In the completely updated 10th Anniversary Edition of A Writer’s Book of Days: A Spirited Companion & Lively Muse for the Writing Life, beloved author and writing coach Judy Reeves evokes the muse in writers from all walks of life through engaging exercises and practical instruction in a friendly and accessible style that makes writing fun.

These ten daily habits that make a (good) writer are excerpted from the book:

As the submissions editor here at New World Library, I’ve reviewed thousands of query letters, proposals, and manuscripts and spoken with umpteen hopeful authors. Frequently, I wish I could, like our founder, Marc Allen, says, “give away the essence of what I know” to every author who approaches us. So when WritingRaw.com asked us to complete an interview about the submissions review process, I was happy to oblige. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look, with answers from me and from our editorial director, Georgia Hughes.

The blockbuster film Inception has certainly brought dreaming into the spotlight this summer. According to New World Library author and Active Dreaming expert Robert Moss, many of the dreamworld concepts portrayed in the film aren’t just the stuff of sci-fi but have existed in shamanic dreaming traditions for generations and are still accessible to us today. One example is shared dreaming, which Robert wrote about in this recent Beliefnet blog post:

Shared Dreaming as Home Entertainment

You’re separated from your sweetheart and you’d like to have some good private time together. Can you do that? Absolutely. As in the old song, “You can reach [him or her] with your mind.” The next question is: Your place or mine, or somewhere else altogether? How about meeting up at an elegant restaurant in Paris, or on a lava beach in Hawaii, or at the Moon Cafe (in the astral realm of Luna, don’t you know?) where the bubbly is better than any earthly brand of champagne. You can do this.

Last week saw two devastating reports on the American way of waging war: a Washington Post special feature on the failures of the post-9/11 security establishment and the shocking disclosure of 92,000 documents from soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan.

Over nine years in Afghanistan — making this the longest war we have ever fought — we have sacrificed nearly two thousand American lives, caused untold Afghani and Pakistani deaths, and spent at least $300 billion. And the Taliban are stronger than when we began. Meanwhile, in Iraq, one commander reported, “We are making terrorists faster than we can kill them.”