A Weekend's Worth of Links

ie thee to these blogs for fun and contests:

Kate Kanyak is giving away books!

Talli blogs about creating compelling characters. I have to say I agree with her; I don't know squat about my characters until I jump into the story. Trying to develop a character in advance only stalls my writing completely - the only way to find a character's voice is to begin writing scenes.

Nathan has an amazing post - so what else is new? - about dead or absent parents in children's literature. I seem to be following the trope as my two latest novels both feature absent parents. Oddly enough, adult/guide figures abound... Why is it that teenagers can accept direction from any other adult but their own parents?

Speaking of parents, what lessons have you learned from your mother? If you have a story or essay or other vignette on this topic that you'd like to submit for an upcoming anthology, let Carol Krenz know!

And visit Kait for the latest installment of Forsaken By Shadow.