Hi Writers,
Bless McSweeney's for publishing 90-year old debut novelist, Millard Kaufman, whose novel Bowl of Cherries has been compared (in Publishers Weekly) to the work of Vonnegut, Heller and Camus.

I wanted to line up a forum guest appearance/ live chat with Kaufman, but I'm told technology isn't his friend. I'm trying to get a phone interview, but in the mean time, please enjoy this video of Millard Kaufman discussing his work, courtesy of McSweeney's and You Tube.

Keep Writing,
Maria

Hi Writers,
You may or may not know, I've spent the past nine weeks lurking around the blogosphere perusing writers' blogs, for my Project 20/20, in which I'm spotlighting a writer's blog each week for 20 weeks.

Now, at week #9 I'm almost at the halfway mark and still getting lots of great nominations for my burgeoning blogroll. You can check out many of the nominations—and nominate a blog—on the Project 20/20 Build My Blogroll link on the left navigation.

As I've mentioned several times here on The Writer's Perspective I have eclectic tastes, I read widely and try to not pigeonhole myself into a genre. And I'm really proud of the diverse range of writers assembled so far on my blogroll. So I was looking over the blogroll today and realized, wow, I don't have a poet yet.

Of course, every good blogroll needs its own Poet Laureate. With that, here's my Week #9 add, who I hereby decree the official Poet Laureate of The Writer's Perspective blogroll:

Sage Said So by Sage Cohen

I was charmed by the asthetics of Sage's blog and website, which I think makes such a positive statement about her and her work. It's clean, elegant and makes good use of white space. The simple line drawings add personality and match the graphics on her new book of poetry, Like the Heart, the World. Sage just started her book tour and shares the experience on her blog, which is a wonderful way for writers to promote their work without seeming overly self-promotional.

I loved this recent post: "From Stopper to Striker" in which Sage compares the evolution of her writing career to lessons learned on the soccer field.

Sage, congratulations on being my newest blogroll add, and on your new role as the official Poet Laureate of The Writer's Perspective blogroll.

Have a lovely weekend. And, of course...
Keep Writing,
Maria

Hi Writers,
The December issue of Writer's Digest goes out to subscribers this week, and it will be on newsstands October 16. We're featuring a great collection of articles on how to better tap into your creative side.

I wrote about my own creative rituals in my editor's note:

I realized a while ago that in order to sit down and compose a piece of creative writing, I need to first make myself sick to my stomach.
    Procrastination, anxiety and outward chaos seem to be part of what it takes for me to get into the flow. I pace around my home or office doing busywork: compulsively shuffling papers, doing laundry, wiping down already-clean counter-tops—any mindless task, really. And all the while I’m mulling over the piece I’ll soon force myself to sit down and write. I know when it’s time to start writing when I feel it in my gut—sometimes as a tingling, sometimes as a subtle ache.   
I often wonder what spurs writers on to write when creativity seems to have this prerequisite of anxiety. But maybe these creative rites are necessary to propel us forward, to enable us to shut out the world around us and focus our energies fully on developing our random, chaotic thoughts into a singular piece of writing. We often need these humble rites to harness our creativity, don’t we? 

Your Rites: 
What are your creative rites? Do you pace and clean, like me? Go for long walks? Stare at the ceiling? Paint your toenails? You can bet you’re not the only one. Tell me about your creative rites here in the comments or you can post it on our forum in the Creative Rites thread.

Keep Writing,
Maria

Hi Writers,
It’s week 8 in my Project 20/20 Build my Blogroll contest and yes, it's still hard for me to choose from all the great writing blogs out there.

I came across this week’s pick a couple of weeks ago when I was editing a feature this writer wrote for us on how online dating is similar to editor/ writer relationships (to come in our February 08 issue).

As I mentioned before, I like to get an idea about the freelancers who contribute to us. That’s when I found this charming fellow's blog, my week 8 add:

Wordlustitude by Mark Peters.  

I don’t really even know what to call what Mark does on his blog, which takes a screwball look at modern English usage. I suppose you could say he's building a sort-of dictionary for fringe elements (note: I include myself as a fringe element).

Maybe you could call Mark a loopy linguist? A loony lexicologist? At any rate, check it out, he’s hilarious (note to the sensitive among us: I wouldn't exactly call this a G-rated site).  

Here’s one recent post:

megastitious

noun. This describes you if black cats and other evil portents give you the heebie-jeebies, the creeps, an ulcer, and the wiggins. Boooooooo!

Related term: stitious.

Real citation: “My mom's not just superstitious, she's megastitious. She's emailed my sister and I this chain mail today. My sister has multiple email accounts so mom emails it to her many mnay times...so she gets enough people in so she doesn't end up having bad luck forever, or whatever. Anyway, I thought this one was very funny and had to share.”
(Sept. 3, 2007, Post Punk Kitchen, http://www.postpunkkitchen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=682545)

Made-up citation: "Despite my atheistic ways, I can be megastitious. If you gave me thirteen cupcakes made of gold and rainbows, I think I'd run the other way."


Mark, I welcome you to my vicious (blog) circle.

Check out wordlustitude, a daily laugh for word nerds everywhere. And I'd like to encourage you all to leave your made-up words here in my comments—I have a feeling that will get Mark’s attention.

Keep Writing,
Maria
P.S. There is some risque subject matter in this blog, so please be advised!

Hi Writers,
There's another new contest bringing the Web 2.0 concept to the publishing world. Here's a blurb, "Publishers seek talent online" that ran in yesterday's New York Times:

Joining the growing list of publishers that use public votes to decide what to publish, Penguin Group is teaming with Amazon.com and Hewlett Packard for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. From today through Nov. 5, contestants from 20 countries can submit unpublished manuscripts of English-language novels to Amazon, which will assign a small group of its top-rated online reviewers to evaluate 5,000-word excerpts and narrow the field to 1,000. The full manuscripts of those semifinalists will be submitted to Publishers Weekly, which will assign reviewers to each. Amazon will post the reviews, along with excerpts, online, where customers can make comments. Using those comments and the magazine’s reviews, Penguin will winnow the field to 100 finalists who will get two readings by Penguin editors. When a final 10 manuscripts are selected, a panel including Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of the current nonfiction paperback best seller “Eat, Pray, Love,” and John Freeman, the president of the National Book Critics Circle, will read and post comments on the novels at Amazon. Readers can then vote on the winner, who will receive a publishing contract and a $25,000 advance from Penguin. Separately, Borders Group, the bookstore chain, is teaming with Gather.com, the social networking site, and Court TV to solicit unpublished manuscripts from mystery or crime writers. A panel of judges that includes the writers Harlan Coben and Sandra Brown will crown the winner from a pool of finalists selected by voters on Gather.com. The winner will receive a $5,000 advance and will be published by Borders itself.

Go to Amazon for more info. and to register. Send your entry asap, they're only taking the first 5,000 submissions!

And please keep me posted if you're planning on entering this contest. What a fabulous opportunity for a new novelist. Best of luck to all who enter.

Keep Writing,
Maria

Hi Writers,
Another Friday, another opportunity to add yet another writer's blog in my project to spotlight and add one to my blogroll each week for 20 weeks. So many great blogs, so little time...

This week, I'm adding lucky #7 to my circle of blog buddies. And without further adieu, it is:

Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids
by Christina Katz

You've probably heard publishing types using the eponymous and somewhat terrifying word "platform." As in, "We're looking for writers with an established platform..."

Well, Christina could write a book on that. She's been brilliant at establishing a grass-roots community for parent/writers through her blog. And great blogs sometimes lead to great books. Christina's book Writer Mama came out this year.

To promote her book via her blog, she's been hosting a Back-to-School book giveaway—a book a day for 31 days. There are still 3 more days left if you'd like to enter.

Also check out Christina's "Creative Manifesto," which I love, and not just because I love to use the word "manifesto" whenever possible (but it's true, I do.).

Here's #4 of the "Creative Manifesto":
"When good things happen, slow down and savor the moment. It takes effort to make good things happen, so you must have earned it!"

Ah, so true. Christina please get on here and tell us a little more about how you've use your blog to build your platform and get a book deal.

Finally, I have a writer mama confession to make. Once, when I was attempting to conduct a phone interview at home, I locked myself in the car with my cellphone to escape my three fighting children.

Oh, the guilt! Nice to know there are other struggling writer/parents out there. Keep up the good work Christina!

Keep Writing,
Maria

So, how does a writer get started writing humor?
The way so many unhealthy addictions are nourished—the Internet. There are plenty of online humor mags, each with its own take on funny. You can also solicit more general-interest magazines. Salon was publishing very little humor when I sent in my first submission, but I got the attention of the right editor with the right material, so it ran.

Do you do straight (non-funny) writing, too?
Humor writing rarely pays well, so I have to sell out and contribute short stories to literary journals just for the cash flow. I actually have about 10,000 words of a novel-like substance.

Who are your humor writing icons?
Andy Rooney without a doubt! He’s not afraid to say the things about office supplies that everyone else wants to say.

Take us through an average day in the life of a humor writer.
Average? Nothing average about it. It’s all snowboards and Mountain Dew. Actually, at the moment, I’m an unemployed humor writer, which means I’m predisposed to sleeping through the afternoon until The People’s Court comes on.

Tell the truth: How in the world did you get a book deal, anyway?
My agent found out that John Warner would be heading up a new humor imprint, and she sent him my proposal. I realize that’s a bland and not particularly helpful sentence, but what might be more useful is the fact that John and I had a preexisting writer/editor rapport through mcsweeneys.net. So, above and beyond what the proposal offered, John knew that he had a writer who was pretty reliable and could take edits without torching the neighborhood. Even though I’d never been paid for contributing to the site, I had developed a worthwhile connection.

Of course, if a shiny Sacagawea dollar just happened to fall out of the envelope when John opened it, who can say if it had any unintended influence?

What's the most essential thing a writer needs to know about marketing his book?
Well, we’ll have to see if the purchase numbers ultimately justify what I think I know—I mean, this may be a toxic observation—but I’ll say this: No one—not your editor, not your agent, not even the publicity department—should be as invested in promoting your book as you are. And if you’re a new writer, none of them will be, almost certainly. It seems unfair: You’ve done the writing, and now you just want to move on to not having any ideas for your next book. But that’s how it goes.

It appears from the title of your book, that you hate introverts. Since many writers are introverts, I'm compelled to ask : Why do you hate introverts?
If I hated introverts, then I’d be self-hating, which I am, but for other shameful reasons related to Iran’s nuclear program. Something tells me that this won’t be the last time I answer this question, though I doubt I’ll hear it from many people who have actually read the book.

If you're so introverted, why did you let me interview you?
You seemed non-threatening enough. I’m drunk. I was promised a puppy.


Please leave your comments or questions for Jason here.

Keep Writing,
Maria