More Saturday Silliness

Have I mentioned The Dialectizer?

The Dialectizer takes text or other web pages and instantly creates parodies of them! Try it out by selecting a dialect, then entering a URL or English text below. If you have questions about what The Dialectizer does or how it does it, please see the "Information" section toward the bottom of this page.

You can convert your copy to your choice of Redneck, Jive, Cockney, Elmer Fudd, Swedish Chef, Moron, Pig Latin, or Hacker dialects. Another feature allows browsing the website itself in one of the twangs offered. If you're worried that someone will turn your website into a farce, you can block this from happening in a variety of ways. I wouldn't worry, however, when I tried out a few dialects on Writer's Edge, the results were less amusing than confusing. Then, I typed in the first verse to the childhood ditty, "Row, row, row your boat", asked for a hacker version and received this response:

Orw, orw, oRw youR boat,
gentLy dfwon the streanm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11~~~~
MERRilY, MERRILY, M3RRILY, MERRILY.
LIFE 1S BUT A DRAEM haX0r the plannat because I will HXA0R

[creativity]

Powell's Books

An article about San Francisco book stores closing mentions that Powell's Books is the "world's largest indie bookstore" and "also does about 40 percent of its sales online, according to a store representative." I knew of Powell's but hadn't shopped there until a little bonus fell in my lap--a gift certificate to that store. I was so taken with the amusing text that appears on the Powell's website that I signed up for the company's newsletter. It is equally hilarious. Take this excerpt:

Hello folks, Brockman here. I'm the guy who writes the Book News feature on the Powells.com blog, bringing you the most important, up-to-the-minute news and salacious gossip in the book world. And sometimes I just make stuff up, like this:

DeLillo Challenges Pynchon to Most Confusing Sentence Ever:
The semi-reclusive authors will publicly duel to determine which one can write the longest single sentence that makes the least sense and wins the most book awards. Critics have called the contest "a tour-de-force," "laugh-out-loud hilarious," "unputdownable," and "one of the great contests in all of literature."[from PowellsBooks.blog Book News for Wednesday, September 6]

I also enjoy the ongoing tales of Fup the Store Cat. This company really knows people who love books and bookstores.

[books]

New Frost Poem

On October 2, The Virginia Quarterly Review will publish a previously unknown poem by Robert Frost. A graduate student, Robert Stilling, found the poem in a collection of books and manuscripts bought by the University of Virginia. The 35-line poem, written in 1918, deals with war. Critical essays by Stilling and Glyn Maxwell, poetry editor of The New Republic, accompany the poem's debut. You can order the magazine online.

[poetry]

Anthology Submission Brouhaha

Recently Angela Hoy responded negatively to a question at Writers Weekly on Should I Submit To Anthologies? She cited the fact that you must create the article rather than a query, and that wastes your time because of the huge competition for only a few selections.

I must admit to having slammed recently an anthology offer I saw on the basis that not only do the promoters not pay for material, they say that they return "all rights" to the writer while reserving the right to reproduce the material "in all media." Some participants in an online forum agreed this is a raw deal for a writer. Don't be so desperate, that's not a good look for you!

In her October/November newsletter issue Erika Dreyfus counters that anthologies can be a Martha Stewart Good Thing, if they sport some of these features:

* simultaneous submissions allowed
* free copies & discounts offered
* reprints welcome
* more than token payment
* for charity

[writing]

Google Book Search

You may have noticed the cute little baby Google search box in the left column. Or you might have found it irritatingly out of place, overlapping posts if you viewed this website with Firefox. If you're on RSS or ATOM, you're out of luck and won't have a clue as to what's going on. So sorry. Visit the website for an eyeful. Anyway, back to the Google Book Search Box here at home. It's a new service for webmasters, tying a website to Google's really useful/infamous Book Search. Here's how Google says it works:

When we find a book whose content contains a match for your search terms, we'll link to it in your search results. Click a book title and you'll see, like a card catalog entry, some basic information about the book. You may also see a few snippets of text from the book showing your search term in context. If the publisher or author has given us permission through our Partner Program then you'll see a few full pages from the book and if the book is out of copyright, you'll be able to page through the entire book. In all cases, you'll see links that lead directly to online bookstores where you can buy the book.

I thought this sounded eminently useful for readers. For your added amusement, you can check out Google's version of the history and controversy of the program at Google Book Search - News & Views.

Queen of Commas

Stand back for a war of words - and of commas, apostrophes and split infinitives. One of Britain's leading language experts has attacked Lynne Truss's bestseller Eats, Shoots and Leaves for its 'misconceived' and 'deeply unnerving' zero tolerance approach to punctuation.

So says the Guardian in an article about David Crystal, who calls Truss a member of the "linguistic fundamentalists." Sheesh! Those Brits can really sling the barbs, eh wot? I, for one, found Truss's book hilarious and her attitude refreshing. I've mentioned it several times in this blog, but unfortunately my online review disappeared with the Allconsuming.net website.

[punctuation]

Learn to Write

Earlier this month, Leigh Fenly, who writes "Just for Kids" for the Books section of The San Diego Union-Tribune, rounded up eight books to help children learn to write. Her article, "Do you have the right stuff to write? See below" provides such intriguing descriptions of the octet of writing guides, that I think I'll keep my eyes open for copies for myself (always a child at heart). Fenly, who is also editor of the paper's science section, Quest, and mother of three sons, recommended:

Writing Magic by Levine
Poems from Homeroom by Appelt
You Have to Write by Wong
How Writers Work by Fletcher
Once Upon a Time by Buckley and Coyle
Big Fat Paycheck by Lawrence
Whatcha Mean, What's a Zine? By Todd and Watson
Write Around the World by French

I left off the subtitles, but should note that Big Fat Paycheck is a guide to writing for movies, and the 'zines book refers to comic books. Suggested ages hover around pre-teens.

[writing books]

Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week is back. They have a new name for the new millennium. You can see a list of 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000. Three of Stephen King's novels appear in the top 100. Now that's scary! According to the American Library Association, "The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom does not claim comprehensiveness in recording challenges. Research suggests that for each challenge reported there are as many as four or five which go unreported."

A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others.

I'm not certain, however, that I can go along with Judy Blume, who says, "[I]t's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers."

Would you refrain from writing a book becaue you feared censorship? If so, why? And are any books actually banned from U.S. libraries?

[banned books]

Writer Within

In his inspirational essay The Excellent Writer Within, Michael Levy suggests that all humans can become great writers, poets, musicians and/or artists. He pinpoints limiting self doubts as the culprit holding back our creativity. Furthermore, he says:

Just writing worthy, meaningful, literature will not get the success it deserves unless we possess the resolve to carry on writing in spite of the critics. There will always be those who criticize a writer, no matter how good the composition. Rejection is an everyday experience for most writers. This is a joy we must accept and grow from. Just because someone does not like our essay, does not mean it has no value. It means it was not acceptable to the editor or book reviewer that was reading the essay.

One of the steps to success he suggests is detaching from the outcome and living (and writing) with JOY:
Just
Obey
Yourself.

[creativity]

Housekeeping Links

More often these days, Writer's Edge receives pleas from unknown websites to "exchange links". I've explained periodically that I don't do this because there isn't enough real estate on the page to link to just anyone and everyone who asks. Instead, I link to websites reciprocally, that is, if I find one that already links here. Also periodically, I go through the list to ensure the sites are still active and contain a link to Writer's Edge. Some people redesign their sites often, and links come and go, so I started leaving the URL in the list, but commenting it out for ease in replacing it when a link reappeared. The list is below, and it's more or less in chronological order from oldest to most recent:

Psybertron
http://soporverity.blogspot.com> Soporverity
http://georgiasredclay.blogspot.com/ Georgia's Red Clay
http://blogs.seaoftreasures.net/Kelieth Kelieth
http://thissocalledlife.com/stickpoet/ Against the Flow
Down the Writers Path
http://www.pondicherry.com/blog/ Pondicherry.com Blog
http://lakeneuron.com/ Lake Neuron
http://breakingnewsblog.com/bloggeridol/ Blogger Idol
Blog Trek
http://www.lisbonblogger.com/ The Lisbon Blogger
Bread and Roses
Full Steam Ahead
Shrinking Violet
http://gfishbone.com/ Greg Writes
I am a crowd ...
Stop at Willoughby
Damian's Blog
http://www.mythusmageopines.com/ Mythusmage Opines
http://bipolarmind.blogspot.com/ Confessions ...
http://www.sbpoet.com Watermark
http://expat-writer.tripod.com/practicewriting/ A Clean Slate
Thought Patterns
Outpost Mavarin
http://writingcompetitions.blog.co.uk/main/ Writing Competitions
Still Unhinged
http://spaces.msn.com/members/bookpub/ Under the Book Pile
http://www.bloglines.com/blog/Shelly Impish Delights
http://el-oso.net/blog El Oso
http://cyberchocolate.blogspot.com/ Cyber Chocolate
http://www.dirtyrottenheathen.com/node/10 dIRTYrOTTENhEATHEN
Twerpette
http://robertlunday.blogspot.com/ Fayettenam Notes
http://womanlyparts.blogspot.com/ A Woman of Many Parts
All Kinds of Writing
http://www.samanthaburns.com/ The Crazy Rants of http://www.livejournal.com/users/merlins_brat/ Merlin's Brat
Sarcasm in a Bottle
http://pkelley.ghostnetinc.com/wordpress/ SYN/ACK/FIN
Chronicles of a ...
Bradley Robb
Ballpoint Wren
http://aisabis.blogspot.com/Bull[shit: Served
http://kvibbert.blogspot.com/ A Poet's Shared Life
The Writing Show
Media by Sistrunk
http://goddesspages.blogspot.com/ Goddess Pages
http://italianmeals.blogspot.com/ Italian Cooking
http://dcsistrunk.blogspot.com/ Education by Sistrunk
http://odamoganak.livejournal.com/ odamoganak
http://crimson-ink.blogspot.com/ Written in Red
River Tyde
http://www.elwriterscorner.blogspot.com/ Elaborate Labyrinth
plein air sketches
Mark Leslie's Blog
Writers Blog Alliance
At Home, Writing
Always Thinking of You
Blogger Indonesia
http://thecafe.blogsome.com/ The CafE
Mavarin Experiment
Pop Culture Casualty
Sou Varne
Views of M. Tasar
Teardrops on Roses
News 2050

The links that are live are current. If you spot any mistakes or omissions, do tell.

[websites blogging]

Google Guides

At Google Guide owner/operator Nancy Blachman says:

Google Guide is an online interactive tutorial and reference for experienced users, novices, and everyone in between. I developed Google Guide because I wanted more information about Google's capabilties, features, and services than I found on Google's website.

She offers sections on:
Introduction
Contents
Favorites
Query Input
Understanding Results
Special Tools

However, I think the most useful area might be the Google Guide Quick Reference: Google Advanced Operators (Cheat Sheet). She shows examples of how to use Boolean-type operators in a search, restrict searches, design specialized and alternative queries, and explains what each operator does, and then provides a live link to an example search on Google for you to see results! Exactly the kind of hand-holding help some of us need.

[research]

Top Ten Blogs

Yeah, yeah, I bad-mouth "content" websites as a mostly unproductive way to get published, however I've discovered they can be a positive source of useful information. F'rinstance, Jack Oceano (a freelance writer, novelist and former New York City attorney now residing in Hawaii) offers his guide to Top Ten Blogs About Writing and Publishing:

New authors are often put off by the seemingly endless mysteries of the publishing industry. The following bloggers shed some light on what can be a very dark and frightening world. Here are the top ten blogs about writing and publishing.

He suggests, for your edification, dipping into:

Miss Snark at http://misssnark.blogspot.com/
Evil Editor at http://www.evileditor.blogspot.com/
Kristen Nelson at http://pubrants.blogspot.com/
Knight Agency at http://knightagency.blogspot.com/
Jennifer Jackson at http://arcaedia.livejournal.com/
Jason Pinter at http://jasonpinter.blogspot.com/
Anna Louise at http://alg.livejournal.com/
Agent 007 at http://agentoo7.blogspot.com/
BookEnds at http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/
A Gent's Outlook at http://agentsoutlook.blogspot.com/

I've mentioned some of these, and you can bet I'm going to look into the ones new to me. Stay tuned!

[blogging writing]

Settings

In the forum for The Writer magazine Barbara Samuel, author of Lady Luck's Map of Vegas, a 2006 Rita Award finalist, writes about Making your work stand out with a strong sense of place. You must register, I think, even just to read this page, but there's no cost to join. In her article, Samuel says, "A solid sense of place takes a mediocre novel from bland to decent and elevates a good novel to something exquisite....There are three main parts to a great setting: physical, cultural, and spiritual."

Elements of the physical setting she explores include the geography, weather, flora and fauna. "Details are wonderful ways to pin the world down, to make it come alive for the reader. Think about how to bring that setting alive and I promise your work will be much stronger," she concludes.

[writing]

Literary Magazines

From the website for the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses:

Q: I'm looking for a specific magazine or press. Can you help me find it?

A: You can search for CLMP member publishers in our Member Directory . We also have links to many more literary publishers. Still haven't found the publisher you were looking for? Print resources that may help are the Directory of Literary Magazines, which contains comprehensive listings of almost 600 literary magazines. Also, Dustbooks publishes The International Directory of Little Magazines and Small Presses.

Of interest to writers of literary short stories. Just one more place for you to find markets or outlets for your creative endeavors.

[resource]

Effective Website Podcasts

More listen to learn about using the Internet as a tool to further your writing career. The URL that lists all eight of these podcasts was difficult to dig out:
Effective Website Secrets Yahoo! Podcasts

Get free secrets, tips, tricks, ideas, and resources to assist you in the process of turning an ordinary website into an effective website. Discover the profit-producing secrets behind developing, maintaining, and promoting an effective website. These podcasts are produced by web template designer pioneers, BasicTemplates.com. When you are ready to move past passion and toward effective, you need our podcasts to discover the truth and secrets behind every successful, effective website.

[websites podcast]

Amazon Drops eBooks

Dan Poynter announced in a recent issue of Publishing Poynters:

AMAZON DROPS LSI FOR eBOOKS. On August 31 it was discovered that Amazon de-listed LIT and PDF eBooks supplied by Ingram's LightningSource. Amazon purchased Mobipocket last year. Industry sources suspect that Amazon plans to carry just the Mobipocket versions of eBooks in the future.

Just a tidbit of publishing gossip and rumor-mongering.

Catproofing Keyboards

When this website popped up on my monitor I thought, "This has to be a spoof!"

PawSense helps you catproof your computer.: "How can I teach my cat to stay off my computer keyboard? How do I keep cats off my computer keyboard? How do I keep my cat off my computer keyboard? Cat typing. Computer cat-astrophes. Catproofing your computer, and computer-proofing your cat. Stop your cat from crashing your computer. Computer crashes caused by cats can be prevented. Paw sense is a mispellng of PawSense. But PawSense does enable your computer to sense paws."

Uh huh. ... on little cat feet ... Oh, and it's misspelling.

POD Warnings

Something about writing science fiction spurs the members of the Science Fiction Writers of America organization to produce excellent, comprehensive material that helps writers protect themselves from scams and unscrupulous business people. The SFWA freely offers such resources as its famous Writer's Beware listings and reference material. Recently I wandered into another section of their website called Warnings and Cautions for Writers--Print on Demand. The page is a wonder, indeed; the most vicious, and honest, description of print-on-demand publishing yet compiled. I suspect sci-fi writers need these resources and protections because that genre occupies such a small slice of the publishing pie that its writers are perhaps more vulnerable to desperation and turn to self-publishing out of frustration with the general publishing industry. Just a theory. Probably a PBI*.

[resource]

Google Trends

If you'd like to get a handle on what the world searches for, or to see the results of searches for, say, "author" compared to "writer", then Google Trends can help.

According to About Google Trends it "analyzes a portion of Google web searches to compute how many searches have been done for the terms you enter relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. We then show you a graph with the results -- our search-volume graph -- plotted on a linear scale."

However, this Q & A warning notes:

How accurate and up-to-date is the information provided by Google Trends?
Google Trends is a Google Labs product, which means that it's still in an early stage of development. The data Google Trends produces may contain inaccuracies for a number of reasons, including data-sampling issues and a variety of approximations that Trends makes use of. We hope you find this service interesting and entertaining, but you probably don't want to write your PhD dissertation based on this information. We'll aim to update the information provided by Google Trends monthly.

[resource]

The Quills

I don't often tout awards and competitions. In fact, I ignored The Quills when it debuted last year, thinking it a marketing ploy for NBC. Here's what they say about The Quill Book Awards - The Quills - MSNBC.com:

The Quills were established to:
Celebrate excellence in writing and publishing
Recognize and praise the writers & illustrators of wonderful books and great literature
Interest more consumers in acquiring books and reading
Act as a bellwether for literacy initiatives

Vote now for your favorite nominees. Voting will continue through Sept. 30. Winners will be announced at the Quills awards ceremony Oct. 10 in New York city.

And a good book which I reviewed is up for an award in the business category. Vote for Lee Eisenberg's The Number.

[contests]

Copyright Info for Writers

Because I find questions about copyright repeatedly on fora and in lists, here is some Poets & Writers, Inc. - Basic Info for Writers:

You own the copyright to anything you write, but registration with the U.S. Copyright Office will entitle you to monetary damages in cases of infringement, which rarely occur with literary work. Most times it is safe for you to wait until your book has been contracted for publication; your publisher should then copyright the book in your name.

This is from the P&W resource page, Top Six Questions Writers Ask.

[copyright]

Lest We Forget

Remember the Alamo!

Remember Pearl Harbor!

Fix Wikipedia?

It was gratifying to stumble onto this article at CNET that supports my long-held view that the Wikipedia is not a "legit" source for writers doing research. I see that even lawsuits have resulted and grave injuries been done to parties.

Can German engineering fix Wikipedia?:

Because nearly anyone can edit just about any of the more than 2 million Wikipedia articles in 229 national versions and have those edits instantly appear, malicious edits of an article so that it contains obscenity or fiction have been one of the more serious problems Wikipedia has faced.

[research]

ResearchSEA

If you write about (or are interested in) science, technology, medicine, business, people and the culture of Asia, then ResearchSEA - Asia Research News might be for you. I noticed it's sponsored by Nature, a conglomerate of enterprises. When I visited, the site had "Focus On" sections for "Bird Flu" and "Peace and Conflict". You can register for free and participate in the "Ask An Expert", search (archive included), as well as read news on the six main topics. I signed up for email alerts, and I'm still puzzling over this one:

Article: Worm sperm provides clue to male infertility
Institution: Nature Publishing Group
Summary: Cheap IVF could help tackle Africa's infertility problem, Big bursts from smaller stars, Making light of magnetic resonance, Plankton carbon storage was overestimated

Africa has an infertility problem? Africa is in Asia?

Star Trek Anniversary

On this day in 1966, I was still a newlywed, enjoying the early autumn in New Hampshire. Fortunately, my mother had given us her old black and white Zenith TV, so we could watch the beginning of the Star Trek saga. Mr. Spock became my secret love right away. It was so ... logical. The hokey special effects and obvious disguises for aliens weren't nearly as awkward and obtuse as they appear today. TV itself was still in its gawky adolescence. Where were you when Star Trek was new?

Free Dictionary

The thefreedictionary.com claims to be: English, Medical, Legal, Financial, and Computer Dictionaries, Thesaurus, Acronyms, Idioms, Encyclopedia, a Literature Reference Library, and a Search Engine all in one! And indeed, just the customizable home page, which strangely resembles My Yahoo, offers a wealth of resources a writer can mine:

Word of the Day
Article of the Day
Quotation of the Day
News
This Day in History
Famous Person's Birthday

not to mention a couple of games, horoscope and the weather report. A flexible search engine at the top of the page allow you to search this website, Google, Yellow or White Pages, eBay and Amazon for a variety of useful formats including a word or article, text, or by parts of a word. The website has a Wikipedia entry apparently written by the owners, the Farlex company, who state:

The site contains copyrighted material, trademarks, and other proprietary information. You may use the content of up to 10 articles from the site without an express permission from the publisher provided a clear reference to the source of information is given. If the information is placed on a web site, a link to the source or home page is required.

[research resources]

Book Pirates!

Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense - 7/13/06 - Book Pirates!-Diary of an Amateur Web Sleuth is a fascinating look at the creepy underbelly of the publishing world involving Kessinger Publishing, Lightning Source (largest POD printer) and over 30 book dealers. Hatch says, "... I was stunned to find that an obscure book written 50 years ago by my father, that’s still under copyright, was appropriated without permission, republished and offered for sale all over the world."

[copyright]

Reading Dirt

Reading Dirt is subitled Reading our way down the garden path: a site for the literary gardener.

Welcome to Reading Dirt, a place where literary gardeners may relax and kick back with a good book. We'll be discussing both gardens and literature, reviewing garden-related books while keeping up with the weeds. Come on in!

This blog features some of the loveliest flower, vegetable and fruit photos and yes, even cats! It's a gardening writer's delight.

[blogging]

Contest Winners

Chosen winners in the first fiction contest held by
The Writing Show:

First prize: Katz Cradle by Gregory Huffstutter, Costa Mesa
Second prize: Name Drop Zone by Scott Middlemist, Phoenix
Second prize: Is There Life Out There? by Stacey Penny, Oshkosh

Surprise Honorable Mentions go to:

Kent Blackwood of Northport, Alabama for Everybody's Fool
John Ling of Dunedin, New Zealand for Righteous Fire
Mark Leslie of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada for Morning Son
Charleen Touchette and S. Barry Paisner of Santa Fe, New Mexico for Real and Fake Indians

How fitting the rewards of hard labor come to these on Labor Day. And let me tell you, if someone ever asks you to judge a writing contest, jump right in. It's loads easier than running a contest yourself, and the work is really fun! Writing Show host Paula Berinstein did a bang-up job of riding herd on all us cats, writers and judges alike. Kudos!

[The Writing Show writing contests]