Interesting Places

Author Insider (www.authorinsider.com): A great site for authors to learn marketing skills. You'll learn everything from how to make a better Web site to how to get your book reviewed. This is a must-see site for any serious writer.

BeliefNet (www.beliefnet.com): They have an angels newsletter that is tops in quality. You get an angel reading of the day, an article about angels, and a daily picture of an angel. There are even polls.

The Chicago Writers Association (www.chicagowrites.org): This is a friendly organization that works to promote Chicagoans. It lists various readings, meetings, and lecture events. There also is a quarterly newsletter, the Clarion.

Laura Toops's site (www.lauratoops.com): This is a Web site of a friend and historical fiction writer. Laura details her book, HUDSON LAKE, which is a fictional account of the life of Bix Beiderbecke, the 1920s jazz trumpeter who lived a wild but tragic life.

Dorothy Thompson's blog (www.overthehillchick.blogspot.com): This site details the travails of a writer "of a certain age." She is pioneering a genre called "hen lit," which is an older version of chick lit.