Tweeting for writers: twice a day, whether you need to or not.

This week in words.

Seven Reasons for a New Nature Movement by Richard Louv

The 2011 Moby Book Trailer Award results are in!

Win a book!

Author Richard Louv is here in Portland tonight. At the zoo. Talking about nature.

Nontraditional ways to sell your book: Galleycat.

In this, the week of THE royal wedding, I'm thrilled to report that The Lit Coach has seen fit to feature a post on my character blog, The Empress Chronicles.

A wonderful poem by Naomi Shihab Nye.

The results are in! The 2011 Pulitzer Prize Winners were announced Monday.

Author Sara Sheridan (SECRET OF THE SANDS) has a great piece in The Guardian cautioning writers who think they can ignore social media.

Extracurriculars are part of the mix, I think. Field trips, let's call them. Or, business development if you want to get technical, and, if you happen to be doing your, ahem, taxes.

Today I'm typing out my post whilst listening to Chelsea Cain on OPB's Think Out Loud show. She's discussing her Gretchen Lowell series with Emily Harris.

One of the top benefits of living a pastiche work life is that it lends itself to the unexpected. Now, granted, that's not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm all about the surprises. A couple of years ago one such serendipitous adventure flew into my window. An artist by the name of Ted Katz.

I ran across this great post on the Lit Coach blog the other day. It tackles that hallowed ground we writers are loath to embrace. Branding.

Saturday, in the upper left of the country, we had a brief reprieve from winter. One day when the heaviest winter overwear stayed in the closet in favor of hoodies and, in the case of my husband, bike shorts! Although spring isn't really here yet, I was definitely moved to check my sandal inventory. And, much to the delight of our new clients, I'm guessing that I wasn't alone.

HarperCollins sales exec, Josh Marwell, recently wrote an open letter on the company's library relations blog, Library Love Fest, explaining the publisher’s controversial new ebook lending policy for libraries.

A timely trend, or mere coincidence? As the New York Times aptly pointed out, this year's Oscar theme more than flirted with mass communication. “The King’s Speech” racked up three of the more sought-after awards (director, actor, picture). And while “The Social Network,” didn't garner the big prizes for its makers, it certainly was one of the most talked about films of the year and managed to scoop up some honors (best adapted screenplay, editing and score). And one could argue that "Inception," another movie that got lots of buzz this summer, also explores the way people transfer thought--communicate--with one another.

Happy Valentine's Day to lovers and friends everywhere!

As a writer, I was used to brick and mortar reference guides. My Oxford. My Style Guide. My Roget's. Especially my Roget's, because tired verbs, overused adjectives and cliched terms just looked like dried fly carcasses on my paper. Or screen. But, alas, my stock of reference books didn't always accompany me to the far reaches of the coffee shops, soccer game parking lots and business meetings where I holed up with my laptop and work. "You won't believe how cool this is," said Cynthia in one of her newsy emails. "I'm totally addicted!"

Need some new blogs to follow? I love when things come across my desk that feel like serendipity. In the Oregonian today, Jeff Baker offered a five interesting, fun online diversions guaranteed to make your day.

While most authors have a hard time selling ONE book in this publishing climate, Crain's NY just reported that Dylan, that's Dylan as in Bob, just inked a 6-book deal with Simon & Schuster.

Home is where I hang my hats.

Today, whilst doing my usual digital recon so I know what to blog about, I came across a new kid on the block, Quora. And when I say kid, I mean it. Take a gander at their "team" page. Yikes!

My mom sent me a Kindle for Christmas--an unexpected, yet happily received gift. I know I'm the last on the digital communications block to get an e-reader, but, folks, I tend to wait, wait, wait it all out. Until the bugs are squashed and the price is dirt cheap. So, if it were up to me, I'd have my Kindle by Halloween.

I'm always somewhat annoyed, yet resigned, when I run across confirmation that artists, writers, actors, singers and people who work in creative fields generally are more at risk for depression. At risk, is the operative clause, however--doesn't mean we have to succumb, or that when we do feel down, we can't bounce back.

Once again I'm running just as fast as I can just to stay two steps behind.

It's been maybe three years since I've last attended book club, and in those three years a sea change in the digital age has offered, not only Kindles and e-books, but online communities and blogs and forums that serve as quasi book groups (bring your own wine). Our book club used to select a years' worth of books at a time. One meeting per year was devoted to a sort of "voting" session, where members would bring in samples and reviews of books, and then we'd do the democratic thing--cast secret ballots, decide on the line-up as a team. We didn't know about Book Movement back then.

Field Trip Report: Tower of Books

For publishers and authors aching to get their work into the hands, in front of the eyes, and on top of the minds of readers, Electric Publisherr, an app-building company niched in the literary world, is making quite a splash.

There is nothing more heartening, thrilling, and scary to watch than utter resilience marked by the propensity for survival. As we readers and book people watch a behemoth industry thrash about in the duct tape of the times, there is that same adrenaline-fueled gut-lurch: books are under attack from myriad forces, but they will not die.

E-book, schmee-book, I sometimes want to say [stomping my foot emphatically]. I love my artifacts. My shelves of bindings and pages and fonts. The texture, the smell, the way some books yellow with age and others don't. But, alas, just like my befuddled grandmother in front of her very first microwave oven, I will have to adapt. Learn to love. Embrace, even.

My all time favorite poem for my all time favorite holiday.

Last night Suzy and I braved LA rush hour traffic from my home in Pasadena to the hallowed halls of USC. We were headed to the Doheny Library at USC to attend a conversation between Suzy's mentor, LA TImes book critic and author, David Ulin, and novelist Mona Simpson.

Congratulations to rocker-writer Patti Smith for her National Book Award winning JUST KIDS. Like Dylan, she can now claim to be embraced cross-genre--loved for words as well as music. In her acceptance speech she said, "writing is like exercise; you have to commit to doing it and you have to do it every day."

One of the most gratifying aspects of my work is when I get a call from a prospective client who is interested in either writing a book, or advancing a draft of a book to the next stage. I love the editing process: collaborating with a writer who has ideas but needs structure, or one who has structure but needs more imagery, more action, more depth. Occasionally, I get a client like "Mike" who has been writing for decades, but can't figure out what to do with the pieces.

The New Yorker has this wonderful online feature: monthly fiction podcasts, where popular writers read classic favorites, introducing them via a short interview (think Terri Gross) by New Yorker fiction editor Deborah Treisman. This month, it's David Means reading the very first Raymond Carver short story ever published in The New Yorker. The story is called "Chef's House."

Less is more. Kill your darlings. Show don't tell. Thus are the aphorisms of succinct prose.

Arielle Ford's recent HuffPo post on superfluous verbiage in literature and its effect on readers got me thinking about current and past trends in taglines, which dovetails the necessity for direct messaging in general.

There was quite a fuss made across the pond when this article on Jane Austen hit cyberspace a few days ago.

A three year study concluded that the work of Ms. Austen was heavily edited by a man named William Gifford, who altered Austen's much more free-flowing style to create the polished prose that characterized her six novels.

Marketing books has become more than just good reviews and snappy jacket copy. Social media, You Tube and other viral engagements are now baseline for getting the word out on books. More and more, readers want to connect with authors, and book trailers are making huge inroads in service to this need.

Across my desk today is a new book by Rick Smith called "The Leap." Anyone disenchanted with old school ideas associated with working for pay, might do well to pick this up for a read during holiday time off--before making those all-important New Year's resolutions.

I really like this recent post on the Dystel & Goderich blog. The continued harangue about the publishing industry's plunge in the toilet is getting old and tiresome. Yeah, less people are parting with their cash for hardbacks. The super stars can't make the B&N cash registers light up the way they used to. Okay. But building readership, cultivating a loyal audience should be done in real time, through human interaction

Two years and two months ago I started a novel that has been slowly percolating its pages through my overly-committed schedule. The book was inspired by a trip I took to Rhode Island a couple of summers ago, where I stayed with friends in their Watch Hill "summer cottage"--a gorgeous dwelling in the Gatsby tradition of power, fortune and scandal. From the very scant factual nugget, an idea for a novel emerged, one that explores "fitness gone awry." Darwin meets Frankenstein, maybe.

This is a story about a nearly 100-year-old book, bound in red leather, which has spent the last quarter century secreted away in a bank vault in Switzerland. The book is big and heavy and its spine is etched with gold letters that say “Liber Novus,” which is Latin for “New Book.”

In "Twitterville," Shel Israel figures out how to write a timeless book about a dynamically morphing platform.

Read the book to find out how CEOs, students, nonprofit activists, small business owners and others used Twitter to advance their agendas. Powerful stuff.

Do you love books? We do. Do you want to make a difference? We do. Buy your books at BetterWorldBooks and make a difference in the lives of others. Oh, and free shipping!

When it comes to electronic rights for out-of-print titles, whose side are you on? Microsoft, Yahoo and the the nation's top copyright official--or, Google, libraries, tech groups and various activists. Should Google win the monopoly on e-production rights, or should we heed the warnings of the U.S. Copyright Chief, Marybeth Peters, who worries that Google's win would undermine Congress' ability to govern copyrights, and spell disaster for books published overseas.

It's odd, to me, however, that Microsoft would be crying foul when it comes to monopolies. Just saying...