She Writes

Editors Picks
Editor's Picks--Week of August 30

This week's highlights from The Community Blog. Writing about women writing, popular fiction, and #Franzenfreude by Florinda Pendley Vasquez While many of us seem to be getting book information and recommendations from book blogs and other new sources, traditional review outlets like The New York Times still carry influence and weight - they still matter. To some people, including best-selling authors like Jennifer Weiner and Jodi Picoult, they matter a lot. Weiner has been vocal for years about the fact that the Times does not review her books, even though she's placed several of them on their bestseller lists - and she became even more vocal a couple of weeks ago, when the Times published two pieces, a review and a feature, about Jonathan Franzen's upcoming novel Freedom within just a few days. Weiner was following up on Picoult's Twitter comments about the review - and the Times' attention to, and seeming bias in favor of, "white male literary darlings" over women fiction writers - with her own "#Franzenfreude" tweets. Read more here. Do We Want Writer Wars? by Randy Susan Meyers About when I turned ten I began crafting my library checkouts, hoping I’d look smart. I’d balance my Nancy Drew with a biography of Abraham Lincoln so the librarian thought well of me. (It seems my self-esteem problem enacted early.) Jodi Picoult, following the NYT doubled coverage of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, recently weighed in on the Times overwhelming coverage of white male authors. Men telling domestic stories are writing art, while women covering similar ground are crafting women’s fiction. Jennifer Weiner agreed and twitterized the issue with the hashtag #franzenfreude. Weiner’s directness started a new frenzy, and the issue veered from Picoult’s premise to the age-old battle of literary fiction being weighed against commercial fiction, often with writers feeding on their own. Read more here. True Fromance by Sharron Richardson A few years back, some canny soul coined the term “TomKat”, and a fad was born. But no, it wasn’t a fad. Today, people are portmanteauing all over the place. Portmanteau is the very dignified term used to describe combining two words to form a new one. And so, it is in that spirit that I created the term fromance. Thinking myself quite clever to invent such a catchy new word, I set to work on this piece, only to discover that fromance has been in the urban dictionary for some time. Oh well, I did invent it. It’s just that a lot of people had thought of it already. Read more here. Tips for a Blog Tour by Cheryl Snell Virtual book blog tours are an inexpensive way of getting the word out about your newly released book. Bloggers in a particular niche tend to know one another, and can build buzz through comparing notes and making recommendations to their readers. A blog tour host posts a photo of the author’s book cover and physical details, buying info, plus a Q&A and/or review. In addition, the publisher may contribute copies for a giveaway. The giveaways tend to generate the most traffic, since many bloggers set up the entry process with much linking, Twitter following, and Facebook liking. Read more here. Scene 1, Chapter 1, "Action," Take 2 by Kim Koning I have been rehearsing the first few scenes of my novel in my head this week. I decided I needed a break from the actual writing of the WIP to allow for the critique to marinade in my mind for a bit. After attending my first conference, I came away feeling refreshed and challenged. However, I also started looking at my WIP properly and realised that I needed to take a step back to be able to see it clearly. Read more here. We're always looking for new, fresh ideas and strong writing to inspire and indulge. Keep writing!