Menagerie of links

Lots of fun and interesting things afoot this week. You guys have been busy:

• The Great Starship Battle, via The Collaborative Writing Project at SciFi Wiki. In which nerds gather to create a story, with each author contributing a paragraph at a time. Involves the TARDIS. (h/t to John R)
• A letter from EB White to the schoolchildren of Troy, NY. Libraries are magical. Via John Fugelsang's Twitter feed. (Cassandra)
• An announcement about Amazon's Kindle Worlds, which sparked a lively and ongoing (as of Tuesday 5/28) discussion among the Sockmonkeys who write or are otherwise interested in fan fiction. Additional link to a post at John Scalzi's blog: Amazon's Kindle Worlds: Instant Thoughts. (h/t to Tatiana M and Amanda C)
• An essay on "survivorship bias" from author Tobias S. Buckell (h/t to Kyle J)

Hope everyone's staying dry out there. What with the perpetual downpour and all. <3 Washington, amirite?

What have the Sockmonkeys shared with each other this week?

• Diana Gabaldon shares tips on writing effective sex scenes (h/t to Georgia M)
• Buzzfeed list: 27 Pieces of Advice for Writers from Famous Authors (I dig #10) (h/t to Jennifer T, Kyle J, and possibly John R!) 
• On the subject of research for historical fiction, a Tumblr post with links to some reference material appropriate for 1920s crime fiction (h/t to John R)

Hot links, getcher hot links here

Happy Tuesday!

• A post at Writer Beware Blogs! which links to the Writer Beware Small Press Page, a resource to help authors evaluate a small press; things to know before you trust them with your beloved manuscript (Cassandra)
• PaperRater, for grammar and spelling and other checks. Looks like it's geared toward students, using algorithms and perhaps sorcery to evaluate a paper based on criteria such as word choice (h/t to John R)
• The Review Review, a compendium of literary journals, including reviews of issues. Cool! (h/t to Elizabeth H)
• Flash Fiction Challenge: Smashing Sub-Genres, a call to flex your most creative muscles by randomly combining two sub-genres from a list. From Terrible Minds, the blog of author Chuck Wendig. Official deadline is Friday, May 17; participants are invited to post links to their +/- 1000-word stories in the comments to the original post. We'd love it if any participating Sockmonkeys decided to link in the comments here, too. Good-time fun. Now let's see those Southern Gothic Techno-Thrillers, people. One thousand words. You can do it. (Cassandra)

I think that's it for this week. As always, if I overlooked something please drop a link in the comments. Happy writing.

Happy Tuesday, folks. Here's a list of the goodies we've been sharing with each other via the Face Booook:

• From false beginnings to info dumps, here are some things a lot of literary agents dislike from Writer Unboxed, a site dedicated to "the craft and business of fiction" (Cassandra)
• Writer Beware blogs! "Shining a bright light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes, and pitfalls." Associated with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. (Cassandra)
• Magnetism and Madness, by Maria Popova. Looking at the question of why writers are compelled to write. (h/t Jane H)

As always, if I overlooked something please feel free to add it in the comments section.

A round of applause please and a warm Sockmonkey welcome to our own beloved Sarah Jayne Carr, author of--well, I'll let Sarah tell you:

Conspiracy theories? Undesirable super powers? Murder? Lies? Betrayal?

A conversation with a stranger changes Amelia Hamilton's life forever. When she learns her grandfather faked his own death, normalcy slips from Amelia's grasp. To make matters worse, he is coming for her in less than seven days. What she hasn't determined is why.

Join the Insurance Agency and the Physician Coalition in their fight for dominance. Be careful. You, too, might be subjected to JackRabbit7 if you don't heed the warnings within the pages.

"The openness and honesty of Carr's storytelling marks her as a writer of truly noble character. She isn't afraid to cut herself and bleed over the pages for the sake of breathing life into the story." - Hannah Whalen

Buy Links:
Amazon Kindle
Amazon Paperback

How to Stalk the Author:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorsarahjcarr
Twitter: www.twitter.com/@sarahjcarr1
Author Central: amazon.com/author/sarahjcarr
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/SarahJCarr
Publisher: http://www.crushingheartsandblackbutterfly.com
Website: www.sarahjcarr.com

Thank you, Sarah! Enjoy your Saturdays, everyone. The weather's supposed to be, like, nice or something?