Territorial News

Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter - March 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Mac) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:36:00 +0000

Contents:

* NEW REVIEWS
* SIMECENTER SUPPORTS HAITI
* BORDERLANDS NEWS
* JEAN PUBLISHES JOURNAL
* RELAY FOR LIFE
* JEAN AND LOIS WICKSTROM ANNOUNCE -- "ORDER OF THE VIRGIN MOTHERS"
* NEWSLETTER NEWS
* JEAN'S SOCIAL NETWORKING
* Check our our new Amazon "Stores"
* NEW PROJECT FOR JACQUELINE
* COAL FOR CHRISTMAS
* REREADABLE BOOKS
* PATRIC MICHAEL'S NEXT PUBLICATION
* JOIN THE REVIEWERS
* NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS
* HELP WANTED
* PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
* AVAILABLE RELEASES
* SITES TO REMEMBER
* SUBSCRIPTION AND CONTACT INFORMATION
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE**

******NEW REVIEWS******

You can find the review column for February 2010 now linked and books to be reviewed in the August 2010 column now posted at
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2010/
Almost the books reviewed in this column were sent by publicists, but I only select a few to be reviewed, the ones that are worth 5 Stars on most scales. But all the 5-star books don't get reviewed because there isn't room.

******

****** SIMECENTER SUPPORTS AID TO HAITI

Starting with this month's issue, SimeCenter is asking authors and artists to sponsor charities that actively participate in relief and recovery aid to Haiti.
This month's story on is:
The Time Travelers' Guide (by Katy Thorp)
- some words of advice
The accompanying artwork is:
Bark Shin Guardian (by G.B. Chew)
- quiet protection
In keeping with the new direction, these creations are submitted in support of Oxfam America, which is spearheading several major projects to restore conditions in Haiti.
When you donate to this worthy organization, be sure to tell them you were referred by SimeCenter.
Send your comments, questions, etc.--about the site, the stories and art...whatever--to the address below. [Mention
'SimeCenter' in the subject so I'll know it isn't spam.]
In Service to Unity,
Kaires Tevesu

****

******BORDERLANDS NEWS******

Borderlands Part 33, "What's Yours Is Mine", is now posted at
http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/fans/bev/boom/index.html#part.33

We continue to follow the Pollovics on their way into Simeland as one
of our two main plot threads; the other is the developments at Coleman's
mine when Seruffin and Gerrhonot arrive there. Is it really a hotbed of
Distect activity? Will this be a replay of "Stranded in Gumgeeville?"
Read and find out!

Sidebars: Nick gives a lesson in practical botany, Tsibola advises his
niece Fridda on future careers, Randayl (the Sime son of Senator Rundle)
finds himself making plans for *his* future, and Bart's mother Maree
gets a package from her son.

Read, comment, review, speculate, protest! And then we'll be inspired
to do the grunt work to deliver Part 34, "Compromising Situations",
which is already written but needs to be edited, proofed, and equipped
with summaries for the index page. Hey, that's what worked this time --
special thanks to Greer Watson for posting a comment and getting us off
our butts.

******

******JEAN PUBLISHES INDIA/NEPAL JOURNAL******

New entries are up in Jean's blog......loads of pictures!
http://houseofkeon.blogspot.com/2009/12/italy-part-two-pompeii-and-herculane
um.html
India and Nepal--True Adventures
A journey into a new world, real events, wonders vs. hardships. Tips and
tricks for travelers. What to see. http://houseofkeon.blogspot.com/

******

******RELAY FOR LIFE ~ a message from Jean******

It's Relay for Life time again, the American Cancer Society's biggest drive of the year. Everyone has a family member or friend who has fought or is fighting cancer. You don't have to stand by helplessly--you can join in the fight that has already extended lives and improved quality of life for cancer patients and survivors, provided cures for some kinds of cancer, produced a vaccine against one form of cancer, and now continues research for permanent cures.

Some of you already know that I am a cancer survivor twice over--and if it were not for the detection and treatment options resulting from cancer research, I would have been dead years ago. I lost a beloved aunt to one of the same cancers many years ago. Because of improvements in detection and treatment, I not only survive, but survive with far less pain and disfigurement than she suffered. In fact, I survived long enough to develop a completely different kind of cancer six years after the first--one for which, with early detection, there is now a complete cure. I am living proof of the results that your contributions have produced.

There are several ways to support Relay for Life. If your community has a Relay, you can join a team. You can attend your local Relay and donate and/or buy luminaria there. (Luminaria are lights displayed at the Relay in honor of survivors or in memory of those who have passed on; they cost $5.00 each.) You can donate to local Relay team members and purchase lumiinaria from them.

Even easier: restaurants in communities with Relays often have Relay Days when they donate a percentage of the take to a local team. Gather up family and friends and eat at that restaurant that day!

And finally, if you don't have a local team to support, please support mine, which is made up of cancer survivors. Just go to http://short.to/12jf1 and follow the instructions to contribute using your credit card, or print out the form and mail it in. Contribute whatever you can--every penny helps. Please don't let the research stop!

*****

***** JEAN AND LOIS WICKSTROM ANNOUNCE -- "ORDER OF THE VIRGIN MOTHERS"

Lois June Wickstrom (with Jean Lorrah) has just published a book of seven plays not for the faint of heart. Find Order of the Virgin Mothers here: http://tinyurl.com/ylqn77e Except for one play designed for children, all these plays have outrageous concepts designed to provoke thought and discussion.

*****

******NEWSLETTER NEWS******

NEW NEWS: We have a new way of accessing WHAT'S NEW on simegen.com It is a blog where you can read the monthly Newsletter and drop your own comments and news, tell us what you need done, or report problems with pages.
http://whatsnew..simegen.com/ Click in the right margin to follow this Newsletter, and the news will appear in your blogger.com account. Or you can use the RSS feed. If there's another follow-tool you would prefer, please e-mail simegen@simegen.com asking for it (give the URL) and we'll enable it. There are a few handy tools we haven't enabled yet, but they are available (such as feedburner).
Patric set this magical thing up on our server and Karen has posted the Newsletters from Jan 2009 to now, so you can access past news just by scrolling. Please visit our top page, simegen.com, and note that my Twitter scroll is there for you -- plus a very nice Writing Tips Twitter scroll. Click and read the entire scroll on Twitter.

******

******Advertisment*****

Visit the imagination of L. H. Young and enter worlds of romance where anything can and does happen. From the new and emerging Sci-Fi Space Opera series with fascinating new characters called Vatamps, to her Time Traveling witches and their mysterious loves, a humorous adventure with a claustrophobic vampire chasing his lady to her very different werewolf saga and finally, her unique, touching poetry. Please visit her website http://www.authorlhyoung.com for all the latest.

*****Please Support Those Who Support Us*****

******JEAN'S SOCIAL NETWORKING******

If you are on LinkedIn or Facebook, be sure to look up Jean Lorrah.
Jean's personal Twitter account is http://twitter.com/houseofkeon She tweets only when she has something more important to announce than that she got up in the morning.
She also has a daily Twitter account, http://twitter.com/TipsOnWriting That's right: tips on writing every single day.
Jean is taking a course on Marketing and Emerging Media, part of which requires learning to use even more social media.
You can see her photo album on Italy now at http://short.to/14bad
And finally, Jean's blog continues with weekly entries at http://www.houseofkeon.blogspot.com/

******

****** Check our our new Amazon "Stores"

Blatant commercial to keep simegen.com on the air.If you buy from Amazon using one of our search boxes at the bottoms of many of our pages, or find what you're looking for in our a-stores, we get a few cents to pay the bandwidth bills.
Our Amazon stores (we recommend buying directly from Amazon itself, not one of their onboard retailers unless you know the retailer very well -- we get paid the same, but have found better customer service with amazon.com shipments).
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keybooks/
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keygifts/ -- NEW STORE created to hold gift items specially useful to writers, both in writing and in just finding the TIME to write.
Also we now have Google ads on our main entry pages -- and they pay nicely when someone finds what they want via one of those ads. But don't click just to click -- click something that looks like what you really want.

******

******Advertisment*****

HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN SALE! Celebrating the return of the economy to a more even keel (and helping you to afford to publicize your books once again), all during 2010 we are offering any of the advertising packages at http://www.simegen.com/agreements/pricing.html for four months for the price of three, or eight months for the price of six. Ad packages must be reserved by December 15, 2010, for ads to begin any time up to June, 30, 2011. Lock in this low price by contacting advertising@simegen.com and putting down a 25% deposit, remainder due at the time the ad is posted. Limit of two ad packages per advertiser. Use code SGNL to claim your bargain ad package. Remember--there are three rules that guarantee lack of sales: 1. Don't advertise. 2. Don't advertise. 3. Don't advertise.

*****

******NEW PROJECT FOR JAQUELINE******

MY CURRENT MAIN EFFORTS:
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/downloads/
That is a page that needs redesigning, just as the /marketplace/ top page will.
We are preparing to make available in e-book and on paper, a set of 7 textbooks on writing, 5 of which are on philosophy, the wellspring of ideas and the bulwark against writer's block. The particular philosophy showcased is the structural framework behind Tarot, but you don't have to be interested in Tarot to use this information in writing or many other endeavors.
Novel and Screenwriting are both very much rooted in structure which becomes invisible when clothed in unique details.
Learning to perceive the underlying structure behind seething masses of detail is somewhat like learning to spot starfish against an underwater boulder full of barnacles.
It's pattern-recognition, a brain function we all have and sometimes fail to buff up. These first 5 volumes help train the mental "eye" in a kind of abstract "pattern recognition" that will serve to sharpen results in everything you do.
The final 2 (or possibly more) volumes are directed at readers and writers who want to understand the application of the pattern recognition principles showcased in the first 5 volumes. These volumes are designed to be of use specifically by writers, but writers working in fiction, non-fiction, or screenwriting.
Currently, this project stands at the beginning of Volume #5, with several more weeks work to do on that volume, plus artwork and packaging efforts. This is a team effort that has absorbed Karen, Patric, Jean, me -- and others here -- for a year or more.
Some of these Tarot and Writing Lesson chapters have been posted to the blogs
http://www.editingcircle.blogspot.com/
And on Tuesdays where I post on
http://www.aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/
The better entries on these two blogs will be compiled and presented in PDF (or other e-book formats) plus, on paper.

******

******COAL FOR CHRISTMAS**********

COAL FOR CHRISTMAS by Lois Wickstrom and Jean Lorrah finished in the top ten family screenplays in the 2008 TheMovieDeal contest. http://www.themoviedeal.com/#/finalists/4532422034 Find the SCROLL icon at the lower left, and scroll down to see the top ten in each category.

******

******REREADABLE BOOKS******

PLEASE REMEMBER TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR BLOG WHERE THIS NEWSLETTER IS POSTED
http://whatsnew.simegen.com/ which is a neat way to avoid losing the Newsletter in spam.
The Rereadable Books review column for January 2010 has now been posted.
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2010/
ReReadable Books review columns posted for November and December 2009 can be found at
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2009/
The books that will be reviewed through June 2010 have been posted at
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2010/
Preview of some novels in the hopper for after June 2010 can be found at
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/12/is-that-really-you.html
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/12/recommending-devon-monk.html
Alien Romances is a co-blog where you will find Jacqueline Lichtenberg blogging on Tuesdays.

******

****** Patric Michael (our Webmaster) is pleased to announce his NEXT publication!******

"The Santa Mug," a novella, was released by Dreamspinner Press in December, 2009 as part of their Advent Calendar.
Light of a Different Moon" by Patric Michael, part of the "To Die For" ghost anthology by MLR Press, has been released.
Look for it at http://www.mlrpress.com/
Check out http://www.patricmichael.com/ for the Start of Something Great.

*******

******JOIN THE REVIEWERS

Jacqueline is developing a new way to find books to review -- via Twitter!
And with more people helping we could, perhaps, find more reviewers. I've been collecting people in writing, editing, publishing, and various parts of the film industry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
I really could use some help with this. To connect with me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/jlichtenberg
To connect with me on Facebook --
http://facebook.com/jacqueline.lichtenberg
To connect with me on LinkedIn --
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelinelichtenberg
Karen MacLeod and Patric are also available on LinkedIn. We are moving gradually into the networking space and evaluating the uses of cloud computing. We need a new coordinator for the Reviews department who can work with the social networking tools.
For the moment we have only a few reviewers responding to the e-mail List, and I suspect that's the drift away from e-mail because of the spam load. We need to launch a blogspot blog for our Reviewers instead of a List, or perhaps establish a Group on Facebook.
I will continue to post books to be reviewed to the reviewers List as I discover them. As Coordinator of our Reviews Department, I ask for your help. With the current upsurge in e-book publishing that is sweeping the Internet, we daily receive an increasing number of books to review. Yet, in counterpoint, we have a shortage of reviewers, and many of our reviews staff are several books behind. We are eagerly and actively seeking new people to review for us. As with all of Sime~Gen, our reviewers are volunteers. When they write a review, it is posted with their byline, and they get to keep the review copy of the books they have read and reviewed.
For more information on our Reviewers Agreement, visit:
http://www.simegen.com/agreements/revagr.html
Please help us by passing this information along to anyone you know who might want to join our happy band. If interested, they can send a note expressing their interest to Jean at simegen@simegen.com

******

******Advertisement******

Anyone shopping Amazon who wants to contribute to simegen.com without it
costing them a cent, please start by using any of the Amazon Search boxes on
our pages. Our top page has three really handy ones near the bottom.
http://www.simegen.com/

******Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS

A SIME~GEN postage stamp is now available to order on cafe press. It can be used just as you would use a regular postage stamp. Be the first on YOUR block to have them!
We've got a new page for Cafe Press items from our artists and authors. Now you can get t-shirts, greeting cards, clocks, mugs, and other great stuff with work from your favorite artists. You can even buy books about Nessie, the Orange Forest Rabbit and The Reluctant Spy that aren't available anywhere else.
http://simegen.com/marketplace/cafepress/ is a direct link to all our items and merchandise stores. Use of this page will give the domain extra income. If there is an item that you wish to see that isn't offered, just write Lois at lois@lochness-monster.com and she'll get it ready for you to order.
******

******HELP WANTED*****

The spotlights section of Simegen.com currently needs interviewers, spotlight posting personnel, an assistant spotlights gatemaster, and a keygifts store manager. We are also requesting an Assistant Reviews Co-coordinator - duties include covering when other staff are unable to perform tasks. We are almost finished revamping our reviews section and expect
activity to be at a constant high level. We're looking for a versatile quick learner able to put in some time daily. Pluses are: A good command of the English language (syntax, grammar, punctuation, in that order), some computer experience or ability to learn, and an interest in books. Direct all inquiries to simegen@simegen.com.
Individuals to take over, or assist with the SIMECENTER Site -- It isn't at all hard, but a bit time-consuming...and very rewarding ("meeting" these marvelous authors and artists, if only via E-Mail and their websites.) Please write me, Kaires Tevesu, if you are interested. People who talked to me earlier about helping: I've lost track of your communications in the throes of several changes of computer. PLEASE contact me again. The time is right, the templates are much more
robust, I have a small backlog of stories (the hardest part of operating SimeCenter), and I've even documented some of the processes. I'd like to talk to you again.

****** Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******PUBLICATION SCHEDULE********

We have had to withdraw the entire Sime~Gen project from Meisha Merlin for a wide range of reasons. They missed several deadlines for publication of TO KISS OR TO KILL and showed no signs of intention to get it out any time in the foreseeable future. That stalled everything else. It was very disappointing. So we are now actively in search of another
publisher.
THE UNITY TRILOGY should continue to be available for some time -- they have the right to dispose of all stock in the Meisha Merlin warehouse.

******

******AVAILABLE RELEASES***********

~ the Omnibus reprint of Jean Lorrah's SAVAGE EMPIRE: DARK MOON RISING --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210013X/rereadablebooksr/ is #1
in the reprint program.
~ Trade Paperback edition of DREAMSPY from BenBella Books and you can order
on Amazon and some other places http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932100253/rereadablebooksr/
Read the comments here:
http://www.simegen.com/writers/luren/dreamspy/dreamspyreviews.html
~ SAVAGE EMPIRE: PROPHECIES
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210030X/rereadablebooksr/ is #2
in Jean Lorrah's and Winston Howlett's omnibus reprint of the Savage Empire series.
Still Available in Trade Paperback, SIME~GEN: THE UNITY TRILOGY
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592220037/rereadablebooksr/

******

***** Sites to Remember *****

Author spotlights: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/
Chats: http://www.simegen..com/writers/spotlights/chat.html
Romance articles: http://www.simegen.com/romance/articles.html
Reviews of books by Jacqueline Lichtenberg:
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/
Reviews: http://www.simegen.com/reviews/
Shopping: http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/
Sound files of Jacqueline Lichtenberg pronouncing Sime~Gen vocabulary words can be found at
http://www.simegen.com/jl/nivetsoundfiles/index.html
To sign up for classes, go to
http://www.simegen.com/school/SchoolForms.html
To volunteer, go to http://www.simegen.com/agreements/helpwanted.html for the latest openings.

******

To contact editor for any reason, please e-mail Lisa Saunders at
simegen@simegen.com
*Please Note all material posted on Official Virtual Tecton is copyright ©
by Sime~Gen Inc. and all rights are reserved..
To get your Sime~Gen(tm) material sanctioned for web posting or to get
permission to repost from official materials, e-mail ambrovzeor@aol.com, contact
simegen@simegen.com.
Sime~Gen (tm) is the trademark of a fictional universe copyright © by
Jacqueline Lichtenberg, 1969, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986 and
Sime~Gen Inc. 1999-2010

Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter -- JANUARY 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Mac) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:49:00 +0000

Contents:

* SIMECENTER SUPPORTS HAITI
* ANNUAL NEW YEAR'S CHAT POSTED
* WISH JEAN LUCK
* BORDERLANDS NEWS
* JEAN PUBLISHES JOURNAL
* RELAY FOR LIFE
* NEWSLETTER NEWS
* JEAN'S SOCIAL NETWORKING
* Check our our new Amazon "Stores"
* NEW PROJECT FOR JACQUELINE
* COAL FOR CHRISTMAS
* REREADABLE BOOKS
* PATRIC MICHAEL'S NEXT PUBLICATION
* JOIN THE REVIEWERS
* NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS
* HELP WANTED
* PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
* AVAILABLE RELEASES
* SITES TO REMEMBER
* SUBSCRIPTION AND CONTACT INFORMATION
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE**

****** SIMECENTER SUPPORTS AID TO HAITI

Starting with this month's issue, SimeCenter is asking authors and artists to sponsor charities

that actively participate in relief and recovery aid to Haiti.

This month's story on http://www.simegen.com/simecenter/ is:

The Time Travelers' Guide (by Katy Thorp)
- some words of advice

The accompanying artwork is:

Bark Shin Guardian (by G.B. Chew)
- quiet protection

In keeping with the new direction, these creations are submitted in support of Oxfam America,
which is spearheading several major projects to restore conditions in Haiti.

When you donate to this worthy organization, be sure to tell them you were referred by
SimeCenter.

Send your comments, questions, etc.--about the site, the stories and art...whatever--to the
address below. [Mention 'SimeCenter' in the subject so I'll know it isn't spam.]

In Service to Unity,
Kaires Tevesu

****** SIME~GEN ANNUAL MEETING MINUTES POSTED

Sime~Gen, Inc., holds its annual meeting on the first day of each year, to report on happenings
over the previous year, and give awards to people who have served the domain valiantly in the
previous year.

The meeting is conducted via mIRC, so that friends of Sime~Gen from all over the world can
attend. Two chat rooms are opened for the occasion; one hosting the formal meeting, and the other allowing the participants to chat in the background before, during, and after the formal meeting.

The logs from both chat rooms are posted on the web:
http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/chats/chat2010_mtg.html

http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/chats/chat2010_chat.html

There, you can read notes about the meetings from 1999 through 2010. The files for the last few
years are fairly elegant in format and content. The files in the earlier years are less formal,
but they report the necessary information.

Note that this is actually the 12th year (!) of these online meetings!

Comments are greatly appreciated. Send comments, questions, etc., to the address below. [Mention 'Sime~Gen Meeting' in the subject so I'll know it isn't spam.]

In Service to Unity,
Kaires Tevesu
historian@simegen.com

*******

******WISH JEAN LUCK******

WISH JEAN LUCK!
Jean's trip to Hollywood last November has resulted in an agent asking to see the first act of
the script she pitched at those meetings.
It's just a request to read, NOT an offer of representation, but it is an essential first step.
It could be a false step that goes nowhere, or it could be the first step on the path to
eventually getting a script produced. Good wishes for the latter are welcomed!
Also please send strength and inspiration as Jean polish-polish-polishes that first act before
sending it in in early February. "Good enough" is not good enough when trying to break into
Hollywood. It has to be great
******

******BORDERLANDS NEWS******

Borderlands Part 32, "On The Run," is now posted at
http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/fans/bev/boom/index.html#part.32
Who's on the run? Well, new characters Dilena and Portia are on the run from Gen T, which doesn't like their lifestyle very much. No, they're both Gens. Sosu Nick is not actually on the run, but like Yellow-Dog Dingo, he's very truly run after, and by a rather unsavory character.
Poor Ambassador Tsibola is back in town, and at least four difficult interviews with different
people send him on the run -- to his bed.Sidebars include the beginnings of a new Distect scare, this time out-T, and a scene where Cristal asks for advice (with thematic connections to one of the main plot threads). We also have Saag and Randayl, the Senator's Sime sons, exchanging stories, as well as Fennik and Tsibola having one of their brandy evenings, only without the brandy this time.
Feedback! We want feedback! Give us feedback! And then in due course you'll get Part 33, "What's Yours Is Mine."

******

******JEAN PUBLISHES INDIA/NEPAL JOURNAL******

New entries are up in Jean's blog......loads of pictures!
http://houseofkeon.blogspot.com/2009/12/italy-part-two-pompeii-and-herculaneum.html
India and Nepal--True Adventures
A journey into a new world, real events, wonders vs. hardships. Tips and
tricks for travelers. What to see. http://houseofkeon.blogspot.com/

******

******RELAY FOR LIFE ~ a message from Jean******

I know that at the moment we are all putting any charitable contributions we can afford toward
helping the people of Haiti. Nevertheless, the drive to this Spring's Relay for Life in the fight
against cancer has begun.
As a cancer survivor twice over, I participate in a relay team made up of survivors, the 8th
Wonders. I will remind you again next month, but if you are interested in seeing my website for
Relay, it's at http://short.to/12jf1

******

******NEWSLETTER NEWS******

NEW NEWS: We have a new way of accessing WHAT'S NEW on simegen.com It is a blog where you can read the monthly Newsletter and drop your own comments and news, tell us what you need done, or report problems with pages.
http://whatsnew..simegen.com/ Click in the right margin to follow this Newsletter, and the news
will appear in your blogger.com account. Or you can use the RSS feed. If there's another follow-tool you would prefer, please e-mail simegen@simegen.com asking for it (give the URL) and we'll enable it. There are a few handy tools we haven't enabled yet, but they are available (such as feedburner).
Patric set this magical thing up on our server and Karen has posted the Newsletters from Jan 2009 to now, so you can access past news just by scrolling. Please visit our top page,
simegen.com, and note that my Twitter scroll is there for you -- plus a very nice Writing Tips Twitter scroll. Click and read the entire scroll on Twitter.

******

******Advertisment*****

When you enter the imagination of L. H. Young, you begin a fascinating
ride, whether you are traveling the time stream with witches, finding love the
stuff of legends with her wonderful vampires, traipsing across the universe
with her Sci-fi, or going to school with four unusual teenagers born with the
ability to heal by touch. Don’t forget that she even writes for the
imagination of the very young as seen in The Christmas Kitten.
www.authorlhyoung.com

*****Please Support Those Who Support Us*****

******JEAN'S SOCIAL NETWORKING******

If you are on LinkedIn or Facebook, be sure to look up Jean Lorrah.
Jean's personal Twitter account is http://twitter.com/houseofkeon She tweets only when she has something more important to announce than that she got up in the morning.
She also has a daily Twitter account, http://twitter.com/TipsOnWriting That's right: tips on
writing every single day.
Jean is taking a course on Marketing and Emerging Media, part of which requires learning to use
even more social media. You can see her photo album on Italy now at http://short.to/14bad
And finally, Jean's blog continues with weekly entries at http://www.houseofkeon.blogspot.com/

******

****** Check our our new Amazon "Stores"

Blatant commercial to keep simegen.com on the air.If you buy from Amazon using one of our search boxes at the bottoms of many of our pages, or find what you're looking for in our a-stores, we get a few cents to pay the bandwidth bills.
Our Amazon stores (we recommend buying directly from Amazon itself, not one of their onboard
retailers unless you know the retailer very well -- we get paid the same, but have found better customer service with Amazon.com shipments).
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keybooks/
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keygifts/ -- NEW STORE created to hold gift items specially useful to writers, both in writing and in just finding the TIME to write.
Also we now have Google ads on our main entry pages -- and they pay nicely when someone finds what they want via one of those ads. But don't click just to click -- click something that looks like what you really want.

******

******NEW PROJECT FOR JAQUELINE******

MY CURRENT MAIN EFFORTS:
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/downloads/
That is a page that needs redesigning, just as the /marketplace/ top page will.
We are preparing to make available in e-book and on paper, a set of 7 textbooks on writing, 5 of
which are on philosophy, the wellspring of ideas and the bulwark against writer's block. The particular philosophy showcased is the structural framework behind Tarot, but you don't have to be interested in Tarot to use this information in writing or many other endeavors.
Novel and Screenwriting are both very much rooted in structure which becomes invisible when
clothed in unique details.
Learning to perceive the underlying structure behind seething masses of detail is somewhat like
learning to spot starfish against an underwater boulder full of barnacles.
It's pattern-recognition, a brain function we all have and sometimes fail to buff up. These first
5 volumes help train the mental "eye" in a kind of abstract "pattern recognition" that will serve to sharpen results in everything you do.
The final 2 (or possibly more) volumes are directed at readers and writers who want to understand the application of the pattern recognition principles showcased in the first 5 volumes. These volumes are designed to be of use specifically by writers, but writers working in fiction, non-fiction, or screenwriting.
Currently, this project stands at the beginning of Volume #5, with several more weeks work to do on that volume, plus artwork and packaging efforts. This is a team effort that has absorbed Karen, Patric, Jean, me -- and others here -- for a year or more.
Some of these Tarot and Writing Lesson chapters have been posted to the blogs
http://www.editingcircle.blogspot.com/
And on Tuesdays where I post on
http://www.aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/
The better entries on these two blogs will be compiled and presented in PDF (or other e-book
formats) plus, on paper.

******

******COAL FOR CHRISTMAS**********
COAL FOR CHRISTMAS by Lois Wickstrom and Jean Lorrah finished in the top ten family screenplays in the 2008 TheMovieDeal contest. http://www.themoviedeal.com/#/finalists/4532422034 Find the SCROLL icon at the lower left, and scroll down to see the top ten in each category.

******

******REREADABLE BOOKS******

PLEASE REMEMBER TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR BLOG WHERE THIS NEWSLETTER IS POSTED
http://whatsnew.simegen.com/ which is a neat way to avoid losing the Newsletter in spam.

The Rereadable Books review column for January 2010 has now been posted.
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2010/

ReReadable Books review columns posted for November and December 2009 can be found at
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2009/

The books that will be reviewed through June 2010 have been posted at
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2010/

Preview of some novels in the hopper for after June 2010 can be found at
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/12/is-that-really-you.html
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/12/recommending-devon-monk.html
Alien Romances is a co-blog where you will find Jacqueline Lichtenberg blogging on Tuesdays.

******

****** Patric Michael (our Webmaster) is pleased to announce his NEXT publication!******

"The Santa Mug," a novella, was released by Dreamspinner Press in December, 2009 as part of their Advent Calendar.
Light of a Different Moon" by Patric Michael, part of the "To Die For" ghost anthology by MLR
Press, has been released. Look for it at www.mlrpress.com
Check out http://www.patricmichael.com for the Start of Something Great.

*******

******JOIN THE REVIEWERS

Jacqueline is developing a new way to find books to review -- via Twitter!
And with more people helping we could, perhaps, find more reviewers. I've been collecting people in writing, editing, publishing, and various parts of the film industry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
I really could use some help with this. To connect with me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/jlichtenberg
To connect with me on Facebook --
http://facebook.com/jacqueline.lichtenberg
To connect with me on LinkedIn --
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelinelichtenberg
Karen MacLeod and Patric are also available on LinkedIn. We are moving gradually into the
networking space and evaluating the uses of cloud computing. We need a new coordinator for the Reviews department who can work with the social networking tools.
For the moment we have only a few reviewers responding to the e-mail List, and I suspect that's
the drift away from e-mail because of the spam load. We need to launch a blogspot blog for our Reviewers instead of a List, or perhaps establish a Group on Facebook.
I will continue to post books to be reviewed to the reviewers List as I discover them. As Coordinator of our Reviews Department, I ask for your help. With the current upsurge in e-book publishing that is sweeping the Internet, we daily receive an increasing number of books to review. Yet, in counterpoint, we have a shortage of reviewers, and many of our reviews staff are several books behind. We are eagerly and actively seeking new people to review for us. As with all of Sime~Gen, our reviewers are volunteers. When they write a review, it is posted with their byline, and they get to keep the review copy of the books they have read and reviewed.
For more information on our Reviewers Agreement, visit:
http://www.simegen.com/agreements/revagr.html
Please help us by passing this information along to anyone you know who might want to join our
happy band. If interested, they can send a note expressing their interest to Jean at simegen@simegen.com

******

******Advertisement******

Anyone shopping Amazon who wants to contribute to simegen.com without it
costing them a cent, please start by using any of the Amazon Search boxes on
our pages. Our top page has three really handy ones near the bottom.
http://www.simegen.com

******Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS

A SIME~GEN postage stamp is now available to order on cafe press. It can be used just as you
would use a regular postage stamp. Be the first on YOUR block to have them!
We've got a new page for Cafe Press items from our artists and authors. Now you can get t-shirts, greeting cards, clocks, mugs, and other great stuff with work from your favorite artists. You can even buy books about Nessie, the Orange Forest Rabbit and The Reluctant Spy that aren't available anywhere else.
http://simegen.com/marketplace/cafepress/ is a direct link to all our items and merchandise
stores. Use of this page will give the domain extra income. If there is an item that you wish to see that isn't offered, just write Lois at
lois@lochness-monster.com and she'll get it ready for you to order.

******

******HELP WANTED*****

The spotlights section of Simegen.com currently needs interviewers, spotlight posting personnel,
an assistant spotlights gatemaster, and a keygifts store manager. We are also requesting an Assistant Reviews Co-coordinator - duties include covering when other staff are unable to perform tasks. We are almost finished revamping our reviews section and expect
activity to be at a constant high level. We're looking for a versatile quick learner able to put
in some timedaily. Pluses are: A good command of the English language (syntax, grammar, punctuation, in that order), some computer experience or ability to learn, and an interest in books. Direct all inquiries to simegen@simegen.com.

Individuals to take over, or assist with the SIMECENTER Site -- It isn't at all hard, but a bit time-consuming...and very rewarding ("meeting" these marvelous authors and artists, if only via E-Mail and their websites.) Please write me, Kaires Tevesu, if you are interested. People who talked to me earlier about helping: I've lost track of your communications in the throes of several changes of computer. PLEASE contact me again. The time is right, the templates are much more robust, I have a small backlog of stories (the hardest part of operating SimeCenter), and I've even documented some of the processes. I'd like to talk to you again.

****** Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******PUBLICATION SCHEDULE********

We have had to withdraw the entire Sime~Gen project from Meisha Merlin for a wide range of
reasons. They missed several deadlines for publication of TO KISS OR TO KILL and showed no signs of intention to get it out any time in the foreseeable future. That stalled everything else. It was very disappointing. So we are now actively in search of another publisher.
THE UNITY TRILOGY should continue to be available for some time -- they have the right to dispose of all stock in the Meisha Merlin warehouse.

******

******AVAILABLE RELEASES***********

~ the Omnibus reprint of Jean Lorrah's SAVAGE EMPIRE: DARK MOON RISING --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210013X/rereadablebooksr/ is #1
in the reprint program.
~ Trade Paperback edition of DREAMSPY from BenBella Books and you can order
on Amazon and some other places
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932100253/rereadablebooksr/
Read the comments here:
http://www.simegen.com/writers/luren/dreamspy/dreamspyreviews.html
~ SAVAGE EMPIRE: PROPHECIES
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210030X/rereadablebooksr/ is #2
in Jean Lorrah's and Winston Howlett's omnibus reprint of the Savage Empire series.
Still Available in Trade Paperback, SIME~GEN: THE UNITY TRILOGY
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592220037/rereadablebooksr/

******

***** Sites to Remember *****

Author spotlights: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/
Chats: http://www.simegen..com/writers/spotlights/chat.html
Romance articles: http://www.simegen.com/romance/articles.html
Reviews of books by Jacqueline Lichtenberg:
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/
Reviews: http://www.simegen.com/reviews/
Shopping: http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/
Sound files of Jacqueline Lichtenberg pronouncing Sime~Gen vocabulary words
can be found at http://www.simegen.com/jl/nivetsoundfiles/index.html
To sign up for classes, go to http://www.simegen.com/school/SchoolForms.html
To volunteer, go to http://www.simegen.com/agreements/helpwanted.html for the latest openings.

******

To contact editor for any reason, please e-mail Lisa Saunders at
simegen@simegen.com
*Please Note all material posted on Official Virtual Tecton is copyright © by Sime~Gen Inc. and all rights are reserved.
To get your Sime~Gen(tm) material sanctioned for web posting or to get permission to repost from official materials, e-mail ambrovzeor@aol.com, contact simegen@simegen.com.
Sime~Gen (tm) is the trademark of a fictional universe copyright © by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, 1969, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986 and Sime~Gen Inc. 1999-2010

Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter -- DECEMBER 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Mac) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 15:48:00 +0000

Contents:

* ANNOUNCING THE ANNUAL NEW YEAR'S CHAT JANUARY 1, 2010 -- NEW TIME
* JEAN MEETS WITH HOLLYWOOD PRODUCERS
* BORDERLANDS NEWS
* JEAN PUBLISHES JOURNAL
* NEWSLETTER NEWS
* SIME~GEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY
* Check our our new Amazon "Stores"
* NEW PROJECT FOR JACQUELINE
* COAL FOR CHRISTMAS
* REREADABLE BOOKS
* PATRIC MICHAEL'S NEXT PUBLICATION
* JOIN THE REVIEWERS
* NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS
* HELP WANTED
* PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
* AVAILABLE RELEASES
* SITES TO REMEMBER
* SUBSCRIPTION AND CONTACT INFORMATION
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE**

**** ANNOUNCING THE ANNUAL NEW YEAR'S CHAT JANUARY 1, 2010 -- NEW TIME

Including combined information from Jacqueline, and Karen:

This is your chance to talk real-time to Jean and me -- I'm planning to be on the simegen.com server's IRC chat for New Year's Day at 1PM Mountain Standard Time (USA) on Friday New Year's Day. I will be leaving early though. Please note the new time change, below, for January 1, 2010.

And it's your chance to vote awards for people at simegen.com who have been especially helpful to you. We announce the stock awards, but then all in attendance get a chance to nominate and vote for other awards. Karen has a list of our Awards -- frankly I always forget!

You can see brief definitions of all the awards at:
http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/chats/chat2006_chat2.html#awards
In many cases, more detailed explanations of these awards, with lists of
previous winners, can be found on the main Awards page
(http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/awards). You can see these by following links from the one-liner page, above.

We (theoretically; we're always lagging on this) post the list of awards because it forms the major part of the history of this domain. I feel it's important to keep track of our major contributors.

So anyone who's on our lists or deals with us in any way is more than welcome to sit in, nominate, vote, and chat.We run it in two simultaneous IRC chatrooms -- so you can split your screen in half. One screen is moderated during the

business meeting so the log is easier to clean up. The other screen is just chatter. Then both "rooms" are opened so everyone can talk to each other and just party.

For those that don't have the mIRC (or equivalent) software, there is an entry point for you via the web page of: http://www.simegen.com/techtools/chat/

We use the "rooms" #sgchat for the business meeting and #sgtalk for "side talk." Those who attended last year using mIRC or equivalent, your settings are unchanged.

The New Year's Chat will be 3pm EST, 2pm CST, 1pm MST, NOON PST. For those not in North America, please use the Worldclock website http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/ to calculate the time that is right for you.

The edited and cleaned text of the meeting is put online as soon as possible.

Previous chat logs can be found at www.simegen.com/sgfandom/chats/ if you
want to take a look.

Karen will gladly help OFF LIST to get you connected to the chat.... the access information will NOT be posted to any of the lists for security reasons. Some help, though perhaps not quite current, is also found on http://www.simegen.com/techtools/ where tutorials can be found.

Karen will be on AIM, as long as her computer allows her, prior to the chat and will do what she can to help everyone who wants to attend, "get connected."

*****

******JEAN MEETS WITH HOLLYWOOD PRODUCERS******

November 18-20, Jean attended meetings with producers and agents in Hollywood, arranged through the master class in screenwriting she, Jacqueline, and Lois have taken with Hal Croasmun at scriptforsale.com It was great to meet fellow students I've been exchanging critiques with for the past couple of years, and the meetings with Hollywood people went very well.

Hal coached us in everything from how to introduce ourselves to what to wear, but the result was that every single one of our guests accepted the one-sheets (synopsis of our scripts plus contact information) from the group. Hal has been arranging these meetings for several years, and says this is the first time not a single guest refused them. Of course that doesn't necessarily mean they will all read them, but some did. In fact our very first guest called one of our group
that afternoon, they had several phone calls while we were there, and by the third day the student had an agreement that the producer would shop her script to production companies! Another of our group (who had actually made a contact before the meetings) ended up with a three-movie deal! In both these cases, the student happened to have exactly what Hollywood
is looking for right now.

A third student was asked for a full script during the meetings, and since we have returned home two more have been asked. Finally, one more student was contacted by a producer just last week to discuss doing a project on a passion they share in common: motorcycles! THAT did not come out of her one-page or script, but from the "interesting bit of trivia" about ourselves that Hal had us add to our thirty-second introductions. After she gave her credentials and experience, she added, "And I'm a biker chick." Lo and behold--!

Oh--I need to tell you that although we had one or two guests who were "execs," which means assistants, most of the people who met with us were either owners of their own companies or partners. We had people who had made classic films and won Oscars! Two of our guests were ex-studio heads who have now formed their own companies. IOW, we were meeting the
people at the top, the actual decision makers.

I learned a tremendous amount in a short time. I'm not upset that I was not one of the people who got a nibble or more--my script is pretty far out. In fact, other than polishing it up just in case, I plan to shelve it for a time and write something that producer after producer told us is the thing to write to break in: a very low-budget, high-concept script based on either a real life story or a published piece of fiction. After all, I have plenty of published pieces of fiction, with no problem of obtaining the rights to them! Ultra-low budget is always the key to interest from the smaller companies, but right now even the studios are looking for low-budget scripts...

I am really glad I went, and hope that when I have exactly the right project I will be able to use the connections we were provided to put it before exactly the right person.

******

******BORDERLANDS NEWS******

Borderlands Part 32, "On The Run," is now posted at
http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/fans/bev/boom/index.html#part.32

Who's on the run? Well, new characters Dilena and Portia are on the run from Gen T, which doesn't like their lifestyle very much. No, they're both Gens. Sosu Nick is not actually on the run, but like Yellow-Dog Dingo, he's very truly run after, and by a rather unsavory character.

Poor Ambassador Tsibola is back in town, and at least four difficult interviews with different people send him on the run -- to his bed.Sidebars include the beginnings of a new Distect scare, this time out-T,and a scene where Cristal asks for advice (with thematic connections to one of the main plot threads). We also have Saag and Randayl, the Senator's Sime sons, exchanging
stories, as well as Fennik and Tsibola having one of their brandy evenings, only without the brandy this time. Feedback!

We want feedback! Give us feedback! And then in due course you'll get Part 33, "What's Yours Is Mine."

******

******JEAN PUBLISHES INDIA/NEPAL JOURNAL******

New entries are up in Jean's blog......loads of pictures!

http://houseofkeon.blogspot.com/2009/12/italy-part-two-pompeii-and-herculaneum.html
India and Nepal--True Adventures.A journey into a new world, real events, wonders vs. hardships. Tips and tricks for travelers. What to see. http://houseofkeon.blogspot.com/

******

******Advertisment******

TENTH ANNIVERSARY SALE! During 2009 we are offering any of the advertising packages at http://www.simegen.com/agreements/pricing.html for four months for the price of three, or eight months for the price of six. Ad packages must be reserved by December 15, 2009, for ads to begin any time up to June, 30, 2010. Lock in this low price by contacting advertising@simegen.com and putting down a 25% deposit, remainder due at the time the ad is posted.

Limit of two ad packages per advertiser.Use code SGNL to claim your bargain ad package.

******Please Support Those Who Support Us******

******NEWSLETTER NEWS******

NEW NEWS: We have a new way of accessing WHAT'S NEW on simegen.com It is a blog where you can read the monthly Newsletter and drop your own comments and news, tell us what you need done, or report problems with pages.
http://whatsnew.simegen.com/ Click in the right margin to follow this Newsletter, and the news will appear in your blogger.com account. Or you can use the RSS feed. If there's another follow-tool you would prefer, please e-mail simegen@simegen.com asking for it (give the URL) and we'll enable it. There are a few handy tools we haven't enabled yet, but they are available (such as feedburner).
Patric set this magical thing up on our server and Karen has posted the Newsletters from Jan 2009 to now, so you can access past news just by scrolling. Please visit our top page, simegen.com, and note that my Twitter scroll is there for you -- plus a very nice Writing Tips Twitter scroll. Click and read the entire scroll on Twitter.

******

******SIME~GEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY

It's the tenth anniversary of Sime~Gen Inc. and simegen.com. We have been celebrating all year long--and we need your contributions to the festivities. Please send your ideas for ways to celebrate to simegen@simegen.com. But please remember that our small staff is already overburdened, so we need easy to implement ideas, not projects for our staff to
put in even more hours of work than they already do. If you would like to implement your idea for us--YAY!

******

******Advertisment*****

When you enter the imagination of L. H. Young, you begin a fascinating ride, whether you are traveling the time stream with witches, finding love the stuff of legends with her wonderful vampires, traipsing across the universe with her Sci-fi, or going to school with four unusual teenagers born with the ability to heal by touch. Don’t forget that she even writes for the imagination of the very young as seen in The Christmas Kitten.
www.authorlhyoung.com

*****Please Support Those Who Support Us*****

****** Check our our new Amazon "Stores"

Blatant commercial to keep simegen.com on the air.If you buy from Amazon using one of our search boxes at the bottoms of
many of our pages, or find what you're looking for in our a-stores, we get a few cents to pay the bandwidth bills.
Our Amazon stores (we recommend buying directly from Amazon itself, not one of their onboard retailers unless you know the retailer very well -- we get paid the same, but have found better customer service with amazon.com shipments).
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keybooks/
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keygifts/ -- NEW STORE created to hold gift items specially useful to writers, both in writing and in just finding the TIME to write.
Also we now have Google ads on our main entry pages -- and they pay nicely when someone finds what they want via one of those ads. But don't click just to click -- click something that looks like what you really want.

******

******NEW PROJECT FOR JAQUELINE******

MY CURRENT MAIN EFFORTS:

http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/downloads/
That is a page that needs redesigning, just as the /marketplace/ top page will.
We are preparing to make available in e-book and on paper, a set of 7 textbooks on writing, 5 of which are on philosophy, the wellspring of ideas and the bulwark against writer's block.
The particular philosophy showcased is the structural framework behind Tarot, but you don't have to be interested in Tarot to use this information in writing or many other endeavors.
Novel and Screenwriting are both very much rooted in structure which becomes invisible when clothed in unique details.
Learning to perceive the underlying structure behind seething masses of detail is somewhat like learning to spot starfish against an underwater boulder full of barnacles.

It's pattern-recognition, a brain function we all have and sometimes fail to buff up. These first 5 volumes help train the mental "eye" in a kind of abstract "pattern recognition" that will serve to sharpen results in everything you do.
The final 2 (or possibly more) volumes are directed at readers and writers who want to understand the application of the pattern recognition principles showcased in the first 5 volumes. These volumes are designed to be of use specifically by writers, but writers working in fiction, non-fiction, or screenwriting.

Currently, this project stands at the beginning of Volume #5, with several more weeks work to do on that volume, plus artwork and packaging efforts. This is a team effort that has absorbed Karen, Patric, Jean, me -- and others here -- for a year or more.

Some of these Tarot and Writing Lesson chapters have been posted to the blogs
http://www.editingcircle.blogspot.com/
And on Tuesdays where I post on
http://www.aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/
The better entries on these two blogs will be compiled and presented in PDF (or other e-book formats) plus, on paper.

******

******COAL FOR CHRISTMAS**********

COAL FOR CHRISTMAS by Lois Wickstrom and Jean Lorrah finished in the top ten family screenplays in the 2008 TheMovieDeal
contest. http://www.themoviedeal.com/#/finalists/4532422034 Find the SCROLL icon at the lower left, and scroll down to see the top ten in each category.
******

******REREADABLE BOOKS******

PLEASE REMEMBER TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR BLOG WHERE THIS NEWSLETTER IS POSTED http://whatsnew.simegen.com/ which is a neat way to avoid losing the Newsletter in spam:

ReReadable Books review columns posted for November and December 2009.
12-22-2009 - November and December columns for 2009 can be found at
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2009/
The books that will be reviewed through June 2010 have been posted at
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2010/
Preview of some novels in the hopper for after June 2010 can be found at
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/12/is-that-really-you.html
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/12/recommending-devon-monk.html
Alien Romances is a co-blog where you will find Jacqueline Lichtenberg blogging on Tuesdays.

******

****** Patric Michael (our Webmaster) is pleased to announce his NEXT publication!******

"The Santa Mug," a novella, was released by Dreamspinner Press in December as part of their Advent Calendar.

Light of a Different Moon" by Patric Michael, part of the "To Die For" ghost anthology by MLR Press, has been released. Look for it at www.mlrpress.com
Check out http://www.patricmichael.com for the Start of Something Great.

*******

******JOIN THE REVIEWERS

Jacqueline is developing a new way to find books to review -- via Twitter! And with more people helping we could, perhaps, find more reviewers. I've been collecting people in writing, editing, publishing, and various parts of the film industry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
I really could use some help with this. To connect with me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/jlichtenberg
To connect with me on Facebook -- http://facebook.com/jacqueline.lichtenberg
To connect with me on LinkedIn --
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelinelichtenberg

Karen MacLeod and Patric are also available on LinkedIn. We are moving gradually into the networking space and evaluating the uses of cloud computing. We need a new coordinator for the Reviews department who can work with the social networking
tools.

For the moment we have only a few reviewers responding to the e-mail List, and I suspect that's the drift away from e-mail because of the spam load.

We need to launch a blogspot blog for our Reviewers instead of a List, or perhaps establish a Group on Facebook.I will continue to post books to be reviewed to the reviewers List as I discover them. As Coordinator of our Reviews Department, I ask for your help. With the current upsurge in e-book publishing that is sweeping the Internet, we daily receive an increasing number of books to review. Yet, in counterpoint, we have a shortage of reviewers, and many of our reviews staff are several books behind. We are eagerly and actively seeking new people to review for us. As with all of Sime~Gen, our reviewers are volunteers. When they write a review, it is posted with their byline, and they get to keep the review copy of the books they have read and reviewed.

For more information on our Reviewers Agreement, visit:
http://www.simegen.com/agreements/revagr.html
Please help us by passing this information along to anyone you know who might want to join our happy band. If interested, they can send a note expressing their interest to Jean at simegen@simegen.com

******

******Advertisement******
Anyone shopping Amazon who wants to contribute to simegen.com without it costing them a cent, please start by using any of the Amazon Search boxes on our pages. Our top page has three really handy ones near the bottom.
http://www.simegen..com

******Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS

A SIME~GEN postage stamp is now available to order on cafe press. It can be used just as you would use a regular postage stamp. Be the first on YOUR block to have them!
We've got a new page for Cafe Press items from our artists and authors. Now you can get t-shirts, greeting cards, clocks, mugs, and other great stuff with work from your favorite artists. You can even buy books about Nessie, the Orange Forest Rabbit and The Reluctant Spy that aren't available anywhere else.
http://simegen.com/marketplace/cafepress/ is a direct link to all our items and merchandise stores. Use of this page will give the domain extra income. If there is an item that you wish to see that isn't offered, just write Lois at lois@lochness-monster.com and she'll get it ready for you to order.

******

******HELP WANTED*****

The spotlights section of Simegen.com currently needs interviewers, spotlight posting personnel, an assistant spotlights gatemaster, and a keygifts store manager. We are also requesting an Assistant Reviews Co-coordinator - duties include covering when other staff are unable to perform tasks. We are almost finished revamping our reviews section and expect activity to be at a constant high level. We're looking for a versatile quick learner able to put in some time
daily. Pluses are: A good command of the English language (syntax, grammar, punctuation, in that order), some computer experience or ability to learn, and an interest in books. Direct all inquiries to simegen@simegen.com. Individuals to take over, or assist with the SIMECENTER Site -- It isn't at all hard, but a bit time-consuming...and very rewarding ("meeting" these marvelous authors and artists, if only via E-Mail and their websites.) Please write me, Kaires Tevesu, if you are interested. People who talked to me earlier about helping: I've lost track of your communications in the throes of several changes of computer. PLEASE contact me again. The time is right, the templates are much more robust, I have a small backlog of stories (the hardest part of operating SimeCenter), and I've even documented some of the processes. I'd like to talk to you again.

****** Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******PUBLICATION SCHEDULE********

We have had to withdraw the entire Sime~Gen project from Meisha Merlin for a wide range of reasons. They missed several deadlines for publication of TO KISS OR TO KILL and showed no signs of intention to get it out any time in the foreseeable future. That stalled everything else. It was very disappointing. So we are now actively in search of another publisher.
THE UNITY TRILOGY should continue to be available for some time -- they have the right to dispose of all stock in the Meisha Merlin warehouse.

******

******AVAILABLE RELEASES***********

~ the Omnibus reprint of Jean Lorrah's SAVAGE EMPIRE: DARK MOON RISING --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210013X/rereadablebooksr/ is #1 in the reprint program.
~ Trade Paperback edition of DREAMSPY from BenBella Books and you can order on Amazon and some other places
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932100253/rereadablebooksr/
Read the comments here:
http://www.simegen.com/writers/luren/dreamspy/dreamspyreviews.html
~ SAVAGE EMPIRE: PROPHECIES
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210030X/rereadablebooksr/ is #2 in Jean Lorrah's and Winston Howlett's omnibus reprint of the Savage Empire series.
Still Available in Trade Paperback, SIME~GEN: THE UNITY TRILOGY
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592220037/rereadablebooksr/

******

***** Sites to Remember *****

Author spotlights: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/
Chats: http://www.simegen..com/writers/spotlights/chat.html
Romance articles: http://www.simegen.com/romance/articles.html
Reviews of books by Jacqueline Lichtenberg:
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/
Reviews: http://www.simegen.com/reviews/
Shopping: http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/
Sound files of Jacqueline Lichtenberg pronouncing Sime~Gen vocabulary words can be found at
http://www.simegen.com/jl/nivetsoundfiles/index.html
To sign up for classes, go to http://www.simegen.com/school/SchoolForms.html
To volunteer, go to http://www.simegen.com/agreements/helpwanted.html for the latest openings.

******

To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to listserv@simegen.com with no subject and the text "unsubscribe NEWSLETTER-L".
To contact editor for any reason, please e-mail Lisa Saunders at simegen@simegen.com
*Please Note all material posted on Official Virtual Tecton is copyright © by Sime~Gen Inc. and all rights are reserved..

To get your Sime~Gen(tm) material sanctioned for web posting or to get permission to repost from official materials, e-mail ambrovzeor@aol.com, contact simegen@simegen.com.
Sime~Gen (tm) is the trademark of a fictional universe copyright © by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, 1969, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986 and Sime~Gen Inc. 1999-2009

Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter -- October 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Mac) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:23:00 +0000

Contents:
* BORDERLANDS NEWS
* SIMECENTER NEWS
* JEAN PUBLISHES INDIA/NEPAL JOURNAL
* NEWSLETTER NEWS
* SIME~GEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY
* WORLDCRAFTER'S GUILD BLOG
* Check our our new Amazon "Stores"
* NEW PROJECT FOR JACQUELINE
* COAL FOR CHRISTMAS
* REREADABLE BOOKS
* PATRIC MICHAEL'S NEXT PUBLICATION
* JOIN THE REVIEWERS
* NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS
* HELP WANTED
* PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
* AVAILABLE RELEASES
* SITES TO REMEMBER
* SUBSCRIPTION AND CONTACT INFORMATION
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE**

******BORDERLANDS NEWS******

Borderlands Part 32, "On The Run," is now posted at
http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/fans/bev/boom/index.html#part.32
Who's on the run? Well, new characters Dilena and Portia are on the run from Gen T, which doesn't like their lifestyle very much. No, they're both Gens. Sosu Nick is not actually on the run, but like Yellow-Dog Dingo, he's very truly run after, and by a rather unsavory character.
Poor Ambassador Tsibola is back in town, and at least four difficult interviews with different people send him on the run -- to his bed.
Sidebars include the beginnings of a new Distect scare, this time out-T,and a scene where Cristal asks for advice (with thematic connections to one of the main plot threads). We also have Saag and Randayl, the Senator's Sime sons, exchanging stories, as well as Fennik and Tsibola having one of their brandy evenings, only without the brandy this time. Feedback! We want feedback! Give us feedback! And then in due course you'll get Part 33, "What's Yours Is Mine."
******

****** SIMECENTER NEWS ******
This month's story on <http://www.simegen.com/simecenter/> is:
Electric Dreams (by Katy Thorp)
- the power of imagination
The accompanying artwork is:
Lunar Slide (by G.B. Chew)
- the latest in astronomy
These enjoyable works were donated in support of Clarion Writers Workshop <http://clarion.ucsd.edu/about.html>.
When you donate to this worthy organization, be sure to tell them you were referred by SimeCenter.
Send your comments, questions, etc.--about the site, the stories and art...whatever--to the address below. [Mention 'SimeCenter' in the subject so I'll know it isn't spam.]
In Service to Unity,
Kaires Tevesu

******

******JEAN PUBLISHES INDIA/NEPAL JOURNAL******

New entries are up in Jean's India/Nepal blog
http://short.to/scf5
My latest travel blog is at http://is.gd/4wBtT
If you missed it, my analysis of Snow White as an initiation story is at
http://is.gd/4ugfF
India and Nepal--True Adventures
A journey into a new world, real events, wonders vs. hardships. Tips and
tricks for travelers. What to see. http://houseofkeon.blogspot.com/
******

******Advertisment******

TENTH ANNIVERSARY SALE! During 2009 we are offering any of the advertising packages at http://www.simegen.com/agreements/pricing.html for four months for the price of three, or eight months for the price of six. Ad packages must be reserved by December 15, 2009, for ads to begin any time up to June, 30, 2010. Lock in this low price by contacting advertising@simegen.com and putting down a 25% deposit, remainder due at the time the ad is posted. Limit of two ad packages per advertiser.Use code SGNL to claim your bargain ad package.

******Please Support Those Who Support Us******

******NEWSLETTER NEWS******

NEW NEWS: We have a new way of accessing WHAT'S NEW on simegen.com It is a blog where you can read the monthly Newsletter and drop your own comments and news, tell us what you need done, or report problems with pages. http://whatsnew.simegen.com/ Click in the right margin to follow this Newsletter, and the news will appear in your blogger.com account. Or you can use the RSS feed. If there's another follow-tool you would prefer, please e-mail simegen@simegen.com asking for it (give the URL) and we'll enable it. There are a few handy tools we haven't enabled yet, but they are available (such as feedburner).
Patric set this magical thing up on our server and Karen has posted the Newsletters from Jan 2009 to now, so you can access past news just by scrolling. Please visit our top page, simegen.com, and note that my Twitter scroll is there for you -- plus a very nice Writing Tips Twitter scroll. Click and read the entire scroll on Twitter.

******

******SIME~GEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY

It's the tenth anniversary of Sime~Gen Inc. and simegen.com. We will be celebrating all year long--and we need your contributions to the festivities. Please send your ideas for ways to celebrate to simegen@simegen.com. But please remember that our small staff is already overburdened, so we need easy to implement ideas, not projects for our staff to put in even more hours of work than they already do. If you would like to implement your idea for us--YAY!

******

******Advertisment*****

When you enter the imagination of L. H. Young, you begin a fascinating ride, whether you are traveling the time stream with witches, finding love the stuff of legends with her wonderful vampires, traipsing across the universe with her Sci-fi, or going to school with four unusual teenagers born with the ability to heal by touch. Don’t forget that she even writes for the imagination of the very young as seen in The Christmas Kitten.
www.authorlhyoung.com

*****Please Support Those Who Support Us*****

******WORLDCRAFTER'S GUILD BLOG******

We have another new blog for the WorldCrafter's Guild students that is just taking shape.
Here you can read a lesson, post homework, and get a response. http://www.editingcircle.blogspot.com/ There will be a new lesson on Scene Structure posted soon.

******

****** Check our our new Amazon "Stores"

Blatant commercial to keep simegen.com on the air.If you buy from Amazon using one of our search boxes at the bottoms of many of our pages, or find what you're looking for in our a-stores, we get a few cents to pay the bandwidth bills.
Our Amazon stores (we recommend buying directly from Amazon itself, not one of their onboard retailers unless you know the retailer very well -- we get paid the same, but have found better customer service with amazon.com shipments).
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keybooks/
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keygifts/ -- NEW STORE created to hold gift items specially useful to writers, both in writing and in just finding the TIME to write.
Also we now have Google ads on our main entry pages -- and they pay nicely when someone finds what they want via one of those ads. But don't click just to click -- click something that looks like what you really want.

******

******NEW PROJECT FOR JAQUELINE******

MY CURRENT MAIN EFFORTS:
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/downloads/
That is a page that needs redesigning, just as the /marketplace/ top page will.
We are preparing to make available in e-book and on paper, a set of 7 textbooks on writing, 5 of which are on philosophy, the wellspring of ideas and the bulwark against writer's block.
The particular philosophy showcased is the structural framework behind Tarot, but you don't have to be interested in Tarot to use this information in writing or many other endeavors.
Novel and Screenwriting are both very much rooted in structure which becomes invisible when clothed in unique details. Learning to perceive the underlying structure behind seething masses of detail is somewhat like learning to spot starfish against an underwater boulder full of barnacles.
It's pattern-recognition, a brain function we all have and sometimes fail to buff up. These first 5 volumes help train the mental "eye" in a kind of abstract "pattern recognition" that will serve to sharpen results in everything you do.
The final 2 (or possibly more) volumes are directed at readers and writers who want to understand the application of the pattern recognition principles showcased in the first 5 volumes. These volumes are designed to be of use specifically by writers, but writers working in fiction, non-fiction, or screenwriting.
Currently, this project stands at the beginning of Volume #5, with several more weeks work to do on that volume, plus artwork and packaging efforts. This is a team effort that has absorbed Karen, Patric, Jean, me -- and others here -- for a year or more.
Some of these Tarot and Writing Lesson chapters have been posted to the blogs
http://www.editingcircle.blogspot.com/
And on Tuesdays where I post on
http://www.aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/
The better entries on these two blogs will be compiled and presented in PDF (or other e-book formats) plus, on paper.

******

******COAL FOR CHRISTMAS**********

COAL FOR CHRISTMAS by Lois Wickstrom and Jean Lorrah finished in the top ten family screenplays in the 2008 TheMovieDeal contest. http://www.themoviedeal.com/#/finalists/4532422034 Find the SCROLL icon at the lower left, and scroll down to see the top ten in each category.
******

******REREADABLE BOOKS******

ReReadable Books Review Column for OCTOBER posted
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2009/
You will also find the books to be reviewed in 2010 posted through June 2010.
In the Rereadable Books column, all books are 5-Star rated.

******

****** Patric Michael (our Webmaster) is pleased to announce his NEXT publication!******

"The Santa Mug," a novella, will be released by Dreamspinner Press in December as part of their Advent Calendar. Coming soon!
"Light of a Different Moon" by Patric Michael, part of the "To Die For" ghost anthology by MLR Press, has been released. Look for it at www.mlrpress.com
Check out http://www.patricmichael.com for the Start of Something Great.

*******

******JOIN THE REVIEWERS

Jacqueline is developing a new way to find books to review -- via Twitter! And with more people helping we could, perhaps, find more reviewers. I've been collecting people in writing, editing, publishing, and various parts of the film industry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
I really could use some help with this. To connect with me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/jlichtenberg
To connect with me on Facebook -- http://facebook.com/jacqueline.lichtenberg
To connect with me on LinkedIn --
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelinelichtenberg
Karen MacLeod and Patric are also available on LinkedIn. We are moving gradually into the networking space and evaluating the uses of cloud computing. We need a new coordinator for the Reviews department who can work with the social networking tools.
For the moment, we have only a few reviewers responding to the e-mail List, and I suspect that's the drift away from e-mail because of the spam load.
We need to launch a blogspot blog for our Reviewers instead of a List, or perhaps establish a Group on Facebook.
I will continue to post books to be reviewed to the reviewers List as I discover them. As Coordinator of our Reviews Department, I ask for your help. With the current upsurge in e-book publishing that is sweeping the Internet, we daily receive an increasing number of books to review. Yet, in counterpoint, we have a shortage of reviewers, and many of our reviews staff are several books behind. We are eagerly and actively seeking new people to review for us. As with all of Sime~Gen, our reviewers are volunteers. When they write a review, it is posted
with their byline, and they get to keep the review copy of the books they have read and reviewed.
For more information on our Reviewers Agreement, visit:
http://www.simegen.com/agreements/revagr.html
Please help us by passing this information along to anyone you know who might want to join our happy band. If interested, they can send a note expressing their interest to Jean at simegen@simegen.com

******

******Advertisement******

Anyone shopping Amazon who wants to contribute to simegen.com without it costing them a cent, please start by using any of the Amazon Search boxes on our pages. Our top page has three really handy ones near the bottom. http://www.simegen.com

******Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS

A SIME~GEN postage stamp is now available to order on cafe press. It can be used just as you would use a regular postage stamp. Be the first on YOUR block to have them!
We've got a new page for Cafe Press items from our artists and authors. Now you can get t-shirts, greeting cards, clocks, mugs, and other great stuff with work from your favorite artists. You can even buy books about Nessie, the Orange Forest Rabbit and The Reluctant Spy that aren't available anywhere else.
http://simegen.com/marketplace/cafepress/ is a direct link to all our items and merchandise stores. Use of this page will give the domain extra income. If there is an item that you wish to see that isn't offered, just write Lois at lois@lochness-monster.com and she'll get it ready for you to order.

******

******HELP WANTED*****

The spotlights section of Simegen.com currently needs interviewers, spotlight posting personnel, an assistant spotlights gatemaster, and a keygifts store manager. We are also requesting an Assistant Reviews Co-coordinator - duties include covering when other staff are unable to perform tasks. We are almost finished revamping our reviews section and expect activity to be at a constant high level. We're looking for a versatile quick learner able to put in some time
daily. Pluses are: A good command of the English language (syntax, grammar, punctuation, in that order), some computer experience or ability to learn, and an interest in books. Direct all inquiries to simegen@simegen.com.
Individuals to take over, or assist with the SIMECENTER Site -- It isn't at all hard, but a bit time-consuming...and very rewarding ("meeting" these marvelous authors and artists, if only via E-Mail and their websites.) Please write me, Kaires Tevesu, if you are interested. People who talked to me earlier about helping: I've lost track of your communications in the throes of several changes of computer. PLEASE contact me again. The time is right, the templates are much more robust, I have a small backlog of stories (the hardest part of operating SimeCenter), and I've even documented some of the processes. I'd like to talk to you again.

****** Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******PUBLICATION SCHEDULE********

We have had to withdraw the entire Sime~Gen project from Meisha Merlin for a wide range of reasons. They missed several deadlines for publication of TO KISS OR TO KILL and showed no signs of intention to get it out any time in the foreseeable future. That stalled everything else. It was very disappointing. So we are now actively in search of another publisher.
THE UNITY TRILOGY should continue to be available for some time -- they have the right to dispose of all stock in the Meisha Merlin warehouse.

******

******AVAILABLE RELEASES***********

~ the Omnibus reprint of Jean Lorrah's SAVAGE EMPIRE: DARK MOON RISING --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210013X/rereadablebooksr/ is #1 in the reprint program.
~ Trade Paperback edition of DREAMSPY from BenBella Books and you can order on Amazon and some other places
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932100253/rereadablebooksr/
Read the comments here:
http://www.simegen.com/writers/luren/dreamspy/dreamspyreviews.html
~ SAVAGE EMPIRE: PROPHECIES
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210030X/rereadablebooksr/ is #2 in Jean Lorrah's and Winston Howlett's omnibus reprint of the Savage Empire series.
Still Available in Trade Paperback, SIME~GEN: THE UNITY TRILOGY
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592220037/rereadablebooksr/

******

***** Sites to Remember *****

Author spotlights: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/
Chats: http://www.simegen..com/writers/spotlights/chat.html
Romance articles: http://www.simegen.com/romance/articles.html
Reviews of books by Jacqueline Lichtenberg:
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/
Reviews: http://www.simegen.com/reviews/
Shopping: http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/
Sound files of Jacqueline Lichtenberg pronouncing Sime~Gen vocabulary words can be found at http://www.simegen.com/jl/nivetsoundfiles/index.html
To sign up for classes, go to http://www.simegen.com/school/SchoolForms.html
To volunteer, go to http://www.simegen.com/agreements/helpwanted.html for the latest openings.

******

To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to listserv@simegen.com with no subject and the text "unsubscribe NEWSLETTER-L".
To contact editor for any reason, please e-mail Lisa Saunders at simegen@simegen.com
*Please Note all material posted on Official Virtual Tecton is copyright © by Sime~Gen Inc. and all rights are reserved. To get your Sime~Gen(tm) material sanctioned for web posting or to get permission to repost from official materials, e-mail ambrovzeor@aol.com, contact simegen@simegen.com.
Sime~Gen (tm) is the trademark of a fictional universe copyright © by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, 1969, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986 and Sime~Gen Inc. 1999-2009.

Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter -- September 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Mac) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:29:00 +0000

Contents:
* A STORY FOR ANIMAL LOVERS
* SIMECENTER NEWS
* NEW REVIEWS
* JEAN PUBLISHES INDIA/NEPAL JOURNAL
* NEWSLETTER NEWS
* SIME~GEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY
* WORLDCRAFTER'S GUILD BLOG
* Check our our new Amazon "Stores"
* NEW PROJECT FOR JAQUELINE
* COAL FOR CHRISTMAS
* BOOK REVIEWS
* PATRIC MICHAEL'S NEXT PUBLICATION
* JOIN THE REVIEWERS
* NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS
* HELP WANTED
* PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
* AVAILABLE RELEASES
* SITES TO REMEMBER
* SUBSCRIPTION AND CONTACT INFORMATION
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE**

******A STORY FOR ANIMAL LOVERS from Jean Lorrah*******

When Rescue Ink., a TV show about tough tatooed guys in New York City who put their muscle behind rescuing dogs, appears on the National Geographic Channel beginning September 25, one of the most moving stories will come from my home town of Murray, Kentucky.
Read the story of Ribbon, the pit bull rescued by the Calloway County Humane Society, here:
http://www.forthepets.org/RIBBON%20PRESS%20RELEASE.pdf and see photos here:
http://www.pbase.com/humanesociety/ribbon

Now Ribbon's story is going national on the TV show--his story will come up later this Fall, so watch for it. In the meantime, you can find a book about Rescue Ink. at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0670021164?ie=UTF8&tag=rereadablebooksr&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&
creative=9325&creativeASIN=0670021164

While I was not personally a part of Ribbon's rescue, I am active in the Calloway County Humane Society in the pet therapy program. Our small-town organization does a great deal of good, and it's great that we are now receiving national recognition.

******

****** SIMECENTER NEWS ******

This month's story on <http://www.simegen.com/simecenter/> is:
Electric Dreams (by Katy Thorp)
- the power of imagination
The accompanying artwork is:
Lunar Slide (by G.B. Chew)
- the latest in astronomy
These enjoyable works were donated in support of Clarion Writers Workshop <http://clarion.ucsd.edu/about.html>.
When you donate to this worthy organization, be sure to tell them you were referred by SimeCenter.
Send your comments, questions, etc.--about the site, the stories and art...whatever--to the address below. [Mention 'SimeCenter' in the subject so I'll know it isn't spam.]
In Service to Unity,
Kaires Tevesu

***

******NEW REVIEWS******

Hunted by P. C. Cast and Kristen Cast
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29613.html

The Venetian Judgment by David Stone
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29608.html

Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29617.html

Wicked Prey by John Sandford
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29618.html

The Travels of Annie T. Hastings by Michael Hasting
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29710.html

The Aphorisms of Kherishdar by M. C. A. Hogarth
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29714.html

The Admonishments of Kerishdar by M. C. A. Hogarth
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29715.html

******

******JEAN PUBLISHES INDIA/NEPAL JOURNAL******

New entries are up in Jean's India/Nepal blog
Dung art! Goats in coats!
http://www.houseofkeon.blogspot.com/
Elephant day! Video and photo. Safari through genuine jungle.

New entry on Lists for You:
http://listsforyou.blogspot.com/2009/09/seven-reasons-to-travel-to-india.html

India and Nepal--True Adventures
A journey into a new world, real events, wonders vs. hardships. Tips and
tricks for travelers. What to see. http://houseofkeon.blogspot.com/
******

******Advertisment******

TENTH ANNIVERSARY SALE! During 2009 we are offering any of the advertising packages at http://www.simegen.com/agreements/pricing.html for four months for the price of three, or eight months for the price of six. Ad packages must be reserved by December 15, 2009, for ads to begin any time up to June, 30, 2010. Lock in this low price by contacting advertising@simegen.com and putting down a 25% deposit, remainder due at the time the ad is posted. Limit of two ad packages per advertiser.Use code SGNL to claim your bargain ad package.

******Please Support Those Who Support Us******

******NEWSLETTER NEWS******

NEW NEWS: We have a new way of accessing WHAT'S NEW on simegen.com It is a blog where you can read the monthly Newsletter and drop your own comments and news, tell us what you need done, or report problems with pages. http://whatsnew.simegen.com/ Click in the right margin to follow this Newsletter, and the news will appear in your blogger.com account. Or you can use the RSS feed. If there's another follow-tool you would prefer, please e-mail simegen@simegen.com asking for it (give the URL) and we'll enable it. There are a few handy tools we haven't enabled yet, but they are available (such as feedburner).

Patric set this magical thing up on our server and Karen has posted the Newsletters from Jan 2009 to now, so you can access past news just by scrolling. Please visit our top page, at simegen.com, and note that my Twitter scroll is there for you -- plus a very nice Writing Tips Twitter scroll. Click and read the entire scroll on Twitter.
******

******SIME~GEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY

It's the tenth anniversary of Sime~Gen Inc. and simegen.com. We will be celebrating all year long--and we need your contributions to the festivities. Please send your ideas for ways to celebrate to simegen@simegen.com. But please remember that our small staff is already overburdened, so we need easy to implement ideas, not projects for our staff to put in even more hours of work than they already do. If you would like to implement your idea for us--YAY!
******

******Advertisment*****

When you enter the imagination of L. H. Young, you begin a fascinating ride, whether you are traveling the time stream with witches, finding love the stuff of legends with her wonderful vampires, traipsing across the universe with her Sci-fi, or going to school with four unusual teenagers born with the ability to heal by touch. Don’t forget that she even writes for the imagination of the very young as seen in The Christmas Kitten.
www.authorlhyoung.com

*****Please Support Those Who Support Us*****

******WORLDCRAFTER'S GUILD BLOG******

We have another new blog for the WorldCrafter's Guild students that is just taking shape.
Here you can read a lesson, post homework, and get a response. http://www.editingcircle.blogspot.com/ There will be a new lesson on Scene Structure posted soon.
******

****** Check our our new Amazon "Stores"

Blatant commercial to keep simegen.com on the air.If you buy from Amazon using one of our search boxes at the bottoms of many of our pages, or find what you're looking for in our a-stores, we get a few cents to pay the bandwidth bills.
Our Amazon stores (we recommend buying directly from Amazon itself, not one of their onboard retailers unless you know the retailer very well -- we get paid the same, but have found better customer service with amazon.com shipments).
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keybooks/
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keygifts/ -- NEW STORE created to hold gift items specially useful to writers, both in writing and in just finding the TIME to write.
Also we now have Google ads on our main entry pages -- and they pay nicely when someone finds what they want via one of those ads. But don't click just to click -- click something that looks like what you really want.
******

******NEW PROJECT FOR JAQUELINE******

MY CURRENT MAIN EFFORTS:
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/downloads/
That is a page that needs redesigning, just as the /marketplace/ top page will.
We are preparing to make available in e-book and on paper, a set of 7 textbooks on writing, 5 of which are on philosophy, the wellspring of ideas and the bulwark against writer's block.
The particular philosophy showcased is the structural framework behind Tarot, but you don't have to be interested in Tarot to use this information in writing or many other endeavors.
Novel and Screenwriting are both very much rooted in structure which becomes invisible when clothed in unique details. Learning to perceive the underlying structure behind seething masses of detail is somewhat like learning to spot starfish against an underwater boulder full of barnacles.
It's pattern-recognition, a brain function we all have and sometimes fail to buff up. These first 5 volumes help train the mental "eye" in a kind of abstract "pattern recognition" that will serve to sharpen results in everything you do.
The final 2 (or possibly more) volumes are directed at readers and writers who want to understand the application of the pattern recognition principles showcased in the first 5 volumes. These volumes are designed to be of use specifically by writers, but writers working in fiction, non-fiction, or screenwriting.
Currently, this project stands at the beginning of Volume #5, with several more weeks work to do on that volume, plus artwork and packaging efforts. This is a team effort that has absorbed Karen, Patric, Jean, me -- and others here -- for a year or more.
Some of these Tarot and Writing Lesson chapters have been posted to the blogs
http://www.editingcircle.blogspot.com/
And on Tuesdays where I post on http://www.aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/
The better entries on these two blogs will be compiled and presented in PDF (or other e-book formats) plus, on paper.
******

******COAL FOR CHRISTMAS**********

COAL FOR CHRISTMAS by Lois Wickstrom and Jean Lorrah finished in the top ten family screenplays in the 2008 TheMovieDeal contest. http://www.themoviedeal.com/#/finalists/4532422034 Find the SCROLL icon at the lower left, and scroll down to see the top ten in each category.
******

******BOOK REVIEWS******

ReReadable Books Review Column for September posted
The September 2009 Review Column is now available.
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2009/

You will also find the books to be reviewed in 2010 posted through June 2010.
In the Rereadable Books column, all books are 5-Star rated.
******

****** Patric Michael (our Webmaster) is pleased to announce his NEXT publication!******

"The Santa Mug" was accepted for publication. It will release sometime in December. Details to follow, or check Patric's website for further information.

"Light of a Different Moon" by Patric Michael, part of the "To Die For" ghost anthology by MLR Press, has been released. Look for it at www.mlrpress.com
Check out http://www.patricmichael.com for the Start of Something Great.
*******

******JOIN THE REVIEWERS

Jacqueline is developing a new way to find books to review -- via Twitter! And with more people helping we could, perhaps, find more reviewers. I've been collecting people in writing, editing, publishing, and various parts of the film industry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
I really could use some help with this. To connect with me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/jlichtenberg
To connect with me on Facebook -- http://facebook.com/jacqueline.lichtenberg
To connect with me on LinkedIn --
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelinelichtenberg
Karen MacLeod and Patric are also available on LinkedIn. We are moving gradually into the networking space and evaluating the uses of cloud computing. We need a new coordinator for the Reviews department who can work with the social networking tools.
For the moment, we have only a few reviewers responding to the e-mail List, and I suspect that's the drift away from e-mail because of the spam load.
We need to launch a blogspot blog for our Reviewers instead of a List, or perhaps establish a Group on Facebook.
I will continue to post books to be reviewed to the reviewers List as I discover them. As Coordinator of our Reviews Department, I ask for your help. With the current upsurge in e-book publishing that is sweeping the Internet, we daily receive an increasing number of books to review. Yet, in counterpoint, we have a shortage of reviewers, and many of our reviews staff are several books behind. We are eagerly and actively seeking new people to review for us. As with all of Sime~Gen, our reviewers are volunteers. When they write a review, it is posted
with their byline, and they get to keep the review copy of the books they have read and reviewed.
For more information on our Reviewers Agreement, visit:
http://www.simegen.com/agreements/revagr.html
Please help us by passing this information along to anyone you know who might want to join our happy band. If interested, they can send a note expressing their interest to Jean at simegen@simegen.com
******

******Advertisement******

Anyone shopping Amazon who wants to contribute to simegen.com without it costing them a cent, please start by using any of the Amazon Search boxes on our pages. Our top page has three really handy ones near the bottom. http://www.simegen.com

******Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS

A SIME~GEN postage stamp is now available to order on cafe press. It can be used just as you would use a regular postage stamp. Be the first on YOUR block to have them!
We've got a new page for Cafe Press items from our artists and authors. Now you can get t-shirts, greeting cards, clocks, mugs, and other great stuff with work from your favorite artists. You can even buy books about Nessie, the Orange Forest Rabbit and The Reluctant Spy that aren't available anywhere else.
http://simegen.com/marketplace/cafepress/ is a direct link to all our items and merchandise stores. Use of this page will give the domain extra income. If there is an item that you wish to see that isn't offered, just write Lois at lois@lochness-monster.com and she'll get it ready for you to order.
******

******HELP WANTED*****

The spotlights section of Simegen.com currently needs interviewers, spotlight posting personnel, an assistant spotlights gatemaster, and a keygifts store manager. We are also requesting an Assistant Reviews Co-coordinator - duties include covering when other staff are unable to perform tasks. We are almost finished revamping our reviews section and expect activity to be at a constant high level. We're looking for a versatile quick learner able to put in some time
daily. Pluses are: A good command of the English language (syntax, grammar, punctuation, in that order), some computer experience or ability to learn, and an interest in books. Direct all inquiries to simegen@simegen.com.

Individuals to take over, or assist with the SIMECENTER Site -- It isn't at all hard, but a bit time-consuming...and very rewarding ("meeting" these marvelous authors and artists, if only via E-Mail and their websites.) Please write me, Kaires Tevesu, if you are interested. People who talked to me earlier about helping: I've lost track of your communications in the throes of several changes of computer. PLEASE contact me again. The time is right, the templates are much more robust, I have a small backlog of stories (the hardest part of operating SimeCenter), and I've even documented some of the processes. I'd like to talk to you again.

****** Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******PUBLICATION SCHEDULE********

We have had to withdraw the entire Sime~Gen project from Meisha Merlin for a wide range of reasons. They missed several deadlines for publication of TO KISS OR TO KILL and showed no signs of intention to get it out any time in the foreseeable future. That stalled everything else. It was very disappointing. So we are now actively in search of another publisher.
THE UNITY TRILOGY should continue to be available for some time -- they have the right to dispose of all stock in the Meisha Merlin warehouse.
******

******AVAILABLE RELEASES***********

~ the Omnibus reprint of Jean Lorrah's SAVAGE EMPIRE: DARK MOON RISING --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210013X/rereadablebooksr/ is #1 in the reprint program.
~ Trade Paperback edition of DREAMSPY from BenBella Books and you can order on Amazon and some other places
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932100253/rereadablebooksr/
Read the comments here:
http://www.simegen.com/writers/luren/dreamspy/dreamspyreviews.html
~ SAVAGE EMPIRE: PROPHECIES
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210030X/rereadablebooksr/ is #2 in Jean Lorrah's and Winston Howlett's omnibus reprint of the Savage Empire series.
Still Available in Trade Paperback, SIME~GEN: THE UNITY TRILOGY
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592220037/rereadablebooksr/
******

***** Sites to Remember *****

Author spotlights: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/
Chats: http://www.simegen..com/writers/spotlights/chat.html
Romance articles: http://www.simegen.com/romance/articles.html
Reviews of books by Jacqueline Lichtenberg: http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/
Reviews: http://www.simegen.com/reviews/
Shopping: http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/
Sound files of Jacqueline Lichtenberg pronouncing Sime~Gen vocabulary words can be found at http://www.simegen.com/jl/nivetsoundfiles/index.html
To sign up for classes, go to http://www.simegen.com/school/SchoolForms.html
To volunteer, go to http://www.simegen.com/agreements/helpwanted.html for the latest openings.

******
To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to listserv@simegen.com with no subject and the text "unsubscribe NEWSLETTER-L".
To contact editor for any reason, please e-mail Lisa Saunders at simegen@simegen.com
*Please Note all material posted on Official Virtual Tecton is copyright © by Sime~Gen Inc. and all rights are reserved. To get your Sime~Gen(tm) material sanctioned for web posting or to get permission to repost from official materials, e-mail ambrovzeor@aol.com, contact simegen@simegen.com.
Sime~Gen (tm) is the trademark of a fictional universe copyright © by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, 1969, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986 and Sime~Gen Inc. 1999-2009.

Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter - August 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Mac) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:36:00 +0000

Contents:
* WORLDCON REPORT FROM JEAN
* SIMECENTER NEWS
* NEW REVIEWS
* JEAN PUBLISHES INDIA/NEPAL JOURNAL
* NEWSLETTER NEWS
* SIME~GEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY
* WORLDCRAFTER'S GUILD BLOG
* Check our our new Amazon "Stores"
* NEW PROJECT FOR JAQUELINE
* COAL FOR CHRISTMAS
* BOOK REVIEWS
* PATRIC MICHAEL'S NEXT PUBLICATION
* JOIN THE REVIEWERS
* NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS
* HELP WANTED
* PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
* AVAILABLE RELEASES
* SITES TO REMEMBER
* SUBSCRIPTION AND CONTACT INFORMATION
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE**

*****WORLDCON REPORT FROM JEAN******

Anticipation 2009 was in Montreal. Anne Pinzow and I drove up on Thursday, August 6, and left Monday morning, August 10. After marathon attempts to get onto the correct one-way street to reach the parking entrance to our hotel, we left the car in the hotel garage for the duration. Believe me, you do NOT want to drive in Montreal!

We didn't have to, as we were caddy-corner from the convention center, but boy, did we do a lot of walking! The center is huge, and strangely designed. Only the ground, second, and fifth floors are complete. The other floors are partial, and if you want to reach them you have to figure out which elevators or escalators will actually take you there.

The conference center is a quarter mile from end to end, and as the programming was laid out, everyone spent a good deal of time walking from one end to the other. The writing workshops, filking, and parties were in a different hotel, just about another quarter mile away, so everybody had a number of half-mile hikes, too.

Anne ran the press room for much of the convention, and I got to sit with her in the press box at the Masquerade and Hugos. I took photos for her, some of which turned out pretty well. Thursday evening I did a reading from NESSIE AND THE LIVING STONE (www.lochness-monster.com) in the children's programming area. That area was certainly a success for the kids, who were obviously having a good time, but difficult for the adults doing presentations because there was no attempt to run the arranged programming. The con opened the walls between four rooms and closed all but one of the doors.The two front rooms had supplies of every kind, paper, paint, crayons, glue, beads--anything kids might want to make stuff with. Magazines to cut pictures from. clothes for costuming. A creative child's paradise. The only people supervising when I was there were one set of parents in the first room, checking badges and getting supplies for the kids.

The back two rooms were set up for programming with an audience in one, and a circle of chairs for reading in the other. That was where I was supposed to read. But the only children in that room were coloring and doing beadwork, and didn't want to hear a story. I tried talking with them about what they were doing, but they didn't want an adult intruding. Eventually Anne arrived and saw what was happening. She had the bright idea to ask the kids to pose for a photo, which at first they didn't want to do, either. But finally she got them to go along, and told me to read while she took photos from various angles. Some of the kids got interested in the story and stayed after the picture taking was over, so I read on until their parents came to get them.

Friday was my busy day. It started with a panel on whether fan writers need to know about the academic studies on fan writing. The consensus was pretty much "why should they?" Then I taught in the writing workshop. Our three students were at different levels, but all showed talent, and all took criticism well. I ended the day with a panel on the technology of writing, which ended up being just Joe Haldeman and me. We ended up waxing nostalgic about the days of typewriters, and how great it was when the first word processors came along. To this day, though, Joe writes his first drafts by hand, while I'm strictly a keyboarder.

Saturday I bought gifts in the dealer's room for the people who took care of my animals while I was away, then worked at the SFWA table for a while. Anne and I went out for dinner, then to the masquerade. Though it was small, the masquerade was excellent. Afterward we went up to the roof garden for a magnificent display of fireworks. It seems there is some sort of contest going on this summer, with a different group sponsoring a fireworks display every Saturday.

Sunday I had a panel on monsters, where the rest of the panel didn't show up. Fortunately there was a woman who has written books on dragons in the audience, and we managed to wing it pretty well. All of us who had autographing right before the Hugo ceremony had no takers, so we left early and went to the Hugos.

That was the end of the con for Ann and me--we had to leave early Monday morning. Altogether it was a medium-sized WorldCon that seemed to be attended mostly by fans who could afford the travel, the hotels, and good restaurants. I must admit that Anne and I availed ourselves of the excellent French restaurants as well as the Chinese restaurants right across the street, as we were on the edge of Chinatown. Everywhere we went we saw con members.

My experience with the reading in the children's programming the first evening was typical of the way the whole convention ran, pretty much taking care of ourselves. Certain areas, like the green room, were well run, but over all experienced people kept things going without help from higher-ups. I heard stories of whole panels not showing up, of events being canceled without any announcement.

And then there was the party fiasco. Parties were supposed to be on just two floors of the party hotel, nowhere else. Local journalists came to the con on Thursday and wrote stories that appeared on Friday. Somehow the major paper included in its coverage a sentence that could be interpreted to read that there were free parties open to the public. So, on Friday night, the public showed up. Someone called hotel security, who in turn called the police. The police chased away everyone without a con badge, but then started searching the hotel for "illegal parties." It seems that in Canada any gathering of five or more people in a hotel room not on a party floor is an illegal party. The SFWA suite was not on a party floor, so they shut down the SFWA suite.

Then, because the elevators were overcrowded, they decided that a con badge was not acceptable to be allowed to go up to the party floors--people had to show a hotel key to the party hotel to be allowed in the elevators.

Good thing we didn't try to have a Sime~Gen party this year, as all the Friday parties were pretty much ruined.

All in all, though, I had a good con. Anne and I drove up and back through beautiful mountain scenery, met old friends at the convention, and overall enjoyed ourselves.
******

****** SIMECENTER NEWS ******

This month's story on <http://www.simegen.com/simecenter/> is:

Electric Dreams (by Katy Thorp)
- the power of imagination

The accompanying artwork is:

Lunar Slide (by G.B. Chew)
- the latest in astronomy

These enjoyable works were donated in support of Clarion Writers Workshop <http://clarion.ucsd.edu/about.html>.

When you donate to this worthy organization, be sure to tell them you were referred by SimeCenter.

Send your comments, questions, etc.--about the site, the stories and art...whatever--to the address below. [Mention 'SimeCenter' in the subject so I'll know it isn't spam.]

In Service to Unity,
Kaires Tevesu

***

******NEW REVIEWS******

A Quiet Flame by Philip Kerr
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29590.html

Luke's Story by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29592.html

Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29594.html

The King's Grace by Anne Easter Smith
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29598.html

The Perfect Poison by Amanda Quick
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29601.html

Devil's Garden by Ace Atkins
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29604.html

Borderline by Nevada
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29605.html

Look Again by Lisa Scottoline
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29606.html

Loitering with Intent by Stuart Woods
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29607.html

******

******JEAN PUBLISHES INDIA/NEPAL JOURNAL******

New entries are up in Jean's India/Nepal blog
http://houseofkeon.blogspot.com/2009/08/india-january-2-2009-sleeper-train.html
Varanasi, the Ganges, lots of pictures.

India and Nepal--True Adventures. A journey into a new world, real events, wonders vs. hardships. Tips and tricks for travelers. What to see. http://houseofkeon.blogspot.com/

******

******Advertisment******

TENTH ANNIVERSARY SALE! During 2009 we are offering any of the advertising packages at http://www.simegen.com/agreements/pricing.html for four months for the price of three, or eight months for the price of six. Ad packages must be reserved by December 15, 2009, for ads to begin any time up to June, 30, 2010. Lock in this low price by contacting advertising@simegen.com and putting down a 25% deposit, remainder due at the time the ad is posted. Limit of two ad packages per advertiser. Use code SGNL to claim your bargain ad package.

******Please Support Those Who Support Us******

******NEWSLETTER NEWS******

NEW NEWS: We have a new way of accessing WHAT'S NEW on simegen.com It is a blog where you can read the monthly Newsletter and drop your own comments and news, tell us what you need done, or report problems with pages. http://whatsnew.simegen.com/ Click in the right margin to follow this Newsletter, and the news will appear in your blogger.com account. Or you can use the RSS feed. If there's another follow-tool you would prefer, please e-mail simegen@simegen.com asking for it (give the URL) and we'll enable it. There are a few handy tools we haven't enabled yet, but they are available (such as feedburner).

Patric set this magical thing up on our server and Karen has posted the Newsletters from Jan 2009 to now, so you can access past news just by scrolling. Please visit our top page, simegen.com, and note that my Twitter scroll is there for you -- plus a very nice Writing Tips Twitter scroll. Click and read the entire scroll on Twitter.

******

******SIME~GEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY

It's the tenth anniversary of Sime~Gen Inc. and simegen.com. We will be celebrating all year long--and we need your contributions to the festivities. Please send your ideas for ways to celebrate to simegen@simegen.com. But please remember that our small staff is already overburdened, so we need easy to implement ideas, not projects for our staff to put in even more hours of work than they already do. If you would like to implement your idea for us--YAY!

******

******Advertisment*****

When you enter the imagination of L. H. Young, you begin a fascinating ride, whether you are traveling the time stream with witches, finding love the stuff of legends with her wonderful vampires, traipsing across the universe with her Sci-fi, or going to school with four unusual teenagers born with the ability to heal by touch. Don’t forget that she even writes for the imagination of the very young as seen in The Christmas Kitten.
www.authorlhyoung.com

*****Please Support Those Who Support Us*****

******WORLDCRAFTER'S GUILD BLOG******

We have another new blog for the WorldCrafter's Guild students that is just taking shape.
Here you can read a lesson, post homework, and get a response. http://www.editingcircle.blogspot.com/ There will be a new lesson on Scene Structure posted soon.

******

****** Check our our new Amazon "Stores"

Blatant commercial to keep simegen.com on the air.If you buy from Amazon using one of our search boxes at the bottoms of many of our pages, or find what you're looking for in our a-stores, we get a few cents to pay the bandwidth bills.

Our Amazon stores (we recommend buying directly from Amazon itself, not one of their onboard retailers unless you know the retailer very well -- we get paid the same, but have found better customer service with Amazon.com shipments).

http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keybooks/
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keygifts/ -- NEW STORE created to hold gift items specially useful to writers, both in writing and in just finding the TIME to write.

Also we now have Google ads on our main entry pages -- and they pay nicely when someone finds what they want via one of those ads. But don't click just to click -- click something that looks like what you really want.

******
******NEW PROJECT FOR JAQUELINE******

MY CURRENT MAIN EFFORTS:
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/downloads/
That is a page that needs redesigning, just as the /marketplace/ top page will.
We are preparing to make available in e-book and on paper, a set of 7 textbooks on writing, 5 of which are on philosophy, the wellspring of ideas and the bulwark against writer's block.
The particular philosophy showcased is the structural framework behind Tarot, but you don't have to be interested in Tarot to use this information in writing or many other endeavors.
Novel and Screenwriting are both very much rooted in structure which becomes invisible when clothed in unique details. Learning to perceive the underlying structure behind seething masses of detail is somewhat like learning to spot starfish against an underwater boulder full of barnacles.

It's pattern-recognition, a brain function we all have and sometimes fail to buff up. These first 5 volumes help train the mental "eye" in a kind of abstract "pattern recognition" that will serve to sharpen results in everything you do.

The final 2 (or possibly more) volumes are directed at readers and writers who want to understand the application of the pattern recognition principles showcased in the first 5 volumes. These volumes are designed to be of use specifically by writers, but writers working in fiction, non-fiction, or screenwriting.

Currently, this project stands at the beginning of Volume #5, with several more weeks work to do on that volume, plus artwork and packaging efforts. This is a team effort that has absorbed Karen, Patric, Jean, me -- and others here -- for a year or more.

Some of these Tarot and Writing Lesson chapters have been posted to the blogs
http://www.editingcircle.blogspot.com/
And on Tuesdays where I post on
http://www.aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/
The better entries on these two blogs will be compiled and presented in PDF (or other e-book formats) plus, on paper.
******

******COAL FOR CHRISTMAS**********

COAL FOR CHRISTMAS by Lois Wickstrom and Jean Lorrah finished in the top ten family screenplays in the 2008 TheMovieDeal contest. http://www.themoviedeal.com/#/finalists/4532422034 Find the SCROLL icon at the lower left, and scroll down to see the top ten in each category.

******

******BOOK REVIEWS******

Jacqueline Lichtenberg's book review columns for August 2009, ReReadable Books, has been posted. http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2009

The books to be reviewed in 2010 have been posted through March 2010 at http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2010

ReReadable Books has posted monthly columns since 1993, and you can read them all free starting at http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/

With incredible gratitude to Lorraine Tutihasi for getting up all the NEW REVIEWS in What's New!
And a great thank you to Karen MacLeod for posting the NL to the blog! Subscribe to the blog: http://whatsnew.simegen.com for handy reference.

Live Long and Prosper,
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com/jl/

******

****** Patric Michael (our Webmaster) is pleased to announce his NEXT publication!******

Light of a Different Moon by Patric Michael, part of the "To Die For" ghost anthology by MLR Press, will be released in September. Watch for it at www.mlrpress.com

Check out http://www.patricmichael.com for the Start of Something Great.

*******

******JOIN THE REVIEWERS

I'm developing a new way to find books to review -- via Twitter! And with more people helping we could, perhaps, find more reviewers. I've been collecting people in writing, editing, publishing, and various parts of the film industry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
I really could use some help with this. To connect with me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/jlichtenberg
To connect with me on Facebook -- http://facebook.com/jacqueline.lichtenberg
To connect with me on LinkedIn --
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelinelichtenberg
Karen MacLeod and Patric are also available on LinkedIn. We are moving gradually into the networking space and evaluating the uses of cloud computing. We need a new coordinator for the Reviews department who can work with the social networking tools.
For the moment, we have only a few reviewers responding to the e-mail List, and I suspect that's the drift away from e-mail because of the spam load.
We need to launch a blogspot blog for our Reviewers instead of a List, or perhaps establish a Group on Facebook.
I will continue to post books to be reviewed to the reviewers List as I discover them. As Coordinator of our Reviews Department, I ask for your help. With the current upsurge in e-book publishing that is sweeping the Internet, we daily receive an increasing number of books to review. Yet, in counterpoint, we have a shortage of reviewers, and many of our reviews staff are several books behind. We are eagerly and actively seeking new people to review for us. As with all of Sime~Gen, our reviewers are volunteers. When they write a review, it is posted
with their byline, and they get to keep the review copy of the books they have read and reviewed.
For more information on our Reviewers Agreement, visit:
http://www.simegen.com/agreements/revagr.html
Please help us by passing this information along to anyone you know who might want to join our happy band. If interested, they can send a note expressing their interest to Jean at simegen@simegen.com
******

******Advertisement******

Anyone shopping Amazon who wants to contribute to simegen.com without it costing them a cent, please start by using any of the Amazon Search boxes on our pages. Our top page has three really handy ones near the bottom. http://www.simegen.com

******Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS
A SIME~GEN postage stamp is now available to order on cafe press. It can be used just as you would use a regular postage stamp. Be the first on YOUR block to have them!
We've got a new page for Cafe Press items from our artists and authors. Now you can get t-shirts, greeting cards, clocks, mugs, and other great stuff with work from your favorite artists. You can even buy books about Nessie, the Orange Forest Rabbit and The Reluctant Spy that aren't available anywhere else.
http://simegen.com/marketplace/cafepress/ is a direct link to all our items and merchandise stores. Use of this page will give the domain extra income. If there is an item that you wish to see that isn't offered, just write Lois at lois@lochness-monster.com and she'll get it ready for you to order.
******

******HELP WANTED*****

The spotlights section of Simegen.com currently needs interviewers, spotlight posting personnel, an assistant spotlights gatemaster, and a keygifts store manager. We are also requesting an Assistant Reviews Co-coordinator - duties include covering when other staff are unable to perform tasks. We are almost finished revamping our reviews section and expect activity to be at a constant high level. We're looking for a versatile quick learner able to put in some time
daily. Pluses are: A good command of the English language (syntax, grammar, punctuation, in that order), some computer experience or ability to learn, and an interest in books. Direct all inquiries to simegen@simegen.com.
Individuals to take over, or assist with the SIMECENTER Site -- It isn't at all hard, but a bit time-consuming...and very rewarding ("meeting" these marvelous authors and artists, if only via E-Mail and their websites.) Please write me, Kaires Tevesu, if you are interested. People who talked to me earlier about helping: I've lost track of your communications in the throes of several changes of computer. PLEASE contact me again. The time is right, the templates are much more robust, I have a small backlog of stories (the hardest part of operating SimeCenter), and I've even documented some of the processes. I'd like to talk to you again.

****** Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******PUBLICATION SCHEDULE********

We have had to withdraw the entire Sime~Gen project from Meisha Merlin for a wide range of reasons. They missed several deadlines for publication of TO KISS OR TO KILL and showed no signs of intention to get it out any time in the foreseeable future. That stalled everything else. It was very disappointing. So we are now actively in search of another publisher.
THE UNITY TRILOGY should continue to be available for some time -- they have the right to dispose of all stock in the Meisha Merlin warehouse.
******

******AVAILABLE RELEASES***********

~ the Omnibus reprint of Jean Lorrah's SAVAGE EMPIRE: DARK MOON RISING --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210013X/rereadablebooksr/ is #1 in the reprint program.
~ Trade Paperback edition of DREAMSPY from BenBella Books and you can order on Amazon and some other places
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932100253/rereadablebooksr/
Read the comments here:
http://www.simegen.com/writers/luren/dreamspy/dreamspyreviews.html
~ SAVAGE EMPIRE: PROPHECIES
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210030X/rereadablebooksr/ is #2 in Jean Lorrah's and Winston Howlett's omnibus reprint of the Savage Empire series.
Still Available in Trade Paperback, SIME~GEN: THE UNITY TRILOGY
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592220037/rereadablebooksr/
******

***** Sites to Remember *****

Author spotlights: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/
Chats: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/chat.html
Romance articles: http://www.simegen.com/romance/articles.html
Reviews of books by Jacqueline Lichtenberg:
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/
Reviews: http://www.simegen.com/reviews/
Shopping: http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/
Sound files of Jacqueline Lichtenberg pronouncing Sime~Gen vocabulary words can be found at http://www.simegen.com/jl/nivetsoundfiles/index.html
To sign up for classes, go to http://www.simegen.com/school/SchoolForms.html
To volunteer, go to http://www.simegen.com/agreements/helpwanted.html for the latest openings.

******
To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to listserv@simegen.com with no subject and the text "unsubscribe NEWSLETTER-L".
To contact editor for any reason, please e-mail Lisa Saunders at simegen@simegen.com
*Please Note all material posted on Official Virtual Tecton is copyright © by Sime~Gen Inc. and all rights are reserved. To get your Sime~Gen(tm) material
sanctioned for web posting or to get permission to repost from official materials, e-mail ambrovzeor@aol.com, contact simegen@simegen.com.
Sime~Gen (tm) is the trademark of a fictional universe copyright © by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, 1969, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986 and Sime~Gen Inc. 1999-2009.

In Memoriam Bev Zuk

Thejlbox@gmail.com (Jacqueline Lichtenberg) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:57:00 +0000

The following is from Melissa Bayard Clemmer 8/19/2009

--------------
Beverly Zuk, Illinois writer and artist in fandom for many years, passed away this last Sunday (Aug. 16, 2009) in Wisconsin where she and her husband retired two years ago.

She is survived by a patient, loving husband who was there for her till the end, and two wonderful grown sons.

Bev was mostly a Trek fan, writing several novels, several of which are still available today. She particularly liked McCoy, who appealed to her sense of humor. She was one of the original members of the Trek Mafia, and helped with many SF and Media cons thru the years.

She will be missed.
------------

You may drop comments on this news blog for possible inclusion in a more permanent web page in the Sime~Gen fanzine Companion In Zeor to stand beside the tribute to Joan Winston
http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/rimonslibrary/cz/cz24/JoanWinston.html

Everything on simegen.com and almost everyone associated with the enterprise is somehow related to or connected to or derived from Star Trek.

See
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/trekcon.html and our classic Star Trek 'zine section http://www.simegen.com/fandom/startrek/

Bev Zuk was a mover and shaker, a guiding light, a cheer leader and a first in scout. She had common sense and a flaming spirit. There's no way to express how she will be missed.

If anyone knows more details of how it happened, please share with us here.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com/jl/

Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter - July 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Mac) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 16:31:00 +0000

Contents:
* WESTERCON REPORT
* JEAN'S WORLDCON PLANS
* JEAN PUBLISHES INDIA/NEPAL JOURNAL
* NEWSLETTER NEWS
* SIME~GEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY
* WORLDCRAFTER'S GUILD BLOG
* Check our our new Amazon "Stores"
* NEW PROJECT FOR JACQUELINE
* COAL FOR CHRISTMAS
* BOOK REVIEWS
* PATRIC MICHAEL'S FIRST PUBLICATION
* JOIN THE REVIEWERS
* NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS
* HELP WANTED
* PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
* AVAILABLE RELEASES
* SITES TO REMEMBER
* SUBSCRIPTION AND CONTACT INFORMATION
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE**

*****WESTERCON REPORT

For the full report on Westercon, please go to:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/07/westercon-2009.html

here is a sneak peek:
Science Fiction conventions aren't like political conventions where large bodies of people send "delegates" to represent them. Cons are a 'y'all come' gathering of anyone and everyone interested in the array of topics and the professionals working in the various fields from books, e-books, and other text media all the way to feature films.
I posted my panel schedule here:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/06/snow-dogs-and-happily-ever-after.html
******

******JEAN'S WORLDCON PLANS******

Jean is getting ready to leave for WorldCon in Montreal on August 4. She will fly to NY and stay with Anne Pinzow for a couple of days, and then they will drive up into Canada from there. Jean is on the program in six different places, and will also be manning the SFWA table in the dealer's room for a couple of hours on Saturday. The writing workshop for new writers has been revived, and Jean will be taking part in that as one of the pros reading and commenting on works by aspiring writers. Anne has been given a convention Press Pass, and will be covering the convention for the newspapers she works for.
******

******JEAN PUBLISHES INDIA/NEPAL JOURNAL******

Jean has posted the first part of her India/Nepal journal for December 30, to her blog at http://houseofkeon.blogspot.com/ Lost in Agra. Revolt against the tour guide. More photos of India.

Jean took a tour of India and Nepal over the Christmas/New Year's 2008-2009 break. While there, she kept a daily journal of her experiences. Now she has begun to publish that journal on her blog, http://houseofkeon.blogspot.com/ Stop by to read her experiences, and if you would like to be notified each time she posts a new entry, scroll down to the bottom of her blog page and subscribe to receive notices.

Jean's recent blog posts (7/25/09) include:
On House of Keon, the second part of my India/Nepal journal entry from the busy day of Dec. 30, 2008--the Taj Mahal, soldiers in saris, photos and video. http://houseofkeon.blogspot.com/2009/07/december-30-2008-agra-part-two.html

On ListsForYou, Eight Ways to Find Time to Write, http://listsforyou.blogspot.com/2009/07/eight-ways-to-find-time-to-write.html

******

******Advertisment******

TENTH ANNIVERSARY SALE! During 2009 we are offering any of the advertising packages at http://www.simegen.com/agreements/pricing.html for four months for the price of three, or eight months for the price of six. Ad packages must be reserved by December 15, 2009, for ads to begin any time up to June, 30, 2010. Lock in this low price by contacting advertising@simegen.com and putting down a 25% deposit, remainder due at the time the ad is posted. Limit of two ad packages per advertiser.Use code SGNL to claim your bargain ad package.

******Please Support Those Who Support Us******

******NEWSLETTER NEWS******

NEW NEWS: We have a new way of accessing WHAT'S NEW on simegen.com

It is a blog where you can read the monthly Newsletter and drop your own comments and news, tell us what you need done, or report problems with pages.
http://whatsnew.simegen.com/
Click in the right margin to follow this Newsletter, and the news will appear in your blogger.com account. Or you can use the RSS feed. If there's another follow-tool you would prefer, please e-mail simegen@simegen.com asking for it (give the URL) and we'll enable it. There are a few handy tools we haven't enabled yet, but they are available (such as feedburner).

Patric set this magical thing up on our server and Karen has posted the Newsletters from Jan 2009 to now, so you can access past news just by scrolling.

Please visit our top page, simegen.com, and note that my Twitter scroll is there for you -- plus a very nice Writing Tips Twitter scroll. Click and read the entire scroll on Twitter.

******

******SIME~GEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY

It's the tenth anniversary of Sime~Gen Inc. and simegen.com. We will be celebrating all year long--and we need your contributions to the festivities. Please send your ideas for ways to celebrate to simegen@simegen.com. But please remember that our small staff is already overburdened, so we need easy to implement ideas, not projects for our staff to put in even more hours of work than they already do. If you would like to implement your idea for us--YAY!
******

******Advertisment*****

When you enter the imagination of L. H. Young, you begin a fascinating ride, whether you are traveling the time stream with witches, finding love the stuff of legends with her wonderful vampires, traipsing across the universe with her Sci-fi, or going to school with four unusual teenagers born with the ability to heal by touch. Don’t forget that she even writes for the imagination of the very young as seen in The Christmas Kitten.
www.authorlhyoung.com

*****Please Support Those Who Support Us*****

******WORLDCRAFTER'S GUILD BLOG******

We have another new blog for the WorldCrafter's Guild students that is just taking shape.
Here you can read a lesson, post homework, and get a response.
http://www.editingcircle.blogspot.com/

There will be a new lesson on Scene Structure posted soon.

******

****** Check our our new Amazon "Stores"

Blatant commercial to keep simegen.com on the air. If you buy from Amazon using one of our search boxes at the bottoms of many of our pages, or find what you're looking for in our a-stores, we get a few cents to pay the bandwidth bills. Our Amazon stores (we recommend buying directly from Amazon itself, not one of their onboard retailers unless you know the retailer very well -- we get paid the same, but have found better customer service with amazon.com shipments).
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keybooks/
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keygifts/ -- NEW STORE created to hold gift items specially useful to writers, both in writing and in just finding the TIME to write.
Also we now have Google ads on our main entry pages -- and they pay nicely when someone finds what they want via one of those ads. But don't click just to click -- click something that looks like what you really want.
******

******NEW PROJECT FOR JACQUELINE******

MY CURRENT MAIN EFFORTS:
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/downloads/

That is a page that needs redesigning, just as the /marketplace/ top page will.

We are preparing to make available in e-book and on paper, a set of 7 textbooks on writing, 5 of which are on philosophy, the wellspring of ideas and the bulwark against writer's block.

The particular philosophy showcased is the structural framework behind Tarot, but you don't have to be interested in Tarot to use this information in writing or many other endeavors.

Novel and Screenwriting are both very much rooted in structure which becomes invisible when clothed in unique details. Learning to perceive the underlying structure behind seething masses of detail is somewhat like learning to spot starfish against an underwater boulder full of barnacles.

It's pattern-recognition, a brain function we all have and sometimes fail to buff up. These first 5 volumes help train the mental "eye" in a kind of abstract "pattern recognition" that will serve to sharpen results in everything you do.

The final 2 (or possibly more) volumes are directed at readers and writers who want to understand the application of the pattern recognition principles showcased in the first 5 volumes. These volumes are designed to be of use specifically by writers, but writers working in fiction, non-fiction, or screenwriting.

Currently, this project stands at the beginning of Volume #5, with several more weeks work to do on that volume, plus artwork and packaging efforts. This is a team effort that has absorbed Karen, Patric, Jean, me -- and others here -- for a year or more.

Some of these Tarot and Writing Lesson chapters have been posted to the blogs
http://www.editingcircle.blogspot.com/
And, on Tuesdays where I post on
http://www.aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/
The better entries on these two blogs will be compiled and presented in PDF (or other e-book formats) plus, on paper.

******

******COAL FOR CHRISTMAS**********

COAL FOR CHRISTMAS by Lois Wickstrom and Jean Lorrah finished in the top ten family screenplays in the 2008 TheMovieDeal contest. http://www.themoviedeal.com/#/finalists/4532422034 Find the SCROLL icon at the lower left, and scroll down to see the top ten in each category.
******

******BOOK REVIEWS******

Recommended Books is now posted, with all the books to be reviewed through December 2009 posted.
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2009/
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/ is our review department. It's now recruiting staff. To apply, e-mail simegen @ simegen.com
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/ is an SF/Fantasy Review Column. The columns will be linked to this index page after they are published on paper in The Monthly Aspectarian which buys first serial rights.
Book Review columns through June have been posted:
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2009/
You may navigate to previous columns back to 1993 using the COLUMNS BY YEAR feature on the left of the page or search for a particular author or title using the domain wide google search.
******

****** Patric Michael (our Webmaster) is pleased to announce his first publications!******

Out since he was a freshman in high school, Nate meets Andy, who is gorgeous, and unfortunately, straight. They're best friends through thick and thin until a practical joke leads Nate to a surprise revelation: ...If I had known just how thoroughly it would turn my world upside down, I would never have kissed Andy in that damned banquet room. I would have kissed him a hell of a lot sooner...
"Timeless" from Dreamspinner Press (https://dreamspinnerpress.3dcartstores.com/search.asp?keyword=dd115&search=GO)
Now Available -- Patric Michael writes Romance, Guy to Guy
"Night Moves," in the Sindustry Vol. 2 anthology (http://dreamspinnerpress.com/currenttitles/Sindustry/sindustry2info.htm)
Check out http://www.patricmichael.com for the Start of Something Great.
*******

******JOIN THE REVIEWERS

I'm developing a new way to find books to review -- via Twitter! And with more people helping we could, perhaps, find more reviewers. I've been collecting people in writing, editing, publishing, and various parts of the film industry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

I really could use some help with this. To connect with me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/jlichtenberg

To connect with me on Facebook -- http://facebook.com/jacqueline.lichtenberg

To connect with me on LinkedIn --
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelinelichtenberg
Karen MacLeod and Patric are also available on LinkedIn. We are moving gradually into the networking space and evaluating the uses of cloud computing. We need a new coordinator for the Reviews department who can work with the social networking tools.

For the moment, we have only a few reviewers responding to the e-mail List, and I suspect that's the drift away from e-mail because of the spam load.

We need to launch a blogspot blog for our Reviewers instead of a List, or perhaps establish a Group on Facebook.

I will continue to post books to be reviewed to the reviewers List as I discover them. As Coordinator of our Reviews Department, I ask for your help. With the current upsurge in e-book publishing that is sweeping the Internet, we daily receive an increasing number of books to review. Yet, in counterpoint, we have a shortage of reviewers, and many of our reviews staff are several books behind. We are eagerly and actively seeking new people to review for us. As with all of Sime~Gen, our reviewers are volunteers. When they write a review, it is posted
with their byline, and they get to keep the review copy of the books they have read and reviewed.
For more information on our Reviewers Agreement, visit:
http://www.simegen.com/agreements/revagr.html
Please help us by passing this information along to anyone you know who might want to join our happy band. If interested, they can send a note expressing their interest to Jean Lorrah at simegen@simegen.com
******

******Advertisement******

Anyone shopping Amazon who wants to contribute to simegen.com without it costing them a cent, please start by using any of the Amazon Search boxes on our pages. Our top page has three really handy ones near the bottom. http://www.simegen.com

******Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS

A SIME~GEN postage stamp is now available to order on cafe press. It can be used just as you would use a regular postage stamp. Be the first on YOUR block to have them!
We've got a new page for Cafe Press items from our artists and authors. Now you can get t-shirts, greeting cards, clocks, mugs, and other great stuff with work from your favorite artists. You can even buy books about Nessie, the Orange Forest Rabbit and The Reluctant Spy that aren't available anywhere else.
http://simegen.com/marketplace/cafepress/ is a direct link to all our items and merchandise stores. Use of this page will give the domain extra income. If there is an item that you wish to see that isn't offered, just write Lois at lois@lochness-monster.com and she'll get it ready for you to order.
******
******HELP WANTED*****

The spotlights section of Simegen.com currently needs interviewers, spotlight posting personnel, an assistant spotlights gatemaster, and a keygifts store manager. We are also requesting an Assistant Reviews Co-coordinator - duties include covering when other staff are unable to perform tasks. We are almost finished revamping our reviews section and expect activity to be at a constant high level. We're looking for a versatile quick learner able to put in some time
daily. Pluses are: A good command of the English language (syntax, grammar, punctuation, in that order), some computer experience or ability to learn, and an interest in books. Direct all inquiries to simegen@simegen.com.
Individuals to take over, or assist with the SIMECENTER Site -- It isn't at all hard, but a bit time-consuming...and very rewarding ("meeting" these marvelous authors and artists, if only via E-Mail and their websites.) Please write me, Kaires Tevesu, if you are interested. People who talked to me earlier about helping: I've lost track of your communications in the throes of several changes of computer. PLEASE contact me again. The time is right, the templates are much more robust, I have a small backlog of stories (the hardest part of operating SimeCenter), and I've even documented some of the processes. I'd like to talk to you again.

****** Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******PUBLICATION SCHEDULE********

We have had to withdraw the entire Sime~Gen project from Meisha Merlin for a wide range of reasons. They missed several deadlines for publication of TO KISS OR TO KILL and showed no signs of intention to get it out any time in the foreseeable future. That stalled everything else. It was very disappointing. So we are now actively in search of another publisher.
THE UNITY TRILOGY should continue to be available for some time -- they have the right to dispose of all stock in the Meisha Merlin warehouse.
******

******AVAILABLE RELEASES***********

~ the Omnibus reprint of Jean Lorrah's SAVAGE EMPIRE: DARK MOON RISING --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210013X/rereadablebooksr/ is #1 in the reprint program.
~ Trade Paperback edition of DREAMSPY from BenBella Books and you can order on Amazon and some other places
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932100253/rereadablebooksr/
Read the comments here:
http://www.simegen.com/writers/luren/dreamspy/dreamspyreviews.html
~ SAVAGE EMPIRE: PROPHECIES
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210030X/rereadablebooksr/ is #2 in Jean Lorrah's and Winston Howlett's omnibus reprint of the Savage Empire series.
Still Available in Trade Paperback, SIME~GEN: THE UNITY TRILOGY
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592220037/rereadablebooksr/
******

***** Sites to Remember *****

Author spotlights: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/
Chats: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/chat.html
Romance articles: http://www.simegen.com/romance/articles.html
Reviews of books by Jacqueline Lichtenberg:
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/
Reviews: http://www.simegen.com/reviews/
Shopping: http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/
Sound files of Jacqueline Lichtenberg pronouncing Sime~Gen vocabulary words can be found at http://www.simegen.com/jl/nivetsoundfiles/index.html
To sign up for classes, go to http://www.simegen.com/school/SchoolForms.html
To volunteer, go to http://www.simegen.com/agreements/helpwanted.html for the latest openings.
******
To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to listserv@simegen.com with no subject and the text "unsubscribe NEWSLETTER-L".
To contact editor for any reason, please e-mail Lisa Saunders at simegen@simegen.com
*Please Note all material posted on Official Virtual Tecton is copyright © by Sime~Gen Inc. and all rights are reserved. To get your Sime~Gen(tm) material
sanctioned for web posting or to get permission to repost from official materials, e-mail ambrovzeor@aol.com, contact simegen@simegen.com.
Sime~Gen (tm) is the trademark of a fictional universe copyright © by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, 1969, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986 and Sime~Gen Inc. 1999-2009.

Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter - June 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Mac) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:27:00 +0000

Contents:
* MEDIAWEST*CON REPORT
* WESTERCON IS NOW FIESTACON
* JACQUELINE'S WESTERCON SCHEDULE
* JEAN PUBLISHES INDIA/NEPAL JOURNAL
* REREADABLE BOOKS UPDATE
* SIME~GEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY
* Check our our new Amazon "Stores"
* COAL FOR CHRISTMAS
* BOOK REVIEWS
* PATRIC MICHAEL'S FIRST PUBLICATION
* JOIN THE REVIEWERS
* NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS
* HELP WANTED
* PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
* AVAILABLE RELEASES
* SITES TO REMEMBER
* SUBSCRIPTION AND CONTACT INFORMATION
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE**

******MEDIAWEST*CON REPORT******

From Jean
Over the Memorial Day Weekend I attended MediaWest*Con 29 in Lansing, Michigan. Oh, my--is it almost thirty years we've been doing this? Longer, actually, for before MediaWest there was SequesterCon for three or four years!

I've been to all the SequesterCons and most of the MediaWest*Cons through the years, madefriends, sold fanzines and books, appeared on panels. Like all the old fannish cons, it now has a preponderance of members over fifty years old. There are young people coming in, but not nearly enough to replace the people who are now too old to travel ... or who have died. Still, MediaWest*Con is fun. People rave and write about their latest fandoms. The door decorating contest goes on, with more innovative ideas every year. There are room parties every night. And people still bring their pets.

There were fewer pets this year because the hotel has changed hands and now charges a pet fee. Still, there were several dogs, a parrot, some cats that stayed in people's rooms, and Dudley. My con cat, Dudley, was there for his fourth or fifth time, and was completely at home and in his element. He loves being the center of attention, and is happy to give anyone who wants one a "cat fix." He has long since gotten over anxiety that I will leave him, so he happily stays with anyone I leave him with if I need to go elsewhere, and is just glad to see me when I return. He has no problems with dogs, as he has his own dog and works with many different dogs in pet therapy. Also, I'm pretty sure he is the reincarnation of Cuddles, the little dog who went to
cons with me for so many years, whom I'm sure some of you remember. Dudley goes with me to panels, and of course sometimes he steals the show. He also loves to go partying at night--cats instinctively understand that an open door is an invitation to enter. He loves to poke around people's luggage and boxes, and of course he is always available to be worshipped.

Something interesting happened this year: the new Star Trek movie brought back an interest in original Trek. I did a little bit of sorting and shelf clearing, and took along about 25 used Trek fanzines from the 1970's, fully expecting to cart them all back home again. Boy, was I wrong! In the first two hours of the con they were GONE, snapped up by just two people! Strangely, for bad economic times, I sold more of my books than I usually do--used paperbacks, and new discounted copies of UNITY, SAVAGE EMPIRE, and BLOOD WILL TELL. As usual, there were many people wanting to know if and when there will be new Sime~Gen books. *sigh*

I was on several panels, most of them "the usual." However, this time there was a panel on surviving a disaster--for which I was eligible because I survived the Great Ice Storm last February. The storm pretty much closed down the entire MidWest for a week, and it took over a month to get power restored to many outlying areas. My preparations were really simple, yet I was comfortable and able to help friends out. It amazes me how many people didn't have so much as a battery-powered radio and a lantern, when we had more than a week's warning that the storm was on its way.

Anyway, Dudley and I had a good time at the con. A big thank you to Kaires for running my table while I was on panels. If all goes well, we'll be back again next year!

******

******WESTERCON IS NOW FIESTACON******

WESTERCON is now FIESTACON this year.
FiestaCon is scheduled for July 2-5, 2009 and will be held at the Tempe Mission Palms hotel in Tempe, Arizona. Westercon is a science fiction / fantasy convention held annually in the western half of North America or in Hawaii. Our panels cover a broad array of topics, both traditional and contemporary, with special emphasis on Literature, Science and Art. Please visit our website for more info: www.fiestacon.org

Jacqueline Lichtenberg has accepted an invitation to be a speaker.
Note that the Artist Guest of Honor at FiestaCon is Todd Lockwood, who created the amazing cover art for The Unity Trilogy. By tradition, and honoring the presence of JL and Todd, there will be a Sime~Gen party at FiestaCon.

Jacqueline's Westercon schedule.
(http://www.westercon.org fiestacon this year in Tempe, AZ.)
LIT/MED-What Universe Are You In?
Fri 10a-11a, Palm E room
w/ Jacqueline Litchtenberg (moderator), Dani Kollin, Etyan Kollin, Janice Tuerff

LIT-How Are Small Presses
Fri 11a-noon, Palm E room
w/ Jacqueline Litchtenberg (moderator), Adam Niswander, Michael D'Ambrosio

MED-Star Trek Movie Review
Fri 2p-3p, Palm F room
w/David A. Williams (moderator), Alan Dean Foster

LIT-It Was A Dark & Stormy Night
Fri 4p-5p, Abbey South
w/ Jacqueline Litchtenberg (moderator), Kevin Andrew Murphy, Moira Greyland,
Shirley Runyon

AUTOGRAPHING Fri 5p-6p, Dealers Room

LIT-Writer's Support Groups
Sun 11a-noon, Boardroom
w/ Jacqueline Litchtenberg (moderator), Rick Novy, Dennis McKiernan

FAN-Effect of Web on Fanzines
Sun noon-1p, Jokake room
w/John Hertz (moderator)

FAN-SF/F Websites
Sun 2p-3p, Augustine
w/ Jacqueline Litchtenberg (moderator), Lee Gilliland, Lee Whiteside

******

******JEAN PUBLISHES INDIA/NEPAL JOURNAL******

Jean took a tour of India and Nepal over the Christmas/New Year's 2008-2009 break. While there, she kept a daily journal of her experiences.
Now she has begun to publish that journal on her blog, http://houseofkeon.blogspot.com/
Stop by to read her experiences, and if you would like to be notified each time she posts a new entry, scroll down to the bottom of her blog page and subscribe to receive notices.

******

******Advertisment******

TENTH ANNIVERSARY SALE! During 2009 we are offering any of the advertising packages at http://www.simegen.com/agreements/pricing.html for four months for the price of three, or eight months for the price of six. Ad packages must be reserved by December 15, 2009, for ads to begin any time up to June, 30, 2010. Lock in this low price by contacting advertising@simegen.com and putting down a 25% deposit, remainder due at the time the ad is posted. Limit of two ad packages per advertiser.Use code SGNL to claim your bargain ad package.

******Please Support Those Who Support Us******

******SIME~GEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY

It's the tenth anniversary of Sime~Gen Inc. and simegen.com. We will be celebrating all year long--and we need your contributions to the festivities.
Please send your ideas for ways to celebrate to simegen@simegen.com. But please remember that our small staff is already overburdened, so we need easy to implement ideas, not projects for our staff to put in even more hours of work than they already do. If you would like to implement your idea for us--YAY!

******
******Advertisment*****

When you enter the imagination of L. H. Young, you begin a fascinating ride, whether you are traveling the time stream with witches, finding love the stuff of legends with her wonderful vampires, traipsing across the universe with her Sci-fi, or going to school with four unusual teenagers born with the ability to heal by touch. Don’t forget that she even writes for the imagination of the very young as seen in The Christmas Kitten.
www.authorlhyoung.com

*****Please Support Those Who Support Us*****

****** Check our our new Amazon "Stores"

Blatant commercial to keep simegen.com on the air.
If you buy from Amazon using one of our search boxes at the bottoms of manyof our pages, or find what you're looking for in our a-stores, we get a few cents to pay the bandwidth bills.
Our Amazon stores (we recommend buying directly from Amazon itself, not one of their onboard retailers unless you know the retailer very well -- we get paid the same, but have found better customer service with amazon.com shipments).
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keybooks/
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keygifts/ -- NEW STORE created to hold gift items specially useful to writers, both in writing and in just finding the TIME to write.

Also we now have Google ads on our main entry pages -- and they pay nicely when someone finds what they want via one of those ads. But don't click just to click -- click something that looks like what you really want.

******

******COAL FOR CHRISTMAS**********
COAL FOR CHRISTMAS by Lois Wickstrom and Jean Lorrah finished in the top ten family screenplays in the 2008 TheMovieDeal contest. http://www.themoviedeal.com/#/finalists/4532422034 Find the SCROLL icon at the lower left, and scroll down to see the top ten in each category.

******

******BOOK REVIEWS******

2009 Books to be Reviewed
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/ is our review department. It's now recruiting staff. To apply, email simegen @ simegen.com http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/ is an SF/Fantasy Review Column.
Books to be reviewed through December 2009 in the column ReReadable books are now listed here http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2009/
The columns will be linked to this index page after they are published on paper in The Monthly Aspectarian which buys first serial rights.

Book Review columns for March & April Posted

The March and April 2009 review columns in ReReadable Books are now posted.
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2009/
You may navigate to previous columns back to 1993 using the COLUMNS BY YEAR feature on the left of the page or search for a particular author or title using the domain wide Google search.

******

****** Patric Michael (our Webmaster) is pleased to announce his first publications!******

Out since he was a freshman in high school, Nate meets Andy, who is gorgeous, and unfortunately, straight. They're best friends through thick and thin until a practical joke leads Nate to a surprise revelation: ...If I had known just how thoroughly it would turn my world upside down, I would never have kissed Andy in that damned banquet room. I would have kissed him a hell of a lot sooner...
"Timeless" from Dreamspinner Press (https://dreamspinnerpress.3dcartstores.com/search.asp?keyword=dd115&search=GO)
Now Available Patric Michael writes Romance, Guy to Guy

Coming July 13: "Night Moves," in the Sindustry Vol. 2 anthology
http://dreamspinnerpress.com/currenttitles/Sindustry/sindustry2info.htm
Check out http://www.patricmichael.com for the Start of Something Great.
*******

******JOIN THE REVIEWERS
As Coordinator of our Reviews Department, I ask for your help. With the current upsurge in e-book publishing that is sweeping the Internet, we daily receive an increasing number of books to review. Yet, in counterpoint, we have a shortage of reviewers, and many of our reviews staff are several books behind.We are eagerly and actively seeking new people to review for us. As with all of Sime~Gen, our reviewers are volunteers. When they write a review, it is posted
with their byline, and they get to keep the review copy of the books they have read and reviewed.
For more information on our Reviewers Agreement, visit: http://www.simegen.com/agreements/revagr.html
Please help us by passing this information along to anyone you know who might want to join our happy band. If interested, they can send a note expressing their interest to Jean at simegen@simegen.com
******

******Advertisement******

Anyone shopping Amazon who wants to contribute to simegen.com without it costing them a cent, please start by using any of the Amazon Search boxes on our pages. Our top page has three really handy ones near the bottom. http://www.simegen.com

******Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS

A SIME~GEN postage stamp is now available to order on cafe press. It can be used just as you would use a regular postage stamp. Be the first on YOUR block to have them!

We've got a new page for Cafe Press items from our artists and authors. Now you can get t-shirts, greeting cards, clocks, mugs, and other great stuff with work from your favorite artists. You can even buy books about Nessie, the Orange Forest Rabbit and The Reluctant Spy that aren't available anywhere else.

http://simegen.com/marketplace/cafepress/ is a direct link to all our items and merchandise stores. Use of this page will give the domain extra income. If there is an item that you wish to see that isn't offered, just write Lois at lois@lochness-monster.com and she'll get it ready for you to order.

******

******HELP WANTED*****
The spotlights section of Simegen.com currently needs interviewers, spotlight posting personnel, an assistant spotlights gatemaster, and a keygifts store manager. We are also requesting an Assistant Reviews Co-coordinator - duties include covering when other staff are unable to perform tasks. We are almost finished revamping our reviews section and expect activity to be at a constant high level. We're looking for a versatile quick learner able to put in some time
daily. Pluses are: A good command of the English language (syntax, grammar, punctuation, in that order), some computer experience or ability to learn, and an interest in books. Direct all inquiries to simegen@simegen.com.

Individuals to take over, or assist with the SIMECENTER Site -- It isn't at all hard, but a bit time-consuming...and very rewarding ("meeting" these marvelous authors and artists, if only via E-Mail and their websites.) Please write me, Kaires Tevesu, if you are interested. --- People who talked to me earlier about helping: I've lost track of your communications in the throes of several changes of computer. PLEASE contact me again. The time is right, the templates are much more robust, I have a small backlog of stories (the hardest part of operating SimeCenter), and I've even documented some of the processes. I'd like to talk to you again.

****** Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******PUBLICATION SCHEDULE********

We have had to withdraw the entire Sime~Gen project from Meisha Merlin for a wide range of reasons. They missed several deadlines for publication of TO KISS OR TO KILL and showed no signs of intention to get it out any time in the foreseeable future. That stalled everything else. It was very disappointing. So we are now actively in search of another publisher.
THE UNITY TRILOGY should continue to be available for some time -- they have the right to dispose of all stock in the Meisha Merlin warehouse.

******
******AVAILABLE RELEASES***********

~ the Omnibus reprint of Jean Lorrah's SAVAGE EMPIRE: DARK MOON RISING --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210013X/rereadablebooksr/ is #1 in the reprint program.
~ Trade Paperback edition of DREAMSPY from BenBella Books and you can order on Amazon and some other places
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932100253/rereadablebooksr/
Read the comments here:
http://www.simegen.com/writers/luren/dreamspy/dreamspyreviews.html
~ SAVAGE EMPIRE: PROPHECIES
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210030X/rereadablebooksr/ is #2 in Jean Lorrah's and Winston Howlett's omnibus reprint of the Savage Empire
series.
Still Available in Trade Paperback, SIME~GEN: THE UNITY TRILOGY
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592220037/rereadablebooksr/

******

***** Sites to Remember *****

Author spotlights: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/
Chats: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/chat.html
Romance articles: http://www.simegen.com/romance/articles.html
Reviews of books by Jacqueline Lichtenberg:
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/
Reviews: http://www.simegen.com/reviews/
Shopping: http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/
Sound files of Jacqueline Lichtenberg pronouncing Sime~Gen vocabulary words can be found at http://www.simegen.com/jl/nivetsoundfiles/index.html
To sign up for classes, go to http://www.simegen.com/school/SchoolForms.html
To volunteer, go to http://www.simegen.com/agreements/helpwanted.html
for the latest openings.

******

To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to listserv@simegen.com with no subject and the text "unsubscribe NEWSLETTER-L".
To contact editor for any reason, please e-mail Lisa Saunders at simegen@simegen.com
*Please Note all material posted on Official Virtual Tecton is copyright © by Sime~Gen Inc. and all rights are reserved. To get your Sime~Gen(tm) material sanctioned for web posting or to get permission to repost from official materials, e-mail ambrovzeor@aol.com, contact simegen@simegen.com.
Sime~Gen (tm) is the trademark of a fictional universe copyright © by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, 1969, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986 and Sime~Gen Inc. 1999-2009.

Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter - May 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Mac) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:50:00 +0000

Contents:
* MEDIAWEST CON REPORT
* WESTERCON IS NOW FIESTACON
* WRITING WORKSHOP
* SIMECENTER NEWS
* REREADABLE BOOKS UPDATE
* SIME~GEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY
* Check our our new Amazon "Stores"
* COAL FOR CHRISTMAS
* BOOK REVIEWS
* PATRIC MICHAEL'S FIRST PUBLICATION
* BORDERLAND UPDATE
* NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS
* HELP WANTED
* PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
* AVAILABLE RELEASES
* SITES TO REMEMBER
* SUBSCRIPTION AND CONTACT INFORMATION
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE**

******MEDIAWEST CON REPORT******

Dudley and I had a great con. Dudley, the therapy cat, greets people at my dealer's table and soaks up as much petting as people care to give. Then after a good nap he is ready to go out for the evening, party hopping. At this con there are people who deal out of their rooms as well as lots of people who just open their doors to invite people in. Dudley understands that invitation: boxes and suitcases to sniff, and more people to pet him and exclaim over how well he walks on a leash.

MediaWest*Con is graying. It was smaller thisyear, fewer attendees, fewer dealers, fewer events. In fact my last panel, later this morning, is about why we older folk remain in fandom. Yet I have had steady sales at my dealer's table. I brought about 25 used Star Trek zines from the 1970's, and was surprised to have just two people wipe me out of that commodity on the first day. I've also sold a number of copies of the books I brought, Unity, Blood Will Tell, the Savage Empire compilations.

I was on panels about horse books and disaster preparedness (how I survived the ice storm), as well as one about how to write when your inspiration takes a leave of absence.
On Saturday I recorded a podcast with a man who has podcast his way into a small press picking up his books. He is a new author, but through podcasting made connections that made him a judge for a new "reality" TV series called The Write Stuff that will begin airing on the CW in June. Contestants are would-be authors vying for publication of their books by a small press plus a marketing campaign. As obviously the TV audience would not be interested in people talking about plot structure and character development, I fear that the show will be all about marketing strategies, with the cleverest marketer, not the best writer, winning. We'll see.

But it is still interesting that even a very small network would take on a show about writers!
Those are pretty much my adventures at this year's con.
Jean

******

******WESTERCON IS NOW FIESTACON

WESTERCON is now FIESTACON this year.
FiestaCon is scheduled for July 2-5, 2009 and will be held at the Tempe Mission Palms hotel in Tempe, Arizona. Westercon is a science fiction / fantasy convention held annually in the western half of North America or in Hawaii. Our panels cover a broad array of topics, both traditional and contemporary, with special emphasis on Literature, Science and Art. Please visit our website for more info: www.fiestacon.org

Jacqueline Lichtenberg has accepted an invitation to be a speaker.
Note that the Artist Guest of Honor at FiestaCon is Todd Lockwood, who created the amazing cover art for The Unity Trilogy. By tradition, and honoring the presence of JL and Todd, there will be a Sime~Gen party at FiestaCon.

******

******WRITING WORKSHOP

New Writing Workshop Lesson Posted
Our Journalist In Residence, Anne Phyllis Pinzow, has given us another challenging writing lesson. Read an article on Parole Laws that was published in a newspaper then do the homework assignment. http://www.simegen.com/school/workshop/visualwriting/
******

******Advertisment******

TENTH ANNIVERSARY SALE! During 2009 we are offering any of the advertising packages at http://www.simegen.com/agreements/pricing.html for four months for the price of three, or eight months for the price of six. Ad packages must be reserved by December 15, 2009, for ads to begin any time up to June, 30, 2010. Lock in this low price by contacting advertising@simegen.com and putting down a 25% deposit, remainder due at the time the ad is posted. Limit of two ad packages per advertiser.Use code SGNL to claim your bargain ad package.

******Please Support Those Who Support Us******

****** SIMECENTER NEWS ********

You will see that the same story and artwork are still posted. The Wiseman Foundation site disappeared, along with the donation page, soon after I posted the last SimeCenter. To be fair to our author, I must leave her page up until the donations page for this important organization has been available for 30 days.
Within the next week, the new SimeCenter will be up, and the information about our new story, artwork, and recipient will be posted tothe main Sime~Gen list:
http://www.simegen.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/simegen-l, and
the SimeCenter list: http://www.simegen.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/simecenter-l

Apologies to those who tried to donate to The Wiseman Foundation earlier. The page is available now. The Center, Donna (our author), and SimeCenter thank you for your support.

This month's story is a first for SimeCenter: a non-fiction article about the effect of Star Trek on a small town:
STAR TREK CONNECTION by Donna McCrohan Rosenthal
- memories are made of this.
The accompanying artwork is:
TINGUINS, by G.B. Chew
- they move if you glance away
These works are submitted in support of a new recipient, one that is meaningful to many of us:
Wiseman Cancer Research Foundation
<http://www.wisemanfoundation.org/>
world-renowned research, development and testing center for cell-line vaccines against cancer.
Send your comments, questions, etc.--about the site, the stories and art...whatever--to the address below. [Mention 'SimeCenter' in the subject so I'll know it isn't spam.]
In Service to Unity,
Kaires Tevesu

*****

******REREADABLE BOOKS

The March and April 2009 review columns in ReReadable Books are now posted.
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2009/
You may navigate to previous columns back to 1993 using the COLUMNS BY YEAR feature on the left of the page or search for a particular author or title using the domain wide Google search.
******

******SIME~GEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY

It's the tenth anniversary of Sime~Gen Inc. and simegen.com. We will be celebrating all year long--and we need your contributions to the festivities.
Please send your ideas for ways to celebrate to simegen@simegen.com. But please remember that our small staff is already overburdened, so we need easy to implement ideas, not projects for our staff to put in even more hours of work than they already do. If you would like to implement your idea for us--YAY!

******

******Advertisment*****

When you enter the imagination of L. H. Young, you begin a fascinating ride, whether you are traveling the time stream with witches, finding love the stuff of legends with her wonderful vampires, traipsing across the universe with her Sci-fi, or going to school with four unusual teenagers born with the ability to heal by touch. Don’t forget that she even writes for the imagination of the very young as seen in The Christmas Kitten.
www.authorlhyoung.com

*****Please Support Those Who Support Us*****

****** Check our our new Amazon "Stores"

Blatant commercial to keep simegen.com on the air.
If you buy from Amazon using one of our search boxes at the bottoms of many of our pages, or find what you're looking for in our a-stores, we get a few cents to pay the bandwidth bills.
Our Amazon stores (we recommend buying directly from Amazon itself, not one of their onboard retailers unless you know the retailer very well -- we get paid the same, but have found better customer service with amazon.com shipments).
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keybooks/
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keygifts/ -- NEW STORE created to hold gift items specially useful to writers, both in writing and in just finding the TIME to write.
Also we now have Google ads on our main entry pages -- and they pay nicely when someone finds what they want via one of those ads. But don't click just to click -- click something that looks like what you really want.
******

******COAL FOR CHRISTMAS**********

COAL FOR CHRISTMAS by Lois Wickstrom and Jean Lorrah finished in the top ten family screenplays in the 2008
TheMovieDeal contest. http://www.themoviedeal.com/#/finalists/4532422034 Find the SCROLL icon at the lower left, and scroll down to see the top ten in each category.
******

******BOOK REVIEWS******

2009 Books to be Reviewed http://www.simegen.com/reviews/ is our review department. It's now recruiting staff. To apply, email simegen @ simegen.com

http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/ is an SF/Fantasy Review Column.
Books to be reviewed through December 2009 in the column ReReadable books are now listed here http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2009/ The columns will be linked to this index page after they are published on paper in The Monthly Aspectarian which buys first serial rights.

Book Review columns for March & April Posted

The March and April 2009 review columns in ReReadable Books are now posted.
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2009/
You may navigate to previous columns back to 1993 using the COLUMNS BY YEAR feature on the left of the page or search for a particular author or title using the domain wide google search.
******

****** Patric Michael (our Webmaster) is pleased to announce his first publication!

Out since he was a freshman in high school, Nate meets Andy, who is gorgeous, and unfortunately, straight. They're best friends through thick and thin until a practical joke leads Nate to a surprise revelation: ...If I had known just how thoroughly it would turn my world upside down, I would never have kissed Andy in that damned banquet room. I would have kissed him a hell of a lot sooner...
"Timeless" from Dreamspinner Press
Coming in June! (http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/)

We are also happy to report that another Patric work, "Night Moves," has been accepted for publication by Dreamspinner Press and will appear in the "Sindustry" anthology, to be released on July 6th, 2009.

*******

****** BORDERLANDS UPDATE ***********

Borderlands Part 31, "Till Death Do Us Part", has been posted at
http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/fans/bev/boom/index.html#part.31
This is a very concentrated part, showing us different camera angles on Brenn and Pametta Pollovic's wedding reception (sorry, you don't get the actual ceremony) and wedding night (NOT what you might expect). Plenty of surprises here from beginning to end, culminating with a wedding horror story that makes Robert Altman's look like peanuts. Then there are a few episodes of followup over the next two weeks.
After that, you'll just have to send us your comments (go ahead, do it!) and wait for the not-yet-posted Part 32, tentatively titled "On The Run."
******

******Advertisement******

Anyone shopping Amazon who wants to contribute to simegen.com without it costing them a cent, please start by using any of the Amazon Search boxes on
our pages. Our top page has three really handy ones near the bottom. http://www.simegen.com

******Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS

A SIME~GEN postage stamp is now available to order on cafe press. It can be used just as you would use a regular postage stamp. Be the first on YOUR block to have them!
We've got a new page for Cafe Press items from our artists and authors. Now you can get t-shirts, greeting cards, clocks, mugs, and other great stuff with work from your favorite artists. You can even buy books about Nessie, the Orange Forest Rabbit and The Reluctant Spy that aren't available anywhere else.
http://simegen.com/marketplace/cafepress/ is a direct link to all our items and merchandise stores. Use of this page will give the domain extra income. If there is an item that you wish to see that isn't offered, just write Lois at lois@lochness-monster.com and she'll get it ready for you to order.
******

******HELP WANTED*****

The spotlights section of Simegen.com currently needs interviewers, spotlight posting personnel, an assistant spotlights gatemaster, and a keygifts store manager. We are also requesting an Assistant Reviews Co-coordinator - duties include covering when other staff are unable to perform tasks. We are almost finished revamping our reviews section and expect activity to be at a constant high level. We're looking for a versatile quick learner able to put in some time
daily. Pluses are: A good command of the English language (syntax, grammar, punctuation, in that order), some computer experience or ability to learn, and an interest in books. Direct all inquiries to simegen@simegen.com.

Individuals to take over, or assist with the SIMECENTER Site -- It isn't at all hard, but a bit time-consuming...and very rewarding ("meeting" these marvelous authors and artists, if only via E-Mail and their websites.) Please write me, Kaires Tevesu, if you are interested. --- People who talked to me earlier about helping: I've lost track of your communications in the throes of several changes of computer. PLEASE contact me again. The time is right, the templates are much more robust, I have a small backlog of stories (the hardest part of operating SimeCenter), and I've even documented some of the processes. I'd like to talk to you again.

****** Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******PUBLICATION SCHEDULE********

We have had to withdraw the entire Sime~Gen project from Meisha Merlin for a wide range of reasons. They missed several deadlines for publication of TO KISS OR TO KILL and showed no signs of intention to get it out any time in the foreseeable future. That stalled everything else. It was very disappointing. So we are now actively in search of another publisher.
THE UNITY TRILOGY should continue to be available for some time -- they have the right to dispose of all stock in the Meisha Merlin warehouse.
******

******AVAILABLE RELEASES***********

~ the Omnibus reprint of Jean Lorrah's SAVAGE EMPIRE: DARK MOON RISING --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210013X/rereadablebooksr/ is #1 in the reprint program.
~ Trade Paperback edition of DREAMSPY from BenBella Books and you can order on Amazon and some other places
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932100253/rereadablebooksr/
Read the comments here:
http://www.simegen.com/writers/luren/dreamspy/dreamspyreviews.html
~ SAVAGE EMPIRE: PROPHECIES
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210030X/rereadablebooksr/ is #2 in Jean Lorrah's and Winston Howlett's omnibus reprint of the Savage Empire
series.
Still Available in Trade Paperback, SIME~GEN: THE UNITY TRILOGY
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592220037/rereadablebooksr/
******

***** Sites to Remember *****

Author spotlights: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/
Chats: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/chat.html
Romance articles: http://www.simegen.com/romance/articles.html
Reviews of books by Jacqueline Lichtenberg:
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/
Reviews: http://www.simegen.com/reviews/
Shopping: http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/
Sound files of Jacqueline Lichtenberg pronouncing Sime~Gen vocabulary words can be found at http://www.simegen.com/jl/nivetsoundfiles/index.html
To sign up for classes, go to http://www.simegen.com/school/SchoolForms.html
To volunteer, go to http://www.simegen.com/agreements/helpwanted.html
for the latest openings.
******

To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to listserv@simegen.com with no subject and the text "unsubscribe NEWSLETTER-L".
To contact editor for any reason, please e-mail Lisa Saunders at simegen@simegen.com
*Please Note all material posted on Official Virtual Tecton is copyright © by Sime~Gen Inc. and all rights are reserved. To get your Sime~Gen(tm) material sanctioned for web posting or to get permission to repost from official materials, e-mail ambrovzeor@aol.com, contact simegen@simegen.com.
Sime~Gen (tm) is the trademark of a fictional universe copyright © by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, 1969, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986 and Sime~Gen Inc. 1999-2009.

Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter - April 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Mac) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:25:00 +0000

Contents:
* WESTERCON IS NOW FIESTACON
* RELAY FOR LIFE
* SIMECENTER NEWS
* REREADABLE BOOKS UPDATE
* SIME~GEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY
* Check our our new Amazon "Stores"
* COAL FOR CHRISTMAS
* MEDIAWEST*CON
* PATRIC MICHAEL'S FIRST PUBLICATION
* BORDERLAND UPDATE
* JOIN THE REVIEWERS
* NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS
* HELP WANTED
* PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
* AVAILABLE RELEASES
* SITES TO REMEMBER
* SUBSCRIPTION AND CONTACT INFORMATION
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE**

******WESTERCON IS NOW FIESTACON

WESTERCON is now FIESTACON this year.
FiestaCon is scheduled for July 2-5, 2009 and will be held at the Tempe Mission Palms hotel in Tempe, Arizona. Westercon is a science fiction / fantasy convention held annually in the western half of North America or in Hawaii. Our panels cover a broad array of topics, both traditional and contemporary, with special emphasis on Literature, Science and Art. Please visit our website for more info: www.fiestacon.org
Jacqueline Lichtenberg has accepted an invitation to be a speaker.
Note that the Artist Guest of Honor at FiestaCon is Todd Lockwood, who created the amazing cover art for The Unity Trilogy. By tradition, and honoring the presence of JL and Todd, there will be a Sime~Gen party at FiestaCon.
******

******RELAY FOR LIFE

April is the month when Relay for Life teams raise money for cancer research, culminating in hundreds of Relays across the country in May. Jean is a member of the 8th Wonders, a Relay team made up entirely of breast cancer survivors. If you are not already supporting a local team, let us invite you to support Jean's team at http://main.acsevents.org/goto/lorrah . Every penny raised goes to the American Cancer Society, where it is used to support the research and education that have dramatically increased survivorship. But the fight is not over--we still cannot entirely prevent cancer, or entirely cure it. Please join in the ongoing fight against cancer.
******

******Advertisment******
TENTH ANNIVERSARY SALE! During 2009 we are offering any of the advertising packages at http://www.simegen.com/agreements/pricing.html for four months for the price of three, or eight months for the price of six. Ad packages must be reserved by December 15, 2009, for ads to begin any time up to June, 30, 2010. Lock in this low price by contacting advertising@simegen.com and putting down a 25% deposit, remainder due at the time the ad is posted. Limit of two ad packages per advertiser.Use code SGNL to claim your bargain ad package.

******Please Support Those Who Support Us******

****** SIMECENTER NEWS ******

This month's story is a first for SimeCenter: a non-fiction article about the effect of Star Trek on a small town:

STAR TREK CONNECTION by Donna McCrohan Rosenthal
- memories are made of this

The accompanying artwork is:

TINGUINS, by G.B. Chew
- they move if you glance away

These works are submitted in support of a new recipient, one that is meaningful to many of us:
Wiseman Cancer Research Foundation
<http://www.wisemanfoundation.org/>
world-renowned research, development and testing center for cell-line vaccines against cancer.

Send your comments, questions, etc.--about the site, the stories and art...whatever--to the address below. [Mention 'SimeCenter' in the subject so I'll know it isn't spam.]

In Service to Unity,
Kaires Tevesu

*****

******REREADABLE BOOKS

The March and April 2009 review columns in ReReadable Books are now posted.
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2009/
You may navigate to previous columns back to 1993 using the COLUMNS BY YEAR feature on the left of the page or search for a particular author or title using the domain wide Google search.
******

******SIME~GEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY

It's the tenth anniversary of Sime~Gen Inc. and simegen.com. We will be celebrating all year long--and we need your contributions to the festivities.
Please send your ideas for ways to celebrate to simegen@simegen.com. But please remember that our small staff is already overburdened, so we need easy to implement ideas, not projects for our staff to put in even more hours of work than they already do. If you would like to implement your idea for us--YAY!
******

******Advertisment*****

When you enter the imagination of L. H. Young, you begin a fascinating ride, whether you are traveling the time stream with witches, finding love the stuff of legends with her wonderful vampires, traipsing across the universe with her Sci-fi, or going to school with four unusual teenagers born with the ability to heal by touch. Don’t forget that she even writes for the imagination of the very young as seen in The Christmas Kitten.
www.authorlhyoung.com

*****Please Support Those Who Support Us*****

****** Check our our new Amazon "Stores"

Blatant commercial to keep simegen.com on the air.
If you buy from Amazon using one of our search boxes at the bottoms of many of our pages, or find what you're looking for in our a-stores, we get a few cents to pay the bandwidth bills.
Our Amazon stores (we recommend buying directly from Amazon itself, not one of their onboard retailers unless you know the retailer very well -- we get paid the same, but have found better customer service with amazon.com shipments).
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keybooks/
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keygifts/ -- NEW STORE created to hold gift items specially useful to writers, both in writing and in just finding the TIME to write.
Also we now have Google ads on our main entry pages -- and they pay nicely when someone finds what they want via one of those ads. But don't click just to click -- click something that looks like what you really want.
******

******COAL FOR CHRISTMAS**********

COAL FOR CHRISTMAS by Lois Wickstrom and Jean Lorrah finished in the top ten family screenplays in the 2008 TheMovieDeal contest. http://www.themoviedeal.com/#/finalists/4532422034 Find the SCROLL icon at the lower left, and scroll down to see the top ten in each category.
******

******MEDIAWEST*CON

Jean will appear at MediaWest*Con 29 in Lansing, Michigan over the Memorial Day weekend.
She has signed up for programming, and will have her usual table in the dealer's room. Drop by to talk, browse through books, and pet Dudley, the Therapy Cat.

****** Patric Michael (our Webmaster) is pleased to announce his first publication!

Out since he was a freshman in high school, Nate meets Andy, who is gorgeous, and unfortunately, straight. They're best friends through thick and thin until a practical joke leads Nate to a surprise revelation: ...If I had known just how thoroughly it would turn my world upside down, I would never have kissed Andy in that damned banquet room. I would have kissed him a hell of a lot sooner...

"Timeless" from Dreamspinner Press
Coming in June! (http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/)
*******

****** BORDERLANDS UPDATE ***********

Time for another catch-up Part in the ongoing Borderlands soap opera. This is the first Part in which Flora Raynor actively participated.
The title is "The Rising Generation," and there's no single dominant plot thread, but there is a common theme to most of the episodes: a baby is conceived, some children get changeover training, a Companion gets a visit from his first cousin twice removed. We also see a new young donor, a budding criminal, and a young Sectuib who's found a new way of life.
Some of these characters are new, some are familiar. Read about them all at http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/fans/bev/boom/index.html#part.30
And give us feedback! The more feedback, the better we like it! (Sneak peek: the next Part is called "Till Death Do Us Part," and it's not about death.)
******

******JOIN THE REVIEWERS

As Coordinator of our Reviews Department, I ask for your help. With the current upsurge in e-book publishing that is sweeping the Internet, we daily receive an increasing number of books to review. Yet, in counterpoint, we have a shortage of reviewers, and many of our reviews staff are several books behind.We are eagerly and actively seeking new people to review for us. As with all of Sime~Gen, our reviewers are volunteers. When they write a review, it is posted
with their byline, and they get to keep the review copy of the books they have read and reviewed.
For more information on our Reviewers Agreement, visit:
http://www.simegen.com/agreements/revagr.html
Please help us by passing this information along to anyone you know who might want to join our happy band. If interested, they can e-mail me at rvcoord@simegen.com or send a note expressing their interest to Jean at simegen@simegen.com
Midge Baker
Reviews Coordinator
******

******Advertisement******

Anyone shopping Amazon who wants to contribute to simegen.com without it costing them a cent, please start by using any of the Amazon Search boxes on
our pages. Our top page has three really handy ones near the bottom. http://www.simegen.com

******Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS

A SIME~GEN postage stamp is now available to order on cafe press. It can be used just as you would use a regular postage stamp. Be the first on YOUR block to have them!
We've got a new page for Cafe Press items from our artists and authors. Now you can get t-shirts, greeting cards, clocks, mugs, and other great stuff with work from your favorite artists. You can even buy books about Nessie, the Orange Forest Rabbit and The Reluctant Spy that aren't available anywhere else.
http://simegen.com/marketplace/cafepress/ is a direct link to all our items and merchandise stores. Use of this page will give the domain extra income. If there is an item that you wish to see that isn't offered, just write Lois at lois@lochness-monster.com and she'll get it ready for you to order.
******

******HELP WANTED*****

The spotlights section of Simegen.com currently needs interviewers, spotlight posting personnel, an assistant spotlights gatemaster, and a keygifts store manager. We are also requesting an Assistant Reviews Co-coordinator - duties include covering when other staff are unable to perform tasks. We are almost finished revamping our reviews section and expect activity to be at a constant high level. We're looking for a versatile quick learner able to put in some time
daily. Pluses are: A good command of the English language (syntax, grammar, punctuation, in that order), some computer experience or ability to learn, and an interest in books. Direct all inquiries to simegen@simegen.com.

Individuals to take over, or assist with the SIMECENTER Site -- It isn't at all hard, but a bit time-consuming...and very rewarding ("meeting" these marvelous authors and artists, if only via E-Mail and their websites.) Please write me, Kaires Tevesu, if you are interested. --- People who talked to me earlier about helping: I've lost track of your communications in the throes of several changes of computer. PLEASE contact me again. The time is right, the templates are much more robust, I have a small backlog of stories (the hardest part of operating SimeCenter), and I've even documented some of the processes. I'd like to talk to you again.

****** Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******PUBLICATION SCHEDULE********

We have had to withdraw the entire Sime~Gen project from Meisha Merlin for a wide range of reasons. They missed several deadlines for publication of TO KISS OR TO KILL and showed no signs of intention to get it out any time in the foreseeable future. That stalled everything else. It was very disappointing. So we are now actively in search of another publisher.
THE UNITY TRILOGY should continue to be available for some time -- they have the right to dispose of all stock in the Meisha Merlin warehouse.
******

******AVAILABLE RELEASES***********

~ the Omnibus reprint of Jean Lorrah's SAVAGE EMPIRE: DARK MOON RISING --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210013X/rereadablebooksr/ is #1 in the reprint program.
~ Trade Paperback edition of DREAMSPY from BenBella Books and you can order on Amazon and some other places
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932100253/rereadablebooksr/
Read the comments here:
http://www.simegen.com/writers/luren/dreamspy/dreamspyreviews.html
~ SAVAGE EMPIRE: PROPHECIES
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210030X/rereadablebooksr/ is #2 in Jean Lorrah's and Winston Howlett's omnibus reprint of the Savage Empire
series.
Still Available in Trade Paperback, SIME~GEN: THE UNITY TRILOGY
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592220037/rereadablebooksr/
******

***** Sites to Remember *****

Author spotlights: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/
Chats: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/chat.html
Romance articles: http://www.simegen.com/romance/articles.html
Reviews of books by Jacqueline Lichtenberg: http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/
Reviews: http://www.simegen.com/reviews/
Shopping: http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/
Sound files of Jacqueline Lichtenberg pronouncing Sime~Gen vocabulary words can be found at http://www.simegen.com/jl/nivetsoundfiles/index.html
To sign up for classes, go to http://www.simegen.com/school/SchoolForms.html
To volunteer, go to http://www.simegen.com/agreements/helpwanted.html
for the latest openings.

******
To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to listserv@simegen.com with no subject and the text "unsubscribe NEWSLETTER-L".
To contact editor for any reason, please e-mail Lisa Saunders at simegen@simegen.com
*Please Note all material posted on Official Virtual Tecton is copyright © by Sime~Gen Inc. and all rights are reserved. To get your Sime~Gen(tm) material sanctioned for web posting or to get permission to repost from official materials, e-mail ambrovzeor@aol.com, contact simegen@simegen.com.
Sime~Gen (tm) is the trademark of a fictional universe copyright © by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, 1969, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986 and Sime~Gen Inc. 1999-2009.

Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter - March 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Mac) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 02:39:00 +0000

Contents:
* WESTERCON IS NOW FIESTACON
* TRIBUTE: MAJEL BARRETT RODDENBERRY
* SIMECENTER NEWS
* REREADABLE BOOKS UPDATE
* SIMEGEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY
* Check our our new Amazon "Stores"
* COAL FOR CHRISTMAS
* CONFERENCE ON THE FANTASTIC
* KEYBOOKS RESTOCKED
* BORDERLAND UPDATE
* JOIN THE REVIEWERS
* NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS
* HELP WANTED
* PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
* AVAILABLE RELEASES
* SITES TO REMEMBER
* SUBSCRIPTION AND CONTACT INFORMATION
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE**

******WESTERCON IS NOW FIESTACON

WESTERCON is now FIESTACON this year.

FiestaCon is scheduled for July 2-5, 2009 and will be held at the Tempe Mission Palms hotel in Tempe, Arizona. Westercon is a science fiction / fantasy convention held annually in the western half of North America or in Hawaii. Our panels cover a broad array of topics, both traditional and contemporary, with special emphasis on Literature, Science and Art. Please visit our website for more info: www.fiestacon.org

Jacqueline Lichtenberg has accepted an invitation to be a speaker. There may be a Sime~Gen party.
******

******TRIBUTE: MAJEL BARRETT RODDENBERRY******

Donna Halper has created a wonderful tribute to Majel Barrett Roddenberry who played Nurse Chapel on Star Trek, and went on to marry the producer, Gene Roddenberry. She also played the computer voice for the Enterprise and many other major contributions -- read here:
http://www.simegen.com/fandom/startrek/history/MajelBarrettRoddenberry.html
and visit our entire Star Trek section http://www.simegen.com/fandom/startrek/
where you will find many classic Star Trek fan fiction pieces and more information on the connections between Sime~Gen and Star Trek.
******

****** SIMECENTER NEWS ******
This month's story is by a talented author who is also announcing the availability of her second novel, GRIFFIN'S SHADOW.
THE INTERVIEW, by Leslie Ann Moore
- history is written by the winners
The accompanying artwork is:
WIND DANCING, by Michael Cox
- a faraway secret place
These works were both submitted in support of an important organization for writers:
Clarion Writers Workshop
<http://www.theclarionfoundation.org/donate.htm>
teaching science fiction and fantasy writing since 1968.

GRIFFIN'S SHADOW, just released this month, has been endorsed by both Publisher's Weekly and the Library Journal. The first book, GRIFFIN'S DAUGHTER, won the Benjamin Franklin award for best first novel. Impressive!
Send your comments, questions, etc.--about the site, the stories and art...whatever--to the address below. [Mention 'SimeCenter' in the subject so I'll know it isn't spam.]
In Service to Unity,
Kaires Tevesu

******

******Advertisment******

TENTH ANNIVERSARY SALE! During 2009 we are offering any of the advertising packages at http://www.simegen.com/agreements/pricing.html for four months for the price of three,
or eight months for the price of six. Ad packages must be reserved by December 15, 2009, for ads to begin any time up to June, 30, 2010. Lock in this low price by contacting advertising@simegen.com and putting down a 25% deposit, remainder due at the time the ad is posted. Limit of two ad packages per advertiser.Use code SGNL to claim your bargain ad package.

******Please Support Those Who Support Us******

******REREADABLE BOOKS

ReReadable Books Reviews by Jacqueline Lichtenberg posted for January and
February 2009
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2009/
February includes a review of "The Book of Names" which someone mentioned at
the Annual Chat.
Some of you may be interested in my posts on Tuesdays at the co-blog
http://www.aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, February 17th's entry points to a number of blogs and forums where I've been involved in discussions of writing, and comments on Linnea Sinclair's latest novel.
******

******SIMEGEN 10TH ANNIVERSARY

It's the tenth anniversary of Sime~Gen Inc. and simegen.com. We will be celebrating all year long--and we need your contributions to the festivities.
Please send your ideas for ways to celebrate to simegen@simegen.com. But please remember that our small staff is already overburdened, so we need easy to implement ideas, not projects for our staff to put in even more hours of work than they already do. If you would like to implement your idea for us--YAY!
******

******Advertisment*****

When you enter the imagination of L. H. Young, you begin a fascinating ride, whether you are traveling the time stream with witches, finding love the stuff of legends with her wonderful vampires, traipsing across the universe with her Sci-fi, or going to school with four unusual teenagers born with the ability to heal by touch.
Don’t forget that she even writes for the imagination of the very young as seen in The Christmas Kitten.
www.authorlhyoung.com

*****Please Support Those Who Support Us*****

****** Check our our new Amazon "Stores"

Blatant commercial to keep simegen.com on the air.
If you buy from Amazon using one of our search boxes at the bottoms of many of our pages, or find what you're looking for in our a-stores, we get a few cents to pay the bandwidth bills.
Our Amazon stores (we recommend buying directly from Amazon itself, not one of their onboard retailers unless you know the retailer very well -- we get paid the same, but have found better customer service with amazon.com shipments).
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keybooks/
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keygifts/ -- NEW STORE created to hold gift items specially useful to writers, both in writing and in just finding the TIME to write.
Also we now have Google ads on our main entry pages -- and they pay nicely when someone finds what they want via one of those ads. But don't click just to click -- click something that looks like what you really want.
******

******COAL FOR CHRISTMAS**********

COAL FOR CHRISTMAS by Lois Wickstrom and Jean Lorrah reached the semi-finals in the Fade-In Writers Network competition:
http://www.fadeinonline.com/Contests/Screen_Fict_semi.html
It would be great to win one of these contests, but even making the semi-finals is a minor credential in our quest to sell our scripts to Hollywood.
Coal for Christmas has not won any contests yet, but it is currently under consideration at one major studio and two independent production companies. What that means is that after reading our logline and synopsis, they have asked for and are reading our script. BTW, multiple submissions are not only the norm, but are virtually REQUIRED in Hollywood. We have had to learn a whole new set of rules, very different from the rules for book publishing.
******

******CONFERENCE ON THE FANTASTIC
Jean will be at the 30th Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando, March 18-22.
A charter member of the organization, Jean is attending for the 30th time! She will appear on a panel of people who have been with the IAFA from its early days, as well as a panel on vampires organized by Margaret Carter. Finally, she will read from POP-UP KIDS, a script she has written with Lois Wickstrom. Imagine if a group of tweenage kids discovered the secret of teleportation.
******

******KEYBOOKS RESTOCKED******

Keybooks, the book store for writers needing inspiration and ideas, and KeyGifts, the store full of gifts for hard working writers have been redesigned and restocked with new items.
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keybooks/ - for books and DVD's
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keygifts/ - for items of use to writers
*******

****** BORDERLANDS UPDATE ***********

Time for another catch-up Part in the ongoing Borderlands soap opera. This is the first Part in which Flora Raynor actively participated.
The title is "The Rising Generation," and there's no single dominant plot thread, but there is a common theme to most of the episodes: a baby is conceived, some children get changeover training, a Companion gets a visit from his first cousin twice removed. We also see a new young donor, a budding criminal, and a young Sectuib who's found a new way of life.
Some of these characters are new, some are familiar. Read about them
all at http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/fans/bev/boom/index.html#part.30
And give us feedback! The more feedback, the better we like it! (Sneak peek: the next Part is called "Till Death Do Us Part," and it's not about death.)
******

******JOIN THE REVIEWERS

As Coordinator of our Reviews Department, I ask for your help. With the current upsurge in e-book publishing that is sweeping the Internet, we daily receive an increasing number of books to review. Yet, in counterpoint, we have a shortage of reviewers, and many of our reviews staff are several books behind.We are eagerly and actively seeking new people to review for us. As with all of Sime~Gen, our reviewers are volunteers. When they write a review, it is posted
with their byline, and they get to keep the review copy of the books they have read and reviewed.
For more information on our Reviewers Agreement, visit: http://www.simegen.com/agreements/revagr.html
Please help us by passing this information along to anyone you know who might want to join our happy band. If interested, they can e-mail me at rvcoord@simegen.com or send a note expressing their interest to Jean at simegen@simegen.com
Midge Baker
Reviews Coordinator
******

******Advertisement******

Anyone shopping Amazon who wants to contribute to simegen.com without it costing them a cent, please start by using any of the Amazon Search boxes on our pages. Our top page has three really handy ones near the bottom. http://www.simegen.com
******Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS

A SIME~GEN postage stamp is now available to order on cafe press. It can be used just as you would use a regular postage stamp. Be the first on YOUR block to have them!
We've got a new page for Cafe Press items from our artists and authors. Now you can get t-shirts, greeting cards, clocks, mugs, and other great stuff with work from your favorite artists. You can even buy books about Nessie, the Orange Forest Rabbit and The Reluctant Spy that aren't available anywhere else.
http://simegen.com/marketplace/cafepress/ is a direct link to all our items and merchandise stores. Use of this page will give the domain extra income. If there is an item that you wish to see that isn't offered, just write Lois at lois@lochness-monster.com and she'll get it ready for you to order.
******

******HELP WANTED*****

The spotlights section of Simegen.com currently needs interviewers, spotlight posting personnel, an assistant spotlights gatemaster, and a keygifts store manager. We are also requesting an Assistant Reviews Co-coordinator - duties include covering when other staff are unable to perform tasks. We are almost finished revamping our reviews section and expect activity to be at a constant high level. We're looking for a versatile quick learner able to put in some time
daily. Pluses are: A good command of the English language (syntax, grammar, punctuation, in that order), some computer experience or ability to learn, and an interest in books. Direct all inquiries to simegen@simegen.com.
Individuals to take over, or assist with the SIMECENTER Site -- It isn't at all hard, but a bit time-consuming...and very rewarding ("meeting" these marvelous authors and artists, if only via E-Mail and their websites.) Please write me, Kaires Tevesu, if you are interested.

****** Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******PUBLICATION SCHEDULE********

We have had to withdraw the entire Sime~Gen project from Meisha Merlin for a wide range of reasons. They missed several deadlines for publication of TO KISS OR TO KILL and showed no signs of intention to get it out any time in the foreseeable future. That stalled everything else. It was very disappointing. So we are now actively in search of another publisher.
THE UNITY TRILOGY should continue to be available for some time -- they have the right to dispose of all stock in the Meisha Merlin warehouse.
******

******AVAILABLE RELEASES***********

~ the Omnibus reprint of Jean Lorrah's SAVAGE EMPIRE: DARK MOON RISING --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210013X/rereadablebooksr/ is #1 in the reprint program.
~ Trade Paperback edition of DREAMSPY from BenBella Books and you can order on Amazon and some other places
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932100253/rereadablebooksr/
Read the comments here:
http://www.simegen.com/writers/luren/dreamspy/dreamspyreviews.html
~ SAVAGE EMPIRE: PROPHECIES
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210030X/rereadablebooksr/ is #2 in Jean Lorrah's and Winston Howlett's omnibus reprint of the Savage Empire series.
Still Available in Trade Paperback, SIME~GEN: THE UNITY TRILOGY
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592220037/rereadablebooksr/
******

***** Sites to Remember *****

Author spotlights: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/
Chats: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/chat.html
Romance articles: http://www.simegen.com/romance/articles.html
Reviews of books by Jacqueline Lichtenberg: http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/
Reviews: http://www.simegen.com/reviews/
Shopping: http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/
Sound files of Jacqueline Lichtenberg pronouncing Sime~Gen vocabulary words can be found at http://www.simegen.com/jl/nivetsoundfiles/index.html
To sign up for classes, go to http://www.simegen.com/school/SchoolForms.html
To volunteer, go to http://www.simegen.com/agreements/helpwanted.html
for the latest openings.
******

To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to listserv@simegen.com with no subject and the text "unsubscribe NEWSLETTER-L".
To contact editor for any reason, please e-mail Lisa Saunders at simegen@simegen.com
*Please Note all material posted on Official Virtual Tecton is copyright © by Sime~Gen Inc. and all rights are reserved. To get your Sime~Gen(tm) material
sanctioned for web posting or to get permission to repost from official materials, e-mail ambrovzeor@aol.com, contact simegen@simegen.com.
Sime~Gen (tm) is the trademark of a fictional universe copyright © by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, 1969, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986 and Sime~Gen Inc. 1999-2009.

Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter February 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Mac) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:53:00 +0000

Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter
February 2009

Contents:
* TRIBUTE: MAJEL BARRETT RODDENBERRY
* ALTERNATE UNIVERSE 4
* SIMECENTER NEWS
* REREADABLE BOOKS UPDATE
* Check our our new Amazon "Stores"
* COAL FOR CHRISTMAS
* NEW IN COMPANION IN ZEOR -- Farris Factor Pts. 5 and 6
* KEYBOOKS RESTOCKED
* BORDERLAND UPDATE
* JOIN THE REVIEWERS
* NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS
* HELP WANTED
* PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
* AVAILABLE RELEASES
* SITES TO REMEMBER
* SUBSCRIPTION AND CONTACT INFORMATION
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE**

******TRIBUTE: MAJEL BARRETT RODDENBERRY******

Donna Halper has created a wonderful tribute to Majel Barrett Roddenberry who played Nurse Chapel on Star Trek, and went on to marry the producer, Gene Roddenberry. She also played the computer voice for the Enterprise and many other major contributions -- read here:
http://www.simegen.com/fandom/startrek/history/MajelBarrettRoddenberry.html
and visit our entire Star Trek section http://www.simegen.com/fandom/startrek/
where you will find many classic Star Trek fan fiction pieces and more information on the connections between Sime~Gen and Star Trek.

******

****** ALTERNATE UNIVERSE 4******

Alternate Universe 4, the famous classic Star Trek fanzine cooperative fiction published by Shirley Maiewski in 1974 (see our tribute to Shirley at http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/rimonslibrary/cz/cz20/Shirley.html) is now available for free reading in our Star Trek section. http://www.simegen.com/fandom/startrek/au4/

The authors say:
"We count our familiar Star Trek Universe —— Television's Star Trek —— as number one; The "Mirror, Mirror" Universe as number two; the KRAITH Universe (http://www.simegen.com/fandom/startrek/kraith/) as number three; and Light Fleet's Universe as number four. Alternate Universe 4."
******

****** SIMECENTER NEWS ******

We finally have a science fiction story again (my favorite kind):
ZERO MIND, by Katy Thorp
- trust in the technology
The accompanying artwork is:
LILLIPUT PERSPECTIVE VI, by G.B. Chew
- overwhelming view
These works were both submitted in support of an important recipient
of olden days:
Clarion Writers Workshop
<http://www.theclarionfoundation.org/donate.htm>
teaching science fiction and fantasy writing since 1968.
Send your comments, questions, etc.--about the site, the stories and
art...whatever--to the address below. [Mention 'SimeCenter' in the
subject so I'll know it isn't spam.]
In Service to Unity,
Kaires Tevesu

******

******REREADABLE BOOKS

ReReadable Books Columns for January and February Posted 02-18-2009 -
ReReadable Books Reviews by Jacqueline Lichtenberg posted for January and
February 2009 http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2009/
February includes a review of The Book of Names which someone mentioned at the Annual Chat.
Some of you may be interested in my posts on Tuesdays at the co-blog
http://www.aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, February 17th's entry points to a number of blogs and forums where I've been involved in discussions of writing, and comments on Linnea Sinclair's latest novel.
******

******Advertisment*****

When you enter the imagination of L. H. Young, you begin a fascinating ride, whether you are traveling the time stream with witches, finding love the stuff of legends with her wonderful vampires, traipsing across the universe with her Sci-fi, or going to school with four unusual teenagers born with the ability to heal by touch. Don’t forget that she even writes for the imagination of the very young as seen in The Christmas Kitten.
www.authorlhyoung.com

*****Please Support Those Who Support Us*****

****** Check our our new Amazon "Stores"

Blatant commercial to keep simegen.com on the air.
If you buy from Amazon using one of our search boxes at the bottoms of many of our pages, or find what you're looking for in our a-stores, we get a few cents to pay the bandwidth bills.
Our Amazon stores (we recommend buying directly from Amazon itself, not one of their onboard retailers unless you know the retailer very well -- we get paid the same, but have found better customer service with amazon.com shipments).
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keybooks/
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keygifts/ -- NEW STORE created to hold gift items specially useful to writers, both in writing and in just finding the TIME to write.
Also we now have google ads on our main entry pages -- and they pay nicely when someone finds what they want via one of those ads. But don't click just to click -- click something that looks like what you really want.

******

******COAL FOR CHRISTMAS**********

COAL FOR CHRISTMAS by Lois Wickstrom and Jean Lorrah reached the semi-finals in the Fade-In Writers Network competition:
http://www.fadeinonline.com/Contests/Screen_Fict_semi.html
It would be great to win one of these contests, but even making the semi-finals is a minor credential in our quest to sell our scripts to Hollywood. Coal for Christmas has not won any contests yet, but it is currently under consideration at one major studio and two independent production companies. What that means is that after reading our logline and synopsis, they have asked for and are reading our script. BTW, multiple submissions are not only the norm, but are virtually REQUIRED in Hollywood. We have had to learn a whole new set of rules, very different from the rules for book publishing.

******

****** NEW IN A COMPANION IN ZEOR *********

Doreen DaBinett's continuing tales -- The Farris Factor -- Part 5 and 6
http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/rimonslibrary/cz/cz24/Farris-5.html
http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/rimonslibrary/cz/cz24/Farris-6.html

******KEYBOOKS RESTOCKED******

Keybooks, the book store for writers needing inspiration and ideas, and Key Gifts, the store full of gifts for hard working writers have been redesigned and restocked with new items.
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keybooks/ - for books and DVD's
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keygifts/ - for items of use to writers
*******

****** BORDERLANDS UPDATE ***********

Well, time for another catch-up Part in the ongoing Borderlands soap opera. This is the first Part in which Flora Raynor actively participated. The title is "The Rising Generation," and there's no single dominant plot thread, but there is a common theme to most of the episodes: a baby is
conceived, some children get changeover training, a Companion gets a visit from his first cousin twice removed. We also see a new young donor, a budding criminal, and a young Sectuib who's found a new way of life.
Some of these characters are new, some are familiar. Read about them all at http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/fans/bev/boom/index.html#part.30
And give us feedback! The more feedback, the better we like it! (Sneak peek: the next Part is called "Till Death Do Us Part," and it's not about death.)
******

******JOIN THE REVIEWERS

As Coordinator of our Reviews Department, I ask for your help. With the current upsurge in e-book publishing that is sweeping the Internet, we daily receive an increasing number of books to review. Yet, in counterpoint, we have a shortage of reviewers, and many of our reviews staff are several books behind.We are eagerly and actively seeking new people to review for us. As with all of Sime~Gen, our reviewers are volunteers. When they write a review, it is posted
with their byline, and they get to keep the review copy of the books they have read and reviewed.
For more information on our Reviewers Agreement, visit:
http://www.simegen.com/agreements/revagr.html
Please help us by passing this information along to anyone you know who might want to join our happy band. If interested, they can e-mail me at rvcoord@simegen.com or send a note expressing their interest to Jean at simegen@simegen.com
Midge Baker
Reviews Coordinator
******

******Advertisement******
Anyone shopping Amazon who wants to contribute to simegen.com without it costing them a cent, please start by using any of the Amazon Search boxes on our pages. Our top page has three really handy ones near the bottom. http://www.simegen.com

******Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS

A SIME~GEN postage stamp is now available to order on cafe press. It can be used just as you would use a regular postage stamp. Be the first on YOUR block to have them! We've got a new page for Cafe Press items from our artists and authors. Now you can get t-shirts, greeting cards, clocks, mugs, and other great stuff with work from your favorite artists. You can even buy books about Nessie, the Orange Forest Rabbit and The Reluctant Spy that aren't available anywhere else. http://simegen.com/marketplace/cafepress/ is a direct link to all our items and merchandise stores. Use of this page will give the domain extra income. If there is an item that you wish to see that isn't offered, just write Lois at lois@lochness-monster.com and she'll get it ready for you to order.
******

******HELP WANTED*****

The spotlights section of Simegen.com currently needs interviewers, spotlight posting personnel, an assistant spotlights gatemaster, and a keygifts store manager. We are also requesting an Assistant Reviews Co-coordinator - duties include covering when other staff are unable to perform tasks. We are almost finished revamping our reviews section and expect activity to be at a constant high level. We're looking for a versatile quick learner able to put in some time
daily. Pluses are: A good command of the English language (syntax, grammar, punctuation, in that order), some computer experience or ability to learn, and an interest in books. Direct all inquiries to simegen@simegen.com.
Individuals to take over, or assist with the SIMECENTER Site -- It isn't at all hard, but a bit time-consuming...and very rewarding ("meeting" these marvelous authors and artists, if only via E-Mail and their websites.) Please write me, Kaires Tevesu, if you are interested.

****** Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******PUBLICATION SCHEDULE********

We have had to withdraw the entire Sime~Gen project from Meisha Merlin for a wide range of reasons. They missed several deadlines for publication of TO KISS OR TO KILL and showed no signs of intention to get it out any time in the foreseeable future. That stalled everything else. It was very disappointing. So we are now actively in search of another publisher.
THE UNITY TRILOGY should continue to be available for some time -- they have the right to dispose of all stock in the Meisha Merlin warehouse.
******

******AVAILABLE RELEASES***********

~ the Omnibus reprint of Jean Lorrah's SAVAGE EMPIRE: DARK MOON RISING --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210013X/rereadablebooksr/ is #1 in the reprint program.
~ Trade Paperback edition of DREAMSPY from BenBella Books and you can order on Amazon and some other places
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932100253/rereadablebooksr/
Read the comments here:
http://www.simegen.com/writers/luren/dreamspy/dreamspyreviews.html
~ SAVAGE EMPIRE: PROPHECIES
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210030X/rereadablebooksr/ is #2 in Jean Lorrah's and Winston Howlett's omnibus reprint of the Savage Empire
series.
Still Available in Trade Paperback, SIME~GEN: THE UNITY TRILOGY
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592220037/rereadablebooksr/
******

***** Sites to Remember *****

Author spotlights: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/
Chats: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/chat.html
Romance articles: http://www.simegen.com/romance/articles.html
Reviews of books by Jacqueline Lichtenberg: http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/
Reviews: http://www.simegen.com/reviews/
Shopping: http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/
Sound files of Jacqueline Lichtenberg pronouncing Sime~Gen vocabulary words can be found at http://www.simegen.com/jl/nivetsoundfiles/index.html
To sign up for classes, go to http://www.simegen.com/school/SchoolForms.html
To volunteer, go to http://www.simegen.com/agreements/helpwanted.html
for the latest openings.
******

To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to listserv@simegen.com with no subject and the text "unsubscribe NEWSLETTER-L".
To contact editor for any reason, please e-mail Lisa Saunders at simegen@simegen.com
*Please Note all material posted on Official Virtual Tecton is copyright © by Sime~Gen Inc. and all rights are reserved. To get your Sime~Gen(tm) material
sanctioned for web posting or to get permission to repost from official materials, e-mail ambrovzeor@aol.com, contact simegen@simegen.com.
Sime~Gen (tm) is the trademark of a fictional universe copyright © by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, 1969, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986 and Sime~Gen Inc. 1999-2009.

Westercon 2009

Thejlbox@gmail.com (Jacqueline Lichtenberg) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:20:00 +0000

I posted my Westercon 2009 report for the convention held over the July 4th weekend 2009 at

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/07/westercon-2009.html

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com/jl/

Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter January 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Mac) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:29:00 +0000

Sime~Gen Perspectives Newsletter
January 2009

Contents:
* SIME~GEN ANNUAL MEETING MINUTES POSTED
* SIMECENTER NEWS
* REREADABLE BOOKS UPDATE
* CLASSIC TREK FANZINE "ALTERNATE UNIVERSE 4"
* Check our our new Amazon "Stores"
* NEW REVIEWS
* NEW IN A COMPANION IN ZEOR
* COAL FOR CHRISTMAS
* KEYBOOKS RESTOCKED
* BORDERLAND UPDATE
* JOIN THE REVIEWERS
* NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS
* HELP WANTED
* PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
* AVAILABLE RELEASES
* SITES TO REMEMBER
* SUBSCRIPTION AND CONTACT INFORMATION
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE**

****** SIME~GEN ANNUAL MEETING MINUTES POSTED

Sime~Gen, Inc., holds its annual meeting on the first day of each year, to report on happenings over the previous year, and give awards to people who have served the domain valiantly in the previous year. The meeting is conducted via mIRC, so that friends of Sime~Gen from all over the world can attend. Two chat rooms are opened for the occasion; one hosting the formal meeting, and the other allowing the participants to chat in the background before, during, and after the formal meeting.
The logs from both chat rooms are posted on the web:
http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/chats/
There, you can read notes about the meetings from 1999 through 2009. The files may not be as elegant this time as in previous years. Comments are greatly appreciated. Send comments, questions, etc., to the address below. [Mention 'Sime~Gen Meeting' in the subject so I'll know it isn't spam.]
In Service to Unity,
Kaires Tevesu
historian@simegen.com
******

****** SIMECENTER NEWS ******

The story we present this month is:
WORM, TURNED, by Mary Turzillo
- this time, it's personal
I "met" Mary through correspondence on the [simegen-l], and then met her in person at the Denver WorldCon. Among other things, she was representing Clarion Writer's Workshop, and this month's post is for them.
The accompanying artwork is:
LADY STORM, by Michael Cox
- behind the scenes
I'd like to learn the story behind this one. What an amazing imagination!
This month's recipient, as mentioned above, is
The Clarion Writers Workshop:
Teaching Science Fiction and Fantasy writing since 1968.
Send your comments, questions, etc.-- about the site, the stories and art...whatever--to the address below. [Mention 'SimeCenter' in the subject so I'll know it isn't spam.]
In Service to Unity,
Kaires Tevesu
charities@simegen.com

******REREADABLE BOOKS

December 2008 column is now posted.
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2008/
Here is how books are chosen for this review column, and how the column is organized.
More books will be reviewed in January 2009.
To see books to be reviewed through June 2009
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2009/
The review columns will be posted after they are first available in the printed magazine and on lightworks.com
This review column is first published on paper in The Monthly Aspectarian then posted to their website (lightworks.com) and finally archived some weeks later on simegen.com.
To be informed of when a new column is posted to simegen.com, you may subscribe to the monthly Newsletter-l that announces most new activity on simegen.com or you may subscribe to the newsletter ReReadable-l.
Both free subscriptions can be found at http://www.simegen.com/archives/
******

****** CLASSIC TREK FANZINE "ALTERNATE UNIVERSE 4"

Alternate Universe 4, the famous classic Star Trek fanzine cooperative fiction published by Shirley Maiewski in 1974. See our tribute to Shirley at http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/rimonslibrary/cz/cz20/Shirley.html is now available for free reading in our Star Trek section.
http://www.simegen.com/fandom/startrek/au4/

The authors say:
"We count our familiar Star Trek Universe --- Television's Star Trek --- as number one; The 'Mirror, Mirror' Universe as number two; the KRAITH Universe (http://www.simegen.com/fandom/startrek/kraith/) as number three; and Lightfleet's Universe as number four. Alternate Universe 4."

******Advertisment*****
When you enter the imagination of L. H. Young, you begin a fascinating ride, whether you are traveling the time stream with witches, finding love the stuff of legends with her wonderful vampires, traipsing across the universe with her Sci-fi, or going to school with four unusual teenagers born with the ability to heal by touch. Don’t forget that she even writes for the imagination of the very young as seen in The Christmas Kitten.
www.authorlhyoung.com

*****Please Support Those Who Support Us*****

****** Check our our new Amazon "Stores"

Blatant commercial to keep simegen.com on the air.
If you buy from Amazon using one of our search boxes at the bottoms of many of our pages, or find what you're looking for in our a-stores, we get a few cents to pay the bandwidth bills.
Our Amazon stores (we recommend buying directly from Amazon itself, not one of their onboard retailers unless you know the retailer very well -- we get paid the same, but have found better customer service with amazon.com shipments).
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keybooks/
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keygifts/ -- NEW STORE created to hold gift items specially useful to writers, both in writing and in just finding the TIME to write. Also we now have Google ads on our main entry pages -- and they pay nicely when someone finds what they want via one of those ads. But don't click just to click -- click something that looks like what you really want.

******
******NEW REVIEWS******

FINAL REVIEWS FOR 2008 can be found at http://www.simegen.com/whatsnew/

Miles From Nowhere by Nami Mun
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29488.html

Apocalypse Unleashed by Mel Odom
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29489.html

The Thirteenth by L. A. Banks
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29490.html

Mistress Shakespeare by Karen Harper
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29491.html

A Darker Place by Jack Higgins
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29492.html

While My Sister Sleeps by Barbara Delinsky
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29493.html

Promises in Death by J.D. Robb
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29562.html

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29566.html

The Silent Man by Alex Berenson
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29567.html

Fire and Ice by Julie Garwood
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29572.html

Night and Day by Robert B. Parker
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29574.html

Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29576.html

The Long Fall by Walter Mosley
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/list/29577.html

******

****** NEW IN A COMPANION IN ZEOR *********

Doreen DaBinett's continuing tales -- The Farris Factor -- Part 5 and 6

http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/rimonslibrary/cz/cz24/Farris-5.html

http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/rimonslibrary/cz/cz24/Farris-6.html

******COAL FOR CHRISTMAS**********

COAL FOR CHRISTMAS by Lois Wickstrom and Jean Lorrah reached the semi-finals in the Fade-In Writers Network competition:
http://www.fadeinonline.com/Contests/Screen_Fict_semi.html
It would be great to win one of these contests, but even making the semi-finals is a minor credential in our quest to sell our scripts to Hollywood.
Coal for Christmas has not won any contests yet, but it is currently under consideration at one major studio and two independent production companies. What that means is that after reading our logline and synopsis, they have asked for and are reading our script. BTW, multiple submissions are not only the norm, but are virtually REQUIRED in Hollywood. We have had to learn a whole new set of rules, very different from the rules for book publishing.
******

******KEYBOOKS RESTOCKED******

Keybooks, the book store for writers needing inspiration and ideas, and Key Gifts, the store full of gifts for hard working writers have been redesigned and restocked with new items.
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keybooks/ - for books and DVD's
http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/keygifts/ - for items of use to writers
*******

****** BORDERLANDS UPDATE ***********

Part 29 is now posted. This part is called "Rundles in the Jungle", and if that doesn't call anything to mind, take a quick look (only if you feel like it, nothing essential) at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumble_in_the_Jungle before going on to http://www.simegen.com/sgfandom/fans/bev/boom/index.html#part.29 to read
our latest effort.

This is a short part (only 13 episodes) and completely linear -- no subplots or sidebars, from the opening bell to the final knockout. Read and enjoy!

******

******JOIN THE REVIEWERS

As Coordinator of our Reviews Department, I ask for your help. With the current upsurge in e-book publishing that is sweeping the Internet, we daily receive an increasing number of books to review. Yet, in counterpoint, we have a shortage of reviewers, and many of our reviews staff are several books behind.We are eagerly and actively seeking new people to review for us. As with all of Sime~Gen, our reviewers are volunteers. When they write a review, it is posted
with their byline, and they get to keep the review copy of the books they have read and reviewed.
For more information on our Reviewers Agreement, visit:
http://www.simegen.com/agreements/revagr.html
Please help us by passing this information along to anyone you know who might want to join our happy band. If interested, they can e-mail me at
rvcoord@simegen.com or send a note expressing their interest to Jean at simegen@simegen.com
Midge Baker
Reviews Coordinator
******

******Advertisement******

Anyone shopping Amazon who wants to contribute to simegen.com without it costing them a cent, please start by using any of the Amazon Search boxes on our pages. Our top page has three really handy ones near the bottom. http://www.simegen.com

******Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******NEW ITEMS FROM ARTISTS AND AUTHORS AT CAFE PRESS

A SIME~GEN postage stamp is now available to order on cafe press. It can be used just as you would use a regular postage stamp. Be the first on YOUR block to have them! We've got a new page for Cafe Press items from our artists and authors. Now you can get t-shirts, greeting cards, clocks, mugs, and other great stuff with work from your favorite artists. You can even buy books about Nessie, the Orange Forest Rabbit and The Reluctant Spy that aren't available anywhere else.
http://simegen.com/marketplace/cafepress/ is a direct link to all our items and merchandise stores. Use of this page will give the domain extra income. If there is an item that you wish to see that isn't offered, just write Lois at lois@lochness-monster.com and she'll get it ready for you to order.

******

******HELP WANTED*****

The spotlights section of Simegen.com currently needs interviewers, spotlight posting personnel, an assistant spotlights gatemaster, and a keygifts store manager. We are also requesting an Assistant Reviews Co-coordinator - duties include covering when other staff are unable to perform tasks. We are almost finished revamping our reviews section and expect activity to be at a constant high level. We're looking for a versatile quick learner able to put in some time
daily. Pluses are: A good command of the English language (syntax, grammar, punctuation, in that order), some computer experience or ability to learn, and an interest in books. Direct all inquiries to simegen@simegen.com

Individuals to take over, or assist with the SIMECENTER Site -- It isn't at all hard, but a bit time-consuming...and very rewarding ("meeting" these marvelous authors and artists, if only via E-Mail and their websites.) Please write me, Kaires Tevesu, charities@simegen.com if you are interested.

****** Please Support Those Advertisers Who Support Us *****

******PUBLICATION SCHEDULE********

We have had to withdraw the entire Sime~Gen project from Meisha Merlin for a wide range of reasons. They missed several deadlines for publication of TO KISS OR TO KILL and showed no signs of intention to get it out any time in the foreseeable future. That stalled everything else. It was very disappointing. So we are now actively in search of another publisher. THE UNITY TRILOGY should continue to be available for some time -- they have the right to dispose of all stock in the Meisha Merlin warehouse.
******

******AVAILABLE RELEASES***********

~ the Omnibus reprint of Jean Lorrah's SAVAGE EMPIRE: DARK MOON RISING --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210013X/rereadablebooksr/ is #1 in the reprint program.
~ Trade Paperback edition of DREAMSPY from BenBella Books and you can order on Amazon and some other places
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932100253/rereadablebooksr/
Read the comments here:
http://www.simegen.com/writers/luren/dreamspy/dreamspyreviews.html
~ SAVAGE EMPIRE: PROPHECIES
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193210030X/rereadablebooksr/ is #2 in Jean Lorrah's and Winston Howlett's omnibus reprint of the Savage Empire
series.
Still Available in Trade Paperback, SIME~GEN: THE UNITY TRILOGY
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592220037/rereadablebooksr/
******

***** Sites to Remember *****

Author spotlights: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/
Chats: http://www.simegen.com/writers/spotlights/chat.html
Romance articles: http://www.simegen.com/romance/articles.html
Reviews of books by Jacqueline Lichtenberg:
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/
Reviews: http://www.simegen.com/reviews/
Shopping: http://www.simegen.com/marketplace/
Sound files of Jacqueline Lichtenberg pronouncing Sime~Gen vocabulary words can be found at http://www.simegen.com/jl/nivetsoundfiles/index.html
To sign up for classes, go to
http://www.simegen.com/school/SchoolForms.html
To volunteer, go to http://www.simegen.com/agreements/helpwanted.html
for the latest openings.
******
To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to listserv@simegen.com with no subject and the text "unsubscribe NEWSLETTER-L". To contact editor for any reason, please e-mail Lisa Saunders at simegen@simegen.com
*Please Note all material posted on Official Virtual Tecton is copyright © by Sime~Gen Inc. and all rights are reserved. To get your Sime~Gen(tm) material sanctioned for web posting or to get permission to repost from official materials, e-mail ambrovzeor@aol.com , contact simegen@simegen.com .
Sime~Gen (tm) is the trademark of a fictional universe copyright © by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, 1969, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986 and Sime~Gen Inc. 1999-2009.

Addition to India/Nepal Journal

noreply@blogger.com (jean) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:14:00 +0000

I have just posted the third entry from my journal of travel in India and Nepal last winter. If you are visiting for the first time, click on June to find the first two.

Please visit and read my impressions and adventures in a world completely unlike the one most of us are used to. There are photos and videos, too.

http://houseofkeon.blogspot.com/

Jean

Technorati Is Growing

Thejlbox@gmail.com (Jacqueline Lichtenberg) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:27:00 +0000

Users of blogs will find Technorati.com and friendfeed.com to be enormously useful in taming your social networking life.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
ei5kz9vj8t

creative non fiction about bears

geezerchick@mail.com (geezer-chick) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:35:00 +0000

Creative Nonfiction Issue Planned for Fall-Winter 2009-10) Call for Story Ideas. Query Letter Deadline: July 20 In fall 2009, Orlo intends to publish a special ³creative nonfiction² issue of The Bear Deluxe. It is anticipated that under the umbrella of ³creative nonfiction² the magazine will publish landscape-informed travel stories, personal narratives with strong elements of research and reporting, at least one author interview with a noted creative nonfiction writer, short prose, found writing and book reviews. A ³call and response² feature will be included, offering publishing opportunities to a diverse set of writers throughout the country. While definitions of ³creative nonfiction² vary, most agree that the genre gives writers more flexibility in approaching reality-based subject matter. According to the website, creativenonfiction.org, ³creative nonfiction presents or treats information using the tools of the fiction writer while maintaining allegiance to fact.² And as author Bruce Dobler writes in his compendium on creative nonfiction, ³The genre, as currently defined, is broad enough to include nature and travel writing, the personal memoir and essay, as well as Œnew journalism,¹ and the Œnonfiction novel.¹² Send editorial query letters by July 20 to bear@orlo.org, subject line: Creative Nonfiction Issue. When at all possible, include links to, or samples of, previous work. If submitting completed manuscripts, do not send stories exceeding 4,000 words. Send .pdf docs whenever possible. The creative nonfiction issue is being funded in part by the Regional Arts & Culture Council. ### Orlo The Bear Deluxe Magazine The Orlo Exhibition Space Mailing address: P.O. Box 10342 Street address: 2516 NW 29th Bldg. 9 (see www.orlo.org for directions) Portland, Oregon 97296 Phone: 503-242-1047 email: bear@orlo.org url: www.orlo.org

New Blog Post

Thejlbox@gmail.com (Jacqueline Lichtenberg) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:38:00 +0000

Blogged on Oscar rule change & protag's age http://bit.ly/RhMjj

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://twitter.com/JLichtenberg
http://facebook.com/jacqueline.lichtenberg

I Avoided Michael Jackson

geezerchick@mail.com (geezer-chick) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:08:00 +0000

Michael Jackson represented everything I didn’t want in my life. He sang about people lying about him - Billie Jean. He did things people copied – Moon Walk. He gathered crowds to watch him perform, like a two-year-old. I’m uncomfortable around the whole concept of celebrity.
I never watched his performances until this week, when they were unavoidable on my favorite websites. I can see that he was talented, creative, and hard-working. But the attitude – that people need to pay attention to him to have a full life makes no sense to me. It was more than that – they seemed to feel that they had to act like his back-up singers and dancers in order to be successful in their own lives, their own social circles. Their point – which I find most upsetting -- is that they believed knowing what was going on with Michael Jackson was important.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t him. Maybe he just got up and performed and it’s not his fault that other people watched and copied. But the fact that other people did watch and did copy is the reason I avoided him. I have better things to do with my time than learn the latest dance step. Or worry about who is getting plastic surgery. It freaks me out to watch crowds swoon when a performer comes on stage or scream when s/he moves a certain way. Maybe I’m not wired normally, but that’s not how I appreciate art.

What really galls me is the crowd mentality. If everybody likes something, talks about it, obsesses over it – I don’t care if it’s a pet rock, a celebrity, or the weather – I want to free my mind from contact with it. Hearing about the latest antics of a celebrity feels like someone is pouring thick goo into the machinery of my mind.

I’m aware that this feeling makes no sense. I am a creative artist. And I often find myself inspired by other artists. So why not Michael Jackson? Why was his hype such a turn-off that I denied myself contact?

I guess because when people talked about him, it was never about his ideas. When he sang about Billie Jean, nobody started a conversation about the importance of honest relationships and why false accusations are harmful. They sang his words, copied his moves, and if they were at all insightful, they wondered if he had a love-child with Billie Jean. They asked who was the real Billie Jean? Not that it mattered. Not that they wanted to go babysit for her child. The fascination was only the sheer gossip of it.

Try as I would, I couldn’t totally avoid him. I heard the conversations on buses and in elevators about his surgeries to look like Diana Ross. I saw headlines about his short marriages, and the accusations of child abuse, his frivolities with money. Yes, I know the media likes to attack famous people. I didn’t care if any of this stuff was true. I didn’t want to be part of the machinery that fed this hype that I was trying to avoid.

No magazine ads for Michael Jackson said, “You can save this child, or you can turn the page.” When I saw his headlines, I turned the page.

It’s not his fault. But in my mind, he became a symbol for what’s wrong with our culture. And since I couldn’t do anything about it, I stayed away from his videos, and I changed the subject when people tried to talk to me about him. And now that he’s dead, it’s safe for me to watch the videos and hear the songs knowing that there is no crowd of screaming fans, and there will be no more gossip.

All of which, probably makes me a hypocrite, because I want the fame without the infamy. I want to be a popular talent, too. But I don’t want headlines about how I dress or my problems in yoga poses, and I certainly don’t want people copying my hairstyle. I just want to entertain with the things I want to make public. I wonder if Michael wanted that, or if he liked his active fan base, who pushed me away.

A News Blog On The Adventure Beat

Thejlbox@gmail.com (Jacqueline Lichtenberg) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:50:00 +0000

On this blog you will find newsletters replete with links and articles on the adventures of several imaginative writers.

If you have a question about writing or publishing, or a subject you would like us to cover, drop a comment here.