The Writer on blogs

My February issue of The Writer arrived today and there was a wonderful article by Sharon McDonnell called "From blogs to books." The article said that dozens of new writers were being signed by agents because of the writer's "hot" blog. A newer generation of writers are being signed because agents can see the writer's style (thousands of words on the blog) and a built in fan base. Apparently, a blog turned "blook" is becoming more and more popular. The article listed several blogs turned books and I'm going to check those out. If a blog is the new, best way to showcase work, then I'm all for it. That means that each post has to be good and it's exciting to think of the people who can read one's blog.

Anyway, I browsed Books a Million today and found a few possible magazines to query. Then, I headed to campus and finished buying books for the semester. The books for my article and essay workshop class look great. One of the books is Me Talk Pretty One Day by Dave Sedaris and it's hilarious.

I sent out a query to a writing e-zine and received a prompt reply for a request for the manuscript on spec. Normally, I wouldn't do that but I had a bit of time today and wanted to break into a new magazine, so I wrote the 500-word article and sent it off. Now, the wait.

I also found a new writer's forum at Brady Magazine. It's a quiet site but full of information. I've become a lurker of writer forums and take any opportunity I can to introduce myself and invite people to visit my blog or Web site.

Speaking of the Web site, I made a new addition (gasp!) of a guest book and a comments page. Yes, I spent 3 hours coding HTML last night because I couldn't drag and drop the comments page. Not fun.

On a final note, check out February's The Writer for a great interview with Sara Gruen. I was lucky enough to interview her a couple of years ago and I've been following her blossoming career ever since.

It's back to school on Tuesday so the blog may be quiet for a few days.

Happy writing!