Monk Finale Breaks Records - But What Sloppy Writing for a Series about an OCD Detective

Even before all the numbers are tallied, the farewell episode of USA's Monk last Friday night has set new records for cable television audiences -- it grabbed the largest numbers for any drama series ever appearing on basic cable with a total already reaching 9.4 million viewers.  So, I guess it's safe to assume that you may have watched the show. 

Now, here's the big question -- did you like it?

This is a blog dealing with fiction writing, and I'm pondering the conclusion of Monk with that in mind.  And while I had warm and fuzzy feelings as the show's final segment ended, as a viewer and Monk-fan, as a writer I thought - wow, there's gonna be some unhappy folk out there.  Maybe I am one of them. 

Good vs Evil - Are You Born This Way?

With thanks to ICanHazCheezburger - how many great novels posit the same thing? East of Eden comes to mind ....

Google Book Search Lives On as Google Revised Settlement with Authors, Publishers

Google has announced a revised book settlement. Google, Inc., the Authors Guild, and the Association of American Publishers collectively filed the revised settlement with the Clerk for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York yesterday. Apparently, the filing occurred just minutes before the court-imposed Midnight deadline. Drama, drama, drama ....

What does it do?

It's cut back on the books that Google will distribute electronically over the web via Google Book Search. Now, Google's only going to deal with books that were are (1) registered with the U.S. Copyright Office or (2) published in either Australia, Canada, or Great Britian. As for the "orphans," (where the copyright ownership of a book is unknown), the revenue from these works is protected in the agreement, going so far as to set up a guardian to act as fiduciary for the owners.

More NaNoWriMo Prep - The Pros Come Out

Well, here you go.  S.L. Viehl (one of her many nom de plumes) has announced on her Paperback Writer blog that she is unofficially entering National Novel Writing Month this year -- and she's setting a personal goal of 2000 words/day.

That's right, dear reader.  Two thousand words.  A day.  That's about 400 over the minimum to win NaNoWriMo. 

And what's more, she'll do it.  Oh yes she will. 

If you follow PW, which I do, this woman is a fiend.  She's more than able to hit 4500 words a day, and she does a lot of this via Dragon Naturally Speaking because she's got some hand/wrist issues.

Five Things to Do to Get Ready for NaNoWriMo 2009

NaNoWriMo starts in 26 days.  When the clock strikes 12:00 am on November 1st, participants will have 30 days to write 50,000 words.  That's 1667 words/day if you write every single day. 

What can you do to get ready?  Here are 5 things to do as you're getting ready for the Big Day:

1.  Get your research materials together and organized.  You may not want to trust the web, and some books may be vital to your work.  Things like a dictionary, thesauraus, atlas, near at hand may be valuable time-savers as well as those reference works particular to your genre or plot, e.g., Grey's Anatomy if you're going to be the next Kathy Reichs, or Daily Life in Elizabethan England if you're writing a historical romance.  Buy what you need, gather what you already have, and put everything near to your workspace. 

2.  Warn family and friends that you're not being rude when you totally ignore them the entire month of November.  Maybe a free autoresponder for your emails will help.  And don't feel guilty when they call or text anyway and you don't reply.  You're writing, and it's important. 

Rank a Blog Post Within Top 3 of Google when Google Search Results are in the Millions -- I'm Ranking Here Consistently

Yesterday, I went roaming thru my blog post stats and found some very nice ranking results. Like I'm ranking posts in the top 3 out of millions in Google search results, and with posts that have staying power (they're old and still rank high.)

So, please forgive my intrusion into the usual theme of this blog, but I'm republishing my post from yesterday on my Writer-Lawyer blog here on Rebecca Kennedy (and on Backseat Lawyer and Everyday Simplicity, too) as an experiment - to see what happens, stat-wise ....

What I'm Reading: The Hot Zone by Richard Preston

I love the first line of this book, "Charles Monet was a loner."

I love it for many reasons, not the least of which is its incongruence with the subject matter of this work: the spread of the Ebola virus in Africa. Which is horrifying and real.

I usually don't read nonfiction books dealing with things like ... well... germs and stuff. Heck, I don't read fiction books that deal with germs, either. Eww.

Google Book Search Gets Swankier

Over at the Google Books Blog, there is a long post (with pictures! golly) that describes how they've improved Google Book Search in several different ways.

What's Google Book Search? Well, it's where Google is scanning book after book and then putting the contents on the web. You know, the service that's got lots of folk in a tizzy because of copyright infringement, pirating, things like that.

Time past, it was called Google Print - but after a couple of big lawsuits, things have changed.

Pictured: Han Christen Andersen's The Little Mermaid. His collection of fairy tales has been scanned and is available for free at Google Book Search.

Writer's Digest 2009 List of 101 Best Sites for Writers is Out

Writer's Digest has released its annual list of the 101 best websites for writers.

For 2009, the list is broken down into 8 categories:

Agent Blogs
Writing Communities
Publishing Resources
Jobs and Markets
Creativity and Challenges
Genres/Niches
General Resources
Fun for Writers.

And, yes, Twitter made the cut. Don't know that I agree with that one.

Validation. Worth Your 16 Minutes. Really.