Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter - March 2010

Contents:

* NEW REVIEWS
* SIMECENTER SUPPORTS HAITI
* BORDERLANDS NEWS
* JEAN PUBLISHES JOURNAL
* RELAY FOR LIFE
* JEAN AND LOIS WICKSTROM ANNOUNCE -- "ORDER OF THE VIRGIN MOTHERS"
* NEWSLETTER NEWS
* JEAN'S SOCIAL NETWORKING
* Check our our new Amazon "Stores"
* NEW PROJECT FOR JACQUELINE
* COAL FOR CHRISTMAS
* REREADABLE BOOKS
* PATRIC MICHAEL'S NEXT PUBLICATION
* JOIN THE REVIEWERS
* NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS
* HELP WANTED
* PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
* AVAILABLE RELEASES
* SITES TO REMEMBER
* SUBSCRIPTION AND CONTACT INFORMATION
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE**

******NEW REVIEWS******

You can find the review column for February 2010 now linked and books to be reviewed in the August 2010 column now posted at
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2010/
Almost the books reviewed in this column were sent by publicists, but I only select a few to be reviewed, the ones that are worth 5 Stars on most scales. But all the 5-star books don't get reviewed because there isn't room.

******

****** SIMECENTER SUPPORTS AID TO HAITI

Starting with this month's issue, SimeCenter is asking authors and artists to sponsor charities that actively participate in relief and recovery aid to Haiti.
This month's story on is:
The Time Travelers' Guide (by Katy Thorp)
- some words of advice
The accompanying artwork is:
Bark Shin Guardian (by G.B. Chew)
- quiet protection
In keeping with the new direction, these creations are submitted in support of Oxfam America, which is spearheading several major projects to restore conditions in Haiti.
When you donate to this worthy organization, be sure to tell them you were referred by SimeCenter.
Send your comments, questions, etc.--about the site, the stories and art...whatever--to the address below. [Mention
'SimeCenter' in the subject so I'll know it isn't spam.]
In Service to Unity,
Kaires Tevesu


****

******BORDERLANDS NEWS******


Borderlands Part 33, "What's Yours Is Mine", is now posted at
http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/fans/bev/boom/index.html#part.33

We continue to follow the Pollovics on their way into Simeland as one
of our two main plot threads; the other is the developments at Coleman's
mine when Seruffin and Gerrhonot arrive there. Is it really a hotbed of
Distect activity? Will this be a replay of "Stranded in Gumgeeville?"
Read and find out!

Sidebars: Nick gives a lesson in practical botany, Tsibola advises his
niece Fridda on future careers, Randayl (the Sime son of Senator Rundle)
finds himself making plans for *his* future, and Bart's mother Maree
gets a package from her son.

Read, comment, review, speculate, protest! And then we'll be inspired
to do the grunt work to deliver Part 34, "Compromising Situations",
which is already written but needs to be edited, proofed, and equipped
with summaries for the index page. Hey, that's what worked this time --
special thanks to Greer Watson for posting a comment and getting us off
our butts.

******

******JEAN PUBLISHES INDIA/NEPAL JOURNAL******

New entries are up in Jean's blog......loads of pictures!
http://houseofkeon.blogspot.com/2009/12/italy-part-two-pompeii-and-herculane
um.html

India and Nepal--True Adventures
A journey into a new world, real events, wonders vs. hardships. Tips and
tricks for travelers. What to see. http://houseofkeon.blogspot.com/

******


******RELAY FOR LIFE ~ a message from Jean******


It's Relay for Life time again, the American Cancer Society's biggest drive of the year. Everyone has a family member or friend who has fought or is fighting cancer. You don't have to stand by helplessly--you can join in the fight that has already extended lives and improved quality of life for cancer patients and survivors, provided cures for some kinds of cancer, produced a vaccine against one form of cancer, and now continues research for permanent cures.

Some of you already know that I am a cancer survivor twice over--and if it were not for the detection and treatment options resulting from cancer research, I would have been dead years ago. I lost a beloved aunt to one of the same cancers many years ago. Because of improvements in detection and treatment, I not only survive, but survive with far less pain and disfigurement than she suffered. In fact, I survived long enough to develop a completely different kind of cancer six years after the first--one for which, with early detection, there is now a complete cure. I am living proof of the results that your contributions have produced.

There are several ways to support Relay for Life. If your community has a Relay, you can join a team. You can attend your local Relay and donate and/or buy luminaria there. (Luminaria are lights displayed at the Relay in honor of survivors or in memory of those who have passed on; they cost $5.00 each.) You can donate to local Relay team members and purchase lumiinaria from them.

Even easier: restaurants in communities with Relays often have Relay Days when they donate a percentage of the take to a local team. Gather up family and friends and eat at that restaurant that day!

And finally, if you don't have a local team to support, please support mine, which is made up of cancer survivors. Just go to http://short.to/12jf1 and follow the instructions to contribute using your credit card, or print out the form and mail it in. Contribute whatever you can--every penny helps. Please don't let the research stop!

*****

***** JEAN AND LOIS WICKSTROM ANNOUNCE -- "ORDER OF THE VIRGIN MOTHERS"

Lois June Wickstrom (with Jean Lorrah) has just published a book of seven plays not for the faint of heart. Find Order of the Virgin Mothers here: http://tinyurl.com/ylqn77e Except for one play designed for children, all these plays have outrageous concepts designed to provoke thought and discussion.

*****


******NEWSLETTER NEWS******

NEW NEWS: We have a new way of accessing WHAT'S NEW on simegen.com It is a blog where you can read the monthly Newsletter and drop your own comments and news, tell us what you need done, or report problems with pages.
http://whatsnew..simegen.com/ Click in the right margin to follow this Newsletter, and the news will appear in your blogger.com account. Or you can use the RSS feed. If there's another follow-tool you would prefer, please e-mail simegen@simegen.com asking for it (give the URL) and we'll enable it. There are a few handy tools we haven't enabled yet, but they are available (such as feedburner).
Patric set this magical thing up on our server and Karen has posted the Newsletters from Jan 2009 to now, so you can access past news just by scrolling. Please visit our top page, simegen.com, and note that my Twitter scroll is there for you -- plus a very nice Writing Tips Twitter scroll. Click and read the entire scroll on Twitter.

******

******Advertisment*****

Visit the imagination of L. H. Young and enter worlds of romance where anything can and does happen. From the new and emerging Sci-Fi Space Opera series with fascinating new characters called Vatamps, to her Time Traveling witches and their mysterious loves, a humorous adventure with a claustrophobic vampire chasing his lady to her very different werewolf saga and finally, her unique, touching poetry. Please visit her website http://www.authorlhyoung.com for all the latest.

*****Please Support Those Who Support Us*****

******JEAN'S SOCIAL NETWORKING******

If you are on LinkedIn or Facebook, be sure to look up Jean Lorrah.
Jean's personal Twitter account is http://twitter.com/houseofkeon She tweets only when she has something more important to announce than that she got up in the morning.
She also has a daily Twitter account, http://twitter.com/TipsOnWriting That's right: tips on writing every single day.
Jean is taking a course on Marketing and Emerging Media, part of which requires learning to use even more social media.
You can see her photo album on Italy now at http://short.to/14bad
And finally, Jean's blog continues with weekly entries at http://www.houseofkeon.blogspot.com/

******

****** Check our our new Amazon "Stores"

Blatant commercial to keep simegen.com on the air.If you buy from Amazon using one of our search boxes at the bottoms of many of our pages, or find what you're looking for in our a-stores, we get a few cents to pay the bandwidth bills.
Our Amazon stores (we recommend buying directly from Amazon itself, not one of their onboard retailers unless you know the retailer very well -- we get paid the same, but have found better customer service with amazon.com shipments).
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keybooks/
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keygifts/ -- NEW STORE created to hold gift items specially useful to writers, both in writing and in just finding the TIME to write.
Also we now have Google ads on our main entry pages -- and they pay nicely when someone finds what they want via one of those ads. But don't click just to click -- click something that looks like what you really want.

******

******Advertisment*****

HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN SALE! Celebrating the return of the economy to a more even keel (and helping you to afford to publicize your books once again), all during 2010 we are offering any of the advertising packages at http://www.simegen.com/agreements/pricing.html for four months for the price of three, or eight months for the price of six. Ad packages must be reserved by December 15, 2010, for ads to begin any time up to June, 30, 2011. Lock in this low price by contacting advertising@simegen.com and putting down a 25% deposit, remainder due at the time the ad is posted. Limit of two ad packages per advertiser. Use code SGNL to claim your bargain ad package. Remember--there are three rules that guarantee lack of sales: 1. Don't advertise. 2. Don't advertise. 3. Don't advertise.

*****

******NEW PROJECT FOR JAQUELINE******

MY CURRENT MAIN EFFORTS:
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/downloads/
That is a page that needs redesigning, just as the /marketplace/ top page will.
We are preparing to make available in e-book and on paper, a set of 7 textbooks on writing, 5 of which are on philosophy, the wellspring of ideas and the bulwark against writer's block. The particular philosophy showcased is the structural framework behind Tarot, but you don't have to be interested in Tarot to use this information in writing or many other endeavors.
Novel and Screenwriting are both very much rooted in structure which becomes invisible when clothed in unique details.
Learning to perceive the underlying structure behind seething masses of detail is somewhat like learning to spot starfish against an underwater boulder full of barnacles.
It's pattern-recognition, a brain function we all have and sometimes fail to buff up. These first 5 volumes help train the mental "eye" in a kind of abstract "pattern recognition" that will serve to sharpen results in everything you do.
The final 2 (or possibly more) volumes are directed at readers and writers who want to understand the application of the pattern recognition principles showcased in the first 5 volumes. These volumes are designed to be of use specifically by writers, but writers working in fiction, non-fiction, or screenwriting.
Currently, this project stands at the beginning of Volume #5, with several more weeks work to do on that volume, plus artwork and packaging efforts. This is a team effort that has absorbed Karen, Patric, Jean, me -- and others here -- for a year or more.
Some of these Tarot and Writing Lesson chapters have been posted to the blogs
http://www.editingcircle.blogspot.com/
And on Tuesdays where I post on
http://www.aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/
The better entries on these two blogs will be compiled and presented in PDF (or other e-book formats) plus, on paper.

******

******COAL FOR CHRISTMAS**********

COAL FOR CHRISTMAS by Lois Wickstrom and Jean Lorrah finished in the top ten family screenplays in the 2008 TheMovieDeal contest. http://www.themoviedeal.com/#/finalists/4532422034 Find the SCROLL icon at the lower left, and scroll down to see the top ten in each category.

******

******REREADABLE BOOKS******

PLEASE REMEMBER TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR BLOG WHERE THIS NEWSLETTER IS POSTED
http://whatsnew.simegen.com/ which is a neat way to avoid losing the Newsletter in spam.
The Rereadable Books review column for January 2010 has now been posted.
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2010/
ReReadable Books review columns posted for November and December 2009 can be found at
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2009/
The books that will be reviewed through June 2010 have been posted at
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2010/
Preview of some novels in the hopper for after June 2010 can be found at
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/12/is-that-really-you.html
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/12/recommending-devon-monk.html
Alien Romances is a co-blog where you will find Jacqueline Lichtenberg blogging on Tuesdays.

******

****** Patric Michael (our Webmaster) is pleased to announce his NEXT publication!******

"The Santa Mug," a novella, was released by Dreamspinner Press in December, 2009 as part of their Advent Calendar.
Light of a Different Moon" by Patric Michael, part of the "To Die For" ghost anthology by MLR Press, has been released.
Look for it at http://www.mlrpress.com/
Check out http://www.patricmichael.com/ for the Start of Something Great.

*******

******JOIN THE REVIEWERS

Jacqueline is developing a new way to find books to review -- via Twitter!
And with more people helping we could, perhaps, find more reviewers. I've been collecting people in writing, editing, publishing, and various parts of the film industry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
I really could use some help with this. To connect with me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/jlichtenberg
To connect with me on Facebook --
http://facebook.com/jacqueline.lichtenberg
To connect with me on LinkedIn --
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelinelichtenberg
Karen MacLeod and Patric are also available on LinkedIn. We are moving gradually into the networking space and evaluating the uses of cloud computing. We need a new coordinator for the Reviews department who can work with the social networking tools.
For the moment we have only a few reviewers responding to the e-mail List, and I suspect that's the drift away from e-mail because of the spam load. We need to launch a blogspot blog for our Reviewers instead of a List, or perhaps establish a Group on Facebook.
I will continue to post books to be reviewed to the reviewers List as I discover them. As Coordinator of our Reviews Department, I ask for your help. With the current upsurge in e-book publishing that is sweeping the Internet, we daily receive an increasing number of books to review. Yet, in counterpoint, we have a shortage of reviewers, and many of our reviews staff are several books behind. We are eagerly and actively seeking new people to review for us. As with all of Sime~Gen, our reviewers are volunteers. When they write a review, it is posted with their byline, and they get to keep the review copy of the books they have read and reviewed.
For more information on our Reviewers Agreement, visit:
http://www.simegen.com/agreements/revagr.html
Please help us by passing this information along to anyone you know who might want to join our happy band. If interested, they can send a note expressing their interest to Jean at simegen@simegen.com

******

******Advertisement******

Anyone shopping Amazon who wants to contribute to simegen.com without it
costing them a cent, please start by using any of the Amazon Search boxes on
our pages. Our top page has three really handy ones near the bottom.
http://www.simegen.com/

******Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****


******NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS

A SIME~GEN postage stamp is now available to order on cafe press. It can be used just as you would use a regular postage stamp. Be the first on YOUR block to have them!
We've got a new page for Cafe Press items from our artists and authors. Now you can get t-shirts, greeting cards, clocks, mugs, and other great stuff with work from your favorite artists. You can even buy books about Nessie, the Orange Forest Rabbit and The Reluctant Spy that aren't available anywhere else.
http://simegen.com/marketplace/cafepress/ is a direct link to all our items and merchandise stores. Use of this page will give the domain extra income. If there is an item that you wish to see that isn't offered, just write Lois at lois@lochness-monster.com and she'll get it ready for you to order.
******

******HELP WANTED*****

The spotlights section of Simegen.com currently needs interviewers, spotlight posting personnel, an assistant spotlights gatemaster, and a keygifts store manager. We are also requesting an Assistant Reviews Co-coordinator - duties include covering when other staff are unable to perform tasks. We are almost finished revamping our reviews section and expect
activity to be at a constant high level. We're looking for a versatile quick learner able to put in some time daily. Pluses are: A good command of the English language (syntax, grammar, punctuation, in that order), some computer experience or ability to learn, and an interest in books. Direct all inquiries to simegen@simegen.com.
Individuals to take over, or assist with the SIMECENTER Site -- It isn't at all hard, but a bit time-consuming...and very rewarding ("meeting" these marvelous authors and artists, if only via E-Mail and their websites.) Please write me, Kaires Tevesu, if you are interested. People who talked to me earlier about helping: I've lost track of your communications in the throes of several changes of computer. PLEASE contact me again. The time is right, the templates are much more
robust, I have a small backlog of stories (the hardest part of operating SimeCenter), and I've even documented some of the processes. I'd like to talk to you again.

****** Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******PUBLICATION SCHEDULE********

We have had to withdraw the entire Sime~Gen project from Meisha Merlin for a wide range of reasons. They missed several deadlines for publication of TO KISS OR TO KILL and showed no signs of intention to get it out any time in the foreseeable future. That stalled everything else. It was very disappointing. So we are now actively in search of another
publisher.
THE UNITY TRILOGY should continue to be available for some time -- they have the right to dispose of all stock in the Meisha Merlin warehouse.

******

******AVAILABLE RELEASES***********

~ the Omnibus reprint of Jean Lorrah's SAVAGE EMPIRE: DARK MOON RISING --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210013X/rereadablebooksr/ is #1
in the reprint program.
~ Trade Paperback edition of DREAMSPY from BenBella Books and you can order
on Amazon and some other places http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932100253/rereadablebooksr/
Read the comments here:
http://www.simegen.com/writers/luren/dreamspy/dreamspyreviews.html
~ SAVAGE EMPIRE: PROPHECIES
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210030X/rereadablebooksr/ is #2
in Jean Lorrah's and Winston Howlett's omnibus reprint of the Savage Empire series.
Still Available in Trade Paperback, SIME~GEN: THE UNITY TRILOGY
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592220037/rereadablebooksr/

******

***** Sites to Remember *****

Author spotlights: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/
Chats: http://www.simegen..com/writers/spotlights/chat.html
Romance articles: http://www.simegen.com/romance/articles.html
Reviews of books by Jacqueline Lichtenberg:
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/
Reviews: http://www.simegen.com/reviews/
Shopping: http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/
Sound files of Jacqueline Lichtenberg pronouncing Sime~Gen vocabulary words can be found at
http://www.simegen.com/jl/nivetsoundfiles/index.html
To sign up for classes, go to
http://www.simegen.com/school/SchoolForms.html
To volunteer, go to http://www.simegen.com/agreements/helpwanted.html for the latest openings.

******

To contact editor for any reason, please e-mail Lisa Saunders at
simegen@simegen.com
*Please Note all material posted on Official Virtual Tecton is copyright ©
by Sime~Gen Inc. and all rights are reserved..
To get your Sime~Gen(tm) material sanctioned for web posting or to get
permission to repost from official materials, e-mail ambrovzeor@aol.com, contact
simegen@simegen.com.
Sime~Gen (tm) is the trademark of a fictional universe copyright © by
Jacqueline Lichtenberg, 1969, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986 and
Sime~Gen Inc. 1999-2010