Dipping into the Archives . . .

I’m foregoing my usual re-blog today… 

Regular readers may remember me mentioning a friend of mine—prison librarian and microfiction author, Johnpaul Mahofski.

So, this rather incredible human being has just spent 4 weekend sessions, lasting at least 9 hours each, finding all the broken links (sites change their names, people disappear, etc…) in all my posts from 2011 (the first year of this blog’s life...)…

The last of those weekend sessions was him compiling all the links from those posts that he found valuable…

I’m going to list all those 2011 links in a minute; but, first, I need to let everyone know that this particular post is number 2,159—that’s an average of 25 posts a month for seven years…

Also, I need to point out the search bar in the upper right of each page of this blog—handy, to see if certain topics or names are here, somewhere in the depths of seven years of blogging…

And, down near the bottom of the left side-bar there are two widgets—Archives by Month & Year and Archives by Day of The Month.

Plus, if you first select a month and year in the first widget, the second widget will show all the days of that month…

One more way to dip into the archives here is not so far down in the left side-bar—Top Tags—gathering “similar” posts together—where larger words mean more posts…

Also, Johnpaul is committed to checking all the posts from the other six years and producing a list of valuable posts from those years (stay tuned…)…

I should remind you that Johnpaul is a librarian and, apparently, they just love tedious checking of things, as well as making lists :-)

Reminder: what follows is not a list of my posts from 2011—it’s a list of some of the links (from 2011) that I put in my posts, that a librarian/microfiction author liked, and gave his quite unique titles to………

I wonder if there are any broken links in this list… :-)

So, here is Johnpaul’s List of Valuable Links from 2011:

(Why you should give away your book)

(Book and writer recommendations from CJ Cherryh)

(The Seven Basic Plots in Fiction)

(Jung’s collective unconscious explained)

(A very thorough look at Jung’s collective unconscious)

(Concept of Archetypes at Carl Jung)

(Jung’s Archetypes discussed)

(Reflections on all things Psychology)

(Noam Chomsky linguist, social scientist, activist, author)

(Language and Etymology links)

(Online Etymology Dictionary)

(Literary Fiction Genres)

(Three interviews with novelist John Gardner)’

(Wikipedia entry for William S. Hatcher mathematician, philosopher, educator and member of the Bahá’í Faith)

(Wikipedia entry for Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist)

(Wikipedia entry for Allen Ginsberg, poet)

(Wikipedia entry for James Franco, actor and filmmaker)

(Wikipedia entry for Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet and socialist activist)

(Wikipedia entry for Neil Stephenson Author)

(Wikipedia entry for A Grain of salt)

(Wikipedia entry for John Gardner, American novelist)

(Wikipedia entry for Novel)

(Wikipedia entry for Carl Jung’s idea of Personal Unconscious)

(Wikipedia entry for Jungian concept of Shadow, Id)

(This site’s intent is to foster the writing arts)

(Article on writing stand alone books with series potential)

(A solid blog for writers resources)

(Article on how Book Bloggers can increase an author’s sales)

(Article on whether to self publish or not)

(Article discusses what subsidy publishing means for authors)

(Blog offers practical advice for building better books)

(Mystery Genre Definitions)

(Flash Fiction defined and demonstrated)

(Common Word lists and word usage lists—a must have for writers)

(A word counter)

(Explanation of synchronicity in life, by a writer)

(Carl Jung’s theory of synchronicity is explained)

(Why words mean what they mean)

(The mission is to find as many words of English with as many people as possible)

(Poems, Poets, Prose, Collections and more)

(Obscenity defined, from a legal perspective)

(Article against social media experts)

(Full dictionary and thesaurus for American, British, Canadian, Australian, Indian, and global English)

(MFA’S effect on Literature—the good and bad)

(Sweat equity as a writing tool)

(Best bits of writing advice she’s received)

(Why a bad review isn’t always bad)

(How a writer can conduct their character development)

(Pirating ebooks—is it a bad thing…)

(Book production terminology explained)

(Article about what a writer’s goal is for their book)

(Self publishing is explained through the vast knowledge of an author)

(An inside look at a writer’s mantra)

(The quiet theory of influence)

(A series ponders if writing a book is done for money)

(Getting people to care about the products of your imagination)

(Gifted author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)

(Marketing made easier)

(Finding your loyal readers)

(Why someone should write is discussed)

(Discussion of how many readers one needs for sales success)

(Real news sources in difficult times)

(Alternatives to mainstream news sources)

(Reality of your social networks)

(Blog about the nature of writing)

(Finding some joy, even in darkness)

(The idea of what makes success)

(A literary theorist responds to “What is Fiction…?”)

(Word of mouth Sales)

(Windows zenware* writing application)

(Simple note-taking app)

(Blog on writing publishing and editing)

(Valuable links on writing)

(How a movement of ‘ordinary’ Liberian women changed history)

(The dangers of being a perfectionist)

(Humorous article on why bad books don’t ruin self-publishing)

(A blog with many tips for writers)

(Self publishing tips)

(Vintage article on Amazon’s publishing platform)

(Article on Amazon as the future of Publishing)

(Emily Dickinson resource)

(The most respected publication for the library community)

(A hard look at the pattern of borrowing and the digital shifts of Library patrons)

(A page created by an independent prose machine)

(The Quality and Professional responsibility of Self Published work is discussed)

(Article on Self-Publishing expectations)

(Writing, support, and useful links)

(She is much more than a hashtag)

(Life lessons turned into Self publishing tips)

(A blog focused on giving voice to those in need)

(An article on writing more words per day)

(Article on traditional publishing’s struggle with Ebook presentation)

(A writer’s experience with traditional publishing)

(The critical aspects of digital publishing)

(A start to finish for writers to create their book)

(The Author’s Guild site)

(Human rights and the implications of copyright)

(Legalities of censorship in America)

(Tips on how to write a novel)

(12 articles of 2011 that are must reads for writers)

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Two Authors Talking at the London Book Fair

You may have noticed I didn’t have a Re-Blog yesterday—instead, I decided announcing a publisher’s well-earned honor was a better choice…

Today, I feel another video with author Elif Shafak is important to share.

In case you missed them, here are two other posts I did that featured this author: 

#Writers & #Movies

This Is Not a #BookReview . . .

Today’s video is a conversation between Ms Shafak and author Gaby Wood at the English PEN Literary Cafe at the London Book Fair (in 2013; but, still very relevant...).

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Changing Things Up & Some “Mighty Writers”

This is normally a day I reserve for a re-blog from another bookish blogger… 

However, I’m in the final push of a Relocation Adventure—not that far in space and time; but, covering Vast Tracts of psycho-spiritual territory…

So…

I’m doing a regular blog today and may re-blog for the rest of the week—mental hygiene demands certain precautions :-)

So, who are those “Mighty Writers”?

2,000 kids in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA shooting for a Guinness World Record.

From the Mighty Writers WebSite:

“We’re going to set a new world record for most kids writing at the same place at the same time.

“Our topic, “If I Were President…”

“The date: Tuesday, July 26 at 10am.

“Where:  The steps of the Art Museum.

“Two simple requirements: You have to be between the ages of seven and 17.

From the current President of the USA:

“… your program’s selection as one of the 50 finalists distinguishes [Mighty Writers] as one of the top arts-and-humanities-based programs in the country.”—President Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

“On the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where Rocky once ran, a crowd of smiling faces danced to ‘Uptown Funk’. They stretched and clapped, pumping blood through their veins to prep for a world record attempt.”

“It’s what everyone’s talking about. It’s on the minds of the kids. I hear their families talking about it. And they have a lot to say. I hear them talking about it all the time around Mighty Writers, so this is their chance to really put it on paper.”

Two examples of what the kids wrote (as if they were President…):

“Instead of giving military aid, I’d like to give just aid ’cause we are enforcing violence. We are violence. We need to be the aid.”

“Main issues that I would focus on if I were president would probably be things like equality between everyone. I think everyone should be treated like a person, no matter race, gender, skin color.”

From Guinness World Records adjudicator Michael Empric:

“What I love about this record is that they’re not just breaking a record. They’re trying to bring a social component into it, bring attention to the schools in Philadelphia. And teaching kids to write, which is something I love doing. It’s something I grew up doing. So to see all these kids here trying to break the record title doing that is really exciting.”

Check out this video :-)

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Why I Try Not to Take My Writing Too Seriously

Isn’t being a writer a “serious” thing?

Read today’s Re-blog and you’ll have much to ponder…

Creative Writing with the Crimson League

There is SO much that goes into trying to make a career as an author. In my case,  which I doubt is unique, there’s:

• Blogging and promoting my blog
• Deciding whether I want to seek an agent or continue to self-publish
• I think I want to find an agent, so I have to make time to do that
• Writing and editing, of course
• Social media and getting my work out there (see “promoting” above, which I’m doing an awful job at currently)
• Balancing getting older projects in shape (I want to rerelease my trilogy with superior and tighter second editions) vs starting new ones
• Making sure I keep enough time for the more important stuff

It easily becomes overwhelming and exhausting and just plain daunting, seemingly impossible, when I take it and myself too seriously.

That’s why I try not to. I love Chesterton’s claim that, “An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered…

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