A slightly later post this week, because I just got back from vacation. My fellow writer and good friend Penny Williamson and I just spent a wonderful week in Oregon. First at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashalnd where among other things we saw a powerful, nuanced Othello, a shattering A View from the Bridge, a riveting, wrenching Coriolanus, and a clever, fun-filled A Comedy of Errors. Then we went to the Oregon coast to “location scout” for Penny’s new book. Which reconfirmed two things I already knew–visiting the location where a book is set is a fabulous way to give texture to a story and good food and wine are a great help in plotting a book 
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While I’m unpacking and catching up, here’s a new video clip on blogging.
I’ve been blogging over a year now, and while I sometimes rack my brain thinking of topics, I love the opportunity to talk about writing and books every week and to discuss topics with readers and answer comments. I’d love to hear what you think of writers’ blogs. How do you find interesting book-related blogs? What gets you to return to them? What are your favorite types of topics?
This week’s Fraser Correspondence addition is a letter in which Mélanie talks about being “home again.”
September 2, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Tracy, I love your blog, and I always check back every week – thank you for racking your brain to find new topics! I’ve been hooked since I stumbled across a discussion on The Scarlet Pimpernel, but it’s books in general that interest me – your own, and other authors/titles mentioned here. If I can contribute, all the better, but I find your subjects fascinating and informative – and I think I’ve added one or three books to my To Read list since joining in! Also, I have discovered other blogs such as History Hoydens via your page, and now I always look for an author’s blog after reading a new book (Deanna Raybourn, for one), which I wouldn’t have thought to do without chatting to you here first – quite a buzz, discussing books with a published author!
September 3, 2008 at 4:00 am
Thanks so much, Sarah! Your comments are always so fun to read and add a lot to the discussion (and you’ve suggested a couple of great blog topics yourself). Being able to talk to readers and writers online about books (one’s own and other authors’) is a real treat for a writer. When I was first writing, centuries and centuries ago before the internet, one pretty much only talked to readers at book signings or through letters and only saw fellow writers at meetings or conferences, unless they were personal friends or part of a critique group. Writing is a solitary profession==I love how the internet has made it so much easier to interact with the literary community of readers and writers. And though I may sometimes rack my brain for topics, it’s wonderful to be able to talk about books every week
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September 4, 2008 at 1:58 am
I’ve enjoyed reading your blog, and if you’ve had to strain to come up with topics, it doesn’t show. I think the same qualities that I’ve liked in your books are also apparent in the blog: intelligence and an openness to ideas and people.
P.S. Please tell Ms. Williamson that I discovered her just a few weeks ago when I bought “The Outsider” at a UBS. I’ve posted about the book elsewhere because I was so impressed with the characters and her writing. As I said in my post on AAR, Rachel Yoder is one of the few heroines where I could understand why so many of the men were in love with her because even I fell a bit in love with her myself. She and Melanie (who is a very different kind of woman) are two of my favorite Romance heroines.
September 4, 2008 at 5:15 am
Thanks so much, Susan! It’s not that normally I have trouble thinking of blog topics. In fact, sometimes just as I’m wondering what I’ll blog about next, I’m surprised at the new ideas I get, often inspired by the interesting comments in response to previous posts. But every so often on Saturday or Sunday, I do think “oh, dear, I need a blog topic.” It’s a challenge but a fun one
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I will definitely pass your comments along to Penny. She’ll be thrilled. “The Outsider” is a fabulous book, isn’t i? And I take it as a great compliment to have Mélanie alongside Rachel as one of you favorite heroines!
September 6, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Tracy, it didn’t occur to me until your post this week that visiting an author’s blog might be like calling on a residence in the past. When the writer posts at regular interval, it’s like there’s a set calling hours. When the writer posts irregularly, browsing one day and finding a new post is like finding her “at home” by chance. Sometimes one is a lone visitor and other times there may be other “luminaries” who have called. I remember a scene from “Cranford” aired on PBS earlier this year in which the two elderly sisters along with Mary get ready in some excitement for the calling hour and then they all wait quietly for callers. Do you feel some excitement when you are about to post your blog and the waiting when a comment pops up?
September 6, 2008 at 10:59 pm
What a wonderful analogy, Sharon! I hadn’t thought of it that way, but yes, that’s very much how it is for me when I post. By Friday, I’m usually thinking about what I’ll blog about (and who I’ll have this week’s Fraser Correspondence letter be from and about what). I try to get the post up by Sunday evening–sometimes that means posting Saturday, if I know Sunday will be busy. There’s a flurry of writing and proofing and posting (much like the flurry of preparing for callers). And then, yes, I do wait with some anticipation, to see who will comment and what sorts of comments the post will elicit.
September 7, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Isn’t it amazing that an aspect of the way of life in the old times is preserved in some way by a modern technology? Perhaps computer technology is as close to a time travel machine/portal as we could get.
September 7, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Fascinating how something as contemporary as the internet could echo historical conventions. I wonder if there are other old customs that have a modern technological equivalent?
Btw, this week’s blog is up, if you haven’t already found it. I had a lot of fun with it.