The list is endless, of course, but here are some of my favorites. First, four more podcasts from the Writing It Real archives and then seven more resources I’ve learned about and very much enjoyed recently.

My hope is that each of us can get a hit of the old-time lazy hazy days of summer though now they seem “snowed over” by our current busy lifestyles filled with work, volunteering, raising kids, delivering them to their own multitude of activities, caring for and visiting elders and getting them where they need to be, time reading each day’s news, exercising for health and shopping carefully for nutritious food. Overwhelmed by the list? Take some time to relax at home or take a walk with earbuds to listen to inspiring discussions with poets and writers in the Writing It Real archives (And in case you get hooked: two more new ones post each month on the bottom right of the Writingitreal home page).

Then make sure you visit some of the links I recommend for quality writing that will inspire yours.

Podcasts from the Writing It Real Archive:

1. Port Townsend Poet Gayle Kaune, whose books include Noise from the Stars, If the Birds Awake and Still Life in the Physical World.

https://writingitreal.com/2014/conversation-gayle-kaune

2. Port Angeles poet Alice Derry’s books include Hunger, Tremolo, Not As You Once Imagined, Clearwater and others.

https://writingitreal.com/audio-folder/conversation-alice-derry

3. New York State memoirist Abigail Thomas’ books include Thinking About Memoir, A Three Dog Life, Safekeeping, Two Pages and What Comes Next and How to Like It.

https://writingitreal.com/audio-folder/conversation-with-abigail-thomas

4. Boston journalist and author David Reich whose novel is The Antiracism Trainings and whose nonfiction articles and short stories have appeared widely in magazines and journals.

https://writingitreal.com/2014/conversation-reich

And here are this week’s recommendations for resource links:

1. Jon Morrow writes about blogging and he is generously offering a compendium of ideas for bloggers to keep them blogging:

https://smartblogger.com/blog-post-ideas/?tl_inbound=1&tl_target_all=1&tl_period_type=3&utm_source=keap&utm_medium=email&utm_term=new_post_255_blog_post_ideas&utm_content=blogpost_engaged&utm_campaign=blog_broadcast&inf_contact_key=ea24f7fa7213a308bba479fe2a7d5eb416358d5485884e2f31e6019a0d26c8b0

2. Publishing guru Jane Friedman’sguest writer today is C. S. Lakin, who wrote on using metaphor and imagery not only well but masterfully. Be sure to look on the right-hand side of the website for a list of Jane Friedman’s incredibly useful books on publishing–the whole route from finding an agent or self-publishing to publishing with small and large presses:

https://www.janefriedman.com/metaphor-and-imagery/

3. Want to know what agents are discussing and looking for? Want to contact one of them about your book manuscript? Want to read their profiles? Manuscript Wish List is helpful:

https://www.manuscriptwishlist.com/

4. A valuable free weekly update newsletter from Poets and Writers magazine contains a treasure trove of book and author talk as well as videos. This week’s newsletter includes a video of Mary Oliver reading her poem “The Summer Day,” along with a Q&A with fiction writer Shane Jones and an article about worthy anthologies. To subscribe to the newsletter visit this page and choose the top box marked weekly update newsletter:

https://www.pw.org/constant_contact/signup

5. Literary Hub calls itself the best of the literary internet. It really does have substantial and exciting reading on its website as well as resources of quality for writers. When you visit the home page, there is a slideshow at the top of what is new on the site. Of particular interest to me is an article entitled “My 42-Year Correspondence with W. S. Merwin” by Howard Norman has the tagline of “reflections on the collective meaning of 416 letters.”

https://lithub.com/

6. Pocket is an amalgamator of articles from nonfiction and creative nonfiction from a broad selection of magazines. You get a newsletter via email and you can click on the articles you’d like to save to your Pocket account. The most recent newsletter includes this personal experience essay from Outside magazine about a battle with a rattle snack in Yosemite.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/a-rattle-with-death-in-yosemite

To sign up for a Pocket account, you can use your email address or Google account.

https://getpocket.com/signup

7. HITRECORD in partnership with Medium Magazine posts preview stories of their collaborative nonfiction stories.

The current posting is a series of 6 stories (each by a different author) on mornings. The editors said most of the submitted stories started with bed and all of these six feature bed as the setting of mornings.

After you read the series, there is a link to click on to find the authors of each of the six parts in this collaborative writing.

https://medium.com/on-mornings/the-bed-7caec5bf60a9

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Have you read Patricia Hampl’s The Art of the Wasted Day? Reading and listening from these links would certainly qualify! I hope you enjoy the of writers on their writing and readings you might not have come across but for these links.