SLO NightWriters

This month’s newsletter will be combined with the April newsletter.

We are short several board members and the remaining board members are pulling double and triple duty.  Please see the post on the open positions:

http://www.slonightwriters.org/2010/01/fairs-fair/

Please help the club by volunteering.

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They say you can’t go home.  Maybe, not, but you can bring a little of the past with you.  The good parts, leave the other behind, if you can.

I wanted to be like my mother and I guess I grew up to be like her in several ways.  She began teaching me to garden before I entered kindergarten.  I liked it then and I still enjoy being in my garden—my joints scream now, but my mind is at peace when I’m pulling weeds or edging a border.

When I was growing up, we had two Babcock peach trees.  The kind of peach you never got in the grocery store—the white peach.  The season was short and it bruised very easily so growers didn’t find it a viable fruit for regular markets.

Our trees would ripen on July 15, give or take a couple of days, each year.  After that, the fruit would fall off in a heap.  This mass exodus encouraged my mother to can the peaches and/or share them with the neighbors.

I’m not much of a caner, but I do like to share my extra fruit with my neighbors.  Call it pride in my work or just not wanting my fruit and vegetables to go to waste.  Either way, giving away my extra bounty makes me feel good.

It must make me feel euphoric because I have eighteen fruit trees and I planted sixteen of them.  Right now, I have too many naval oranges on my tree so at the next SLO NightWriters meeting in March you will see a basket of oranges.  Help yourself!

SLO NightWriters is going to start a monthly fruit/vegetable co-op.  Bring in your extras and take what you need.

Listed below are the fruit trees in my back yard:

Here’s a link to some additional information:

http://www.davewilson.com/ordered/pdf/san_luis_obispo/SLO_farm_SLO.pdf

Happy gardening and sharing when you aren’t writing!

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April is national poetry month and San Luis Obispo poet laureate James Cushing will be judging all Tribune submissions. In the “Living” section on Sunday, February 28th the call for poems was listed at the top of page one.

You must be a San Luis Obispo County resident to participate in the poem sharing.

Deadline for submission:  Friday, March 12th

Number of submissions:  ONE, only

Send poem to:  From Soul to Paper, The Tribune, P.O. Box 112, SLO, CA  93406

Contact the TRIBUNE for additional information (805-781-7901).

Good luck to all of us.

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Electronic Submission Techniques For Serious (and Busy) Writers

by Sue McGinty

Terry Sanville breathes new life into the somewhat- dated  (according to Wikipedia) term  “rocks.” In five years he’s placed more than  100 short stories with 110 publishers.  By his estimate, he’s  submitted work, mostly electronically, 2700 times.  Despite putting himself on a self-described “energy budget” after retiring, the former urban planner writes four to six hours a day, and still finds time for music, his artist-poet wife (his in-house editor) and one skinny cat (the in-house critic).

Full disclosure: Much of this prose is lifted from Terry’s excellent handout. (Copies available by e-mailing tsanville@sbcglobal.net.)

At the February 2010 meeting of NightWriters, Terry conducted a combination presentation and hands-on workshop where he shared tricks for finding and meeting the needs of both online and traditional  publishers who accept electronic submissions, a growing trend in today’s literary market.

In the first part of the workshop, Terry used the handout to provide guidelines for formatting prose and poetry, whether submitted electronically or via the USPS.  Next came a basic cover letter and clever bio. One publisher rejected his submission, but loved the bio! He also provided a sample Word table for keeping track of submission activity, another very useful tool for busy writers and one this writer intends to copy.

In the second part of the workshop, Terry had attendees log onto www.duotrope.com a free writers’ resource listing over 2800 current Fiction and Poetry publications. The website also tracks submissions for members, and membership is free, but donations are encouraged. He guided us through a lengthy, but pretty intuitive set of parameters, to return a list of publishers seeking short mainstream fiction.  The parameters allow you to choose genre, expected pay, and other options. A word of caution from Terry: Never submit directly from duotrope. Go to the publisher’s website and follow the directions precisely, for example, what to put in the e-mail subject line, whether to attach the document or embed in the e-mail, etc.

Thanks to Terry some of my short fiction now languishing in a drawer will get a new life!

Photo by: Dennis Eamon Young

www.DennisEamonYoungPhoto.com;

Now that we have all mastered the definition of Blog, Blogger and blogging, let me move on to “Blogging Etiquette.”

What is Blogging Etiquette.  Well, it’s just like any other category of etiquette, i.e. RSVP rules, cell phone manners, library manners, etc., only it refers to blogging.

I researched the most common rules of etiquette and have compiled a few of them below:  (My favorites, of course.)

1. Ask permission to use someone elses work.

2.  Give credit (editoral, photographic, Videographic, etc.) when using someones work, even if you are just inspired by someone or something.

3.  If you like someone’s blog or website, leave a comment.  Don’t leave an inappropriate or vulgar comment.  If the site is “G” rated, leave a “G” rated comment.  If you are impressed by the blog, try the Save/Share button and recommend the site.

4.  80/20 rule – 80% of blog should be professional and 20% of blog should be personal.

If you are still confused, here are a few “blogging etiquette” reference sites:

http://mudpuppy.wordpress.com/2007/03/14/blog-etiquette/

http://www.5minutesformom.com/3162/ab-etiquette/

http://blog.webdistortion.com/2009/08/12/a-simple-guide-to-blogging-etiquette/

Now that we have blogging etiquette committed to memory (Ha Ha), let’s start blogging.   SLO NightWriters’ Website is now open for “Blog Submissions” from members.

Please send your blog(s) to:  slonightwriters@yahoo.com

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TAG (Metadata)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as an internet bookmark, digital image, or computer file). This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching. Tags are generally chosen informally and personally by the item’s creator or by its viewer, depending on the system.

I thought tags were the uncomfortable things I cut out of my clothes.  They are, but they are also a way of bringing viewers to your post, page or photo.  Once you get them there, hopefully, they like what they see and read.  They will come back, leave a comment or even better they might tell others about your site, using a Share/Save button.  (This is something that will be discussed in a future “Techie” Tip blog.

On SLO NightWriters’ site we have a “Tag” spot on the right blogroll.  The left blogroll has a “Latest News” and “Topics” spot.  All three of these are just different “sorts” of our blogs.  The different “sorts” help readers zoom in on what they are interested in.  Further explanation of the SLO NightWriters’ website:

Latest News – blog titles sorted newest to older; approximately five titles.

Topics – author chosen categories of our blogs; it has less than ten titles.

Tags – the “one-word or phrase” describing post or page by the author.

Archives - “old” post categorized by month and year.

I hope this helps you negotiate our site.

Check out the two tags I placed on this post. They are below the Save/Share button on the left hand side in a very small font.

Comments are always welcome!

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This is the first in what I hope will be a monthly or bi-weekly post on little technical things of blogging, commenting on other websites, sending emails with down-loadable attachments, etc.

Few things annoy me more than being sent to the wrong place and spending time looking for what is suppose to be right in front of me.  When we send a letter or give our address, we don’t just give a street name.  We give the exact address and that’s what we should do when we are referring viewers on our blog, website or via email.

If you are telling someone where to go on a particular blog or website, give the exact address.  For example, on my joint writers’ blog/website if I want to refer you to what I think is a touching blog, I would give you this address:

http://www.kritiquekritics.com/?p=4462

OR

http://www.kritiquekritics.com/2010/01/a-final-goodbye/

However, what often happens is you are giving this instead:

http://www.kritiquekritics.com

Can you see the difference?  It’s the green highlighted area.  It’s called a “Permalink” or a link to an indivdual post or page, not to the whole blog or website.   The first example is a “Permalink” and the second example is a “Pretty Permalink” and the final example is just a link.

As of today, SLO NightWriters website has “Pretty Permalink” capabilities.  I think this is the best scenario.

I bet you asking “How do we get that “Permalink?”  Great question!  Here’s how:

If you have created the post and you are behind the website, most sites have a button to preview the post or the site.  On WordPress you can click on “Preview Post” and you will get the “Permalink” address.  If you just click on “Preview” you will just get a link, not the “Permalink.”

If you are on someone else’s site you can click on the post and the “Permalink” should appear in the “Address Bar.”

Here’s a blog etiquette post on the subject:

http://www.bloggingbasics101.com/2008/11/what-is-a-permalink/

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Keep in mind that we are all in different learning stages. I have a computer guru; her name is Christine Taylor and occasionally she has to ask her guru for help.  After talking with Christine, I was able to active “Pretty Permalink” on this site.  Thank you Christine Taylor, AKA mousewords.

This blog introduces a new series–Book Review.  SLO NightWriter members can review other members books.

I’m going to start it off with my review of Anne Schroeder’s book, Ordinary Aphrodite.  I can’t say enough positive things about this book.  It had me glue to the pages.  I stopped counting how many times I laughed out loud (LOL) and if I had been wearing mascara it would have been running down my face.

The book is a very personal piece.  It touched my heart and soul as a woman.  I felt sad when I finished it–like I was loosing an old friend.  Then I realized she has two other books that I can read and I know her.

My advice is build a fire and curl up with her book!

Ordinary Aphrodite; Branches on the Conejo; and Scent of Cedars are available on Amazon.com and Anne’s website.

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Four of our board members are long since ready to move on to other things.  We need four club members to step up to the plate.  Our next monthly meeting is February 9th and we would like to have volunteers by then.

SLO NightWriters needs the following:

Treasurer -

Jim Leonard, our current treasurer has filled the position for many years and needs to do other things.  He will be available to help in the transition.

Program Director -

Who wants to give our program director, Nancy Moore, a break.

Publicity Director -

Christine Taylor is still willing to help the club by answering difficult website questions and she’s one of the instructors in the “Technologies For Writers” series.  However, she needs to give up the publicity director position.

Greeter -            POSITION FILLED!

This is an easy job, but Judythe Guarnera already is acting as Secretary and theTolosa Press Submission Manager.  Won’t someone volunteer to greet our members once a month.

Secretary –

Judythe Guarnera is wearing two hat and would like to give this position to someone else.

Thank you Jim, Nancy, Christine and Judythe for your fine work.

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Technologies For Writers is finally here.  Well almost, we’ve finalized the schedule and you can view it on the SLO NightWriters’ events calendar on the blogroll (right side of the website.)

Classes begin April 24th and are the fourth Saturday of each month through July 2010.  Each Saturday has two classes, the first is from 10:00a.m. – noon and the second class is from 1:00 – 3:00p.m.   Classes are $20.00 each.  If you take two classes, on the same day, the fee is only $30.00.

The schedule of classes after July has not been developed and will depend on the first series of classes.

These classes are not for beginners.  If you do not have a basic level of  proficiency on the computer, I urge you to take a class or two before enrolling in Technologies For Writers classes.  Since our classes do not start until late April you have time to improve your skills.

The latest information we have from KCBX on their class schedule is listed at the bottom of this Blog.

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KCBXnet has new classes beginning in February.  Visit www.kcbx.net for more information.

Intermediate Word 2007
Thursdays, February 4th – 25th, 2010, 5-7pm

QuickBooks for Service-based Businesses
Wednesdays, February 10th – March 3rd, 2010, 2-5pm

Introduction to Windows Computers
Mondays, February 1st – 22nd, 2010, 2-4pm

KCBXnet Manager
4100 Vachell Lane, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-8147
Tel: (805) 781-2580  Fax: (805) 781-3025

www.kcbx.net