1. Editorial

Hello again, and thank you for being a valued E-Writer
subscriber!

This is actually the last issue of E-Writer in the current form.
Future issues will be much shorter, and used mainly to direct
your attention to items of interest on my blog and forum, plus
the occasional urgent news item. Much more about that in the
article later in this issue.

I hope you had a great Christmas and New Year holiday (even if
you don't celebrate Christmas in your religion). Mine was
actually very different this year, as for the first time Jayne
and I decided to go away on a cruise over the Christmas week.

We booked on a ship called the Thomson Celebration, on an
itinerary which included Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Madeira,
Lanzarote and Morocco. It was fascinating visiting all these
different destinations, albeit only for a few hours in most
cases.

However, what most sticks in my mind is the ship itself. Being
British we're not really used to good customer service <grin>,
so we were amazed by how well we were looked after - from a
cabin steward who seemed to be permanently on hand to look after
our every request, to little details such as a crew member
handing out wet-wipes to passengers returning to the ship after
an excursion.

It occurred to me as well that while cruising is becoming
incredibly popular, I've actually seen very few books or
articles referring to it. It seems to me that a modern cruise
liner could be a great setting for a romance or a murder
mystery, for example. Equally, I'd be fascinated to read more
about what it is like working on one of these ships - I'm sure
there must be many stories to be told.

I could even see a market for how-to books and articles - "how
to get a job on a cruise liner", for example, or "cruising for
beginners" (how to choose a cruise, what to pack, what to
expect, how to make the most of the experience, avoiding
problems, and so on). Jayne and I would certainly have found the
latter title very useful preliminary reading!

Anyway, if you decide to take up any of these suggestions, do
feel free to get back to me with any questions about my own
first-time cruising experience!


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2. Article: My Blog and Forum

As mentioned above, my forum at www.mywriterscircle.com and my
blog at www.mywritingblog.com are now up and running, so if you
haven't yet paid a visit, please do check them out soon.

The forum has quickly become very busy indeed. An especially
popular section is "Review My Work". Writers are able to post
examples of their work here (including synopses, sample chapters
and so on) and get feedback from other forum users. Already some
potential collaborations are in the offing!

Elsewhere on the forum we have had some very interesting
discussions on topics including favourite writing websites,
music for promoting creativity, writers and reality TV shows(!),
and many more. The forum also lists a growing number of
potential markets for writers.

Anyone is welcome to browse www.mywriterscircle.com, but to
reply to messages and post your own, you will need to register.
From e-mails I have received I know that one or two people have
had difficulty with this, so here's the procedure in easy step-
by-step form (and it IS easy, I promise!).

1. Near the top of the page at www.mywriterscircle.com you will
see a row of five buttons. The last of these is titled Register,
so click on this.

2. A new page will open containing a simple form you have to
fill in. The first field is titled 'Choose User Name'. Enter
here the name or nickname you would like to use on the board.
This is actually only used for identification purposes by the
board's administrators, and once you are registered you can
choose a different display name if you like.

3. In the next field enter your e-mail address. This must be a
genuine e-mail address, as it will be used to send a message
welcoming you to the forum.

4. In the last two fields enter any password of your choice. You
will use this for logging in to the forum in future, so don't
forget what it is! The second field is simply used as a double-
check, so ensure you enter the same password in both.

5. Click on the box to the left of "I agree" and finally click
on the "Register" button.

And that's all there is to it! You will then be a fully fledged
member of Mywriterscircle.com, able to reply to messages, start
new discussions, and more. It honestly is that easy, so why not
pop over to www.mywriterscircle.com and do it right now?!

My other new site is my writing blog, which you can find at
www.mywritingblog.com. This site uses the popular Blogger tool,
operated by Google.

This is where I will be posting articles about writing which
would previously have gone in E-Writer. Recent postings you will
find here include an article about getting started as a science
writer and another about "writing for free".

Again, Mywritingblog.com allows you to leave a comment on any of
the entries if you wish, though you will need to have a Blogger
account yourself before you can do this.

If you wish to comment on an entry - and please feel free to do
so - click on "Comments" at the foot of the entry concerned,
then sign in with your Blogger username and password. If you
don't already have a Blogger account, you can sign up for one
free by clicking on the "Sign Up Here" link under the username
and password dialogue boxes. Once you are logged in, simply type
your comments into the box provided, and click on "Publish Your
Comment" when you are done.

I do hope you like these two sites. As I have said previously,
they represent the modern way of doing things, and allow a much
greater degree of interactivity than was possible with the old-
style newsletter alone. They won't work to their full potential
unless YOU get involved, however, so please do check them out as
soon as possible!


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3. Market Info - Miscellany

Here are a few more potential markets for you, starting with a
couple of competitions for children's writers kindly sent to me
by E-Writer subscriber Jean Currie...

The Academy of Children's Writers has announced its 21st annual
Write a Story for Children competition. Entrants must be over 18
and unpublished. First prize of 2,000 UKP, and second and third
prizes of 300 and 200 UKP respectively. Closing date 31 March.
Entrants will be informed of the winners by the end of May. For
entry forms and details, send SAE/IRC to: Write a Story for
Children Competition, Academy of Children's Writers, PO Box 95,
Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE28 5RL, UK. You can also e-mail
them at per_ardua-at-lycos.co.uk.

Boost 4 Writers has announced a writing contest in 2006 for
writers of children's literature. Category: Short Story/Picture
Book (ages 6-9). Word Limit: Up to 800 words. Submissions are
limited to writers age 18 years or older. Entry Fee: 10.00 USD
per manuscript. Entries will be accepted from 1 January through
10 April 2006. Winners will be announced on 1 May. For full
details, see www.boost4writers.com/contest.htm.

Dark Recesses Press is now open to submissions for issue 3. They
are looking for submissions of dark speculative fiction and
horror between 500 and 5,000 words. A free, non-printing
dowloadable PDF of issue two is available on their website for
writers to look at and get a feel for the type of story they
prefer. They pay authors 5 USD for works between 500 and 2,000
words, and 10 USD for longer works up to 5000 words. The closing
date for issue 3 is February 28, 2006. Full submission details
can be found at http://www.darkrecesses.com/SubInfo.htm.

Dark Recesses' next DejaVu Horror Contest is also open, with a
winner-takes-all prize of 500 USD. The theme of this contest is
"The Seductive Vampire" and they say: "You have between 1000 and
2,500 words; not a trickle more or less." There is a 5 USD entry
fee (which can be paid by Paypal), and the closing date is May
31, 2006. Further details about the contest can be found at
http://www.darkrecesses.com/contest.htm.

Erotic Dreams is a paying market for erotic fiction, artwork,
poetry and articles.
Fiction: 1000 - 2000 words. Accepted stories - $25.
Articles: Up to 1000 words. Accepted articles - $15.
Poetry: No particular word count. Accepted poems - $10.
Artwork: $20.
They occasionally accept fiction series of 5000 to 7000 words.
Payment for an accepted series is $50. For full submission
guidelines, go to
http://www.eroticdreamspublishing.com/edsubmissions.html.

UK-based proofreading and editing agency Florence Production is
seeking a freelance copy-editor and a proofreader who can speak
German as a second language or are native speakers of the
language. Applicants should have good experience of on-screen
editing within Word and on-screen proofreading. The copy-editor
will be required immediately and the proofreading period will
run between mid-February and March. For further information,
contact Melanie Power at Florence Production, tel: +44 (0)1398
351556. E-mail: melanie.power-at-flopro2.co.uk. Web:
www.florenceproduction.co.uk. 

And finally, the agency Online Content UK is urgently seeking
freelance writers/journalists with experience writing about
gaming for a forthcoming project. They say: "Please only get in
touch if you've written about or for the gaming/gambling/betting
industry. There are no specifics available at the moment - we'd
just like to hear from suitable people to see who has the skills
we'll be looking for. To apply, e-mail jobs@onlinecontentuk.org 
with the following: * WPFGJ in the subject line * your latest
CV/publication list attached * highlights of your relevant
experience in the e-mail (a bullet point list is fine) * your
usual daily rate (please ensure you include this as we need a
ballpark idea of costs)." No deadline stated, but apply as soon
as possible. Sorry, it's EU-based writers only for this one.


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4. Useful Resource: Firefox Browser

If you're like most people, as your browser program (the program
you use to surf the Web) you use Microsoft Internet Explorer.
This program is bundled free with most versions of Microsoft
Windows, and for some years it has had no serious rivals.

All that has changed, however, with the emergence of Firefox, a
rival 'open source' browser which has several clear advantages
over Internet Explorer.

One of these is security. Because Internet Explorer is so widely
used, hackers and virus writers have queued up to try to exploit
flaws in it (and in the past they have discovered many). Firefox
is far less vulnerable to such attacks.

Firefox has many other attractions as a browsing tool, however.
I've been using it for about six months now, and one thing that
has really impressed me is the speed with which websites load. I
don't know why Firefox should be so quick compared with Internet
Explorer, but others have noticed this as well. If, as I do, you
typically visit large numbers of websites during the course of
your working day, Firefox really can save you a significant
chunk of time.

Another thing I like about Firefox is the facility it has for
'tabbed' browsing. You can open up to five different websites in
the same window and quickly switch between them using the 'tabs'
at the top of the screen. I tend to have www.mywriterscircle.com 
open on one tab, the page I am currently viewing on another, the
BBC News page on a third (I like to keep a close eye on current
affairs), and my website stats page on a fourth. Using Firefox,
I can flip quickly and easily between them.

Firefox has many other features not offered by Internet
Explorer, including the ability to view your browsing history
not just by date but by name of website (alphabetical order),
order in which last viewed, and so on. It is also much better at
organising your Bookmarks (Favorites) than Internet Explorer.

The best news is that Firefox is free of charge. You can find out
more and download the program by clicking on the button below:

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