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What I'm writing in YEAR OF THE DOG

I just finished writing Year of the Dog ! It had a massive plot hole that I had to fix which turned out to be more work than I expected. Here’s a snippet: “Hey, Auntie Nell.” He wrapped his arms around her, bussing her on the cheek and breathing in pikake flowers and shortbread cookies. And suddenly he was nine years old again, and her solid presence had made his chaotic world stable once more. “What are you doing here?” He usually took her to dinner on Wednesday nights, but today was Tuesday. The edges of her smile faltered a little before brightening right back up again. “What, I can’t visit my nephew?” She angled around him to enter his home. “Is this your new house? Looks lovely.” Which was a blatant lie, because the fixer-upper was barely livable, much less acceptable to a neat-freak like his aunt. She also left four matching pink and purple floral suitcases on the stoop behind her. Only then did Ashwin notice the cab driver standing slightly to the side of the walkway. “Can ...
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Christmas gifts for writers, part 4

Captain’s Log, Supplemental

Blog book giveaway:
To enter, go to the blog links below and post a comment there.
My Monday book giveaway is Scoop by Rene Gutteridge
My Thursday book giveaway is Blind Dates Can Be Murder by Mindy Starns Clark.
You can still enter both giveaways. On Monday, I'll draw the winner for the Scoop and post the title for another book I'm giving away.

Win an iPod Nano! Exclusively for my newsletter YahooGroup subscribers, I have a huge contest running until January 31st! Get more info on my contest page!

It’s starting to look a lot like Christmas...

Last year, I came across an article on gifts for writers, and I expanded on it with an article of my own. I’ll be posting a part of it every Friday and then eventually post the entire article on my Story Sensei blog.

I’m starting this series early so your loved ones—er, Santa can start saving up for maybe something extra special.

And if you have ideas of your own, leave a comment and I’ll add it to the list!

Gifts for Writers, part four (continued from part three)

• A set of thank you cards for contest judges, editors, or agents
One thing I think writers don’t do enough is SEND THANK YOU CARDS. To editors and agents even when they reject you, because you’re developing a relationship with them and you don’t want to come across as a disgruntled Prima Dona writer.

Also, send thank you notes to contest judges—a very under-recognized breed—who give their time to judge your entry. I don’t care if they gave you the lowest score, they still took the time to read it and give feedback. You don’t have to agree with the feedback, but at least be courteous, even (and especially) if the judge wasn’t as courteous to you.

• Gelpens

• A creativity journal

• A special pen: Montblanc, Waterman, or a more inexpensive rollerball or fountain pen (Levenger.com has a few cheaper ones)
There’s a possibility that your writer might be picky about her pens. Some like them lighter, some like them heavier. Some like a thick barrel, others like a thin barrel. Some like them short, other like them long. A good pen can be nice to autograph books with, but there’s also the possibility that a writer will want a more flamboyant pen for signings.

• A nice business card case
I give out tons of business cards at conferences. This might change when I get bookmarks, but business cards are best to give out to editors and agents.

• Blank disks/CDs for backing up files or giving away (I’m thinking of handing out CDs with free stuff when I go to a booksigning—free short stories, novel excerpts, etc. For a while, I was also using CDs to back up my files.)

• A USB flashdrive for backup and storage (I love these things, they’re so small, light, and inexpensive.)

• An external hard drive backup, or a subscription to an online backup service.
I can’t stress enough what other authors have told me—back up everything OFTEN. I use an external hard drive to back up my files, but there are also online subscription services like .mac which automatically will back up all the files on the computer at a certain time each day.

• Aromatherapy—candles, a cold diffuser, an electric low heat diffuser, a candle diffuser, or a warm oil diffuser, plus a variety of essential oils.

• A bath set or one of any of these things—soaps, bath salts, bath fizzies, bath oils, towels, exfoliator, an over the tub rack to hold books or snacks, bathrobe (for pampering and brainstorming)

• Little clip-on nightlight for late-night reading or scribbling. (There’s also a neat alternative in the Levenger LightWedge, which has a magnifier attachment. It also comes in LightWedge Magnifier paperback size.)

• Bookweight for holding books open flat

To be continued next week Friday

TMI:

Writing: I posted another article on dialogue at my Story Sensei blog.
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Comments

Meljprincess said…
All these gifts sound very nice. As an aspiring writer I love getting journals and pens.
Fri Dec 08, 07:54:00 AM 2006
Being Mrs Miles said…
Camy - had to stop by and say hello. I am sorry I've been very busy. I love to write too, though my blog is 'bout all i get writing these days LOL... my passion is for fountain pens.. I LOVE FOUNTAIN PENS .. they call up days of yore in my mind. I pray all is well with you, dear one.

Barb
Fri Dec 08, 09:53:00 AM 2006
Kelly said…
Right now I'm really wanting the flash drive and the clip-on light. If someone wants to go reaally expensive, a laptop would do just the trick ...yeah.
Fri Dec 08, 10:15:00 AM 2006
Anonymous said…
Ooo, I just got a flash drive, and they are SO fast compared to saving to a CD. Journals are always a good one--I have way more than I'll ever write in.
Fri Dec 08, 11:32:00 AM 2006
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