Routines and Revolutions

Do you crank up the Foo Fighters before you knead bread, light a votive candle in preparation for writing morning pages, or practice yoga before you open your sketch pad? Those routines or rituals don't just set the mood, they anchor you for the creative task ahead, making it easier to accept the uncertainty that accompanies the creative process, says marketer and entrepreneur Jonathan Fields in his new book, Uncertainty, Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance. Read an excerpt on media professor Jane Friedman's blog.

A recent post by Mike Shatzin, a digital-publishing guru, is a must-read for anyone interested in the ways ebooks are changing readers' habits and publishers' business models.
This coming November marks the four-year anniversary of Amazon's Kindle, and it appears ebook sales now make up twenty percent of the revenues for some publishers. If growth continues at the current rate, ebook sales will account for close to eighty percent of publishers' revenues two years from now.

Writers reluctant to embrace social media need more than a pep talk, and marketing consultant Laura Barnes offers a list of tools that makes it easier to connect.

Reading, Writing, and Rambling's own Lark Howard is en route to France. In her honor, check out Vivian Swift's The France Blog. The illustrations are charming, and the blog's a romance wrapped in a travelogue. It should hold us until Lark posts her first vacation pictures.

I'm in the mood for an ebook set in France. What real and virtual voyages are on your wish list?