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!

Please mark your calendars! Next week, on Tuesday March 2nd, I’ll be kicking off a weekly series featuring various writers and authors. So far we have a great line-up! I’m hoping to introduce you to some exciting new voices in the writing and publishing world.

Next week, I will be featuring Garry Graves, author of “Character Happens -    The Five Most Important-But Fleeting Virtues.” Garry will answer some questions about his upcoming book as well as writing in general, and he’ll be happy to take any questions that you may have.

So be sure and stop by next Tuesday. This will be a great opportunity to meet new, or new to you writers and authors.

Writer, Lynne Kelly Hoenig, recently signed with an agent. She shares her journey with photographs.

Click here to check it out.

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?

Thank you to Weezel at What Scares You? for presenting me with this annoying prestigious blog award. In a few moments, I will be bestowing the honor on a few of you per the rules below.

Here are the rules:
1. Thank the person who gave this to you.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you.
4. Tell up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth.
5. Nominate seven “Creative Writers” who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

Truth or Lies?

1. I sang back up on RuPaul’s first album.

2. I have hiked in the Alps.

3. I studied to be a mortician before I became a communications major in college.

4. I am the best cook in the entire world.

5. I clean up crime scenes as a part-time job.

6. I have no sense of smell.

7. I’m actually 65 years old.

People get into writing in all different ways. Some people know from the day they’re born (or so they claim) that they wanted to be a writer or artist. Some people don’t figure it out until much later.

In school, I always enjoyed reading and writing, but “writer” was never a career path I ever thought of seriously. Even if I had, I’m fairly certain it’s one that most parents wouldn’t encourage. It ranks right up there with “actor.” So, I went to college, got a degree in communications, taking a heavy load of English and Literature classes, mostly because they were interesting and counted toward my major credits.

During my last year in college, I came up with an idea for a story. Not on purpose, it just sort of popped into my head. It was a melodramatic, poorly written story, which I for the better, ended up losing most of in a floppy disk tragedy that was just about as tragic as the story itself.

Still, other stories and characters came into my head and before too long, William and Gabriel came along, and “Shaping Fate” was born. At that point I started taking the writing seriously. Took some classes, read more how-to books, joined critique groups, etc.

So when was your turning point, or did you have one? Did you always know you wanted to write or paint or be a professional artist or was it something that grew over time?

My neck of the woods is about to get hit by possibly the worst snow storm since the 70′s. Fun! Not.

So right now I’m in scramble mode, with the rest of my friends and neighbors, all zillion of them, to try and get ready for the storm that in some areas, is already here.

I’m thinking this might be a fun way to throw out a writing prompt and see what I get back.

Gentlemen, start your pens/pencils/computers… (vroom, vroom)

The snow started falling before I was ready…

Take it away…have fun!

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.