Friday, December 5, 2008

Blog Roll Part 2

Since I've received positive feedback from my Thanksgiving post, I thought I would do a part 2! This time, I'm going to include review sites/blogs and important writer sites. If you have any other great links that I haven't posted, please post them in the comments section! I'm always looking for great blogs/sites to read.

Book Review sites:
  • Big A little a- Great blog for children's lit. If you're looking for interviews, reviews and even a link to Poetry Fridays, this is the blog for you. Currently, there is a great interview with literary great, Judy Blume.
  • Readers' Rants- If you're looking for a blog that reviews children's/middle grade/YA books, look no further. New reviews are posted almost daily.
  • Teen Tuesday- This blog has several members who participate. Each Tuesday, the members post reviews, their TBR pile and what books they're looking forward to. Great blog to just see what's out there in the world of teen books.
  • Readspace- The link posted is for the Teen Lit section, but they review/discuss book in Children's/Teen/Adult Lit and Fiction. Their tagline is 'We read books, and then tell you about them!" That's the site in a nutshell.
  • The Compulsive Reader- Love this review blog. Reviews, contests to win free books and links to book trailers. I've discovered a lot of great books from pursuing.
  • The Story Siren- Great review site that also includes interviews. I really like that the reviews are starred so that I can get a quick idea of if the review will be positive.
  • Want My YA- This review blog is only a few months old, but shows great promise. I went through and read all the reviews the other day and loved the insight. I really enjoy the Tuesday posts with what books catch her eye.
Writing Sites:
  • AgentQuery- I had to start with this one. If you're a writer looking for an agent, this site is a must! Make sure to do your research when searching for an agent that is right for you.
  • Wikipedia- I know this isn't necessarily a writing site, but I thought I would include it. If you need a quick answer, this is for you. Just make sure you varify the research done here because anyone can edit/post information.
  • NaNoWrimo- Most of you know NaNoWrimo and participate during November. If you've never checked it out, it's a must. The forums are great, as well as the podcasts.
  • SSA Popular baby names- Looking for a site to help with naming your characters? This is great because it lists the top baby names by year run by the US Social Security Department.
  • Writers BBS Forums- A great set of forums for writers.
  • Novel in 90- Great community to kick you in the butt. Once the 90 days are over, they start again. The goal is to write 750 words a day (about 3 pages), every day for 90. In the end, if following the "rules" you will end up with a 67,500 page manuscript. Post your word count each day, or a quote of inspiration.
  • Sunday Scribblings- Each week (on Saturday), a new writing prompt is posted. Create a piece of writing (short story, flash fiction, etc) based on the writing prompt. Just post your story on your own blog and use their permalink system to share it. Organized and awesome!
  • Write or Die- I wasn't sure about this at first, but used it in the last days of our 1k-a-day challenage. I LOVE this site. As long as you continuously write (you can set your word count goal and time), there is no penalty. Stop and watch out! Annoying songs, sounds, colors and on the most butual mode, words deleted are what you have to look forward to. If you can't focus and write for a certain period of time, this is the site for you. Just make sure to copy and paste your writing before clicking that you're done, just in case. Talk about a serious kick in the butt!
  • The Zokutou Word Meter- looking for a word meter for your site/blog to keep track of your word count? This is a great word meter that is easy to update. It even has several different options in look.
Misc. Sites:
  • Literature Map- This is just plain fun. Enter an author's name and it will map out authors who write similar books. The closer the names are to your original author, the more alike their work is. I believe there is also a music section.
  • PaperBackSwap- Have a bunch of books lying around you'll never read again? This is your solution. I've been a member for over 3 years and have saved over $450 (they keep track based on the average price of a used book). Fast and easy. I can't say enough about this site. If you have any questions about it, just post your question in the comments section or email me at our YAedge@yahoo.com address.
Don't forget! Have a blog/site you'd like to share? Post it in the comments section!

4 comments:

Jennifer C. said...

I have a blog where my co-blogger and I interview published and unpublished authors. On the weeks where we have no one available for wednesday or friday we are posting various article on writing.

check us out when you get a chance.

http://wednesdaysandfridays.blogspot.com

Tracy Belsher said...

Tami - great commentary on those blogs - I'll be visiting them. Thanks for detangling a bit of the Net for us. :)

Recently I've been visiting these blogs. Not sure if you mentioned them already. Even if you did - they're worth another plug:

http://www.drunkwritertalk.blogspot.com/

http://yafresh.blogspot.com/2008/11/whats-fresh-with-leslie-margoliss-boys.html


http://yawriters.blogspot.com/

http://briaspage.wordpress.com/

Tracy Belsher said...

Oops - YA Fresh has a main link:

http://yafresh.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

I have a blog where I review YA books. I've been a round over a year and my hits increase every month. Last month I had 11,476 hits.
http://karinlibrarian.wordpress.com

Thanks,
Karin