Category — Useful Websites

Sometimes I'm amazed at what writing resources there are on the Internet which I've not yet found. Today I just found another which I think is a good one -- Lulu.com. I've spent the last half hour looking around, and as close as I can figure, it's a very reasonable self-publishing center. The membership to the site requires registration, but it's free.

The beauty of the whole place is that they seem to have very reasonable pricing if you want to upload a manuscript, pick the binding and cover you want, and "publish" it.

Publishing in this case means putting it up on Lulu.com for people to order. They produce copies for you on-demand as people order them.

The company makes money, I assume, not just on the fees they charge for printing and shipping your book(s), but mostly on the various PR packages they offer to help you market and sell your book(s).

There's nothing really new here. Many companies have come into business to offer on-demand self-publishing on the Internet. I haven't looked at any in recent years and there may be some much better than Lulu.com -- but the Lulu.com site includes a nice forum and various "community" features.

Have you done any self-publishing? I know some of you have. What services have you used, and would you recommend them for any of us? Why or why not? Share your experiences with us, please.

Technorati Tags: self-publishing, Internet publishers, writing services and communities, useful website, writing tips at garyspeer.com

The Top Hosting Center website (otherwise known as THC) has a limited time webhosting offer right now that you ought to take a look at if you have a website or a blog -- or if you plan on having a website or blog. It may be one of the best hosting offers I've seen in awhile.

They're calling it their "Rudolf Web Hosting," specifically they're telling us that Rudolf (as in the red-nosed raindeer) hung around after the holidays to make this available -- but not for long.

The plan is geared specifically toward supporting blogs and blogging, and includes a domain name and a pretty good webhosting plan for a one-time $95 "lifetime" fee.

Go to their website and take a look. The information I got from them earlier today is that they only have 500 of these special $95 package offers left, so go right over and check it out before they're sold out. I've never used them myself, but they look legit and it certainly sounds like a worthwhile deal for your blog or website.

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If you want to see some truly beautiful architecture, go to this website for a company that is one of the few nationwide which specializes in building conservatories. The site is Tanglewood Conservatories, and they build absolutely stunning conservatories. "Build" almost seems inadequate for what they do. "Craft from fine woods and state of the art architectural designs" would be better than build. Just look through their gallery and read about their history and you'll come away convinced you need a conservatory for your community -- maybe even a personal conservatory for your home.

Which brings me to one of the reasons for this post. They recently built a conservatory for a client in San Francisco, which was donated to the Caroline County Historical Society after a chain of events prevented the conservatory from being constructed on the client's property. The donated conservatory is now going to be auctioned at a steep discount to help raise money for the society. Here's the press release with the details:

Press Release:

DENTON, Md. —Jok Walsh and Michael McCrea of the Maryland based Caroline County Historical Society are still looking for someone who would like to purchase the conservatory donated to the society by Tanglewood Conservatories last year.

Jok says that the society is involved with the preservation of 23 building and historic sites in the Caroline County area and would like to use to money to create a capital projects fund.

"We plow every cent we’ve got into our projects", he says. "We don’t have any money in the bank account. This constitutes the biggest gift we’ve ever gotten."

The donated conservatory is already boxed and ready to go. It measures about 13 feet wide by 22 feet long and is about 13 feet tall at the ridge of its hip roof. See our blog from November 30th to see the specifications in complete detail.

Walsh spoke to reporters covering the story at length of Tanglewood Conservatories' quality and name recognition in the conservatory business. "They make a very high quality product that is sold all over the United States."

Technorati Tags: Tanglewood Conservatories. wood crafting, building conservatories, donated conservatory, useful website, writing tips at garyspeer.com

Okay, I'll admit up front that I have no personal knowledge of this author or his teaching material. But he sounds good and the website looks good. I just did a "Google" on Randy Ingermanson and everything I found looks 1) very useful, and, 2) just really good.

The site I'm talking about is "AdvancedFictionWriting.com," and it has a wealth of material from author Ingermanson as well as some links to very useful articles. Go take a look. I'm in the process right now of signing up for everything he offers that's free -- the paid stuff will come later after I've checked out the usefulness of the freebies.

Seriously, I'm looking at a couple of his books right now, as I've always been a science fiction and Christian writing fan. When much of his fiction combines the two, I can't resist.

Any of you familiar with the man, his writing, his "credibility"? Of course, few of you really know me either, so what does your opinion count for anyway? (JUST KIDDING. KIDDING. Don't run off. It was a joke.)

Take a look around and if you've read his stuff, tell us, please.

Technorati Tags: fiction writing, Randy Ingermanson, Christian writing, science fiction, useful website, writing tips at garyspeer.com

Winter weather got you in the mood for shopping but the ice and snow keep you at home? Here's a useful website if you're in the market for some fine, internationally renowned fashion accessories, particularly luxury fashion handbags from Bolzano.

Bolzano are authentic Italian designer handbags which, according to the website, have taken the European, Asian, and Central and South American fashion world by storm in recent years. Now they are moving into the U.S. and are happy to offer their entire catalog of handbags and fashion accessories online.

Personally, I don't know much about handbags. But I do know a little about well designed and useful websites. If you're in the market for fashion handbags and accessories, the Bolzano website is a well-designed place to look around. They have a nicely thought out grouping of products easily accessible, and with lots of good graphics. The entire site is easy to navigate and either browse through their product line or search for specific products.

They also offer an onsite link to a very helpful "Google map" displaying the locations and directions for getting to each of their several dozen retail outlets in the U.S. and Canada.

Take a look around their website. I'm sure some Bolzano fashion handbags and accessories would be welcome addition to your wardrobe and make beautiful gifts for family and friends.

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Here's another "Useful Website" offering. Well, okay, maybe "useful" is stretching things a bit. But it's fun anyway. Take a look around and take the quiz:

Did you take the quiz? What Super Hero are you? Tell us, please.

Technorati Tags: word games, fun websites, useful websites, writing tips at garyspeer.com

The old adage is that a picture's worth a thousand words. I'm not sure, as a writer, that I buy into that, but if you do photography with your writing, especially if you live in or near New York, here's a useful website to find digital camers in New York -- "42ndStPhoto.com."

The website says the company has been around for more than 40 years, and of course they do mail order, phone orders, Internet orders, and they ship to anywhere you need. Looking around the site, I see an incredible selection of EVERYTHING you might want related to digital photography. From rank amateurs like me to real pros (I mean, after all, it's New York City), they've got what you need. They include on the website links to a selection of digital camera specials, camcorders, DVD camcorders, and even some MP3 players.

Take a look around. If you're shopping for digital photography needs, this is a good place to go.

Technorati Tags: New York City digital photography, digital photography supplies, camcorders, useful website, writing tips at garyspeer.com

We're in the midst of recovering from an ice storm today. It was terrible yesterday and it isn't thawing much, so we're still in danger of power outages. Not the sort of day to bring out the best and most thoughtful side of me. (I worry too much, as my good wife, St. Shirl, would tell you.)

So I roamed around my "Favorites" file and searched around Google and came up with a site with some interesting word related pages: "Word Play," simply enough, is the name of the site. I know nothing about it except that it has some fun links and useful information related to the English language.

A word or two of caution about the "Word Play" website: It does have some annoying "pop up" scripts installed. Your browser or may not be set to block them. But none of them appear to be harmful, simply advertising. Also, some of the links appear to have died, i.e., gone away, redirected to error pages, or whatever. But there's some fun stuff here -- including a link to a useful and fascinating site about homonyms. (If you find homonyms and homophones fascinating, that is.)

Technorati Tags: word play, word fun, useful website, writing tips at garyspeer.com

Have you ever published a dog book? How about a short story about a dog? Or any pet for that matter?

We had mostly dogs for pets when I was a kid. I can remember the not-really-creative names of several of my faithful pet dogs: Jiggs was the first pet I remember. He was a small terrier mix of some sort, colored black and tan I think. Another was a mostly collie named Rex. Rex was a great outdoor dog I had a lot of fun with in the small town where I grew up. A few years later we moved to a large city (Denver) and I had a small house dog named -- no, really, this was his name -- Butch. Butch was what we called a "rat terrier." I don't know if that's a legitimate breed or just what we called him. The thing I remember about Butch was that he used to get out of the small fenced yard we had and I would find myself standing on a corner in one of Denver's tougher "inner city" neighborhoods at the time shouting, "Here Butch! Heeeeerrrreee Butch!" at the top of my lungs. That wasn't the coolest thing for a 13-year-old living in a tough neighborhood.

I'm in a "doggy story" mood right now because I just found this useful website for dog beds and other dog items, "BarkSlope.com." They also have a nice selection of dog carriers, dog toys, and even dog clothes. They've even started a dog blog.

Whether you write dog stories or just enjoy dogs as part of the story of your life, you should take a look at this useful website. And tell us about the dog stories you've written.

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If you've never been to Vat19 and looked at all their fun and really useful electronic gadgets and gifts, you're in for a treat. I was particularly attracted to their electronics charger station, which lets you charge up to three rechargeable devices at a time.

I'll bet most of us have more than three rechargeable devices, such as a cell phone, digital camera, rechargeable batteries for numerous needs, iPods, and all the rest. But this nifty little electronics charger station is a great way to do the job -- maybe you need more than one.

One of the nice features of the Vat19 site is that they have videos showing the features and benefits of many of their products. Go over and check out the website. You'll enjoy yourself -- and probably find more than one useful gadget to pick up during your visit.

Technorati Tags: Vat19, electronics charger station, gifts and gadgets, useful websites, writing tips at garyspeer.com

It's no secret that we're living in a dangerous world filled with risks and downright dangerous people. You've undoubtedly read or heard this last week about some horrific shootings on campuses and at a city council meeting.

I'm not one to shout "the sky is falling" every time we hear of such bad news. But I just saw a teaser to an upcoming television news feature about "taser parties," where women go to review the latest in civilian taser weapons.

And by an odd coincidence, I just ran onto a site loaded with useful, inexpensive self defense products. This useful website is called "Security Solutions Self Defense Supplies," and it's well worth your attention. They offer a wide array of pepper spray products, mini-stun guns, child monitoring products, and even some surveillance cameras. The site also includes a lot of information regarding personal safety and self defense, and concerning the legal aspects of using stun guns, pepper sprays, and self defense tactics in the U.S.

I'm not saying any of us need to carry firearms or even stun guns. But I am saying this is a website well worth a look in the times we are living in. Be bold in your writing -- and sensible in your daily conduct.

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It's good once in awhile to remember that now classic name tag applied to the Internet by Al Gore -- I think it was Gore who popularized it anyway? -- the "information super highway." Because on most days, you can easily forget the "information" aspect of the Internet. It seems everywhere a person turns, you run into porn sites, porns sites disguised as legitimate sites, spammers trying to sell you everything and anything (including porn), and lots of gossip and wild rumors.

But that's not the point of this post. I want to get you back to the information concept, specifically websites run by newspapers. Would you have thought five years ago that you might find reading your local paper easier and more useful online than offline? Many mornings before leaving for work last summer, I was able to go online and get all the stuff I wanted from our local newspaper's website long before our carrier threw it behind my wife's flower bushes where it was almost impossible to reach.

Now I have several newspaper websites bookmarked and go to them regularly for news and information to help me as a writer and a blogger. I am no longer stuck with the local paper, I can readily access the nation's and the world's leading papers with the click of a mouse. I generally visit The New York Times and The Washington Post regularly. I also have favorites from cities I've lived in throughout my life: The Denver Post, The Idaho Statesman, and The Seattle PI.

Sure, you can go to Yahoo news and Google news sites, and for quick information and search functions, I recommend both. But for getting stories for your writing, you can't miss the local color and drama of a newspaper website. Look around and find your favorites.

Perhaps you already have a favorite newspaper site you visit regularly? Tell us about it.

Technorati Tags: Internet information, news and information, newspaper websites, writing tips at garyspeer.com

A couple of days ago I posted a "Useful Website" for the more adventuresome among you -- it had to do with whitewater rafting and other outdoor fun.

Today I'm offering you another website for some serious sun and fun -- "buywake.com." It's a great resource for wakeboards and wakeboarding supplies. If you don't have a wakeboard yet, or you're in the market for another, this is the place to look.

I confess I wasn't familiar with wakeboarding. I've heard of it, but never done it. Perhaps I owe it to my career as a writer to get out there and give wakeboarding a try. My research indicates it developed from a combination of water skiing, snowboarding, and surfing techniques. Whatever the sport's history, it looks like a lot of fun if you're willing and able to try water sports.

And the "buywake.com" website is loaded with all the boards, gear, clothing, and accessories you'll need to get started. If you're an old hand at wakeboarding, they've got stuff for you, too.

Go take a look around their website. Then get out there on the water and give it a try. Have an adventure. Then do what all good writers do: Write about it.

Technorati Tags: wakeboards, wakeboarding, water sports, useful website, writing tips at garyspeer.com

Okay, you need windowshades but you aren't sure where to buy them online? Actually, you may already know where, since I posted about this wonderful site, "SelectBlinds.com," a couple of months ago. But for those of you looking to do some remodeling or fixing up around your home, I'm offering it as a "Useful Website" today in case you missed it.

I was just looking around at some of their honeycomb/cellular shades in a nice hazelnut color. You can look through a huge selection of window shades and window blind styles, along with closeup "swatches" to see what the colors and textures look like. Don't take my word for it. They have a collection of testimonials from "Extreme Makeover" and HGTV remodeling "gurus," as well as testimonials from satisfied customers.

So if you're looking for window shades and other home decor supplies, take a look around "SelectBlinds.com."

Technorati Tags: SelectBlinds.com, window shades, window blinds, remodeling, useful website, writing tips at garyspeer.com

Any of you out there outdoor or adventure writers? Are you up for a little Lehigh rafting whitewater challenge? Whitewater rafting on the Lehigh River in Pennsylvania, that is.

When I was a teenager, I dreamed of some day becoming a successful outdoors or adventure writer. I could see myself camping and hiking all over the great American West (I lived in Idaho at the time), scaling mountains, rafting through canyons, hunting for bear, the whole deal. For a variety of life's reasons, that never happened.

But I have gone rafting a couple of times. Never whitewater rafting, but rafting. This "Useful Website" offers those of you in or near Poconos of northeastern Pennsylvania the chance to give it a shot. The "Whitewater Challengers" website offers not only rafting, but kayaking and mountain biking adventures as well. Personally, I'd go for the mountain biking tours. My son, however, has vowed to own a kayak some day.

So, are you up for a little excitement and some whitewater challenges? Come on, writers, get out there and earn those adventure credits. You can write all about it later and, who knows, maybe even pay for your trip. Take a look around the "Whitewater Challengers" website. It's even got lots of beautiful pictures in a photo gallery of their adventuresome customers.

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