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RANT-'o-THE-WEEK:
In the last newsletter I ranted on about making sure the links to and from your web sites, blogs, twits or whatever were accurate. I thought then I had plumbed the depths of the problem. As the saying goes, "If you think you understand the situation, you don't have all the facts yet."
Now, who am I to complain, you say. WritersCollege.com's web site is chock-a-block full of typos and bad links. You just fail to see the genius here. Those aren't wrong. Those are things placed there intentionally to detect the clever and careful among you, the few who can find the errors and report those to me.
But when it comes to unintentional boo-boos, my personal fave for the week was a very nice blog by a fellow ASJA member. Every day, as web editor for the American Society of Journalists & Authors, I feature some web sites and blogs. Her blog was packed with useful information. It was updated and current. There was a nice photo of her and a biographical paragraph next to that. The links all worked right. As a marketing tool for her writing bsuiness it was almost perfect. It lacked just one item.
Her name.
I sent off an email. Got a response within a few hours. She was horrified at the oversight and told me that, even though she was in Paris and had just returned to her hotel room after a fine French dinner and a lot of fine French wine and was slightly drunk, she had logged on and corrected the oversight. Made me jealous on three fronts:
She is in Paris boozing and gobbling while I am in sweltering Tampa and on a diet.
She knows how to do this stuff from a hotel room. I don't.
She can type drunk. I can't.
I'll cut the ranting short this week because the essay, below (actually only the link is here) is very long.
Explore a variety of writing techniques to help deal with losses of all kinds. Journaling as well as other eclectic writing strategies will help you access creative energy, work through the grieving and tap into joy.
When you read a book, you always have an opinion about it, don’t you? Turn that opinion into cash by writing book reviews! How do you get books to review and where are the best places to peddle your freelance reviews after you’ve written them? As part of the unique KISS series (Keep It Short, Sweetie!), this one-session seminar will whet your reading—and writing—appetite and answer some basic questions about the world of book reviewing.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to see your article and name appear in Cosmopolitan or Flair; Entrepreneur or Newsweek? The pride and joy is indescribable. And the pay, not bad! Learn how to become an accomplished article writer and pitch your work to magazines of your choice. It’s all in the writing, selling and presentation and this course will teach you step by step, how handle each one of them.
The course is intended to teach you how to MARKET yourself and how to run the BUSINESS of nonfiction writing on a freelance basis.
SCHOOL
NEWS: New seminar! Are you confused, bewildered, even desensitized to the use of commas? Is it 'red, white, and blue' or red, white and blue? If writing a really really long sentence that is very very full of mostly useless adverbs do you use commas only when your lips stop moving because you have to take a breath - , - whew - or do you just fire 'em in there like birdshot from a shotgun? If your answer to any of the above is 'yes' or 'no' then you may need:
Commas: That Tricky Little Dot (A 1-week seminar): Writers like to decorate their papers with commas. Some writers just put in commas where it feels right, sounds right, or looks right. Commas are not decorative objects. This course will teach writers to use commas when it is right.
