Friday Finds: Tech Tutorials

This week brought two helpful resources to my tech-challenged self.

First, I present David Pogue’s New York Times article, “For Those Facebook Left Behind.” Some people will surely find it too “basic,” but the article does provide a useful, simple overview of major social-networking sites. “You may find absolutely nothing of value to you in these sites,” Pogue writes, “and that’s fine. But isn’t it better to make that decision now that you know what you’re ignoring?”

Second, Jane Friedman has assembled a lengthy blog post titled “Ultimate iPhone Apps for Writers: 30+ Productivity & Creativity Boosts.” As I mentioned in our latest newsletter, I finally jumped aboard the iPhone bandwagon last winter. I’m still getting to know the “apps” that are out there, and this post is one I’ve bookmarked for future reference.

Have a great weekend, folks. (Oh, and in case any of you are envying me the temporary “summer Friday” freedom from the office job I also referenced in the latest newsletter, envy me not: Since we had Monday off for the Independence Day holiday, everyone in my office is expected in today.)

Thursday’s Pre-Publication Post: Giving Thanks

This week’s post will be relatively short and sweet. The crux of the message is simple: THANK YOU!

You have all been wonderfully receptive and supportive since I began tracking the pre-publication life of my story collection, Quiet Americans, earlier this year. You’ve read these posts. You’ve commented. You’ve opined.

I’m so grateful for all of that. I’m also grateful to those of you who have taken the time to send me messages privately. Some of you have written incredibly comprehensive messages packed with advice from your own experience and expertise. And since I’ve sometimes been on the giving end of the advice spectrum, I know how much time that can take. So here’s a special, public thank-you to you (and what really amazes and humbles me is that among you are both people I know in “real-life” and practicing writers I didn’t even know read this blog until I received their messages).

Whether you’ve offered me sage advice, the names of contacts for potential reviews or readings, or, in one case plucked from this week’s correspondence, an actual venue where I can sign copies of Quiet Americans next year, your generosity means more to me than you can imagine. So I’ll say it one last time (for now): THANK YOU.

Friday Find: SlushPile Hell

“SlushPile Hell” is a new blog that’s been receiving a number of mentions around the Internet lately. Subtitled “a grumpy literary agent wades through query fails,” the blog presents a daily snippet of a query–complete with the grumpy agent’s acerbic online riposte. Good for a daily laugh (and warning!).

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone, and for all of the American practicing writers out there, Happy July 4th!

This Just In: Tin House Launches Buy A Book, Save A Bookstore

Just received this press release from Tin House Books (keep reading–there’s relevance for the magazine, too).

PORTLAND, OREGON (JUNE 30, 2010) ⎯ In the spirit of discovering new talent as well as supporting established authors and the bookstores who support them, Tin House Books will accept unsolicited manuscripts dated between August 1 and November 30, 2010, as long as each submission is accompanied by a receipt for a book from a bookstore. Tin House magazine will require the same for unsolicited submissions sent between September 1 and December 30, 2010.

Writers who cannot afford to buy a book or cannot get to an actual bookstore are encouraged to explain why in haiku or one sentence (100 words or fewer). Tin House Books and Tin House magazine will consider the purchase of e-books as a substitute only if the writer explains: why he or she cannot go to his or her neighborhood bookstore, why he or she prefers digital reads, what device, and why.

Writers are invited to videotape, film, paint, photograph, animate, twitter, or memorialize in any way (that is logical and/or decipherable) the process of stepping into a bookstore and buying a book to send along for our possible amusement and/or use on our Web site.

Tin House Books will not accept electronic submissions. Tin House magazine will accept manuscripts by mail or digitally. The magazine will accept scans of bookstore receipts.

ALL MANUSCRIPTS WITHOUT RECEIPT OR EXPLANATION
WILL BE RETURNED UNREAD IN SASE.

Please send manuscripts to

Save a Book
Tin House Books
2617 NW Thurman St.
Portland OR 97210

Save a Book
Tin House Magazine
P.O. Box 10500
Portland, OR 97210