Best Firefox Add-ons for Writers

In this recent post I talked about the new Firefox 3 web browser, and why I have been a Firefox fan for some time.

In that post I mentioned that one of the main reasons I like Firefox is the ability you have to customize it using add-ons (also known as plug-ins and extensions). In this post, then, I thought I'd share with you the add-ons I use myself, and then invite you to share yours via the blog's Comments facility.

As I mentioned before, one of my favourite add-ons is Morning Coffee. This creates a coffee cup icon on the main Navigation toolbar. When you click on this it opens your favourite websites (as entered by yourself) simultaneously in different tabs. I use this feature every day to quickly check my blog, forum and a few other sites I like to monitor regularly.

You can customize Morning Coffee to work in various ways, e.g. you can set some sites (perhaps work-related) not to appear at the weekend, or have some only open on certain days. Personally, though, I have all my sites open every day. Work and leisure tend to blend into one for us full-time freelances!

Another add-on I use a lot is Tinyurl Creator. As you may know, Tinyurl is a free service that converts long URLs into much shorter ones. I use it all the time when writing newsletters and articles that refer to specific web pages. The Tinyurl add-on gives you an icon you can click on any time; and it will then automatically create a Tiny URL for the page you are on and save it to your clipboard. It's a simple tool, but one that saves me constantly going back and forth to the Tiny URL website.

My next add-on is equally useful to me, though I don't use it quite as much. This is IE Tab, and what it does is allow you to convert any tab in Firefox into the equivalent in Internet Explorer. This is great with those (few) sites that don't work or display properly in Firefox.

In my case, I find that my Internet banking service doesn't work properly in a Firefox tab - I get error messages when I try to perform certain actions. So I just switch to Internet Explorer mode, and all runs smoothly. A small icon appears in the status bar at the foot of the page, and you click on this to toggle from one mode to the other.

Colorful Tabs is an indulgence, but I like it anyway. It gives all the tabs you are using in Firefox a pretty pastel background. All the colours are different, so it makes it a bit easier to distinguish one from another - but really, I just like it because it livens up my desktop!

TwitterFox is an add-on for users of the micro-blogging and social networking service Twitter. It allows me to see incoming 'tweets' any time I am browsing the web. It also lets me create my own updates, including (if I wish) the URL of the web page I am currently viewing. This makes it easy for me to fit 'Twittering' around my work. If I come across something I think would interest my followers, with Twitterfox it takes only a moment to circulate a quick note about it.

...Do feel free to follow me on Twitter, by the way!

My final add-on is the Text Formatting Toolbar. As the name indicates, this gives you an extra toolbar on your browser, but you can of course switch it off via the View menu when you don't need it. This toolbar lets you quickly format text in bulletin-board code, HTML or Wiki code. I use it mainly for formatting forum messages, but it's also useful for creating hyperlinks in blog comments, and in other cases where you need to create a quick bit of HTML on the fly.

So those are my favourite Firefox add-ons, but I'm sure there are many other good ones I haven't tried. If you're a keen Firefox user like me, why not post details of your favourite add-ons here? And if you're not yet a Firefox fan, perhaps I may have given you another reason to give it a try. Here's the download link for Firefox 3 once again.

Happy browsing!

Firefox 3: First Impressions

I've been using the latest Firefox 3 web browser for a few weeks now, so I thought in this post I'd share my impressions so far...

There's a lot to like about the new Firefox 3, but one of the best things in my view is the 'intelligent' Location bar. This isn't just a bar to display the URL of the site you are visiting any more. It also serves as a search tool for finding bookmarks or pages stored in your browsing history.

What this means is that you only have to enter two or three letters in the Location bar and Firefox will display up to six sites including that sequence of letters in either the URL OR the page title. The sites listed come from your bookmarks and your recent browsing history, with the sites you visit most often shown at the top.

I must admit I now find this feature indispensable. If I want to visit my forum, for example, I simply type the letters 'my' into the Location bar, and Mywriterscircle.com pops up at the top of the list (along with Mywritingblog, of course). All I then have to do is click on the site I want in order to go there.

Another change is the addition of a neat, all-in-one page-back/page-forward icon. It's also now possible to search your browsing history in more ways than you ever believed possible, using tags, date and time of visit, fragments from the page title/URL, and so on. Other changes 'behind the scenes' make sites faster to load, and the whole program seems very stable (it's only crashed once since I installed it).

Are there any minuses? Well, I was a bit disappointed that a lot of my Firefox extensions didn't work any more when I first upgraded. I believe this is to do with the higher security standards applied in Firefox 3. By searching online I was able to find upgrades for most of my favorite extensions (e.g. Morning Coffee), however, and others have been found by Firefox itself and installed over the last few weeks. So it hasn't been as big a problem as I first thought.

The other thing I'm not sure about is the way Firefox 3 handles downloads. It works perfectly well, and the downloads window appears as before, but not as much information is provided as previously. I didn't know at first where Firefox 3 was saving my downloads - it changed this unliterally from my previous default folder - and I only found out how to check and change this by doing some research on the net. I'm getting used to it now, but I don't personally see this particular change as an improvement.

Overall, though, I'm a big fan of Firefox 3. If you're a Firefox user and you haven't yet upgraded, I recommend doing so now. And if you haven't yet discovered the joys of using this open-source browser instead of Microsoft Internet Explorer, now could be the ideal time to take it for a spin.

50 Awesome Open Source Resources for Online Writers

That's the title of a very useful article I discovered recently on the massive Job Profiles website.

It lists 50 open source (i.e. free!) resources that may be relevant to writers, including word processors, grammar checkers, personal organizers, and many other handy tools.

For each resource, the author - Christina Laun - provides a paragraph of description and a link to the relevant website. Here's an example from the list:

wikidPad: This tool is a wiki-style notepad that allows users to to quickly and easily jot down their ideas and notes. Perhaps one of the best features of it is that it allows you to easily cross-reference information, helping you more easily draw plot points and facts together.

There are some great resources in this list, including a number I hadn't seen before and will be checking out in the coming weeks. And, of course, you can't beat the price!

Take a look at 50 Awesome Open Source Resources for Online Writers for yourself. I'll be surprised if there isn't something in it to interest you.

10 Things You May Not Know About The WCCL Network

In this blog I quite often refer to my publishers, The WCCL Network. However, from the feedback I get I know that there are still quite a few misunderstandings about them. So I thought I would take this opportunity to cast a little more light on WCCL (as I'll call them for short from now on).

1. WCCL is the online arm of White Cliff Computing Limited, an international new media group. And despite what some people think, I am not employed by WCCL, and I certainly don't own them!

2. The Managing Director of WCCL is Karl Moore. Karl is an author of two published books on computer programming. He is also a self-development guru of international renown. As well as his homepage, he has a blog at www.karlblog.com and a self-development forum at www.karlforum.com.

3. WCCL is an online publishing company. As such it is quite different from Clickbank, which is simply a self-publishing platform. All WCCL courses, manuals and software products are commissioned from specialist authors and software designers. All WCCL courses and manuals are professionally edited, designed and produced.

4. WCCL currently offers nearly 100 different product lines, in categories including Writers & Artists, Self-Development, Internet Business Tools, Computer Privacy tools, Windows Utilities, and UK Driving Products. In total they sell nearly 2000 different products.

5. WCCL runs one of the best affiliate programs on the internet. If you have a blog or website, you can sign up with them to promote any (or all) of their products. You will then receive a generous commission any time someone makes a purchase via your link. See my blog post about this for more info.

6. WCCL also provides a range of free services for writers. These include the forum Mywriterscircle.com (which I run in partnership with them), the internet radio station WritersFM, the writers chat room at www.mywriterschat.com, and the free Smart Writers newsletter. In addition, this blog is sponsored by WCCL.

7. WCCL are always happy to consider proposals for new courses and manuals that will fit into their portfolio. If you have an idea for such a product (or, indeed, already have such a product) you are welcome to submit a proposal and outline to them in the normal way. If they like your idea, they will make you an offer. I shan't provide contact details here, as I wouldn't like them to be inundated; but if you are keen, I'm sure you can soon discover this information for yourself.

8. WCCL also have a number of free giveaways. These include the writers' giveaway site, the self-growth giveaway, the software giveaway, and their free Motivator software. Thousands of dollars of free software are available from these sites. You may have to sign up to receive a newsletter as a condition of obtaining it, but you can of course unsubscribe at any time.

9. WCCL provide a free online helpdesk service at www.myhelphub.com. This operates 24/7, and offers advice and assistance to buyers of all WCCL products (you won't find anything like this at Clickbank, by the way!).

10. Finally, WCCL have an active program of charitable giving. Among other things, in the last year they have donated sheep and beehives to help develop starving towns in Africa and the East, provided over 6,550 cups of food to feed thousands of starving children, given over 2,500 UK pounds in food to starving and abused cats and dogs in north-east England, organized free relaxation workshops for thousands of nurses in British Columbia, Canada, and provided food for rescued wild horses at the Black Beauty Ranch, Texas. So if you buy any product from WCCL (including any of my courses!), you can be confident that some of your money will be going to support these and other excellent causes!

New Products From WCCL

As you may know, this blog and my forum are both sponsored by The WCCL Network. WCCL also publish several writing courses of mine, including Quick Cash Writing and Write Any Book in Under 28 Days.

WCCL publish high-quality courses, manuals and software in a range of fields. I thought you might perhaps be interested to hear about some new products they have released recently, even though none of these is directly writing related.

As the name indicates, Watch TV on Your PC lets you watch TV from around the world via the Internet. You can also use it to tune in to thousands of Internet radio stations, as well as web cams, videos, and more.

Watch TV on Your PC works on any Windows computer (including Vista). No TV tuner card or any other hardware is required - all you have to do is install the software on your PC and decide what you want to watch first. Of course, as with all WCCL products, there is free, unlimited customer support available 24/7, and with Watch TV on Your PC you also get free lifetime updates.

I must admit, however, what surprised me most about this software was the price. WCCL are currently selling it for just $14.95 US or 7.95 UK pounds. This is a lifetime fee - unlike most similar services, no monthly subscriptions are required.

If you like the idea of watching TV from around the world - including sporting events that in your own country may only be available on pay-to-view - Watch TV on Your PC has to be worth a look.

Moving on, WCCL have always specialised in privacy and security software, and they've recently introduced a new and improved undelete tool called Undelete File Recovery.

As you may know, even when you delete a file from your PC and empty the Recycle Bin, the file remains on your computer's hard drive until eventually it is over-writen. In this 'deleted' form it is normally invisible, but with the correct software it can still be viewed and - if you wish - recovered.

Enter Undelete File Recovery. This powerful program will instantly display hundreds of deleted files from any drive on your computer. Full details of the files are shown, and you can even preview them to see what they contain. Then all you have to do is choose which files to restore with the aid of the Recovery Wizard.

Undelete File Recovery is currently available for just $24.95 (around 13 UKP). What's more, right now buyers also get a completely free copy of WCCL's powerful Backup Magic software, which makes backing up all your important files a piece of cake. This one looks like another no-brainer to me ;-)

Moving on again, my colleague Karl Moore has been raving on his blog recently about The Quantum Cookbook, WCCL's brand new guide to the hot topic of manifesting (it was even mentioned recently on the UK soap opera Coronation Street!). The term manifesting is used to describe the process of reordering your personal reality to obtain the things you want. It's also sometimes referred to as The Law of Attraction.

The concept of manifesting has been around for many years, but The Quantum Cookbook brings it firmly into the 21st century. Written by self-development expert Bradley Thompson, it includes a 140-page manual crammed with little-known tricks and techniques for manifesting anything - from a new house to a soulmate, from a new car to more money. Buyers also get bonus CDs, interviews with celebrities who have successfully used the manifesting technique, and more.

I'll be honest, I'm normally more than a little sceptical when I see these sort of claims being made. But I've always thought that people do, to a large extent, make their own luck. It seems to me that what this guide does is try to explain how this process operates and set out strategies you can use to make it work for you.

Anyway, if you're interested, it's all explained on The Quantum Cookbook website - and, of course, WCCL's usual money-back guarantee applies.

Lastly, I appreciate that most readers of this blog are primarily interested in writing. That being the case, you might just like to check out WCCL's WriteStreet website, which lists all their writing-related products and services (including my courses), and Smart Writers, their free email newsletter for writers.

Happy writing!

Blogging for Storytellers

...That's the title of a new downloadable report in PDF format by Mywriterscircle.com member Nelodra (real name Leah Witmond). And the good news is that it's completely free of charge. You can get your copy by clicking on this link to the download page at Lulu.com.

Leah enjoys creating short stories based on characters she creates in the computer game Sims 2. You can see a number of her stories - and tales by other Sims 2 aficionados - at Leah's Sim Tales website. In her new report, she provides a detailed, step-by-step guide for anyone who would like to follow in her footsteps.

Of course, not everyone will want to write fiction about Sims 2 characters. In her report, however, Leah has provided a handy guide to setting up a blog using the popular (and free) Blogger platform, and much of her advice would be just as relevant if you are thinking of starting a more conventional blog or ficblog using Blogger. I particularly appreciated the generous use of screengrabs illustrating what you should be seeing on your computer at each stage.

Congratulations to Leah on creating her report and making it available free to the online writing community. And, incidentally, I've also had lots of good feedback on my free 'Christmas Gift' report about devising and selling ideas for movies - click here to read my blog post about this - so I've decided to leave the link up a bit longer. By the end of next week I will definitely remove it, however, so if you're at all interested in this subject, please get your copy now!

Responding to Some Feedback...

I always welcome feedback on my writing courses and other projects for writers. Positive feedback is nice, of course, and thankfully I get plenty of that. However, in some ways negative feedback is more useful.

So I was actually pleased to see this less-than-flattering post on US author and writing teacher Tod Goldberg's blog and follow-up comments by some of his readers, as they give me the chance to try to answer the concerns raised and, hopefully, clear up a few misunderstandings.

Tod's post seems to have been inspired by an email he received from the marketing arm of my publishers, the WCCL Network, inviting him to join their affiliate program. The email referred specifically to my courses Quick Cash Writing and Write Any Book in Under 28 Days.

I would start by saying that I had no involvement in writing or sending the email in question. It was written by WCCL's marketing department, and obviously there is a certain amount of "marketing-speak" in it. I'm not going to criticise WCCL for this, or apologise on their behalf. I will just say that affiliate programs are commonplace on the Internet, and almost every big online retailer from Amazon downwards has one. I make no secret of the fact that anyone with their own website can join WCCL's affiliate program and earn a sideline income helping to sell my courses (and any other of the wide range of products sold by WCCL). You can read more about WCCL's affiliate program in this recent blog post if you like. But of course, if you think affiliate programs are the devil's work, you don't have to join!

Moving on, in the comments section "Lucy" writes: "DO NOT waste your money on the Nick Daws course. It is on a CD which is protected, meaning you cannot use it easily on different pcs, and now I run Windows XP it will not work at all. I emailed the company and they say I have to pay another 15USD for a new version which will work. Take my advice and spend the money on a good old-fashioned printed BOOK that you can use where and when you like."

I do have some sympathy with Lucy here. It is frustrating when you buy software and Microsoft then produce a new version of Windows and it no longer works. However, I tend to think that her ire should be directed more at Bill Gates and co. for producing operating systems that are not backwards-compatible.

Lucy evidently bought one of the earliest versions of my Write Any Book in Under 28 Days course (the only one of my WCCL courses which is not sold as an instant download), in the days of Windows 2000. When - presumably years later - it wouldn't work on the new Windows XP operating system, WCCL asked her for $15 US (around 7.50 UK pounds) for a replacement, XP-compatible CD. When you take into account the cost of the CD-ROM, postage to anywhere in the world, packaging materials and the labour involved, I doubt if they are even breaking even at this price. So I don't think in the circumstances they are being unreasonable. After all, imagine demanding that Microsoft provide you with a free version of Windows Vista because two years ago you bought Windows XP. I can hear Mr Gates laughing now!

My other courses are all sold as instant downloads in the universal PDF format, so migrating to a new operating system is much less likely to cause problems. And, of course, anyone buying Write Any Book in Under 28 Days today gets the latest version of the CD-ROM, which is fully compatible with both Windows Vista and earlier versions of Windows (and you get 24/7 advice and support from WCCL's dedicated helpdesk site if required).

And finally, if you don't want to mess about with CD-ROMs at all, my Write Any Book in Under 28 Days course is also available in an audio version!

Finally, "Gordon" has some interesting criticisms. He writes: "The whole tacky marketing tangle surrounding Nick Daws needs thorough exposure. He runs a number of schemes with identical pitches: Essential English for Authors, Quick Cash Writing, Write Any Book in Just 28 Days and How to Win Contests, as well as at least one non-site, Stop Spam Email, that gives trivial anti-spam advice probably as a vehicle to host advertising. It doesn't take a genius with Google to find these are part of a walled garden of sites on the WCCL Network affiliate marketing circuit..."

I suppose I should express my gratitude to "Gordon" for name-checking all of my WCCL writing courses! Contrary to what he seems to be implying, however, they are all quite different. Write Any Book in Under 28 Days is my course for anyone who wants to write a book in the shortest possible time. Quick Cash Writing is aimed at people who want to start earning from writing as soon as possible, and covers shorter writing projects such as articles, greeting card slogans, and so on. Essential English for Authors is my new course on grammar, spelling and punctuation. And How to Win Contests is my course on how to write winning slogans for consumer competitions (aimed primarily at a UK/Eire readership).

"Gordon" is right that there are cross-links between the sales sites for these courses and between the free writers' resources sponsored by the WCCL Network such as Mywriterscircle.com and WritersFM. It would be amazing if WCCL did otherwise, as all these sites belong to them, and presumably anyone interested in buying one of my writing courses might also be interested in joining my free forum, or vice versa. So, OK, consider me and my publishers exposed. It's a fair cop!

My Stop Spam Email site, incidentally, is not part of the WCCL Network. It's a private project I worked on some time ago, when I was trying to improve my website design skills. You won't find links to it from WCCL sites (apart from a couple of my blog posts such as this where the topic seemed relevant). OK, the site may not be cutting edge, but in my view it contains sensible advice on how to tackle the spam problem. Yes, it has some ads on it, but these barely cover the hosting costs. If Stop Spam Email was meant to be a money-making scam, I would definitely be starving in my garret by now!

Finally, "Gordon" writes: "As to the blurb - "He enjoys a life of holidaying with his beautiful wife, playing his part as a regional celebrity, and occasionally putting finger to keyboard to write another book" - I spluttered my tea out! I met the guy a while back. His long-time partner, Jayne (mentioned on his own website) would be surprised to hear that he's off holidaying with a wife. His local celebrity extends to being a member of Lichfield & District Writers, a small-city writers' circle. And he holidays no more than the rest of us. Those considering this course should ask themselves why, if he has such insider knowledge and is so successful, he needs to sex up his circumstances and why he needs this mess of marketing schemes."

OK, I hold my hands up. Jayne and I aren't actually married. We've been together for 20 years and most people assume we are married (apart from the nice lady at the local leisure centre who still insists on referring to Jayne as my "sister"!). I'm sure that's what WCCL's copywriter did too. However, to spare "Gordon" choking on his tea any more, I have asked WCCL to change "wife" to "partner" the next time they update the Write Any Book in Under 28 Days sales page.

And yes, I support my local writers circle, Lichfield & District Writers, even though I'm not a regular visitor any more. I really don't give two hoots about being a local or regional celebrity - I much prefer a quiet life - but I suppose you have to grant WCCL's copywriter a bit of artistic licence. As regards holidays, Jayne and I do actually go away more often than most people I know. In the last year we've been to Lanzarote, North Wales, Greece, Venice and Cyprus, as well as a few places around England. It's not something I want to boast about, but we both enjoy travelling and don't have any other expensive hobbies, so it's our one luxury really.

Anyway, there you go. I've gone on a bit longer than I intended in this post, but I don't like to leave criticisms of me and my courses unanswered. I hope that at least if anyone sees the blog post in question now, reading this as well will help them to form a balanced view.

Please note: As previously stated, comments on this post are now closed. Thanks to everyone who replied, supportive or otherwise. Please do not post any further comments here, as they will be automatically deleted.

Improving Your Writing Productivity

An interesting question was asked by a new member recently on my forum. Editing it down slightly, it read as follows:

"I'm an online writer, seeking tips to improve my writing productivity. Because everything I write, from flash fictions to articles, goes straight on the web, I don't have to spend time trying to get accepted by publishers. Of course, it is essential that the articles or stories are worth reading and, no doubt, some are better than others. But, at the end of the day, it is a numbers game. The more I write - to an acceptable quality - the more readers I gain and, cent by tortuous cent, the more money I earn. My big question is this: Have you any tips for writing faster whilst still achieving a satisfactory level of quality?"

With apologies for a bit of self-promotion here, it occurred to me that really the essential resource this writer required was my course Write Any Book in Under 28 Days. Not only does this include my unique, five-step blueprinting and outlining system, it is also crammed with other hints and tips on working more efficiently and boosting your writing productivity.

Thinking about it a little more, however, it occurred to me that there are a few other tools you can use as well to speed things along, especially if (like me) you're not the world's fastest typist.

One very useful resource I've been using for a while is Quick-Type, from my publishers WCCL. This is an extremely handy little program that can greatly speed up your typing. You simply give Quick-Type all the common pieces of text you type, along with a keyword for each of them. Then, whenever you type that keyword in future, it gets replaced with your chosen text.

Quick-Type works in any text-based application, including email programs and word processors. You can download a fully functional, time-limited free-trial version from the Quick-Type site. If you like it, you can then pay a small fee to register the software.

Another program that can save you a lot of time and effort is 101 Clips. This is a freeware clipboard program that greatly extends the functionality of the standard Windows clipboard. You can save up to 30 different items on 101 Clips at any one time, including images as well as text. A click on the system tray icon will bring 101 Clips to the front of whatever application you are working on. All of your copied items will be listed, and you can enter the one you require simply by clicking on it.

I used 101 Clips quite extensively recently when working on my accounts (using Microsoft Excel), to save constantly retyping words such as stationery, postage, bank charges, and so on. It's a neat, user-friendly program with quite a few extra features, and obviously you can't beat the price!

Finally, if you'd like to see other people's suggestions for enhancing writing productivity as well, you might like to check out this topic (where the question was originally posed) on my forum.

Karl's Christmas Screensaver

It's the start of December, and time to get into the Christmas spirit! So why not make your computer a little more festive by downloading the free Christmas screensaver just produced by my colleague and publisher Karl Moore and available from his blog at www.karlblog.com?

Karl's Christmas screensaver displays 100 beautiful festive scenes from across the globe, smoothly shifting from one image to the next. It's free of charge, and naturally it is also spyware-free, adware-free, and so on.


I should mention that Karl's Christmas screensaver is quite a large file. It's 35MB in total, and took around ten minutes to download on my broadband (cable) connection. I don't think I would recommend trying to get it this way if you're still on dial-up, therefore!

To download Karl's Christmas screensaver, just click on any of the links in this post, which will take you to the relevant post on Karl's blog, and click on the Download link (under 'Want to Download your Copy?'). It's a .exe file, so I recommend that you save it to anywhere on your PC (e.g. the desktop), then double-click in the usual way to launch it. The Christmas screensaver will then be installed on your PC. Of course, you can remove it permanently or temporarily at any time via your computer's Control Panel.

Finally, as I've mentioned Karl's blog here, I'd just like to recommend it to anyone who is interested in personal growth and self-development. It's a fascinating and inspiring blog, with an addictive mixture of odd facts, inspirational quotes and stories, random acts of kindness, and much more.

The same, incidentally, applies to Karl's forum at www.karlforum.com, which is great place for chatting with like-minded individuals and discussing some of the matters Karl posts about in his blog. Neither of these sites is commercially-oriented, but if you'd like to know more about the growing range of self-help products and publications sold by Karl's company, the place to look is Self Help Street. Do check them all out!

Another Record-Breaking Month

My forum at www.mywriterscircle.com is becoming ever more popular. Already in November we have smashed the previous record for the number of posts in a month. The old record was 7774, but in November we're already up to 8446, with one more day still to go!

If you haven't yet joined my forum, therefore, do give it a try. It's free and easy to do, and you will then be able to post any writing-related questions you may have, put up extracts of your work for feedback from other members, and generally enjoy belonging to a friendly, world-wide online writing community. Just go to www.mywriterscircle.com and click on Register to get started.

You will also be able to take part in our regular prize competitions, such as the current contest to win a year's subscription to SpellCheckPlus Pro. The closing date for this one is tomorrow, so there's still time to enter. Just click on this link to go straight to the topic concerned, though note that you will need to be a logged-in member to post your entry.

Finally, even if you don't want to register yet, it's still well worth reading our Writers Wanted board, as a number of interesting opportunities for writers have been posted there recently by long-standing member Linda Jones. They include details of an in-flight magazine looking for article pitches, a UK non-fiction book publisher inviting submissions, and a very interesting opportunity for a fiction writer to get involved in film work. Thanks for all the great market info, Linda!

Three Days Left!

A quick reminder that you have just three days left to enter the contest on my forum at www.mywriterscircle.com to win a year's subscription to SpellCheckPlus Pro.

All you have to do is write a short verse about Mywriterscircle.com and post it in this topic. Any verse-form may be used, with an upper limit of 14 lines. The judges will be Karl Moore of WCCL and myself, and we will each pick our favourite of the entries submitted. Each winner will then receive a prize (we have two to give away in total).

Forum members can post their entries as a reply in this forum topic, which also includes the full rules. Any comments or questions about the contest can be posted in this other topic.

The closing date is Friday 30 November at 12 noon GMT - so have fun, and get writing!

Essential English for Authors Launched!

I'm delighted to reveal that my latest downloadable course for writers, Essential English for Authors, has just been launched by my publishers, WCCL.

As the name indicates, Essential English for Authors is intended for anyone who would like to write for publication but fears their written English might let them down.

As regular members of my forum will know, grammar and punctuation are something of a passion of mine. It's a subject I often post about in the forum in response to member queries, and I've really enjoyed having this opportunity to put all my advice together in a single, modestly priced guide.

In twelve concise but information-packed modules, Essential English for Authors takes you through all the common problem areas for new writers: from the basics of grammatical sentence and paragraph construction, through the principles of capitalization and punctuation, to "minefield" topics such as subject/verb agreement and how to set out and punctuate dialogue. I have tried to explain everything in simple, easy-to-grasp terms, with lots of examples to illustrate the points made.

It's not just the basics, however. A long module titled "Putting on the Style" covers a range of matters that, while they may not all be essential to achieving publication, will help bring your written English up to the highest professional standards. The topics discussed in this module include parallel construction, active v. passive voice, use of the subjunctive in modern English, when to use "who" or "whom", and many more. There are also self-study tests you can complete to check your understanding of the material covered.

The course assumes no previous knowledge (beyond a basic familiarity with English), and is ideal for beginners and people for whom English is not their first language. It is, however, equally suitable for established writers who want to brush up on their knowledge of grammar, spelling and punctuation. And for aspiring self-publishers - especially if they won't be engaging a professional editor - it's an essential reference to ensure that your book isn't laughed out of court by critics and reviewers.

And even if you don't aspire to write for publication but just want to bring your written English up to the best possible standard in the shortest possible time, Essential English for Authors is ideal for you too!

Essential English for Authors is intended to be suitable for anyone in the world. It's written in US English, but British English is referred to throughout (I'm a Brit myself, of course).

For more information and to order Essential English for Authors, just click any of the links in this post to go through to my publisher's sales page. Alternatively, if you would like to read a short extract from the course first, please click here to go to the relevant page on my website.

Finally, I should mention that Essential English for Authors is currently on offer at a low launch price. After the launch period is over, this will certainly rise - so if you'd like to take advantage of the current special offer, please don't hesitate too long.

Good luck, and happy writing!

Spam Emails Sent to Forum Members

Several members of my forum (me included!) have recently received emails from someone purporting to be a member of Mywriterscircle.com asking them for help in moving large sums of money out of an African country, in exchange for a cut of the profits.

This is - as you may know - a scam that has been doing the rounds for some years. Surprisingly people do still fall for it, however, and end up paying thousands of dollars supposedly to cover bribes, customs fees, and so on. It's called Advance Fee Fraud, and takes a wide variety of forms, as discussed in this Wikipedia article. So please, if you get a message of this nature, just delete it. Or, if you're feeling public-spirited, report it to your email provider and/or the email provider of the sender.

It appears that the fraudsters have "harvested" members' email addresses from their profile pages on the forum, so I would strongly recommend all members of Mywriterscircle.com to select the option to HIDE their email address from the general public. I have explained exactly how to do this in this forum post.

To reduce the risk of spam, it is highly advisable NEVER to publish your main email address on the Internet. If you do need to publish an email address for people to contact you, use a free web-based service such as Hotmail, or a dedicated anti-spam service such as Sneakemail (which I use). The latter, which is free to try out, lets you create temporary "disposable" email addresses, which you can easily change when they start getting spammed.

To emphasise again, whoever is doing this is NOT a member of Mywriterscircle.com. If they were, we would of course ban them. They are simply fraudsters, and the best advice is to ignore them and/or install a spam filter such as Spam Bully to try to block their emails from reaching you. You might also like to check out my Stop Spam Email website, which has a lot more advice on preventing and dealing with email spam.

New Online Spelling and Grammar Checker

I was recently emailed by Dr Terry Nadasdi, who is co-developer of a free online spelling and grammar checker called Spellcheckplus. Dr Nadasdi asked if I would be willing to look at the site and offer any comments.

Well, I have done this, and was duly impressed. Because it is web-based, Spellcheckplus will work on any computer, PC or Mac. The Spellcheckplus website allows you to paste any amount of text into it, and it will then check this for possible spelling and grammatical mistakes.

When I tried this with some text I had written for an e-book, copying and pasting directly from Microsoft Word into the text box, it analyzed my writing and identified a couple of possible mistakes. One of these was a misunderstanding by the software, but the other was a grammatical point that I had to admit needed attention.

The checking process is quick and intuitive. Clear errors (e.g. typos) are highlighted in red, whilst items to check (e.g. possible grammatical mistakes) are shown in yellow. If you hover your cursor over a highlighted area of text, a box appears to the right with an explanation and/or suggested alternatives.

Unlike some commercial programs such as WhiteSmoke, Spellcheckplus does not make any changes for you - you have to go in and do this yourself. This is an intentional feature. SpellCheckPlus is aimed primarily at people who are learning English as a second language, so for pedagogical reasons it requires users to make all corrections themselves. Then, of course, they can re-check to see if all their errors have been put right.

The developers emphasise that Spellcheckplus can ONLY check for spelling and grammatical errors, however. It cannot detect whether a sentence makes sense or not, neither does it provide the "enrichment" suggestions offered by WhiteSmoke.

As mentioned above, Spellcheckplus is free, but there is also a premium version called SpellCheckPlus Pro which offers a few additional features (and no advertising). This costs just $15 Canadian a year.

Overall, I think Spellcheckplus is a very nifty application. If you're at all shaky on spelling or grammar, running your work through it before sending it for publication could save you some embarrassment. Ideally it would be nice if it offered the option for suggested corrections to be incorporated automatically by clicking on them - but even without that feature, Spellcheckplus offers an extremely useful free service. For people for whom English is not their first language, in particular, I would highly recommend it.

Oops!

In my post yesterday, I managed to provide the wrong links for WCCL's Big Software Giveaway site. If you clicked and were puzzled by what you saw, please accept my grovelling apologies, therefore. All the links have now been put right, or you can click on the Big Software Giveaway links in this message to go straight to the correct web page for this special offer.

Sorry again!

WCCL's Big Software Giveaway

My publishers WCCL are getting into the Christmas spirit early! Until the end of November, they are giving away a wide range of free Windows software and privacy tools from their Software Giveaway Site, just in exchange for signing up to one of their free email newsletters.

The newsletters in question are their Windows Power User newsletter, which features all the latest technology news and downloads, and their Privacy #1 newsletter, which provides tips and tricks for preserving your anonymity online. You can choose which of these to receive according to where your main interests lie (or you could subscribe to both, of course). The newsletters are sent twice weekly. They are full of interesting advice and information - you can view sample issues on the Software Giveaway Site - but naturally you can unsubscribe at any time if you wish.

You can see the free software on offer at the Software Giveaway Site. Just a few highlights include a program that will turn your free GMail account into a virtual hard drive with around 3Gb capacity - a voicemail program that lets you record your own voicemail messages and send them by email - and a privacy program that automatically erases your browsing history when you close your browser. There is also a range of downloadable video games.

WCCL site manager Trent Steele emphasises that these are not poorly-produced DOS programs of the type you’ll find floating around in freeware libraries from the 1990s. They are the very latest software, and they work in both Windows XP and Vista. Many of the products are produced by WCCL themselves, and are not available from any other source. Obviously, you can pick and choose which products you download, or you can grab all of them!

OK, if you only ever use your computer for word processing, this offer may not be for you. But if you like to keep up to date with the latest software - and you are conscious of the importance of protecting your security/privacy online - in my view it's well worth giving the Software Giveaway Site the once-over.

Finally, I understand that people are sometimes suspicious of offers that sound "too good to be true", so I would just like to emphasise again that this offer comes from WCCL, who as well as publishing my writing courses also sponsor this blog and my forum. They are keen to increase the circulation of these newsletters, which is why they are making this one-time offer. I can vouch that they are a reputable company, and will not use your e-mail address for any purpose other than sending you copies of your chosen newsletter.

Another WhiteSmoke Winner!

Yes, our final (for now) copy of WhiteSmoke writing software has been won. The lucky winner who posted message number 105,000 on my forum was Narnian Prince, otherwise known as Chris. Here's a link to the post in question.

Chris was surprised to discover he had won the prize. On the forum he wrote, "I had no idea that I was going to win! To be honest, I wasn't even aware that more copies were being given out! To say the least I was completely flabbergasted and sat in shock for a good deal when I found out."

He has already started putting the software to good use, however: "As I found out about my win while I was at work, I had to wait until I got home to download it and give it a whirl. To say the least, it left me quite breathless! I love the features and the way you can interact to improve your writing style and quality. I've only given it a quick once over but feel very confident in saying that this software will play a major factor in most of my writing from now on..."

Congratulations again to Chris, and I look forward to seeing more of his new, WhiteSmoke-enhanced writing on the forum soon! Many thanks, also, to our friends at WhiteSmoke, who kindly donated the software prizes for the recent contests. If you would like more information about their popular program, which not only checks your writing for mistakes but suggests ways of improving it, please click on the banner below.

And watch out for more prize contests on my blog and forum soon!

Another WhiteSmoke Winner

Congratulations to Cathy C, who is the latest winner of WhiteSmoke's writing software on my forum. Cathy posted message number 102,000, which was actually a contribution to our Limericks topic! Here's a link to her prize-winning post.

Cathy is, as you may know, a moderator on Mywriterscircle.com. As such she generously gives her time unpaid to helping ensure that the forum runs smoothly and remains a safe, welcoming place for all its members. So I am naturally delighted that she has won the prize this time.

We have one more copy of WhiteSmoke to give away, and this will go to whoever creates post number 105,000 on my forum. As with the last contest, the version being given away this time will also include a translation feature to 18 languages and an enhanced dictionary.

As mentioned before, WhiteSmoke is a program that aims to help users produce better-written documents. It does this by analyzing the spelling, punctuation and grammar in any document, then suggesting corrections and possible "enrichments". You can read my full review of WhiteSmoke's software here, though note that this does not mention some of the new features added recently. See also this topic on my forum, where I announced this latest contest.

Win ANOTHER Copy of WhiteSmoke!

Just a quickie to let you know that, if you missed out in our recent competition, you now have a second chance!

Our friends at WhiteSmoke have donated another copy of their popular writing software, which we're going to give away to whoever creates post number 102,000 on my forum. In fact, this is an even better prize than last time, as this version will also include a translation feature to 18 languages and an enhanced dictionary.

As mentioned before, WhiteSmoke is a program that aims to help users produce better-written documents. It does this by analyzing the spelling, punctuation and grammar in any document, then suggesting corrections and possible "enrichments". You can read my full review of WhiteSmoke's software here, though note that this does not mention some of the new features added recently. See also this topic on my forum, where I first announced this contest.

Of course, you do have to be a member of my forum before you can take part, but joining is quick and easy, and naturally it's free. So why not join today, if you haven't already?

Good luck, and get posting!

We Have a Winner!

Yes, the contest to post message number 101,000 on my forum has been won.

The lucky (skilful?) winner is Bonsibabe (real name Di), who was convinced she had no chance at all. On the forum last night she wrote, "I'm not generally a lucky person with these kind of things, I always just miss out! So I'm not really on to win..."

Well, guess what, Di, your luck has changed! For those who like to know these things, here's a link to the winning post (no pun intended).

Thanks to everyone who took part in the posting frenzy last night, which meant we reached post 101,000 much sooner than I anticipated. Indeed, it happened while I was having my tea (I do have to leave my computer occasionally!), so I had to do some frantic counting back to work out the winner.

Many thanks, also, to our friends at WhiteSmoke, who kindly donated the software prize. If you would like more information about their popular program, which not only checks your writing for mistakes but suggests ways of "enriching" it, please click on the banner below.

And watch out for more prize contests on my blog and forum soon!

How to Set My Blog or Forum as Your Homepage

If you know how to do this already, you can skip to the last paragraph if you wish. But I know for a fact that lots of people never change the homepage of their browser from the one set by default, and it's actually very easy to do.

If you're using Microsoft Internet Explorer, click on Tools in the main menu (normally at the top of the screen), then on Internet Options in the pop-up menu. In the new window that appears, click on the General tab if this isn't already at the front.

Lo and behold, at the top of the window you should see a box with the URL of your current homepage in it. Just type into this box http://www.mywritingblog.com or http://www.mywriterscircle.com (for my forum) and click on OK at the bottom of the window. The site in question will now become your homepage. Any time you start up Internet Explorer it will load, and likew