A Treasure Trove of Writing Links

by Jenny Hansen

Writers In The Storm bloggers have been busily reading about a variety of subjects. There is so much Craft to learn, publishing trends to follow and writing to polish. Below are some blogs that really stood out for Sharla, Laura and I these last few weeks.

(p.s. Don’t forget to follow this post to the end…we have some news about the Going To The Chapel Contest!)

Laura Drake – Top Picks

• Don’t sign an agreement without reading this by Kristine Rusch
• Should you Self Publish after a Near Miss? by Jane Friedman
• Putting the Character into Characterization by StoryFix
• A Must Read re: Publishing Industry  by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• The most critical storytelling skill by Chuck Wendig
• 10 Ways to Create a Plot Twist by T.N. Tobias

Jenny Hansen – Top Picks

• What Makes a Good Story? by Chuck Wendig (love this guy!)
• Anna DeStefano and Jenni Holbrook-Talty’s How We Write Wednesday Series
• Ebook Publishing and the Great Price Debate by M. Louisa Locke
• Working Together To Renovate Publishing – The WANA Plan by Kristin Lamb
• Branding 101: Online Brand vs. Author Brand by Jami Gold
• Anyone who read my post about Hoshi knows why I loved this touching blog by Piper Bayard about her Dog Who Saved Her Life and Found Her Husband

My favorite posts from OUR authors over the last few weeks:

• P.T. For Your Writing by Yours Truly
• Writing Antifreeze: Word and Phrase Menus by Sharla Rae
• Writing Lessons from The Hunger Games by Laura Drake

Sharla Rae – Top Picks

• Is E-book the New Query? By Anne R. Allen
• The way we were in the 1950s  
• How do you learn to be a writer? Literary Agent Rachelle Gardner lists ideas 
• Video business card on a real biz card
• The real skinny on Indie publishing by Traci Marchini (with Nathan Bransford)
• Twitter Tip Jar – Linking with Google Feedburner by Brinda Berry

Last but not least, we are extending the deadline for the Going To The Chapel Contest! It has been pointed out (by several people who are in the wedding whirlwind) that early June is too busy for people to stop the wedding/graduation treadmill and write a scene for this fun, free contest, even with processional lines as thought-provoking as the ones we provided for you.

We’re changing the original dates as follows:

Contest opened for entries  – Monday, May 16th
Contest closes for entries – Midnight, Sunday June 26.
Top 5 contest finalists announced – Monday, July 11.
Winner announced – Monday, July 18.

This removes any and all excuses for NOT entering. We can’t wait to see your entry (which will be so amazing we will rush to post it on July 11th, right?)!

What brain-bending links have you come across in your web surfing lately? Please share with us in the comments section. We love to know y’all are up to!

Happy Friday!