Beta Reading Makes Good Writers!

I babbled on about beta readers on Twitter today, and decided to put it all here for easy reference:

Twitter Roundup: Qtips

So, I thought I was being super clever when I tagged a bunch of query tips as #Qtips during WriteOnCon last week . . . and then I found out that people actually tweet about using Q-tips. As in, they tweet about jabbing cotton swabs into their ears, people! Therefore I apologize for using such a disgusting hashtag, and give you a round-up of the tips I tweeted below:

Winners and WINNERS

First of all, let's all give a great big cheer to Cindy Brown, who won my Valentine's YA GIVEAWAY! Way to go, Cindy! You're getting a copy of THE FUTURE OF US, plus chocolate, the perfect Valentine's gift IMHO. Somehow, my two maniacs pulled your name out of the hat, and I managed to get a picture before they lost the paper! :)

YAY, CINDY! I love giving books away, and I hope to hold more giveaways this year! Cindy also writes an awesome blog called Everyday Underwear--really funny stuff. You should check it out!

Next up, we have winners of a completely different variety. The season of writing conferences has begun, and I've been favorite-ing some of my, um, favorite tweets from insightful people in publishing. I starred quite a few from SCBWI-NY, and I thought I'd share them here. Happy February, everyone!

Does your YA Series do it Right?

During December, I'm reading YA. TONS of YA. And I've been sharing my thoughts on twitter under the tag #YADecember.  This weekend I shared some thoughts on series YA, and thought I'd plop them all together on here, too.

Many of the new YA books on the market are one of a series (yay for the authors!), but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be an AWESOME read all on their own. Unfortunately, I think quite a few were written as one stand-alone story with only vague ideas for a series, and that comes across in the read.

Anyway, here's what I blabbed about:

Weekly Twitter Favorites

Revision was the topic in #kidlitchat this week, as you can tell.

Weekly Twitter Favorites, #BadWritingTips Edition

#BadWritingTips pretty much took over my twitter favorites this week. If you haven't read them all, search the tag.

Weekly Twitter Favorites

Lots of BEA tweets this week, including my personal fave from Jessica Sinsheimer at the bottom.

Weekly Twitter Favorites

The agents caught my attention this week with painfully funny remarks.

Weekly Twitter Favorites

It can be really tough to figure out who to follow on Twitter. I like to follow people who don't tweet TOO much, and when they do, share something really awesome/helpful/funny. These are some of my favorites this week . . .

Ginger Clark's link above is to the fight scene from MadMen--I also loved watching Lane kick Pete's scrawny behind. Also, Nick Cook's note that every atom in our bodies originated in the universe, some billions of years ago, is so lovely and mysterious, and grounding--it gave me pause.

Twitter Favorites this Week