Camy

I am a sucker for alternate realities and sword and sorcery, especially when they are well written. In the world of 'proper' authors - those that are lucky enough to earn money doing what we love doing - I like Raymond feist's Midkemia stories, and Rowling's Harry Potter. The Harry Potter meme is copied by thousands of 'us', and honestly I have read one or two that are more exciting and just as well written as Rowling's originals. Feist is apparently not happy with others using his universe to play in, which is sad, 'cause 'Jimmy The Hand' is perfect fodder... Ahem. Anyway, I digress. Over at the eclectic gathering of free spirits, misfits and outcasts known as Codeys World they are just starting to publish a new serial novel called 'The Chronicles of Kadin' by Rick Spencer. This is good, could be great, and this Emu suggests you schedule time to read it. I've even got you a link to click: http://www.codeysworld.com/rick/kadin/index.htm The presentation is also extremely good, with a guide to the characters and places, and a beautifully drawn map detailing the world of the chronicles. Go on. You know you want to. Camy - not a ostrich.

Me Emu, him Ostrich... there but for a quirk of fate go I.

Ditto! I couldn't put it better.

That was my 1,842nd cousin Cedric He was always the adventurous bird, and the family thought he'd end up in trouble one day... Thank you for your concern

Sorry, This was actually my humour rearing it's ugly head. I'm actually far from anxious, nearer way out Copacetic... I guess you have to be here. Camy

Well, what I meant was that I had to read it several times - which is no bad thing remembering that US 'street dialect' is different to the UK's. I want to hear you perform it... Camy

http://www.herballove.com/library/resource/overmas/fatal.asp Yours, Feeling anxious... Camy

I've written a short story... whoop dee do. Thanks to those that replied, and apologies for the tardy replies. Camy

Well, not that I've done it yet but they've has more than one NaNoWriMo author get their novels published, and not by small houses either: Warner, Berkley, Pinnacle, Mills and Boon. As they say it's the deadline they provide, which for a lot of us (me, myself and I) is not a bad thing.

I found this web site that has some useful information for those of us who have flights of fancy regarding getting published at some point... http://www.erotica-readers.com/ERA/AR/Erot...s_Resources.htm There is also a list of publications requiring short stories and novels.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/ Write a 50,000 word 'novel' during the month of November. Sign up NOW! Is anyone going to go in for this??? I nearly did last year, but then didn't - wuss. Anyway, I'm thinking 50,000 words in a month can't be all that hard, can it... especially if a lot of people you know do it as well. Camy

Fantabulous! Though I have to say this is not 'instantly accessible'. I'm glad it's not because when I got it it was so much more powerful. We are all cows.

Dearest TR, The templates in effect turn word into playwriting software. You do have to have Word, which I hate, even though it is *sigh* very good at what it does. If you find something better please post about it Camy

TR, If you use MS WORD check the free templates from the BBC - one of them is for stage plays. http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scriptsmart/ or go here for cheap ($15ish) but good templates http://www.datahighways.co.uk/dhl/toolkit.htm or http://www.robinkelly.btinternet.co.uk/resource.htm

I'm honestly shocked. I didn't realise you had me under surveillance. Sweet, sweet poem and an alliterate title too, though it could have been longer ... maybe: 'pragmatically psychotic poetically poetic poet.' or not. Did I say I like it a lot.

OK, so I'll leap out of the 'I live with four wonderful cats' wardrobe. The one half asleep is Katie, and Cody is definitely off on a mission.

This is powerful, and I think reflects your latest blog entry. It's also a very lyrical piece. The only stanza/verse I'm not sure of is the 4th, but then it's that stanza that is the point of the piece. Camy

MS Word Templates. The BBC has a set of MS Word templates, for writers. They are free, which is always a good thing! http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scriptsmart/

Wonderful imagery. The last stanza is my favourite 'cause I can look out of the window and see those fields. During the summer anyway.

Fantastic! I was smiling the whole way through. Thank you.

We could always have a 'party'. Set a date and time and see who turns up to loiter around the kitchen table.

Thank you both so much! I read Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' and saw a documentary on Phi, and couldn't believe it can be found in virtually everything. The universe is vast, and if there is a God he's probably a mathematician. Check out http://goldennumber.net/ As to a classical education. Oh I wish, though I did take Latin until I was eleven.

HTML editing. Crimson is a wonderful free HTML editor. I use this program a lot because it's small, fast and well laid out. You can also use it for CSS, XML, C/C++, Perl and Java It's also better than notepad for those quick off the cuff novels, short stories and poetry. http://www.crimsoneditor.com/

Fangs a lot James. Now I'm going to have to sleep with the door bolted and garlic over the window.

If you find any useful software that you would be happy to recommend to others then this is the place to wail on about it. TheSage's English Dictionary and Thesaurus A Comprehensive and Easy-to-use Language Reference System TheSage's English Dictionary and Thesaurus is a professional software package that integrates a complete dictionary and multifaceted thesaurus of the English language into a single and powerful language reference system. TheSage can look up words directly from almost any program (IE, Word, Firefox, Outlook, Thunderbird,... ) and is 100% portable. http://www.sequencepublishing.com/thesage.html ----- I run windows 2000 and The Sage has hung a couple of times, but then my system isn't as stable as I'd like. All in all I think this is a wonderful free tool for writers. You can also run it off a USB 'stick' drive.