Charlottesville Words

"Bill Shapiro (editor of Other People's Love Letters) is looking for your literary rejection letters, planning to publish them in a 2010 collection entitled, Other People's Rejection Letters."

I love other people's rejection letters so much better than my own.

"Do you want to become a better writer? A better organizer? A better collaborator? In that case, try using mind maps. Creator Tony Buzan called mind maps a ‘genius tool’. Why? Because mind mapping can fire up your brain and boost creativity."

Several options — including old fashioned pencil-and-paper — are listed in the post. I like Bubbl.us.

The NaNoWriMo results are tallied.

This one is not so easy:

"Winter Contest

The Quarterly Conversation is holding a winter contest to take place during the month of December.

First prize is every single one of Roberto Bolaño’s works available in English, plus a special preview of his forthcoming novel The Ice Rink (New Directions, 2009). That’s eight books, including his mammoth new novel, 2666, and his new poetry collection, The Romantic Dogs, both reviewed in this issue."

'Tis the season for extra-special book giveaways on our favorite blogs:

"We can think of no more satisfying, inspiring way to while away the hours than with The Paris Review Interviews. We've greeted each new edition with glee, and so we jumped when our friends at Picador offered to give away ten complete sets to ten lucky TEV readers." See post for details.