One thing that's great about the web is it can provide a source of feedback for writers who have no other place to turn. Case in point, there's a new LJ Community called Query Eagles; basically, it's blog where aspiring authors can post query letters and get some unbiased feedback.

Technology can be a wonderful thing!

As a good example of the difference in perspective between a writer and a literary agent, now that Lucienne Diver is an author as well as an agent, she has started blogging. I noticed that her blog was listed on Kristin Nelson's blog along with Kristin's other clients (this says good things about Kristin&mdash"where agents go when they want a good agent"). One of Lucienne's posts was on things she had learned from wearing a corset while at a Renaissance Faire. My favorite 3 observations from Lucienne's list:

6) The fainting scene at the beginning of Pirates of the Caribbean is totally convincing.
8) Bend at the knee, not the waist.
9) Men seem to like it when you laugh.

So is there anyone in the biz who doesn't want to be a writer?

LiveJournal has a new feature so that changing your blog layout now takes only a single click—so naturally I changed mine. They also added some writerly themes now, so I went with the typewriter one. It's clean and easy to read, and I liked the mint green.

Although of course, I don't even own a typewriter.

I have a full time job. I have a husband and two kids (one grown). I have a dog and two cats. When people ask me when I have time to write I say, "If you could see my house, you'd know."

But in addition to housework, the other thing that took a nose dive when I started writing seriously was reading. I'm a fast reader (about 100 paperback pages an hour) but even with that, I just can't read as much as I would like to and get any writing done. So I have a shortcut-- Book World. That's the Washington Post's Sunday book review section. I read it every week so I know what's happening in literary and popular fiction. I may not have read the books, but at least I don't sound like a total nimnul if someone mentions a hot new writer or a best-seller. I may not have the answer, but I have a clue.

The other day the Post blog mentioned a USA Today site (I won't call it a blog--maybe a pseudo-blog) that does for popular culture what Book World does for books. If you don't have the time or inclination to watch the Sopranos or Heroes or browse YouTube for hours, you can find out what's going on in those venues the old fashioned way--by reading about them!

Hey, it's what the web is for.

I was feeling guilty for being lazy, so I rearranged the virtual furniture. I changed the look of my blog. Of course, mostly I'm still relying on other people's work--using canned styles and themes. Still, I feel like I did something useful. And I did mange to import a graphic a friend (well, the son of a friend) made for me.

It was interesting how the themes were named. This one is called Great Outdoors, which at least matches what you see pretty well. The Road to October turned out to be a closeup of a baseball instead of the country lane lined with fall foliage that I had expected. Go figure.

[NOTE: I changed it again! As of July. 2007, the theme is Hot Springs.]