Free e-books, writing help, pretty things to look at, and a serious true story.

• Want a peek at an artist’s sketchbook?
• An interesting take on writing dialogue.
• Beautiful quilts by Holly Alloway.
• Life is funny. (Thank God, because otherwise it would be too depressing to go on living.)
• A lovely quilt that took a long time to finish.
• Artist and poet Judy Dykstra-Brown, whom I’ve written about here and here, made a catalog of her retablos for an exhibit, and it’s now available on her blog as a free downloadable e-book.
• The story of three girls evacuated from Germany in 1939.
• Free e-cookbook. The author is Australian, so some of the measurements may be unfamiliar if you’re American. There are recipes in here I will definitely try.
• I so want one of these platters.
• I love these little vignettes this artist creates, starting with items you might find in your own home.
• Novelists, have you ever participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)? It’s basically committing to spend the month of November writing 1667 words every day so that by the end of the month you have a 50,000 word first draft. I’ve participated twice (though I never reached the 50,000 word mark). I won’t be doing it this year, but if you are, you’ll probably want to spend October working on an outline or a pre-synopsis or at least making some general notes for your story or some world-building or character development. But if you’re not in the habit of writing every day, maybe during September you could try daily creativity prompts to get your juices flowing.
• Free writing resources.