2 Pulitzer Prize Winning Books That Look Like They Don’t Suck

What may be surprising to many is that a pulitzer-prize-winning book isn’t necessarily a bestselling book.  What makes a book great to the general public isn’t necessarily what makes a book great within the smaller circle of the literary world.
Add to that the fact that my tastes, as an average reader, tend to be rather specific [...]

Writers Conference Quotes, Fan Wu

Lovely guest speaker this morning at the Southern California Writers Conference by the name of Fan Wu.  Here are some quotes I jotted down during her presentation:

“Edit your manuscript like it’s written by your worst enemy.”

“If you write well and you have some substance, you will resonate with other minds and hearts.”

“Looking for an agent [...]

Attending Writers Conference

Hi, everyone. I’m attending the Southern California Writers’ Conference for the next couple of days. This is my first writers conference, so I had no idea what to expect. I’ll be posting updates about my experiences on Twitter if you want to know what’s going on (twitter.com/mewritewords).

Answer Me When I Send Text Messages… (Poem)

Love this opening line from J. Mae Barizo’s poem, Anthelion:

Answer me when I send text messages that make no sense but which
Notate ever so delicately the names of things not said.

Read the full poem as well as other work from this author which appears in the current issue of online alternative poetry journal, ditch.

Picture Poems

Found this cool website of “picture poems” — poems written on or about pictures. I think the visual provides an added depth to the poems. I’m working on a poetry site right now, and I plan to do something similar.
Unfortunately, some of the links are old, but you can still find a lot of cool stuff [...]

Facebook Catches 3 Criminals from Around the World

People often criticize social media and the web in general, but here is proof that the internet, and specifically Facebook, is making the world a better place…
1. Thief Caught Leaving Facebook Open: Some idiot in Pennsylvania logs into Facebook while in the middle of a robbery and forgets to log out.  (Which leaves me wondering–why not [...]

Haiku (Idol’s Behavior Less than Idyllic)

you’re not who I thought
when I put you up there–give
back my pedestal
by Edie Montgomery-Pool

This haiku was inspired by an experience a friend had. She met an American Idol who turned out to be not at all like their “nice person” image. It sounded like the fame went to their head. Hopefully that person will get a better grasp [...]

Devil Worshipers Did Not Take Over Twitter – Relax

Big controversy today when fans of the CW network television show, Supernatural, started talking about it on Twitter with the tag #luciferiscoming.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with the show, on the last episode of the previous season, one of the good guys accidentally opened a gate to hell that would allow Lucifer [...]

Theresa Bane, Author and Vampirologist

Yeah, you read that title right.  Theresa Bane is a real-life, honest-to-God vampirologist.  Which means she makes her living studying and writing about vampires.
Cool.
Check out her book, Actual Factual: Dracula, A Compendium of Vampires.  The thing I find most intriguing about this book is that it explores vampire mythology pre-Bram Stoker.  This is a myth that goes [...]

Cuddle Party – Would You Pay for It?

The hot new trend:  cuddle parties.  What’s that?  An article by Libby Copeland in the Seattle Times titled Strangers Attend Cuddle Parties describes it as so:

Thirteen people arrive, mostly in twos and fours, at 1 p.m. They change into pajamas and put on name tags. World music and jazz soften the mood. Mihalko asks them [...]