LyX, Tips, Contests, and More!

I, being the bad blogger of late and somewhat overlooking my bloggy duties (altho for a myriad of very valid reasons I add) have just assembled these notes of interest for writers from the various items submitted to me by readers and visitors. If you'd like me to include your news, information, or other writing oriented item, just email it to me when you get a chance :)

Designing a book with LyX
Corinne McKay and Daniel J. Urist

Self-publishing is becoming easier and cheaper, thanks in part to improved printing technologies and desktop publishing tools. If you've ever considered writing a book, you may have looked at the layout capabilities of OpenOffice.org Writer, AbiWord, KWrite, or other word processing programs. While these tools can produce adequate results for many types of documents, it's also worth considering LyX, an open source (GPL) desktop publishing application that, with a bit of work, can create a really professional-looking book that is indistinguishable from a book produced by a mainstream publishing house.

LINK: LyX


Writing Productivity Tips
A.C. Crispin

Six quick tips on how you can be a more productive writer!

LINK: A C Crispin


Writer's Digest Contests

We're pleased to announce the only WD competition exclusively for poets, the Writer's Digest Poetry Awards! Regardless of style—rhyming, free verse, haiku and more—if your poems are 32 lines or fewer, we want them all. Submit your entries by the December 20, 2006 deadline ... and your words could be worth cold hard cash!

The 7th Annual Writer's Digest Short Short Story Competition is accepting entries! We're looking for fiction that's bold, brilliant ... but brief. Send us your best in 1,500 words or less. But don't be too long about it—the deadline is December 1, 2006.

LINK: Writer's Digest Homepage


Short Story Release

Are you in the mood for a little short story humor? For only 49 cents from Amazon.com, Kathy Gogolewski's story, “Weighing In,” takes a light-hearted romp through discrimination reversed. In this case...thin people beware as the tables are turned for those with svelte figures!

Consider the main character, Carolyn Plemmons, a gourmand who delights in excessive cooking and eating. Yet, she pays a hefty price for her indulgence, and not just in extra pounds. This is all about to change, though, and nothing will ever be the same again.

LINK: Weighing In


Writing Etc. Newsletter from beth Erickson

Tips, Techniques, and Resources to Transform You From An Average Freelancer to A Highly Paid Professional.

LINK: http://filbertpublishing.com


New Newsletter: The Fiction Flyer

LINK: http://www.TRI-Studio.com/NEWSLETTER1.html

Maine Writer’s Bestseller now Trade Paperback

Readers delight as the bestselling science fiction title Sagarmatha by Sidney, Maine author Nina M. Osier is finally released in trade paperback format through eBooksOnThe.Net's Cambridge Books division (an imprint of Write Words, Inc.).

Sagarmatha held its place on the Science Fiction Category Bestsellers list at Fictionwise.com for a full two weeks in May 2006 and at its peak, this other-worldly yarn reached the #3 spot--right ahead of a title by sci-fi legend Andre Norton, one of the first authors Osier read as an 11-year-old newly enchanted by the genre. In addition, Sagarmatha continues to hold its place among eBooksOnThe.Net’s top selling titles as the trade paperback version makes its debut.

Reviewer comments include those such as: "...a darn good story...Osier never preaches but in this story we see ourselves as we may become." — Carolyn Howard-Johnson, writing instructor, publicist, and award-winning author of Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered

And of how this work is a, "...a real page turner and not one word is wasted. Adventure, action and even a little hint of romance, Sagarmatha has it all. Another winner from Ms. Osier." — Annette Gisby, editor of Twisted Tales and author of Drowning Rapunzel

Nina M. Osier, winner of the 2005 EPPIE Science Fiction Award for REGS, was born with a sun tan in Camden, Maine, toward the end of the post-World War II baby boom. Her parents, a commercial fisherman and a reading teacher, taught her to love books, the English language, and the Maine coast.

She loves to explain her day job as Director of Records Management Services at the Maine State Archives with these words: "I make sure everything that should be in the Starship Enterprise's library computer will survive long enough to get there."

"Sagarmatha" can be purchased on line from Amazon.com. The trade paperback also available from any local bookstore by asking for ISBN 1594313407.

eBook lovers can download Sagarmatha in their preferred format (ISBN 1-59431-339-3) from: Fictionwise, Mobipocket, or eBooksOnThe.Net.