Ramblings

By Jaden Terrell

I just got home from work (after 10 PM) and remembered Thursday is my day to post.. Since I'm afraid all hope for a coherent post is gone, I'm going to just throw out some random thoughts and links that I've recently found of interest. I hope you will too.

First, the inimitable Nathan Bransford has just announced the finalists in his "best first paragraph" contest. I'd say they're pretty darn good, but the rules forbid campaigning for your favorite, so I'll just say, if you hop over to Nathan's site, you can vote on the one you like best.

Speaking of things we like best, Timothy Hallinan, author of the Poke Rafferty Bangkok thrillers, is still doing his 365-day blog project. He has a much cleverer name for it than that, but I can never remember the whole thing. Anyway, I made a pledge to comment on all of them, and I am reeeeeeeeeeally far behind, but I will keep my word. In the meantime, if you haven't been reading them, you're missing out on some great posts. Tim's latest book, The Queen of Patpong was just nominated for an Edgar. It's a marvelous book, which I reviewed on Murderous Musings when it came out. I'm rooting for Tim. Also, I harbor a secret, superstitious hope that hobnobbing with Edgar nominees will somehow make me one of them.

Finally, for anyone seeking a giant, yet terribly rewarding time-suck, you might like to check out Absolute Write and the Absolute Write Water Cooler (forums). I think I've posted about them before, but I finally joined tonight. I haven't had time to explore the sites, but they seem to be chock full of great information and advice for writers. (What exactly is a chock, anyway? Does anybody know?)