Will they pull the plug on this Blue Ribbon?

Who owns this blog now? I can't see if it uploads by FTP. Anyway, whomever is in control: please let us know what's going on? Thanks.

Writerly Gifts

Here's a unique gift idea for yourself or any of your writerly friends -- services from A Writer's Edge. Design them with me. A few suggestions: an hour of publishing consultations, any editorial services or manuscript evaluations. Contact Me for details and arrangements or send me an email.

Help is available for improving writing, formatting manuscripts for submission or self-publishing, guidance through the confusing dance of queries, synopses, outlines, multiple submissions, copyright and all the other parts of the path to publication. Maybe you'd just like some advice on whether or not to self-publish that chapbook of poetry, your memoirs or a collection of short stories. Only 15 minutes of consultation can make a world of difference for you.

Be Quick, Win Book

Reading Girl Mary by Petru Popescu set me pondering the books I've read in the last few years about significant women in religions. I thought it must be rather difficult to write about them, especially in light of the current tensions among different groups. Would I dare to fictionalize one, or not, because of fear of retaliation?

I asked Popescu that question, and he indicated he had no trepidations at all, but he did offer to tell us about writing this book. He has advice for approaching historical figures as novel subjects. He said to write with "passion" and that: "When you write about the mystical, you believe in it. That is the rule of thumb and the best advice I can give to writers who attempt to write about religion and its formidably puzzling characters and events."

I have copies of Girl Mary to send to the first five people who comment (US addresses only, please) on the post at A Writer's Edge.

Writers Change the Future

If you could have a positive impact on hundreds of thousands of people in the future, would you do it? I'm not setting up a sci-fi plot or harping on global warming (though it applies).

I refer to the opportunity for TV writers, producers, sponsors and supporters to help change factors underlying the most prevalent public health dangers: obesity, heart disease, diabetes, addictions and mental illnesses. According to the ground-breaking Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, these health issues are highly associated with childhood trauma like:

# Recurrent physical abuse
# Recurrent emotional abuse
# Contact sexual abuse
# An alcohol and/or drug abuser in the household
# An incarcerated household member
# Someone who is chronically depressed, mentally ill, institutionalized, or suicidal
# Mother is treated violently
# One or no parents
# Emotional or physical neglect

I saw the valid and shocking statistical results from this well-designed research. The more traumas a person experiences before the age of 18, the greater the probability that he or she will develop one or more of the health problems listed above. Not just "twice as likely", but in the hundreds, even thousands of times greater chances.

After presenting this compelling material, I asked Dr. Vincent J. Felitti, author of the work, about solutions for the resulting health issues beyond psychotherapy and psychoactive drugs. He shrugged and said, "I don't have any." What he does have is a vision for a preventative scenario: soap operas.

"When you go into the homes of these [damaged] people, what do you find? Always, a television. And what do they all watch? Not CNN, but soap operas." He explained that many people need positive modeling to become better parents. We must start this change where it would be most effective. People at risk do engage with television, and watch programs like the soaps, looking to the characters for clues as to how to act, Felitti said.

I've seen this idea play out in the 40 years I've been hooked on "Days of Our Lives", my surrogate family. Last spring, the series featured characters "greening" their homes and businesses (global warming), and everyone carried water bottles and worked out at the gym. Writers could weave in mentoring on the ACE Study factors through the intricate plot lines. I'm thinking that for all her heaving and weeping about being such a good mother, Sami hardly ever has her children around. She neglects them. Maybe Sami could actually learn to be a good mother.

Other TV programs people watch in droves are the so-called reality ones, which suggest another opportunity to begin a parenting revolution. If people are going to suckle at the teat of the great boob tube, let's give them nourishment for the future. It is a challenge that taxes writers' creativity and program investors' far-sightedness and dedication to values easily mouthed and more difficult to actualize.

AWE Up for Blog Award

A Writer's Edge has been nominated in Michael Stelzner's 4th annual 10 Top Blogs for Writers Contest. If you would like to vote for AWE as a 2009 Top 10 Blogs for Writers, please nominate it at http://bit.ly/8NF7E in a comment at end (scroll down). The AWE URL is www.writers-edge.info/Blog.html You'll have to think up something nice to say about the blog, too, or just echo what Paula Berinstein of The Writing Show said in her nomination:

Eeek, how can I choose between Michelle Rafter and Georganna Hancock? Okay, this year I'll nominate Georganna's A Writer's Edge at http://www.writers-edge.info/Blog.html. Next year it will be Michelle.

I never get tired of reading Georganna. She always seems to come up with new angles on issues of interest to writers, and she's a hoot besides. Full of personality, but not that awful snarkiness you find so often these days. A truly original thinker.

Nominating is apparently the same as voting. Stelzner's instructions:

How to Nominate Your Favorite Writing Blog:

1. Reply to this message with your nomination (bottom of list)
2. You have only one vote (only your first will be counted)
3. Please include the web address of the blog (http://www.writers-edge.info/Blog.html)
   
4. Explain why you think the blog is worthy of winning this year’s award?

To make the cut, a blog must be nominated more than once.

Nominations must be received by September 11, 2009.

Twitter Flitter Glitter

I've been experimenting with Twitter lately, my most recent foray into Web 2.0 for a writing/editing business. "Twitter", the word, always makes me think of "flitter" which reminds me of the lovely Blog Fairy. No more does she flitter about the blogosphere, sprinkling her inimitable form of glitter on happy bloggers here and there. She is sadly missed.

In any event, if this works, here's a sample of what's going on in the Twitter-World of GLHancock:

And if that didn't work, you can find me at Twitter.

Send for Inspiration

A sign up form for Inspiration, a series of weekly one-minute motivational messages for writers is active in the top right web page header at A Writer's Edge.

The first message you'll receive is a welcome (also inspirational). This week's note is about holding on to your dreams of being a published writer. I'm reaching out to touch you! Anticipate a gentle kick in your writing pants and a pat on the shoulder.

If you want to subscribe without visiting the website, Flare me through Feedburner (that's what they call emailing the author) or fire up your own email service, key in "BRBSUB" in the subject line, and send the missive to: editor[AT]writers-edge.info or to the usual Gmail address for this blog (Writers.Edge).

A Valentine from A Writer's Edge

Select service, contact me and mention the 2009 Valentine gift, and you will receive a 14% discount on any services listed on the Editing Services page. Now offering resume critiques and assistance, consultations by email and phone. Hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy New Year 2009

From A Writer's Edge and Hancock Websites

Seasonal Salutations

From Georganna Hancock
A Writer's Edge
Hancock Websites

Happy Thanksgiving from A Writer's Edge

Although A Writer's Edge is on vacation, you can still search the Archives for posts on writing, books and English words. I wish each of you a very

Join Blog Action Day Chain

We have a month to go until Blog Action Day. Have you joined the Blog Action Day Chain at A Writer's Edge Join in and receive a link on the front page of that blog.

First sign up at blogactionday.org. Then write a post with a link to http://www.writers-edge.info/2008/08/writing-for-blog-action-day.htm (the original call). Let me know that you have joined. That's all there is to it! Instant fame, fortune, and good will follow.

Blog Action Day '08

Friday's post at A Writer's Edge announced participation in Blog Action Day 08, taking place October 15. In a comment, I suggested starting a participation announcement chain with the goal to reach around the world to alert more and more bloggers to this humanitarian event. Please visit the post and join in. Or if you find it on another blog (linking back to A Writer's Edge at the beginning) please join in and continue the linkage and spreading the good words. Help end poverty for good!

Do Writers' Dreams Matter?

Of course they matter to you. "But," you may well argue, "they don't seem to matter to anyone else." We have a universal need for validation, acceptance, approval, a feeling that we "fit in" to our families, society, and life in general. No one would choose to go through life as a misfit, right?

Let's think about that for a moment. In a world without misfits, no one would feel uncomfortable around others. No one would prick our consciences. No one would act outlandish, stretching the boundaries of what is with what might be. There would be no "what if?" Reality would be a fixed agreement, possibilities nonexistent, and crazy dreams crushed before they are even spoken, maybe before they're even dreamed.

Now the landscape begins to sound bleak and life as sterile as a gulag. As much as we may individually want acceptance, as a whole we need the dreamers to thrive as a part of Life. Without the dreamers, barriers would never fall, innovation not take place, and humanity might as well be stillborn. Your dreams matter more than individuals can ever tell you to your face in critique groups or boilerplate rejection notices.

This is what is meant when you're told, "Don't take it personally." Literally, don't take the setbacks personally. The agent, editor, peers, your family and friends may not support you in the way you'd like, but they also may not realize the importance of your dreams to their own lives. To all our lives. When the rejections threaten to build into a Writer's Block for you, keep in mind that your dreams matter to the universal book of Life.

Contest to win a Book

Would you like to win a copy of THE BOOK OF CHAMELEONS by Jose Eduardo Agualusa? It is an enchanting novel exquisitely translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn. Agualusa, an Angolan, is a master of telling stories within stories. He creates in the magical realism tradition of Latin American writers. At A Writer's Edge, I posted briefly about the book last month, and I continue to be haunted by the tale of identity.

Now I have an opportunity to interview the author, and I need some intelligent, pertinent, thoughtful questions to ask. Send me your best (one) to enter the contest by July 10. Email your question to CONTEST@WRITERS-EDGE.INFO. You can read about the book on Amazon by clicking on the book image at the beginning of this post and read an excerpt there, too.

Awesome Blogging?

A Writer's Edge, is one of "100 Awesome Webmaster Blogs by and for Women" listed by Web Hosting Database in the section for "Social Media, Organizations, and Writing Skills". According to the article, I'm a "strong, talented, innovative and resourceful" web woman.

"She’s a widely published writer who provides classes and coaching to beginners who want to write for magazines and journals, news mediums and more. Ms. Hancock’s blog reflects her coaching skills as she imparts information about every type of writing imaginable."

Aw, shucks! In honor of this honor, I made sure the links to this site are all working, because the Blog Fairy was the original reckoner of good blogging.

Owed to Readers

Happy New Year from A Writer's Edge

From Georganna at A Writer's Edge