Blog on the Lillypad
Friday, October 22, 2004
November First starts NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH
This is pretty gimmicky, as I don't know anybody apart from Dashiel Hammett (or was it Raymond Chandler?) who could write a sellable novel in a month, and even he required numerous bottles of whiskey to do so (and ended up destroying his life).
However, as I often have people tell me they are aspiring writers and I try not to point out to them that the difference between aspiring writer and writer is the actual process of writing, I shall now break my long silence on the subject. If you want to try writing a novel, this is your chance. There is actually a contest in place to write a novel in one month, and this is the web site where you sign up:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/modules/cjaycontent/index.php?id=29
Blogspot.com, in its own disorganized way, is encouraging people to sign up now for new blogs linked to the National Novel Writing Contest (NaNoWriMo for short). But they fail to tell you that one vital rule of the context is that you cannot start writing until November 1. The goal is to write 50,000 words in a single month. So you start November 1 and must cross the 50,000 mark by November 30.
I have signed up and plan to participate, even with the Doctor Who convention coming in late November. So all you aspiring writers,, the time has come for rubber to meet road, pen to meet paper, fingers to meet keyboard, and get writing.
This is pretty gimmicky, as I don't know anybody apart from Dashiel Hammett (or was it Raymond Chandler?) who could write a sellable novel in a month, and even he required numerous bottles of whiskey to do so (and ended up destroying his life).
However, as I often have people tell me they are aspiring writers and I try not to point out to them that the difference between aspiring writer and writer is the actual process of writing, I shall now break my long silence on the subject. If you want to try writing a novel, this is your chance. There is actually a contest in place to write a novel in one month, and this is the web site where you sign up:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/modules/cjaycontent/index.php?id=29
Blogspot.com, in its own disorganized way, is encouraging people to sign up now for new blogs linked to the National Novel Writing Contest (NaNoWriMo for short). But they fail to tell you that one vital rule of the context is that you cannot start writing until November 1. The goal is to write 50,000 words in a single month. So you start November 1 and must cross the 50,000 mark by November 30.
I have signed up and plan to participate, even with the Doctor Who convention coming in late November. So all you aspiring writers,, the time has come for rubber to meet road, pen to meet paper, fingers to meet keyboard, and get writing.
Sunday, October 17, 2004
SPAM Alert! support.sharingexperience.info
I got an e-mail a couple days ago (from "Support1") saying, "An individual at our website is sharing Opinions and Information regarding you via
our website.
Someone who knows you just began to research your background at our website. This
person could be a friend, a family member, co-worker, business associate, or anyone
else who knows you and wants to know more."
These days, I never click on URLs that are sent to me by strangers, so I decided to hold the e-mail until I had time to check the headers. I looked up the e-mail headers on samspade.org (support.sharingexperience.info 64.239.7.179) and traced them as far as I could, but the domain URL comes up with an apache error, a sure sign of a spam web site. The spammer creates a home domain that looks like it is the main site for his or her business, but in the e-mail spams he sends out, the reader is given a direct link to *another* site entirely, which harvests information as soon as readers visit it. The "home" domain site is never accessible, always returning an error when users try to type in the URL directly.
That confirmed ot me that it was spam, but I also did a Google search and came up with more results. You can read a terrific assessment of the ShareYourExperiences spam at this site: http://www.joewein.de/sw/spam-syex.htm.
I got an e-mail a couple days ago (from "Support1") saying, "An individual at our website is sharing Opinions and Information regarding you via
our website.
Someone who knows you just began to research your background at our website. This
person could be a friend, a family member, co-worker, business associate, or anyone
else who knows you and wants to know more."
These days, I never click on URLs that are sent to me by strangers, so I decided to hold the e-mail until I had time to check the headers. I looked up the e-mail headers on samspade.org (support.sharingexperience.info 64.239.7.179) and traced them as far as I could, but the domain URL comes up with an apache error, a sure sign of a spam web site. The spammer creates a home domain that looks like it is the main site for his or her business, but in the e-mail spams he sends out, the reader is given a direct link to *another* site entirely, which harvests information as soon as readers visit it. The "home" domain site is never accessible, always returning an error when users try to type in the URL directly.
That confirmed ot me that it was spam, but I also did a Google search and came up with more results. You can read a terrific assessment of the ShareYourExperiences spam at this site: http://www.joewein.de/sw/spam-syex.htm.
 | A Standard Christian by Grace Jovian
I've started writing the sequel to Secret Radio, (now in print form), a new book tentatively titled A Standard Christian. Currently, the story is in journal/blog format. Right now I expect it to cover two years of Grace's life. She's out of college now, on her own, and making her own decisions for the first time. For many Fundamentalists, whose lives are strictly controlled, the first forays into personal freedom are excessive. But just as Secret Radio mirrors the history of Fundamentalism in the 1980's, so Grace will experience the letters, tapes, and news briefs that so many of us recall from those first years away from Fundamentalism, when the scandals started to come out in public venues. |
