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
