Thursday, January 21, 2010

Thursday Round-Up: Helping Haiti, Loving Austen

I love Thursdays. Why? Because it's almost Friday.

Oh, yeah, and because this is the day I round up some of the fun stuff in the blogosphere that I saw this week (that I remember, which is the tough part).

First of all, Crossed Genres magazine had the amazing idea to have writers and artists share their work while soliciting donations for Haiti.  I'm thinking about what I could share, but in the meantime, check out their blog about it. Whether or not you're going to share your work, you might want to check out the stories & art already posted and donate to one of the causes.


I'm debating the Jane Austen reading challenge over on Haley's blog, because I'm already pretty busy, but it's Jane Austen and I luvses her. Also, I already have Lady Vernon and Her Daughter: A Novel of Jane Austen's Lady Susan sitting on my stack of library books, and I can re-read Emma an approximately infinite number of times. We'll see. The idea is to read not just some of Austen's works (at varying levels) but some re-writes/prequels/sequels/spoofs as well. How fun is that? 

Check out the contest on Stephanie's blog. It's her first contest, and she is offering the always-sweet prize of an Amazon gift card.  In celebration of her forthcoming book, she's asking you enter by a) becoming a follower and b) sharing your karma moment... so go over there and enter her contest. Be sure to follow Stephanie too; she always has something interesting up on her journey to publication!

For anyone else who enjoys reviewing books on their blog, I recommend The Top 20 Most Annoying Book Reviewer Cliches. Are you guilty?

Happy writing this week everyone!

9 comments:

Summer Frey said...

Love the Review Cliches link! I've always tried to keep my reviews short and to the point. I'm not trying to sell the damn book, I'm just saying how I liked it!

Unknown said...

Love that we are close to Friday! That is a good thing about Thursdays... and Jane Austen I am certainly a fan of!

Happy Writing as well :)

Shannon O'Donnell said...

Thanks for the info. I can't wait to check out the cliches link! :-)

Kristin Rae said...

You should totally do the Jane Austen Challenge! The books crossover for other challenges as well. I'm glad to hear you liked Emma. I'm planning on reading that soon.

Guinevere said...

Summer, I have the same perspective on my reviews. I think I avoid most of those cliches, but then my reviews are pretty short -- I'd have to work to stuff them in there!

Jen -- I don't know if you had MLK Jr Day off, but having Monday off has vastly improved my week. I can't believe it's Friday already, booya.

Shannon, having read your reviews, I think you're pretty much free & clear!

Kristin, I think I am going to do it. Emma is my favorite so far of Austen's works -- Emma herself is such a wonderful character.

Dawn Simon said...

I read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES last summer. It cracked me up! Or should I say it almost killed me?! Ha! Get it? In an undead sort of way? Anyway, I don't know if I'll read and of the other spoofs, but it was fun to check out one. The real Jane Austen is awesome.

Dawn Simon said...

P.S. - When I say "the real Jane Austen", I mean Jane in her original form, of course. I read somewhere that P&P&Z is 80% Austen.

Shannon O'Donnell said...

Fun! Thanks for the links. I took the challenge and apparently I am Elinore Dashwood. :-)

Guinevere said...

I'm glad you enjoyed P&P&Z Dawn... I have to say, when I first head of the books they sounded sacrilegious to me, so I feel better knowing other Austen fans enjoyed them!

Shannon, being an Elinor Dashwood is also definitely a good thing! She's so caring and good-hearted, that judging from your blogging, it seems like she's a good fit for you.