A to Z Highlights #4

Last of my A to Z highlights posts, unless I find some more blogs I just have to share in the last 4 days of the month.

For everyone who has ever loved Dilbert or hated work, Words from Sonobe features daily horror stories (or maybe they aren't all horror, just the ones I read?) from work, with a touch of humor.

I've been following My Life in Retirement for quite a while. This A to Z its about books and travel.
And another in a similar category, A Septuagenarian's Ramblings.

Some interesting snippets on writing from Thinky Thoughts...Mostly About Writing.

I'll throw in here the second live-on-board blog that Jemima mentioned last week in my comments: S. V. Cambria. They sail where my brother likes to cruise; wonder if they've ever run into each other! The "V" post is lengthy, but some excellent advice about improving your photos.

Paws 4 Puzzles offers a fun puzzle every day. Looks like the difficulty varies, but they aren't super simple. I'll be hunting through those for entertainment when I'm bored.

Okay, that's enough for today. I'll be going back both to my list to see who I want to follow more actively (I like to see what they do AFTER A to Z) and to the A to Z list to check out more blogs.

I can't say I've managed the level of visiting I'd hoped to do, but I *have* managed to keep up work on my novel during the month, which has not been the case the years I have participated in A to Z. So I'll count my experiment as at least a partial success.

Will I do A to Z next year? Hard to say. I may just go on being a visitor.

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Speaking of there being only a few days left in the month, that means just a few days to get Death By Ice Cream for only 99 cents!

B: Best kid-lit Blogs

First off, for a ton of great blogs about kids' books,  check out the Kid Lit Blog Hop on the first and third Wednesdays of each month.

 That's where I've found many of the great kid-lit blogs I check into regularly.

Start with the founder: Mother-Daughter Book Reviews
The Geo Librarian is an elementary-school librarian with lots of great books to share.
Julie Grasso writes When I Grow Up I Wanna Write a Kid's Book
Kid Lit Reviews
Jemima Pett, who writes lovely middle grade fiction about a pair of hamsters. . .
Katie at Youth Lit Reviews has a really fun feature called "Friday Five" and is currently taking us on a walk through favorite books from decades past.

Those are the main kid-lit blogs I track.  But every time we do the kid lit hop, I find another blog or two, so do check it out and see what gems you can find.

Finally, if you haven't already, join the discussion at the "Great Middle Grades Reads" group at Goodreads.com, and ask a whole lot of parents and writers (most of whom are also parents) what might work to get your kid reading!

I've been interviewed--Re-post

Gus Sanchez has just posted an interview with me on his fantastic blog, Out Where the Buses Don't Run.  Thanks, Gus, for the shout-out!  Swing on over and take a look. . . and subscribe to his musings on life and great reflections on writing.

Getting To Know You, Fellow Writers: Rebecca Douglass (aka “The Ninja Librarian”)

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Gus Sanchez

For my first entry in my planned ongoing series in which I interview fellow writers and bloggers, I got the chance to interview Rebecca Douglass, aka “The Ninja Librarian.” I first met Rebecca through Goodreads, via the “Running With Scissors” group.  more

Learning to be a blogger

Oh, my, I am always the last to figure these things out!   I just discovered tags, or (as they are called in Blogger for some reason, Labels).  So, let's see. . . I've figured out how to post a blog, buy a domain name (but not how to use it for more than this blog, sigh), and about how often to post (two to three times a week seems good).  Now I figure out that there are ways to make people find you when they are looking for something else. 

I knew that.

Makes me wonder what else I'm missing, as I struggle to move from the 20th Century to the 21st.

A partial list:
Twitter
Facebook
Um. . . I'm pretty sure there's more social media out there.  The trouble is, all this social stuff is sort of contrary to what writers do: sit in a room alone and write.  Or is it?  We want an audience.  Social media is all about audience.

Social media: conversation for unsociable folks?

This is giving me a headache.