Looking for some kick a$$ links? Here ya go!

I didn't get much sleep last night, but I wanted to get some writing done before I ran a butt load of errands. Did I write? Not yet. Instead, I spent time on some of my favorite sites. Then I thought, "How selfish of me?! I must share with the others!"

So, without further adieau, here are a few extremely informative sites I've found over the past few years.

Nathan Bransford's blog is chock full of great advice. Mr. Bransford is an agent turned author. While he doesn't sway readers toward any specific form of publishing he definitely gives enough insight to choose what's right for you.

The blog for Ampichellis Ebooks is another one of those "wealth of information" sites. I've had the privilege of corresponding with Mr. Brown on quite a few instances. He's extremely professional, and extremely knowledgable. He's also one of the first few agents who switched hats and went for E-publishing.

If you're ever looking for a group to share your pain, or even some really great basic writing advice, head over to Absolute Write. I tend to spend a lot of time in the Absolute Write Water Cooler. There are so many different threads; literally something for everyone!!!! Plus, there's a spiffy little thread called Share Your Work. Exactly the way it sounds. It's a critique board for those chapters, or maybe just paragraphs you need an unbiased look at.

Once you've completed, or come close to completing, your work of art, you can check out Joe Konrath's blog. I'm sure you've heard of him - the self-published author turned best seller. While he's one of the minority, he has some wonderful information for the newbie.

Now that you're ready to start querying, check out Query Shark for the do's and don'ts of query writing. If you're really brave, and have time to wait, you can send in your own query in hopes of her tearing the thing apart....or complimenting it. (Yeah, don't hold your breath) This site will show you how to format a query, what agents are generally looking for, and what not to write.

You've finished the book, and written the perfect query...now what? Head to Preditors and Editors. This site lists agents, editors, and publishers. It also tells you who you can trust and who to run screaming from. They're on the author's side, and are there to protect us from scammers.

Okay, I think I'll go take a nap now. If I missed any important links feel free to share in the comments. Have a great day, y'all!

How do you keep AIS?

Once again, I lay awake last night staring at the ceiling! As boring as that sounds, this is the time some of my best ideas come (my mom's always comes as she's drifting off to sleep). While I know I promised to start posting on a strict schedule, a little thing called life continuously gets in the way. However, having said that...I promise to try to post more regularly. Deal?

So, without further adieu, today's post. I kept thinking about my promise to bring writing tips by experts...but, as I lay in bed last night, I thought "who better to give advice than other writers?" Lord knows, I have plenty of those up my sleeves. I'll start the tips and add tips and advice from other writers through the next few weeks.

What's my topic, you ask? How to keep your AIS. For those of you who aren't Everybody Loves Raymond fans, that's A** In Seat.

Okay, CL, how do you keep AIS? Well, I'm glad you asked. Here are a few of my favorite AIS techniques and tips I've learned, read, or come up with over the past year or so.

1. Gotta have the noise. There are some days when I'll turn on the TV while I write. Now, this is not something you want to do if you're easily distracted. If I turn on the TV it has to be something I couldn't care less to watch; you know, Real Housewives of whatever County, Bad Girls Club, or some chic talk show.

2. Easily distracted by the television? This happens to me at times, as well. In this instance, gotta have the music. I always suggest building playlists around a specific book. I'm lucky enough to have a program to burn Cd's, so I can pick lots of songs, and load up a few discs. If you don't have this technology, there is always playlist.com. At this site you can build as many playlists as you want from their large music library. Or, you can choose someone else's to listen to. I prefer mine, thank you very much.

3. Make sure you have food or drink within reach. I'm not saying to keep a small refrigerator within reach, just a snack. My biggie is Jolly Ranchers. This is something I started after I quit smoking. I also have to have coffee or a glass of soda within arm's reach. If you keep these around you won't have to stop to search out a snack. There's one more excuse you can't use....

4. Don't turn off your Internet. Yep, you read that right. Personally, I found if I shut down my Internet I get overly curious and at times anxious. If I keep these things up and in the background, I'll see along the top if I get a new email and can head over and come back in less than a second (I'm obsessed with my email. Never know when an agent will contact you).

5. My last tip for the day is smells. I can see you all making faces. I mean scents, as in aroma therapy crap. I prefer lavender, or apple cinnamon during this time of the year. During the warmer months I lean toward floral or citrus scents. But, back to this season...I have incense sticks I burn in an ashtray (I no longer use them for cigs), or about six candles I burn throughout the house, as well as tarts I melt in a warmer. I get my tarts from the lovely people at Mr. T's Tarts and Gifts. If you use goat's milk soap or tarts, check these people out. Love their products, and they sell them at a great price.

Well, that's it for today. Was any of that helpful? What do you do to keep your AIS? Any strange rituals before you write?

Do I have anything important to say?

I woke up in the mood to blog, then realized, there's nothing truly important enough to denote a chunk of space to blurb about. There's more a swarm of ideas and thoughts running through my head this morning.

For one thing, my self-published e-book is doing fairly well so far. Granted, it's not yet available on Nook and other such appliances, but it will be shipped to B&N, Apple and others sometime this week. Therefore, though I told you all it was already available, it won't actually be available for download until sometime next week.

I've been researching marketing and promotional ideas at an exhausting rate lately. My back is aching from all the hours I've sat in front of the computer, but I think I'm finding some really great resources.

One blog I found interesting was by Amanda Hocking. In this link I've provided she details (in her own way) how she came about her self-published success. Strangely enough, she's now being represented by Steven Axelrod of The Axelrod Group. I wasn't aware she had planned on signing with an agency, but I also don't know her personally, nor do I make it my business to keep track of everyone else's decisions.

I've also found a great download by John Kremer titled 50+ Ways to Tweet. This has been a little more work than I had anticipated, but I've found some very interesting people, or I guess that would be Tweeple, as well as some interesting links and nuggets of info.

Of course, Writer's Digest is a wonderful community of writers from every genre who hold a wealth of information for all writers. I've made some awesome friends from that site, and even found my writer's group by going there.

That's all I can think of this morning with such low amounts of coffee in my system, but if you can think of anything I didn't post, feel free to link us all to it!

Until next time, Happy Writing!