Blog Bytes

Karin is in the middle of revisions on her book, Good Girl Gone Bad, but I asked her to take a minute and tell us which industry blogs she reads religiously. Then I intend to share my own blog reading habits. Please note on Karin's blog picks, she lists MY blog. I did not pay her. I promise. There was no cash involved. No bribery of any kind.

Karin's PICKS:

The Age of Blogs.
I have a love hate relationship with blogs. I love to read them, and I hate the time they suck from me. I have a few I visit regularly:

Natalie Collins. Love her POV on the Mormon thang.

Then there is Miss Snark. I love her snark. This agent pulls no punches. I love her like I love Simon from American Idol. You might not like the delivery or the message, but most of the time the two are right on.

Then there is the kinder gentler Agent 007. 007 had played both sides of the publishing fence, first as an editor and now as an agent. Personally, if I didn't already have a stellar agent and had to pick one, I'd pounce on Miss Snark like she pounces on naive snarklings.

Romancing the Blog is another good one. I write romance so, natch I'm a regular visitor here. Lots of great authors in my genre post regularly.

Slay Your Demons, Julie Kenner's blog, hosts regular guest bloggers. It's kind of a bitch session, and well, I like to bitch with the best of them.

I like to read Maud, and the Book Slut, and Flogging The Quill.

Another snarker is Mrs. Giggles. I love her Web site for the reviews. I'm not even going to think about how she'll shred my first book, to be released this January. I will survive it, I have lots of bandages and Neosporin on hand. Her blog is just like her reviews. Snark, sarcasm, and lots of truth. And the wierd/fun thing is, authors she, um, discusses, post to her blog. Her site is not for the faint of heart.

OK, I have a ton more, but I have revisions I need to complete. Blog on.

Natalie says:

Like Karin, I'm a regular Maud reader. I also like POD-dy Mouth, being a former POD-dy author. Girl (yes, that IS what she goes by, in order to remain anonymous.) is spot on and funny, and I love that she is finding the gems in the POD-dreck barrel, because the gems do exist. And she even interviewed MOI. Good taste, Girl has. I agree with her about the premise of her blog, though. In fact, I reviewed a good POD book just this month on ReadersRoom.com, called Techno-Noir, from Zumaya, my former publisher. It was a great book. And the other book review is published by, gasp, Publish America. You can hear the collective gasps across the writing nation. But Peggy Tibbetts, my good friend and fellow writer, quite enjoyed the book. Yeah, yeah, Publish America will publish anything, and has, indeed, set out to publish EVERY book that EVERY American has "inside" them, but that doesn't mean they don't publish good books.

I'm a regular visitor at Tess Gerritsen's blog, because I find her funny, honest, and very, very open (something that has, on occasion, gotten her in trouble).

I'm a huge fan of Beatrice.com, not just because Ron Hogan took the time to explain the eccentricities of the Amazon ranking system to me, back when I was comparing my book sales to that of the Book of Mormon. (The Book of Mormon won most of the time.)

I also like the blogs of brothers Tod and Lee Goldberg. Tod's blog is just damn funny, and snarky, and spot on, even when he is skewering the "f#*$tards" of the world. And Lee has a great outlook on the industry, and is also man enough to admit when he's wrong.

Okay, that's enough reading to keep anyone busy for a while. As Karin said, blog on.