If You Want to Write...

The latest in our middle-of-the-week series on WRITING. NO JOKE.

The Best of the Blogs, Part I

If you want to write, read writing blogs. I have learned more from them than most magazines or articles, and gained a few clips along the way. On a purely subjective basis, here are the BEST of the blogs that I read. Or are they the best because I read them?

If you want to see what an AUTHOR'S LIFE is like...

Read Lisa Yee's blog at lisayee.livejournal.com. Lisa's the author of Millicent Min, Girl Genius; Stanford Wong Flunks it Big Time; So Totally Emily Ebers and a young adult book coming out next year. Her blog is a hilarious mix of photos and details from her writing life, starring her stuffed pet chick, Peepy.

Shannon Hale's blog is also excellent at www.squeetus.com. Shannon's the author of several books, including The Goose Girl, Book of a Thousand Days and the Newbery Honor-winning Princess Academy. Shannon has entertaining and insightful things to say about kid/YA lit, her own books and her crazy young family.

If you want to get the scoop on a FREELANCER'S LIFE...

These are unabashedly stolen from Maria Schneider's blogroll. Kathy Kehrli blogs at irreverentfreelancer.blogspot.com, and gives us the low-down on the worst bits (and best bits!) of being a freelancer. I love Kathy's sense of humor and her blog is great for getting an idea of how freelancing works.

The ever-brilliant Susan Johnston blogs at www.theurbanmuse.blogspot.com, about her "night job" as a freelancer. Susan's blog not only looks wonderful, she always has something informative and relevant to say.

If you want to see the secrets behind an EDITOR'S JOB...

Evil Editor! Go to www.evileditor.blogspot.com for an anonymous book editor's snarky reviews of everyone's query letters. If you're interested in becoming a published author, or want to improve your query skills, check it out. It's also really funny.

And then Maria Schneider gives us the what's up at www.writersdigest.com/writersperspective. Maria blogs about the writing world, gives exclusive outtakes of Writer's Digest interviews, features wonderful writing blogs... heehee... and is in general a worthwhile read.

More blogs tomorrow: the best of publicity blogs and how-to-get-published blogs and a sneak peek into my personal blogroll.