So I zipped over to Cynsations (Cynthia Leitich Smith’s blog) this morning to read this lovely guest post from Deborah Halverson on Why Perfectly Nice People Make Perfect Bad Guys. It’s well worth the read, whether you write flash, short stories or novels, because characters can make all the difference in whether you end up with a good story or a bad story.

And as is so often the case, I found all sorts of other interesting writerly things to check out. Like the giveaway at Cynsations for Deborah Halverson’s Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies (just read to the end of Deborah’s guest post!).

And then, of course, I had to zip over to Deborah’s site called Dear Editor.com where she’s having a virtual book launch for Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies. And she’s giving away a a first chapter manuscript critique for a couple days. (It must be a middle grade or young adult first chapter.)

And then, I nosed around the site to read a few of the Dear Editor questions and answers. Again, you don’t have to write for the kidders and teens to appreciate Deborah’s advice.

Honestly, it’s not even lunch and I’m feeling scads more writerly brilliant than I did at breakfast. Though I have no idea why I would say “scads.”