Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

I think that may be a good idea.

I hate LJ format.  Hard to navigate and contact people.

Is this like Craig’s List?

GWM, straight acting, likes oral, looking for same?

Just a quick note to say that such a list exists at the yahoo group RWC. If you become a member, you can access the list, which looks much like TeddyPig’s description.

Not that that should stop SB from making their own...but if you want one NOW, check it out.

That’s where I found my CP, and she absolutely rocks. I couldn’t write without her. Well, I could, but I’d suck.

p.s. SO jealous you met Barbara Vey! Is she as nice in person as she seems in the cyber world? I love her blog!

That’s exactly what I would say about my CP. December Quinn/Stacia Kane constantly amazes me. With her talent, her drive, and her ability to make me laugh until I nearly pee myself.

She’s been an inspiration to me since 2005 when neither of us were published as one person let alone several different pen names. I wouldn’t trade her for the world.

Sappy pregnancy woman now sniffling in her tea,

Anna J. Evans

I’d like to see a SBCL (Smart Bitch Critique List).  I think it would be very helpful.  Thanks for asking!

Oh what a sweet thing to say about a CP. Now I miss having one. *sniff*

I’d be excessively happy if there was one on the SB website...I CAN go to LJ but I’m not a memeber, and it’s just not really kosher for me to do it at work...which is exactly what I would do anyway, so please to help me keep my job?  Esp. since I’m closing on my house soon…

kthxbai

I agree that Live Journal sucks. Very confusing. On one occasion (and the last) I wanted to respond to a fellow author’s blog. Had to jump through a gazillion hoops...then lost her damned page and could no way find it again.

Youse gals run things so much better.  Honest, you do.

Although I’m still torn on the critique-partner issue (a perfect match could prove elusive, and the pursuit of one could be an enormous waste of time), I’m curious about other voices in the wilderness. Those of us who can’t afford networking that comes with a sizable price tag (e.g., attending conventions, joining RWA and a local then chasing to meetings) end up pretty much on our own.

and (b) Law & Order SVU was filming outside the restaurant so there were plenty of real and faux cops who would have busted my ass for purse-theft.

1. OMG was Christopher Meloni there?! *squeals*

2. Once, when Richard Belzer was filming a scene in Baltimore for Homicide: Life on the Street, a real-life thief ran around the corner from the drugstore he’d just robbed, saw all the uniforms, and surrendered to The Belz. The real-life cops working security for the crew arrested the thief; filming continued.

3. I have nothing regarding the CP issue. Carry on.

You guys are way too nice… My crit partner calls me a retard for all the time. :P

Generally a critique from a professional writer tends to make people cry.  I’m very sweet and nice* and you give me a manuscript and ask my honest opinion and then people start screaming at their computer screens and calling me devastator.

I’d join but I would get kicked out in no time flat.

______________
* No really I am.  Sunshine and rainbows.

My CP calls me a little whore! No, seriously. The last time I sent her pages, she wrote back, “You are even more of a ho than I thought you were.”

And sorry to go slightly off topic, but what’s the best FREE blogging system? I’m on LJ right now, but not really using it.  Thx!

I hate LJ. Hate it, hate it, hate it.  You can’t “subscribe” to the comments for your own posts in a group, so you have no way of knowing when someone replies.  Drives me out of my mind.  (Victoria - for free, I like Blogger best for blogs, Yahoo for “groups”.) So, although I have a crit partner (who I found--or who found me--through the original SB post), I vote for a different venue, be it SB or somewhere else.  After all, I may drive my current crit partner insane and need a new one!

Laura, if you’re a member of lj you can set it up to send you emails whenever somebody replies to one of your specific comments, or you can subscribe to a thread, but I’ve been a member for years so I don’t know if that’s true for non-members.

As far as I can see, I can only do that on my own journal, not in the “group” area.  Of course, I may just be blind.  (I’ve been an LJ member for a couple of years, but this is the first time I’ve tried the “group” feature.)

I love the idea of a CP list.  However I fall into the “hates LJ” camp, I’ve been boycotting it since they sold the site to Russia and stopped providing Basic (free, no ads) accounts.  Yahoo offers groups, if you need good recommendation.

Group email managing and document sharing… Google groups/docs

Best free blog… Wordpress.com

I would be interested as well. Thanks for the thought and the willingness to help!

Would you want to write a novel as well Sarah or are you a reader alone?

My situation is slightly different because my partner is a writing/critique partner. But she ROCKS. We both have our faults but our faults just happen to be the other’s strengths so it works out great.

But Then there are people out there that ask for an honest critique but what they really want is their ego stroked with undeserved praise and nothing else.

And you have to remember it’s just one person’s opinion. But if you can find that one person whose option you trust 100% then it’s an amazing.

Spam:Closed12. Really? Cool its 1:20 now so I guess I can go home!

Victoria asked:

And sorry to go slightly off topic, but what’s the best FREE blogging system? I’m on LJ right now, but not really using it.  Thx!

Seconding what Teddypig says --

I started out on Blogger/Blogspot but essentially abandoned that one in place, and defected over to Wordpress where my active blog is still.  Wordpress is free, extremely easy to use and has a great support staff.

I have an account with LJ, too, but it just doesn’t corner or accelerate the way I need it to.

(sigh) The whole CP thing is nerve-racking. If I could be guaranteed they’d talk me up in restaurants...sure.

I might be more motivated if my editor didn’t have the whole brutal-honesty thing down. But she does.

As far as I can see, I can only do that on my own journal, not in the “group” area.

If you mean getting comment notifications via email for comments left in a community (a group account), it should be covered by you going to your personal settings and checking the “Email notifications” box. (From the LJ Home page: Journal --> Manage Comments --> Manage Comment Settings, check box by “Email notifications")

This function sends you emails whenever someone replies to a post you made, or replies to a comment you made to a post. I believe you can also ask to follow a particular thread, but I’ve never done that.

Does anyone else have any LJ questions? I’ve been there for 5+ years, so I know the ins and outs. :)

My spamblocker is spring42, not to be confused with The Summer of ‘42, which is a whole ‘nother ball of wax.

Aaaw, Anna, now I’m sniffling too! And right back at you. :)

I guess I’m the only one in the world who loathes WordPress and can’t even get it to work. I set up a blog there to try it out and it refused to publish any of my posts. I tried four times, saving them first, not saving them, going back on different days in case it was a temporary problem...then I gave up, that was it. It didn’t save my drafts anywhere either, it seems to be down half the time, and it takes forever to load. Bleh!

I actually like lj, and I like blogger too.

Thanks for the advice!

Oh, and something I’ve been meaning to say… For those new to critiquing, you should absolutely be honest in your critique. But, imho, be cautious that your “brutality” is objective. If you don’t like the style or cadence or use of language, be very, very sure that it’s not about your personal taste. And you should always, ALWAYS, be as lavish with praise as you are with criticism. A writer’s knowledge of her strengths is just as important as knowledge of her weaknesses. And if you don’t like anything enough to praise it, you’re probably not matched up correctly. Just my two cents.

I find yahoo spotty service wise, when it wants to work it’s great but when it goes out you’re screwed. Google groups is good too, less features but it’s more reliable.  I like livejournal but I’ve used it for years so I’m used to it and yes, it is blocked from some worksites.

Having crit partners you can trust is really important. I think it’s a difficult match because you need someone who can tolerate you when you to into writerly bitch mode as well as writerly angst mode. You need to trust them to tell you the truth even when it hurts but you have to respect them enough to hear it.  My crit partners were my friends before we started critting each other - they’re two very different writers so they catch things the other doesn’t. And they both happen to be writers whose work I respect immensely (Anya Bast and Megan Hart who are both made of awesome with chocolate sprinkles)

Quoth Chicklet -

(From the LJ Home page: Journal --> Manage Comments --> Manage Comment Settings, check box by “Email notifications")

Unfortunately that doesn’t work for me.  Maybe because although I have an account, I don’t maintain a journal.  Years ago, I got the account because I needed it to comment on the blogs of my two friends who kept LJ blogs.  (Long before the advent of things like OpenID.)

I don’t own the LJ community/group/whatever it actually is, I’ve just posted to it.  The Journal-comments thing only talks about my journal, not the group, but your post got me searching for other possible places such a thing might hide.

These are the options it gives me for when I receive notification overall, not for my own journal:

LiveJournal.com makes a new announcement
Someone comments in my journal, on any entry
Someone votes in a poll I posted
Someone adds me as a friend
Someone removes me from their Friends list
Someone sends me a message
Friends and Communities:
Someone I invited creates a new journal
I receive an invitation to join a community
Someone requests membership in a community I maintain
One of my friends uploads a new userpic
One of my friends has an upcoming birthday
One of my friends receives a virtual gift

Of course, the truth is that I loathe the interface for LJ, always have, so perhaps the software is just reacting to the fact that it knows how I feel about it!

That dinner was one of the most fun times I’ve ever enjoyed at a conference.  Nothing like eight passionate people talking about books and related topics for a few hours.

In addition to Beth, I also have a couple of other critique partners—one of whom is published and the other who is a great writer but hasn’t yet broken through. 

I think the reason that our critique partnerships work is that we have mutual respect for each other’s writing and the ability to critique without attacking or making the other person feel bad.  It helps that I’m good friends with all three.  We know how to deliver the info in constructive ways.

Thanks for the shout-out, Sarah.  It was great to meet you!

Sarah, it was fabulous meeting you. That dinner was a blast. Great food. Great converation! 

You’re right. I had no idea that Mary said that about me. *blushing* What a sweet thing to say and the feeling is totally mutual.

Lucinda, yes, Barbara Vey is as nice in person as she is in cyber-world. And fun!

Chicklet, yes Christopher Meloni was there. I did squeal. And I got Barbara in trouble when I begged her to take a picture of him. At least I didn’t get her arrested!

And I got Barbara in trouble when I begged her to take a picture of him. At least I didn’t get her arrested!

We would have bailed you and Barbara out of jail, Beth.  It’s one of the rules of CPing—Section III, article b in the manual.  “If your cp gets arrested, you’re her call and will show up with bail, and an attorney, no matter what.”

For everyone looking for a CP, I forgot to mention earlier that you find cps close by or do your critiquing long distance.  When I still lived in Jersey, my other two cps and I got together monthly and critiqued in person.  (With frequent phone calls in between to bounce ideas, etc.) Beth and I used to get together in a diner or at Borders and laugh hysterically while we discussed each other’s books.

For the last six years, I’ve lived in Florida, so all the critiquing takes place via phone and email.  It works!

I had one person (before she became my CP) talk me up to an editor.  It didn’t work although the editor did ask me if it was true I really was nervous when I gave pitches. I assured her oh hell no.  By the time it comes to pitch I’ve gone beyond fear into the Twilight Zone. Then again, I wonder what that CP did say…