Sunday, August 05, 2012

Reaching The NESCBWI Blog Tour Finish Line

I'm hitting the finish line on these blog visits I've been doing--for months--during Olympic Week. How perfect is that? It's very perfect, in case you can't tell.

Nicole Tadgell's Studio NT (I don't know what the NT stands for) is interesting in that, while it definitely is a blog format, it appears to be functioning as illustrator Nicole Tadgell's website. Though there's plenty about her on the Internet--at publishers' websites, for instance, and other blogs--she doesn't appear to have a real website. Links to the right of the page about her book titles or events take readers to blog posts relating to those subjects. This is a much better set up than many writers who rely on blogs for their main Internet presence use. Often times, there's just the blog, with no way for readers to find important information. Nicole's actual blog content appears to be  primarily about announcements relating to her work, though recently there have been posts that show her work as well.

Another illustrator, Jennifer Thermes, maintains both a website and a blog, Art, Words, Life. We get a lot more of Jennifer's work-in-progress at the blog, as well as announcements. Her website is very well organized, in my humble opinion, giving me lots of info very quickly.

Kip Wilson Rechea's blog, Write, Travel, Eat, Repeat, is interesting because of what she does. She writes and publishes short form work, both fiction and nonfiction. She includes at her blog a page on what she's querying and another on published and forthcoming work. A recent post deals with publishing work with magazines and anthologies.

And my final blog visit is so very, very meaningful because it is to...Jane Yolen's Journal. My first mention of Jane Yolen at this blog came on April 16, 2002, the second month of Original Content's existence. There was a long period when I was kind of stalking her, tormented by her accounts at her journal of the incredible stuff she did--the amount of writing and travel and shopping and visiting with friends. I finally was faced with the choice of either improving myself in an a la Jane manner or stopping the self-torture by staying away from her journal. I'm sure you have no trouble guessing which way I went.

Well, I just got back from taking a look at her journal, and it's the same old Jane. She's been writing a poem a day for a year and a half. It looks as if she's working on eight different projects in different stages of completion. She's got two speeches to prepare for later this year. She's also had a family come stay for three days and went to a bunch of places with a bunch of people.I tried to recall what I was doing during the same two-plus week period. I finished one lengthy revision, and I bought a new cooler. Seriously, hers is the journal of a person with a powerful work ethic and enviable self-discipline.

Talk about some self-discipline--I finished this tour.Oookaaay, it's true I started in November of last year, but I pride myself on persevering. Speed isn't such a big issue with me.


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