"Write now is good."

For Patry Francis

My blog friend Patry Francis is one of the most giving, generous, warm-hearted people I've never met.

Yes, that's right. I've never met her.

Patry blogs and writes about her life and what she sees at Simply Wait. She comments on my blog and on countless other's blogs, too. She seems to be everywhere at once, thinking and writing and giving and sharing. Her words say so much about her.

That's why I feel I know her so well. She is a brilliant writer and inspires on a regular basis. I've linked to her touching stories full of humanity and compassion before, and today I post again for Patry, but for a different reason.

Patry was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and is fighting it with all her might, her strength, her humor and her grace. We, her blog friends, have been eagerly awaiting every post from her, every mark of progress, as she battles this. And now, an amazing group at the blog Lit Park has done something truly extraordinary. Hundreds of bloggers all over the world are blogging for Patry and for her first book, The Liar's Diary, which was just released in paperback yesterday.

The miracle is, as word is making its way around Blogville, Patry's book is soaring up the sales charts. People are buying it, and this fabulous book from this spectacular author is getting the truly amazing debut it deserves. (Enough superlatives for you in that last sentence?)

So I encourage you to purchase a copy of The Liar's Diary at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Powell's. You can also buy directly from Penguin to save 15% (after you add the book to your cart, just enter the word PATRY in the coupon code field and click "update cart"€™ to activate the discount).

Below is a short promo about The Liar's Diary. Thank you, everyone, for your support.

Keep healing, Patry, and keep writing!

10 signs a book is written by me

Photo: Gravity-defying books by ycart

Fellow blogger/writer Lee has tagged me with the meme. I haven't memed in awhile, and this one fits my blog's topic, so I'm playing. Thanks, Lee!

10 signs a book is written by me

1. It takes place somewhere else entirely.

2. It has a sequel, and possibly a prequel.

3. Its first draft was written in a month. (I do National Novel Writing Month to get my novels started.)

4. My characters like to talk a lot.

5. A fair amount of silliness interrupts pages and pages of serious drama.

6. It's action packed.

7. While neither unicorns nor chocolate appear in its pages, it is still full of many splendid things.

8. It is often unbelievable, but in a good way.

9. Two words: dream sequences.

10. It has my name on the front cover.

I am now tagging rel, Crafty Green Poet, Becca, Bleeding Espresso, and Rooted. If you'd like to play and I haven't tagged you, go right ahead, then drop back by and leave us the link.

100 people, ages 1-100, playing a drum

This short video says so much in just over three minutes. Enjoy.

Found at Electrolicious

Politweets—Political expression, in 140 characters or less

Photo: Courtesy of Politweets

How much can you say in 140 characters or less? If you're a writer and aren't using Twitter, a free "microblogging" platform, I suggest you give it a try. It's fun. You'll engage in surprisingly interesting and perhaps meaningful conversations. Also, it will challenge your writing.

I'm a firm believer that in order to say more, you have to say it with less. If you write on Twitter and update every day, you give yourself the exercise of having to say what you think in relatively few words. There is no room for excess and wordy dregs. Twitter users distill their facts and opionions; 'Net-speak abbreviations like LOL and BRB, and emoticons like :-) will only get you so far. Carefully chosen words will bring you home.

This brings me to Politweets, a Twitter skimming site which collects "tweets" that mention U.S. presidential candidates' names, and then presents them on their site. You'll be amazed how much people can say given such tight writing parameters. I've written an article about this social media phenomenon on the Huffington Post's OffTheBus:

Politweets — All the News That's Fit to "Tweet"

It's democracy in action. Political conversations have taken on a whole new twist, thanks to technology and innovation.

UPDATE: This article is cross-posted at techPresident. If you're interested in how technology is affecting the presidential elections, take note of this blog.

Related posts:

° It's time to get on "OffTheBus"
° Will the next U.S. President be a blogger?

A view of writers' rooms

Where do you write? I’m always intrigued about how writers have their spaces—or if they have one— set up for their work. This Guardian UK pictorial caught my eye. From "Writers’ rooms", children's author Jacqueline Wilson describes her place:

Children are always asking me if I have a special place to write. Well, yes, I have a lovely study -- but if I'm honest, most of my writing gets done in other places. I might scribble a few lines in my notebook when I wake up, or scrawl a page while I'm having breakfast. I frequently take my notebook out with me. The train journey from Kingston to London takes exactly half an hour. If I concentrate really hard, I can manage 500 words by the time the train draws into Waterloo...

There are some authors who prefer not to start their writing in an office at all.

Via Notebookism

Bookshelves bench

This caught my bookshelf-lovin' eye. Distinctive and functional. Bookshelves with a bench is available for pre-order from designer Stanislav Katz.

Related posts:

° "Bookshelf furniture" — now, its own category
° Bathing with books
° Bookshelf cave: urban privacy zone
° A bookshelf sort of chair

Found via NOTCOT

3,000 photos=3 million words+imagination spark

Photo: Rural school children, San Augustine County, Texas, 1943 April | Photographer: John Vachon, 1914-1975 | Library of Congress Photo Collections

A picture is said to be worth a thousand words. If you have 3,000 photos ... well, I've done the math for you in the post's title (look slightly above these words).

The U.S. Library of Congress has opened a public Flickr account and has posted just over 3,000 photos so far. Why? They are hoping that the world Web community will help tag many of them. More will surely follow; the LoC photographic collection is beyond extensive.

Get ready to spend hours looking at these images. Wonder at them. Daydream about their subjects. Put yourself in their places. What was life like back then? I chose this image above merely as a sample; so many of the photos are quite moving. In true Flickr fashion, other viewers are leaving comments on the photos, sharing their takes on what they're seeing. (Click on the above image to go to the Flickr page and see what others have said — very interesting.)

Browsing last night, I found my imagination completely sparked. I felt transported back in time. I stared, letting my thoughts wander. Many of these images are staying with me; I'll take them in small portions, as they are so visually strong. Their stories speak loudly.

Read more about this Library of Congress—Flickr partnership on the LoC's own site: "My Friend Flickr: A Match Made in Photo Heaven"

Thanks to ExperienceCurve for the heads-up about this (via Twitter).

Bring that book back! It's the AoC, Round 2

Photo: giving thanks by TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³

The dynamic blogging duo that is Drew and Gavin has announced The Age of Conversation's sequel. It's an open call for authors, and here are the details.

There's an interesting twist to this book: in the spirit of community, anyone (not just a potential author or a blogger) can help determine the book's theme by voting on one of the following choices:

• Marketing Manifesto
• Why Don't People Get It?
• My Marketing Tragedy (and what I learned)

If any of these pique your interest as a marketing-related writer, or if you'd just like to vote for the book's theme, take the short survey.

The Age of Conversation (still available for purchase by clicking on the book's cover on the right) has raised more than $10,000 USD for Variety, the children's charity. Book 2's proceeds will add to this amount.

I've signed up again. I can't wait to see what's in store for this next community creation.

Creativity: Use it or lose it

Need a little inspiration boost? Take roughly nine minutes to watch this TED Talk excerpt by Sir Ken Robinson. A few highlights:

-- "All kids have tremendous talents, and we [educators] squander them pretty ruthlessly."

-- "Creativity is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status."

-- "If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original."

To view Robinson's complete TED Talk "Do schools today kill creativity?", click here. It's about twenty minutes long, and even more thought-provoking than the abbreviated version. Enjoy.

Design this book's cover: Crowdsourcing continues

Crowdsourcing happens when a task usually assigned to one is opened up for a large group to solve or complete. An example of this would be A Million Penguins, the first-ever novel written online by thousands of people worldwide.

Thanks to my work with Assignment Zero's innovative online journalism project last year, I will forever be fascinated by crowdsourcing. Jeff Howe, one of the WIRED editors I worked with, has wrapped up his book, Crowdsourcing; fittingly, his publishers are crowdsourcing the book's cover:

Random House and Creative Review invite designers, creatives, and doodlers alike to submit their own designs for the book jacket. You can vote on your favourites, and the winning design will be printed on the UK edition of Crowdsourcing and win £500.

Find out more, including how to enter.

The above image is one of the contest entries.

Feel free to pass this info along. If you decide to submit an entry, drop a comment here so we can check it out and vote for yours.