Heading into the holidays, you can feel the year gathering itself, ready for the leap into the new. But for now, we have a lot to be thankful for, not least of which the stimulating articles we find around the blogs. Here are five for your Sunday enjoyment.

Eric Smith on Eric Smith Rocks
One Year Later: Five Things I Learned About Self Publishing
“Well, its been a full year since Textual Healing came out, my senior capstone project turned novel. Over the course of that year I learned a lot about the self publishing process. It was incredibly frustrating and cost me a hell of a lot of money, but in the end, I think it was all worth it, despite the rising anger in my chest every time I think of the self publisher I used.”

Sylvia Liu on Sylvia Liu Land
5 nontraditional publishing models from around the world
“The world of publishing is changing with ebooks, but writers and readers may not be thinking outside the box enough when it comes to new forms of publishing. Authors and publishers around the world are figuring out intriguing new ways to publish.”

George Angus on Tumblemoose
The Kindle Fire Review – This Ain’t Your Granddaddy’s Kindle
” When I saw the Kindle Fire, I thought, “Wow. That’s cool.” But I didn’t think I’d get one. After spending some time researching the Fire and all of its features, I decided to make the leap and ordered one.”

Victoria Strauss on Writer Beware Blogs
Introducing Writer Beware’s Small Presses Page
“A brand-new page on Small Presses has been added to the Writer Beware website.”

Gerard de Marigny on Gerard de Marigny
A Selfpubber’s Morning
“… And I’m still sitting here in my underwear … my inadequacy is growing! You know what I need, a good dose of Joe Konrath. I just wrote him an email thanking him for motivating me and telling him that I’ve started to advertise his eBooks inside my eBooks.”

Photo by Shamanic Shift