Apparently Publish America is at it again. Check out their latest antics here.

You would think I would have learned by now, but apparently not, because I just signed up to get my ass kicked… I mean, for NaNo again this year. What in the hell am I thinking?

Skyla’s in, and Tiff said she might go for it as well. Anyone else crazy enough to join us?

I usually try to keep to the topic of writing in some way or another, but this little tidbit was just way too freaking awesome not to share. There is a dude in Africa who trains bomb-sniffing rats. They’re friendly, and intelligent, and because of their size, way less likely to set off a bomb than a dog would be. They’re also really cute, and really need to be seen to be believed. Check it out.

I know I’m boring. I just can’t help myself.

Over at Skyla’s blog, here’s the latest How Not To Be A Douche Bag Author.

I could have sworn that I linked this one up already, but apparently not, so check out Write or Die: Putting The Prod Back In Productivity.

Over at The Last Word, here’s Ten Things New Writers Need To Know.

And for a little humor, here’s Top Ten Tips For Becoming A Better Husband.

In an effort to shake things up a bit, I’ve managed to come up with a post that contains something other than links. Weren’t expecting that, were you? Didn’t think so. Anyway, instead of links, I’ve got a recommendation for y’all that I think is pretty darn cool.

A couple of months ago, literary agent Colleen Lindsay recommended an online writing workshop for fantasy, sci-fi, and horror writers. I checked it out, and thought it looked like it was worth a try, so I signed up for the free month-long trial and posted up a short story that I was having a problem with to see what kind of feedback I’d get. I figured if all I got was the back-patting, ego-stroking bullshit I’d seen on a lot of other sites I’d let the membership lapse and not be out anything more than a couple of hours of my time. Instead, I got 8 reviews, 2 of which were thoughtful and encouraging but not especially helpful, and 6 that were not only thoughtful and encouraging, but also managed to go right to the heart of my problem and suggest ways to fix it. I’ve since signed up for a full year, and consider it some of the best money ($49) I’ve ever spent on my writing.

I think part of the reason it’s such a great workshop is that it does cost something to join. Paying probably helps to weed out the people who are just writing for the praise (even when they don’t deserve it). Also, so you don’t get over there and get a shock, the site works on a points system. In order to post a story for critique you have to have 4 points. You get 4 when you sign up, so you can post one piece right away, and then you get 1 point for each review you do for other writers. And they can’t be empty, ego-stroking, “Loved it, you rock, keep up the good work!” critiques, either, because if someone gets caught doing that too many times, the admins will boot them from the site.

So, if you don’t have some friends to read your work for you, or even if you do and would just like a totally unbiased opinion, swing on by and check it out. It’s well worth the time.

The title pretty much say it all…

Over at Skyla’s blog, the latest edition of How Not To Be A Douche Bag Author 101.

JA Konrath has a great post on How Not To Write A Story.

And inspired by JA’s post, Sarah-Jane Lehoux has started a contest for all the people – like me – who, when they are told don’t do this, hear instead I double-dog dare you.

Once again, I have nothing new or exciting to report (Writing, by and large, is a very boring spectator sport.) so this is going to be another post o’ links.

To get the party started, here’s Skyla’s latest How Not To Be A Douche Bag Author 101.

Here’s a post on how Twitter can help writers.

And on a similar note, Rachelle Gardner has a post on The Dreaded Author Platform. And another one on Writing Contests.

Lilith Saintcrow explains why A Good Book Ain’t All You Need.

It’s not one of the genres I read, but I thought someone might be interested in a writing competition put on by Harlequin.

And for a little bit of fun that has absolutely nothing to do with writing, here’s Jaws in 30 Seconds with Bunnies.

First, some cute animals for your amusement.

And second, a really useful post about promotion and branding over at the Mundania blog.

Now it’s late, and the typos are beginning to outnumber the… um, non-typos – it took me four tries to spell Mundania right – so I am going to bed. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

My friend Skyla has a new post up over on her blog that y’all should check out. Hopefully it’s going to be a weekly segment, but for now, here’s the first edition: How NOT To Be A Douche Bag Author 101.

Words of wisdom, according to my father. The implication, of course, being that if a deal looked too good to be true, it usually was. If something came too cheap it wasn’t worth what you paid for it, and if it was free, well, how good could it be if someone was giving it away? And in most cases, I’d agree with that. But then there are other times that free shit is just plain cool. So to that end, a few links…

Here’s some story layout software for people who have a hard time keeping everything organized. I only downloaded it yesterday, but from what I’ve seen so far it’s pretty damn cool. It’s designed by a guy who is a published author and a computer programmer, and he’s used the experience gained from both to come up with a really clean, intuitive interface.

For people who just want to write without being distracted by all the shiny things on their computers, there’s Q10, a full-screen text editor. It comes with typewriter sound effects, which is pretty cool all on its own. But the best part is that it’s completely portable. It’s so small you can run it straight from a flash drive without having to install it, so you can use it wherever you like.

For people who like to outline, over at Holly Lisle’s website you can find her Plot Outline Mini-Course. And linked in the sidebar on that page are a bunch more how-to articles as well.

Here’s a free short story called Serial, written by Blake Crouch and J.A. Konrath. The link to download the rest of it is at the bottom of the page.

And last, but certainly not least, if you go over to my friend Skyla’s website, you can find links to her eSerials, one of which is complete, and two which are works in progress.

Enjoy.