Focusing

While I will still use this site for my Bethany Network project and some Open Source news, I have decided to focus this blog on my writing. All Vermont non-profit info will be transferred to another blog: vermontblog.wordpress.com.
One of the projects that I really want to invest in at this site is a short story [...]

Stratford Publishing

I just read in the paper today that Stratford Publishing, out of Brattleboro, VT, has merged with another company.
I’ve been looking and looking for publishers in Vermont and I somehow missed Stratford. Though the company seems to have hit hard times, Stratford has a very impressive scope of topics. They do just about everything, which [...]

How Technology Saved Our Lives

The sun had set. Darkness surrounded us. The blue blazes of an unfamiliar trail were no longer visible and a thick carpet of leaves leant a terrifying uniformity to the ground. We were at best 30-40 minutes from our car.
We fortunately had two items that saved us from a freezing night out in the [...]

Revising: DELETE

Don’t be shy about deleting.
There is such freedom that comes through deleting what you have just written. In fact, a lack of deleting seems to imply that you take your writing too seriously.
If you can’t figure out how a whole paragraph fits into your story or essay, then can it. Erase it forever. Don’t save [...]

Writer’s Market Articles

Even if some of the information seems like commonsense, many of the articles out there by accomplished writers on writing are valuable. They at least reinforce good practices and at best provide ways to improve your writing.
There are a series of articles on the Writer’s Market Web Page. Check them out here.

Publishing Information You Must Read

Parapublishing has an incredible list of information about the publishing industry that is a must read for everyone interested in the book and writing worlds.
As a patron and fan of the Northshire Bookstore, I am particularly interested in the status of independent booksellers:
“American Booksellers Association (The independent bookstore organization). The chain stores are replacing [...]

Wanted: For Use of Excessive Force

The only person more dangerous than inexperienced “handy” man is an inexperienced “handy” man with power tools. Such was the case last night. Toss in a sense of urgency with the project and you have the makings of a full-fleged fiasco.
It all started with an idealist notion of supporting the local economy, helping out [...]

Web 2.0 List

If there is one list of web 2.0 programs that you need: this is it. via

Non-Profit Legal Resource

Of all things, I checked out one of the links on the Google ad of this site and was pleasantly surprised.
www.legalzoom.com is a nice resource with all kinds of information, but they  also have some helpful articles on non-profit organizations that are well-written and informative.
non-profit, law, legal
Technorati Tags: non-profit, law, legal

Writing Jumpstart

52 Projects has a great list of things you can right away to jumpstart your writing. Many of the tips have appeared in other books on writing, but this list is a great compilation with some great links. via
writing
Technorati Tags: writing

When Words Fail

I wrote up a short essay on prayer called “When Words Fail” and posted it on inamirrordimly.com. Here it is:
He put the prayer book down knowing that nothing had changed. His heart was frozen solid. Pride still clutched to his breast and self reigned in his thoughts. Where is God? Could God still have a [...]

Short Story in the Southshire Pepperpot

You can now pre-order the Southshire Pepperpot. It’s a collection of stories by writers in South Western Vermont called the Southshire Roundtable. I’m actually part of a group in Manchester, but the Southshire group put this anthology together.
My story is called “A Bittersweet Land,” a story about my first experience with Turkish coffee while studying [...]

Simple Tags

My friend Todd Hiestand just walked me through the installation process for a WordPress plugin called “SimpleTags.” A plugin is essentially a ready-made component you can add to your site that provides a nice extra feature after a few quick clicks.
The nice part about SimpleTags is that you do not have to copy and paste [...]

Getting the Word Out

Jeff Dickson, the managing editor of the Manchester Journal came to the most recent Northshire Non-Profit Network meeting to give some pointers on press releases. Though I plan on posting my notes from the meeting at the NNN site, I wanted to share a few that I thought were particularly helpful:

Keep the press release to [...]

Out of Town

We’ll be out of town for a few days. Pending on how much it rains and whether or not I can remember my passwords, I may not be blogging too much over the weekend. I’ll be back by Tuesday for sure.

The Southshire Pepper Pot

A few weeks ago I submitted a story entittled “A Bittersweet Land” to the Southshire Roundtable, a writing group down in Bennington. They are putting together an anthology having to do with food and put out a call for short stories. While not a food expert, I have held Turkish coffee in high regard after [...]

Selling Out on Blogs

I received an e-mail yesterday with a link to an article about how to profit from a blog. While I’m not opposed to putting ads or a donate sign (hosting a blog is not always free), the focus of the article and a subsuquent link within it was how to maximize revenue through search engines [...]

A Bittersweet Land

I just submitted a short story to the Southshire writing group’s anthology of short stories related to food. They call it their “Pepper Pot.” We’ll see if I can make the cut. In any case, here is a snippet from my submission. I wrote about my experience with Turkish coffee. The story begins here with [...]

Red Ink Revisions

A friend from my high school days has started her own edited service. She’s been all over the US working in a wide variety of jobs and has a solid editorial background. The company is called Red Ink Revisions.
It’s worth visiting the web site just to see the top notch job done by Red Frog [...]

Paul Bremmer at the Northshire Bookstore

Myself and roughly 150 people enjoyed an afternoon with former ambassador and CPA director Paul “Jerry” Bremmer. The event was held at the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vt that was just voted the top bookseller by Publisher’s Weekly. Quite an accomplishment for a small-town store.
Bremmer gave about an hour long talk on his new book, [...]