Looking
for writing classes?
Want to write for publication or for personal growth?
Want to sharpen those professional skills?
WritersCollege.com is
the place!
Friday,
16 February, 2007: Resumption of newsletter. Updates on classes.
It
has been almost a year since I discontinued sending newsletters
to current and former students of WritersCollege.com. I never
heard the end of it; to this day people complain about not
receiving my random mumblings and the occasional bits of serious
WritersCollege.com news. Go figure.
I
tried, in the interim, a blog that replaced the newsletter
on the web site. But I did not use an e-mail service
to notify anyone. And the blog seemed a bit weird to me since
it did not directly address the school. So I dropped that.
Now I bite the bullet and resume the newsletter.
And speaking of bullets, here come a few:
The
system: I do not e-mail the newsletter. I did, once upon a
time. It was tedious to prepare
and send that way,
and the web links in it offended some people's spam
filters. So what i now do is send you a simple "Hey, there
is a new newsletter up!" message and the link to that and
it's up to you to go read
it. Or not.
The
mail list: I have used the old mail list from
the old newsletter and also added in the students
from 2006
and
up-to-date in 2007. If you do not wish to receive any
more notices, PLEASE let me know. Here is a special e-mail
link. You don't
even need to write anything. Just bang on the button
and I'll get the idea and personally remove you from
the mail list.
(You can also just hit the "remove" button that
comes at the bottom
of each ConstantContact e-mail notification.)
Here's the e-mail
link:
One warning:
If I manually remove your name, I do not think you can ever
use
that e-mail address again
to sign up for the newsletter. I'm not positive about
that, but think about what you are doing. And, obviously, use
this link ONLY to drop the newsletter. For any other communication,
use the e-mail link at the top left of all web pages.
New
Courses: In the past year we have added some
new courses, some one-week seminars, and I am working on some
courses now, to come later. I suggest just reviewing the courses
at the Course
Catalog to refresh your memory.
New
Web Server: Our old web hosting company managed
to annoy me to the point where I switched. Which was
a good time to update the web site anyway (as well as clean
out a lot of
deadwood in the form of no-longer-used web pages).
New
Look: You may notice that the web pages look
better (in my opinion). I started editing a magazine that also
had a web site and our art director helped me make that site
look REALLY good. And I became disgruntled with the WritersCollege.com
site. I have already updated the main pages and will soon work
my way through the minor inside pages. Not that this has a thing
to do with learning to write, but it keeps
me
off
the
streets...
New
Message Board: I have added a message board
where you may discuss writing or ask questions. Click
on the Message
Board button at the left. It's a Yahoo Groups board so
that I do not have to maintain it, as I did with my
old board. To use
it, join Yahoo Groups, which costs zero and does no harm.
Links: There is a web page for links. It needs more links. Send me
writing-site-related links to add.
Need
Your Input: Got a comment about writing? An
essay? Ideas to improve the WritersCollege.com school?
E-mail
me. Your input helps me by providing useful material
for newsletters, and helps other writers by providing
your experience, advice,
questions (and my answers) and so on.
About
Me: I've been bumbling along for the past
year, writing when I had to and going sailing when I did not.
This year seems to be about books and, as usual, I bite off more
than I can chew. I am, at the moment, working on: -
A book about family travel on the cheap here in Florida
- A fantasy (I was thinking that "hobbit" would
be a cute name for a character. What do you think?)
- A mystery. The deepest mystery, to me, is how one gets the
darn thing published.
- A book about freelance writing business practices.
Definitely back-burner, the more so as I just suggested
to the ASJA (American
Society of Journalists & Authors) that I do an update
to their 2000 book "Tools of the Writer's Trade" and
to which I was a major contributor.
- Still editing and maintaining the web site for Savvy
Executive Profiles magazine though that's not a time-consuming job.
Well. Enough for now. Next trick is to see if I
can actually keep to a weekly schedule with these newsletters.
(Answer: not a hope.) But if not, I'll do my best. Now go read
the course catalog and then write to me and tell me what's up
in your life, writing-wise.
One warning:
If I manually remove your name, I do not think you can ever
use
that e-mail address again
to sign up for the newsletter. I'm not positive about
that, but think about what you are doing. And, obviously, use
this link ONLY to drop the newsletter. For any other communication,
use the e-mail link at the top left of all web pages.