If something happens twice, it's a tradition. Right?

I think these are all from John R!

• Ask Correia #13: Ripping Off Ideas
  I liked this excerpt:
  "Stories are more than one particular idea. They are a whole bunch of ideas and characters and situations crammed together into one book. Sometimes you will have ideas that are very similar to one particular other creation, but which are totally different in other ways. Once again, that’s fine, because it is all about the personal spin you put on it."
• Two YouTube videos of lectures from Brandon Sanderson, on Ebook vs Traditional Contracts and Getting a Good Agent
• A notice on Writer's Digest that literary agent Kimiko Nakamura is seeking new clients

Thanks for the good stuff, John. And now I'm off to see if I can meet my April Camp NaNoWriMo goal. (It's not looking good.)

Self-Promotion Saturday, featuring Chris Weigand

The first in what Shelly and I plan to be a series of self-promotion posts. We contacted Chris because her YA novel, The Palace of the Twelve Pillars, was just released by MuseItUp publishing. Chris is also one of the founders of the Sockmonkeys and NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaison Emerita. We <3 Chris. Here's what she submitted:

The Peace Summit was in shambles, the prince kidnapped.
When the rival king realizes he kidnapped the wrong prince, hostilities escalate. Loyalties to each other and country are tested for the twin princes of Crato, Joachim and Brandan.
Joachim, captive of King Waldrom, faces deception and betrayal as he struggles to find his way home. Brandan, at home with a father focused on rescuing Joachim, wrestles with his own demons as he searches for his place in the world and the favor of his father.
Torn from the safety and peace of their childhood, they are thrust into a world where bonds of family, brotherhood and roles as heirs to Crato are tested. Through war, spiritual journeys, death and marriage, will they choose the path of good or evil? Who can be trusted, as the world they know slips into a whirlpool of chaos?

Buy Link
Blog: http://www.weigandchris.com
email: palaceofthetwelvepillars@gmail.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/caweigand.
Twitter: @CAWeigand --
Christina Weigand

Thanks, Chris, and congratulations. Happy Saturday, everybody.

A Menagerie of Links

Sockmonkeys share many links with each other via Facebook but, of course, things shared to FB have a tendency to disappear into the aether. So here's a list of links shared with the group between April 15 and April 23, 2013:

• The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
  Wretched Writers Welcome...to submit their loveliest sentences (h/t to John R)
• Mars 2023: Inhabitants Wanted
  Posted as a (sci-fi?) writing prompt (h/t to Darlene R)
• 24 Tips for Writers
  Nineteen-minute video reviewing many of those grammatical issues we all need to revisit from time to time (h/t to John R)
• 30 things to tell a book snob
  In honor of World Book Night, author Matt Haig politely tells haters to shove it (Cassandra)

Shelly and I want to make this a weekly round-up, so each Tuesday one of us will sift through the week's FB postings for all the great links Sockmonkeys share with each other.

Also, a while ago Darlene invited the Sockmonkeys to share writers' events in the region so I thought I'd add those too:

• Chuckanut Writers Conference - http://chuckanutwritersconference.com/ (h/t to Jane H)
• Cascade Writers Workshop - http://cascadewriters.com/ (h/t to Tara S)
• Oregon Christian Writers Cascade Writing Contest & Conference - http://oregonchristianwriters.org/ocw-cascade-writing-contest/ (h/t to Melissa I)

From the general chatter on FB it looks like the Sockmonkeys are, on the whole, enjoying a productive and inspirational week. To any Sockmonkeys who happen to be reading this, I'd love to know what's inspiring you these days. 

An inaugural post

We'd been talking about establishing a blog that could act as something of a clearinghouse for information related to the Sockmonkey Writers group. Facebook is handy for event planning and sharing information in a quick and casual way, but can be ephemeral.

We want a central place to keep track of members' blogs/websites, maybe share book recommendations, relevant writerly events in the area, et cetera. Mostly, what this blog needs to be is whatever the group needs it to be. So we'll see what that turns out to be, and where we're going with this thing. 

("We" being Cassandra and Shelly.) 

Excelsior!

Now to figure out how Blogger works.