A Writer's Edge

Basic Books for Writers

2010-02-08T09:21:00.000-08:00

Reading is an integral part of becoming a writer. I advocate constant alert reading--that is noticing new items, differences from similar products, and differences from previous versions. And I do mean read everything, not just your writing format or genre. Also read cereal boxes, food can lables, the front matter in phone books, letters to the editor -- keep your powers of observation sharpened and your evaluative skills at the ready.

Speaking of books, though, the Online Universities website suggests that all writers should have a grounding in literature. The basics it recommends:

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway: Published posthumously, this book details the time Hemingway spent in Paris along with other literary greats, like Fitzgerald, as well as insights into the psyche of the artist himself.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce: This fictional account of the life of Joyce is not only a good read but an interesting insight into the events that shaped the life of one of the world’s most acclaimed authors.

Poetics by Aristotle: This ancient Greek text is all about constructing the perfect tragic drama, but offers invaluable insights into the essentials of any genre of writing.

Walden by Henry David Thoreau: Check out this book to learn what it means to disconnect from society and focus on nature. Thoreau’s lessons on simplicity can be applied to the art of writing as well, where less can often say more.

Advice and Advise

2010-02-07T10:54:00.000-08:00

Educated, literate writers still confuse advice and advise. The former is a noun; the latter, a verb. When you advise, you dispense advice. How much more simple can it be? We don't even need to explore the meanings of the words.

The error is usually substituting advise for advice. To wit: "In writing your blogs, you should follow the advise Georganna gives." While I appreciate the referral or attribution, the word advise is incorrectly used.

I think I've figured out how this mistake occurs. When we write, we "hear" the words in our minds. In a rush to express ourselves, the mind hears the hiss in advice and thinks "s" and the flying fingers type that letter. That's also why we seldom find the reverse error. When our minds say advise, we hear the "z" sound, difficult to produce (in English) with any other letter than the "s." We know there is no advize. That's just looks wrong! Well, maybe not to those who are learning English as a second language (ESLs). Trust me.

Don't confuse giving advice with advising. See, to use the noun, you must add a verb. I advise with good advice.

Haitians Needs Our Help

2010-02-07T09:38:00.000-08:00

The human children, women and men in Haiti who are without shelter from the flies, heat and winter storms, without enough food, even without water -- they still need our help. The best way to help is by donating dollars. We gave generously after the recent devastating earthquake in one of the most unlucky parts of the world. It was already one of the poorest places on earth. It still is. Only worse. Please give again to the Red Cross or any dependable charity of your choice. The needs continue.

What a Picture is Worth

2010-02-06T09:22:00.000-08:00

It's silly Saturday at the Hancock Hacienda.
The same could be said of lemons (except for the price):

Not bad. Not bad at all, and certainly not as bad as my

Cancer Bananas!

The Book Haven Blog

2010-02-05T08:55:00.000-08:00

Cynthia Haven launched "The Book Haven" a blog all about the written word last November. She's a humanities writer at Stanford University.

Every year, books pour out of Stanford University by the scores, if not by the hundreds. From biography to poetry, science and public affairs, it is a river of the written word. Yet as newspapers cut back their pages, column inches devoted to books and the literary life are the first to go – in recent years, book sections have been the canary in the mainstream media's mine.

"Given the reduced coverage on books and book news nationwide, it's only logical that book lovers change the way we cover books and book events," Haven said. She is widely published on literary topics and has written for the Times Literary Supplement, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times Book Review and others. She has a forthcoming book on Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet Czesław Miłosz.

The blog will continue to cover books, readings, lectures, book events, publishing news, library events, literacy studies – anything to do with the written word. Sort of like A Writer's Edge has done for the last 5+ years.

Is the Blog Era Over?

2010-02-04T10:45:00.000-08:00

I'm having a very bad month, so far. What with the confusing brouhaha with Amazon, iBooks from Apple, Macmillan and other publishers over the price of e-books, Blogger.com forcing us to quit using FTP to upload posts, a summons for jury duty the same day contest judging is due, taxes looming ... not only can I not get ahead, I can't even catch up with myself.

Shall I quit blogging? The "migration" proposed by Blogger.com is unacceptable. So is installing WordPress and learning how to use yet another complicated program. I'm trying to find an easy one to create my own RSS feed, but even with that, the technical aspects of blogging on your own are daunting. It would mean creating three or more web pages for every post.

Another thought is to take the blog private and deliver it weekly by email, incorporating my weekly "Inspiration" jotting. Or maybe IT'S A SIGN!!! Time to quit, slow down, smell the flowers and let my mind gel into cliches.

Twitter is so much easier, more fun, more connections, chats.

Is the blog era over for all of us?

Blogger Threatens FTP Blogs

2010-02-02T08:31:00.000-08:00

Blogger is eliminating FTP blogs. That includes A Writer's Edge, unless I can duplicate myself to have time to comprehend what they want us to do. To wit:

...we are announcing today that we will no longer support FTP publishing in Blogger after March 26, 2010. We realize that this will not necessarily be welcome news for some users, and we are committed to making the transition as seamless as possible. To that end:

* We are building a migration tool that will walk users through a migration from their current URL to a Blogger-managed URL (either a Custom Domain or a Blogspot URL) that will be available to all users the week of February 22. This tool will handle redirecting traffic from the old URL to the new URL, and will handle the vast majority of situations.
* We will be providing a dedicated blog and help documentation to provide as much information as possible to help guide users through the migration off of FTP.
* Blogger team members will also be available to answer questions on the forum, comments on the blog, and in a few scheduled conference calls once the tool is released.

If this blog disappears, you'll know why. Oh, please, Lord, don't make me migrate to Word Press ...

Do You Spraddle?

2010-02-01T09:10:00.000-08:00

I saw 'spraddle' in a message and thought, now there's someone speaking from southern roots. The only time I've heard that word used is in the phrase, "jump up all spraddle-legged." My mother claimed her hillbilly boyfriend said it (to her disgust). I must admit, I know what's meant--startled, flustered, in a rush but not knowing what to do or which way to turn. Very colorful description of an impulsive action. I did not think this was more than dialect.

Indeed, it is red lined by my browser's autodidactic spell-checker. The word does not appear in either of my hardbound dictionaries. Google it, on the other hand, and you'll find hazy references to straddle, spread and sprawl in a few online resources--but not in the Google dictionary.

Warning: the Merrian-Webster site forces a popup past all protection, one that tried to take control of my computer. However, M-W states: Etymology: perhaps blend of straddle and sprawl. Date: 1632. intransitive verb 1 : sprawl 2 : to go or walk with a straddling gait. Another suggested a blend of straddle and spread, which makes sense.

Spraddle, and my hillbilly Daddy's phrase, could be useful in characterization for a short story or novel. I'm quite sure I would not use it in straight, nonfiction writing, however. And that is where I noticed it, albeit on a private mailing list.

Your personal lexicon can be quite revealing, especially when you put it into print. Out come all those words you think you know from hearing them, but without formally learning them, misspellings and misuses often occur. In some cases, they betray the reality behind the image you try to project.

What do my words reveal? That I'm a language-lover, dictionary demon, a bit of an egg-head and a lot of geeky nerd? What does your lexicon reveal (if you know) or what are you hiding? Do you ever suspect that your language in use gives you away? Do you care? Sometimes I do. Another writer regularly accuses me of being a stuck-up snob because I use "big words" and encourage other writers to learn and use them. Well, I'm not going to jump up all spraddle-legged about it.

Amazon Drops Macmillan

2010-01-30T08:52:00.000-08:00

Another shot fired in the eBook price war! Amazon drops Macmillan's listings. The Bits Blog of NYTimes.com Technology section rounds up rumors over why Amazon Pulls Macmillan Books Over E-Book Price Disagreement.

In the short, Brad Stone wrote, "Macmillan, like other publishers, has asked Amazon to raise the price of electronic books from $9.99 to around $15." And Macmillan is one of the publishers signed up to provide iBooks for Apple's new iPad, at prices not limited to Amazon's top of $9.99 (remember my post on "Ten Buck Books"?).

I guess this answers a couple of the questions raised in Wednesday's discussion about eBooks (okay, so Apple will call them iBooks) and Amazon's response is to drop Macmillan's book stock.

More questions: Will Amazon follow suit with the other iBook publishers? Is this related only to the Ten Buck Book war? What effects will it have on self-publishers, both independents and for the Kindle? "The Ultimate Cheapskate," Jeff Yeager, pictured right, provides one traditionally published author's response.

Platform for Publishing

2010-01-29T10:19:00.000-08:00

PLATFORM is currently one of the most confusing words in publishing. It's like POD. Both words refer to two different but related dimensions. The two dimensions of platform are (1) processes for copying and distributing information (electronic and paper media and networks) and (2) extras an author brings to enhance publishing potential. It is this second meaning that so confounds the usually unpublished writers, especially those writing fiction. Rightly so, because it is much easier for a nonfiction writer to enter publishing with a sturdy platform already in place (whether the writer knows it or not).

Try thinking of platform this way: it is all the book buying groups with which you are already connected that are interested in what you have to offer. Notice I did not say "potential" groups. It is the network that exists before you publish, built and cultivated by who you are and/or what you do (not writing a book, but the book must be closely related to this topic you all have in common).

This is why the romance writer who tells a potential agent, "And I belong to the National Association of Ding-Dong Lovers," isn't going to score any points under the "Has Platform" category.

However, the expert in any subject, one who speaks at conferences, holds an office in the top related organizations, writes articles for professional journals and/or popular consumer publications, appears on television and NPR, gets calls from journalists when that subject is newsworthy -- this is the person with a platform.

O.K. that is the extreme, but who is to say when you become an expert? Fake it 'til you make it. Yes, this seems daunting for the fiction writer, and J.D. Salinger, who died yesterday, was no poster-boy for novelists with a platform.

However, also recently deceased John Updike is a good example. He began social networking early in life, even before his career began. He moved in the circles of people who were interested in the topics he wrote about. He participated in American life through church, politics and memberships in organizations.

Kindle for PC

2010-01-28T08:05:00.000-08:00

When I uploaded my first article to the Kindle Store, I noticed a little box in the far right column stating I could get a preview of the article with Kindle for PC. So I downloaded and installed the program, just to get another view of my material, and it was nice. Since then I've been telling people how they can get this program free and "rent" my material in their own accounts. Except blogs are not available yet. My bad. Sorry, you have to have the real Kindle device to subscribe to the blog, and you can't get it with Kindle for PC.

Top 100 Blogs for Writers

2010-01-28T07:38:00.000-08:00

How could I have missed this? Top 100 Blogs to Improve Your Writing in 2010 includes A Writer's Edge. The Universities and Colleges organization issued the new list at the beginning of this week. My apologies to Scott Johnson, who wrote:

Thanks for creating such great content, and we look forward to seeing even more this year! If you know of any other great writing sites that we missed, we'd love to hear about them as well.

It would be difficult to find better company, for the list also includes ProBlogger, former Writer's Digest editor Maria Schneider's Editor Unleashed, the top writing site Writer's Digest and 96 others worth a look. These are mostly complete websites with the top blogs embedded, so they offer even more assistance than just blog posts.

E-Book Sales X3=iPad?

2010-01-27T11:43:00.000-08:00

From all morning long while monitoring Apple's announcement:

I'd hoped to have leaking news of Apple's announcement for this post, but found none credible. First, I refer you to Richard Curtis' E-Reads news that November 09 E-Book Sales Triple Over 09. This seems a remarkable growth pace, even if e-book sales are only 5% of total book sales.

* FLASH: It's called iPad and sounds like a souped-up media-oriented "smart phone." But does it have telephony capability, too? Sounds like Apple's view is that no one talks to anyone anymore. We'll all text. I want a netbook phone! And what about e-books. Or i-books, if you please?

According to a PublishersMarketPlace story reported by Mike Shatzkin the other day, Apple’s disruption of the ebook market has nothing to do with the tablet (iPad). PMP's Calder said that Apple is forcing the book publishing industry to move to an "agency" model for e-book sales. It is quite complex, and PMP is a subscription service, so no link. Shatzkin's story is long and worth readiing even though he admits it provokes even more questions. He explains:

The “agency” model is based on the idea that the publisher is selling to the consumer and, therefore, setting the price, and any “agent”, which would usually be a retailer but wouldn’t have to be, that creates that sale would get a “commission” from the publisher for doing so. Since Apple’s normal “take” at the App Store is 30% and discounts from publishers have normally been 50% off the established retail price, publishers can claw back margin even if they don’t get Apple to concede anything from the 30%.

From Twitter, I said, "Oy! #iPad *IS* a phone. Oh, I am maybe hooked. Just blogging "I want a netbook phone" has been my plea for years. Well, laptop with phone." And now from Engadget streaming report by Joshua Topolsky:

Showing reading book on the iPad. Called iBooks. Displays virtual book shelf, with new iBook store, fully integrated with iBook app. Can discover books, best seller lists. 5 publishers support at start. Penguin, Harper Collins, others. Easy to download books. Flip through books with finger. Can include video, color, black and white photos. Can change font size of the font. Also will be targeting textbooks.

Calder had said that Apple was in discussion with Big Six (Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and Macmillan.) I keep wondering what effect, if any, this will have on Amazon's recently-announced 70% commission for Kindle publication sales? (It remains 30% until June.) Or If this agency model propelled Amazon into upping the royalties?

Mini- Review: Write Starts

2010-01-26T08:52:00.000-08:00

I am such a sucker for little books! Hal Bennett's Write Starts did not sound so interesting in the PR blurb. However, the email came from the publisher's publicity director, and she bothered to fulfill the requests I laid out for contacts: address me by name; include book stats. It was clear the review request came from a traditional publisher (third parameter), New World Library.

The author's name rang no bell, but many of us who toil in nonfiction fields garner no recognitions at all. The facts that Zinna has over 25 years as a writing coach, workshop facilitator, developmental editor, and is the author of more than thirty books suggested this "slim volume" on jumpstarting your creativity might hold value.
It is so much more than the subtitle promises. Reading the thoughts of a seasoned writer was such a joy, nay, a comfort. I saw my advice echoed on printed pages and found nothing that contradicts my experiences, freely shared.

Book provided by publisher on request.
Copyright © 2010 Georganna Hancock

Wordnik -- Using Words

2010-01-25T12:03:00.000-08:00

Learn how English words are used at Wordnik. The multifunctional site is a crossing of social media with a library reference room--the kind where you are not allowed to remove any books or other material. Start keying in a word in the search window, and Wordnik drops down a menu with selections, variants, from which to choose (helpful for the spelling-challenged.)

If your word is among the four billions words of text it indexes, a result pops up, with another submenu from which you can choose to explore: Definitions · Examples · Pronunciations · Etymologies · Related · Statistics (somewhat less useful unless you indulge in extreme Scrabble). The list of sources the service uses is impressive, including The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, The Century Dictionary, WordNet®, The GNU version of The Collaborative International Dictionary of English, derived from the 1913 Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Roget's II: The New Thesaurus and Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms.

Notice, I did not say that Wordnik tells you how words are supposed to be used, and this is a little disturbing to an editor and linguistic lover. They say:

Here at Wordnik, we show you what people actually do with language, not what we'd like them to do. We think it's important to show real information about every word—even the ones that aren't considered standard.

They feel that you learn a word better by seeing it in context [even if it is used incorrectly?] and that some information is better than none. [same query]

Thus, if you want to use this fascinating and fun site as a quick look up for a serious piece of writing, please be sure to view the dictionary definitions and not just the "examples." I looked up since because I am editing a manuscript in which that word is used mostly incorrectly (IMHO). I found the beginning dictionary definitions congruent with my view, i.e., that the word is not a synonym for because; it has to do with the passage of time.

"Since we last went to the moon, the U.S. space program has lagged." I would hope to not imply that the program lags because we went to the moon. However, many of the examples displayed at Wordnik, use since in that way, as does the entry from Allen's, giving because as a synonym.

How annoying!

Importance of Spelling

2010-01-24T11:06:00.000-08:00

Do you receive incomprehensible email messages? Mine are usually spam from another land. I give the ESLs a 9.86 for their efforts. Let me see you try to write coherently in Chinese, let alone suck me into a scam! Aside from grammar issues, the writing problems in these messages usually involve spelling. Misspellings not only include using the wrong letters, but often result from a missing letter. To wit:

see more deMotivational Posters

Consider the differences in meaning between "tweaking" and "tweeking" if you will. Tell me you are tweeking websites for SEO, and I'll click away from your blog post with a chuckle, Chucklehead.

Misspellings are, however, the heart of LOLspeak, seen in captions at icanhazcheezburger.com (home of the LOLcat dynasty and part of a vast empire of silly sites I liek).

Editorial Assistants

2010-01-23T08:30:00.000-08:00

Many writers seek manuscript editors at this time of year. They have many questions, too. This is just to let you know that I refer all mundane and boring, repetitive questions to my editorial assistant, depicted below:

Most Used English Words

2010-01-22T09:09:00.000-08:00

Usually the British have marvelous wit, dry, easily-underestimated humor which sneaks up on your consciousness. However, it seems to be missing from the online version of the Telegraph column titled "Quite Interesting," based on "QI," a popular BBC1 show. A recent topic was one of my favorites: English words.

QI: quite interesting facts about words proclaimed that, according to a 2006 survey carried out by the Oxford English Corpus, the top 10 most frequently used English words are: the, be, to, of, and, a, in, that, have and I.

I'm thinking this must be a case of habeas corpus, for those are also the most boring words in our lexicon. Note that two are on my list of do-nothing verbs: be and have. A third, that, is the current bane of most editors. These are not only the most used, but possibly the most over-used English words. Make what you will of "I" being in the top ten. Is this not the "me generation?"

The 10 most popular nouns listed: time, person, year, way, day, thing, man, world, life and hand. Well, yes. What can you make of this? Of course, thing is my personal bugaboo. If one exclamation point is allowed in a manuscript, I have zero tolerance for things.

The 10 most popular verbs are: be, have, do, eat, sleep, drink, put, keep, run and walk. Eesh! With the exception of sleep, I can think of few more boring verbs. Fill your writing with them and you will put readers to sleep!

The 10 most popular adjectives: good, first, new, last, long, great, little, own, other and old. OMG! How colorless, bland and deaf, but stinking, do you want your conversation and writing?

Amazon Ups Royalties

2010-01-21T10:13:00.000-08:00

Have I a functioning crystal ball? Nah, just blind, dumb luck. Since I joined Amazon to publish material for the Kindle reader, the company is popping out upgrades and new advantages right and left. As soon as a question rises in a Twitter chat, I find Amazon's DTP (publishing program) evolving to address the issue. For example, last week we were kicking around how English residents could use the service. They were stymied by Amazon's requirement for a U.S. bank account and SSN, TIN or EID (for the IRS and Social Security).

On January 15, Amazon announced: Amazon Expands Kindle Digital Text Platform to Enable Authors and Publishers Worldwide to Publish English, German, and French Language Books in the Kindle Store. That is the unwieldy title for a news release that tells my overseas Internet friends they can begin using the service.

Five days later, Amazon probably pre-empted other media producers by announcing a new 70% royalty option for DTP authors and publishers. This begins on June 30, as yet only for U.S. accounts. To qualify for the 70% royalty option, books must satisfy the following set of requirements:

* The author or publisher-supplied list price must be between $2.99 and $9.99
* This list price must be at least 20 percent below the lowest physical list price for the physical book
* The title is made available for sale in all geographies for which the author or publisher has rights
* The title will be included in a broad set of features in the Kindle Store, such as text-to-speech. This list of features will grow over time as Amazon continues to add more functionality to Kindle and the Kindle Store.
* Under this royalty option, books must be offered at or below price parity with competition, including physical book prices. Amazon will provide tools to automate that process, and the 70% royalty will be calculated from the sales price.

A final warning: the 70% royalty option is for in-copyright works and is unavailable for works published before 1923 (a.k.a. public domain books). They need to tack on that kibosh because so many of the get-rich-quick, looking-for-shortcuts, tell-me-the secret writers think they can republish titles now in public domain and make a fast buck, or $.99 anyway.

As with DRM, which I wrote about the other day, I have not read all the nuances of the DTP royalty program. I may find that it does not apply to my articles. Still, I know many readers are intensely interested in adding their books to this format and venue.

HARO is a Mega Network

2010-01-20T09:01:00.000-08:00

Michael Stelzner of Top Ten Blogs for Writers and writing white papers reknown, interviewed Peter Shankman, the genius who built HARO. That's the "Help a Reporter Out" site that morphed into a resource for both writers needing experts to quote and experts looking for public relations opportunities.

Stelzner examines the phenomenon from a social media viewpoint in an article on his new site, Social Media Examiner, started last summer: How ‘Help a Reporter Out’ Grew to a Mega Network.

They discuss how HARO evolved from a Facebook group to facilitate his casual match-making between reporter friends and friendly sources:

As HARO grew, more people were asking me questions and I did not have the time to fill in all the answers. That led to the Facebook group concept as just being a lot easier. I could post the queries to Facebook and then anyone could answer them. That was a very easy start.

In about six months, the requests overran Shankman's email capability, and he moved the service to a website.

He and Stelzner explore the social media aspect of the service and how to build one of your own. Shankman stresses having good content to offer people who want to receive it and enjoy using it. He also has a vision similar to the one David Siegel writes about in Pull: The Power of the Semantic Web to Transform Your Business, that we are evolving toward one network. He said, "I don’t necessarily think it’s going to be Google Wave. Right now I’m really not seeing any value in Google Wave. I think it will probably be some sort of combination of Facebook and something Google does."

I'm happy to see my feelings about the Wave echoed and that others share Siegel's predictions about our future social and business lives meshing in a single Internet network, meeting many needs as HARO does now.

DRM or Not?

2010-01-19T10:17:00.000-08:00

Amazon added DRM to DTP. I speak code these days and get a lot of questions. Did I mention I've become an Amazon Author? Two articles and a book review are available in the Kindle Store as well as my Author Page. You can also subscribe to receive this blog via Kindle (or download the free Kindle for the PC program).

But back to the All Caps Codes. DRM is "digital rights management" and it's like copyrights for electronic media. DTP is Amazon's Digital Text Platform, the program used to publish material in Kindle format. As I uploaded my second article "Editing Your Writing", I noticed the new choices of adding DRM or no DRM to the file. Supposedly it protects the work from illegal copying and/or distribution, a.k.a. "sharing."

Although I was fuzzy on the details, I opted for DRM, thinking that if I change my mind, I can always pull the piece and republish without the DRM. Maybe not, however, because at the same time Amazon added DRM, it also changed the terms of this service, reserving the right to sell uploaded material forever, as it was when first published. Yes, you can petition to have a piece removed, but what do you want to bet that would take forever also?

The effects of DRM on sales of published material are debatable. Magellan Media Partners claims to have hard data suggesting DRM is negative:

Initial results suggested that freely available digital content coincides with greater paid sales.

I'm sticking a copyright notice in everything I publish for the Kindle, along with an FTC disclaimer for book reviews. Together, my CYA pronouncements eat up four lines. And I'll DRM my DTP pieces until I see confirmation that it somehow hurts sales. It's not like I don't "share" all the time in various locations online and in real life.

Yahoo Closing Your BlogLog?

2010-01-18T09:02:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it. Well, yes, I can. When Yahoo took over MyBlogLog, the service immediately began having technical failures. I didn't think the sale to Yahoo boded well for us members. In the Twitter #BlogChat last night I learned that Yahoo is probably closing down MyBlogLog, a social networking service for bloggers. Sure enough, the company acknowledged the possibility less than a month ago. The paidContent.org has a brief report.

The move is part of a greater divestiture of companies Yahoo probably never should have acquired. For example, it is shutting the door to its shopping services soon. Sounds like utter capitulation to Google's superiority.

In the meantime, what to do? I shudder at losing the connection to nearly 500 people who joined the MBL community for A Writer's Edge. First, I am rushing to fulfill hundreds of pending Contact Requests in my account. I had ignored that part of the system to concentrate on building community membership.

Next I'm going to take advantage of the ability to send a message to all of my community's members. I'll encourage them to sign up to receive these posts via either of the three RSS feeds this blog offers (one of them the FeedBurner that Google now manages) or by email through a FeedBlitz service.

Then I'll mention my Twitter account that they could join. And many of them already belong to the BlogCatalog community, too, so I'll encourage that move for the rest of them. What a boon this will be for that service!

What about you--what's your bailout plan from MyBlogLog?

See Bad Grammar, Bad Editor

2010-01-16T07:29:00.000-08:00

Uptight liguisists and editors, avert your eyes. For a good time, watch Hot for Grammar twice, once just for the sights and sounds and a second time, reading the subtitles. Both are hilarious. Maybe us anal retentive editors should watch this video every day to improve our attitudes and facial expressions. 8-)

YouTube - Bad Grammar - The Way I Are Parody ft. HotforWords

Scam Sophistication Rises

2010-01-15T11:07:00.000-08:00

Recently received email from "Max Power" (buyer@clientmaxsolutions.com) -- reply to maxpowerdomains@gmail.com and along the way other sites invoked:
Received: from maxpower by gator677.hostgator.com
gateway16.websitewelcome.com, even an unsubscribe address hidden in the header and not referenced in the visible message:

Sir or Madam,
I am currently interested in purchasing your domain(if it is for sale). Your information was provided to me by the domain who-is system. I am going to launch a new business online and your domain fits the name of my business. I was wondering if you were interested in selling your domain, currently with my budget I would like to offer you $4k for your domain name.

I would like to use an Escrow Service(www.escrow.com) for payment and an Identity Verification Service(www.freeverifyme.com) for both of our protection. Please start off with the identity verification process,its free and rather painless and after I receive the email that you have been verified, I will contact you by either phone or email with the details of the Escrowed money and we can begin the transfer. Thank you for your time and it is great to do business with you.
Sincerely,
Max Power

Why am I suspicious? First, because it came to an email address that I use only in certain situations not having to do with websites. It was not addressed to the email associated with this domain name. If the sender had been viewing domain names, then he/she/bot would have known my name.

Then there's the name "Max Power." Sounds like a men's deoderant or a silly sitcom about a super-enhanced spy.

Finally, $4,000 for "writers-edge.info" sounds like a dumb business move to me. I should take the money and run to Go-Daddy to scoop up a great domain name, republish all the posts, restructure the website.

So should I do it, Dear Readers? Undoubtedly they would need my social security number in order to verify my identity and my intelligence. Heh.

On Up for The Shorty Awards

2010-01-14T08:26:00.000-08:00

Cyberspace -- Georganna Hancock (GLHancock on Twitter) was nominated for a Shorty Award. It was inevitable, presenting: The Shorty Awards - The best producers of real-time, short form content on Twitter. In this award-mad medium, the next level of this online booster fest had to be Best Tweets. And again, as with the blogging contests, there is no category for writing about writing, or tweeting for writers. Or on writing.

However, that didn't stop Out of Order Alice writer, the irreverent Marisa Birns, from nominating yours truly in the Official Category of Humor. I'm so sure I can beat out Marlon Wayans!