http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/writing/cover-yourself.html http://www.articletrader.com/writing/cover-yourself.html Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0500 One of your biggest sales tools is your books cover. Did you know that if someone sees your book on the shelf, you have less than thirty seconds to sell it? Remember too that your book cover will not only be on your book, but it will more than likely grace most or all of your marketing materials as well and a heavily funded PR campaign can not make up for a poorly designed book cover.

If you’re stumped for cover ideas, try spending an afternoon perusing your genre of books in a bookstore and decide what works and what does not. Then have a cover designed that fits your audience. Also, remember when titling your book it’s all about the “WIIFM” factor, or “what’s in it for me.” Your audience will want to know why they should buy your book instead of someone else’s and I find more often than not that authors designing their cover often want to incorporate symbols or hidden messages. This is usually a very bad idea mostly because the only person who will get it is the author. You don’t want a cover you have to explain to your audience unless you plan on hand-selling every copy of your book. In fact, you want a cover that’s so self-explanatory even someone who isn’t your reader will get it. That’s why I suggest that while the author should offer suggestions to the cover designer, they should never be the one to do the final design. Why? Because honestly you want someone who’s never read your book to design the cover. Why? Well, your reader won’t read the book before they buy it so as I indicated earlier, the cover needs to explain itself.

My graphic designer, Leeza Hernandez-Stetzler of ConkerTree Design has done several marketing pieces for me as well as assisting me with several cover designs. Leeza says: “Think about color and shade; rich golds work well with saturated blues, Deep green and ivory have a very sophisticated business-like feel and navy works well with ivory also. Purples and mid-tone blues have a more spiritual or meditative tone while sage green is calming and so is lavender; rustic earth tones give a feeling of warmth and comfort. Soft pinks and pastels are good for romance or softer type subjects, whereas hot pinks and deep purples have a bit more spice. Grays tend to be more subdued, sometimes bordering on depressive. Black has a more serious association which is good when used in books that offer information and business, like 'how-to's advice.” She does caution, however, to use the boldness of bright red with care because too much of it and the effect will be lost. A touch of red, however, tailored with black and white makes a very powerful statement. Just make sure your book has the content to back it up. When it comes to red, Leeza says, “Think 'Schindlers List,' where the entire movie is filmed in black and white except that one scene where the little girl runs across the screen and she is dressed in red. How powerful was that? Would you remember the scene if she was dressed in blue, or if the movie was color, probably not.”





Here are some cover tips to help you create an outstanding cover for your book!

Front cover
· Contrast is important. Draw attention to your book by using a lighter background with darker color type or vice versa. Also, avoid choosing a color for your title that merges into the background.
· Make sure that the title and subtitle are in different fonts to draw a distinction between the two.
· Don’t use all caps; it can give a very angry impression. Instead, use both upper and lower-case letters.
· As a rule of thumb, the title should be visible from about 12 feet away, which means letters no smaller than 24 pt (1/3 inch) and preferably 36 pt (½ inch).

Back cover
· The back cover should list the benefits of the book. Promise health, wealth, entertainment or a better life. Make it catchy and thought provoking. Again, visiting a bookstore will help you decide what draws you to a book and what’s a real turn off.
· If you’re fortunate enough to have garnered preproduction blurbs or endorsements from reviewers or specialists in your topic, don’t overuse them. I know you’re thrilled to have so many people praising your book, but don’t fill your back cover with every single one you’ve ever gotten. Use the most significant one on the cover, put one or two on the back and if you have more, use the first few pages of your book.
· The blurb about yourself should be no more than three sentences. I know, I know, you have so much to say, so much talent and so many other books waiting in the wings. But try to limit this; trust me, they may love your book, but they really don’t want to hear all about you.

Spine
· Make sure that your name and the title of the book are prominent and easy to read.
· Don’t use a complicated font. Keep it simple and easy to read.








--
Penny C. Sansevieri The Cliffhanger was published in June of 2000. After a strategic marketing campaign it quickly climbed the ranks at Amazon.com to the ##1 best selling book in San Diego. Her most recent book: From Book to Bestseller was released in 2005 to rave reviews and is being called the “roadmap to publishing success.” Penny is a book marketing and media relations specialist. She also coaches authors on projects, manuscripts and marketing plans and instructs a variety of coursing on publishing and promotion. To learn more about her books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at www.amarketingexpert.comTo subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@booksbypen.com Copyright ã 2005 Penny C. Sansevieri

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/writing/strange-happenings.html http://www.articletrader.com/writing/strange-happenings.html Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0500 Strange Happenings
By
Kenneth J. McCormick
Webmaster
http://aboutfacts.net/


There are many strange things in this world, but thank goodness, some really strange things are no longer with us. One of these things is a bug. Oh its not an ordinary bug, we have plenty of them. As a matter of fact there are more of them than us, a lot more. The bug I am talking about lived in what is now New Mexico and was over 8 feet long. It lived about 3 million years ago and was a many legged millipede. I guess if people would have been around then, the bugs would have stepped on them. It seems that this huge bugs lasted from 325 million years ago to 280 million years ago, well before even the dinosaurs.


A man in England has invented a way of broadcasting sound without using speakers. His device sends a beam of sound into a room and when you walk into it, you hear the sound or music, what ever the case may be, in your head. By the way, he received the Lamelson-MIT prize of 500,000 pounds for his invention. Not to shabby I would say.


Many strange events are organized in bars but the Moon Amtrak has to be one of the strangest. A bar, which will remain nameless, has organized an event that draws hundreds of participants every year on the second Saturday in July. The event goes this way, hundreds of people line up by a fence where the Amtrak train passes by and when it gets there, they drop their pants and moon the train as it goes by. I bet the people on the train are surprised.


One of the big events in Spain, that people come from all over the world for, is the huge tomato fight. The tomatoes are not huge but the crowd is. This events draws thousands upon thousands of people. But food fights take place in other countries also. In Italy there is the fight with oranges. I bet this hurts more than tomatoes.


A library somehow was carrying a porn movie as a Disney Feature. A young child found this out when his mother put the movie into the VCR, then left the room. A little while later the poor kid ran into his mother saying that people were doing nasty things on tv.


There is a figure on the wall of a Chicago underpass and many people believe that it is the image of the Virgin Mary. Some people are saying that it is a miracle but others are saying that it is just a stain.


In Wisconsin there was a proposal put before the Conservation Congress to allow hunters to hunt cats. We are talking about any free roaming cats. Cat lovers were aghast. This will never become law since the Governor refuses to sign it. Can you picture this, some hunter blowing away poor little kitties with his double barreled shotgun?


A bakery in New York had a unique Christmas Gift. For $125 you could get your face put on 2 dozen cookies. If you needed more the price was $36 per additional dozen. When you consider the work involved, you may realize this is a bargain.


A group of monkeys over ran an Indian village. They drank all the alcoholic brew that was being made and became drunk and attacked the villagers. The villagers counterattacked the drunken monkeys with sticks and weapons, driving them away. The villagers make a drink from marijuana leaves as an offering to the Hindu Gods.


Calls poured in to the authorities from Catalonia and Valencia in Spain. A huge fireball was seen in the sky over those areas. It has been deemed to have been a meteorite that hit the atmosphere at about 6,600 mph.


A taxidermist is offering to turn your deceased pets into pillows for you couch or bed. Shocked animal rights people have been sending her death threats. It doesn't look like this idea is going to get too popular.


African Monitor Lizards, which are over 9 feet long, escaped while in the Ukrainian city of Maioupoi. The frightened population was told to keep all pets inside. The cages of 9 giant lizards had been unloaded onto a dock where they were to be transported from, but had been allowed to sit there for several hours without being checked. Apparently someone had decided to release all the animals.


People are beginning to say that the ice mummy, the frozen hunter from over 5,700 years ago that was found , was cursed. What is this based on? The tour guide who found the mummy died. He froze to death in a blizzard. Next to die was one of the forensic team who examined the mummy, he died in a head on car crash. The mountaineer who led the team to the body was crushed in an avalanche. The journalist who did a documentary on the ice man.developed a sudden illness after the program and died a few months later. The head of the German rescue team that searched for the tour guide died from a sudden heart attack. Lastly the archaeologist who was the expert on the ice man acquired cancer and died. Is there really a curse, what do you think?


Experiments have been conducted by an amateur scientists on the weight of people while they are sleeping and he claims some strange results. He claimed that at times the person only weighed 1/6 of their normal weight and at other times weighed double. Most results were said to show a dramatic decrease in body weight.


Copyright © 2005 by About Facts Net and its licensors. All rights reserved.


Permission is given to post this article if no changes are made to it and all links are left intact.








--
Ken is the webmaster of About Facts Net. About Facts Net is a free internet magazine. It contains many interesting articles, often accompanied by photos, video and/or audio. It is suitable for the entire family. Http://aboutfacts.net

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/writing/the-sphinx.html http://www.articletrader.com/writing/the-sphinx.html Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0500 The Sphinx
By
Kenneth J. McCormick
http://aboutfacts.net


It's dead eyes look out over the ageless sands. Sands that saw a great civilization rise out of the nothingness of the desert and become one of the greatest that this world has ever seen. It is the inscrutable Sphinx, an ancient statue with the head of a man and the body of a lion. The giant statue of the Sphinx is sort of the Mona Lisa of statues. The facial expression has intrigued people for thousands of years. It is said that this great monument was built by the Egyptians around 4,500 years ago. But what is a Sphinx? It was an ancient mythical beast that symbolized the pharaoh as the incarnation of Ra who was the sun god. Lest you think that only Egypt had a sphinx let me set the record straight. The sphinx was common at the time through out the middle east and even in Greece.


The sphinx didn't always have the respect it garners today. If you look at it, you will notice that the nose is broken off. It is said that Napoleon's Grand Army used it for target practice and knocked the nose off with cannon fire. This may not be true and it may have been the Turks who pried off the nose many hundreds of years before the French Army ever came to Egypt. It is suspected that this was done for religious reasons.


Some people are sure that the Sphinx wasn't really built by the Egyptians. They claim that it is at least 10,000 years old and that the ancient Egyptians respected it and this is why the pyramids were built in the same area. But why would someone say that the Sphinx is this old? Lets start this discussion with the 'sleeping prophet', Edgar Cayce. He was the most accurate prophet of modern times. He would go into a sleep like trance and his secretary would record everything he said. In 1935, while in a trance, he began to talk about the Sphinx. He stated that a hidden cache of records was buried under the paws of the Sphinx by a civilization that had vanished. He claimed that this race had created the Sphinx over 12,500 years ago, which is much further back in the past than the accepted theory.


This isn't the only theory that dates the Sphinx back this far. Some scientists have examined the Sphinx and came to the conclusion that the statue is suffering from water damage that caused erosion. But the region has been dry for over 8,000 years. This would mean that the monument would have to be older than 8,000 years increasing the chance that Cayce could have been right.


Now here is a question for you, if some ancient race was smart enough to build the Sphinx is there any other evidence around that they could have built other things of equal or greater magnitude? To find out the answer to this we have to examine things that are older than 12,500 years., but lets make it 10,000 years because the dates are unsure.


The Monoliths found under the water near the coast of Japan are now believed to be up to 10,000 years old. Unfortunately this is controversy on whether they are man made or created by some freak of nature they just happened to use water that carved steps, platforms, and faces. Science now believes that Stone Age people knew how to make wine, yogurt and cheese so maybe some were a lot more advanced than we previously believed. In Zambia a Manganese mine was found that was over 28,000 years old. Mysterious cement cylinders ranging from 40 to 75 inches in diameter and up to 100 inches long were found on the Isle of Pines. The cement was speckled with iron gravel and silica. The cylinders are believed to be up to 13,000 years old but their purpose hasn't been determined. Stone ovens for cooking were discovered that were over 28,000 years old. They were located in Japan and showed that people of this time were a lot more sophisticated then was ever suspected.


Even if a lost race didn't build the Sphinx, it may have been possible for some ancient peoples to have built it. I only cited a few examples of ancient technology. I could have went on to say that there are thousands of miles of ancient aqueducts under Iran that are old enough to rival the 10,000 year old date for the Sphinx. I could also have said that if you study the positions of the stars 12,500 years ago, it matches the present positions of the pyramids, making their known dates of construction suspect. I didn't mention the pyramids because there is so much overwhelming evidence to indicate that they are dated correctly. Anyone who has watched the History Channel knows this. But it does make you wonder why this coincidence occurs? Could it have been that the pyramids were partially constructed by some superior race who never finished them and the ancient Egyptians did? This might account for the fact of the alignment and perfect angles that seem to be beyond the capabilities of any ancient race. We might have just had the sphinx and several unfinished pyramids in the beginning. This would also account for the evidence showing the Egyptians built the pyramids because they would have partially built them.


The Sphinx faces due east so it can see the rising sun. It is believed that the head was altered several times and that the original head might have been that of a lion. In 1978 two passageways were found, one behind the head the other on the tail. Most of the monument was under the sand until it was completely dug out in 1925. The Sphinx is not built from quarried rock like the pyramids but carved out of the actual bedrock of the area. Sphinx means strangler. The ancient Greeks gave that name to a creature that had the head of a woman, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird. The statue is the largest ever made on site by man. The Sphinx was built along with a temple. and some other structures. The bedrock it is built out of is known as the Muqqatam Formation and is about 50 million years old. The Sphinx is 238 feet long and 66 feet high. The eyes are 6 feet high and the nose would have been almost 5 feet high. When it was built, a scale of about 22:1 was used for the lion's body but the head used a scale of about 30:1. A shaft was drilled behind the head in the 19th century. Since the statue was buried for most of its existence in sand, it was protected from erosion. Now that it is exposed, it is crumbling.


The final word on the Sphinx by Edgar Cayce was that the secret room under it would be discovered in 1998 but this fact wouldn't be shared with the world until many years later.


Copyright © 2005 by About Facts Net and its licensors. All rights reserved.


This article may be republished without any changes and with all the links left intact.









--
Ken is the webmaster of About Facts Net, an interesting, free Internet Magazine. The magazine is suitable for the entire family and many of the articles are accompanied by photographs, video and/or audio. Http://aboutfacts.net

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/writing/the-unexplained.html http://www.articletrader.com/writing/the-unexplained.html Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0500 The Unexplained
By
Kenneth J. McCormick
http://aboutfacts.net


Life if full of unexplained things. It makes you wonder how so many things can be a mystery? Are we just not intelligent enough as a race to understand everything, or is it that we just haven't had enough time to discern the meaning of these things. The mysteries I am talking about exist in nature and are also man made. There is also a class of mystery that to many seems neither. Some people think that science will discover the truths behind all mysteries but a lot of times while solving one mystery another is discovered.


Studying nature we realize that we can't explain how life really starts. If we believe in God, then we say that God created all life. I myself believe that. One of the facts that I base it on is our DNA. We have been programmed, somewhat like a computer. But not everyone believes this, or that there even is a God. But, for the sake of argument bear with me and just for this moment, even if you don't believe, just make believe that it is true. That would make the next question, how did He do it? This is a question that we just can't answer. We may be able to answer this some day or we may not. Will we find clues some day that will allow us to conduct experiments in the area of life creation? Maybe Dr. Frankenstein was just a little ahead of his time. Some members of the religious community would be appalled at the prospect of developing life in the lab. I can see it now, the mobs with the torches yelling "burn the Godless creature." But the truth is that even if we don't create animal life in the future, we might just create machine life in the near future. The problem with machine life, is that it might be impossible to tell if a machine is really thinking for itself or it is just its program making you think that it is self aware.


Nature also enjoys puzzling us with its structure. We have strange things like Quasars pinging away out in space. We think that there is matter out there that we can't see, called dark matter, and this matter would be necessary to balance the equations that explain the universe. Oh we are such poor creatures at times. We think that we can explain everything, then we find out that certain things we believed are completely wrong or that something has appeared that violated the very laws that we postulated. This happened just a little while ago when we discovered that one of the very furthermost galaxies that was discovered turned out to be an old galaxy. This is impossible, or at least we think so, because the further out we look, the longer it takes light to reach us. We should have seen a galaxy that was no older than about 470 million years because according to scientists, that is the age of the universe back at that point in time. Something is certainly wrong here. Either the universe is much older than we think, remnants are out there from previous expansions of the universe or the galaxy we are looking at only seems to be old or is not as far as we think. We have not even figured out the simplest things on the cosmic scale and that is the conditions necessary for life. We thought we knew them, then we found those life forms on our own planet that live deep in the ocean by hot water vents that spew out water so hot that it would boil us, but they swim and feed there happily. Is this only the tip of the iceberg, can life exist almost anywhere and maybe even without oxygen? What about those bacteria that live inside rocks for millions of years?


Yeah mysteries are all around us. I have a good one for you, how do you cure the common cold? People have been trying to do this for a thousand years and even with all our technology and medical know how we still haven't been able to do it, let alone cure cancer. But this brings me to another area of medicine and that is producing drugs. Have you ever wondered if there were cures out there for certain diseases but maybe they were being kept secret? You may wonder why I would say such a terrible thing? The answer is economics. You can make a heck of a lot more money keeping a disease around and selling pills that have to be taken every day to keep it in check than if you put out a cure that is only used once. I have been accused of being too suspicious, but how can I help it when I see people paying many dollars a pill for drugs that are the same as the farmers are using on pigs and paying only 30 cents each. How can I help it when drug companies try and stop people in this country from purchasing drugs from Canada at a cheaper price. How can I help it when drug companies lobby and push through medicare reform that only benefits them with higher drug prices.


Man has created things that can't be adequately explained. He uses electricity, yet no one can completely explain what it is. He built buildings in South America on top of mountains using huge boulders that were not from the area. How did he get them to the top of the mountains thousands of years ago when we would be hard pressed to do this even today? How was the Great Pyramid constructed so perfectly with the measurements so precise by people barely out of the stone age? There are so many of these wonders around the world and yet present day modern man can not conceive of how they could have been built. It seems that man has been using electricity for over thousands of years. No this isn't a mistake, primitive batteries have been found that date back to ancient Babylon. Not only do we not completely understand many aspects of science but we seem not to completely know our own history. There are things around that are ancient, yet we know nothing of their origins. One has to look no further than the navigational mechanical computer that was discovered on a ancient Greek ship wreck that was over 2,000 years old. Until this discovery we never even suspected that metal gears were invented yet.


Our society has become one of great secrecy. There may be information that is not militarily dangerous to possess, yet it is known only to a privileged few. Do you remember when the Cydonia region on Mars was first photographed? This is the area that contains the famous Mars face, Pyramid and other areas know as the ruins. Why haven't we gotten better photos of this area? We did get one of the face that showed it as a worn plateau but when the photo was examined it showed that over 80% of the information that makes up a photo was missing. When we are told that Mars probes are missing or that the Mars explorer isn't sending back photos, is that really the truth or are these devices really taking photos of areas that the government doesn't want us to see? This would be a great way to photograph Cydonia in detail without us knowing about it. Was there past life on Mars, are we all descendants of Martians or is there life there now? Here is the most important question, if there was life on Mars would the government ever let us know? I for one am tired of hearing the excuse that we couldn't handle it and it would throw our religious organizations into chaos.


UFOs have been showing up in the news for hundreds of years. They were seen before the dawn of flight. They flew over the White House in the 1950s scaring the heck out of everyone. Presidents have seen them, airline pilots have seen them and many of our astronauts admit to seeing them. There is even evidence pointing to the fact that they may have a base of the dark side of the moon. Even if they don't exist and are some sort of secret Earth craft, you have to admit the excuses to deny their existence can get pretty lame. No wonder people don't believe the Air Force when they claim that police are looking at swamp gas. "That is not a metallic craft with lights and window you are seeing, it is a temperature inversion", oh give me a break. So here we have more unexplained objects.


I guess all we can hope for is that we learn a lot more about how the universe works, we discover more of our history and that our government becomes more forthright.


Copyright © 2005 by About Facts Net and its licensors. All rights reserved.


This article may be republished without any changes and with all the links left intact.








--
Ken is the webmaster of About Facts Net, an interesting, free Internet Magazine. The magazine is suitable for the entire family and many of the articles are accompanied by photographs, video and/or audio. Http://aboutfacts.net

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/writing/haunted-hollywood.html http://www.articletrader.com/writing/haunted-hollywood.html Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0500 Haunted Hollywood
By Kenneth J. McCormick
Webmaster
Http://Aboutfacts.net

When you talk about haunting, if you do, then you have to include Hollywood stars. It seems that more dead stars are suspected of haunting places than people from any other walk of life. Many of these so-called ghosts, are said to be haunting busy places, such as hotels. I thought it might be fun to look into this a little more. Lets start with one of my all time favorite stars, Marilyn Monroe


The Roosevelt Hotel is located at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, California. It is said that Marilyn has been seen quite a few times inside of a mirror there. The mirror is a full-length mirror that is located next to the elevators on the lower level, but the funny thing about this is that this mirror used to be in the room that Marilyn frequented. The room was poolside and was Suite 1200. Could the beautiful ghost of Marilyn be uneasy? One never knows, after all, there are many theories that state that Marilyn was murdered, is she trying to tell us something?


The Knickerbocker Hotel was built right in the heart of Hollywood. It wasn't a hotel when it opened, it was a luxury apartment building. In later years it became a famous hotel where the Hollywood stars would hang out. Its bar, the Renaissance Revival bar, was very popular with actors and actresses. Some actors lived at the hotel on a permanent basis. One famous actor was William Frawley. You may remember him from the "I Love Lucy" tv show, he was Fred Mertz. He died in the hotel in 1966 of a sudden heart attack. Marilyn Monroe spent her honeymoon with Joe DiMaggio there. D.W. Griffith, the movie pioneer died sitting right under the huge crystal chandelier in the lobby.


When Harry Houdini was dying he told his wife that he would do everything he could to contact her from the beyond. Every year since his death on Halloween night until 1936 séances were conducted. The first one was held on the roof of the Knickerbocker hotel. His wife Bess Houdini, and some magicians and friends were present. They tried to contact Harry for over an hour and finally gave up, but as they did, out of nowhere, violent lightning and thunder began to boom and light up the sky scaring all the participants. Was this Harry Houdini letting everyone know he heard them? The Hotel is now a senior citizen home.


They say that Rudolph Valentino, the famous silent movie star, is the most traveled Hollywood ghost, showing up in many different places. There have been reports of the ghost of Valentino being seen in the company of the ghost of Marilyn Monroe. Is that rascal, who was a tremendous womanizer in real life, now one in the spiritual world? Well at least he has good taste. A woman said she encountered the ghost of Valentino while she was walking along a deserted beach. She went on to say further that he was wearing the same flowing robes that he wore in some of his movies. It is also said the Valentino's ghost can be seen at night walking through Hollywood Forever Cemetery, his final resting place. I can't help but remark that the cemetery seems NOT to be his FINAL RESTING place because he doesn't seem to be getting much rest according to many reports.


There is a restaurant named Sweet Lady Jane's in Los Angeles. Many patrons of this establishment have reported seeing the ghost of Orson Wells sitting at a table. Further more, he was wearing a black cape. Some say that sometimes you can smell the smoke from the particular brand of cigar that Wells smoked and even smell the brandy he enjoyed here. When he is spotted, he seems to be sitting at his favorite table.


Some say that Ozzie Nelson is still living in the home that he had when he died. I guess living is the wrong term to use in this case, maybe occupying is better. Ozzie was the first half of Ozzie and Harriet, one of America's favorite couples. Their show ran for years on tv. After Ozzie died, Harriet sold the house and immediately the new owners discovered that there were some very strange things going on there. Lights were turning themselves on and off, door opened and closed on their own, water faucets turned on and off without the help of any human hand and they constantly heard foot steps going up and down on the staircase.


The strange story of Frances Farmer has to be told in any Hollywood haunting article. Frances Farmer became a huge name in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. By the time she was 27 she had made 18 films, stared in 3 Broadway plays and appeared in 32 major radio shows. At the top of her professional career she began to have problems in her personal life. She began to drink and take drugs for weight control. This caused her to act erratically on the set and she soon became a problem. She got into a fight in the Knickerbocker hotel and the police dragged her, half naked, through the lobby and she was later sent to the screen actor's sanitarium. She was given insulin treatments and they put her into shock. This went on for 7 years. She escaped once but was caught. It is said that the hospital staff was brutal to the patients. She was finally given a lobotomy and released. She was no longer the same person; the hospital stay and treatment had destroyed Frances Farmer. She died at 57 years old and was alone and broke. Many people say they have seen the ghost of Frances Farmer walking the halls of the Knickerbocker hotel and they feel that it will never be able to rest.


Copyright © 2004 by About Facts Net and its licensors. All rights reserved.


This article may be copied if no changes are made and all links are left in place










--
Ken is the webmaster of Http://aboutfacts.netThis is a free magazine on the internet that contains many interesting stories. These stories are often accompanied by photos, video or audio. The site is suitable for the entire family.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/writing/writing-ad-copy.html http://www.articletrader.com/writing/writing-ad-copy.html Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0500 It's always nice to give freebies away. Especially one's that help
you learn something. Here's a free ebook on exactly how to write
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--
Phil Wiley is the author of the best selling book Mini Site Profits www.minisiteprofits.comand writes the free weekly Letter from Phil at www.ozemedia.com Read About

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/writing/networking-gold.html http://www.articletrader.com/writing/networking-gold.html Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0500 Whether you’re trying to find an editor for your book, or a producer to pitch your story to, sometimes it’s all about networking. If you still have 999 of the 1,000 business cards you ordered, you’re not getting out there enough. It’s time to step out from behind that computer and strike networking gold.

One of the first laws of networking is that you want to get to know the people you’re networking with. If you’re at a writers conference or networking luncheon, don’t just pass out business cards, take the time to get to know people. When you meet industry partners, jot down a few notes on the back of their business cards so you don’t lost this potentially valuable information.

When you’re building your network, be generous with your help and information. The people you’re networking with will remember and appreciate your generosity. Next, you’ll want to stay on their radar screen. If I don’t regularly dialog with a particular contact, I try to send them a note or set up a lunch at least once every six months (more when I can). When you’re staying in touch with people, let them know if you’re offering a new service or product and always remember to send thank you notes whenever you get a referral from them.

If your objective is to join some networking groups, remember that these are not all created equal. Some groups and events are better than others and some are just straight out time wasters. When you first start pursuing networking events, you’ll find that many are just “luncheons” meaning that a few entrepreneurs get together and hash out their difficulties/ideas/challenges over lunch. If this is what you’re after, great! But more than likely you’ll want to attend events that can sell you books, get you new business or a combination of both. Keep in mind also that some networking events cost money to join, weigh the benefits of membership before you plunk down some cash, the better organizations don’t always need to cost a lot, often you can find networking organizations that only charge a small fee at the door to cover room expenses, etc.

The next thing you’ll want to look at when attending a networking meeting is supply and demand. If you’re promoting your business and looking for leads, you probably won’t want to go to a meeting where there are a number of people doing the same thing you are. Unless it’s an association (which are great too) you’ll want to look for meetings that have a good balance in attendees.




The other obvious choice for writers is writers conferences. But much like networking meetings they are not all created equal. Once you determine that you want to attend a conference, start “shopping” for the right one to attend. You’ll need to find a conference that fits your writing needs right now. For example if you’re still in the throes of getting into the craft of writing, perhaps a writing retreat is more suited to your needs. If you’ve already written a book and are deciding what to do with it, then a more advanced conference will work better for you. In either case, peruse their web sites carefully. Recommendations are great but remember, attending the wrong conference can be a waste of your time and money. Spend both of these commodities wisely!

Whether you’re meeting a producer for coffee, attending a networking event or going to your first writers conference there are a few tips that you’ll want to keep in mind. First, whenever you collect business cards, take a few minutes to jot down some notes on the back before proceeding onto your next prospect. You can note some of the discussion you had or what your follow up action might be. Next, you’ll want to follow up while the contact is still fresh. Especially if you’re at a writers conference or some other big event where there’s a lot of networking.

There’s nothing like networking to build your business or sell books, remember that much like marketing networking is all about relationships. Building them, supporting them, and, ultimately, benefiting from them. Like anything, becoming a good networker takes time and effort, but when done correctly, it’s worth all the work you put into it because you never know, networking gold today might mean a spot on Oprah tomorrow.








--
Penny C. Sansevieri The Cliffhanger was published in June of 2000. After a strategic marketing campaign it quickly climbed the ranks at Amazon.com to the ##1 best selling book in San Diego. Her most recent book: From Book to Bestseller was released in 2005 to rave reviews and is being called the “roadmap to publishing success.” Penny is a book marketing and media relations specialist. She also coaches authors on projects, manuscripts and marketing plans and instructs a variety of coursing on publishing and promotion. To learn more about her books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at www.amarketingexpert.comTo subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@booksbypen.com Copyright ã 2005 Penny C. Sansevieri

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/writing/editing-secrets.html http://www.articletrader.com/writing/editing-secrets.html Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0500





Once you've plotted out your book, developed the characters and written the last word of text, the real work begins. As busy editors are bombarded with hundreds or even thousands of submissions a year, it's more important than ever that authors apply their own editing skills to their manuscripts before putting them in the mail. Checking your basic grammar and spelling are of course important, but authors need to go beyond surface editing if their work has a chance of catching an editor's eye.

* Trim, tighten, hack away. First, second and even third drafts of manuscripts are almost always laden with extra words and scenes. Take a break from your book and then read it through with a fresh eye. Write down your theme in one sentence (what the book is about, such as working through shyness on the first day of school or showing how Thomas Edison's childhood experiences influenced his adult life). The plot (or progression of facts and events in nonfiction) is your vehicle for conveying the theme to the reader. Ask yourself if each character and scene advance the plot toward communicating this theme. And decide at the beginning that you will give up your precious words and finely-crafted scenes for the betterment of the book. Pithy dialogue may be fun to read, but if it pushes your story off track, it's just a literary dead end. Take the publishers' suggested word limits seriously: no, you don't really need 3000 words to tell your picture book story about Freddy the Frog's adventures in the Big Pond.

* The elements of speech. Well-crafted dialogue can be a writer's most important tool. Dialogue is not just there to break up the paragraphs or show that your characters know how to talk; ideally, it adds to character development, moves the plot along and replaces sections of narrative. Each character should sound like himself, with speech patterns and phrasing that are unique. This is especially true with talking animal books. I see many of these manuscripts where, if I took away the words that identify the speakers, each character would sound exactly the same. Don't have dialogue repeat the narrative and vice versa; "Did you hear that? Someone's at the door!" does not have to be preceded by "They heard a sound at the door".

* Show don't tell. How many times have you heard this? It's still true. Comb through your manuscript for sentences that tell the reader how a character felt (Sara was sad) and replace with sensory descriptions (Hot tears sprang to Sara's eyes and rolled down her cheeks.) Avoid telling the reader what to think about the story (Jason foolishly decided to trust Mike one more time.) Instead, present your character's actions and decisions to the reader, and let the reader draw his or her own conclusions (incidentally, this is how you "teach" without preaching).

* Wipe out passive writing. Search for verbs preceded by "would" (would go, would sleep, would eat) replace with the past tense (went, slept, ate). Also look for actions that seem to happen out of thin air. "The door was opened" is passive, because the sentence lacks a "doer". Remember, the reader needs to visualize what's happening in the story. "The wind blew the door open" is better, because the action can be attributed to something, and it puts the most important element (strong wind) at the beginning of the sentence. Simply rearranging the words ("The door blew open from the wind") puts emphasis on a door that won't stay closed, making that the subject of the sentence.

* Be precise. One of the best ways to make your writing come alive for the reader is to use exact nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. One well-chosen word is always better than three vague ones. Adjectives like big, little, cold, hot, beautiful, scary and silly; adverbs such as quickly, slowly, loudly, and softly; and general verbs like walk, went, stayed and ate don't draw a vivid picture for your reader. Of course, sometimes these words are appropriate, but try as a rule choosing words that describe specifically what you want to communicate. Words that sound and look interesting are also a plus. Tremendous, tiny, frigid, scorching, plodded, sauntered and gulped are more fun to read, and they each lend an emotional overtone to the sentence (if your character gulps his food, you don't have to tell the reader he's in a hurry).

And finally, make sure there's a logical cause and effect relationship between the scenes of your book. Each event should build upon the ones that came before. The plot should spring intrinsically from your characters; nonfiction should unfold because of the nature of your subject and your slant on the material. It's when everything comes seamlessly together that you have a winning book. Make it look easy, but don't skimp on all the hard work it takes to get there.















--
Laura Backes is the publisher of Children's Book Insider, the Newsletter for Children's Writers. For more information about writing children's books, including free articles, market tips, insider secrets and much more, visit Children's Book Insider's home on the web at http://write4kids.com Copyright, Children's Book Insider, LLC

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/writing/mind-reading.html http://www.articletrader.com/writing/mind-reading.html Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0500 Reading Minds


By Kenneth J. McCormick


http://aboutfacts.net/





Have you ever noticed that in science fiction every alien can read minds? I wonder why this is? It makes us as humans seem a little under developed, doesn't it? It isn't only science fiction that refers to this mind reading. People who have claimed to have been abducted by aliens in flying discs and subject to so called medical experiments usually say that they heard the alien's voice in their head but the creature's lips weren't moving. Why is this premise so popular? Some organs in the human body have functions that are either unknown or poorly understood. The human appendix seems to serve no purpose, in adults, except to give you problems if it malfunctions. Most of our DNA's functions are unknown, it is claimed that the figure is over 90%. By the way, as an aside, Apes have an appendix but monkeys don't. The appendix does serve a purpose up to the first two years of life. It is a lymphatic tissue gland that prevents infections from entering the young body.





I only mention these things to show that we don't understand everything about our bodies. If we look at our brains, figuratively speaking, we would find that there is a lot about the brain that we don't understand. The frontal lobes seem to control our higher functions, but is this area capable of controlling yet unknown functions? Some people seem to think so.





Theories abound in this area. One interesting one that I heard, I had never really thought about before. It goes this way, when you have empathy for someone you are really feeling their emotions. Their emotions are being broadcast directly to your brain. Could this be true? I would think that the only way that this could be proven would be to put a person, who is under emotional stress, in close proximity to someone without telling them and see if they feel any emotions. The discovery of mirror cells in humans was made a few years back. These brain cells react the same way, whether we are performing an act, or see others perform that same act. But maybe the eyes are the key to all this. It might be that we have to observe someone to feel their emotions so the experiment that I talked about, the one where you move someone to a close unseen position wouldn't be valid.





I have mentioned the fact before that the U.S. and several other countries employed 'remote viewers' during the cold war. These were people that were able to view events anywhere in the world and sketch them, all without leaving their rooms. Was this a form of mind reading, it would seem so, although this talent seems to have quieted down in the last decade? This doesn't end things however. Some scientists now believe that humans have an untapped talent for mind reading and that any human will be capable of it, when we figure out how to use it.





One of the leading theories on this matter is the Simulation Theory. Put simply it states that when we interact with someone our mirror cells in our brains fire up, and without our realizing it, we are feeling what that person feels and when we see what they are doing it is as if we are doing it. But how do we know that our brains can even broadcast anything? We know because we have proven this fact. Devices have been put into use where paralyzed people can control a computer cursor using nothing more than their brain power. It seems almost impossible but it is a fact. Knowing that the brain can broadcast is half the problem, the other half is can the brain receive? Lets play devil's advocate for awhile and say no. Would this stop us from mind reading? I think I would have to speculate and say it wouldn't. If we can now build a computer that reads brain waves to move a cursor, why couldn't we eventually build a small one that would receive signals and translate them back to speech? For that matter, maybe there is already one built and we don't know about it because it would be top secret. So far it seems that sensors are required to read brain waves, apparently they are very weak. These sensors are worn in a sort of cap like device or implanted in the brain, ouch! I shouldn't say ouch because the brain feels no pain.





Are there a few people that might be able to send out a stronger signal? One person that comes to mind is Adolph Hitler. It is said that crowds were mesmerized by his speeches. Was this because he actually broadcast to the crowd and neither he or the crowd knew it? Imagine a crowd picking up the feelings of a speaker as if they were their own. If this was the case, did it also apply to radio broadcasts of speeches? This could be the reason that Germany went so wrong and started World War II.





I bet most people don't know this but scientists have a machine that enabled them to record images that monkeys saw. These monkeys had electrodes implanted in their brains. During another experiment, mothers were observed with their small babies. It was noticed that some mothers were very adept at reading their babies emotions, was this a form of mind reading?





What about military and paramilitary organization? Scientists at NASA have discovered how to intercept the signals that go to your vocal cords and can interpret them back to words. This requires sensors placed on the neck of the sender. Will a machine be so powerful someday that sensors will no longer be needed and we will just need receivers? Some say that this is not what it seems. They think that it really is sending your thoughts out to the receiver, not just what you were thinking about saying. As I said, the military was experimenting with 'remote viewing' for many years and some of the results were quite promising. Did the military continue mind control experiments? They supposedly transferred the 'remote viewers' to a different agency, but this was not exactly reading minds. One thing I would have to think, is that if we had the ability to read minds, whether by natural or electronic means, we would have used this technology on some of the prisoners we are holding to locate terrorists. That is assuming that we have prisoners who are really terrorists themselves and have information that they are concealing.





We may all be in for a big surprise in the future and it may not be a pleasant one.





Copyright © 2005 by About Facts Net and its licensors. All rights reserved.





This article may be republished without any changes and with all the links left intact.










--
Ken is the webmaster of About Facts Net, an interesting, free Internet Magazine. The magazine is suitable for the entire family and many of the articles are accompanied by photographs, video and/or audio. Http://aboutfacts.net

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/writing/evolution-of-books.html http://www.articletrader.com/writing/evolution-of-books.html Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0500 A Book is anything that is in written, printed, or blank
pages format fastened along one side and encased
between protective covers. In other words, a book is a
collection of leaves of paper or other material, bound
together along one edge within covers. A book is also a
literary work or a main division of such a work. A book
produced in electronic format is known as an e-book.

In the words of Cicero, "A room without books is like a
body without a soul". Books and mankind have been
tied together for centuries. Books are not made for
furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully
furnishes a house.

Books are on the second rung of evolution of
communication - first being oral communication. Early
era books weren't in printed form, but were 'inscribed'.
Use of Papyrus was the next technological
advancement in this area. Egyptian and Greek ancient
histories find frequent mention of usage of Papyrus for
books. These books, particularly Greek ones, were very
large sized books, measuring 30 feet length and one
foot width. Over a period of time book writing shifted to
parchments during the middle age.

China is credited with printing of books with the help of
blocks (even today this technique is deployed).
Europeans, in particular Italians and French developed
this book printing into a huge book printing industry.
Some archeologists and historians attribute this to their
love for art. Britain came to the fore with
industrialization. Manual process of printing the books
were replaced with printing machines. Today book
printing technology is extremely different from the
techniques deployed during 20th century. Computers
have made it very easy, flexible and interesting to
printing of books. Modern day book printing technology
heavily depends on computers whether it is the design,
concept, cover or for that matter the final stage of
printing. It has possible because of computerized
technology that book printing span has reduced, quality
has improved and huge quantities are a matter of few
hours.
Latest to be added to books is the concept of e-books.
E-books are the electronic form of books. These books,
while being made available on traditional paper, are
also available in soft format.

Some of the interesting facts about books are been laid
here. The world's biggest book (3,604 pages weighing
12 kilo) has been written about Croatian president
Franjo Tudjman by Croatian author Hrvoje Sosic.
Guinness World Records has confirmed that Mark
Palkovic is the owner of the smallest book (0.9
millimeters by 0.9 millimeters, 30 pages) titled
Chekhov's Chameleon. According to one claim, the
oldest book can be viewed at Bulgaria's National
History Museum in Sofia. This book is claimed to be
belonging to year 600BC.

No write up on books is complete without the mention
of Amazon and Barnes & Noble. While Amazon carries
over four million titles over its counter, Barnes & Noble
boasts of a wide chain of 842 retailers using its trade
name. Amazon, in particular has been very successful
and had a rapid growth in its business since its
inception.







--
padrone delibri is the owner of Fax Books which is a premier resource for books information. for more information, go to http://www.faxbooks.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]>