The Plot Whisperer

I am thrilled to be today’s stop on the Blog Book Tour for Martha Alderson’s latest, The Plot Whisperer.  Full disclosure and threats of nepotism notwithstanding, she happens to be my aunt; my favorite aunt, at that.  But if you are a writer, please keep reading.

I’ve made it no secret that I feel I could not have written The Daily Coyote without the assistance and insight provided by Martha’s first book, Blockbuster Plots.  I haven’t had a writing class since 11th grade, and when I was offered a book deal with Simon & Schuster I knew I had to learn and understand technique and structure.  And Blockbuster Plots demystified it all for me.

Now, with The Plot Whisperer, Martha takes this essential information even further.  Further and deeper.  Martha has been doing one-on-one writer’s consultations for years and this is what reading The Plot Whisperer feels like ~ it’s like sitting with her and being coached, psychoanalyzed, pushed, encouraged, and, via all of that, INSPIRED to get down and write.

I highly recommend both of Martha’s books, Blockbuster Plots and The Plot Whisperer, to anyone who is actively engaged in writing, or who wants to be.

And I have FOUR copies of this beautiful new book, The Plot Whisperer, to give away!  To enter the drawing, just leave a comment.  Say hi, tell us about your current writing project or problem, leave a non-sequitur-one-liner from a recent journal-stream-of-consciousness, whatever!

I’ll draw four numbers randomly via random.org on Wednesday morning (your comment number will be your winning number, so please leave just one comment between now and then) and announce the Chosen Ones here!

I Love This Rug!

there’s also this one:

from Floor To Heaven

Now THIS Is A Book

We, The Drowned
by Carsten Jensen

BRILLIANT.

It’s made my top-five-of-all-time list, which is (in no particular order):
The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
Tell Me How Long The Train’s Been Gone by James Baldwin
Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
We, The Drowned by Carsten Jensen

What’s your list?

May 5, 1913

- Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart (great book, if you can find it; one of those instances where you just wish the author was your friend in real life)

Best for Bites

Mosquitoes are here. They’re probably there, too ~ is there anywhere where
there aren’t mosquitoes? Or spiders or biting ants? I kind of doubt it. And so, I feel compelled to share what I have determined to be the best for bites. I’ve been using this for years and it’s pretty magical: you get a bite, it itches, you put some Apinol on it and the itching vanishes. Immediately and permanently. And then it doesn’t drive you crazy and you don’t scratch it till it bleeds and you don’t end up covered in scabs. I hardly mind getting bitten anymore because I know I have this to neutralize.

In my experience it works on spider bites as well as mosquitoes. And according to their website it works on everything from bee stings to herpes and prevents infection on cuts and burns. Magical, I’m telling you. It’s made from pine oil. And it lasts ages ~ I’ve had this bottle for five years, use it daily in the summer and fall, and it’s still half full (maybe it’s so magical it regenerates).

PS: This is not an ad. I’ve never done a sponsored post but just in case anyone is wondering if my enthusiasm is pure… it is. I was not paid to write about this stuff.