Eileen Wilks is one busy author. In the past ten years, she's written twenty nine novels. Her world? Romance, the most popular genre in America. And not only here: Eileen's books have been translated into twelve languages. She recently emailed us about how the Visual Thesaurus helps her work.

"The Visual Thesaurus isn't just a fun way to avoid writing, or other productive work. (Though it is that, at times.) Yesterday I used it to come up with a title for my current book-in-progress. My editor emailed me that she'd be cover-conferencing the book next week, and did I have a title yet? Well, no. I had some ideas, all bad. I took a few key words and started plugging them into the Visual Thesaurus, following one link or another, backtracking, and eventually -- boing! I hit pay dirt. Thank you for a wonderful tool. I wouldn't have arrived at 'Blood Lines' without it."

You're most welcome, Eileen.

Eileen also gave us an idea: We wanted to find out how she does it -- what are her secrets for being so productive a writer? And what advice does she have for those of us struggling to write, whether it's our first book or first marketing brochure? So we called Eileen at home in Midland, Texas, to find out. We hit pay dirt, too:

If you have a website -- whether you're a blogger, mom-and-pop or 800-pound orangutan - you think about "user experience." That, of course, is obvious. But ever try to find a phone number on a company's website? How many clicks did it take? Well, maybe not so obvious.

Lori Pope runs a busy New York literary agency called Writers Represent. When she's not reading manuscripts, developing authors and closing book deals, Lori pursues another passion: Teaching writing. She leads two kinds of classes. One for post-graduate students at the Columbia Publishing Course at Columbia University. The other for high school dropouts earning their GED and Associate's degree at a school called the Interboro Institute. As you'd expect, Lori uses different techniques to teach the different classes. As you might not expect, the two groups have more in common than you'd think. Lori explains:

Dog Eared is the section where you, the good subscribers of Visual Thesaurus, recommend the books you love.

I, your humble editor, will kick things off by telling you about four of my favorite books on writing.

1. Writing Broadcast News--Shorter, Sharper, Stronger, by Mervin Block. I know it says "broadcast news" in the title, but trust me: This book will help you with any kind of writing.
2. The Art of Fact, edited by Kevin Kerrane and Ben Yagoda. An anthology of "literary journalism," it features writers as diverse as Daniel Defoe and Lillian Ross.
3. Spunk & Bite, by Arthur Plotnik. If you think Strunk & White is a wee bit outdated, you're not alone.
4. On Writing Well, by William Zinsser. This oldie but goodie still resonates.

Our columnist Orin Hargraves checks out these three sites to learn more about language:

The American Dialect Society Email List (subscribe here) is not for the faint of heart -- it's high volume. But if you want to be in on the banter of many prominent observers of contemporary usage, it's the place to be. If you read regularly you'll get a feel for who has something interesting to say, and who just witters on about any old thing.

Language Log has numerous posters, many of them professional linguists. Again, if you read this regularly you'll get a pretty good feel for whose observations interest you.

A some-time contributor to Language Lounge is Geoffrey Nunberg. You've probably heard his commentaries about language on the NPR program "Fresh Air." If you've missed any of them, they always make a good read on his website . He's also got a great bunch of links to other language-related blogs.

Don't forget: Send us your top blogs -- and tell us why you like 'em. Email us.