Google Reader Roundup

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I didn't, because I have shingles. Yeah, the older person's disease. As a result, I had to sit home alone while Mr. Sierra took the whippersnapper to the big family Thanksgiving do. (Rainbow Puppy went to bed early.) So I sat on the couch and wrote.

And my God, I was thankful for it!

Even if I did starve a bit and find myself forced (forced) to eat a few Trader Joe's Halloween Jo-Jos.

• Anne Allen reports a gap in Amazon review power with the older age set, and gives some guidelines to reviewing for Amazon.

• Jessica Faust at Bookends fields a question about long book lengths...is it too long? how to cut down? You decide.

• Kristen Lamb talks about scene structuring, part of her novel structure series.

• On the heels of my post on Monday that stated you cannot possibly interact meaningfully with thousands of followers, Jane Friedman wonders whether she's doing just that with her thousands of Facebook friends. (Answer from me is no.)

• Bloggy friend Tahereh Mafi's highly anticipated novel, Shatter Me, is out and Tahareh was interviewed by Entertainment Weekly (she's big time, folks). I am including the link to the article because of the last line in it--Tahereh knows exactly how to hook a reader and her last line is the one that made me want to read the book more than anything. Check it out. See how she uses that tease so subtly, so well, and so engagingly.

• Meghan Ward wonders if you're blogging to the right audience. I wondered if the right audience matters in her comments.

• What not to blog about and what crosses the line when it comes to social media, from Kill Zone's Clare Langley-Hawthorne.

• Jody Hedlund tells us how to build a blog following from the ground up.

• Janice Hardy hosts guest blogger Elle Strauss on writing a query or pitch in four easy steps. I especially loved the identification of the hook.

• Kristan Hoffman on what really matters for this Thanksgiving week (via Meghan Ward). Or, in other words, Kristan helps remind us about connecting with other authors and books.

• Meghan Ward reminds us about the importance of sitting on the floor. We all need to, no matter in reality with our kids, or metaphorically.

• Jody Hedlund schools us in restraint. Well-timed!

• A hilarious collection of writing maladies cleverly written by Nathan Bransford.

• And finally, I really love this list of things Tawna Fenske is thankful she was wrong about--with a wonderful last item on the list, which almost made her whole post as satisfying as a good romance novel.