by G. Robert Frazier

Every day I scroll through my news feeds, Facebook pages, and favorite websites in search of interesting articles about books, writing, and anything else that might inspire me. Because I’m such a swell guy, from time to time I feel compelled to share these articles with you. Here then are some interesting reads from the past couple of days:

The new Supergirl TV series premiered Monday night. I haven’t had a chance to watch yet, but I’m eager to see how they’ve approached the character and whether it is a series I will want to keep watching. Entertainment Weekly did a decent interview with show producers Greg Berlanti and Ali Adler about the politics of making a female superhero.

While we’re on the topic of entertainment, I must pass along this item from the New York Post:  “The Force Awakens” is not the experience you’re looking for http://nyp.st/1PDG0yu.

The Atlantic magazine posted an interesting article Sunday about Why reader fees are a bad idea. The article points out an alarming trend among literary magazines to charge writers a fee for reading their work. The submission fee is designed to help cut down on the number of unsolicited submissions facing their editors and encourage readers to submit only their best work. But in doing so, the magazines are ostracizing poor writers (which is just about everyone) as well as their own efforts to be more diverse.  As if literary magazines didn’t already have an elitist attitude when it came to what makes good writing…

Publisher’s Weekly posted an in-depth interview with author Umberto Eco about his new novel Numero Zero (Houfhron Middlin Harcourt) and other topics.

Author Garry Craig Powell offers an interesting article about writing to the craft versus writing with inspiration. All the writing books and colleges teach craft, and they teach it very well, but he says what sets apart the best fiction is the inspiration that authors put into their works.

For writers out there preparing to take on the National Novel Writing Month challenge of writing a book in a month, K.M. Weiland offers some advice on setting and meeting realistic goals in this article. Weiland’s Helping Writers Become Authors website is one of the best around if you are looking for useful articles and advice on everything from story structure to scenes to character arcs.

Finally, if you are looking for an inspiring article, Wil Wheaton (yes, he of Star Trek The Next Generation fame) tells us how to reboot your life. Some really eye-opening thoughts about life, writing, and more. To go along with that, here’s a video from Wil in which he talks about his personal battle with depression and mental illness and his quest for a happier life.

Seen any good articles online to share with your fellow authors? Post a link in the comments section!