Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat
Shabbat shalom!
Shabbat shalom!
As you know, I’m on vacation from the day job this week and attempting a self-organized, stay-right-here-in-NYC writing retreat of sorts. But I’d never abandon my routine altogether, so our June newsletter has gone out to subscribers right on schedule.
If you subscribe, you already know about the featured Q&A with Midge Raymond, whose most recent book is Everyday Writing: Tips and Prompts to Fit Your Regularly Scheduled Life. And you’ve already learned that prompts and exercises are crucial to the book.
I’ve been a fan of the prompts that Midge shares on her blog for quite awhile, so I wasn’t surprised to find myself eager to try the ones she has placed in the book. I can vouch for their appeal and flexibility.
In fact, Jane Friedman recently posted a sampling of these Everyday Writing exercises online, so you can go ahead and check them out for yourself pretty easily.
You’ll notice that one of the prompts reads as follows:
“Describe what you looked like at the age of five.”
This is one of the first prompts I tackled when I read my review copy. What I remembered and wrote inspired me to dig up my kindergarten photo this week. Now, I want to try the prompt again. And I just may do exactly that before this “retreat” is over.
You know what’s coming up, don’t you? That’s right, it’s nearly time for Book Expo America (BEA), where publishers will introduce and seek to build buzz for forthcoming titles. If you’re a reviewer or book blogger, BEA provides a terrific opportunity to learn about titles you might want to cover over the next several months.
Even if you can’t make it to BEA itself, you can benefit from some of the ancillary resources. For instance, Publishers Lunch this week released a digital “buzz book” of its own, “a free ebook that presents over 30 meaty excerpts from books that will be featured at the convention and highly-touted fall releases of all kinds.” I downloaded it right away and immediately took note of books I’ll want to read and write about.
[But remember, there are plenty of other ways to find not-yet-published titles for review as well.]
And with that, I am off for the holiday weekend. I’ll see you back here on TUESDAY, and we’ll get the June newsletter out to you next week as well. Have a safe and pleasant weekend, all.