Monday, June 21, 2010

Monday Miscellany

I've been editing flash and shorts over at jmww for about a month now. Interesting to sit on the other side of the desk. What I've heard editors and agents say is true -- you can tell in the first few sentences if the story's a tanker or a keeper. Learning so much about first impressions, the hook, the opening.

First there was slow food... now there's slow information. I'm not the only person suffering from social media fatigue. Academic presses are having a tough time trying to figure out how to condense a scholarly treatise into tweet-size bytes. Maybe I'll start tweeting my dissertation... now there's a market!

Mark Kerkstetter -- poet, essayist, flasher, artist, philosopher... heck, just call him AMAZING -- graciously invited me over to his blog The Bricoleur to pontificate on BIRTHING BEN and all things writing. Check out the photo of my notebook taken by my son Will.

Where's the beef? In my freezer. Any ideas on what to do with a quarter of a grass-fed cow? I just bought one. Hamburgers for life. Yum.

Heading up to Boston for the annual AcademyHealth conference. I'll be scarce on the web, grooving on the latest and greatest in health services research whilst chowing in some of the best joints in the country. And my old stomping ground. Of course, I'll be writing in my down time -- Beantown's Ben's home, too.

Peace, Linda

6 comments:

  1. Caught you over at Mark's blog. Really interesting story about how your book came to be.
    And if you're not doing anything with all that cow, drop some my way.

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  2. Completely agree with you about the opening sentence. But stay away from those cows! :)

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  3. Great to get a taste of the other pasture (in writing that is) and hope you'll share some more insider info.

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  4. Interesting point about a story's 'first impressions, the hook, the opening'. I'd love to hear more from the other side of the fence. Hey, have a great time in Boston. I was there years back for a Bruins game and had some great clam chowder in a seafood joint whose name escapes me...

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  5. You sound like your schedule is chocablock right now. I know the feeling. Have fun at that conference.

    The thought of all those academics trying to tweet out their papers is hilarious! And disturbing in some profound way. What kind of communicators are we becoming? Everything seems more and more disjointed.

    Jai

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  6. "social media fatigue..."

    i feel ya on THAT one... ;)

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