Qual è la frase di "Edgar nominee" in italiano?

Scrittore eccellente!


Why do I need to know this? Well, Dana Cameron has Italian fans!
I strongly suggested we go visit them.
Today!

"My book is just like.."

I'm quenching my thirst at the fountain o'query tonight and I must say some of you really amaze me.

Most particularly amazing are those of you who compare your books to those that have not yet been published. Two of you in fact compared your novel to a non-fiction book that hasn't been written.

I'm pretty sure you haven't read those books. You're using the listings in Publishers Marketplace or perhaps my own "What I've Sold" blog post.

You don't need to compare your book to anything.

If you can't resist the urge, use books you've actually read.

Happy Happy Books in the mail day

Here's my non-client reading for awhile! I'm going to treat myself to one of them AFTER I answer all my queries!

I read it for the articles, I swear

Don't think for one second I bought this for what's on the back cover. No sirree, not me. I bought this one for the articles.

(a; an; the- to be sure, but articles nonetheless)

Graham Brown's BLACK RAIN is on sale today. (smelling salts not included)

It's later than you think!

Yes indeed, it's time to go order FIRST CONTACT: Or, It's Later Than You Think, what I call hilarious and what PW calls stimulating and intelligent and what we both call Evan Mandery's newest novel.


First Contact is made by the hyper-intelligent Rigelians, who admire Woody Allen movies and Bundt cake, and urge the people of Earth to mend their ways to avoid destruction of their planet.

But the president of the United States, a God-fearing, science-doubting fitness fanatic, is skeptical of the evidence presented to him and sets in motion a chain of events that will change the lives of his young attaché, an alien scam artist, several raccoons, and a scientist who has predicted the end of the universe. Parrot sketch excluded.


Here's what PW had to say:

An alien invasion turns the United States, if not the world, upside down in this smart, witty romp—but not in the ways that extraterrestrial enthusiasts might expect. Ralph Bailey is working as a sandwich-fetching attaché to an inept president who assigns him to act as a liaison to the recently arrived aliens.

As one of the few White House employees who seems to understand the Woody Allen–obsessed, generally laid-back visitors, Ralph begins to interrogate his existential angst: I think everything has happened before, he says to his girlfriend, Jessica Love (it's that kind of book), ...every grief has been endured, every idea has been explored, every joke has been told.

And in Mandery's world, it's certainly the truth. As we meet the intergalactic characters, we find that jokes, situations, prejudices, and even pets are the same no matter where you go.

While coincidences add up and characters lives bleed into one another, Mandery's sharp sense of humor and habit of addressing the reader make for a stimulating and intelligent read that's never short on laughs.

And Booklist weighs in with:

Mandery’s Dreaming of Gwen Stefani (2007) drolly deconstructed popular music while plumbing the psyche of a celebrity-obsessed hot-dog vendor.

Here Mandery offers a Douglas Adams–style political farce about first contact with aliens from the planet Rigel-Rigel who, at first glance, bear a striking resemblance to Orthodox Jews.

Instead of announcing themselves on the White House front lawn, the technologically superior Rigelians choose the savvier option of getting a teenager to download their YouTube video.

When the White House’s culturally challenged Republican president finally receives the news from assistant Ralph Bailey, his first order of business is arranging a kosher state dinner. But it doesn’t take long before the president’s inept diplomacy turns the encounter into a major misunderstanding, culminating in a U.S.-led nuclear attack aimed at Rigel-Rigel.

Ultimately, it will be up to Ralph and his newfound Rigelian ambassador friend, Ned, to save the day.

Mandery’s digression-filled narrative, covering topics ranging from Woody Allen’s early comedies to Rigelian Bundt cake, spoofs contemporary popular culture while telling an irresistibly good story.

— Carl Hays

Alaska Writing Guild wooing tactics!

Remember my New Year's resolution about heading back up the Alaska Writing Guild conference in September? I mentioned there was some sucking up to the conference organizer going on.






Now they've brought out the big guns: cuteness.




Yes, that is a baby moose.**
A pettable baby moose.

And it turns out that Baby Moose knows where to find the good stuff!

** for those of you wondering why Baby Moose is without Mama Moose:

"The baby moose was in distress in a creek.
A man got him out of the creek,
tried to find the mother and send him on his way,
but the moose stumbled back into the creek
and had to be rescued again.
Baby Moose followed the man home.

The man has only a small cabin
so he took the moose to another neighbor,
who took these photos.
The next day Baby Moose went to a place
for rescued wild life, where he is penning his memoirs,
and registering for the Alaska Writers Guild workshop"

The right turn Write Stuff

Off I went to the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers workshop yesterday. I wasn't sure where I was headed so I found a map.




Turns out I really didn't need it because the organizer, Precie Schroyer, very kindly offered to pick me up at the hotel and get me to the meeting site safe and sound.

And she did.

Then, the lunch break arrived. Suzie the godsend and crackerjack agent; Anna (one of our fabuloso FinePrint interns), and Joanna (target on the Dartboard of Envy pretty much full time these days) had all arrived to assist me with the workshop.

Joanna brought her car.

We hatched a plan to drive to a diner, attack our lunch like the pack of wolves we are, and get back for the afternoon session.

Joanna brought her car.
And we let her drive.

First, we took a little tour.




Anna, who lives nearby, knew some of the people who lived in the houses.
We waved.

And drove on.

It got a little less residential




The road signs seemed a bit more confusing:



I knew we were in trouble when Suzie cackled wildly and said "Make a right turn; make a right turn" while humming the theme from The Office


What a relief when we finally found our way back to the Palmer Library where we'd had the morning workshop.





Too bad we were supposed to be at the Palmer Community Center.

I called Precie "We'll be right there!" I bravely promised.

We made a few wrong turns and found ourselves in some very wrong places









But we eventually made it to the workshop site!

And had a wonderful afternoon session with 30 writers who very bravely let me gnaw on their query letters. (and yes, they were very tasty!)

Next time I'm taking my broom or:

(a substantial portion of this tale is not going to survive a rudimentary lie detector,
but a good novelist once told me "never let the truth get in the way of a good story!")

Robin Becker's BRAINS

Robin Becker's debut novel BRAINS is coming out in May, so of course we got galleys recently.

When I slithered over to Robin's blog, she'd posted about getting hers. Robin just cracks me up.

(click on her link before reading further)





Robin's Galley has a twin sister here in New York:

The Herpet-American assssistant
gave Galley a welcome to FinePrint squeeeeze!

Galley immediately wanted to visit the BestSeller shelf!

Poor Galley! She wasn't used to the high life. We found her flopped over, pages askew, clutching a bottle, whispering "I love my editor." We cleaned her up, and put her with some of the other Galleys so she'd have company, and friends.

Feeling old?

lifted from CakeWrecks of course, the can't be missed first stop of the day.

More on auto-responders cause you guys are missing the point

There are a lot of interesting comments on the first post about auto-responders.

Several make the point that they don't want to seem rude if they don't reply right away to a request for more pages.

This is akin to the people who think it's rude not to reply to a form rejection.

I beg of you, please pay attention to what I'm telling you from THIS side of the mailbox.

There's only one person hovering at the mailbox during our email exchanges. It's not me. If you take a week to send pages, it's ok. I won't even notice. I MIGHT notice if it's been a month. I will notice and send a follow up if it's close to the end of the year.

Auto responders are a good deal for people who need or expect you to reply within a day. Or your mom, who worries if she doesn't hear from you. Not me.

This is one of the MANY reasons you should have an email that you use SOLELY for querying.

Here's why this is more than just a gripe from a cranky agent: this kind of junk reply email is why I consider going to an automated query system that doesn't allow you to actually have my email address. You just fill out a form on the website and click enter, and off it goes.

I'm very very reluctant to do that. I like to hear from real people, and be able to reply. Auto responders and knee jerk replies (thank you to form letters) and all-address-book emails are NOT from real people.

We're going to the Edgars!

Yes indeed! "Femme Sole' by Dana Cameron is nominated in the Best Short Story category!
Here's the list:

"Last Fair Deal Gone Down" – Crossroad Blues by Ace Atkins (Busted Flush Press)
"Femme Sole" – Boston Noir by Dana Cameron (Akashic Books)
"Digby, Attorney at Law" – Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by Jim Fusilli (Dell Magazines)
"Animal Rescue" – Boston Noir by Dennis Lehane (Akashic Books)
"Amapola" – Phoenix Noir by Luis Alberto Urrea (Akashic Books)




I'm not sure I've actually stopped jumping up and down with joy. Dana is a terrific writer and I'm overjoyed to see her recognized by the short story judges. Thank you!!!!!

What you need before you query

....................................................Fiction..........Memoir........Non-fiction

query letter ....................................yes,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,yes.............. yes

website* ........................................yes,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,yes..............yes

dedicated query/author email,,,,,,,yes............ ,,,yes.......... ....yes

word count.....................................yes,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,yes.............. no

finished project .............................yes,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,yes.............. no

proposal ........................................no, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,no ............ . yes

platform/established presence......no............,,,,,yes..............yes

blurbs ............................................no,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, no............. . no

Marketing strategy,,..................,.,,no............ ,,,yes........ ......yes

Answer to the question: ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,no............ ,,,yes..............yes
"Why I wrote this book"

comparison books ........................no............,,,,yes,,,,,,,,,,,,,,yes
"how is this book different
from others in this category"


*what counts as a website? Blog=yes. Twitter=no. Facebook=no. Myspace=no. LinkedIn=no
A blog and website can be seen by anyone who wants to reach you.
Twitter/Facebook/myspace can only be seen by "members"
It's important there be NO barrier between your contact info and the person who wants to reach you

Are you on the right side of the bars?

photo credit and caption here

We remember Martin Luther King as a great orator, and a brave leader.
Sometimes overlooked is the fact that man could really wield a pen.

Text of Letter from a Birmingham jail

so, how DO you get a piano in the subway?

If you're wondering what the paint bucket is for: donations.

Auto-responders

I sure as heck don't need a calender to know when holidays roll around.
The query replies let me know.

As in, I reply to your query, and receive an auto-responder saying you're out of the office.

Stop this.

Get a dedicated email for querying and don't engage the auto-reply.

Best opening lines in a query letter today

You aren’t going to believe this, but my novel, (redacted), shares elements with Patrick Lee’s The Breach! And here is why. Yes, they are both written in English, but the similarities don’t end there. There are men and women in both novels, sometimes people get shot, and both titles are two words!

I'm still laughing.


But more important: the author of this query SHOWED me she read the blog, didn't TELL me.
And her letter is both funny and enticing.

Query letters work.
Slush works.

Don't let anyone tell you any different.

Sunday is suds day

And like Jeff Somers, the washeteria here on my block is full of some very very novel worthy characters.

Jeff must patronize the only Sudsatopia that doesn't have cell service cause he missed "The Narrator" who talks on her phone while washing, drying, folding, dropping, refolding, packing, toting, returning, searching, finding, repacking, leaving. Subject of this conversation is essentially twitter fodder: "what I am doing right now."

It's enough to make me swill Purex.

For those of you who think we have lost all our marbles to not have a washing machine and a dryer, I should tell you this: our lease precludes them. And it's a pretty common provision in rental leases here in New York.

So much so that people who do buy and install them have the appliances delivered in boxes marked "TV sets" or "large box o'something else" AND having the delivery guys remove the packing boxes rather than leave them for the building's recycling pickup.

I love this city, I do, and the proof is that I'm willing to put up with this.

So, if you own a washer and dryer, please go pat them and croon words of love ... then invite me over.

Contests in your query

I'm paddling around in the sea of incoming queries today and I've noticed many of you have been busy entering contests.

That is a good thing.

Don't tell me about it.

Particularly don't tell me about it if you not only didn't win, you didn't make the finals or the short list. Same for prizes at your school.

It doesn't help you to tell me that 25 people finished ahead of you.

Writing contests don't mean much anyway, from my standpoint, but mentioning them without the qualifier "I won" means I know you didn't. You're essentially saying "I entered and lost." You can see how that doesn't entice me to read it, right?

Just leave it out of your query. Put it on your website or your blog. Mention it in your Christmas card dispatches. Twitter it to your friends and family. Not your query.

The $28.49 vacation

I'm sure you've had days when you've wished for just a quick one-day away. A quick no-muss, no fuss, no travel, no plans vacation.

For me, that was today. Yesterday was exhausting, tomorrow I need to prep for the busy week ahead.

It was a lovely day out, sunny and cold but not windy. I thought about biking to Coney Island because Coney Island in January is nice. The boardwalk is close to empty, the ocean is calming as always.

I thought about going to the Met and getting lost in the Greek statues.

I thought about cleaning (but not for very long!)

What I ended up doing was staying home, conquering the couch and reading the first four Sookie Stackhouse books. Of course I've known about them for a long time. I'd read other books by Charlaine Harris, and I knew the Sookie books were very popular. I just hadn't actually read any.

And of course I fell in love: Sookie's voice is charming and she's the kind of character you'd want to spend time with. The plot sucks you in from the start and never lets go. They're fast paced without ever veering out of control. It's like being driven at breakneck speed by a skilled race car driver.

I gotta tell you, it was the best $28.49 vacation I've ever had. I've always been a Charlaine fan, now I'm a Sookie fan as well.

Here's the link to her site in case you are the only reader left in America who doesn't know Charlaine Harris.

Refreshed, I am now off to crush hopes and dreams!

What is "slush"

A comment on the previous post Slush Works asked

Janet, how it this considered "slush" if you requested his manuscript? If a book that goes through the query/manuscript request/agent sale process is considered slush, then what is not considered slush?

Patrick Lee arrived via query letter in my slush pile.

Slush refers only to incoming queries. Almost every query I get is "slush" in that I didn't ask for the query to be sent to me. And that's fine with me. I love slush. I love my queries.

Patrick Lee was NOT in the slush pile at Harper. Nosirreebob he was not. He was in the requested manuscript stack because I called the editor, pitched her, and she's not an idiot.

What I mean by the phrase "slush works" is that sending a good query with good pages will get you the attention of an agent. You don't need anything more than that if you write compelling fiction.

the phrase du jour

I love Dick Cavett's Opinionator pieces in the Times. The one on January 8 is no exception.

My new favorite phrase "I seem to have come without my gunbelt."

Expect to see it as often as I can work it in to the conversation.

Slush works

In August 2007 I got a cool query and a couple of sizzling first pages. I requested a partial, read it and loved it. I requested the full and LOVED it. I offered. He accepted.

I sent it out to a bunch of editors who also loved it.
I sold it.

Two years later (almost to the day that book was delivered to the editor) THE BREACH by Patrick Lee is on the NYT Bestseller extended list at #29, and hanging out on the USA Today list at #124.

Slush works.

Patrick Lee and The Breach are living, breathing, bestselling proof of that.

Unholy Alliances

I've been rolling around in the query pile this morning and find, as usual, some of you are trying to tell me about your book by comparing it to other books.

This one made me laugh out loud: "..novel has many of the elements found in books by Patrick Lee and Kennedy Foster."

I'm pretty sure the only elements books by Patrick Lee and Kennedy Foster have in common are that they are written in the English language.

I've read them both, more than once. I should know.

But...do I?

It's one of the great mysteries of reading and writing that what an author intends is not always what a reader sees. I remember talking with the incredibly talented Kate Christensen about her amazing book The Epicure's Lament. I waxed on enthusiastically about the King Lear qualities of the book, how she'd so cleverly inserted the references and nuances.

Kate Christensen is nothing if not polite and kind to her readership but the look on her face soon revealed she thought I'd lost my mind. I stopped babbling and said "you did mean to do that, right?" and she said, very kindly, "well, this is the first time I've really noticed the things you've mentioned." In other words "no, you crackpot."

I mention this because if you are comparing your books to two very dissimilar books, tell me WHY. It's not obvious to me what Kennedy Foster and Patrick Lee have in common (except that words in English thing.) Maybe you do.

Of course, this only works if you've actually read both books and thought about them.

Patrick Lee's BIG IDEA!

Patrick Lee is over at John Scalzi's house today and the BIG IDEA is a post worth reading.

One Crowbar coming up!

When I said it takes a crowbar to pry me out of of New York, the folks in Lehigh Valley, PA took me seriously:






I'll be at the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group on Saturday January 23rd.

I'll be teaching Fundamentals of a Good Query in the morning, then Query Letter Boot Camp, using the actual queries of the people in the class, in the afternoon.

And I'm bringing a surprise guest just to make things more fun!
(no it's not the Herpet-American asssssistant--she's currently sunning herself on a lanai in Hawaii, helping one of The Fabulosity with his revisions.)

I'm told space is limited so if you're thinking of attending, you'll want to register early.

And if you're going to miss this, but you live in PA, I'll be back!

The art of promoting books in 140 characters

Book promotion is the delicate art of getting attention and leveraging the attention toward a sale. The first part, getting attention, is pretty easy. You can blog, and tweet, and spam email, and howl at the moon. A lot of people will notice you.

The trick is getting that attention directed to the place you want it: the cash register. Often times these days the cash register is called "one click buying" at Amazon.

So, how do you do that?

You can't just tell people about your book. Much like you can't just tell me about your characters in your book.

You have to SHOW me.

You have to entice me with something interesting. If you got a good review in PW, that's not enough. I'm sorry, but it's not. It's nice, I'm glad for you, but I subscribe to PW, I read the reviews, I've seen good ones before.

What makes you different, special, interesting?

One of the best examples of showing was on Twitter today, and it wasn't even about a book. It was a tweet about a lousy agent (mind you, I've got a predilection to investigate those links even if they aren't enticing, but this one was.) Here's what it said:

Apparently I'm a Boring Wrinkled Self-Published Lesbian http://ow.ly/16jGmQ

It's funny, and it's interesting. I know the blog poster and she's none of those things. So, I'm interested to find out why "Apparently" she is.

I've posted before about the efficacy of twitter for book promotion, but it's a complex delicate art. That means it requires study and practice.

If you think twitter is all about what people are eating for breakfast, you're not paying attention.

If you're not getting clicks on the links you post, time to start studying what makes YOU click a link, and employing some of what you learn.

The downside of social networking is that it's not just show up and broadcast: you have to study and learn how to do it. It's time consuming.

It also works.

Queery me at your peril

In today's queries there were these: queery for query; advise for advice; sure best seller for unreadable sludge.

well, two of those pairings at least.

Words matter. Every SINGLE word matters.
If you don't know you're (not your) making a mistake, I do.
I may not catch 'em all, but eye ketch maoist.

For more on the subject:
The Rejectionist.

Sic Transit, Gloriosky!

If you think Sean Ferrell is hilarious, you're right.

But he's a lot more than that too.

Writing YA fiction?

Kate Epstein at Epstein Literary has expanded her categories. She's now taking YA fiction and non-fiction.

I've known Kate a long time and I respect her a lot.

Take a look at her site and if you query her, make sure to tell her she owes me more pictures of her loinfruit!

You’re not going to get free writing advice

Rachelle Gardner writes an excellent blog and you should be reading it regularly. She delves into her email box today to answer one of the questions we hear a lot.

She buries a nugget of absolute wisdom in her reply: You’re not going to get free writing advice

By free she doesn't mean you have to pay with money. But you'll have to pay with either time or money. You either hire an editor OR you invest time in finding and participating in a good critique group or attending classes and conferences. One or the other, maybe both, but not NONE of them.

The deafening silence from agents to whom you send queries is actually saying something: you're not close. If you look at those year end stats of mine, you'll see there are those who hear from me even if I'm not saying yes. If you aren't hearing that, you're not in the ballgame.

Rachelle Gardner is a smart agent. Listen to her.

Resolution #3

I looked at those daunting stats for 2009 and realized I read a LOT of mss, maybe too many. Then I see Jennifer Jackson's (a fiercely talented agent and one of the Maass-keteers) blog post about her 2009 stats.

She read a LOT fewer than I did, and signed MORE clients. Harrumph!

Ok, I'm resolved: I'm holding firm; I'm toeing the line; I'm resolute. By GODIVA I will request LESS!

I brace myself at the e-query mailbox. I drape myself in righteousness. I hum a martial tune. I gird my - whatever you gird these days - for battle. I am READY.

I read a query. I read another. I say no with diligence. I march on, certain of my resolution, noble in my intent.


And then, from the tall grass, you pounce. You POUNCE! On ME!


Whatever girding there was falls to the wayside.
The martial tune breaks off.
My resolve isn't so much resolved as dissolved.

How am I supposed to resist good pages?? I ask you, how am I to fend off your siren song of prose?


I drape myself across the keyboard and feebly tap out: SEND FULL.


You pouncing prosers are word hooligans of the worst sort. You lie in wait for us unsuspecting readers. You disarm us with your stories, arrest us with your similes, defeat us with your diction.
You take no prisoners, you vanquish us with your verbiage.



I surrender.

It was a good resolution while it lasted-- about as long as it took to read this blog post.

I slink off to read.

You can buy the octopus I shamelessly stole.

of course I'll be requesting pages!

Dear Literary Agent:

What would happen if Frodo Baggins was inspired by the Eat This Not That series of books? You would have my debut novel, LORD OF THE RING DINGS, an ambitious fusion of the Fantasy-Adventure genre with a Healthy Diet book!

It all begins when the Evil Sourbun bakes up a host of evil delights to fatten his enemies to the point where they are incapable of defending themselves. Now, Middle Girth stands helpless before the lumbering armies of Morebun as they sing:

Three Cupcakes for the Fairy Pigs in their sty,
Seven Twinkies for the Couch-Potatoes lazy to the bone,
Nine Devil Dogs for Junkfood Junkies doomed to die,
One Ring Ding for the Beefy Lord on his beefy throne
In the Land of Lardor where tasty cakes lie.



Wouldn't you?

What we are thinking about when we're thinking about your book

The complete list of TEN TOP QUESTIONS DUTTON EDITORS ASK is an illuminating list of what editors and agents are thinking about when they're thinking about your book. Here are some of the questions:


Does this story surprise me and take me to places I didn’t expect?

Is this a main character I care about?

Am I personally moved by this story or situation?

Has this been done a million times before?

Is the voice/character authentic and real?


We can fix a lot of things (grammar, syntax and structure) but we can't fix these. These have to be right before we say yes.

I found this on Kathy Temean's very useful blog.

Could you wear the same dress every day for a year?

I'm three years late to the story of a dancer/performance artist in Seattle who wore the same little brown dress every day for a year.

Her story is amazing!

For most of us though, wearing the same dress every day just isn't possible. For starters, those of us who live in NYC and schlep our laundry to the local Suds N Swill would have to walk nekkid through the streets, and that is a terrible idea on so many levels.

But the idea of paring down, of trying to live more lightly on the earth, that idea could find a place in our lives. For example: if you have ten hangers, you don't buy more hangers, you get rid of one of your dresses if you get something new. You only have ten total at any one time.

I got that idea from Amy Minato's SIESTA LANE a lovely poetic memoir about trying to live lightly on the earth. If one of your goals for 2010 is to simplify, then SIESTA LANE will be a good friend on the journey.

Two percent

The title of the post echoes a plaintive wail from the comment column on my year end stats for full novels.

It's actually more like 1.6% (2:124) but you're in the ballpark.

But I don't think of the 122 novels I did NOT sign as failures.

For starters, 9 of them just weren't right for me but got a referral. If you think of that as failure, we've got a very different perspective on what failure is.

9 got sent back with detailed notes and an invite to resubmit. That sure as heck isn't failure!

1 got "not this, but the next one", and that's sure as heck also not failure.


But more important than the numbers, it's what you do with them.

There are two ways to look at these results: you, the writer, made progress toward your goal, or you didn't. If you didn't, you use the information you learned in the process to figure out what to change so you'll make progress the next time. If you define failure as not achieving your goal, even good progress is defined as failure, and that's just a recipe for total frigging insanity.

If I were a writer looking at those stats, the first thing I'd want to make sure is that I'm writing something fresh and new. So, how do you know that? You don't just write something and assume its fresh and new cause you've never seen it used. Nope.

What you do is what Joe Finder did when he started his writing career. He read 200 thrillers. He researched what his genre looked like. Lee Child did the exact same thing. He had a very measured, thoughtful approach to creating Jack Reacher, from his name to his background. And Lee Child continues his voracious reading to this day. I purposely stalk him in the dealer room at Bouchercon to hear what he has to say about authors: he's an excellent writer, but he's a GREAT reader.

If I were a writer looking at those stats, I'd make sure I had fierce beta critics on my team. Fierce critics who would make me want to bathe in medicinal scotch at the end of their critique, but critics who would identify structural problems or voice problems, or plot problems.

If I were a writer looking at those stats, I'd say "Good. Now I know what the challenges are." And then I'd make my 2010 resolution: Get Fierce.

Twitter skills

Mignon Fogerty poses the question Is Your Stuff Worth a Retweet over at Behind The Grammar (the blog with one of the great subtitles of all time: To Infinitives and Beyond)

Whether it's worth a retweet is up to you, but it's definitely worth reading.

Is it possible to love someone you've never met and mourn her passing?

You bet.

What ho, 2010!

Patrick Lee is welcomed by the Pens Fatales blog today and talks about being a Serial Resolver!

from the Bad Pitch Blog post 3 Ways to Suck Less in 2010