Good Links: December Edition

Was Santa Claus good to you this year? He was very good to me. I must have been a very good girl. Okay, this is sounding a bit off to me.

<clears throat>

Moving on… I haven’t spent as much time on the Internet this month as I have in the past, but I still managed to find some great writing sites and links to pass on for December.

Writing:

Details make the character. Good details make a character memorable and bad details that don’t fit… well, yikes! Read the full article over on Behler Blog.

From Roz Morris’ Nail Your Novel blog the post on making the reader care about the message from December 9th is quite good. It has great tips on how to make the reader care about the message your scene is trying to convey.

Are you blocked? Stumped? Frozen with indecision? Don’t know what to write next? Mind blank? Try Women On Writing’s Beating Writer’s Block tips.

Querying:

Ulysses shares a most excellent query critique from The Rejectionist.

J. Martin weighs in on how to write a perfect(ly dreadful) query. Funny. You’ll actually find yourself picking up some good how-not-to tips.

Networking:

7 Ways to Create a Professional Twitter Presence. Good tips for the beginner. I’m not down with posting your phone number though. Unless, of course, your Twitter account is for a separate business. (What I’m saying: Don’t post your home number, but do post a business number if appropriate.)

Tips on how not to commit social networking suicide from PR guru Sasha Muradali. This should be a must-read for anyone thinking about using online social networking.

Fun:

Liana Brooks reposted my quiz on whether you are a book slut. As it turns out, I am also a plot whore as per Liana’s quiz. Cool beans. Are you?

Ten Gifts to Give a Writer by Margaret Atwood as well as commenters suggestions as well. Who knew she had a blog? It’s for her new book. Cool.

Book Review: Girls of Riyadh

Book Review: Girls of Riyadh
By Rajaa Alsanea

The Girls of Riyadh caused waves in the Middle East when Alsanea released this revealing look into four young women and their quest for love and marriage. The book tells the stories of four girls through a series of emails. From the outgoing to the passive, these four girls band together to try and find love, play by the rules and laws of their society while figuring out men, love and most importantly, what they will settle for and what they won’t.

Basically, the book is chick lit set in the Muslim/Islam world, so if you like chick lit as well as learning about women in other parts of the world, you’ll enjoy this book.

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Merry Christmas!

Poached from IndieBound.org

If you are a bit geeky and looking for some holiday cheer, click here.

Book Review: The Wisdom of Crowds

Book Review: The Wisdom of Crowds
By James Surowiecki

Good quote: “It may be, in the end, that a good society is defined more by how people treat strangers than by how they treat those they know.” (Page 118)

An interesting read from a sociological perspective. Basically, Surowiecki proposes that often crowds are smarter than individuals. Maybe not smarter an expert, but crowds are made up of everyone (experts included) and that often a crowd can predict the correct outcome or the correct weight of an ox–better than any one individual. Isn’t that something? And the thing is, it’s true. After reading this book, I tried it. I used the wisdom of crowds and found myself out of a large maze in record time. His theory, in my books, is now considered tried, tested and true.

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Book Review: How To Stop Backing Down and Start Talking Back

Book Review: How To Stop Backing Down and Start Talking Back
By Lisa Frankfort and Patrick Fanning

This is a short, easy-to-read book with 50 tips on how to be assertive in almost any situation.

Do authority figures automatically make you back down and take a passive stance? Do you get pinned down for hours by the office gabber? Do you have trouble standing up for what you want? This book has not only simple, effective answers, but lots of humour to put the laughs in self-help.

This book is great for anyone seeking the words, body language, or simple tools and methods to help them become a more assertive person. It’s a great, must-read guide for any teen girl.

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