Convalescent Catching Up

For those of you who don't follow me on Twitter (hey, why don't you?), you might not know that I have strep.  Again.  Second time in four weeks.  The Bug had it twice within a month, too, and Mr. Aerin had it worst of all, but only once.  The Bear's the only one who hadn't had strep, but Mr. Aerin dragged him to the pediatrician anyway.  Said the doctor: "Fastest positive I've ever seen."  In other words, the Bear has had strep for at least a month.  His heart is okay, thank goodness, but not only do I feel like crap, I feel like a crappy mom.

Mommies don't get a break (even when their spouses think they're giving the sick wifeys a break, they're still letting dishes pile up and kids jump into bed with the sleeping sicky).  Still, I think the worst part of being sick is that my brain gets fuzzy.  I can't read because reading gives me a headache; I can't write because the muse tends to get her uber-bitch on.

So.  I'm trying to catch up, which means pointing out to you some places and people I think you might like.  Or, as bethie (I nicknamed her bethie, poor thing) would say, linkspam!

• Inkygirl, aka Debbie Ridpath Ohi, has been running a fantastic series of posts about authors and their histories with rejection.  Dr. Seuss was rejected 27 times before his first book was picked up; John Grisham was rejected 28 times before selling his first novel; Louis L'amour received over 200 rejections before his first sale.
  

• In addition, Debbie is running the 1000/500 words a day challenge.  I'm only informally participating.

• Natasha put up a vlog about why you should read book bloggers....one of the three bloggers featured is My Favorite Person Hero of ALL Time, Trish (she lent me her SIGNED ARC of Kristin Cashore's FIRE even before she herself read it!)
  

• When writing SF or fantasy, sequels are for villains and world-building is essential.  (More about world-building at "Enchanted Inkpot."

• Steph interviewed Zoe Marriott, Tabitha interviewed E. Lockhart, and in honor of her own birthday month, drey is interviewing gazillions of people!

• My boss, the Co-Dictator of the Entire Universe, sent me the link to an article about the changes in YA fiction: It Was, Like, All Dark and Stormy.

Finally (and I have said this before) if you have not made the acquaintance of Loren and b., you really must do so.  These guys are hilarious, intelligent, insightful, talented, and sort of frighteningly complementary to one another.    They're like the little brothers I never had - wait, I do have little brothers - okay, they're the brothers I never had that it was okay for me to crush on.