Contents:
* ANNUAL NEW YEAR'S CHAT JANUARY 2, 2011 -- NEW DATE AND TIME
* TITLES ON AMAZON.COM
* BORDERLANDS NEWS
* JEAN PUBLISHES BLOG, WEB PAGE, AND JOURNAL
* RELAY FOR LIFE
* NEWSLETTER NEWS
* JEAN'S SOCIAL NETWORKING
* Check our our new Amazon "Stores"
* NEW PROJECT FOR JACQUELINE
* JEAN'S NEW ESSAYS ON WRITING
* COAL FOR CHRISTMAS RECEIVES ANOTHER AWARD
* 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 2, 2011 -- NEW DATE AND 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 at 1 PM Mountain Standard Time (USA) on SUNDAY, JANUARY 2, 2011. Please note the new time change, below.
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. 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."
*****
******TITLES ON AMAZON.COM******
Wildside Press has now released MOLT BROTHER and CITY OF A MILLION LEGENDS on Kindle, Nook, Apple, and all the new e-book formats. They are still available on Fictionwise.com PLUS in paper if you want new copies.
HOUSE OF ZEOR just went to press -- there will be ebook in all those formats, PLUS new paper POD on acid free paper.
UNTO ZEOR, FOREVER has been turned in, and will be back for proofing soon. We'll let you know when, but it will hit all formats as well.
Here's a the link to use that goes to the Jacqueline Lichtenberg titles on Amazon. If you can copy, paste and delete the carriage returns, use this link to buy anything on amazon and Sime~Gen Inc. gets a few cents toward our server fees.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D12%26ref_%3Dnb_sb_noss%26y%3D16%26field-keywords%3DJacqueline%2520Lichtenberg%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Ddigital-text&tag=rereadablebooksr&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957
And Jean's SAVAGE EMPIRE will be available too.
Here's the link to Jean Lorrah's titles -- where you will find her Sime~Gen as soon as it comes available.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D17%26ref_%3Dnb_sb_noss%26y%3D11%26field-keywords%3DJean%2520Lorrah%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Ddigital-text&tag=rereadablebooksr&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957
Our Lists aren't functioning well due to the spam load, so until we can move the server and get new List software, you can interact with us by dropping a note on the whatsnew.simegen.com blog or via facebook, twitter or any service you prefer.
Find all my services at http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com/ in the friendfeed box. (yes, I have to update that page but I'm working on the book text!)
I'm currently working on MAHOGANY TRINROSE.
I'm using the files that Karen MacLeod proofed up for Meisha Merlin before they collapsed.
We have turned in PERSONAL RECOGNIZANCE (my new Sime~Gen story set in the most modern setting yet) and 3 of Jean's Zhag and Tonyo stories for a DOUBLE - (like the old Ace Doubles) - printed back to back in the same volume.
We'll let you know when they come out.
All the Sime~Gen works (INCLUDING THE FARRIS CHANNEL) are now under contract to the Borgo imprint of Wildside Press, a slick modern operation that will make them available everywhere in every format -- EXCEPT in brick-n-mortar stores.
******
******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 BLOG, WEBPAGE, AND JOURNAL******
Have you been reading my blog, The House of Keon, at http://www.houseofkeon.blogspot.com/ ? It's about my various travels, and is currently about my recent visits to places of interest near home--what I call a semi-staycation. Well, until I go somewhere else, or unless and until photos from more of my earlier travels turn up, I will soon run out of material and leave that blog standing with all my previous posts. Next time I travel, I will of course add to that blog, but that probably won't be until summer 2011.
However, I will not be giving up blogging. Probably just about in time for the next issue of our newsletter, I expect to begin a new blog on a different topic associated with a project Jacqueline and I will start soon. Tune in next time to find out what it is!
******
******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.
******
******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"
Amazon.com has made Author Pages for Jacqueline http://www.amazon.com/Jacqueline-Lichtenberg/e/B000APV900/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1274145159&sr=1-2-ent and me http://www.amazon.com/Jean-Lorrah/e/B000APACX0/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1274145011&sr=1-2-ent . Both pages are incomplete, not listing all the books we have available on the site, and neither has any comments or discussion going on. Still, they are available.
_______________________________
More Amazon news: Amazon.com has just--without warning--eliminated all ebook downloads other than Kindle. The downside is that you can no longer download the ebooks of Jacqueline or my books that had been available, or the Nessie's Grotto books by Lois Wickstrom and me (you can still get the latter at Fictionwise). The upside is that Blood Will Tell and my four Star Trek novels have suddenly developed Kindle editions.
________________________________
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 JACQUELINE******
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.
******
****** JEAN'S NEW ESSAYS ON WRITING
You can find an ongoing series of Jean's new essays, Secrets of Fiction Writing, at http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jean_Lorrah. There are eleven articles up, and I just turned in the twelfth yesterday. I hope to produce approximately one a week. These articles can be read directly on the Ezine Article website, or ezines are free to reprint them as long as they follow the Ezine Article rules.
*****
******COAL FOR CHRISTMAS RECEIVES ANOTHER AWARD **********
COAL FOR CHRISTMAS by Lois Wickstrom and Jean Lorrah has been named an Official Selection in the KIDS FIRST! Film and Video Festival.
******
******REREADABLE BOOKS******
ReReadable Books columns now posted through August 2010, and books to be reviewed are posted through 2010 and up to May 2011. Here are the links:
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2010/
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2011/
******
****** Patric Michael (our Webmaster) is pleased to announce his NEXT publication!******
June 2, 2010 brought CONWAY'S CURSE -- the new work from Patric Michael, available from Dreamspinner Press http://www.dreamspinnerpress.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.
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
What's New at simegen.com, with: Territorial News
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
Jean Lorrah
Monday, December 6, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
House of Zeor reissue now available!!
I was just told today, 11/18/2010 at 1:15 PM Mountain Standard Time that House of Zeor is NOW AVAILABLE and they're sending me a sample paper copy.
As of 1:30 though, it's not yet showing on Amazon. Oh, being ahead of the electronic world is frustrating.
I'm well into the work assembling RENSIME for them. MAHOGANY TRINROSE is turned in as is UNTO ZEOR, FOREVER -- those 3 comprise the Digen Farris trilogy.
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com
As of 1:30 though, it's not yet showing on Amazon. Oh, being ahead of the electronic world is frustrating.
I'm well into the work assembling RENSIME for them. MAHOGANY TRINROSE is turned in as is UNTO ZEOR, FOREVER -- those 3 comprise the Digen Farris trilogy.
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com
Monday, November 15, 2010
SIME~GEN now in all E-book formats
Folks:
Here is a link to the Jacqueline Lichtenberg page on Amazon where you will soon find HOUSE OF ZEOR, all the Sime~Gen reprints, plus the new Sime~Gen novels Jean Lorrah and I have been promising you.
J
And here's the link to Jean Lorrah's Amazon page (where you will also find some of my books cross-indexed; odd thing that!)
Jean Lorrah
Watch this blog for more info. All the Sime~Gen novels will be available in almost all e-book formats plus Print On Demand on acid free paper. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple ipad - whichever you choose you will find us there.
Free Chapters of my novels can be found through
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com
Free chapters of the Sime~Gen novels are still at
http://www.simegen.com/writers/simegen/ -- look on the left, click to read free chapters.
Drop a note on this blog if you'd like your comments on Sime~Gen included on the comments page at /writers/simegen/
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com/jl/
Here is a link to the Jacqueline Lichtenberg page on Amazon where you will soon find HOUSE OF ZEOR, all the Sime~Gen reprints, plus the new Sime~Gen novels Jean Lorrah and I have been promising you.
J
And here's the link to Jean Lorrah's Amazon page (where you will also find some of my books cross-indexed; odd thing that!)
Jean Lorrah
Watch this blog for more info. All the Sime~Gen novels will be available in almost all e-book formats plus Print On Demand on acid free paper. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple ipad - whichever you choose you will find us there.
Free Chapters of my novels can be found through
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com
Free chapters of the Sime~Gen novels are still at
http://www.simegen.com/writers/simegen/ -- look on the left, click to read free chapters.
Drop a note on this blog if you'd like your comments on Sime~Gen included on the comments page at /writers/simegen/
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com/jl/
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Jacqueline Lichtenberg Collected
Folks:
Two volumes of Jacqueline Lichtenberg's short stories have been compiled and submitted for POD and various e-book formats to Wildside Press which also keeps my non-Sime~Gen galaxy spanning SF novels Molt Brother and City of a Million Legends available on fictionwise.com and amazon.
Jean Lorrah and I are currently working to compile NEW, never before published, material for one of Wildside's DOUBLES program.
Watch this blog for more information and links as they come available.
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com For free chapters and current availability
Two volumes of Jacqueline Lichtenberg's short stories have been compiled and submitted for POD and various e-book formats to Wildside Press which also keeps my non-Sime~Gen galaxy spanning SF novels Molt Brother and City of a Million Legends available on fictionwise.com and amazon.
Jean Lorrah and I are currently working to compile NEW, never before published, material for one of Wildside's DOUBLES program.
Watch this blog for more information and links as they come available.
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com For free chapters and current availability
Monday, September 20, 2010
Where is JL?
For those wandering into this blog by accident, "JL" = Jacqueline Lichtenberg (me) and "Jean" = Jean Lorrah.
We are the owners and operators of Sime~Gen Inc. and simegen.com where many folks volunteer time and energy to support the creativity of other people. Geezerchick is one of the the most prolific contributors.
This blog carries the domain newsletter which is also available on a mailing list -- but spam has become too much of a burden for many people. So we've established this blog to carry news of the doings on the simegen.com domain and news by those contributing to the domain.
From September 23, 2010 through probably October 4th, I (JL) won't be online much, but you can contact Jean Lorrah by leaving a note on this blog.
Jean and I are brewing up a social-networks based initiative which will be supported by the simegen.com domain and provide some entertaining and informative resources for students of the art and craft of writing. We will explore all the aspects of human life and society that are necessary ingredients in construction of characters.
But we will also focus on what it takes to live as a professional writer. Your characters are part of your life!
Watch this blog or join us on twitter, facebook, linkedin, or your favorite aggregator such as friendfeed.com for the announcement of the new, dedicated blog, website and newsletter.
You will find links to all my social networks and blogs in the friendfeed.com box near the bottom of http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com -- you don't have to join friendfeed.com to use those links.
You can find Jean Lorrah via her homepage http://jeanlorrah.com
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com/jl/ -- homepage with full biography & bibliography
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com -- current novels available, print & e-book
http://slantedconcept.com -- screenwriting projects in progress
http://twitter.com/jlichtenberg
http://facebook.com/jacqueline.lichtenberg
We are the owners and operators of Sime~Gen Inc. and simegen.com where many folks volunteer time and energy to support the creativity of other people. Geezerchick is one of the the most prolific contributors.
This blog carries the domain newsletter which is also available on a mailing list -- but spam has become too much of a burden for many people. So we've established this blog to carry news of the doings on the simegen.com domain and news by those contributing to the domain.
From September 23, 2010 through probably October 4th, I (JL) won't be online much, but you can contact Jean Lorrah by leaving a note on this blog.
Jean and I are brewing up a social-networks based initiative which will be supported by the simegen.com domain and provide some entertaining and informative resources for students of the art and craft of writing. We will explore all the aspects of human life and society that are necessary ingredients in construction of characters.
But we will also focus on what it takes to live as a professional writer. Your characters are part of your life!
Watch this blog or join us on twitter, facebook, linkedin, or your favorite aggregator such as friendfeed.com for the announcement of the new, dedicated blog, website and newsletter.
You will find links to all my social networks and blogs in the friendfeed.com box near the bottom of http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com -- you don't have to join friendfeed.com to use those links.
You can find Jean Lorrah via her homepage http://jeanlorrah.com
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com/jl/ -- homepage with full biography & bibliography
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com -- current novels available, print & e-book
http://slantedconcept.com -- screenwriting projects in progress
http://twitter.com/jlichtenberg
http://facebook.com/jacqueline.lichtenberg
Monday, September 13, 2010
Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter -- JULY/AUGUST 2010
Contents:
* SHORT SCRIPT CONTENDER
* BORDERLANDS NEWS
* JEAN PUBLISHES BLOG, WEBPAGE, AND JOURNAL
* RELAY FOR LIFE
* NEWSLETTER NEWS
* JEAN'S SOCIAL NETWORKING
* Check our our new Amazon "Stores"
* NEW PROJECT FOR JACQUELINE
* COAL FOR CHRISTMAS
* REREADABLE BOOKS
* PATRIC MICHAEL'S RECENT 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**
******SHORT SCRIPT CONTENDER from Jean Lorrah*******
Lois Wickstrom and I have noticed calls for short scripts, and new short script categories in contests, so we wrote a low-budget 18-page script called "The A Word." First time out, it was named an Official Selection of the AOF Festival in Pasadena. Then the script consultant we sent it to added it (with our permission) to a group of scripts she is sending to producers who approached her specifically looking for short scripts. We are entering it in every contest
with a short script category, and have high hopes for it.
******
******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 BLOG, WEBPAGE, AND JOURNAL******
Have you been reading my blog, The House of Keon, at http://www.houseofkeon.blogspot.com/ ? It's about my various travels, and is currently about my recent visits to places of interest near home--what I call a semi-staycation. Well, until I go somewhere else, or unless and until photos from more of my earlier travels turn up, I will soon run out of material and leave that blog standing with all my previous posts. Next time I travel, I will of course add to that
blog, but that probably won't be until summer 2011.
However, I will not be giving up blogging. Probably just about in time for the next issue of our newsletter, I expect to begin a new blog on a different topic associated with a project Jacqueline and I will start soon. Tune in next time to find out what it is!
******
******RELAY FOR LIFE ~ a message from Jean******
Our local Relay for Life is one of the earliest in the country. My team, the 8th Wonders (all breast cancer survivors) raised nearly $5000--and we would like to raise the rest before August to put us in the silver category (we are now at bronze). If you'd like to help push us over our goal, you can contribute online at http://short.to/12jf1 . The money goes directly to the American Cancer Society.
******
******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*****
For fans of L. H. Young: I now write under Lisa Hannah Wells. You may find the latest news and information on my books and services at http://www.lisahannahwells.com/ or my Blog, http://authorlhyoung.wordpress.com/
*****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"
Amazon.com has made Author Pages for Jacqueline http://www.amazon.com/Jacqueline-
Lichtenberg/e/B000APV900/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1274145159&sr=1-2-ent and Jean Lorrah: http://www.amazon.com/Jean-
Lorrah/e/B000APACX0/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1274145011&sr=1-2-ent Both pages are incomplete, not listing all the books we have available on the site, and neither has any comments or discussion going on. Still, they are available.
_______________________________
More Amazon news: Amazon.com has just--without warning--eliminated all ebook downloads other than Kindle. The downside is that you can no longer download the ebooks of Jacqueline or Jean's books that had been available, or the Nessie's Grotto books by Lois Wickstrom and Jean (you can still get the latter at Fictionwise). The upside is that Blood Will Tell and Jean's four Star Trek novels have suddenly developed Kindle editions.
________________________________
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 JACQUELINE******
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******
ReReadable Books columns now posted through August 2010, and books to be reviewed are posted through 2010 and up to May 2011. Here are the links:
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2010/
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2011/
******
****** Patric Michael (our Webmaster) is pleased to announce his recent publication!******
CONWAY'S CURSE -- the new work from Patric Michael, available from Dreamspinner Press
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.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
* SHORT SCRIPT CONTENDER
* BORDERLANDS NEWS
* JEAN PUBLISHES BLOG, WEBPAGE, AND JOURNAL
* RELAY FOR LIFE
* NEWSLETTER NEWS
* JEAN'S SOCIAL NETWORKING
* Check our our new Amazon "Stores"
* NEW PROJECT FOR JACQUELINE
* COAL FOR CHRISTMAS
* REREADABLE BOOKS
* PATRIC MICHAEL'S RECENT 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**
******SHORT SCRIPT CONTENDER from Jean Lorrah*******
Lois Wickstrom and I have noticed calls for short scripts, and new short script categories in contests, so we wrote a low-budget 18-page script called "The A Word." First time out, it was named an Official Selection of the AOF Festival in Pasadena. Then the script consultant we sent it to added it (with our permission) to a group of scripts she is sending to producers who approached her specifically looking for short scripts. We are entering it in every contest
with a short script category, and have high hopes for it.
******
******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 BLOG, WEBPAGE, AND JOURNAL******
Have you been reading my blog, The House of Keon, at http://www.houseofkeon.blogspot.com/ ? It's about my various travels, and is currently about my recent visits to places of interest near home--what I call a semi-staycation. Well, until I go somewhere else, or unless and until photos from more of my earlier travels turn up, I will soon run out of material and leave that blog standing with all my previous posts. Next time I travel, I will of course add to that
blog, but that probably won't be until summer 2011.
However, I will not be giving up blogging. Probably just about in time for the next issue of our newsletter, I expect to begin a new blog on a different topic associated with a project Jacqueline and I will start soon. Tune in next time to find out what it is!
******
******RELAY FOR LIFE ~ a message from Jean******
Our local Relay for Life is one of the earliest in the country. My team, the 8th Wonders (all breast cancer survivors) raised nearly $5000--and we would like to raise the rest before August to put us in the silver category (we are now at bronze). If you'd like to help push us over our goal, you can contribute online at http://short.to/12jf1 . The money goes directly to the American Cancer Society.
******
******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*****
For fans of L. H. Young: I now write under Lisa Hannah Wells. You may find the latest news and information on my books and services at http://www.lisahannahwells.com/ or my Blog, http://authorlhyoung.wordpress.com/
*****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"
Amazon.com has made Author Pages for Jacqueline http://www.amazon.com/Jacqueline-
Lichtenberg/e/B000APV900/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1274145159&sr=1-2-ent and Jean Lorrah: http://www.amazon.com/Jean-
Lorrah/e/B000APACX0/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1274145011&sr=1-2-ent Both pages are incomplete, not listing all the books we have available on the site, and neither has any comments or discussion going on. Still, they are available.
_______________________________
More Amazon news: Amazon.com has just--without warning--eliminated all ebook downloads other than Kindle. The downside is that you can no longer download the ebooks of Jacqueline or Jean's books that had been available, or the Nessie's Grotto books by Lois Wickstrom and Jean (you can still get the latter at Fictionwise). The upside is that Blood Will Tell and Jean's four Star Trek novels have suddenly developed Kindle editions.
________________________________
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 JACQUELINE******
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******
ReReadable Books columns now posted through August 2010, and books to be reviewed are posted through 2010 and up to May 2011. Here are the links:
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2010/
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2011/
******
****** Patric Michael (our Webmaster) is pleased to announce his recent publication!******
CONWAY'S CURSE -- the new work from Patric Michael, available from Dreamspinner Press
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.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
Monday, June 21, 2010
Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter -- MAY- JUNE 2010
Contents:
* BORDERLANDS NEWS
* JEAN PUBLISHES BLOG, WEBPAGE, AND JOURNAL
* RELAY FOR LIFE
* 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**
******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 BLOG, WEBPAGE, AND JOURNAL******
My blog for the month of May is about traveling with pets. Some of you may remember my little dog, Cuddles, who used to go to cons with me. Now my cat Dudley goes to MediaWest*Con every year. If you're at MediaWest, stop by the Empire Books table and say hello. Read my blog at http://www.houseofkeon.blogspot.com/
_________________________________
I earned an A in my Marketing and Emerging Media course Spring Semester. One of the requirements was to build a website of several pages at webs.com. I took the opportunity to create a site about my pets, something I've intended to do for years. Find it at http://jeanlorrah.webs.com/index.htm
________________________________
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******
Our local Relay for Life is one of the earliest in the country. My team, the 8th Wonders (all breast cancer survivors) raised nearly $5000--and we would like to raise the rest before August to put us in the silver category (we are now at bronze). If you'd like to help push us over our goal, you can contribute online at http://short.to/12jf1 The money goes directly to the American Cancer Society.
******
******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*****
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.
http://www.authorlhyoung.com/
*****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"
Amazon.com has made Author Pages for Jacqueline http://www.amazon.com/Jacqueline-Lichtenberg/e/B000APV900/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1274145159&sr=1-2-ent and Jean http://www.amazon.com/Jean-Lorrah/e/B000APACX0/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1274145011&sr=1-2-ent Both pages are incomplete, not listing all the books we have available on the site, and neither has any comments or discussion going on. Still, they are available.
_______________________________
More Amazon news: Amazon.com has just--without warning--eliminated all ebook downloads other than Kindle. The downside is that you can no longer download the ebooks of Jacqueline or Jean's books that had been available, or the Nessie's Grotto books by Lois Wickstrom and me (you can still get the latter at Fictionwise). The upside is that Blood Will Tell and Jean's four Star Trek novels have suddenly developed Kindle editions.
________________________________
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******
ReReadable Books columns for March, April and May 2010 now posted for free reading
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2010/
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.
******
****** Patric Michael (our Webmaster) is pleased to announce his NEXT publication!******
June 2, 2010 brings CONWAY'S CURSE -- the new work from Patric Michael, available from Dreamspinner Press http://www.dreamspinnerpress.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
* BORDERLANDS NEWS
* JEAN PUBLISHES BLOG, WEBPAGE, AND JOURNAL
* RELAY FOR LIFE
* 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**
******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 BLOG, WEBPAGE, AND JOURNAL******
My blog for the month of May is about traveling with pets. Some of you may remember my little dog, Cuddles, who used to go to cons with me. Now my cat Dudley goes to MediaWest*Con every year. If you're at MediaWest, stop by the Empire Books table and say hello. Read my blog at http://www.houseofkeon.blogspot.com/
_________________________________
I earned an A in my Marketing and Emerging Media course Spring Semester. One of the requirements was to build a website of several pages at webs.com. I took the opportunity to create a site about my pets, something I've intended to do for years. Find it at http://jeanlorrah.webs.com/index.htm
________________________________
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******
Our local Relay for Life is one of the earliest in the country. My team, the 8th Wonders (all breast cancer survivors) raised nearly $5000--and we would like to raise the rest before August to put us in the silver category (we are now at bronze). If you'd like to help push us over our goal, you can contribute online at http://short.to/12jf1 The money goes directly to the American Cancer Society.
******
******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*****
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.
http://www.authorlhyoung.com/
*****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"
Amazon.com has made Author Pages for Jacqueline http://www.amazon.com/Jacqueline-Lichtenberg/e/B000APV900/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1274145159&sr=1-2-ent and Jean http://www.amazon.com/Jean-Lorrah/e/B000APACX0/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1274145011&sr=1-2-ent Both pages are incomplete, not listing all the books we have available on the site, and neither has any comments or discussion going on. Still, they are available.
_______________________________
More Amazon news: Amazon.com has just--without warning--eliminated all ebook downloads other than Kindle. The downside is that you can no longer download the ebooks of Jacqueline or Jean's books that had been available, or the Nessie's Grotto books by Lois Wickstrom and me (you can still get the latter at Fictionwise). The upside is that Blood Will Tell and Jean's four Star Trek novels have suddenly developed Kindle editions.
________________________________
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******
ReReadable Books columns for March, April and May 2010 now posted for free reading
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2010/
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.
******
****** Patric Michael (our Webmaster) is pleased to announce his NEXT publication!******
June 2, 2010 brings CONWAY'S CURSE -- the new work from Patric Michael, available from Dreamspinner Press http://www.dreamspinnerpress.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
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
* 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
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
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter -- JANUARY 2010
Contents:
* SIMECENTER SUPPORTS HAITI
* ANNUAL NEW YEAR'S CHAT POSTED
* WISH JEAN LUCK
* BORDERLANDS NEWS
* JEAN PUBLISHES JOURNAL
* RELAY FOR LIFE
* 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**
****** 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 http://www.simegen.com/simecenter/ 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
****** SIME~GEN ANNUAL MEETING MINUTES POSTED
Sime~Gen, Inc., holds its annual meeting on the first day of each year, to report on happenings
over the previous year, and give awards to people who have served the domain valiantly in the
previous year.
The meeting is conducted via mIRC, so that friends of Sime~Gen from all over the world can
attend. Two chat rooms are opened for the occasion; one hosting the formal meeting, and the other allowing the participants to chat in the background before, during, and after the formal meeting.
The logs from both chat rooms are posted on the web:
http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/chats/chat2010_mtg.html
http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/chats/chat2010_chat.html
There, you can read notes about the meetings from 1999 through 2010. The files for the last few
years are fairly elegant in format and content. The files in the earlier years are less formal,
but they report the necessary information.
Note that this is actually the 12th year (!) of these online meetings!
Comments are greatly appreciated. Send comments, questions, etc., to the address below. [Mention 'Sime~Gen Meeting' in the subject so I'll know it isn't spam.]
In Service to Unity,
Kaires Tevesu
historian@simegen.com
*******
******WISH JEAN LUCK******
WISH JEAN LUCK!
Jean's trip to Hollywood last November has resulted in an agent asking to see the first act of
the script she pitched at those meetings.
It's just a request to read, NOT an offer of representation, but it is an essential first step.
It could be a false step that goes nowhere, or it could be the first step on the path to
eventually getting a script produced. Good wishes for the latter are welcomed!
Also please send strength and inspiration as Jean polish-polish-polishes that first act before
sending it in in early February. "Good enough" is not good enough when trying to break into
Hollywood. It has to be great
******
******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/
******
******RELAY FOR LIFE ~ a message from Jean******
I know that at the moment we are all putting any charitable contributions we can afford toward
helping the people of Haiti. Nevertheless, the drive to this Spring's Relay for Life in the fight
against cancer has begun.
As a cancer survivor twice over, I participate in a relay team made up of survivors, the 8th
Wonders. I will remind you again next month, but if you are interested in seeing my website for
Relay, it's at http://short.to/12jf1
******
******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*****
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*****
******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.
******
******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 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 timedaily. 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
* SIMECENTER SUPPORTS HAITI
* ANNUAL NEW YEAR'S CHAT POSTED
* WISH JEAN LUCK
* BORDERLANDS NEWS
* JEAN PUBLISHES JOURNAL
* RELAY FOR LIFE
* 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**
****** 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 http://www.simegen.com/simecenter/ 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
****** SIME~GEN ANNUAL MEETING MINUTES POSTED
Sime~Gen, Inc., holds its annual meeting on the first day of each year, to report on happenings
over the previous year, and give awards to people who have served the domain valiantly in the
previous year.
The meeting is conducted via mIRC, so that friends of Sime~Gen from all over the world can
attend. Two chat rooms are opened for the occasion; one hosting the formal meeting, and the other allowing the participants to chat in the background before, during, and after the formal meeting.
The logs from both chat rooms are posted on the web:
http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/chats/chat2010_mtg.html
http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/chats/chat2010_chat.html
There, you can read notes about the meetings from 1999 through 2010. The files for the last few
years are fairly elegant in format and content. The files in the earlier years are less formal,
but they report the necessary information.
Note that this is actually the 12th year (!) of these online meetings!
Comments are greatly appreciated. Send comments, questions, etc., to the address below. [Mention 'Sime~Gen Meeting' in the subject so I'll know it isn't spam.]
In Service to Unity,
Kaires Tevesu
historian@simegen.com
*******
******WISH JEAN LUCK******
WISH JEAN LUCK!
Jean's trip to Hollywood last November has resulted in an agent asking to see the first act of
the script she pitched at those meetings.
It's just a request to read, NOT an offer of representation, but it is an essential first step.
It could be a false step that goes nowhere, or it could be the first step on the path to
eventually getting a script produced. Good wishes for the latter are welcomed!
Also please send strength and inspiration as Jean polish-polish-polishes that first act before
sending it in in early February. "Good enough" is not good enough when trying to break into
Hollywood. It has to be great
******
******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/
******
******RELAY FOR LIFE ~ a message from Jean******
I know that at the moment we are all putting any charitable contributions we can afford toward
helping the people of Haiti. Nevertheless, the drive to this Spring's Relay for Life in the fight
against cancer has begun.
As a cancer survivor twice over, I participate in a relay team made up of survivors, the 8th
Wonders. I will remind you again next month, but if you are interested in seeing my website for
Relay, it's at http://short.to/12jf1
******
******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*****
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*****
******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.
******
******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 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 timedaily. 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
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