As If You Weren't Sad Already

They play the most depressing hold music when you wait for someone from the unemployment office to answer your call.  Is that wise?

In an interesting role reversal on copyright theft…

A Chinese novelist is suing Google for copyright infringement. I am absolutely the first writer to defend an author’s right to copyright his work. Being in both the publishing and the writing world, I work very hard to ensure that the businesses I work for don’t infringe on anyone’s copyright. I also protect my own pretty fiercely.  Personally, I hope she beats Google.  What I find interesting here is both our governments' takes on copyright infringement involving other countries. 

According to an article at the blog Writers Write,

The Financial Times reports that Google is being sued by a Chinese author whose book was scanned by the search giant as part of its global digitization process. The novelist has sued Google in a Chinese court on the grounds of copyright infringement.

The case, the first brought against Google by a Chinese writer, underlines the risks that remain to Google's plan to build a digital library which could lay the groundwork for an "iTunes of books" and potentially transform the publishing industry.

What I find so interesting about this is that Chinese people have long infringed on American authors’ and movie-makers’ copyrights and we are hard pressed to fight back with any measurable success. The American government, of course, would take her claims much more seriously than the Chinese government takes our infringement complaints.

Nevertheless, I digress. Feel free to digress too.

Gallimaufry

Gallimaufry is a noun meaning a hodgepodge or a jumble.

Sometimes my soul seems a gallimaufry from the past.


Please comment with your own sentence.

The Soul

"My entire soul is a cry, and all my work is a commentary on that cry."

Nikos Kazantzakis (Greek Writer)

The Devil is in the Details.

"Slight not what's near through aiming at what's far."

Euripides

Cracked Magazine Punctuation Cheat Sheet

An insightful look at how the Internet has changed punctuation for the better!?! (Is that sarcasm or enthusiasm?)


Please discuss.

10th Annual Writer's Digest Short Story Competition

The 10th Annual Writer's Digest Short Story Competition is accepting entries! Send them fiction that's bold, brilliant… but brief at 1,500 words or less. But don't be too long about it—the deadline has been extended to December 10, 2009.

Beware of Some Writing Contests!

In my quest to find writing contests for you to enter, I was searching the Web and came across a lot of fake contests. Mostly they were the kind where you send them money and never hear from them again. That is, of course, bad enough. Some, however, I find much more crushing to the soul of a writer. These are the ones where contest really appears legit with its massive Web site and 100s of poems written by many different authors. Some poems are terrible, but others are downright beautiful. As you read it, you wonder if this author would be the next Emily Dickenson.

About eight years ago, when I first started writing poems, I entered a poetry contest like that. I was told that my poems were wonderful, and they were posted immediately. What I found out pretty soon was that it was a poetry mill, where they churn out products to make you spend a lot of money buying your poem in book form or on a nice piece of framed paper so that you can show family and friends how legitimate you are now that you are published. I’m sure the Web site even hopes your family and friends will want to spend large quantities of money buying your poem in a leather-bound anthology with a thousand other suckers’ poems in there.

Please check over writing contests’ Web sites carefully before you submit. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if it is legitimate, especially when you are so excited about your writing and perhaps new to the game. Sometimes if you Google the name of the site, you’ll come up with blogs and other sites complaining about them. Look over the complaints to see if this really is a contest, you want to enter.

As for myself, I’ll continue to look for legitimate writing contests for you to enter, but please remember I’m human too!

Dialogue

I hear you call my name
I cannot bear this night
I must have my dialogue
to know where I continue
where future meets past
I have a spark
tell me you see it.

The stars reach down
and speak
diamonds and rubies.


Linda Suddarth

Discuss.

I Must Sing

Why do I live?

Because of the rings around Saturn.
Because the Welsh must sing.
Because of Fragonard and
the lady perpetually on a swing.
Because Mozart, existed I exist;
he is the color of violets in the spring.
Live because of the eternal
nature of the sweet ring
of familiarity. I know you darling
angel light unashamed—bring
your joy to crack and melt
the dusty veil I held thin
around my soul. Mozart changed
the world and now I must sing.
How can I do otherwise honestly?
Through trials, journeys, despair, war
little birds and Mozart still sing
and I hear them better than before.

Linda Suddarth


Please Discuss.