A Love Letter to Readers

I've been up to my ears in work lately. And the end is not in sight. So, the anxiety monster has been poking his little head over my shoulder quite frequently. I've been fighting the "I sucks" on a regular basis. I'm always reaching out to my awesome writer pals and they're always there to cheer me on. But you know what really lights a fire under my ass? Readers.

Readers, bloggers, reviewers, all you lovely people who take the time to read those silly words I put down. To all of you who post reviews, be they one star or a billion. To all of you bloggers who put my book in your multitude of Top Ten lists, be it a Top Ten Rereads or your Top Ten "I don't get it"s. Can I just say THANK YOU! 

Sometimes I dread sitting down at my manuscript. On those days, all it takes is a kind word from a reader to get my fingers typing. And sometimes, all it takes is a one star review to get those fingers typing, too. Because I want to do better. 

They say, "Write for yourself." And there's a lot of truth to that, but I also think it's a good idea to find a balance. Yes, write for yourself, because if you don't love what you're doing, it's probably not going to turn out well. But I think we should also write for our audience. Give them what they want!

Recently there was a hashtag on twitter started by @ShaelynCherie called #RBWL or Reader Blogger Wish List. It's similar to the #MSWL (Manuscript Wish List) editors and agents do where they tweet what kind of stories they want to see, but I think #RBWL might be more important. These are requests from the people who really, really matter: THE READERS (sorry agents and editors). 

So, here's my writerly advice for the day. Whether you're published or aspiring, get to know your audience. Read their blogs, follow them on Twitter, start conversations and get their opinions. Because just like you want to write the best words you can, they want to read the best words you can write! They don't want to hate your book, they want to love it! 

September Wrap-up

The Pitch Madness Twitter party happened earlier in September! If you don't know what that is, here's the submission post from @BrendaDrake. I found this post from @DavidOarr about the #PitMad numbers so interesting! http://davidoarr.com/2013/09/13/september-12th-pitmad-by-the-numbers/

If you've been living under a rock, then you don't know about JK Rowling's movie news! She's writing a new screenplay that will be set in the Wizarding World!

A midst John Green's awesome updates about the TFIOS movie, this happened: John and his wife, Sarah, announced a new, super-interesting web series called The Art Assignment. Here's an interview with the couple explaining all about it.

Jennifer L. Armentrout's YA novel OBSIDIAN was optioned for movie rights! PLUS, her Covenant series was optioned for television!!! Here's her Supernatural-gif-filled blog post about the awesomeness!

Agents, editors, and publishers tweeted their manuscript wishlists using the hash tag #MSWL. Here's a handy Storified list of all the tweets from Galleycat.

The YA Rebels rebooted! Check out their daily videos and subscribe!

Yours truly did audition for the YA Rebels, but didn't make it.

BUT that's okay! Because that has spawned a new vlogging channel called The Word Nerds!!! Subscribe and follow (@YAWordNerds) for all things YA!

And the HUGE news of the month especially for us Secret Lifers is that Andrea Hannah's book sold!!! Check out her post about it!

And now for something completely different...

The National Beard and Mustache Championships happened. Here are the highlights!

Here are some Twitter accounts I found interesting!
@AbandonedPics tweets inspirational pictures like this:

And @WritingAKiss posts examples of well written kissing scenes.

So, there you have it! Do you have any news you'd like to share? Post it in the comments!