Contents:
* ANNOUNCING THE ANNUAL NEW YEAR'S CHAT JANUARY 1, 2010 -- NEW TIME
* JEAN MEETS WITH HOLLYWOOD PRODUCERS
* BORDERLANDS NEWS
* JEAN PUBLISHES JOURNAL
* NEWSLETTER NEWS
* SIME~GEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY
* 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**
**** ANNOUNCING THE ANNUAL NEW YEAR'S CHAT JANUARY 1, 2010 -- NEW TIME
Including combined information from Jacqueline, and Karen:
This is your chance to talk real-time to Jean and me -- I'm planning to be on the simegen.com server's IRC chat for New Year's Day at 1PM Mountain Standard Time (USA) on Friday New Year's Day. I will be leaving early though. Please note the new time change, below, for January 1, 2010.
And it's your chance to vote awards for people at simegen.com who have been especially helpful to you. We announce the stock awards, but then all in attendance get a chance to nominate and vote for other awards. Karen has a list of our Awards -- frankly I always forget!
You can see brief definitions of all the awards at:
http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/chats/chat2006_chat2.html#awards
In many cases, more detailed explanations of these awards, with lists of
previous winners, can be found on the main Awards page
(http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/awards). You can see these by following links from the one-liner page, above.
We (theoretically; we're always lagging on this) post the list of awards because it forms the major part of the history of this domain. I feel it's important to keep track of our major contributors.
So anyone who's on our lists or deals with us in any way is more than welcome to sit in, nominate, vote, and chat.We run it in two simultaneous IRC chatrooms -- so you can split your screen in half. One screen is moderated during the
business meeting so the log is easier to clean up. The other screen is just chatter. Then both "rooms" are opened so everyone can talk to each other and just party.
For those that don't have the mIRC (or equivalent) software, there is an entry point for you via the web page of: http://www.simegen.com/techtools/chat/
We use the "rooms" #sgchat for the business meeting and #sgtalk for "side talk." Those who attended last year using mIRC or equivalent, your settings are unchanged.
The New Year's Chat will be 3pm EST, 2pm CST, 1pm MST, NOON PST. For those not in North America, please use the Worldclock website http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/ to calculate the time that is right for you.
The edited and cleaned text of the meeting is put online as soon as possible.
Previous chat logs can be found at www.simegen.com/sgfandom/chats/ if you
want to take a look.
Karen will gladly help OFF LIST to get you connected to the chat.... the access information will NOT be posted to any of the lists for security reasons. Some help, though perhaps not quite current, is also found on http://www.simegen.com/techtools/ where tutorials can be found.
Karen will be on AIM, as long as her computer allows her, prior to the chat and will do what she can to help everyone who wants to attend, "get connected."
*****
******JEAN MEETS WITH HOLLYWOOD PRODUCERS******
November 18-20, Jean attended meetings with producers and agents in Hollywood, arranged through the master class in screenwriting she, Jacqueline, and Lois have taken with Hal Croasmun at scriptforsale.com It was great to meet fellow students I've been exchanging critiques with for the past couple of years, and the meetings with Hollywood people went very well.
Hal coached us in everything from how to introduce ourselves to what to wear, but the result was that every single one of our guests accepted the one-sheets (synopsis of our scripts plus contact information) from the group. Hal has been arranging these meetings for several years, and says this is the first time not a single guest refused them. Of course that doesn't necessarily mean they will all read them, but some did. In fact our very first guest called one of our group
that afternoon, they had several phone calls while we were there, and by the third day the student had an agreement that the producer would shop her script to production companies! Another of our group (who had actually made a contact before the meetings) ended up with a three-movie deal! In both these cases, the student happened to have exactly what Hollywood
is looking for right now.
A third student was asked for a full script during the meetings, and since we have returned home two more have been asked. Finally, one more student was contacted by a producer just last week to discuss doing a project on a passion they share in common: motorcycles! THAT did not come out of her one-page or script, but from the "interesting bit of trivia" about ourselves that Hal had us add to our thirty-second introductions. After she gave her credentials and experience, she added, "And I'm a biker chick." Lo and behold--!
Oh--I need to tell you that although we had one or two guests who were "execs," which means assistants, most of the people who met with us were either owners of their own companies or partners. We had people who had made classic films and won Oscars! Two of our guests were ex-studio heads who have now formed their own companies. IOW, we were meeting the
people at the top, the actual decision makers.
I learned a tremendous amount in a short time. I'm not upset that I was not one of the people who got a nibble or more--my script is pretty far out. In fact, other than polishing it up just in case, I plan to shelve it for a time and write something that producer after producer told us is the thing to write to break in: a very low-budget, high-concept script based on either a real life story or a published piece of fiction. After all, I have plenty of published pieces of fiction, with no problem of obtaining the rights to them! Ultra-low budget is always the key to interest from the smaller companies, but right now even the studios are looking for low-budget scripts...
I am really glad I went, and hope that when I have exactly the right project I will be able to use the connections we were provided to put it before exactly the right person.
******
******BORDERLANDS NEWS******
Borderlands Part 32, "On The Run," is now posted at
http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/fans/bev/boom/index.html#part.32
Who's on the run? Well, new characters Dilena and Portia are on the run from Gen T, which doesn't like their lifestyle very much. No, they're both Gens. Sosu Nick is not actually on the run, but like Yellow-Dog Dingo, he's very truly run after, and by a rather unsavory character.
Poor Ambassador Tsibola is back in town, and at least four difficult interviews with different people send him on the run -- to his bed.Sidebars include the beginnings of a new Distect scare, this time out-T,and a scene where Cristal asks for advice (with thematic connections to one of the main plot threads). We also have Saag and Randayl, the Senator's Sime sons, exchanging
stories, as well as Fennik and Tsibola having one of their brandy evenings, only without the brandy this time. Feedback!
We want feedback! Give us feedback! And then in due course you'll get Part 33, "What's Yours Is Mine."
******
******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-herculaneum.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/
******
******Advertisment******
TENTH ANNIVERSARY SALE! During 2009 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, 2009, for ads to begin any time up to June, 30, 2010. 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.
******Please Support Those Who Support Us******
******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.
******
******SIME~GEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY
It's the tenth anniversary of Sime~Gen Inc. and simegen.com. We have been celebrating all year long--and we need your contributions to the festivities. Please send your ideas for ways to celebrate to simegen@simegen.com. But please remember that our small staff is already overburdened, so we need easy to implement ideas, not projects for our staff to
put in even more hours of work than they already do. If you would like to implement your idea for us--YAY!
******
******Advertisment*****
When you enter the imagination of L. H. Young, you begin a fascinating ride, whether you are traveling the time stream with witches, finding love the stuff of legends with her wonderful vampires, traipsing across the universe with her Sci-fi, or going to school with four unusual teenagers born with the ability to heal by touch. Don’t forget that she even writes for the imagination of the very young as seen in The Christmas Kitten.
www.authorlhyoung.com
*****Please Support Those Who Support Us*****
****** 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.
******
******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:
ReReadable Books review columns posted for November and December 2009.
12-22-2009 - November and December columns for 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 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 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
******
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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.
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******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.
******
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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. 1999-2009
What's New at simegen.com, with: Territorial News
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
Jean Lorrah
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