InScribers Review: Introducing NetGalley - Ruth L. Snyder

One of the best ways to improve our own writing is to read excellent writing.

Writing book reviews and posting them on our blogs or websites is a great way to get more traffic and ultimately more followers. In the past few months I have been enjoying doing all of the above - reading excellent writing, improving my own writing, posting book reviews, and getting more visits to my blog. NetGalley is my newest writing resource.

When you open a NetGalley account you are able to enter your personal profile including information about the type of books you enjoy reading, interests/skills you have, the blog or website where you will be posting reviews, and your Twitter account. After you enter your profile you are able to access the NetGalley catalogue of books. They have many of the newest books being released by a variety of publishers.

You can search the catalogue by date of release, genre, or publisher. (There are several publishers who specify they will only accept Canadian reviewers.) If you find a book that looks interesting, you send a request to the publisher. Usually within a day or so you will receive email notification regarding whether the publisher is willing to allow you access to the book or not. If access is granted, you can download the book in one of several different ebook formats. (If you don't have an e-reader, you can download the PDF version and read the book on your computer.)

Once you have read the book, you can decide whether or not you will provide a review. (Obviously, you will want to write reviews for most of the books you read, otherwise publishers may not give you access to any more books. However, if the review is negative, you may want to send it directly to the publisher instead of posting it on the internet for the whole world to read.) If you decide to do a review, you notify the publisher on NetGalley. Once you have written the review you can post it on your website or blog and then also post a copy directly on NetGalley with a link to your blog or website.

Check out NetGalley today. "Try it; You'll like it!"

Ruth L. Snyder

Check out Ruth's blog on education matters
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PUNCTUATION MATTERS - Bruce Atchison.

What difference does proper punctuation make? If you want your work published more often, then it does matter. This is no guarantee of publication but using correct punctuation is a big step in the right direction.

I've been taking a course called Punctuation Review from Creative Writing Institute since the end of September. For the first time in my life, I'm grasping rules which remained impenetrable throughout my junior high and high school years.

Additionally, I'm now beginning to understand all those English terms that my Language Arts teacher fired at me forty-plus years ago. Why? My adult perspective, my desire to master these writing tools, the fact that I'm able to learn at my own speed - these factors are what assist me in understanding the details of writing well.

I cringe whenever I re-read articles that I submitted in the past, even as recently as last spring. This is because I used to base my understanding of punctuation rules on conjecture and half-remembered lessons. No wonder most of my articles were rejected.

Editors may seem like cruel ogres when they reject our labours of love but these folks usually have good reasons for their decisions. Because of the steady avalanche of submissions, they need a literary smelting method to divide the gold from the slag. Proper punctuation, especially if it conforms to the publication's style manual, shows that the writer is serious about easing the editor's workload. This also shows that considerable effort went into the piece.

Though this course is tough enough to make my brain whimper, I persist in beating these punctuation and sentence structure concepts through my skull. The glamour of story or poetry writing is missing from this course but I know it will improve whatever work I tackle in the future.

In addition to being a member of InScribe, I've self-published When a Man Loves a Rabbit (Learning and Living With Bunnies) and Deliverance from Jericho (Six Years in a Blind School). I hope to have How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity in print some time in 2012.

Read more about them here. You're also welcome to contact me directly for more information.

Swooping with Hope - Denise M. Ford

Today I welcome Advent, the season of waiting for the celebration; I join in the tradition of lighting the first candle on my Advent wreath and I embrace HOPE.

Emily Dickinson, one of my favourite poets, described hope beautifully when she wrote:

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all.

Picturing a ruffling of feathers stirring up energy and enthusiasm in my soul is like a deep breath surging through every fibre of my being. It’s as if I can sense tiny wings forming within, lifting on the current of my intake of breath. Hello Hope, you feel so grand!

Like so many of my friends and family members, I want hope this Christmas season. But I don’t want soft simple flutters; I want a frenzy of motion that swoops in like the flock of waxwings that visited our backyard the other week.

One moment I contemplated in silence, the next I countered in shock. I witnessed whirring wings with practiced precision pushing their body into perfect position. Waxwings descended from every direction to delight in the delicacies of the shriveled crabapples. I thought I had stumbled upon a crisply choreographed routine as I watched them take turns, soaring from precarious perches on nearby branches, then contorting and stretching to surround a prized morsel and bring it within reach.

Joyful chatter arose from the waxwings as they merrily encouraged each other to join the feast. As if they had booked the backyard as their banquet site, they boldly boasted to each other as they stripped the crabapple tree to bare branches. Unlike any musical performance I had attended, this one inspired me with its rising crescendo. A rising of wings, as if the conductor had signaled the strings of the orchestra, as if the momentum alone would transport all to another level. A rising, a moment of hope.

Then as quickly as they came, they flew away. Later, my dog, Dusty and I walked outside to inspect the tree. Over to my right I heard the similar song from before, but offered in a quieter, gentler tone. Looking up I saw a bird grasped firmly to a swaying branch. I noticed the yellow tip of its tail feathers, the brush stroke of red on its head; I welcomed the waxwing with a wondering nod. It stayed there as Dusty and I headed inside. It’s singing accompanied us like a hopeful refrain repeating its rhythmic message.

It reminded me of the simple song I like to sing to myself as I start my day. My paraphrased version is from a song I learned while teaching Bible school one summer. I try to remember to sing it daily, to focus my thoughts, to continually hold hope within my soul:

Good morning Lord, it’s a beautiful day!

Good morning Lord, I’m going your way!

This Advent I’m welcoming hope’s enduring presence by reinforcing this hopeful refrain with the image of the lone waxwing singing merrily on its perch. Like the waxwings that wait for the celebration of the feast to come, I want to embrace both ways to honour hope within me. Sometimes I want it to slowly rise like soft feathers unfurling on a gentle breeze, but other days I want it to shake with anticipation as it purposely positions its feathers to align them for a powerful swoop. Then the celebration will begin!

Good morning Lord, it’s a beautiful day!

Good morning Lord, I’m going your way!

To read Denise's personal blog and writing website go to: www.walkingwithDustyandDee.com

My Writing Life Reviewed - Karen Toews

Looking back.

I've never been a prolific writer, but some seasons my efforts have been more consistent than others. One of those "others" has been the last five, six years - a space where my writing life has been an on-again, off-again practise. I wasn't happy that it had come to that wobbly flow of stops and spurts. Topic ideas wasn't the problem - they just seldom landed on the page. The desire and discipline to develop them into something worth reading didn't often happen.

That pattern took a small, but important, shift in 2010 when I started contributing monthly on this Inscribe Writers Online. Sometimes my post has been late or published in spite of my not being completely satisfied with the piece. But having an assignment, a deadline, a readership - that's what I needed to get the groove going.

Coming into 2011, my plan was to support that small momentum. In conjunction with developing my new business in natural nutrition, my goal was to launch a blog: a mission accomplished - with many thanks to my patient and blog-savvy daughter and son-in-law.

The present.

So the "blog-baby" is birthed. Content is "key" so posts have to be written but that's just part of sustaining this needy "child". The small writing momentum I was prepared to nurture has become a pushing and shoving match - manoeuvring through a foreign technical landscape and stretching my creativity for design and formating.

As fellow bloggers know, visiting and commenting on other blogsites helps build your own site and a network of online connections. This is good. What doesn't help is the sense of intimidation I feel, looking at "how professional" these other blogs look and "how come I didn't think to set up my site that way?" Or the most discouraging: "I have no clue how to make my side bar blocks (...or something else) look like that!"

I am gratified - readers are visiting, they're submitting comments. The discipline and challenge are giving me a sense of writing purpose, inspiring me to continue, helping shape other business ideas.

Looking ahead.

In Do the Work, author Steven Pressfield states, "A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor the genius or the madman. It's only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and over think and hesitate." This summer, with three of our grandkids living with us, I was able to observe this "having an idea to do something and just running with it." Whether it was physical play or for designing everything from doll clothes to cardboard castles to painting pictures.

Am I going to be able to "run with the dream" I have for this "child"? Is it really worthwhile, making a difference for someone? What about other writing desires - maybe a longer piece of work, maybe a (whisper) book?

Today I read Philippians 4:6,7. "Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

I'm not privy to the full picture of my 2012 writing life, but I have an idea. My heart is open to the bigness of God's creative power and design. My resolve is not to compare myself with others. My prayer is that I will know His leading - and His peace - as I do the work and move ahead.