As I mentioned earlier, I am taking a brief blogging break in August. But I still plan to share great resources as time allows. With such fantastic reading this week, I had to get these links in front of you.  Happy reading!

• Bookends, LLC  Mastering the elevator pitch Literary agent Jessica Faust offers surprising tips for authors hoping to connect with agents at conferences, retreats and festivals.

• Erin Hosier on Betsy Lerner’s blog Coming Out of the Dark. Erin, a colleague of Betsy’s, originally wrote this post for She Writes and it’s re-published (in full) here. My fellow memoirists, this one is for you. Why? Because Betsy says, “I think it’s the best piece on memoir that I’ve seen a very long time.”

• LA Times OpenSky helps authors develop their brands Thanks to Meredith Resnick for pointing out this fascinating article about authors and publishing. Part of the article profiles Mary Ann Naples, who worked as a book editor and then literary agent before joining OpenSky.

• Mediabistro’s GalleyCat The woman who paid models to read her book Even if you’re not thinking about book publicity, you can still appreciate the ingenuity of this writer who hired people to read her book—and laugh—on the subway.

• The Urban Muse Help, Don’t Hinder, Fellow Freelance Writers I love this post from Susan Johnston on competition. She’s a very generous, community-minded freelancer and this post shows you how, and why, she helps her fellow writers.

Your turn. Any opinions, blog posts or articles on writing you’d like to share? Post away in the comments below. Thanks!