I have returned, completely mostly moved in to my new place of residence, and ready to shout “clear!” and slap the paddles to this flatlining blog.

Also, now that I’ve switched WordPress themes, I can go back to regular text hyperlinks; Andreas09 gives them a nice, clean look.   However, I still like the idea of card suit bullets distinguishing the different categories of link soup, so I think I’ll keep them too.

So, without further introduction, let’s look at some good stuff posted recently by writers:

♥ Becky Levine pitches her two pennies on the value of social networking to writers, on the back-and-forth of writing historical fiction, and why writers should loosen the reins, trust the muse, and just write that “shitty first draft.”

♥ Scott at Reading. Writing. Revolution announces a collaborative writing project, Dorothy : Locked and Loaded.

♥ Bethany Wiggins at Shooting Stars announces a new blog about what writers read.  This is particularly intriguing to me, as I have been throwing together a piece on reading non-fiction as a fiction writer.

♥ John Fox at BookFox analyzes the use of “credit” to describe a published work, and discusses the business model of literary journals.

♥ While momentarily not Distracted By The Internet, Kelly Morgan threads her way through video games and mythology to examine the hidden lives of obscure characters.

♥ Lydia Sharp at The Sharp Angle tells us why it’s nice to have friends in SF circles and — perhaps ironically? — emphasizes the #9 (of 52) Quality of the Prosperous Writer: strong boundaries.

♥ Jade Smith muses on not getting what we “expect” from a piece of writing.

♥ And finally — dramatically — at Plotting and Scheming, Dawn Simon‘s husband Jim explains why and how you should back up your WIP file.