See if you can...

...pick up a copy of The Writer magazine (May 2006) at your library or wherever you buy magazines. This particular issue has a lot of interesting articles. Some of the highlights are:

• Master the art of the personal essay
• 3 top freelancers tell us what it takes to succeed
• Give your fiction a nudge - 10 surprising places to find ideas
• Description - how to use it effectively in your fiction
• 7 grammar mistakes and how to avoid them
• How to turn journal entries into powerful fiction

I usually find several good bits and pieces in each issue, but this one had so much in it! I think it would be worth your while to take a look at it.

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Some other books I currently have from the library are:

• Self-editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King
• What in the Word? by Charles Harrington Elster (reviewed in the May issue of The Writer)
• The Wrong Word Dictionary by Dave Dowling (explaining the definitions and spelling differences of words like peak, peek, and pique, for example)

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Looking forward to having more time for writing when the busyness of the next month settles down. How about you? Are you "too busy" right now to write? I know that it's important for writers to write, but I also acknowledge that sometimes life is just sooo busy! After this long Memorial Day weekend, I hope to find - no, make - some time to get back to writing, even during this next busy month. You can, too. Will you?