Welcome to the March 31, 2011 edition of Carnival of Storytelling.

I almost missed this week’s carnival, because my latest project schedule has crashed and burned, sopping all of my time and emotional energy.

I’m working on an ebook, Character Fiction 101: How to Write Fictional Characters and Character Stories, using content I’ve already written as a first draft. As it turns out, in revising this so-called “first” draft, I’m expanding the content, in some sections by an order of magnitude. So what I had was more like a zero-draft, and the book is going to take much longer to complete than the week I had originally planned for. Sorry.

And that’s also why I’ve been absent, because I’ve been working feverishly on this project. I’ll post some extracts of the new content next week, though.

For now, here are some recent blog posts for writers, some submitted at BlogCarnival.com, others handpicked by yours truly. Enjoy!

Writers

Edith Nesbit a thief? posted at Ketutar writing — Edith Nesbit has been accused of plagiarism… for a book she wrote 100 years ago.

Books etc.

Fred Hurr presents 1st Draft of Chapter 1 of 2nd Book ‘Light of the Holy’ posted at My Blog, saying, “comments please – even if you haven’t read my first book ‘Light of the Wicked’”

Maud Aaron presents The 80 Greatest Science Fiction Books for Kids posted at Online Colleges and Universities.

Art and Craft

Marisa Wikramanayake presents How to write a book: Part 1: Introduction posted at Marisa Wikramanayake. (And Part 2: And the number one secret for writing a book…)

50 Problem Words and Phrases by Mark Nichol posted at Daily Writing Tips — A list of 50 pairs of commonly confused and misused words and phrases. Go through this checklist the next time you line-edit your manuscript!

Writing Life

How Playing Darts Can Help Your Writing posted at Miss Good on Paper — Sometimes, there’s nothing to it but to do it. Breathe deeply, relax, and put your best foot forward, for better or for worse.

The Physical Life of a Writer by Sarah Allen posted at From Sarah, With Joy — Writing may not be a physically demanding occupation, but that doesn’t mean we should neglect its physical risks.

Fiction and True Stories

Stories Do Make A Difference by T. S. Bazelli posted at Ink Stained — “Do stories even matter when there’s so much trouble in the world? Yes. Emphatically YES.”

The Attacking Laundry Basket by Susan Helene Gottfried posted at West of Mars — “Sounds like something I’d put in my fiction, doesn’t it? Maybe a name for a new band? Laundry Basket Attacks. It’s not. It’s real life.”

Publishing and Marketing

Tony Eldridge presents Establishing An Author Presence on Social Networking Sites posted at Marketing Tips For Authors, saying, “Becoming an author is hard enough, but combine that with marketing your book, and it can paralyze many great writers. If you’re an author new to online book marketing, this post will give you resources to point you in the right direction.”

Author Marketing by Elizabeth Eulberg posted at CYNSATIONS — “I sometimes joke that I have 2.5 jobs: publicist, author and the .5 is social networking.”

Resources

Amy Dyslex presents Creative Writing Story Starters posted at Write a Writing, saying, “Hmmm, this is one is interesting. There are a few tips that have saved my vexed brain most of the times. For once, I have found that whenever you are confronting a problem and it just doesn’t seem to get fixed time to take a break. If that doesn’t seem to work then try out the following cheats.”

Thirteen Facts about Twins by Shelley Munro posted at Adventure into Romance — “Twin Trouble, my new release is out at Ellora’s Cave on 1 April. As the title suggests, my story features identical twins as the heroes. The Mitchell twins, Joe and Sly, inspired my topic this week.”

AND That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Storytelling using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.