Dear Reader, I am a Junkie

I am a blog and article junkie. I can read links about writing and books and editing and agenting and PW news and SCBWI news and Salon pieces and Cynsations weekly round-up and follow links until the cows come home - or all morning until I have no idea what happened to the last 3-4 hours. And it's lunchtime.

I love anything and everything about writing/writers and making books and selling books and reading books and covers and blurbs and reviews. **LOVE**!!! Every aspect of the business fascinates me, and it's like I can't get enough. 

Since I'm still working on these kick-me-to-the-gutter revisions for Harpercollins (nights and weekends, too!) I'm doing a few quick blog posts so y'all don't forget about me, ha, ha.

Alison Bechdel and I share Harriet the Spy in common as probably the book that inspired us the most to become a writer. I'd already been dabbling in some really stupid short stories before I read it as a child, and I was already a major child book-a-holic but after reading Harriet, I got serious. :-)

How To Write by Colson Whitehead. 10 Tips for Writers. Serious. Tongue-in-cheek. Hilarious. #10 made me crack up at my computer.

And did I mention Cynsations? Read Cynthia daily if you read nothing else. Her Friday round-up of best links in the children's lit world is terrific - especially last Friday so go look it up now! And especially this: http://cute-n-cranky.livejournal.com/128001.html

I wish I had read this when I was first starting out as a writer and beginning submissions or querying. I think it would save new writers a lot of angst and heartache by looking at your writing product in this way.

Enjoy, and I'll see you on the other side of my deadline - if I survive and don't need a hair transplant before then . . .

~Kimberley