The Daily Port of Call: February 3, 2014

Photo by Alexander Lvov/bigstockphoto.com

In today’s Daily Port of Call you'll find, an interview with Kate DiCamillo, historic slang from the OED, and three marks of punctuation to make your writing more expressive.

Read this interview by Daniel Handler of Kate DiCamillo about her recent Newbery Award win and other writerly topics.

Here is some helpful advice for dealing with query rejections: Try, try, try again.

Twitterpated, piffle, and foozle. Historical slang that we love from the OED. 

Here are concrete steps to help you make your book a career instead of a hobby.

“When properly used, punctuation can enhance the rhythm of your writing or change its meaning entirely. And yet too many people rely on a scant handful of marks to express themselves.” Here are three marks you can incorporate today.

A collector finds that he owns two previously unknown poems from Sappho. 

The Daily Port of Call: January 31, 2014

Photo credit: Alexander Lvov/bigstockphoto.com

In today’s Daily Port of Call, listen to a conversation with Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood, find out what makes a book a classic, and discover the six characteristics of truly creative people.

Here is a collection of nine “timeless texts bound to radically improve your relationship with the written word.”

Listen to this recent conversation between Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood.

Writers spend a lot of time working alone. Here are six tips for staying creative without colleagues. Our favorite: Steal moments with your smartest friends.

What makes a book a classic? Reasonable minds differ.

Here are six characteristics of truly creative people. Start your innovation engine!

Submit your self-published books for the Writer’s Digest 22nd Annual Self-Published Book Awards. Early bird deadline for submission is April 1, 2014.