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For a more comprehensive discussion of critiquing—from how-to, to working with crit partners—go to the Fiction Writing Series page and scroll down to Critiquing.

I always hated math classes. I was good at math—great at math. But I hated sitting there for an hour (or longer) listening to someone drone on about the concepts. Aside from Geometry in 9th grade (where I finished the year with a 108% A grade—you know, all that visually oriented stuff), the only time I ever really enjoyed using “higher” math (consciously—I know I use it subconsciously every day) was when I took Astronomy and the accompanying labs in college. It was taking all of the concepts of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry I’d memorized over the past five or six years and applying it to stuff that actually had applications in the real world—figuring out distances from the earth to other planets and stars, planet sizes, the angle of the earth to the sun by measuring the shadow of a flag pole at different times during the day/semester, and so on. Math stopped being “conceptual” and became “concrete.”

Critiquing makes everything we’ve ever heard about what “good writing” is concrete instead of conceptual.

Becoming a good critiquer is part and parcel with becoming a good writer. Until you learn how to critique others’ writing, you’ll never be able to look at your own objectively. I have learned more about the craft of writing through the critiquing/mentoring process than I did in all of the seminars I took in two years of graduate school in a genre fiction writing program. That’s not to say I didn’t learn stuff from the seminars—just that to me, it was like sitting in those math classes . . . just memorizing concepts. What I learned through the process of critiquing others and understanding and internalizing the critiques given to me on my own writing made it all concrete.

So here’s the down-and-dirty recap of the Critiquing series:

Critiquing Step 1: Becoming a Pot-Bellied Pig
1. Be tough but sensitive. Be tough-skinned enough that you don’t take critiques personally, but sensitive enough to take in the comments so you can improve your writing.

2. Be a good listener. Whether literally (in face-to-face situations) or figuratively (written critiques), listen first. Do not respond until you have heard/read everything the critiquer has to say. It’s so easy to become defensive, whether it’s the first or the hundredth time we’ve gotten feedback on our writing. No, not all advice/comments will be valid or applicable. But if you shut down at the first comment you don’t agree with, you might not find the pearl of wisdom that will mean the difference between a rejection and a request for a full.

3. Be loyal to your “herd.” Your critique group is your herd. You have a role to perform within the group as well as outside of it. Don’t betray confidences, do give support and encouragement. Let your “herd” help you figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are so you can work on them.

4. Be an individual. You cannot be so bound by the critiques you receive that you alter your voice, style, or story to fit what someone else thinks is best. You must remain true to your inner voice and to your story.

Critiquing Step 2: Be a Reader First, Writer Second
The First Read-Through: When you sit down to read the latest novel from your favorite published author, do you do it with red pen in hand just waiting to start marking up the pages? Of course not. The first time you sit down with your crit partners’ work, do so as if you were reading a published novel. Just read it. Keep a pen and notepad nearby to make notes of things to comment on later, but not on the first read-through.

The Second Read-Through: Now is your chance to put everything you know about writing into practice. With your notes from the first reading at hand, read through the manuscript again, this time, marking/commenting on the details. (See the original post for a list of things to read for.)

Critiquing Step 3: Remember the Golden Rule
You’ve completed the two read-throughs and you have your rough notes. Great. Now, set it aside for at least one day, a couple of days if possible. Then, come back to your notes with fresh eyes. As you read each criticism, try to word it in your mind to make it as positive as possible—word it the way you would want to read it if someone were writing the comment about your writing. In other words, “critique others as you would wish to be critiqued yourself.”

Critiquing Step 4: Putting the Crits to Work
You must carefully consider each comment before deciding whether to implement it or not. If you can (if it’s not feedback from a contest or the like where you cannot contact the critiquer), ask clarifying questions. If you find yourself getting bogged down in the critique comments and losing heart, step back and consider the bigger picture. And set specific goals of what you are trying to achieve.

Now that we’ve looked at the critiquing process, we’ll start breaking this down into how to take what you’re given as feedback/critiques and apply it to your writing—either as you write your first draft or as you move into the revision stage after your first draft is finished.

Don’t forget, there’s a $5 Barnes & Noble (or Borders, if the winner prefers) gift certificate up for grabs to whoever comes up with a name for the new series . . . but I’ll need to choose by 10:00 a.m. Central Time, Wednesday, August 1—so get your suggestions in!

Okay, so I’ve figured out what the next series is, but my brain is fuzzy (have an infection and I’m running a low-grade fever tonight—and it’s miserably hot outside and I had to run in and out of a couple of stores to pick some stuff up on the way home. Fun times.) so I need help coming up with a catchy title for it. Come on, all you writers out there—put on your creativity-caps and help me come up with a title for the new series on:

How to apply the comments and critiques you’ve received on your manuscript (from contests, crit partners, mentors, etc.), and how to revise your manuscript without wanting to spill blood—yours or someone else’s. We might even get into writing the dreaded synopsis and proposals.

(Little bit long for a series title, ain’t it?)

Tomorrow, for those who don’t want to go back and re-read the entire series I did on critiquing (see the Fiction Writing Series page for links), I’ll discuss critiquing a bit—both from the point of view of a critiquer/contest judge as well as the point of view of a writer receiving crits. 

I’ll also really want y’all to chime in with your knowledge, advice, and experiences as this is a process that is unique for each person—I’ll be trying to speak in generalities, while also giving my personal experiences. Yours are just as important. Let’s make this a real discussion—treat it like a forum instead of a blog!

So come on, now–let’s see some names!

Okay, so you think you deserve something if you come up with the winning name? How about . . . a $5 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble?

Pulled from Georgiana’s blog . . .

1. What’s the one book or writing project you haven’t yet written but still hope to?
I have so many “ideas” sitting in a folder in my computer . . . but usually the book I “hope” to write is the one I’m currently working on or getting ready to write. In this case, there are two, and they’re both sequels: A Major Event Inc and Ransome’s Crossing.

2. If you had one entire day in which to do nothing but read, what book would you start with?
Uh . . . I just did this last weekend–I read Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows last Saturday.

3. What was your first writing “instrument” (besides pen and paper)?
A TRS-80 computer with WordStar word processing software. The files were saved to a cassette tape (in other words, this was before the floppy disk was in common usage).

4. What’s your best guess as to how many books you read in a month?
I have started making myself make use of my library card—checking out books from the “Recommended for You” list at Amazon instead of buying books that I end up never reading. I am almost always listening to audio books, so I’ll count that as reading. In the past 30 days, between audio books, reading Harry Potter in one day, and new titles I’ve read, I think I’ve read 5 books.

5. What’s your most favorite writing “machine” you’ve ever owned?
The computer I currently have at home—large flat-panel monitor, super-fast processor and a hard drive so huge it’s segmented as if it’s actually two hard drives, cable internet access for quick research/access to thesaurus.com, brand-new black Microsoft Natural keyboard, a laser printer and a color ink-jet printer, a flatbed scanner, and 30+ hours of music ripped to Windows Media Player.

6. Think historical fiction: what’s your favorite time period in which to read? (And if you don’t read historical fiction–shame on you.)
Though I write in the Regency period, I think my favorite historical time period to read is still medieval: knights and ladies, castles and moors, tournaments and highlanders.

7. What’s the one book you remember most clearly from your youth (childhood or teens)?
See my post on the Most Dog-Eared Books on My Shelves.

If you want to participate, please leave a comment to let me know when your list is up so I can come read it!

Since I haven’t been blogging this week, I haven’t had a chance to mention that crit partner and pal Georgiana awarded me the “Rockin’ Girl Blogger” award! I’m passing this along to Ruth, Amy Jane, Rachel, and Jennifer!

If you’ve been keeping up with my Word Count page, you’ll know that I finished my proposal for the RANSOME TRILOGY and sent it off to my agent last night.

Since I’m now completely immersed in Regency Romance mode, I thought I’d share some of my favorite YouTube videos with you today!

Hi, all!

Just wanted to let y’all know that I’ve decided to take a break from blogging this week. I’ve got a ton of stuff I need to get done—need to finish the synopsis for Ransome’s Honor, along with the shorter snyopses for Ransome’s Crossing and Ransome’s Quest, get the proposal written, and get it out to my agent. I seriously need to get some critiquing done, I need to get another couple of chapters of A Major Event Inc. written and out to the crit partners, and I need to get my application for an adjunct teaching position out to my undergrad college.

I will update my word count page daily, so be checking in there to make sure I’ve done it!

And keep posting comments with ideas for new Fiction Writing Series topics!

I’m trying to figure out if there’s a Fiction Writing Series  topic just waiting for my attention out there. Since many of the topics I’ve serialized here have come from suggestions from my loyal and lovely readers, I wanted to see if there’s anything any of y’all would like to see as a topic of a series.

Just post a comment with your suggestions!

No spoilers, I promise.

After some friends warned me that I might need to arrive early to get a number that would determine my place in line, I bit the bullet and went down to B&N at 7:00 Friday evening. Because I had to stand in line about thirty minutes just to get up to the table outside the door to get a wristband (orange for those of us who had pre-reserved our copies, blue for those who didn’t), and hearing people talk about how much trouble they had with parking and getting back into the store later in the evening “last time,” I made the decision to just stay there for the entire length of time instead of returning home or doing other shopping in the area.

I made my way through the crowd to the very quiet Christian fiction aisle and picked up Terri Blackstock’s Last Light, which, I believe, someone recommended in a comment here on the blog. After a little more than an hour of book browsing and picking up a few other titles to look at to see if I might be interested in reading them, and found an empty table in the cafe area. I sat there and read until about 10:30 (after reading about the first one-third of Last Light) when I finally got up to figure out where I needed to be to have a decent shot of getting my book as close to midnight as I could. I ran into a few people I know from church and stood with them in what eventually became a line. We were two Bargain Books rows back from the cashier’s station. I finally got to the front and got my book at 12:38 a.m. While waiting at the head of the line, I asked the employee standing there (who’d been directing people to the appropriate lines outside earlier, walking around with a clicker/counter) if they knew a rough estimate of how many people where there. He said when he turned the clicker over to someone else at 9:30, there were already 1,800 people there—based on the steady stream of people he saw coming in after that, he figured there were probably at least 2,000-2,200 people there. And this is not a overly large B&N. There were people everywhere.

Since I hadn’t taken the time to get something to eat before going, I stopped at Jack-in-the-Box on the way home for food (was able to read the first page and a half waiting at the window), then came straight home and, after changing into PJs, started reading. I stopped around 3 a.m. only because I kept dozing off and rereading the same page without really comprehending anything on it. So I decided to sleep. Woke up around 9 a.m., made coffee, eggs, and bacon, and immediately started reading again. With only a few breaks to get up and move my stiff, sore body, I finished reading it at 7:00 p.m. tonight. I went through about a dozen tissues while reading. She didn’t pull any punches, but it has a deeply satisfying ending.

As far as the predictions I made before reading it—well, with some of them, I was right on the money. With others, I got a couple of elements correct but missed others, and with a few, I was just way off base.

I’m so glad I went last night and experienced this much excitement over a book. And not just any book—a genre fiction/popular fiction novel!

I’ll be getting the unabridged audio version from Amazon some time this week, so I’ll spend the next couple of weeks listening to it and catching all of the little details I know I missed because I tend to skim in my anxiousness to know what happens next when reading a new book.

Update July 23: Spoilers are posted in the comments where I have commented on each of the predictions below. 

If you don’t have Harry Potter mania by now, I’m sure you’ve gotten good and sick of hearing about it. So I’ll understand if you don’t want to read this post. Please come back on Monday when, I promise, I will not be posting about it.

I’ll be headed down to Barnes & Noble at 7:00 this evening to get my number or get in line or whatever, to get my reserved copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at midnight. I then plan to stay up all night reading. Actually, I’m posting this late on Thursday night because, even though it means painful withdrawal symptoms, I will be trying to stay offline as much as possible tomorrow, as there are people in many other countries who have already received their copies, and I don’t want to know what happens before I read the book.

Here are my predictions for things that will happen in the seventh and final book in the best-selling fiction series of all time:

• The book will open in the summer and feature the wedding of Bill and Fleur. Harry will have one more chance here to be with Ginny. I believe this is also when he will learn that, for some reason, he really needs to return to school. Because I find it really hard to believe this whole book will take place away from Hogwarts.
• Sometime in the book—maybe in the summer before or after the wedding, or perhaps on school holiday over Christmas—Harry will visit Godrick’s Hollow, where his parents lived, and find the horcrux that is made out of something belonging to Godrick Gryffindor.
• Ron and Hermione will be made Head Boy and Head Girl.
• The “major” character who will die: Neville Longbottom, opening the door of opportunity, somehow, for Harry to kill Voldemort. With his death, the prophecy will be fulfilled. Too big a deal has been made at the end of the fifth and with several references in the sixth books to the fact that the prophecy could have meant either Harry or Neville.
• Leading to the next obvious prediction: Harry will live.
• The last horcrux that will be found is the locket. The locket was tossed out of one of the cabinets at the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix at the beginning of book five when they were trying to clean the place up. Kreacher picked it up and has been hiding it—unless he gave it to Bellatrix Lestrange, which means it is back in the custody of Voldemort. Which I doubt. The note inside the fake locket that Harry and Dumbledore retrieved in book six was signed R.A.B., which I’m sure everyone knows by now is Regulus Black, Sirius’s younger brother; and it’s the reason why Voldemort had Regulus killed (and how the locket ended up in the Black home).
• It will be proven that Snape was actually “good”—that he was acting on Dumbledore’s orders all the time. That Dumbledore knew he was dying anyway and the most logical thing was to make it look as if his death was actually a victory for Voldemort, not something that was just going to happen anyway. I believe that Dumbledore’s hand not healing from the curse that was on the ring was what made him decide to cook up the scheme with Snape so that Snape could get in good with Voldemort, while all the time working for Voldemort’s downfall. Does it mean I like him? No. But Dumbledore’s unwavering belief in Snape will be vindicated.
• Snape might actually die protecting Harry. He might even reveal he was in love with Lily Evans. And that he was possibly at Godrick’s Hollow the night the Potters died—had gone to warn them but was too late and had to watch them die.
• Lupin and Tonks will get engaged or married.
• Somehow—perhaps with the broken 2-way mirror Sirius gave Harry—Harry will be able to communicate with Sirius. This is what will lead him to Regulus and the real locket.
• We’re going to find out what it means that Harry has his “mother’s eyes.” So much has been made of this—mentioned in every book. Did she somehow leave an imprint of herself—a good horcrux?—inside of him when she died protecting him? I think we’re going to learn a lot more about Lily Evans and James Potter in this book.
• Will Harry’s scar disappear when Voldemort dies? Is that why the last word of the book is supposed to be scar?
• Draco Malfoy will come to Harry for help—to protect his parents from Voldemort or to help Draco get out of the Death Eaters or something. Harry will have to figure out if Draco is being honest and, if he is, if Harry can possibly forgive him.
• Ron and Hermione will become engaged if not go ahead and get married.
• Viktor Krum will make another appearance.
• Lupin will kill Grayback.
• Slughorn will continue on as Potions Master and head of Slytherin house.
• But who will be the Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher????
• In book five, when they were trying all of the doors in the Department of Mysteries, there was one door that was locked. This may become important.
• We’ll find out exactly how much Aunt Petunia knows about the wizarding world. Maybe the reason she hates Harry so much is that she was secretly in love with James Potter who wouldn’t give her the time of day because she wasn’t a witch?
• I’ve heard that someone who’s never had a magical ability will suddenly be able to do magic in this book. I originally thought it was going to be Aunt Petunia—but I read somewhere (maybe on Mugglenet.com or JKRowling.com) that it is not Aunt Petunia. Maybe Filch? or Mrs. Figg? or Mrs. Norris the cat?
• Quiddich—if shown at all—will play a very small part in the book. But Gryffindor will win the house cup thanks to Ron’s goalkeeping, fulfilling the vision of himself Ron saw in the Mirror in book one.
• Dumbledore is really dead. But through his portrait in the Headmistress’s office (after all, Professor McGonagall is the deputy and next in line), and possibly through his Chocolate Frog Cards (after all, in book five, he makes a point of saying that after the ministry stripped him of many of his responsibilities, the only thing he requested was that they didn’t take him off the Chocolate Frog Cards), he will continue to act as a guide to Harry.

This reminds me a lot of how five little words in a movie “changed the world” twenty-seven years ago: “Luke, I am your father.” It’s so much fun to live in a time when something like this can happen and remind us that, deep down, we’re all “just folk” (as Mal Reynolds from Firefly would say)—that we’re more alike than we give ourselves credit for. This is a pretty major pop culture event, though, more than just the largest first-run book printing in history (with more than 12 million copies already sold before the book comes out!). It’s a turning point in the collective consciousness of our culture that no other piece of fiction—not even Star Wars—has had on our society.

Just goes to show the power of good storytelling.

In trying to regain momentum in my writing life—which has stalled out almost completely except for the twenty or thirty minutes I make myself write just before switching off the light at night—I’ve been reading articles, chatting with other writers, and, in general, reminding myself that I thrive with structure, goals, and deadlines and flounder when I don’t have something to achieve.

Gina Conroy recently shared that she has a goal of writing 1,000 words per day. In the past three days, she’s written about 4,500 words. Ah, I remember the time—back this past spring, in fact—when I set this same goal for myself and had the same kinds of results. Some days, no, I didn’t actually get all the way to 1,000 words. But the other days of the week usually made up for it and I was producing 5,000 to 7,000 words per week. Of new material. Of forward progress. Of motivation to sit down and see if I could surpass the previous day’s word count. Of being proud of myself at the end of the night when I opened up my spreadsheet and plugged in that day’s number and saw my total word count grow.

In this search for motivation, I read an article in the archives at writermag.com by David Taylor, “A no-fret, no-sweat plan for getting it DONE” (may only be available to subscribers, not sure). In it, he explains his method of not setting a word count goal, but allotting his writing time into blocks of forty-five minutes to one hour. “Spend enough time in the chair,” he writes, “and eventually it will get done.”

Taylor writes that much of why we as writers don’t produce as much as we’re capable of is because of doubt or fear. We fear the blank page. We doubt we’ll be able to produce anything worthy of our crit partners’ time, much less of publication. Every little negative thought we have comes to the fore and as soon as we sit down to write, we spring right back up to go do something else we’re more comfortable with. Face it—writing can be one of the most uncomfortable things to do, and not just physically. As I delve deeper into my characters and my stories, sometimes it’s like pulling my heart out of my chest with my bare hands and laying it on the desk—defenseless and vulnerable to everything.

As much as we all hate talking about it, committing time to writing is just like committing ourselves to losing weight. If I set a weightloss goal of 20 pounds between now and September 19, what am I going to do to reach that goal? Well, I’m going to make sure I’m eating healthy foods, smaller portions, lower fat/calories, more fruits and veggies, and exercising every day. What? Exercise every day? Yep. That’s part of the commitment. In my appointment with my new doctor this week, when I expressed concern that, after losing 15 pounds relatively easily by just changing my diet to lower carb/lower fat, I’ve plateaued, she asked me how much I’m exercising. About thirty minutes a day three or four days a week, I admitted. This was when she gave me the bad news: for someone my age and my weight, that’s not going to cut it. I have to increase my aerobic exercise to forty-five minutes per day at least five days per week if I want to try to get to a point of steady weight loss.

Hmmm . . . I’m seeing a frightening similarity here. It’s all about commitment. It’s about willpower. It’s about figuring out what I have to gain and what I have to lose to determine how committed I’m going to be when it comes to each goal—writing and weightloss.

In the article, Taylor illustrates the fact that people who depend on their writing for their livelihood have no trouble staying motivated. “If they don’t write, they don’t pay the bills. Simple enough.” But as someone whose livelihood does not depend on my writing, what do I have to lose by not writing?

Well, I do have a little more to lose than other unpublished authors—after all, I am agented. If I’m not writing and getting new material to him, pretty soon (in six months, in fact), my contract will be up for review. If I haven’t been getting stuff to him that he’s getting bites on from acquisitions editors, he’s probably not going to renew my agreement and I’ll once again be not only unpublished but unagented as well, and starting all over again—this time with the stigma of having been dropped by one of the best agents in the industry. Yikes—don’t want that to happen.

On a more personal level, I actually tend to start edging toward depression when I’m not productive with my writing. Writing prolifically (not publishable-quality, but words on page) was what got me out of the deep clinical depression I experienced fifteen years ago that led to my dropping out of college. That manuscript, still unpolished and unfinished, clocks in at slightly more than 200,000 words—which doesn’t represent all of those scenes and “chapters” (segments, really) that I rewrote dozens of times as the mood struck. In the past couple of months that I’ve allowed my writing motivation to dwindle away and my word count fade to almost nothing, I’ve noticed the wolves of depression circling, waiting to attack. When I write, these predators are excised through the endorphins generated by the creative process. My emotions are boosted, my adrenaline pumped up, my mental faculties clearer, my sociability increased. Writing regularly makes me more productive in other areas of my life—it’s amazing how much MORE time I seem to have to do things like exercise, do freelance work, critique, and read when I’m committing myself to my own writing than I do when I’m not committed to anything.

Looking at it this way, I have far too much to lose by not writing than I do by committing myself to a goal or schedule. Sure, it’s nice to be able to just come home after work, sit in the recliner, watch TV all evening, maybe chat on the phone, knit a while, and just “take it easy.” But what will I have accomplished with my life, with the talent God has given me, by doing that? I have nothing to gain and everything to lose by not committing myself to what will make me better as a person.

Those of you who’ve been reading my blog a while are probably thinking about the other times I’ve posted about commitment or determination to have and reach a daily word count goal, and I’m sure you’re thinking, “So shut up and just do it.” Here’s my commitment to you and my request for you to hold me accountable. I have created a Daily Word Count page—there’s a link at the top of the page and in the right-hand nav-bar—where I will post the total number of words I wrote the previous day. If I’m not posting, y’all better be e-mailing me to find out why! Because the greatest source of motivation in goal-keeping is accountability.

A while ago, I wrote a blog entry about why Facebook is better than MySpace in which I referred to having a page on MySpace as sitting on a barstool in the skankiest singles bar in cyberspace (or something to that effect).

Now that I’ve been using Facebook for more than six months, I’ve really come to appreciate the clean lines, the lack of bizarre ads, the “news feed” feature that shows me what my friends have been up to, the status updates, along with the how the different “apps” that can be added to my profile don’t overwhelm my profile page with unnecessary graphics–and anything that has flash/animation/sound capability has to be clicked on to start. No automatic music playing or waiting for animations to load when viewing someone’s profile.

But the thing I’ve come to appreciate most of all is the level of privacy/security Facebook affords. Here’s the information from the “Privacy” page:

Privacy Overview
Facebook wants you to share your information with exactly the people you want to see it. On this page, you’ll find all the controls you need to set who can see your profile and the stuff in it, who can find and contact you on Facebook, and more.

Profile
You are in one network and you can control who can see your profile, contact information, groups, wall, photos, posted items, online status, and status updates.

Search
You can control who can find you in searches and what appears in your search listing.

News Feed and Mini-Feed
You can control what actions show up in your Mini-Feed and your friends’ News Feeds.

Poke, Message, and Friend Request
You can select which parts of your profile are visible to people you contact through a poke, message, or friend request.

Applications
You can edit your privacy for applications you have added to your account, applications that you have used on another website, and other applications built on Facebook Platform.

(And I just have to say—I love the fact that whoever wrote this knows how to use commas and apostrophes correctly.)

I mentioned in the other post about some of the creepy e-mails I’d been getting at MySpace. Well, they stopped for a while. But in recent days, I’ve been inundated with them, whether they’re simple text e-mails from users asking me if I’ve ever had my feet licked (reported it to “abuse,” blocked the sender) or saying, “You’re cute, I hope we can meet” (reported it to “abuse,” blocked the sender, set my profile to “private” which supposedly means it’s only available to approved friends). Since setting my profile to private, the number of unwanted messages has actually increased. I’ve gotten messages about debt consolidation, dating services, escort services, over-eighteen-only sites (on MySpace and off), and a few more sexually harrassing e-mails from other users. After receiving three spam messages today and never hearing anything back from customer service on my previous complaints, I finally had enough. I cancelled my MySpace account.

I already feel safer. I feel cleansed. I feel like my couple of friends who contacted me only through MySpace will have to figure out how to e-mail me through my regular e-mail account . . . or get a Facebook account and contact me there (at least one already has).

I originally set up a MySpace account because it was supposed to be the best place for not just social networking, but marketing myself as a writer—to start building a readership base before getting published. But you know what? My blog does that. Because I write so much about common writing-related topics, I get tons of hits from websearch sites that lead to several page views per visit. And they don’t leave me comments asking me if I’ve ever had my feet licked. Or if they did, I’d catch them before they would even be posted, as until I approve someone to be able to post comments, I have the opportunity to moderate any comments coming through.

On Facebook, not only have I had the opportunity to network with and keep up with what’s going on with a couple dozen other writers, but I’ve connected with members of my family I’d never really had the chance to get to know well before, separated as we are by age and distance.

MySpace can have their skanky singles bar. I’d much rather go hang out in the safe coffee house that is Facebook.