Writer's Blogs that I Love

Today, I thought I'd share some of my favorite blogs. Most are ones that I've been using since I started freelance writing, and they've been a tremendous help to me, and others I've started reading as I've progressed in my writing career. All are packed with great information, and the writers are terrific people.

• My favorite blog when I first started freelancing, and one that I still frequent almost daily, is Ask Allison by Allison Winn Scotch. Since I started reading her blog a couple of years ago, she has written and published two books and is writing a third. Prior to that (and still, I think) she wrote for several magazines, and her website archives have a ton of info for anyone aspiring to write for magazines. You could spend a month there!


• Another blog that I love is The Urban Muse. The writer, Susan Johnston, has recently moved to full-time freelancing, but has been writing for a living for a long time.


• My other favorite blogs include The Renegade Writer (they offer classes too), Men with Pens, Serenity for the Self-Employed and Inkthinker.


• One that I recently started reading is The Writer Mama Riffs by Christina Katz. Here I'm learning a lot about building a writing platform. Christina also offers some great classes.

Tools you can use...and contests!

Mondays are typically my marketing days, even when I'm busy with contracted freelance work. I do this t0 keep a constant flow of work coming my way. On most Mondays, I...

• look for freelance writing jobs,
• update my website and check its traffic,
• update my LinkedIn networking site and see what's happening with everyone,
• check invoices and article due dates,
• touch base with editors,
• set appointments with people I need to interview during the week,
• send queries or letters of introduction (LOIs),
• check to see if my Craigslist ads are current (yep, they do work sometimes), and
• check to see what my favorite bloggers are talking about. If I'm honest, I check on my favorite blogs daily. Sometimes more than once per day--it's called procrastination. :)

Today, being a Monday, I have started doing all of the above, but have just finished reading a really great blog post that I'd like to share from The Renegade Writer Blog. Today they're featuring a great post by guest blogger, Michelle V. Rafter owner of the WordCount blog, who has written a timely piece about using LinkedIn for marketing . It's appropriately titled "Secrets to my LinkedIn Success" and you can read it here.

There are two contests that I ran across today for free, soon-to-be-released books. Read the posts and enter the contests. I did! Here are the links:

• Ask Allison- Allison is hosting a "Book Giveaway Bonanza!" here. Go ahead and enter the contest to win her new book, "Time of my Life", but spend some additional time on Allison's blog. She has tons and tons of info on magazine writing for freelancers, and, most recently, a lot of information on writing, publishing and promoting your book.


• The Urban Muse-Susan has a terrific blog too! After entering the contest to win a copy of Michelle Goodman's "My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative ," spend some time perusing the fabulous insider information at The Urban Muse. Susan recently left a full-time writing position to become a freelancer. Her blog site is posted with all types of very useful information.

Now, what are some of your favorite blogs?

Michael Stelzner, from Writing White Papers, has posted the winners of his annual "Top 10 Blogs for Writers" contest. You can find the winners here for the 2008-2009 contest.

Is your favorite on the list? If yes, which is your favorite? If not, who did Michael miss?

Scholastic Books

I was reading The Urban Muse post for Thursday, July 5th. She posted about Scholastic Books. I loved Scholastic Books as a kid and I love them now. Still a bargain, starting at about 99 cents, what kid or teacher doesn't love the Scholastic Book program?



Using the monthly Scholastic Book order, I came up with a really great gift idea for one of my son's teachers that has become tradition. When my son brings home a Scholastic Book order, and decides what he'd like to get, I round the check up or add a dollar or two with a note to the teacher telling her to use the remainder of the money for books for the classroom. I don't do it with every order, but occassionally through the year, and the response has been great.

What are your memories of Scholastic Books? Do you have any great gift ideas?