Kindle Some Reading

What could be nicer on Christmas eve than cuddling up to a blazing Kindle? Amazon's new reader boasts that it "is a revolutionary portable reader that wirelessly downloads books, newspapers, magazines and blogs to a crisp, high-resolution electronic paper display that looks and reads like real paper, even in bright sunlight." Finally! ePaper for the masses. Well, maybe the rich masses, for the price tag is $399.

Visual Dictionary?

Take a look at Merriam-Webster's new Visual Dictionary Online and tell me if you find it useful. Warning: the website requires Java. The title is a bit misleading, because it isn't really a dictionary. You can try to look up words with the Index, but if they aren't already depicted, you won't find a definition or reference. Granted, I'm not this kind of a visual person (I prefer PCs), so I can't effectively evaluate this service. I tried playing along with the Theme arrangement and found entries that appear to be from an elementary school textbook. The selection is quite limited, too. I don't know why Merriam-Webster's name is on it. I'd be ashamed to call it mine.

Calendar for Writers

Thanks to Dorothy Piper, who posted this resource in a section of the Writer's Digest forum. I think that the Time and Date calendar is one of the most useful tools I've come across, especially for fiction writers. As Dorothy said, "This super link lets you choose any year in any country. It gives holidays and observances for the chosen country, plus moon phases. Horror writers would benefit from that, I should imagine." Great find, Dorothy. Thanks for sharing!

PageRank Promotes Blogicide!

I debated using "suicide" in the title, but decided that was too misleading. Yes, I did contemplate calling it quits earlier this month. My advertiser dumped this blog and, apparently, so did Google. If you have a PageRank indicator in your toolbar, you'll see that this entire website was demoted from a 5 to zero, "... Google's view of the importance of this page (0/10)". Google is punishing sites with paid links, something that never happened here. My compensatory move was to place the two top graphics in the sidebar, displaying a PR of 4.5 and site value of $17,906. Ironically, the traffic has increased quite a bit in the last few months. Go figure better, Google!

Why Writers Need to Have Websites

Some writers just want to see their works available to the world. Others want to be able to say they are published (although publishing yourself does not count for much, believe me). Smart working writers have other goals for their websites:

• Saving Time
• Promotion
• Marketing
• Employment
• Convenience
  

Wouldn't the time it takes to find, photocopy and send clips be better used finding jobs and creating masterpieces of prose? A website has become critical for promoting yourself as a writer. It is a potent tool for marketing your work and services. People expect you to have a website and hope to see examples of your work. Listing the site with job boards, directories and on your resume, business cards and all marketing instruments makes you more available to be contacted for assignments. When you contact potential clients or editors, pointing them to your website makes it easier for them to see more of your work and read more about you.

Blogs for Writers Contest Nears End

The end is coming! Only three days left to nominate A Writer's Edge as a Top Ten Blogs for Writers over at Michael Stelzner's Writing White Papers. Just hit the preceding link and leave a comment as Michael asks.

Here's the selection process:

1. Initial qualification: A site must have been nominated multiple times by multiple individuals (and be a blog). If someone nominated more than one blog, only the first nomination was counted.

2. Final winner selection:

* Quality of posts: A qualitative analysis of the content of posts will be examined. Educational and discussion-spurring posts are more valuable than self-promotional posts. (55% of decision)

* Frequency of posts: Blogs that write multiple posts per week will score higher. This is a sign of the blog’s commitment to blogging. (15%)

* Reader involvement: Blogs that have regular comments from readers are another sign of a healthy blog. In addition, the numbers of nominations for a specific blog play a part in this. (15%)

* Technorati.com Ranking: The number of other blogs that link to the blog shows the value of the content. (15%)

Find Agents at LitMatch

There's a new free service for book writers: LitMatch - Literary Agent Database and Online Query Tracking. When I just checked, they boasted, "Listing 1680 Agents in 770 Agencies." Better yet, the site's search engine allows you to zero in on specific agent and agency details. You can search by location, many genres, whether they're currently accepting queries, have a blog, website, or membership in AAR, and whether or not the agent has updated the listing. You can also find an agent or agency by a single field, or any combination of fields. For example, I looked for agents in San Diego who handle nonfiction. I like the sort results feature that allows them to be grouped by agency (why bother the same agency by contacting different agents there about the same MS?) I haven't tried the tracking part, but owner Chris Hawkins has some interesting, relevant posts on the service's blog.

Life Imitates Bioterrism Art

A news note about the ex-fiancee of Bill Nye (The Science Guy) trying to poison his vegetable garden in Studio City, CA, caused me chills. This sounded suspiciously similar to the plot of THE GARDEN OF EVIL, a murder mystery novel by Chris Holmes. In the book, a bioterrorist mounts an assault of a slightly broader scale, resulting in five dead and 26 sickened from eating biologically poisoned local veggies.

Apparently the culprit in Nye's case, author Blair Tindall (Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music), was observed sneaking into his garden with fluid-filled bottles. She has admitted the jugs contained a weed killer. Nye sought a restraining order. Indeed!

Literary Locales

Scott Rice of the Department of English & Comparative Literature at San Jose State University is growing the website Literary Locales: Part atlas, part scrapbook, part bibliography, "Literary Locales" is a collection of links to pictorial Web sites related to the lives and works of writers. Not only American and British writers are represented, but other European, Russian, Chinese and other Asian scribes have their places. Or, rather, you can see their places. Just enjoy literary virtual tours or contribute to the site. Let's see, where shall I go today? This is leisure travel at its best!

Overwhelming Writer's Block

New novelists often feel the weight of "too much" early in their creative process. Nonfiction writers can fall prey to the confusion and paralysis of preparing large projects or working with complicated topics. When writing about a new nuclear plant under construction, I had difficulty deciding where to begin. Environmental issues? Power needs? Impact on rural employment? So many handles popped up that organization and selection of what to include were problems for me.

Eventually I realized that everything was not of equal importance. That seems to be the difficulty when we build up an overwhelming writer's block. A quick conference with an editor can help determine which way to slant a story or what to emphasize, what to leave out. Good short story writers already know how to select just the salient points to move their creations along and provide a satisfying structure and solutions. I learned to prioritize the elements of a large project, especially when working on my own. As the rappers say, "break it down."

Sometimes it takes talking with another to help you gain perspective on a creative project that appears to loom over you with menace. The other person can be a fellow writer, mentor, editor, teacher or even a trusted friend. This is where participating in a community of writers can play a supporting role in building your career. Someone else may have already faced your overwhelming block and have a solution at hand. You can knock it down with allied forces, too.

Give Thanks for Writing

Like the turkey to the right, writing allows us to make our opinions known, provide information, protect ourselves.

Most importantly, writing allows editors to sign our paychecks! Let's give thanks for writing.

Horror Graphic Novels Live!

Although my tastes usually ran to "Little Lulu" and "Mickey Mouse" comics, I had one horror comic book with images that I retain more than a half-century later. Sadly, my comics disappeared as adolescence surged. I can't remember the name, but the theme was a combination of "The Blob", "War of the Worlds" and "Frankenstein's Monster".

A space ship crashes on earth and out of it oozes a pink life form that looks nothing so much as a chaw of Double Bubble gum. It oozes its way to a quaint cottage where an old man lives alone. I can't remember if the ooze spoke, but the man invites it in and enjoys their visit. Then, as he says goodbye, he reveals that he is blind. Ironic, huh? Get it: can't see the monster for what it is? Ooo, scary, at least for a kid during the height of the flying saucer scares.

Well, maybe I can learn the title through THE HORRORS OF IT ALL, a horror comic blog for the celebration and appreciation of "Pre-Code" 50s graphic novels. According to Wikipedia: "The CCA was created in 1954 as part of the CMAA, in response to public concern about what was deemed inappropriate material in many comic books."

Top Writer Blogs 2008 Contest Entries

It's time to begin campaigning for the popularity/beauty contests of the Blogdom. What? Before Thanksgiving? Why not--stores began their Christmas sales during Halloween! Presidential candidates for 2008 began much earlier this year. Thus in grand tradition, we solicit your support in the following pageants:

Michael Stelzner of Writing White Papers is gathering up his second annual batch of blogs to be designated Top 10 Blogs for Writers, so A Writer's Edge is Seeking Your Nomination. Only your first one counts, but feel free to chime in if you want to see A Writer's Edge on this list.

It's probably not too soon to start on Writer's Digest if you think A Writer's Edge is truly useful. To nominate it, send an email to Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites for 2008 . Just add this website's name, A Writer's Edge and URL (www.writers-edge.info) in the body of the message.

Where Writers Complain

It is said that it's an art to get angry with the right person at the right time over the right issue. When you feel you've been treated unfairly by a publication, contest or service, don't just grouse about it in forums and chat rooms. Submit your complaints to services that can remedy the situation and/or warn others. Here's a short list:

Angela Hoy's Whispers & Warnings -- angela@writersweekly.com

Rip Off Report --http://ripoffreport.com/user.asp

The FBI Internet Crime Division -- https://complaint.ic3.gov/Default.aspx

Absolute Write's Bewares and Background Check at:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=22

Preditors & Editors -- prededitors@att.net

Epinions -- http://www.epinions.com/register/

Writer Beware --beware@sfwa.org

WritersNet -- http://www.writers.net/forum/

Better Business Bureau -- https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/GetStarted.aspx

The Chamber of Commerce and state attorney's office where the company or person does business.

Thanksgiving Gift for Readers

My dear friend, Bonnie Boots at The Internet Wizards Magazine is giving away a darling "flip book filled with thoughts of an old fashioned Thanksgiving, including some early American recipes and a story written by the famous American authoress, Louisa May Alcott. Feel free to share it with family and friends." That's Bonnie on the cover (just kidding).

Unnecessary Quotation Marks

Once upon a "time" I, too, was addicted to the use of unnecessary quotation marks. Since then, I've switched to italics for emphasis. Read all about this subtle disorder in The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. Gads, the graphics are hilarious!

Short Short Story Competition

Some think the short story form of fiction is more difficult to write than a novel. It certainly takes tighter writing to pack in the same elements needed for a book length production. Contests for novels abound, but markets and contests for shorts are limited. Here's an annual one that's legit and not too expensive to enter: WritersDigest.com Short Short Story Competition.

Destroy Writer's Block

Because a temporary creative stoppage (that's this week's pseudonym for Writer's Block--remember reframing?) is a psychological activity or construction, the mind is most often the place to deal with it. What can you do to prevent or tear down a blockage?

• Let go of perfectionism in all it's various forms. Don't procrastinate. Take chances and let yourself fail once in a while. Writing is both a learning and a process. No one expects you to succeed the first time ... or the first fifty times, depending on what you're trying to create. Why hamper yourself by expecting no mistakes? And when you edit your work, don't edit it to death or get trapped in not knowing when enough is enough-- say, "three edits and I'm through. That's as good as I can make this piece at this time."


• Don't confuse yourself with your work. I know this is a hard one, especially for beginners, to wrap your head around. You feel like you pour yourself into your work, especially if it is personal writing or based on your life experiences. In reality, you have poured words onto a piece of paper. You must detach from the emotional notion that it is part of you or represents your worth. Otherwise, those early rejections will overwhelm your psyche, possibly stopping your efforts permanently.


• Don't try to be the next Norman Mailer (or any other famous author you may admire). The danger in this goal is that you will constantly compare your early, new and unpublished productions to that writer's polished published works which resulted from a long learning process (remember this from the first point?) You will always fall short and then feel "less than", a block-builder if I ever experienced one. Writing is the place to use the spaghetti method of trial and error on the path to success. Just look at how many different forms of writing Stephen King has attempted (and had a few spectacular failures). In the terms of my youth, "Do your own thing!" Boldly attempt everything to discover your strengths.

Get the Skinny on Zips

ZIPskinny is the best extraction of data from the 2000 U.S. Census that I've come across. If you know the zip code of a neighborhood you'd like to research, just plug it into the search box on the first page. Alternatively, you can select the state, then a city, and the program will pull up information for the zip code of the geographic center of the city, along with a Google map of the area. Note to Zipeople: it would be great if you could make the map a display the zip code for the other areas a visitor can maneuver to, and then with a click, get the data for that different neighborhood.

The information shown for a particular zip code includes demographics of race, age, and gender; a comparison chart with other nearby areas displaying several different socioeconomic factors (education, marital status, etc.); and the same for the single code with additional vertical bar charts showing six factors broken out by ranges. Two other features allow you to find the top 100 zips in the country and by state for several limited factors and a system to query for a comparison of up to 20 different codes.

I can see this working for both fiction and nonfiction writers and in two directions: either finding information about a geographic area you're writing about or finding a type of area to write about. It would take some time to search on several factors because the functionality is limited for now, but hey, it's free!

Combat Plagiarism by Tracking Content

Chances are that if you're reading this article, you are probably an Internet publisher too. Do you have questions like these:

* Who is copying my content?
* How can I get links that drive traffic?
* Which of my articles or images are being used most?
* How original or exclusive is my content?

You could Google and hunt down the answers, or subscribe to Attributor, a tracking service. They offer a free white paper and a free report on where your material appears. I found the issues addressed in the blog especially pertinent. With clients like the Associated Press and Rueters, this business must be a winner.

Top 1000 Blogs in Blogline

We pause now for a completely geeky moment. The literati may want to avert their eyes.

Ready? Last Friday the blog feed aggregater service Bloglines announced its Top 1000. Top at what, I'm not certain, but probably in number of subscribers through Bloglines. It features the top decliners and rising stars and blogs new to the listing (how hard is that, given that it just began?) I suppose you're all expecting me to announce that A Writer's Edge is #XXX or even #XXXX on the list, but alas, I can find no way to search it! I don't see any way to export the listings, either.

What? Who's on top? Oh, the usual suspects that you know from the Technorati top 100. Big surprise there: Slashdot, Dilbert, Engadget, Wired Top Stories, Boing Boing, etc. BBC and CNN are also in the top ten. Guess it's true what "they" are saying about newspaper readership shifting to the Internet.

Totally Fabulous Award

I feel like a valley girl on a shopping spree with Daddy's credit card. What a wonderful week the last one was. Beth Allen awarded me another badge for my growing collection in a post entitled Beth Allen II: Totally Fabulous Award. And here it is:


Now, if I were just, like, FAMOUS, I'd have it made!

Maukie Makes Her Mark

I had a smaller version of this widget recently, then found the home page for Widgetbox > Maukie - the virtual cat web widget. When I swiped her previously, I didn't know she purred! Turn on your ears! Their description:

Maukie - the virtual cat

Icon Maukie is the fiercest, cutest cat ever to terrorize your mouse pointer. Move your cursor and Maukie will follow. Scratch her head, and she'll meow. Rub her tummy, and she'll purr. All the while, she's breathing in and out, and watch the tail. She may even try to swat the cursor. The creator of this entertaining feline is unknown.

Research Shortcuts for Writers

Everybody loves shortcuts, right? Here's an interesting collection of them: StartSpot. The home page links to resources for finding information more quickly on books, movies, employment, genealogy, charities, food, government, headlines, homework, libraries, museums, people, shopping and travel. "So what?" you may say, "Any search engine does that." But this isn't a search engine, it is human-edited lists for specific purposes. They say:

Our editorial team carefully evaluates and selects the best, most relevant and most interesting online resources for a topic, then organizes the information to make it easily accessible.

Take a look at BookSpot, for example. Glancing down the menu in the left column, it appears that most anything you'd like to find is covered. When you click on a specific topic, you don't find references to everything (and have to wade your way through the dross). The editors have chosen the most useful links to present to visitors, cutting down on the time it takes to do the research.

Think Outside the Writer's Block Box

Let's face it: when you're suffering with Writer's Block, you're in a box. You might feel like there's no way out, not a ray of light, and you're suffocating. The good news is that you've probably built that box or placed yourself in it. Blocks are usually constructed within your own mind. Do you really have to be there? Can you change the material, bend the bars, open a window?

This reminds me of my early art experiences with big, fat waxy crayons and printed books of images I was expected to fill in with colors. If the print had been more faint, the cute kittens and puppies would have disappeared into the background, because I was unable to STAY INSIDE THE LINES! I was more interested in what might be happening in the background, because I knew puppies and kitties didn't just hang in featureless space. Coloring outside the lines is thinking outside the box.

One of the best examples I know about writing is the recent development of memoir writing. Prior to the late 1980s, life story writers were constrained by the limitations of autobiography or personal essay. Then some brave souls broke out of those box/blocks to run free with tense and voice and time, mingling then and now, the person I was with the person I am, the tale with the teller. Thinking outside that traditional box was coloring outside the lines, making for a richer, layered, more colorful creation.

Hope for future writers

A bright ray of hope for future generations of writers comes from the old classroom standby, Weekly Reader. Oh, Lord, how I lived for the day our little newspaper arrived, so much more interesting than text books! The smart folks who sustained me through grade school now publish Writing magazine for middle and high school students. This year, it was named as one of the top four magazines in educational publishing by the Association of Educational Publishers. The magazine contains how-to articles, author profiles and student writing. Its goal is to help students build skills in writing that apply across their curricula. Each issue is supplemented with a Teacher's Guide and a literary blog that links content to state and national standards. Students are invited to contribute to the reely kewl blog. The current issue features:

* a teen's experience with blogging for a political campaign

* encouragement from author Mary Pipher, who challenges young writers to use their words for social change

* step-by-step instructions on writing an op-ed piece

* a heart-warming essay by Gary Paulsen

Magazine Writers' Salaries

Yelena Shuster, writing for Ed2010, recently revealed that the salaries for most magazine writers is $31,000-$39,000 a year--not bad for entry-level jobs of people who don't have a degree in journalism, either. The average age of the 300 respondents to a survey was 23. Tara Cox, Managing Editor for Everyday with Rachael Ray offered suggestions for salary negotiations when beginners take the next step (up):

1) Ask if there's overtime pay.
2) Know which company's benefits are flexible.
3) Get agreements in writing.
4) Make the most of the perks like free food.

I can say "Amen!" to number three, having had a couple of jobs where the workplace reality didn't match the job description, when more tasks piled on and benefits were slashed. How you force an employer to put it in writing, however, is another form of negotiation that might tag you as a potential trouble-maker.

Classics as Graphic Novels

The June 1997 Education Reporter provided a list of 167 "classics that endure", called The Ultimate Reading List. These weren't just any classic tales, however, but really comic books based on famous literary writings.

Since the end of World War II, illustrated comics of literary classics have captured the imaginations of children and introduced them to Western civilization's most enduring stories. Beginning in 1941 with Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers and ending in 1962, 167 titles were published. The first 34 were called Classic Comics, and subsequent issues (including reprints of earlier titles) were known as Classics Illustrated.

The titles span the range of genres and centuries. I spotted Caesar's Conquests (51 B.C.) by Julius Caesar and several of Shakespeare's works from the 1600s. The most recent ones I noticed were dated in the early 1900s. It's fun to wander through this listing and see how many you've read. Do you have any of them in illustrated form? If so, they may be worth something! See Classics Central for more information.