Today, I found an interesting couple of articles about young readers, both from the Washington Post.

One article pertains to graphic novels for beginning readers. I had never really thought of graphic novels as all that amazing…back in my day we called them comic books. But after seeing my daughter become obsessed with Star Wars and then wanting to clean the library out of every Star Wars graphic novel they had, I began to change my mind. She loved them, and even became inspired to create her own comic, “Mr. Sharp and Ninja Chicken.” I’ll let you know when it’s published. Here’s the WaPo article.

The other article talks about the future of children’s publishing and how it’s going to be a lot different from when we were kids! It’ll be exciting to see how it all evolves. Here’s that article.

When I was a kid, I read everything from Nancy Drew to Shel Silverstein, to Stephen King. Mr. King almost got me in trouble in fourth grade. I brought in “Cycle of the Werewolf” for free reading time and the edition I had, had comic-bookish images in it. Some of them fairly graphic. My teacher said nothing to me, but ended up calling my mom to see if she was aware of the “kinds of books I was reading.” My mom said, “Yes, I’m the one who gave it to her.” Good or bad parenting…you decide. LOL

As writer’s we  write what we are presented with. An idea or characters start to form, and we write it. When that inspiration hits, it’s the best feeling in the world. Birds sing when you walk by, the sun shines a little brighter. For me, seriously, it’s like falling in love.

Then we edit. Some people love it, some people hate it. For me, this is the time in the relationship where the honeymoon is over, and now we’re starting to fight and argue. We fight, we make up…sometimes. But now the scars are there. It’s make it or break it time. If we can make it through the editing process, we can make it through anything, and hopefully we’ll be better and stronger on the other side.

Then, we send it out, get an agent and a huge advance and a multi book publishing deal. We start hanging out with big time authors and having millions of people worship us. For me…ok, I don’t know what that’s like yet, but I’ll bet it’s awesome.

Basically, we write because we love it and we can’t NOT do it. If we’re honest with ourselves, we write for ourselves, NOT for other people. We hope beyond hope that other people, (besides our writing group buddies) like reading our work too, because if we are to make a LIVING off of our writing, it’s essential that other people like it. But, what do readers really want?

As a reader, my must haves are plot and character. Style is important, but secondary. I love a good turn of phrase, but if there’s no plot and character, so what?

As a reader, what’s important to you?

Here’s an interesting article by Salon’s own Laura Miller on that very topic.

Something interesting for Friday…  Have kids? Live far away from the grandparents? They can still participate in the time honored tradition of the bedtime story. As somebody who does frequent webcam visits with loved ones far away, I thought this was pretty cool.

Click here for the Galleycat article and video.

Also…don’t forget! Next Tuesday kicks off our Featured Writer/Author Series! It’s shaping up to be very exciting!

Yesterday, Galleycat published an article about sf/fantasy imprint, Pyr, accepting unagented manuscripts. You can see the article here.

First of all, YAY!!!!!!!  Yay, obviously, because I don’t have an agent, yet. I’m not alone in that boat. Lots of us don’t have agents, for various reasons, so this is a unique opportunity to strike out there and get published without the help of an agent.

Secondly, this brings up an interesting thought. Why would a publisher do that? At conventions, don’t we get pounded into our heads that we need an agent? Don’t publishers always say they’d RATHER work with an agent?

I’m wondering if part of this is a reaction to the current state of the publishing industry. We’re seeing a huge upsurge in e-books. More and more people are going the self-publishing route and having legitimate success. In my mind, we’re seeing what the music industry saw with iPods and mp3s. Suddenly musicians realized, hey, I can do this on my own. I don’t need a major record label to release my stuff. And some of these musicians are wildly successful.

So, is this direction publishing is going too? As a reader, do you see a stigma against self-published or independent writers or is it just becoming more mainstream to do it that way?

As a writer, have you considered going independent or are you holding out for an agent and publisher? What are your thoughts?

So now that it’s cold out (in the Northern Hemisphere), what better time to curl up with a good book, er device…ok, story.

For those of you unfamiliar with Goodreads.com please check it out and friend me! Goodreads.com is a social networking site for bibliophiles. You can find books, review them, even swap them. It’s a lot of fun and a great way to see what your friends are reading and what they think of what they’re reading. Many well known authors also have their own pages are some are very active with blog posts, etc.

Incidentally, Goodreads just scored a deal with True Ventures and will be updating their site and expanding soon. Click here to read the article.

Another great site, again brought to me by my friend Ann, is Dailylit.com.  It’s free, it’s online and it can be delivered right to your inbox. It doesn’t get much more convenient than that. You can read whole books (fiction and non-fiction), short stories, and more. Great for those midday coffee breaks. Or tea if you prefer.