| Summer’s getting closer and that should make you think of... surfing the Internet? OK, maybe not. But if you’re a dedicated book lover and/or writer, your reading and writing habit doesn’t stop just because the sun is shining.
And if you have access to the Internet, there are numerous websites that can prove useful for you.
Of course, everybody knows about the "big boys" of the Internet – Google, Amazon and so on. But do you know about some of the advanced features these sites now offer? For instance, Google News Alerts will allow you to enter a specific search term and then be notified by e-mail whenever this phrase appears in any of the 4,500 online newspapers that Google regularly monitors. Use it to track news about a favourite author, the latest about a specific publisher or even to see if your name is popping up in the news for any reason. To use this feature, go to www.google.com, click on the "News" tab at the top of the page and then on "News Alerts" on the left side of the next page and fill in the form.
Last fall, Amazon announced a "Search Inside the Book" feature that, in addition to allowing you to search books by title, author or ISBN, now lets you search the text inside books as well. Initially 120,000 books comprising nearly 33 million pages of text were made accessible. This service moves the world one step closer to having a complete library at our fingertips. Try it out yourself at Amazon.com (note: you have to be a registered Amazon user to access this feature).
There are also a number of lesser-known websites that are equally useful. One of my favourites is www.refdesk.com which, although a bit cluttered, provides direct access to major search engines, a dictionary and thesaurus, an online translator, weather, maps, currency converters, calculators, encyclopedias and much much more. Well worth a spot in your Favourites folder and maybe even as your default home page.
Whichbook (www.whichbook.net) is a cool Flash application that permits you to use a sliding scale to select up to four different features of a novel. The site then recommends a list of prospective reading to you.
BookFinder (www.bookfinder.com) searches more than 60,000 new, used, rare and out-of-print booksellers from a single interface, making it the ideal way to track down a copy of any book.
If you’re a writer looking to create a name for a fictional character, Random Name Generator (http://www.kleimo.com/random/name.cfm) uses U.S. census data to do exactly as its name suggests. You can control whether the names generated are male or female and also how obscure they are.
Most of these websites were featured as "Friday Fun Links" on the Writers Guild of Alberta’s e-mail listserv. For more information about the Writers Guild of Alberta and their listserv, visit www.writersguild.ab.ca.
Back in the real world, the Editors’ Association of Canada will be in town this weekend for its annual conference. This is the first time in this association’s 25- year history that the conference has been held in Calgary. A highlight of the weekend will be the presentation of the Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence, to be given out at the association’s Saturday banquet. Although it’s too late to register, you can see more about the program by visiting www.editors.ca/conference. If you would like to learn more about the association, you can contact Lori Burwash (loriburwash@editors.ca) who is head of the local chapter of the EAC.
Also this weekend, the Calgary Association of Romance Writers of America will hold a Suspense, Tension and Pacing Workshop presented by Eileen Dreyer on Saturday, June 5 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the Parkdale Community Centre. The cost is $40 for members, $55 for non-members and includes a potluck lunch. More info is available at: www.calgaryrwa.com |
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