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 Mississippi
Swamp by John Hatch is LitLine’s book of the month.
It’s a story about how an extended African American family
survived in the post-Civil War era. Mississippi Swamp is available at www.2ndsightbooks.com
The
first Black Writers Emerge (BWE) conference will be held in Durham,
North Carolina July 6-8, 2001.The conference is sponsored by Sadorian
Publications and is sure to be one of the best
The
African American Book Club Summit (AABCS) The
AABCS is a national effort to form an alliance among African American
Book Clubs, Authors and Independent Booksellers. The Summit takes place
on-board the Carnival Cruise Ship "The Inspiration." The
ship leaves from New Orleans for the exotic ports of Montego Bay, Grand
Cayman, and Cozumel. Seven
days of fun, relaxation -up close and personal with your favorite
authors! The
AABCS is the ultimate African American Literature Experience! The
participating Author line-up reads like a "Who's Who" of
African American Literature!
We've covered every genre!!! Fiction, Biography, Mystery, Romance,
Science Fiction, Horror, Children's Books, Inspirational and Self Help. Market
News
ChildAuthor.Com
started as a simple craft site for children.
It is quickly evolving to a literary site for kids.
They are expanding their topics to include articles ranging from
crafts to poetry to short stories and science. The
pay rate is $.05 per accepted, edited word. Length ranges by topic.
For example, craft articles may only have 30 words where a short
story may be 1,000 and over. Send full articles and short bios via email. Visit the site for additional guidelines at www.childauthor.com Calling all aspiring writers and those interested in honing their writing and creative skills. LitLine will begin a writing contest sponsored by several of the literary world's newest African American authors. Click for contest rules and submission requirements. |
First: Answer ALL email (that is not spam). I believe that the worst act is not answering email, even if it is a simple, "I will get back to you on this." This at least lets the sender know that you have at some point accessed their email. Many of us receive jokes, chain letters and other mail that don’t need responses. Yet, there are email messages that deem a response be sent to the sender. Many business deals and other organizational events fail because of the lack of response to email messages. I personally read anywhere from 60 to 100 email messages per day. I respond to 90% of the email...this is the percentage that requires my immediate response or reply. Email is a vital instrument in all aspects of business. Many people I work for have never met me, yet we have a very strong working relationship because of communication via email. Second: Distinguish between formal and informal email. Many of our friend and family members email us and we oft time throw writing to the wind. We abbreviate, use smiling faces, talk slang in email to those we feel comfortable with (casual). Yet, there have been MANY instances in corporate America where people have communicated in email like this, casually, not utilizing proper written English! Memo and letters to key personnel lack the grammatical composure that would make it worthy of reading. With handwritten letters, email should follow the same format, excluding the date since all email is time stamped. Third: Do not send large attachments! Users MUST be careful to keep attachments under half a meg (500 kb), and still this might be too large. Reason: most users still access the Internet via dial-up over the new DSL connection. Therefore, speeds for dial-up modems can vary from 26, 000bps to 50,000 bps. A 1 to 3 MB file may take several minutes or even an hour to download for viewing. Oft times, the connect will time out or the email message will hinder the delivery of other email. This "bottle neck" affect will cause the email message to deliver partially...upon time out and reconnecting the mail server, repeat message will begin to appear because the large message has not allowed all the mail to be totally delivered from the server. This can create and even more technical issue because the user will need assistance getting the large mail from the server. A good rule of thumb is simply warn the recipient of the impending large email so that they have time to poll their email prior to the receipt, or they can give another email address to use in which they can receive large attachments. Some of the free Web-based email prohibits the sending and receipt of email attachments over 500kb. Photos, Access databases and PowerPoint presentations are primary culprits of large attachments. My advice: Send with caution. Finally, remember, everyone does not want to read the email that you have received. What I am saying is, keep forward email to a minimum. Personally, I do not forward a lot of my email. It has to be something that I feel others would be interested in reading. Just because a joke was funny to you or you received a chain letter, does not mean that your other email buddies want to read it. I know that I am making this statement based on personal experiences, but I also hear complaints from other email users. With the space limitations available on the free Web-based email, large attachments quickly diminish this quota thereby eliminating the ability for the recipient to receive other email. There are times that the free Web-based email address is for the user to have the ability to check email, no matter where they are. If I am with or without a laptop during travel, I have the ability to utilize the free Web-based email to check my POP3 email account(s) from my ISP. Often I am hindered from doing this because of "junk" email. Again, my advice: send with discretion. I hope that this article will server as a guide to email etiquette. Please feel free to email me if you have comments, questions of concerns regarding email. My email box is always open. Happy Computing! Lisa R. Cross is a 16 year computer geek who works as a Network Administrator/Computer Specialist for the feds. She also owns a very small communications and technology business, Cross The Network. A native of Denver, CO she resides in Dallas, TX. Infinity
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