Friday Links

TGIF! We’re winding down the month of May, and per usual, I’m not sure quite where time is flying. Did you set any goals for your month? If so, I hope you nailed them. If not, maybe take a moment this weekend to decide what you want to accomplish with your writing in June. Sometimes a mini goal can be a great way to spur yourself on and enhance your productivity, or even come up with a wonderful new idea. A month-long goal needn’t be anything as ambitious as drafting a 50,000-word novel, though of course if that’s what gets you in front of your keyboard, I say go for it!

But first, of course, I bring you this week’s links. They involve quite a few different writerly points of view, and I hope you find them interesting and inspirational. Whatever you’re up to this weekend, good luck with your writing and/or reading. Enjoy!

Shadowing Jason Matthews, the Ex-Spy Whose Cover Identity Is Author – What writing is like for a former CIA agent who has turned novelist.

Books About Women Don’t Win Big Awards: Some Data – A blog post from author Nicola Griffith where she assembles a few depressing statistics.

Horror Stories Are Love Stories – An interview with author Kelly Link.

Writers Read – A wonderful blog where each post features an author talking about what they’ve been reading lately.

Christine Schutt’s First Time – Another in The Paris Review series, and wonderful in the way it illustrates how much time and persistence it can take to achieve your writing goals.