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The Whispering Blackboard
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Issue 3 - June 2000
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Introduction
Welcome to the third edition of The Rejection Slip's writing pages update ezine.
Whatever kind of writing you enjoy
The Rejection Slip
http://www.HopefulWriter.co.uk,
The Daisy Chain
http://www.suite101.com/myhome.cfm/The_Daisy_Chain and the
Poetry Resource Page
http://www.100megsfree4.com/trs/poetresource.html
will provide you with at the very least a starting point for your
research.
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If you have any complaints, queries, ideas, questions email: Clare@hopefulwriter.co.uk Place Whispering Blackboard in the subject field and I will reply as soon as possible. I hope you enjoy the new sites I have listed and thanks for subscribing.
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Please note that an empty section does not denote a problem with content.
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The Rose & Thorn Literary E-Zine
http://members.aol.com/Raven763/index.html
Volume 3, Issue #4 APRIL 2000 include a book review I wrote. They
accept submissions from subscribers and the ezine goes out to over
1, 400 subscribers
I submitted a poem to the print magazine Poetry Monthly http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/martinholroyd/ that has been accepted, I'm really pleased! I am a subscriber to this little poetry magazine and the work is always of a high quality. I have a link to it on my Magazines Section http://www.100megsfree4.com/trs/magazines.html Perhaps now would be a good time to for you to subscribe! Visit their website for details, it is a UK magazine, but goes out to and includes work from many other countries.
I have joined a site called The Themestream
http://www.themestream.com/gspd_browse/author/view_author_info.gsp?auth_id=38578
the site lets you post your articles and pays you a little money
each time someone views your work. It's a fairly new American site
that used to be called The Oscar Project and though it doesn't pay
much, but you can post all those articles you wrote that you
couldn't find a market for and you don't have to be from the USA to
do it.
I have added a scrolling script to my index page Petsburgh 7317 at
http://www.geocities.com/lavizelle/ to list my latest
articles.
Dark Musings - is my new WAP website for mobile phones,
if you have a WAP mobile phone, which I don't, the url is:
http://www.wapspy.com/people/lavizelle/index.wml If you don't
click here and the Wapalizer - WAP browser emulator will pop up,
hopefully!
http://gelon.net/cgi-bin/wapit.cgi?url=http://www.wapspy.com/people/lavizelle/index.wml
Wapspy are the free hosts (100kb), and you can put your pages up as
html too. I chose them because out of the few I looked at they were
the only ones that told me I could upload my own files.
I made my WAP pages using a free editor called WAPdrive from WAPTOR
http://www.wapdrive.net/ And if I can do it anyone can!
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THE REJECTION SLIP
Resources
WritersBlok
http://www.writersblok.com/
Worldwide Freelance Writer
http://www.worldwidefreelance.com/
The Write Place http://www.synapse-web.com/writer/
Publishers
http://archive.comlab.ox.ac.uk/publishers.html
The Burry Man Writers Centre http://www.burryman.com/
Spicy Green Iguana http://members.aol.com/mhatv/main.htm
Newspapers http://www.wit.ie/library/newspapers.htm
Media Centre
http://www.mediamasters.ndirect.co.uk/mediacentre/index.htm
Absolute Write http://www.absolutewrite.com/
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Magazines
Writer's Digest http://www.writersdigest.com/
Masthead - literary arts magazine on line
http://www.masthead.com.au/
Wind Magazine http://wind.wind.org/magazine.htm
Literary Contest Caution for poets from Wind Magazine
http://wind.wind.org/literary.scams.htm
Pigasus Press (and EZINES)
http://freespace.virgin.net/pigasus.press/index.htm
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Ezines
Writers Hood.com http://www.writershood.com/
Publishing News Online http://www.publishingnews.co.uk/
Writers Mirror
http://www.manniweb.co.im/writer/wmirror.html
The Fiction Writer Online Literary Magazine
http://www.thefictionwriter.com/
Page ONE Literary Newsletter Web Site
http://www.pageonelit.com/
Pigasus Press (and MAGAZINES)
http://freespace.virgin.net/pigasus.press/index.htm
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Ideas/Other
Internet Anagram Server
http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html
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Organisations
Writers' Guild of Great Britain
http://www.writers.org.uk/guild/
Allison and Busby http://www.allisonandbusby.ltd.uk/
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Resources
Poetry Power http://www.poetrypower.com/
ACQWEB'S Directory of Publishers and Vendors http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/law/acqs/pubr/poem.html
The Poetry Kit
http://www.poetrykit.org/
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Ezines
Poetry Magazine http://www.poetrymagazine.com/
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Ideas/Other
Lovestories.com http://www.lovestories.com/templates/mainpoem.cfm
The Poet Watch http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7514/
Dr. David Breeden http://www.davidbreeden.com/
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Organisations
Poetry Book Society
http://www.poetrybooks.co.uk/htmlpbs/whatis.html
Blood Axe Books http://www.bloodaxebooks.demon.co.uk/
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Resources
RISing, Ltd http://writers.risingltd.com/
Common Errors in English
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/index.html
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Ideas/other
The Science of Love
http://whyfiles.news.wisc.edu/033love/index.html
Dark Stormy Night http://www.darkstormy.com/
Fish 4 News http://www.thisisbritain.co.uk/
Bill Hollon's Web Site: It's about time mainly calendars
http://www.greenheart.com/billh/linked.html
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Flights of Fancy
The October Country
http://www.iowawebsites.com/october
The Internet Poetry Archive
http://metalab.unc.edu/ipa/index.html
Echoes Of The Sea
http://members.tripod.com/~Ziyal/index-1.html
The Genuine Haiku Generator http://www.selendy.com/haiku/
Rivertrout.com http://www.rivertrout.com/main.html
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Organisations
The Arts Council of England http://www.artscape.org.uk/literature/ace/index.lasso
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In the past, I was always able to meet any kind of deadline. When I worked for a newspaper, they came weekly. And I worked best under that pressure. When I moved away, I no longer had those deadlines. I sat on my writing for three years, never once even trying.
One day, I decided to set up a web page. The next thing I knew, I had announced a newsletter. No problem, because no one was going to see my site anyway. But the idea churned in my mind repeatedly. A newsletter, huh. Deadlines, right? This would be great!
Before I knew it, I had mapped out a design, came up with a name and was on my way to advertising. But it wasn't enough to keep me motivated for long. My new print newsletter kept me busy for a short few hours a month. What about the rest of the month? Who was going to get me writing then?
By this time, I was well into the online writing world. I became acquainted with several online writers. One in particular got me thinking about online e-mags. During one late night with one sick child, I thought about it and thought about it. Then, I did it. I started an online newsletter of the same name as my print newsletter. I set it to be published twice a month. I was definitely writing now.
But again this only occupied some hours of the month. I needed more. And more I did get. To date, I publish five online newsletters and two print. I write for my old newspaper again. I contact many other publishers offering my service and requesting deadlines. I get assignments that must be completed. And now, of course, I have this suite.
So you may be asking yourself - why is she telling us all of this? Simply put, I realized where my writing weakness was. I figured out that if I could create deadlines for myself, no matter what the kids tried to pull or how they tried to distract me, if beating the deadline was important to me - and it is - I would make it. I would be writing and jumping over those hurdles of obstacles thrown in my way.
You might not have the luxury, if I shall call it that, of starting your own newsletter, but there are many ways you can create your own deadlines.
* Contact editors of online newsletters and ask if you can write for them Specifically ask for a deadline if they agree. Don't let anyone get away with "whenever" because that's just like promising to start exercising next week. It may never happen.
* Tell your writing friends that you are working on an article and tell them when it will be ready. Let them know that on that date, they need to bug you about it being ready or not. If ready, let them read it. If not ready, they get to chide you.
* If writing for online publications or sites and you know when your article is to be published, tell everyone you know to get that issue. You are more inclined to make sure you get your writing done in time when everyone will be looking for it.
* Look for new markets everyday. If you see a new one, be one of the first to be published. Set the goal of being first featured in new publications. Even if that means having work already ready in case something like that comes up.
No matter what methods you use to get yourself writing, nothing works quite as well as having that deadline looming. Some may crumble under pressure, but as a professional, it is par for the course. Kids running and screaming through the house or not, come deadline day, you will have your work ready.
Angela is the publisher/editor of several online and print
newsletters, including The Writing Parent and Bright Ink News.
Klocke Publishing is located at
http://www.klockepresents.com
She can be reached at
agklocke@klockepresents.com
This article first appeared in Angela's Suite 101.com site at
http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/writing_help_for_parents
It is being reprinted with permission from the author.
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If you have been online for any length of time you cannot fail to have noticed the wealth of data that is available to you on the Internet.
Websites, research companies, specialist search engines, newsgroups, mailing lists, ezines, magazines, newspapers are just some of the resources you can use to help you come up with the next subject for your book, article or ezine.
To newbies, the Internet is both a goldmine and a bottomless pit of data that somehow needs to be turned into information. It is very easy for someone new to the Internet to become overwhelmed very rapidly and find themselves getting lost.
For an author the Internet makes research easier, faster, and more efficient...as long as you know how to get to the information you need.
This article gives you some pointers as to how you can find and research your next topic without having to spend days online.
We shall take a look at search engines and briefly mention other resources you can use.
Yahoo!
http://www.yahoo.com
AltaVista
http://www.altavista.com
InfoSeek
http://www.infoseek.com
Excite
http://www.excite.com
Lycos
http://www.lycos.com
HotBot
http://www.hotbot.com
WebCrawler
http://www.webcrawler.com
Northern Light
http://www.northernlight.com
There are several disadvantages when using these engines that you need to be aware of.
1. You need to visit each engine to make sure you find all of the resources that cover your chosen subject area. Not all websites are registered with all search engines. This can take up a lot of time and depending on how narrow or broad your search may be, you could find yourself wading through millions of listings!
2. Not all of the websites returned will be relevant. When website owners submit their sites to the search engines they may use keywords that only partially reflect their site content. You must manually filter out those that are not relevant and you may only be able to do this by visiting each site!
3. You will waste a great deal of time.
The other thing you can do, when using the engines listed above, is to choose your keywords very carefully. Never use single word searches because you will end up with millions of websites. Instead use at least two or more keywords together to narrow down your search.
For example, if you are writing a book about online golfing sites and you want to find information about golf sites that allow banner advertising, then you should enter
+"banner advertising" +golf
into the search box. The quote marks tell the search engine to find sites that specified "banner advertising" keywords in that order, the +golf tells the engine your only interested in sites about golf. The "+" sign indicates that you want these keywords to appear on the site in the order you have entered them.
You may need to modify this search slightly for the different engines, each search engine has help available to you. Most of the top search engines will recognize this type of query.
In part 2 we will look at using more specialist search engines and provide details of other resources you can use for your research.
Greg Spence Author,
"How to Search the Internet and Find the Information You Need Ten
Times Faster"
http://www.search-help.net
Want to publish your books and articles online? We can help you for
FREE!
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Web Site ==
http://www.getpub.com
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In part 1 of this two-part series we looked at how to use the major
search engines to perform your research more effectively. If you
missed that article you can get it from our website at
http://www.getpub.com/research.htm .
In this article we will take a look at other research resources you can use.
Again you can begin your search on the AskJeeves site http://www.askjeeves.com Let's assume you were writing about business opportunities on the Net and you wanted to find a search engine that will search only those types of sites. On the AskJeeves page you could get this information by asking the question
"Where can I find a business opportunity search engine?"
You will not need to enter the quote marks. Of course you should replace "business opportunity" with the subject you are interested in.
AskJeeves will return all of the search engines dedicated to your topic. You can then visit these specialist engines and perform your searches there. A great place to start!
To help you with your research, we have compiled a list of useful sites which you can see on our website at http://www.getpub.com/research.htm This list is updated approximately monthly.
The BBC Webguide - Find websites appropriate to your topic
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/webguide/
Research a wide range of subjects at Beaucoup
http://www.beaucoup.com
Keep an eye on the News
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A good place to learn about your subject can be from newspapers,
magazines and trade periodicals many of which have an online
presence. Try these two sites:
The Internet Public Library
http://ipl.sils.umich.edu/
Online magazines at The Electronic Newsstand
http://www.enews.com
Network with other online authors and publishers
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Email lists, forums and Newsgroups can also be good places to ask
questions specific to your topic. To narrow down the places
specific to your subject try these two sites:
A comprehensive list of Forums and Mailing lists
http://www.forumone.com
Another site for Mailing lists, Forums and Newsgroups
http://www.liszt.com
And if they are not enough how about Ezines. A good place to start is http://ezinesearch.com . I also produce a bi-weekly Ezine called !Get Published! Which covers topics similar to this one.
Subscription is FREE at
http://www.getpub.com/newsubs.htm?article
Greg Spence Author,
"How to Search the Internet and Find the Information You Need Ten
Times Faster"
http://www.search-help.net
Want to publish your books and articles online? We can help you for
FREE!
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Web Site ==
http://www.getpub.com
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*Guest book
http://pub34.bravenet.com/guestbook/show.asp?usernum=2872160179
*Message board
http://pub34.bravenet.com/forum/show.asp?usernum=2872160179
*Chat Room in association with The Poetry Superhighway
http://www.100megsfree4.com/trs/poetrysuperhighway.html
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Issue Three - June 2000.
Compiled by La Vizelle.
Thank you for reading.
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