Friday's Interesting Links

A little bit late in the day, but here are your interesting links. A lot of fun stuff in writing, especially for YA and Middle Grade for some reason.

Writing

How to get going when you don't feel like writing, because "in the mood" gets old when it's your job.
http://writerunboxed.com/2009/07/29/6-tricks-for-writing-when-you-dont-feel-like-it/

A quick demonstration of writing emotion so the reader can feel it:
http://www.authormagazine.org/articles/nichols_adam_2009_07_12.htm

Some pitfalls in writing YA/Middle Grade:
http://varkat.livejournal.com/111955.html

Categories of YA/Teen novel segments:
http://writingfiction.suite101.com/article.cfm/young_adult_novel_guidelines

If you're interested in writing for the middle-grade market, this article offers a good overview, including everything from how to structure the novel and how long the chapters should be, to how to market it once you're done:
http://www.right-writing.com/middle-grade.html

A solid breakdown of what royalties mean and what authors should expect of those royalty statements.
http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/08/reality-of-royalties.html

An interesting approach to deciding whether to rewrite a story on request:
http://www.jeremiahtolbert.com/2009/to-rewrite-or-not-to-rewrite-that-is-the-flowchart/

This blog post was written for me. I can tell. And what it tells me is to get cracking on one of my titles that belongs in one of the bigger market segments :).
http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2009/08/writing-break-in-novel.html

Social

History told in a unique, changing, sand painting. Incredible and moving:
http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2009/08/stop-what-youre-doing-and-watch-this.html

How to be politically active in an effective manner:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/08/willfully-ignorant-vs-aggressively-skeptical.html

Promoting/Submitting

Tips on how to give public speeches:
http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/2009/08/public-speaking-for-authors-organizing.html
http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/2009/08/public-speaking-for-authors-practicing.html
http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/2009/08/public-speaking-for-authors-preparing.html

A good reminder to read contracts closely, in general as well as when making donations. Odds are these are just poorly written contracts, but...
http://www.writersweekly.com/letters_to_the_editor/005534_08122009.html

Building an author platform.
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2009/08/14/3-steps-to-start-author-platform-building/

Problems with pitches and author expectation:
http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2009/08/12/5ReasonsPitchesCanBeDetrimentalRatherThanHelpful.aspx

The story of an author's agent search with some good suggestions:
http://mghiggins.blogspot.com/2009/08/interview-with-lk-madigan-on-agent.html

Science

I had to include this article for those who have critiqued Shadows of the Sun for me. Though it would have been more fun if it had sold already, I put this method of translation (alien language not ancient) in my novel well before they came up with it.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327213.600-statistics-could-help-decode-ancient-scripts.html

This belongs as much under writing as here. An analysis of facial expression interpretation reveals cultural differences in something previously believed to be universal:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17605-human-facial-expressions-arent-universal.html