Ten-Minute Blog Break - 5th November

November has arrived, and with it the chance to blow up your back garden for Guy Fawkes Night, grow a moustache for Movember or write 1,666 words a day for NaNoWriMo. But I'm a spoilsport who's doing none of these things. Instead, I've been reading your blogs!

There were a couple of good reasons to visit Notes from the Slushpile this week. Candy Gourlay seemingly dashed off a post about social media marketing that was better than blogs other people spend weeks on. Oh, and it had a great title too: Just Because Social Media is a Tool Doesn't Mean You've Got to Be A Tool Too. Later in the week, the newly-agented Benjamin Scott followed up with a fine guest post: Ten Top Tips to Finding an Agent. Look out for a follow-up to the latter on my blog this Friday (and no, it won't be called "Fifty Ways to Leave Your Agent"!)

Space on the Bookshelf's latest 3D review is The River Singers by Tom Moorhouse. Of course, I'm biased here (because my employer publishes this book), but Tom's story of water voles in danger sounds like a terrific read in the vein of Watership Down. The blog's coverage will be continuing throughout the week and they've already added an interview with the author.

How much realism can teenagers take in a YA novel? And how much should we give them? Nicky Schmidt takes up the debate with gusto on her blog this week: YA Fiction - a safe-haven for teens.

Finally, those of us who misspent our youth reading comics instead of "important literature" will enjoy Julie Day's remembrance of the comics/graphic novels of her youth. What comics did you rush out to the newsagents for on a Saturday morning?

Nick.


Nick Cross is a children's writer, blogger and all-round techno-ninja. In 2010 he was a winner of Undiscovered Voices with his zombie comedy Back from the Dead.

This week, Nick discovered Jedward in his office (honestly!) but managed not to write a blog about it. Instead, he's Being Brave.

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for the link, Nick!
    Candy's post this week is brilliant, so spot on, and Julie really took me down memory lane - well I remember Beano, Bunty and Jackie!
    Now heading off to read Benjamin's post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Nick another great round up of not-to-be-missed-blogs! Thanks for the Space on the Bookshelf shout out too! Although must say i'm disappointed that you won't be supporting a moustache for the conference! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes I too am disappointed that you're not growing a moustache! Thanks for the mention ... and may I also say it's not too late to join the PiBoldWriMo - 30 picture book ideas in month.

      Delete
  3. Hi Nick,
    Thank you for such great and informative stuff on Words and Pictures. You really do a fantastic job of editing this hugely valuable resource!
    Logging on to W&P blogging has now become a very necessary daily habit! of mine! It's a wonderful learning platform and I read everything I can, whenever time allows (usually in bite size chunks during the day!) and find myself returning to blogs to refresh my memory about something. Everything is relevant and interesting. But no doubt a lot of hard work too! Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for highlighting my blog, Nick. Didn't know until I read the Yahoo group message.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You don't have a Twitter account, do you Julie? I try to tag everyone on Twitter who's been included. Glad to see that my Yahoo Group backup method worked :-)

      Delete

We love comments and really appreciate the time it takes to leave one.
Interesting and pithy reactions to a post are brilliant but we also LOVE it when people just say they've read and enjoyed.
We've made it easy to comment by losing the 'are you human?' test, which means we get a lot of spam. Fortunately, Blogger recognises these, so most, if not all, anonymous comments are deleted without reading.

Words & Pictures is the Online Magazine of SCBWI British Isles. Powered by Blogger.