50 resources for better writing from Smashing Magazine

Image by churl via Flickr

This is such a good comprehensive resource, I just had to list it here. Smashing Magazine is well known on the Internet for their breaking stories on the latest social media events. This is a very good resource on writing, and I hope everyone will take advantage of these sites for writers. Oh, and don't forget to let me know how you like the new blog layout. Thanks.

Smashing Magazine - 50 writer's resouces

Related articles by Zemanta

• How to Write an Amazing Article (sixrevisions.com)

Broken Dreams

Our last meeting took place at the Pobanz residence on February 28. Present were Kerry and Carol Pobanz, Jerry Chesnut, June Saunders, Valerie Shimoyama, and Bob and Karen Beebe. We thank the Pobanz's for the wonderful coffee and treats.

We began with a discussion about what motivates us to write. Is it fame? Money? Personal growth? Challenge and adventure? Simply the love of writing? What motivates us will determine how we respond to various stimuli, whether positive or negative. Obviously, the best motivations are the more internal ones and, if we are good, the external ones will follow. So, who's going to be our first Nobel Laureate in Literature?

We then discussed some of the submissions we have received for the next issue of our literary journal, The Spirited Goldfinch. Already we have a good sampling of poetry and short stories.

Finally, Bob presented a new short story he is working on, tentatively entitled "Broken Dream." It is based on a true and tragic event concerning the death of his father's first wife. It is a story about how the direction of our life can change in one second. Also, about how people can lose sight of their dreams over time. It is also a story about destiny and twists of fate. I thank everyone for their feedback as I work it towards its conclusion, which I hope to present in a few weeks.

Our next meeting will take place this Sunday, March 21, 3:00-5:00 pm, at the Panzer residence. Kerry plans to present his latest--we expect it will have something to do with the spirit world. You should be receiving it soon.

I look forward to seeing you all then. May God bless.

How to Write with Confidence

I like the title above because it shines. When you are confident about the content and the quality of your writing it is something that really stands out.

Here is a post from one of my favorite writer's blogs on the subject.

Copyblogger - Write with Confidence

Happy New Year!

Our last meeting was held at Jerry Chesnut's house. Present were Jerry, June Saunders, John Lombaerde, Kerry Pobanz, Richard Panzer and Bob and Karen Beebe--and a wonderful spread of goodies (thanks, Jerry!). The main topic was Jerry's recent addition to his ongoing sort-of-autobiographical novel, which has brought us up to the present. We appreciate Jerry's honesty and vulnerability in sharing with us through his story some of his deeper thoughts and feelings. In addition, he introduced a new universal principle called "The Brass Rule." And he left us with a cliffhangar...to be continued. We can't wait, Jerry!

Bob also revealed that the second issue of The Spirited Goldfinch is now available online at lulu.com, nearly a year to the day after the first issue came out. Twenty copies have already been ordered, delivered and will be brought to our next meeting, which will be at...

The Beebe residence (26 Amity St., Little Falls) this coming Sunday, January 24, 3:00-5:00 pm. On the agenda are two presentations: June Saunders' latest addition to her Civil War novel plus a new story by Mike Yurechko, entitled "Two Moons," which was inspired by a recent dream (please see the attachment). As mentioned, copies of The (new) Spirited Goldfinch will also be available.

US Web Site Promotion | Library to the World

Image via Wikipedia

This is a picture of the Celsus library, built in 135 A.D. It housed over 12,000 scrolls.

It's been a while since I posted here, but I ran across a web site that claims to be a sort of online library to the world.

Take a moment to check it out, I am sure you will not be dissapointed.

Welcome to BookYards.com!

Their goal is to be "The Library To The World", a web portal in which books, education materials, information, and content will be free to anyone who has an internet connection.

Bookyards has a total of 17,010 books, 41,784 external web links, 4,197 news & blogs links, 384 videos, 32,963 Ebook links and access to hundreds of online libraries (800,000 Ebooks) for your reading pleasure.

Also this is a link to Free Public Domain classic literature. Any one want to download the complete works of Shakespeare?

You will find it on this site. Free Public Domain Classics

We hope you enjoy it!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Making Libraries Relevant in the Future (librarywebhead.blogspot.com)
• The Most Amazing Libraries In The World (PHOTOS, POLL) (huffingtonpost.com)
• Zorba's Guide to Free Ebooks (starting-points.blogspot.com)

Web Site Promotion | Download Everything for Writers - for Free

Image via CrunchBase

I ran across a site with a list of 100 places to download everything from Audio Books to Web Design.

http://supergeekland.com/09/100-sites-to-download-all-sorts-of-things/

These are two of the most interesting sites on the list:

Scribd, a site with over 50 billion words in ebooks and articles that authors post at no charge. You can easily search for anything imaginable, and find almost every subject you can think of.

Project Gutenberg: The most comprehensive repository of ebooks on the Internet. Project Gutenberg was built by volunteers and has 27,000 ebooks online.

Good Luck in all your writing and web site promotion efforts.


John Lombaerde
Web Site Promotion Blog
SEO East Coast Blog
Google Wave Blog

Narcolepsy and Russia

Our last meeting took place on Sunday, Nov. 8, at the Pobanz home. Present were Kerry Pobanz, June Saunders, Richard Panzer and Bob Beebe. Kerry began by presenting a recent essay entitled "Who Am I?" in which he expressed a heartfelt lamentation over the human state of what he called "spiritual narcolepsy," or sleeping sickness. In other words we live our lives unaware of our true value and identity, oblivious of the immense love God feels for each one of us. Because of His never ending love, however, the day will come when God will be able to lead His children back into the light of His love.

Next Bob presented several pages of his Russian novel in progress. Jim and Father Vladimir finished their conversation/debate and we switched back to St. Petersburg to catch Jim's wife doing a bit of Christmas shopping in a country that till recently had all but ignored the holiday and for whom Dec. 25 still meant nothing at all (Jan. 7 being Orthodox Christmas). We get another flashback to the time when they first came to Russia and were unceremoniously thrown out of their apartment for failing to go along with their landlady's decision to suddenly double the rent. (In the early 1990s Russians were beginning to experiment with capitalism in their own way.) Stay tuned for more in the coming months!

This Sunday, Nov. 22, we will be gathering at Richard Panzer's home for our next meeting at the usual time slot of 3:00-5:00 pm. June will be presenting another chapter of her Civil War era novel. We hope you won't miss another of her insightful and readable updates of her book.