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Three Good Reasons to Get Onlineby Meilsa Michaels
Dana Stabenow says her long distance phone bill dropped from $50/month to $16/month since she got e-mail. "Of course, I'm now paying 'Net rent." Robert Sawyer points out that many invitation-only anthologies are put together via e-mail, and says he regularly corresponds with editors, translators, and convention committees via e-mail. Nancy Etchemendy says she gets almost all of her anthology invitations through e-mail or on-line contacts, and conducts well over half of her writing business via e-mail. "Hey, you might as well ask whether a telephone is worth the trouble and expense. No professional writer would dream of being without one. On-line contacts have now become so ubiquitous that a writer without them is at a very distinct disadvantage." John Vornholt agrees that e-mail alone is reason enough to be on-line. "It's a very convenient way to communicate with both business associates and friends; it's not as intrusive as a phone call, yet it's direct, accurate, and cheap. You can also meet fans online, which is just as fun as meeting them in person at a con."
ResearchThe second reason everyone mentioned was research. "Online resources have provided some of the fastest and most effective research I've ever managed," says Holly Lisle. Jean Lorah routinely uses the Internet for research, and even used it to find a bed-and-breakfast in Scotland and arrange her stay there for the WorldCon in Glasgow. "Why would any writer not want this amazing tool?" she asks. "It doesn't make sense not to be online today."Nancy Etchemendy calls the Internet "a treasure trove of research contacts. You can find out just about anything you want to know via the Internet, and very quickly, too. With the use of Web search engines and consequent e-mail, I've been able to develop personal contacts with experts in a wide number of areas. One afternoon I needed to know the Paiute word for 'magic.' Within two hours I had my answer, from a native speaker of the language on a Paiute reservation in Nevada."
CommunityAnd finally, "Community," says Holly Lisle. "Writing is a damned lonely business, and finding a ready-made community of people who read and are literate and able to carry on conversations about any given topic is sanity-saving. Most neighbors don't even know each other's names anymore, but that doesn't mean people don't reach out to each other anymore. The communities that grow online are real communities, held together by bonds of common interests and friendship, and those sorts of communities are priceless."That's no small thing. Recently one such community may have saved a SFWAn's life by knowing to be worried when she didn't show up online, finding her when she couldn't even call for help, and getting her to the medical care she needed. Fortunately that's not the sort of thing that happens every day; but for a group of people as prone to isolation in the real world as writers are, it's a very useful thing to have concerned neighbors in cyberspace.
RESEARCH URLS:GeneralThe SFWA Web page has many links useful to writers including all the major search engines and catalogues (you can go directly to them, but you'll miss all the other good stuff like model contracts, the art gallery, and the articles on writing).Free access to Medline through Healthgate for answers to medical questions A perpetual calendar for dates past, present, or future Time-Life Virtual Garden for information about gardens where you live or where your fiction is set Information on the US Postal Service, including rates United Parcel Service rates and package tracking The Copyright Act of 1976, as amended (1994) A search engine of copyright holders (North America and Great Britain only, so far) The Library of Congress, with exhibits, events, services and publications, searchable historical collections, and more.
LiteraryBookWire is the place to start when looking for any sort of information about publishing.ISFDB, a database with information about SF/F books and authors Ingram Book Group has a wealth of information and links Publishers Weekly, with bestseller lists updated weekly, four days before they appear in print Writer Resources and Literary Arts Allied Collective both publish many useful links and other resource materials Singular "their" in Jane Austen and elsewhere: anti-pedantry page.
BookstoresAmazon.com, an online bookstore that has a new Associates Program whereby authors can earn royalties for books sold as a result of being advertised on the authors' Web pages.Book Stacks Unlimited, Future Fantasy Bookstore, and Other Change of Hobbit as well as Amazon.com all encourage direct links from an author's description of her book to the store's listing of it, making ordering the book convenient
SciencesUS Geological SurveyCERN European Laboratory for Particle Physics Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Home Page NASA Goddard Space Flight Center SEDS (Students for Exploration and Development of Space) Internet Space Warehouse National Air and Space Museum's reference library collection of images from space missions Cornell University Department of Astronomy Cambridge Astronomy Home Page is the entry point for the Royal Greenwich Observatory, The Institute of Astronomy, Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, and a wide range of information, photos, and other astronomical links. There's also information here about Cambridge: the University, the town, network links, transportation, etc. the Social Science Information Gateway Web resources of interest to anthropologists
MapsMapQuest pinpoints on a map any address in the US. Barbara Paul says she once wanted to use the name of a restaurant on 57th Street in Manhattan; "MapQuest gave me a list of about 30, with addresses and phone numbers, and showed me on the map where each was located."MapBlast , a similar service with which you can locate a detailed street map from almost any street address in the United States The Perry-Casten~ada Library Map Collection has maps of almost anywhere in the world as well as historical maps and a fine collection of map-related sites
Cops, PIs, and SpiesPrivate Investigation Home Page is the starting place for info on PIsThe Law Network is the same for questions on law The Central Intelligence Agency 's home page includes their World Factbook, maps, and much more. The United States Intelligence Community home page has information about the thirteen government agencies "that carry out the intelligence activities of the United States government."
Reference WorksThe Alternative Dictionaries are interactive (you can add entries) dictionaries of slang, "dirty" words in languages other than English, as "these are...usually difficult to find in common dictionaries, and it takes some courage to ask a native speaker."The Hackers' Dictionary is available in several versions on the Web. This one is searchable. Feudal Terms of England is a basic, nearly plain-text file with no hyperlinks BritSpeak provides a guide to "English as a Second Language for Americans." The Middle English Collection at the University of Virginia is a list of hyperlinks to publicly accessible texts provided by the Oxford Text Archive, including some Chaucer, Dunbar, Henryson, etc. Roget's Thesaurus , 1911 edition Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 1901 edition William Strunk, Jr.'s The Elements of Style, 1918 edition The Encyclopedia Mythica, an encyclopedia on mythology, folklore, mysticism, and more Esperanto Online Dictionaries (in Esperanto) The WWW Acronym and Abbreviation Server, where one can search for an acronym and see its full form A Reverse Dictionary: type in a definition and it gives you a list of words
But Wait! There's More!There are planetariums, museums, art galleries, newspapers (with complete articles, ads, and comics), maps, photos, real estate ads, television channels (CNN's Web page is an excellent news source), Seniors Online, Bible resources, environmental activism, homework helpers, educators' resources, sports news and information, movie news and reviews, and just about anything else a person could need to research.Dr. Dave's U.K. Pages serve as just one sample of the sort of specialized information that can be tracked down on the web. Barbara Paul says, "If you want to know the price of a bed-and-breakfast in Nottingham or when a church in Yorkshire was built, Dr. Dave's U.K. Pages can lead you to the answer."
Now How Much Would You Pay?The list of valuable resources goes on and on. Of course there are also useless pages, acres of misinformation, and a multitude of absurd time-wasters: here as everywhere the researcher must exercise intelligence and discipline as well as diligence. And there is a learning curve: at first it may seem to take longer to find information online than off. But once you get the hang of URLs and search engines, you will probably agree with Lawrence Watt-Evans, who says, "The Web may not be the greatest cheap advertising in the world, but it is the greatest research tool in the world." |
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Melisa Michaels is the author of six OP books from Tor, one mystery novel, and two urban fantasy novels from Roc. The first of these, Cold Iron, was released in August 1997. She would be very pleased if you would order it from any of several online bookstores.
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| Copyright © 1997 by Melisa Michaels. First published in the Bulletin of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Spring, 1998. Reproduction and distribution specifically prohibited. All rights reserved. Reprinted here by permission. |
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