Literary Links May/June 2004

Literary Links

July/August 2004

Good News and Announcements

Now Available--Look for these recent releases by our family of authors! In Your Eyes by Laura Moore is a June 29, 2004 release from Ivy Books. West of Heaven by Victoria Bylin is a July 1, 2004 release from Harlequin Historicals. And available now from Allie Pleiter, is Facing Every Mom's Fears.

RWA National Conference--July 28-31, 2004--Dallas, Texas--Romance Writers of America will hold its 23rd annual conference at the Adam's Mark Hotel. Workshop Presentation--Michelle Jean Prima will be presenting a workshop at the RWA National conference on Thursday, July 29 at 8:30a.m. The title is "Interweaving the Writer and the Web". It will cover the benefits of having an internet presence, and how to design/publicize a web site. Moonlight Madness Bazaar--Literary Liaisons will once again be selling copies of the Victorian Research Guide at the Moonlight Madness Bazaar on Thursday, July 29, 2004, from 8:00p.m. to midnight. See the RWA website for more information.

Victorian Research Guide--This 252-page guide, Researching the British Historical--The Victorian Era, is now available either in print format or CD-Rom. For more information, click here.

New On Literary Liaisons

There are many new additions to Literary Liaisons. After reading about them below, check them out on the web site.

Bookstore

Non-fiction:

The Book of Firsts by Ian Harrison

Death in the Victorian Family by Pat Jalland

The Elephants of Style by Bill Walsh

Rebel Heart: The Scandalous Life of Jane Digby by Mary S. Lovell

The Victorian Woman by Suzanne Fagence Cooper

Feature Title:

The Victorian Underworld by Donald Thomas

The Video Library

The Blackheath Poisonings

Researching the Romance

The Book of Firsts by Ian Harrison

Death in the Victorian Family by Pat Jalland

The Elephants of Style by Bill Walsh

Rebel Heart: The Scandalous Life of Jane Digby by Mary S. Lovell

The Victorian Woman by Suzanne Fagence Cooper

Writers' Resources Online

The 19th Century City

Feature Article

Interweaving the Writer and the Web

by Michelle J. Prima

You've heard it before--every serious writer should have a web site. You've thought about it already--the set-up, the design process, the maintenance. And it all seems too overwhelming. This article will help dispel some of the fears and myths associated with creating your own site.

The first belief you must carry with you is that every writer should have a web site, no matter what stage of your career you are in. Whether just starting out, or multi-published, the internet is a powerful marketing tool from which all writers can benefit.

As soon as you start writing, you should investigate and register your domain name. Use the name you will be writing under as your domain name. If you have a common name which is already taken, consider adding a suffix like: JaneDoeBooks.com or JaneDoeAuthor.com. If you aren't sure which name you will be using, purchase several domain names. They can be bought for as little as $7.95/year now if you lock in for several years. And whichever names you don't use, your ownership will be automatically cancelled if you don't renew the domain.

Once you have a domain name, start investigating hosting sites. Prices range from free, to upwards of $35/month, depending on how much space you want, and what services you need, such as e-mail accounts and e-mail forwarding. The more you pay, the more space and services you receive. Free sites such as Tripod or Yahoo will usually have banner ads that pop up for every visitor to your site. The price may be right, but do you want your visitors dealing with pop-up ads?

Now that you have your server set up, you can start the design process. You can design your page by using templates (usually available through free hosting services), learning to write HTML code yourself, or purchasing software which writes the code for you, such as Front Page or Adobe Acrobat.

The first step in design is to define the purpose of your site. The purpose will define the content. Here are several purposes, and the basic content for those sites:

Promote novels and other published works--For established authors, this will include pages for your books, a bio, writing tips, news, and links as a start.
Promote non-fiction--For authors published in non-fiction only, this site would be more subject-oriented, with articles and links on your area of expertise, and contact info.
Educate Readers--For the unpublished author, this site could include a bio, monthly column, offers for speaking engagements, etc.
Educate Writers--For the author who wants to help other writers with their careers, this site would include writing tips, bibliography, links, etc.

A basic site should include a simple home page with links to other pages. The Table of Contents on your home page should have links to top-level pages only, for ease of navigation. Include a photo and brief welcome note on your home page, and move more detailed information to other pages to avoid clutter. Your home page is your first impression, so keep it as simple and clean as possible.

Keep subsequent layers to a minimum, and when designing these additional pages, stay within a theme which reflects your writing. Again, keep the design simple. Dark backgrounds are hard on the eyes, and small, fancy text is difficult to read, no matter how pretty it is. Use tables to align graphics and text within any borders you may choose. Keep graphics small so they upload quickly for the viewer. Finally, always include a copyright notice on your pages.

Once your pages are designed, they need to be uploaded to the internet using FTP software. But don't think for a minute that your job is done once your pages are uploaded. If you have a web page, you need to make a commitment to your visitors to keep your pages up to date and well maintained. Keep content current, fix broken links, and bring new information up front as it develops.

You also need to publicize your site. You can do this by submitting your site to search engines, joining listserves, using your domain name on your stationary and in your signature tag, requesting links on other relevant sites and even starting your own listserve.

And if this still sounds too overwhelming, never fear, you always have the option to hire a designer like Literary Liaisons, Ltd.

NOTE: This speech will be presented in its entirety at the 2004 RWA National Conference in Dallas Texas. For a copy of the accompanying handouts which supply links to relevant sites for the above, send an e-mail with "Handouts" in the subject line to: handouts@literary-liaisons.com

Michelle Prima is the owner and designer for Literary Liaisons, Ltd. This article is an abbreviated version of the speech she presented at the 2004 Chicago-North Spring Fling conference, as well as the 2004 RWA National conference in Dallas, TX. Her award-winning web site www.literary-liaisons.com has been cited by authors, newsletters and radio stations around the world. An aspiring romance author, she lives in the Chicago area with her husband, two children, two step-children and three dogs.

Editor's Note

Here we are, in the midst of another summer. The weather has been good by most people's accounts. Personally, I prefer hot summer days and warm nights to warm days and cool nights, which we've had. And too much rain. At least we haven't had to water our new yard--which is large to accommodate our three dogs. So in that regard, summer weather has been good. My weekend wedding trip to Galena, IL was romantic and wonderful. I truly married a hero. He proved it in being a real trooper in London with our four children. Not used to a lot of walking, everyone was getting tired and cranky at times. But we hung in there and had fun nonetheless. We moved into our new house just a few weeks ago. Of course, my books are all unpacked. But now it's packing up again for Dallas. We're headed there for the RWA conference. I'm speaking on Thursday morning, so be sure and look me up if you're there. I'd like to meet some of my visitors. And to all of you, enjoy the rest of the summer! It goes by so fast these days.

--Michelle Prima

President, Literary Liaisons, Ltd.

Q&A Column

Q: Hello, I was wondering if you could guide me in the right direction for publishers in Ireland who might publish a Historical Romance novel. Any information would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

Mayalen D.

A: Here are a few sites to get you started. Poolbeg and Attic Press are book publishers. The rest of these sites list resources and more publishers located in Ireland and the UK.

Poolbeg
http://www.poolbeg.com/
Attic Press (specializing in books by and about Irish women)
http://www.iol.ie/~atticirl/
Irish Book Publisher's Association
http://www.publishingireland.com/
Everyone Who's Anyone in Adult Trade Publishing
http://www.everyonewhosanyone.com/eduk.html
Dublin Writers Workshop
Index of Irish Publishers and Literary Journals
http://www.dublinwriters.org/info/publishlink.html
Jacqui Bennet Writer's Bureau
http://www.jbwb.co.uk/novmark.html

Michelle Prima

President, Literary Liaisons, Ltd.

Historical Calendar of Events

1880

Births

Lytton Strachey--English author

Helen Keller--American deaf and blind educator

Jacob Epstein--Anglo-American sculptor

Douglas MacArthur-- American general

Queen Wilhelmina of Holland

Deaths

George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)--English novelist

Gustave Flaubert

Jacques Offenbach--French composer

Politics

Lord Beaconsfield resigned as Prime Minister. He was succeeded by W. E. Gladstone.

Transvaal declared itself independent from Britain.

December 30--A Boer Republic independent of Britain's Cape Colony was proclaimed by politician "Oom Paul" Kruger.
Captain C.C. Boycott, land agent in Mayo, Ireland, was boycotted for refusing to accept rents fixed by his tenants.

September 13--Parliament passed Britain's first Employers' Liability Act, granting compensations to workers for injuries.

James Garfield elected President of the United States.

France annexed Tahiti.

The Arts
Paintings:
"Chateau de Medan" by Paul Cezanne

"The Outer Boulevards" by Camille Pissarro

"Place Clichy" by Pierre Auguste Renoir

Sculpture:

"The Thinker" by Rodin

Fiction:

The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope

Endymion by Disraeli

Uncle Remus by J. C. Harris

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Ben Hur by Lew Wallace

Nana by Emile Zola

Non-Fiction:

A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain

Kate Greenaway's Birthday Book by Catherine Greenaway

Poetry:

"Ultima Thule" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Operas and Operettas:

"The Pirates of Penzance" by Gilbert and Sullivan

Popular Songs:

"Funiculi, Funicula" by Italian composer Luigi Denza

"Sailing (Sailing, Over the Bounty Main)" by English composer Geoffrey Marks

Daily Life

The London Guildhall School of Music founded.

Owens College in Manchester became a University.

The University of Southern California was founded.

England's first high schools for girls opened.

The Parcel Post was introduced in England.

The first British telephone directory was issued January 15 by the London Telephone Co. It listed 255 names.
Publisher William Rockhill Nelson founded the Kansas City Evening Star.
The Cologne Cathedral, largest gothic cathedral in Eurpoe, was completed, after being started in 1248.

Bingo was developed from the Italian lotto game of tumbula.

The first Test Match between England and Australia was held in England.
The first totally successful shipment of frozen beef and mutton from Australia to England arrived in early February when the S.S. Strathleven doceds with 400 carcasses. The meat sold in London at 5.5 shillings per pound.
Imported meat accounted for 17 percent of British meat consumption.

U.S. ice shipments to tropical ports reached a high of 890,364 tons carried by 1,735 ships.
New England's ice crop failed due to an unseasonably warm winter, ice prices soared, and the high prices spurred development of ice-making machines.
Thomas' English Muffins were introduced in New York by English-American baker Samuel Bath Thomas.
"Philadelphia" brand cream cheese was introduced by New York distributor Reynolds.
Heinz's White Vinegar, Apple Cider Vinegar, and Apple Butter were introduced by Pittsburgh's F. and J. Heinz.
More than 95 A&P grocery stores were scattered across America from Boston to Milwaukee.
George Eastman perfected a process for making dry photographic plates.
Nearly 550,000 English and nearly 440,000 Irish immigrants entered the United States.
A pharmacy to dispense pessaries (vaginal contraceptive suppositories based on quinine in cocoa butter) opened at Clerkenwell, England, under the management of Walter John Rendell.
The "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" received its name March 5 from a newspaper reporter covering the resumption of through passenger service between North and South.
The World Exhibition took place in Norway.
Denver's Windsor Hotel was opened by Colorado cattle barons.
California's Del Monte Hotel on the Monterey Peninsula was opened by Central Pacific Railroad boss Charles Crocker.
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art moved in March into a new building in Central Park at 82nd Street.
Australian outlaw Ned Kelly was convicted of murder in a Melbourne court and hanged November 11.
De Beers Mining Corp.was founded by English diamond mine operator Cecil John Rhodes and English financier Alfred Beit.
Some 539,000 Singer sewing machines weresold, up from 250,000 in 1875.
"Oh Canada" was sung in public for the first time June 24 at Quebec City.

Technology

Canned fruits and meats first appeared in stores.

Thomas Edison and J.W. Swan independently devised the first practical electric lights.

James Wimshurst invented the electrostatic generator.

Andrew Carnegie developed the first large steel furnace.

Laveran discovered the malarial parasite.

Pasteur discovered a chicken cholera vaccine.

The typhoid fever bacillus was identified simultaneously by German bacteriologist Karl Joseph Eberth and Robert Koch.
Robert Koch discovered a vaccine against anthrax through the accident of an assistant.
Elevated steam trains rumbled up and down New York's Second, Third, Sixth and Ninth avenues.
Railroad mileage in operation: United States--87,800, Great Britain--17,900, France--16,400, Russia--12,200.

Skis were used to navigate mountains in Norway.

The first wireless telephone message was transmitted June 3 by Alexander Graham Bell on the photophone he invented.
New York streets were first lit by electricity.
Halftone photographic illustrations appeared in newspapers for the first time.
The Pillsbury A mill goes up at Minneapolis and will be the largest flour mill in the world.
U.S. wheat production reached 500 million bushels, up 221 percent over 1866 figures. U.S. export of wheat and flour combined reach 175 million bushels, up from 50 million in 1871.
U.S. corn production reached 1.5 billion bushels, up 98 percent over 1866 figures, and corn exports totaled 116 million bushels.
Sugar beets were raised on a commercial scale for the first time in the United States

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