Linktopia, Labor Day Edition

Surfing the best of the writers' blogs so you don't have to.

For our non-American readers, the upcoming weekend is known as Labor Day, where the working stiff gets an extra day off on the boss' dime to drink lots more beer and eat foods loaded with nitrates. But we writers will be furiously plugging away at our wips and taking advantage of the . . . eecch, who'm I kidding. I'll be sleeping in and drinking beer too.

Don't forget, this weekend is also the perfect time to enter our first annual WU contest. This year we're giving away an AlphaSmart 3000. Details here.

Some people shouldn't be let out of their cages or allowed to drink beer even if they are a major figure in their genre, but SS/F "legend" Harlan Ellison didn't have his frat buddies around to police him at this year's World Science Fiction Convention (h/t GalleyCat) . . . . here's yet another new blog by a publishing insider, helpfully called Publishing Insider . . . . also worth a look is Dibs!, "early buzz on upcoming books" . . . . but vintage blogger Ray has a nice post on "conclusion" words and luckily this is NOT one of my vices, which is good because my writing suffers from plenty of other problems . . . . the post-conference high has worn off the Alphabet Girls . . . . Conversations with Famous Writers has one with John Shors, author of Beneath a Marble Sky, now coming to a theatre near you soon . . . . Random Reader reads the debut of one of my favorite mystery writers, Bruce Alexander, and loves him as much as I do . . . . So writers are born, not made? Anyone else think that's messed up? Eric's got the goods.

More after the jump.

La Snark is annoyed at crappy queries again . . . . Writer Beware has to update their Worst Agency list again . . . . a tale of rejection woe (h/t Slushpile) . . . . Melly's back in the saddle after living in a war zone for a month which gives me hope for the power of human resiliancy . . . . MJ Rose may have put his finger on why B&N and Borders sales are hitting the skids . . . .

Alright, I'm ready to start the weekend early. Write on.