Do You Hear What I Hear?

No, I haven't been frozen in carbonite and suddenly reanimated thinking it's still December.  Nor have I been in a coma; although with the amount of NyQuil I've ingested the last few days that might not be too far from the truth.

I've spent the last few days in the company of two of my favorite women ... I should clarify.  (My wife reads this blog!)  My brother and sister-in-law were in need of a child sitter so I made the modest trip to Fort Worth to preside court over two lovely red haired angels of destruction and fun.  AKA - My nieces.  I spent the rest of my time--like the rest of the planet, it seems--battling the flu.

I'm not 100%, but I'm back and it seems I've missed the busiest week in this meager blog's existence!   It seems my last post (regarding book reviews on blogs) was well received.  So much so that we made the venerable YA Highway's weekly Field Trip Friday Big News Feature!  (You can read it here.)  For those of you who aren't familiar with YAH, it's a fantastic (and very popular) collaborative blog for all things YA lit related.  I've followed and admired the blog for a while now, so it's really cool to get a little love from the fine folks that run it.

You may have noticed that I said "we".  I did so because it's truly the comments that make any blog post worth doing/reading.  If it weren't for all of the thoughtful discussion that post would have been just another example of a crazy guy shouting at a  cyber-wall.  So for that I'll say that I truly appreciate everyone who took the time to share their thoughts (even to those who disagreed), and that I'll try to make it around to each of your blogs in the next couple of days to pay the ultimate blog respect by commenting on and reading your blogs.

But enough of that!  We can't stand around basking in our success.  We're writers (I think), we should SIT and bask in our success.  :)

The real purpose of this post is to share a couple of writing resources with you.  I don't typically listen to podcasts, but I'm usually on the smelly end of most trends so that doesn't mean much.  However, when a friend of mine recommended that I give a couple of writing-related podcasts a go I decided 'why the heck not.'  (The fact that I had 8 hours of car travel ahead of me this week may have had something to do with it.)  In short, they were awesome and I won't miss an episode from now on.

For the uninitiated, a podcast is simply a live and/or recorded broadcast that is distributed digitally over the internet.  You can find them all over the web and they cover absolutely every subject imaginable.  Most podcasts live on various websites that you can visit and stream the audio over your computer.  You can also 'subscribe' to many podcasts via iTunes, which will automatically download a recorded cast to your computer when a new one is available.  Once downloaded, you can place it on your digital audio player of choice to listen to during a workout, car ride, etc. or simply listen to it right there on your computer.

The podcasts I'm recommending to you are both writing related and absolutely worth your time.  I'll give a brief description of each along with links to where you can find them on the web.   Here goes:

Litopia After Dark - This podcast is put on by the folks who run the popular Litopia Writer's Colony website.  It is a fun and ultra-informative weekly examination of the publishing industry by various publishing pros with agents, writers, editors, etc. participating each week.  They even have a live forum running during the broadcast so you can chime in with questions and such.

It has a very English flavor that makes it a blast to listen to.  Most importantly, you'll get a very uncensored look at the industry.  The episodes tend to run over an hour, so you'll need some time to get them all in, but they're more than worth it.  Here's the link for more information.

Writing Excuses - The second cast I'm recommending is very different than the first in that it focuses on the craft of writing.  Its run by a group of authors, and each episode includes writing prompts, samples, and discussion.  This one is meant to be bite-sized as their tagline suggests: "Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart."  While some episodes stretch slightly longer, this tends to be a very focused discussion on various writing skills.   


Listen to 3 episodes, and I'd almost guarantee your writing will be stronger for it.  Here's the link for more information. 


That's all I've got for now.  Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!


~EJW~