Mad Monday Miscellany

Mental Health Parity: Buried in the $700 Billion save-the-banks bailout last week. With the economy tanking, we'll all need the same insurance coverage for psychiatric and substance use dsorders as we currently get for peptic ulcers and diabetes and hypertension. Believe me, THE MENTAL HEALTH PARITY ACT was the ONLY sane news last week.

Madness: It's coming in ten wee days - NANOWRIMO. Seems EVERYONE is gonna catharse 50k words in a mere month. Including me. Including cyber writers Cindy and Hope. Buddy me - drwasy.

Make short work of: BRIGHTER THAN BRIGHT revisions. Will. Be. Done. Wednesday. Yes.

Mandible flapping: Interviewed by Paula Berinstein of THE WRITING SHOW on BRIGHTER THAN BRIGHT'S recent win. What fun! And such a gracious host. The podcast will air November 16 (of course, I'll keep you posted).

Marginal success: An editor of a small press wants to use my query letter in her (agented) book on the publishing business. As a superlative example of the art, ah-hem. (And I'll pre-empt that question brewing in your brain: if the pitch is so damn good, then where's the contract? ANSWER: That's the same question I asked her. Stay tuned...)

MISCELLANEY: Go HERE for Nathan Bransford's take on moving from the small pubs to the big 5. Then, go HERE for a fascinating discussion on self-pubbing your poems. Then, for all you prepubbed writers, go HERE for a parable about the little debut book that could (thanks Moonie). THE TAKE HOME: It's damn hard to get your baby published, and it's gonna be even harder in the new economy. So write hard, write brilliantly, and be persistent like a fly on poop.

Mundane - not: Off to San Diego later this week for the annual AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION meeting. Busy there doing my day job stuf, but my down time will be spent visiting my childhood house in Solona Beach, visiting a few friends, EATING, and prepping for NaNoWriMo in my bayview room. Peace, Linda