Thursday Thirteen #130

Today, I offer up some local writing stuff:

1. Peggy Shifflett, who is president of the Roanoke Valley Branch of the National League of American Pen Women, will have a book coming out next week. It is called The Living Room Bed and is about Appalachian life and how folks had the bed in the living room and the role it played from birth to death.



2. I edited the book. I am also a member of the Pen Women. It was a pleasure to work on this book with Peggy.

3. My friend Meg Hibbert has an article coming out in a new online magazine called Southern Flourish. The magazine is due to make its premier March 15 at the link. Meg's article includes recipes!



4. Meg is editor of The Salem Times Register and we have worked together and been friends for a long time.

5. My friend Becky Mushko, another fellow Pen Women member, is busy promoting her book, Ferradiddledumday. She blogs at Peevish Pen.


6. Becky knows a great deal about self-publishing and scams and I have a lot of respect for her knowledge. She used to be a teacher and goodness knows you have to be some kind of saint to do that.

7. Dan Smith, publisher of Valley Business Front, has an interesting blog called fromtheeditr that local writers might want to check out.

8. He also has a blog for Roanoke Writers. Dan started the recent incarnation of the Roanoke Writer's Conference, which has been going on for three years now. It has proved to be an interesting day of meeting and networking.

9. Bonnie Cranmer, a fellow Hollins Horizon Program alum, is interested in social media and she writes about it on her website. Apparently this social networking stuff is the wave of the future and seems to be the new busy work for a lot of people. She's really into it.

10. For an interesting reading from an up-and-coming children's book author, try The Virginia Scribe. She's up on agents and other information. I heard her talk at a Pen Women meeting once and she is a lovely person.

11. For good sophisticated information about writing, including marketing information, check out C. Hope Clark's blog. She is not exactly local but I suppose the Carolinas is close enough. She runs the famous Funds for Writers website, which offers two free newsletters that I urge folks to subscribe to. You can subscribe to them right from her blog if you want.

12. Colleen over at Loose Leaf Notes always has interesting writing on her site. She is a thoughtful freelancer and sometimes showcases the articles she is working on.

13. You can see two of my recent articles for The Fincastle Herald here and here.

For the FCC: No one paid me anything to promote their websites or work.

Lots of people play Thursday Thirteen. You can read about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here. This is number 130!