Writer Mama

~ meg

I’m reading Writer Mama, and it’s changing the way I view my life.

Freelance writer Christina Katz delivers nearly 300 pocket-sized pages of wisdom that will help any writer, not just the mamas among us. Most writers can benefit from advice about how to work from home, be your own boss, build on your strengths, and follow your interests. I read Katz’s Get Known before the Book Deal as research for an article I wrote for WQ, and read in conjunction, Katz’s two books have inspired me to create a framework to organise my writing activites. I devote time to research, generating ideas, networking, and creating opportunities, as well as the actual writing.

pompidou

In between all this writerly biz and mama stuff, I’ve read a few gems lately. The Writing Class, by the wonderfully named Jincy Willett, lived up to its reviews. As a long-term inmate of the crime genre, I especially enjoyed the way it spoofed the nuts’n’bolts of the craft, like the Centre Pompidou above, showing its pipes.

Now Larson‘s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is waiting patiently on my bedside table, waiting for me to finished some other required reading for work. Anyone who’s read it, please give me the jist, the flavour, the je nais se qua of it all (no spoilers please).

Next week sees the release of the Byron Bay Writers Festival program – check out the Sunday sessions for a surprise late entrant!

8 thoughts on “Writer Mama”

  1. How do you fit all this in Meg? Will you be at the Byron Writers Festival? Seeing it’s just down the road from Base Camp for me, I guess it would be sensible to pop in. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – not my genre, but I enjoyed the read. Slow to start, and very claustrophobic, with strong characterisation. Some interesting twists, and pleasantly non-predictable, although overpopulated with mysogyists. Enjoy!

  2. Yep, I’ll be at BBWF from Thurs-Sunday. I’d love to catch up with you there! I’d especially appreciate some friendly faces in the audience for the session I’m chairing on the Sunday.

    Thanks for the great wrap on Dragon Tattoo. What a shame that a book recommended to me for its strong and interesting woman investigator (apparently she is more prominent in the subsequent books) has also got a pesky misogynist problem!

  4. Ha, you ‘shameless self-promoter’ lol. thanks for the link. i’ve got the second book in the series if you want to read it. it’s also slow to start and filled with more misogynists. if you get the chance you should read ‘the artful edit’ before you go back to do your final edit on your ms.

  5. oh, i’m totally shameful, believe me 🙂

    thanks for the suggestion, i’ll track down ‘the artful edit’. i’ve finished newman and mittelmark ‘how not to write a novel’, so i’m looking for another good book on the craft.

  6. i have a copy of the artful edit too. you’re welcome to borrow it too if you like.

  7. Hey Meg,
    Have dedicated a post to you over at the blog. It has a cool pic of stuff blowing up, just for you!

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