Click Here! Dog Tired Edition

How can a person feel like going back to sleep after having seven dreamy hours of slumbericious rest? Sigh. It's been a long weekend...

After a stressful span of days, Absolute Write is back up and running. Go on and give 'em some love. Where did Absolute Write go? Why is there a refuge camp for them? Don't know what the heck I'm talking about? Catch up here and here.

The Science Fiction Poetry Association is holding their first-ever poetry contest. No fees, and you don't have to be a member to enter. Click here to learn more.

Also of interest to Sci Fi writers,

Little, Brown is bringing its successful UK science fiction and fantasy imprint, Orbit, to the US and Australia. Publishing director Tim Holman will continue to oversee all three branches of the imprint. The US imprint will launch in 2007 and is expected to grow to 40 titles a year within three years.

This info thanks to Cindi Myers' newsletter, a great resource for market news that you can sign up for at her site here.

I spent some time searching ZDNet this weekend for writerly downloads we might all benefit from. Interested? Click READ MORE below...

Writer's Database is a free download that helps you keep track of your finished works, who you've subbed to and who you might be interested in subbing to.

Download 1-Click Answers, and a mini-encyclopedia bar is only ever one click away, docked unobtrusively at the bottom of your screen (on my computer, its pinky-nail-self sits right next to my Google Notebook). The software also lets you highlight info on any site and ask a question about content on the spot. Easy to install and use.

There are at least eight trillion downloadable programs that claim to help writers with manuscripts, however most cost $$. ZDNet has at least one that's free and sounds useful. yWriter can help you keep track of page and word count, has a drag-and-drop utility to help move scenes around, and can even print out reports for your synopsis, work schedule and scene list. (I haven't tried this one out, but it sounds interesting. If you try it, holler here to let us know how you like it.)

Here's an interesting program that monitors your mouse and keyboard activities, and actually "warns" you when you need to take a break. Free to try (but $29.95 to buy), Kairos can potentially help us prevent all sorts of writerly maladies, like carpal tunnel syndrome. There are other $$ programs for carpal tunnel as well, including ActiveClick, which clicks your mouse for you somehow, and StretchWare, which suggests exercise breaks and leads you through gentle stretching routines. All offer free trials.

A few blogabilities:

Back up your blog with BlogCollector, and tranfer Word documents right into Blogger with Blogger for Word.

Love to read blogs but want to manage blogs better? Zip through them faster? Check out Bloglines, where you'll find it's super easy to add and then view all your favorite blogs without even leaving the site, allowing you to get back to the business of writing.

Speaking of, it's time to get back to it. Write on!