When you're talking about the 1990s, or the 1830s, or the 1250s, you're not talking about something that belongs to the year 1990, or 1830, or 1250. So unless your sentence reads, "Britney Spears' Hit Me Baby One More Time' was 1250's #1 single," don't add an apostrophe between "0" and "s." It isn't required at all!
I know a better way to teach kids grammar: teach them foreign languages. We need to start enforcing that in our schools. They'll come away with a better understanding of English and grammar than an "old-school" grammar class could ever provide. Sprechen Sie Deutsch! Parlez Français! Hable Español! Parli Italiano! Gavarite Russkiy!
Beginning in the late 1980's (and early 1990's), QuarkXpress and Adobe have tussled to see who would reign supreme and become the top choice in desktop publishing. In the 1980's Aldus Inc. had a desktop publishing program called PageMaker.
Aftewards, QuarkXpress Inc. released QuarkXPress, which become Aldus's main competition. Throughout this ongoing saga, QuarkXpress became victorious in the 1990's when PageMaker could not keep up with the competition.
In 1995, Aldus was bought out by Adobe, but PageMaker was not to become Adobe's main goal—they had their sights set elsewhere. They had other ideas up their sleeve. Since QuarkXpress become victorious, they slowed production of their software, and updates slowed too. Many years later, Adobe came to release InDesign, which was meant to be the "QuarkXpress Killer".
Adobe has made many successful applications. If it is for world wide web, or print they seem to have covered everything. Adobe InDesign adds to Adobe's high-end lineup of programs. Many who currently use other Adobe products, such as Photoshop, or Illustrator, will notice the similarity in interfaces. This makes it great for switching from one program to the next, because many of the tools are the same. A great example of this is that you cannot take an Adobe Photoshop file into QuarkXpress, but you can do this with Adobe InDesign.
Those who are working on switching from QuarkXpress to Adobe InDesign. however, have faced difficulties in adjusting to the new layout and manner by which things work. If you are a die-hard QuarkXpress user and you do not feel like giving Adobe InDesign an opportunity, then you might just want to recosnider that.
Many users are changing over from QuarkXpress to Adobe InDesign because there is a need in the market for a solution that works. With Adobe dropping new products with great new features every couple of years, you will always be ahead. To be fair, QuarkXpress has been the industry standard for desktop publishing for a long time, and it is a great layout application. I guess it really all boils down to personal preference in the end.
Like PC vs. Mac, it comes down to how you like the feel about all the pros and cons.
With Adobe striving to do new and better things all the time, I feel Adobe InDesign is the best choice.
If you are someone that uses QuarkXpress, it is a good idea for you to take a look and get familiar with InDesign. This goes the same for Adobe Dobe InDesign users, learning a bit about QuarkXpress won't hurt you, it can only help you as you move forward.
Just found out I won a short story contest today — in a local journal. There were 132 entries.
*DRUMROLL*
I placed first! I am so totally pumped. I got high marks from the judges and lots of helpful comments to polish the story up. So I'm going to do just that and send it in for the Writer's Digest Short Short Story contest. I've thought about it several times, just haven't actually worked up the nerve to do it. But now I think I can.
So now I'm pushing forward. I did a story for a contest that was due a few days ago. For that one, I ran through several options of stuff that "sort of" hit their guide and I went through a couple false starts as options didn't please me (for this contest) and got set aside for pursuit of something else.
I finally submitted a short story based loosely on an old set of legendsI had written. I had a rough outline in mind and then, as things started going, I just went where the storyled me.
I think I wrapped up all my "loose ends" and essentially hit the editors' wishes. I guess we'll find out when the winners list comes out.
Just came across this announcement; considering entering this as well (despite the entrance fee):
FenCon and the Dallas Future Society are proud to announce the return of the FenCon Short Story Contest for a third year. We're once again looking for a science fiction or fantasy story on any topic. The only limits are your imagination, a maximum 5000 word count, and the short list of rules below.
The first entry is free for members of FenCon and the Dallas Future Society and just $10 for non-members. Final judging will be conducted by top industry professionals and the winner will be published in the FenCon IV Program Book!
All submissons must follow these official rules and include a completed entry form. The contest entry deadline is July 14, 2007.
I've pretty much not had internet access the last couple of weeks. Obviously I haven't posted much, though there seems to be interesting things happening.
I am still here though, and following goings-on as best I can. In some ways I'm really enjoying being unplugged for a couple of weeks.
I'm taking a little vacation right now, in the last six months, I've started a job, resigned, been unemployed, started another job, moved into a new apartment and managed to stick with my weekly review deadline.
Regardless, I know that my output hasn't dropped off because I haven't had time to write. I've been able to write just fine. I'm still making time to write. I'm finding time to write, but I haven't been writing too much fiction. For quite some time now.
I received this via email from Gary Michael Smith and thought that people on the site migh enjoy it. I would like to introduce a book that may be a useful resource to would-be authors on this blog.
Publishing for Small Press Runs is a pioneering book promoting quick and affordable short press run book publication using the latest digital technology for producing covers and text. This 372-page guide currently is being used as the course text for a class at the University of New Orleans. For more information, see here, Publishingfor Small Press Runs.
Scream 15 Unveils Festival Calendar The Unlikely Alchemy of Poetry and Science July 3 to 9, 2007
Tuesday July 3rd
Phosphorescence! The Launch of Scream 15
Gladstone Hotel Ballroom
1214 Queen Street West
8 pm
PWYC, $7 suggested
It's no surprise that the fifteenth periodic element to match our fifteenth year is Phosphorus. We've attained radiance! Our opening alumni night promises a luminescent slurry of this year's poetry and science theme. Dennis Lee's fractured syntax provides an angered reflection of our post-rational age. Souvankham Thammavongsa celebrates the microcosmic world
with her Small Arguments. Award-winning author and poet George Elliott Clarke illuminates verses on the stage while Shapour Shahidi's robots draw on the walls. And you finally get a chance to scissor those old loved and lugged science textbooks.
Wednesday July 4th Strange Alchemy: The Science and Poetry Panel and Matrix Launch Reading
Supermarket
268 Augusta Avenue in Kensington Market
7 pm and 9 pm
PWYC, $7 suggested
Looking for a universal solvent, elixir of life, spontaneous gold?
Expect science and poetry to bond in startling ways during our critical panel. Moderated by Clive Thompson, panellists Christian Bök, angela rawlings, Ken Babstock and postdoctoral candidate, Lisa Betts (who is studying the neuroscience of vision at York) will set their giant brains to task on the emerging transmutations taking place between science and poetry. The discussion will be followed at 9 pm by the launch of the newest issue of Montreal's Matrix Magazine with readings by the panellists and others who have engaged science in their poetic practice.
Thursday July 5th
Scream at Toronto Women's Bookstore
Toronto Women's Bookstore,
73 Harbord Street
7 pm
$5
A returning favourite, Scream at TWB is a literary evening worthy of replication.
This year promises strong performances by three notable writers at the intersection of poetry and science - Nalo Hopkinson, Daniel Heath Justice and Tara-Michelle Ziniuk. Not to be missed!
Thursday July 5th
Decibels and Accretions: The Scream Sound Installation
Thursday July 5th to Sunday July 8th (gallery open daily 12 to 6 pm)
Opening with performance Thursday July 5th (8 pm)
AWOL Gallery
76/78 Ossington Avenue
just north of Queen Street West
Free, Donations Welcome
Lines lost in a heckling crowd? Stanza washed away in a downpour? The Scream has recovered its recorded history and placed it in the hands of artist Heather Olsen-Seabourne. The resulting interactive installation features sound assemblages from fragments of 15 years of Scream events. Peruse our card catalogue, listen for familiar and new sounds, accrete some decibels.
Fantasias and otherworlds
Thursday July 5th
Type Books
883 Queen Street West
11 pm
Free, Donations Welcome
Under cover of darkness, we're transforming the basement of Type Books into a science experiment gone awry. Participants will read scientific fantasias, old and new, while strange movies are projected on the walls. Part science, part abject fascination, this is sure to be a surreal experience that you'll remember (or forcefully repress) for a long time.
Readers include Maggie Helwig and Stephen Cain.
Friday July 6th
The Dewdney Principle: A Book-Length Dinner Reading
Don Valley Brickworks
8 pm
High evening this secret joyous darkness internally illuminated by a fossil sun ...
Christopher Dewdney has led Canadian poetry into new explorations of science and the natural environment, and The Natural History is a distillation of this work, an erotics of the ecosystem. Now, you can hear him read the book in full, as darkness descends on the wetlands, forests and limestone escarpments of the Don Valley ravine, in the old industrial buildings, half-reclaimed by nature, of the Brickworks. The reading will be complemented by a catered three-course vegetarian (plus optional fish dish) dinner designed around the text.
... fragrant darkness spills down the shallow fossil valley
$35 for a ticket including dinner and free shuttle bus to the Brickworks from the Broadview TTC station. $10 for reading-only tickets (these tickets do not include transportation to the site)
Tickets are tickets available at www.thescream.ca; at Type Books, 883 Queen St West; and at Another Story, 315 Roncesvalles Ave.
Co-sponsored by NOW Magazine and Evergreen.
Saturday July 7th
Poets in Their Natural Habitat: A Field Trip
Coach House Press
401A Huron St
Noon
Free, Donations Welcome
Join seasoned poetologists Nadia Halim and Steve Venright on a field trip through Toronto's Annex ecosystem as they observe the distinctive vocalizations, social behaviour, foraging habits, and mating rituals of various species of poet. Participants are encouraged to bring binoculars, cameras, and other recording devices. Many Scream events feature well-known poets in captivity. This event offers you the rare opportunity to observe wild poets in their natural habitats!
Saturday July 7th
Ephebiphobia: The Scream Youth Reading
KHE (Kerr Hall East) 222, Ryerson University
Go to the Kerr Hall East entrance at 340 Church St. on the
Ryerson Campus; follow the signs to the Scream Youth Workshop
in KHE 222 on the second floor.
3 pm
Free, Donations Welcome
This year's youth reading is a hands-on venture in applied science and poetry. Participants will engineer free-standing towers using nothing but mung beans, tooth picks and steady hands. Toronto poet and performer Sonnet L'Abbé will lead a poetry workshop full of constructive restraints. Expect spirited readings from emerging young poets Jap Nanak Makkar, Gianne Ortega, and Otiena Ellwand. Poet Nashira Dernesch rounds the festivities out with a reading of her own.
Saturday July 7th
Spontaneous Combustion: The Scream Gala
Hugh's Room
2261 Dundas Street WestA half block south of Bloor Street and north of Roncesvalles Avenue, in the High Park area. 8 pm
$10
Recent studies, involving live human subjects, have confirmed that human beings have a predefined maximum capacity for poetry consumption within a specific time frame. For this reason, the Scream Gala is an unmistakeably non-literary affair. The evening is given over socializing, imbibing, and a high probability of rocking out.
Featuring: Rock Central Plaza, with stellar guests to be named at a later date.
Invite-only reception at 7 p.m., with the doors wide open at 8.
Sunday, July 8th
Under the Microscope: The State of Poetry Criticism
New York Times critic David Orr, music critic and Zoilus.com creator Carl Wilson, and poets Elizabeth Bachinsky and Damian Rogers discuss why poetry is missing from popular critical consciousness. Moderated by Toronto writer Marianne Apostolides, the panel questions whether the lack of conversation about poetry is due to a failure of critics, not a failure of poets. Is there a way out of this predicament? Come find out.
Sunday, July 8
Behold What We Have Wrought: Welcome to the Laboratory
Type Books
883 Queen Street West
8 pm
Free, Donations Welcome
The Surrealists may have produced some okay art in their day, but they really shone when it came to parlour games. The best of these is the Exquisite Corpse, in which the assembled create collective new art, through the partial exchange of words and visuals. So start with that notion, then add the text of Frankenstein, and you'll get a sense of what this collaborative evening holds.
Monday, July 9
The Scream in High Park
CanStage Amphitheatre, High Park
7 p.m.
PWYC, $10 suggested
For the 15th consecutive year, The Scream takes over High Park for one glorious night. Twelve performers cast their voices into the sky as darkness descends. For many, it's the only poetry event they ever attend. For the rest, it's only the best poetry event they ever attend.
On Monday night, I went to a book launch. One of the members of my group, published her second book of short stories. Short fiction is a tough market to get into because it's so small.
There's something satisfying about seeing a project go from conception to published book, to hear the drafts, and to make suggestions, however small, along the way. That's one thing I like about creative writing groups-hearing someone suggest something and seeing the possibilities. I also like the support that we give each other. There's a lot to be said for a group where everyone works cooperatively rather in competition, which can happen too. Cooperation leads to everyone celebrating each other's success.
I'm always circumspect about celebrating too early, because my first story accepted never saw the light of publication. The story, about 1500 words long, was accepted, and I was offered $320, much more than I've had for any similar-length story I've soldsince. Then, a month later, the journal folded and that was that. I wasn't able to place it anywhere else. Sometimes, I think I should rewrite it and send it out again, but it's so old now that I look at it and cringe.
Often print-on-demand (POD) looks great. You can publish one book at a time when it's ordered.
But, think again. After many years of writers coming to me saying they did not make the return on their investment going with a POD, and my research noticing the poor returns from POD, I say consider all the options.
Some Things to consider before you go with POD
Take notice how many other writers and books are listed on the POD webpage. Like a store, your audience wo not go to the POD site looking for your specific book. In fact, the people who go are other writers like you. They do not want to buy your book, they visit because they think this is a simple way to be on a webpage where one can sell books. So who will buy?
Take notice that when you do get listed you get only a few hundred words to describe reasons people should buy your book. That's not enough to compel yourvisitor to buy your book. Without a doubt, the writers that make real cash are the ones who put up an book webpage. Talk about easy. You can make a three-page book sales letter site that when marketed, will bring only the prime prospects to it. The ones who are already your targeted market. These kind of sites cost less than $550. That's a low outlay for a big pay off.
POD does not mean publishing. These places are not really publishers just because they take your book and make digital copies for you. They are publishers. If they are publishers, then they are really charging too much. And, they have control of your book and can charge you 40-50% premium before you get copies of you book. If you go POD, it's much better to go with a POD publisher such as Deharts.com where you maintain full control of the book. You or your fulfillment person takes delivery of the books and distributes as you need. Your coach advises to publish only the number you can sell in three to four months. Now, you have more cash to spend on promotion, publicity, and marketing.
Research the POD company well. Has it been in business for years and has a solid record? If they go out of business, your book goes out too. One popular POD company may be cheap, but you cannot talk to a real person for customer service. Automatic or email service is no service. Recently, one really fine writer researched 10 of them and was totally confused. I asked him what were the prices and service promised? Over $3000 for some. He was not sure what he got for that. Many places charge little to publish, but require extra cash for editing, proofs, art work, and marketing kits.
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