MUSINGS, BRAINSTORMS & JUST PLAIN STUFF

I was just watching a video for iAd and it made me start thinking. It contained a car commercial that picked a point in the future and worked back to the product: an all electric car.

I thought the premise of futuristic time travel was clever. Then, it said people won’t be talking about miles per gallon anymore. They’ll be saying “miles per dollar.” That’s all well and good, unless you live in a region that has one of the highest utility rates in the country. When that “mileage per dollar” is calculated, how much better off will we be, economically?

Maybe an all-electric car isn’t the answer. To be really energy efficient, a car has to be self- propelling. Rubber bands, anyone?

Here’s the iAd video that started it all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-_xa_m7MXU&feature=player_embedded

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Will Evangeline & Gabriella be able to show Aubry Durand’s photograph to Houdini?

Find out in Chapter 16 of Evangeline’s Ghost 2.

http://www.evangelinesghost.com/gpage60.html

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Who cares if the sun is out! Chapter 15 of Evangeline’s Ghost has now been published online. Read a little. Read a lot.http://www.evangelinesghost.com/gpage59.html  

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As a writer who’s spent most of my time publishing one book on Kindle and writing another online, I’ve found several different websites with information that helped me reach that mark. As a college professor who’s used to sharing information with my students, I’ve decided to add a page to my website filled with links I am finding useful. So I’m introducing it here, on my blog. But long after this blog is archived, You’ll still be able to find all the same information on my navigation bar under “Writers Resources.”

A lot of the information at these links is free, however, some sites require a paid subscription. But all of it can be useful to writers.

I’m starting with the most obvious: a dictionary. True, Word and programs like it have their own dictionaries. But sometimes, you need a second opinion. And I’ve found this Merriam Webster Dictionary to be invaluable.

While we’re on the subject of dictionaries, I also like to use Rhyme Zone when writing song parodies or rhymes. I use it a lot.

If the word you’re looking for is in another language or you need a translation: Google Language Tools is very helpful.

If you just want to get in touch with other writers, try forums like the one at Absolute Write.com. And one of the best forums is at Backspace. It’s like a bible for writers, but there is a fee.

Maybe you’re not quite sure what to include in your synopsis. This page at The Fiction Writer’s Connection may help you out. It also has a page on how to write a query letter as well as a lot of other interesting stuff.

And if you’re ready to find a literary agent, there are plenty of sites to help you research the best ones for you, before sending out query letters. All literary agents are not equal. You’ll want to find ones who are experienced in selling the genre of book that you’ve written. One site where you can do that is at Agent Query. Just select the genre of your work on the left side of the page and click the Quick Search button. Names of agents who handle that genre will appear on the right. You can click on the Full Profile icon to make sure they accept unsolicited queries and see wheter they prefer email or snail mail. Full Profiles may also contain recent publications and other details.
This entry was originally posted (by me) on April 13, 2008 on another site.

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I recently read an article about how texting shorthand could influence – a muv to mak spelin mor fonetik.

That would make words like phlegm, not to mention paradigm, much easier to say. But I’m thinking it would put future generations at a disadvantage, when they try to learn another language.

I know this because I’m learning (hah!) French with Rosetta Stone. (Insert “trying to” in previous sentence).

Now, I’ve never tried to hide the fact, and it is documented, that I have a terrible memory. When I was a kid, we had to take what I think was called “Standardized Testing” in 5^th or 6^th grade. I scored really well on every section but memory, where I scored a 5. That meant 95 percent of students across America taking the same test had a better memory than I did. Like I said: Documented. With this in mind, don’t ever tell me where you hid something important, because I won’t be able to help you find it, later on. However, if you have juicy gossip or embarrassing tidbits you need to get off your chest, confide in me. It’s not that I’m discreet. It’s that I won’t remember what you told me five minutes later.

But I digress…

If you’ve ever looked at a sentence written out in French, while listening to a native French speaker say it, you know that nothing sounds like it looks.

So if we allow texters to influence the future spelling of English words, it may help foreigners learn English. But it’s going to put Americans at a real disadvantage, when they try to learn another language, that isn’t spelled quite as literally. Or is that literately? Future generations won’t be able to wrap their brains around anything that isn’t phonetic.

So wil u think txtng lingo is gr8, it could become a distinct disadvantage, if Americans were the only ones who adapted their language to it. And that’s what would happen.

So in my humble opinion:

L-E-A-R-N  T-O  S-P-E-L-L.

Or at least:

A-P-P-R-E-N-D-R-E  À  É-P-E-L-E-R

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So, I was Googling Code Name: Evangeline to see how far down the page my site was and what was above it. And to my surprise, this had a better position on the page than the actual website.

Thanks, Brion.

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I just looked at my much-neglected blog, and it’s full of ugly symbols where pithy prose once lived.

A-N-N-O-Y-I-N-G

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Evangeline’s Ghost heats up, as everyone heads toward Washington, for a blow-out bash in honor of President Truman. Chapter 34 has now been published online. Read Evangeline’s Ghost here.

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I’ve been wondering if Bernie Madoff  was able to swindle people out of $50 billion because he was greedy, or because his victims were. For years we’ve all been hearing the line, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” so you would think investors would know better.

They apparently didn’t. And they are victims, so I’m thinking: This guy must be a real Svengali.

Fifty billion dollars is an unfathomable number. Yet, we’re hearing stories that the money was never invested from the start. Everyone’s saying this is the biggest financial fraud in history. But to date, investigators say they’ve only been able to recover $950 million.

So where’s the other $49 billion?

Funny thing - that. A recent posting at Huffingtonpost.com says the $50 billion amount may be fictitious. That the $50 billion number came from Madoff, himself, and may include “fictitious profits.” The writers say they don’t know what the real amount is, but they guessed it might be less than half that amount: $20 billion.

So where’s the other $19 billion?

Madoff claims the Manhattan apartment where he’s now under house arrest belongs to his wife and is under her name. He says millions of dollars in cash and jewelry belong to his wife and not him, so they shouldn’t be touched.

At first I was outraged, but then I thought about it. What are we talking about here? $50 million in assets? $100 million? That’s nothing compared to the “billions” that Madoff allegedly stole from investors.

Is anything that Madoff claims true? Or is he so mired in his ability to spin fantastic numbers and make people believe them, that there’s nothing in his words that we can take to the bank.

There are now reports of a plea deal. I can’t wait to see how this plays out. Will the deal be based on fact, or some other fiction inspired by Madoff?

At the risk of repeating myself I have some advice for investigators handling the plea deal: Think carefully about what the defense is promising you in return. Remember: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

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          I was just checking out Evangeline’s Ghost statistics and I’m getting about 30 unique visitors a month which, considering I’ve only been writing it for six weeks, is a somewhat decent following. I remember going to a seminar on “blogs” and listening to a speaker say: there are so many blogs out there that most of them have only 2 or 3 followers. So, I should feel blessed.   

      But I don’t.  

      There-in lies my problem. I need more readers; more feedback; more unique hits to keep this thing rolling, because I think if Evangeline’s Ghost received enough exposure, it could take on a life of it’s own.  

      Hmmm… I guess it would be more like a life after death of its own considering Evangeline is dead. 

       I sometimes think it could be like a Wiki-book, with parts of it molded by fans, but as the creator I would really have to keep tight control over it, to make sure it doesn’t veer so off track, that it would be impossible to complete a character arc and bring it to a reasonable conclusion. 

       Still, it would be great to see a book written by the public. It would be so organic: ebbing and flowing and morphing all over the place.    

    But I’m not ready to do that with Evangeline, because I’m heavily invested in her character for a series of books.  

      However, if I get enough positive feedback in the next few months, I think I may introduce a new premise with new characters and start working on an on-line book, that the general public can contribute to and adapt.  

      STAY TUNED!

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