New posting Schedule, and awesome new blog!

Since my old posting schedule hasn't been doing too well (mainly due to the fact that my laptop's internet has been spazzy over the past weeks) I've decided to start a new posting schedule that I might be able to keep up with better.

Monday- IMM (a list of the books I picked up that week, along with a short description of what the book's about and why I decided to read it.)
Wednesday- Book Reviews (self explanatory....)
Friday- First-impression Friday (I'll take a book and post its cover, the pitch and the first sentence/paragraph and talk about how the various elements either drew me into the story or turned me away.)
Saturday- School Suggestions Saturday (This is for anyone starting university who doesn't know what to expect, or someone who struggled in their first year or two at university, or highschool students who are just interested.)

I'll also probably do some random writing posts which will appear either on Tuesdays or Thursdays. The reason that I haven't scheduled these is that they take a fair amount of time and I don't want to feel pressured to write them on a specific schedule.

Oh, and please note that this schedule will probably change again whenever I head out to school. I'll be staring University for real so I'll be super busy and I'll be living away from home. I know it'll be awesome, but it also means that I won't have as much time for this blog.

Now, I need to tell you about another awesome blog you really should be reading. My good friend Alex, who goes to musical theatre classes with me and is a fellow Doctor Who, Narnia, and Lord of the Rings geek, has started up a blog called Triple Threat PhilosoGEEK. She talks about random things, from her favourite music, to incidents in her life, to short inspirational posts. All in all, Alex is a lovely person and her blog is certainly worth reading.

New Layout!

Stop.

Look at this layout.

Isn't it gorgeous? Don't you just love it?

I didn't make it myself; if I did, there's no way I'd be gloating about it. And there's no way it would be anywhere near as pretty. This blog design was made by the amazing Qui. Let's give her a big round of applause!

If you want a blog design of your own, check out Fine and Dandy Blog Designs. And, since Qui is so awesome, you should go check out here blog, Dancing Through Life.

Enough from me. I'm going to go back staring at my blog. :)

Other Writing Blogs You'll Enjoy

There’s just so much good stuff out in the blogging world for writers. I thought I’d write an extra post today advertising some other blogs which you might enjoy.

YAtopia

This blog, run by eight YA writers, is currently hosting an agent pitch contest. What does this mean? Basically, you give them a two-sentence pitch of your novel, along with the first sentence of the book, and an agent will pick the best one. The winner will have their complete manuscript read by this agent. If you have a finished manuscript ready for submission, this is a great chance to have your story read without spending all that time querying agents.

Even supposing they weren’t running this contest, YAtopia is a great resource for YA writers, with helpful posts on all aspects of writing.

Inkpop Blog

This blog is run by the team at inkpop.com and contains regular posts about all things in the publishing world. There’s news about books being made into movies, new books coming out, author interviews and all sorts of contests (I recently won I Am Number Four, Beastly and the first two Pretty Little Liars for just commenting!) I recently read a really useful interview with Lauren Oliver, author of Delirium, on how to create interesting main characters. Considering I’m working on a series about the same thing, I thought it was worth a look.

EmilyisSmiling

People on the site inkpop may remember Emily from her engaging novel Before You, which made top five back in August. Since then Emily hasn’t been on inkpop much, but she’s been busy blogging. It isn’t a blog about writing (though she does have regular book reviews), but it’s bound to bring a smile to your day. Emily talks about a variety of topics, from helping sponsor children, to pranks she played on her friends, to fashion, to her little terrier puppy. This may sound simple, but her friendly, non-judgemental outlook on life draws in 1000-2000 visitors daily. Emily’s blog is one that I make sure to keep up on.