I’ve been hanging around the old INkwell since its first issue, so I’ll be going through some serious withdrawal during its make-over – jonesing for my wonderful editors, fellow INsters, and most of all, my readers. I have loved hearing from all of you who wrote me. 
 
But I’m telling myself this will free up more of my time for right-brain stuff like poetry. I won some money in a national poetry competition last month – a reminder that there’s value in non-market-driven writing.

I’ll still be working in "green" journalism. Check out HopeDance.org and look for one of my pieces in an upcoming anthology, edited by Martin Keo, called Living Now.

Plus I’ll keep pounding out fiction and knocking on the unyielding doors of U.S. literary agencies. I’m stockpiling some major literary inventory. I hope you’re all doing the same.

You can stay in touch with me at analan2@yahoo.com. I’m still available for the occasional editing job and I want to hear how your writing careers are progressing.

For those of you who are missing my industry and agent news, I recommend Agent Query www.agentquery.com for the web’s best free agent info, plus their great forum, AQ Connect, where writers can network. I’ll see you there. Look for "Lavinia."

Or maybe we’ll meet exchanging comments on agent blogs. Here are some of my favourites:

• PubRants pubrants.blogspot.com, daily advice from super-helpful Denver agent Kristin Nelson.
   
• The Rejector rejector.blogspot.com "I don’t hate you. I just hate your query letter." A blog written by an anonymous intern in a New York agency.
   
• BookEnds bookendslitagency.blogspot.com. Best site for women’s fiction advice and useful critiques of query letters and hooks.
   
• For the young California dude’s perspective, try nathanbransford.blogspot.com. He runs his own contests, too.
   
• A new, fun blog for women’s fiction is Ask Daphne! ktliterary.com/daphne.html
   
• And for those still mourning the demise of Miss Snark, there is Janet Reid jetreidliterary.blogspot.com. Ms. Reid, of FinePrint Literary Management, isn’t Miss Snark – that is, she doesn’t devote hours a day to blogging and Crap-O-Meters – but I’m pretty sure she did play Miss Snark in the blogosphere from 2004-2007. (Same blog format; same obsession with Jack Reacher novels; same taste in footwear.)

You can also read the information-packed Snarkives, kindly indexed by Miss Adventure snarkives.blogspot.com.

But beware: blogs can be addictive time-wasters. Write your day’s pages first.

I’ll see you all back here in a bigger, better Inkwell Newswatch in 2009!