Becoming a Published Writer

There are tons of resources on this subject, so I narrowed my search down to four favorites. I will try and list what makes each one special, so you can check them out and decide for yourself which you would like most.

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The Easy Way To Write

This one has two free newsletters:

Easy Writing Newsletter - a regular blast of FREE writing tips to improve your writing.

Fiction Writing Courses - they're popular, educational and fun, and will help you write.

When you sign up for either, you get a free eBook:
The Easy Way to Write Stories That Sell! (Used to cost $21)

Free help for writers looking to get published - this is awesome!

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NewNovelist - Software that helps you write a novel

This software looks absolutely killer. It's software for writers to help organise ideas and thoughts the way that a writer thinks. It in turn develops a structure for your story. It is made to be as dynamic and flexible as possible, and has been used by several published authors. It makes the experience of writing a novel come alive, working with your ideas as they develop and helping you to keep the story in the right shape. Want to make writing a more dynamic and effortless experience? I know I do.

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Write, Create and Promote a Best-Seller

Now this one is a really strong manual for writing a good story, finding an agent/editor, publishing your book, and advertising/promoting it into being a best-seller. That's a lot of ground covered! A lot of very very important ground for aspiring writers. If you buy this one, you also get Write Here, Write Now, another writing book for free. The whole deal costs $12.95 - I didn't blink about buying this. Here's an overview:

The Actual Writing:

Where to begin writing your book
Plotting and creating your book
Editing and polishing your work to a professional standard
How to make sure your reader is 'hooked' after the first two pages
How to complete your first draft in 30 days
In-depth information about how to self-publish an ebook at no cost to you - and you keep 100% of the profits!

Getting an agent/publisher, selling ebooks, getting your book out there to the public:

Submitting your book to royalty paying publishers
Copyrighting your work
How to attract an editor or an agent
How to get a publisher to turn your ebook into a printed book
How to generate sales - without spending a cent
Finding your target audience
How to increase your sales - and your profits!
How to create an author website that sells
Creating a sales page for your books
How to accept credit card payments from your own website without a merchant account
Accepting alternative payments
How to automate your sales processes
Getting targeted visitors to your site

Finally, Promoting/Advertising your book - perhaps THE most important step for good sales!

How to get your book listed on the best-seller lists
101 places that review books (& ebooks) for free - and how to get them to review yours!
33 sure-fire promotion and marketing tips that cost nothing
Top 10 online writing groups/mailing lists - where other authors hang out
14 places to submit your work for literary awards
11 online bookstores that will sell your ebooks for you
17 ebook directories that will send readers straight to your website
How to get bookstores to accept and sell your books
How to get other webmasters to sell your books
How to keep track of your statistics
Plus a bonus section, filled with heaps of links to the best writer's resources on the 'net

I've never seen anything so expansive offered for such a low price. How cool is that?

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The 5 Little Words That Are GUARANTEED To Turn You Into A Published Novelist…

This one is my secret personal favorite. They boast:

Suppose by just remembering five little words, you could create an entire novel from start to finish in as little as 30 days? A novel readers—and publishers—couldn't put down?

And my curiosity got the best of me. This book is awesome! I was thinking there's no way that five words can really do that, but was I happily surprised! The more expensive package gives you one-on-one help with editing, writing, what-have-you. Amazing! I took the smaller package to see if I liked it - now I think I'll upgrade very soon.

Check it out - this is one of the coolest things ever for aspiring writers out there!

Free Beer? Sweet!

Someone has put together the tricks to getting free beer and wine delivered to your home. I'm gonna try it out because free beer = good. Free wine = good too.

Here's the spot:
Learn how to get free beer and wine delivered to your house.

The Unclaimed Money Thingie

You've probably seen this before, be it on MSNBC or Oprah or the Wall Street Journal. I'm just gonna quickly point at it, before whining that I don't have any money waiting for me :( Then again, I'm 26 and don't have any reason for any money to be waiting for me. Maybe you do - if you're over the age of 30, I'd at LEAST take a look - who knows?

Your Unclaimed Money site

Good luck!

LNH Atomic Model

I've devoured as many quantum physics books as I could to try and get a better understanding of physical reality, and how my consciousness fits in/effects/creates it. I've read The Elegant Universe, The Holographic Universe, Parallel Universes (not quite as science fictiony as it sounds), and several others. Here's the next one I'll be reading - an e-book that claims that this new model of the atom is the one that ties together microscopic and macroscopic physics. Since I've been following along trying to find out what is and what isn't part of the TOE (Theory of Everything), I have to check this out.

The Lattice Nested Hydreno (LNH) Atomic Model

Happy Deconstructing-the-Universe!

Witchy Secrets!

OK, I'm revealing my metaphysical side a little strongly with this one, but I desperately want to order it and can't help but reveal it here. Check it out:

Witchcraft Underground Secrets

Reading the descriptions on the second page, I know this thing is good. I know belief creates our reality, and that focusing on your desires as though they already exist is the way to manifest (Law of Attraction). These guys have it right - so I'll be checking them out very quickly. Anyone else with strong interests in this area should do the same. I've wasted too much time and money on "witchcraft" and "magick" books that are dogmatic and don't really know the secrets of how and why different systems of magick work.

Best wishes to Arabella Jolie for this wonderful product!

Past Life Regression Much?

OK I have to pass this one along -

Astralware Past Life Regression

$14.95 for software that will act as your personal past-life regression therapist! That's unbeatable. I've meditated on past lives before, but haven't had a great deal of success - finally a binaural-beat past-life guided program designed specifically for this! I'll be adding this one to my collection immediately.

What is Your Kid Doing Online?

I have an 8 year old who accesses the internet each day. He generally is playing World of Warcraft. Now, there are parental controls that block out some offensive language, but my preference was that he couldn't access chat at all. Thirteen years ago I nearly fell prey to an internet predator, and now I worry about my kid. How can I be sure his in-game chat is all game-related? How do I know for sure what he's doing on the internet when he's not playing?

So I found PC Tattletale, which logs EVERYTHING your kid does online. I imagine you could use it for a spouse you don't trust as well, but let's focus on the kid thing.

Here's the stats they give, which I haven't verified but would NOT surprise me:

1 in 5 children were solicited for sex in the past year.

1 in 33 children were aggressively solicited sexual, meaning that the child was threatened, asked to meet, was called on the phone, or received mail or gifts.

1 in 4 children were exposed to photos of people having sex, even though about 1/3 of households reported using "Internet blocking software."

About 1 in 17 children were threatened or harassed on the Internet, including threats of harm to the child, friends or other family members.

Not cool. Not cool at all. So how can you help make sure your kid isn't one of these?

1) Talk to your child about the dangers of people on the internet. Make sure they know never to give their name, address, phone number, mom or dad's name, city, state, or ANYTHING that a predator could use to track them down.

2) Spy on them. What? That's horrible you say? No, remember who you're dealing with. Your kid is the same kid that thinks they know better than you, correct? Your kid is hard-headed, correct? Your kid feels safe and has no real belief that anyone is really out to get them, correct? Your kid just MIGHT forget what you told them, or IGNORE it, even if only one time. Correct?

And that one time could bring the predator into your kid's life, right? So that's one time too many. Children are not mature, and if your child has full access to something as expansive and amazing as the internet, you should at least take a mild interest in spying.



PC Tattletale gives you the perfect way to do this - your child will never know and you will sleep easier at night. With this program, you get:

*Chat/Instant Messenger logging
*Screenshot capture
*Keystroke recording (all keystrokes - chats, passwords, what-have-you)
*Email recording
*Keyword blocking (if they try to go to a site that contains the keyword, they get a 404 error, which makes them believe the page simply won't open. No suspicion.)
*Website recording (what websites they visited)
*Program use recording (records what programs they run on the computer)

All of this is completely undetectable - the program hides and can not be seen in the Windows Start Menu, Desktop, Task Manager, Program Files Folders, or even the Add/Remove programs menu. AND they offer a free trial! Sweet!

Of course, if you suspect your spouse of cheating, you could use it on them too... But I wouldn't necessarily encourage that. Unless I would... Hmmmmm...

Happy spying!

Guitar Training Made Fun And Easy

Take a quick look at this first.

Reads like a big fuckin infomercial, doesn't it? I thought so too at first, but I checked out all the sound samples, and while listening to them kept reading down the page. I've come to the conclusion that this looks pretty damn sweet. Pretty damn sweet indeed.

If anyone's ever used this, please drop a comment on this post and let me know what you thought. I think I'm going to have to grab this next paycheck. I've been stifled on my guitar playing skills for awhile now, and I can't afford a teacher. Nor do I have time, with a full-time job and wife and two kids (read: the OTHER full-time job). This looks like fun - tons of play-along tracks (I'm tired of having to make my own with my Korg keyboard and a looper pedal - gets tedious when I just wanna pick around), learning games, and even lessons on reading tab and transcribing music.

I read some reviews of this program that said it was pretty good, but there were a few things lacking - then I noticed that these reviews were out-dated, and reading further down the page I see that Ben has responded to these demands and created better products and more variety that has brought Jamorama up to and beyond user requests for more.

I've played guitar on and off for about 8 years now, and have never really broken through the barriers of skill that would make it lots more fun to me (not to mention my poor family and friends who have to listen to me). This looks like the kind of thing that could help me rekindle my enjoyment for the instrument. I look forward to giving it a shot.

Jamorama - a cool way to up your guitar skills!

TV Online

I love downloading my favorite shows. But I'd really love doing it legally. Southpark, That 70's Show, Family Guy, Friends, Seinfeld, you name it. So I did some research and found that the "best sites" to join for downloading TV shows were actually charging you a fee to get information on using P2P (peer to peer) programs which were FREE! Now I find most of my shows on P2P as well, but there's often stuff I just can't find. So I set out to find something better than these cheap scammy deals.

What I found was iStream TV, which actually streams TV to you from over 100 different countries all over the world! You have 1100 channels to choose from - news, sports, cartoons, music, movies... With live broadcasts AND on-demand! Several cartoon channels? Movie channels? That's what I want!

I can hardly stand it, I've got to get in on this - I was once addicted to WinAmp's TV, only it took forever to get into one of those channels because so few slots were available in each one. They were generally low quality too. I can see my nights and weekends becoming consumed as I speak... Oh dear god, will I even play World of Warcraft anymore? Hehehe, yeah I will... I've always been good at juggling my pasttimes with my other pasttimes...

Check out iStream TV here and please leave comments on this post if you like it, or if you've used it in the past. I hope to hear from you!

Gotta go, it's TV time!

Psychic Brainwave Coolness

I'll admit it from the start - I've been playing with tons of brainwave manipulation packages. Most of them haven't quite done it for me. I have found a few things here and there that have been really good at creating one effect or another, but I've always wanted the holy grail, especially for Astral Projection.

Well here's a site that claims to be able to give that to you. They say that they've studied the brainwaves of people actually doing the things you want to do, and their brainwaves are crafted to create exactly that effect in your brain. They claim a money-back guarantee if you're not satisfied. Too good to be true?

Maybe, but I won't miss out if it's the real thing! A 100%-guaranteed Astral Projection mechanism? $20 to find out? Hell yeah!

Here's the place I'm talking about.

The offer brainwave stimulation for:
Astral Projection
Remote Viewing
Clairvoyance
Telepathy
Lucid Dreaming
Stress Management
Chakra Tuning
Speed Learn
Sleep
Instant Meditation
Chi Generator
Out Of Body
Precognition
Energizer
OM Harmonic
Epsilon Wave
Autogenics
Delta Wave
Shaman
Psychic
Endorphin Release
Increase IQ
Past Life Regression
Power Nap
Improve Memory
HGH Stimulation

as well as meditation programs for:
Alpha Meditation
Theta Meditation
Delta Meditation

and a full Meditation Course

They also offer self-hypnosis programs for:
Cure Insomnia
Improve Creativity
Instant Charisma
Cure Impotence
Control Stress
Self Confidence
Stop Smoking
Stop A Habit
Lose Weight

And Sound Therapy for:
Endorphin Release
Jet Lag
Tinnitus Cure
HGH Stimulation


I'm going for:
Astral Projection, Lucid Dreaming, Out of Body, Endorphin Release, Past-Life Regression, Improve Creativity and Stop Smoking... That sounds awesome. If anyone has used any of these, please feel free to post your comments and reviews as comments to this post. I'd love to hear about your experiences with these guys - they look awful damn cool!

(The site once again)

The REAL Jesus Christ

Cool! I've always loved getting under the skin of Christianity and searching for the real messages from Jesus. After all, those are the ones that are applicable to us, and the ones that reveal the greatest truths we can use for our own personal freedom. Not that watered-down, heavily altered and heavily edited crap they sell you in church (the collection plate's coming around as we speak...). No, I want info that will help free me from the seeming constraints of everyday life and physical reality itself.

So I was very pleased to discover this.

Long forgotten, unknown lecture on the real Jesus? What they don't want you to know? The real messages and meanings? As always, count me in. At first I thought $19 seemed a little steep, but the more I think about it, I've spent more than that on other supposed "real teachings of Jesus" books that I felt fell short. This looks far more interesting - just by the bullet points I can tell it was written by a guy with a much better spiritual understanding than most people who purport to write on Jesus.

When next paycheck drops, I'm grabbing it. If anyone else has read it or reads it before then, please leave a comment on this post and let me know how it was!

Click here to check out the site and decide if you're interested.

Free Transcendental Meditation Newsletter!

I'm a sucker for spiritual/new-agey/transcendental stuff. I've been searching for the meaning of life (I found it by the way. Don't worry, I won't tell you - you wouldn't like it.) and since then, the cheat-codes to life for a long time. Now the cheat codes part I still haven't found. I've touched them once or twice, but not quite found them. Dammit.

Anyway, here's a site that offers free newsletters containing information on how to meditate. Their info is nondenominational, which is good because there are many types of yoga/meditation that all have good info. I've often wondered what kind of information you'd find if someone who wasn't biased towards one or the other took all the best parts and put them together, to find out what REALLY works. It looks like these guys did that, and I look forward to learning from them.

To sign up for your free meditation newsletter, go to this site and enter your name/email. Of course, they also offer several books which look very interesting, if you want to get more than just the free stuff. My bank account's running a little low this week, but once I get paid again I'll be checking a couple of them out.

Here's a breakdown of the books these guys also offer:

Meditation for Beautiful Skin (for women, obviously)

White Fat Cow: How to Change Your Life, Fortune and Destiny Through Merit and Meditation (this sounds vaguely interesting to me - the cover of the book is really cool)

The Insider's Guide to the World's Best and Worst Spiritual Paths and Practices (this one sounds interesting. I would love to see the Best and Worst paths & practices. I don't know if I'll agree with some of it - I've had plenty of success with chakra stimulation, which they don't seem to endorse.)

How to Measure and Deepen Your Spiritual Realization (this one looks very cool - I'm always open to new ways to deepen my spiritual growth)

The 5 Elements Meditation Practice Manual (looks good - I'm not sure it'd be anything new for me)

The White Skeleton Meditation Practice Manual (ooooo - a new meditation technique from India - sign me up!)

Cassette Tape Lessons on How to Meditate (I love audio books, especially since my commute to work and home take up about an hour and a half per day, and the radio is god-awful)

Check these guys out, get your free newsletter and decide if you like/trust them. They sound awesome, I'm excited to see what kind of advancement I make in the next few weeks.

The Internet Adventures of StupidMan

Take a quick peek here...

OK, they had me at "StupidMan", but they kept me for a few other reasons.

1) The book looks funny. Basically, you follow the adventures of StupidMan from being an internet noob to becoming a guru. Now, it looks like anyone can read this for the humor, whatever manner of expert or idiot you are on the web. It looks funny enough. I'm buying it just to laugh at the stupid noob, StupidMan...

2) The book is actually an educational book designed to be entertaining. So anyone who would like to learn more about the internet, website development, speaking like a computer expert, etc, will learn from this book. While I won't admit it, I'll actually be looking to see what I learn from this book too.

3) Their top 10 list of why you should buy this book today:
# 10 It's not worth stealing.
# 9 The reviews are good but who would bother writing a bad review?
# 8 Laughter is good for your health.
# 7 Stupidman makes you look good by comparison.
# 6 When somebody says you are the worst ........., you can say, "No I'm not and I have proof."
# 5 It might be tax deductible. Consult a tax specialist. (If you can afford a tax specialist you can certainly drop $12 on this book.)
# 4 Couldn't think of one and the Top Nine Reasons sounds dumb.
# 3 If nobody else buys it you will have a rare and valuable collectors item.
# 2 Stupidman's mortgage payment is delinquent.
# 1 You can't angrily demand a refund if you don't buy it first.

It's only $12 to buy the book, which isn't bad at all.

You're basically buying the chronicles of someone going from knowing-nothing to being ahead of the game, and learning along with them. The fact that they're able to present this information in a highly entertaining way is what really attracts me to it.

Go here and check out their page to see if you might be interested in this book!

Happy reading!

PSP Site - Games, Movies, Emulation!

OK the first site I want to blog about is this cool site I just found for PSP users. As a PSP owner myself, I'm always looking for a good deal on games, movies, and even "hackable" stuff, like emulating old video game systems on my PSP. This site is the jackpot:

PSP Blender

I've never seen anything like it. Finally, a PSP site to serve MY needs.

So here's how it works:

You pay a one-time membership fee (currently $37.00) and that's it. You have total access to games, movies, emulation forever! I was afraid it'd be a monthly fee, but I don't mind $40ish if it's just once. That's less than the price of some games in stores!

Now, the stuff you get from them is downloaded onto your computer, then moved over to your PSP using a USB link cable. (If you don't already have one, they're easy to find. PSP Blender even suggests some places to order one online, but you should have plenty of stores around you that carry them.) You'll want to invest in a really good memory stick, because your storage capacity will determine how much of your goodies you can keep on your PSP at one time (of course, you can keep as much as you want on your computer and shift em around).

Some of the coolest features are that you can download import games, which gives you access to Japanese games you'd never generally see... Too bad I don't speak Japanese or I'd really bite that one. They support all firmware, all versions of PSP, and also offer emulation support. They'll give you emulators and games for:

Gameboy / Gameboy Color
Neo Geo CD
Super Nintendo
Sega Genesis
Neo Geo Pocket
Turbo Grafx 16
Nintendo (NES)
Sega
PC (Windows)

That's pretty sweet - I love replaying old NES and SNES games, but I've never had the chance to play some of those systems before now! They also show you how to support tons of video types on your PSP (AVI,MOV,MP4,OGM,MKV,NUT,ASF,WMV) as well as audio (MP3,M4A,WMA,OGG,WAV).

PSP Blender is Mac compatible, which was a nice surprise. Now I can recommend it to my hardcore Mac friends (you know those crazy artists and musicians... Mac Mac Mac).

Best of all they have great support and offer a money back guarantee if all else fails.

I'm there, dude. Jooooiiiiiin me! You know you want to.

PSP Blender's Homepage - check it out!

Coolest Stuff on the Web Intro

Hey guys!

If you're like me, you spend a lot of time surfing the web for fun. For stuff to do, things to see, games to play... I've decided to take my surfing and make a blog out of it to inform people of the coolest stuff I find out there. I'll only be blogging about things that have caught my interest or that I think are particularly cool. So drop in from time to time to see what new stuff I've found for you!