Category Archives: Writing

Suite 101, Writing

A Form of Flattery

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That’s what they say about imitation–it’s the sincerest form of flattery. That doesn’t, however, extend to plagiarism and copyright theft. At Suite101.com, several people posted to the writers forum there today to say their articles had been stolen verbatim and posted at http://general-finance.com/. It has happened with at least two articles, possibly a dozen. One of the authors effected found that general-finance didn’t get them directly from Suite, but from another, content-washing site which posted them all with a date one day before they were posted on Suite, making it appear that a dozen different Suite authors stole work from this other site. Yeah, right.

This didn’t affect me, but it did make my get off my lazy cyber-butt and set up a few Google Alerts. This is a tool that helps you spot copyright theft automatically using their powerful search spiders. I set up three alerts: one for my name, and two for phrases in two of my articles. I set them up to report as an event was found. We’ll see what happens. Nothing so far.

I set up one alert for my name. Then I decided to Google my name and see what I get. I do this from time to time, also for my Internet pseudonym, Norman D Gutter. Today I found at least five other David A. Todds: a doctor in California who writes about secretions from nipples; a welder in Texas who makes political contributions to the Republican party; an engineer in Texas; a civil engineer in Oklahoma City–with his own firm; and another I can’t remember right now. Oh, now I remember: someone with a home for sale in Florissant, MO.

Several of the search hits were to my writings, including one that appeared in American Profile magazine, the Sunday newspaper insert that competes with Parade Magazine, in 2004. What I wrote and sent to them was:

America, settled by those who thought freedom more important than comfort, was forged to nationhood through the concept that men can govern themselves, if only they adopt excellent laws, then embrace them.

The best citizen puts ethics before law, law before gain, nation before self.

What they put in the magazine was:

The best citizen puts ethics before law, law before gain, nation before self.

That was close enough I didn’t gripe about it. Now, as I Googled my name, I found this latter statement at a number of places, normally with attribution to me. Here are some of the links:

The News-Sun forums.

WikiAnswers

Yahoo Answers

MaybeNow Answers

Then I decided to do a Google search for a key phrase in my published quote, and found this site in addition. [If you go to the site, you have to scroll down to near the end to see my words, slightly modified.] So, I suppose I should be flattered to think that this young man saw my words, thought enough of them to post them as his own. I guess I’ll let him get away with it for now. After all, I can easily prove they are my words if I ever have to.

career, Writing

My Kind of Day

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The rain started yesterday, Sunday. Never heavy, and not steady. Just enough to make you not want to leave the house on a walk. Gloomy clouds; fresh north wind; temperatures falling. Just the kind of thing to perk me up from a gloomy mood.

Last night, after dark but while we were in the Dungeon at our computers with the night shut out, the heavier rain came. By this morning the heaviest rain was over, and we had steady drizzle through the day. No sun. Dark clouds. The north wind persisting and freshening.

I had a huge day of accomplishment at work, getting stuff done a day ahead of schedule, and surprising people in the office.

Then came the evening. As the rain ended my mood worsened and disappointments came. I guess I should just learn to be an engineer and not worry about being a writer.

Engineering, Writing

More Books to the Dumpster

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Since I last posted on Monday, my work at the office has been a mixture of library organization and miscellaneous assistance to people who request help. Tuesday I began work on a small project, checking and recalculating something in the drainage system of a large subdivision designed under my supervision back in 2003. But the computer program has changed since then, and I have to re-key everything into the new program. Except the new program was bought out by AutoCAD, is no longer stand-alone, and I don’t do AutoCAD. So today I need to find someone to help me with it.

The library is organized. Except for two shelves of old project documents I discovered yesterday, everything else is in its place. I haven’t arranged the reference materials in a way that makes sense, but at least they are all together. Nor have I alphabetized the many project documents (specs, drainage reports, flood studies, master plans), but they are all together.

Yesterday I began the process of getting rid of duplicates. I started with the local regulations for the three nearby cities we do many projects in. This required checking manuals that were seemingly the same to make sure they really were the same, or if not to determine if one superseded the other and get rid of the old one. I found one manual of ordinances that had three packets of updates just stuck in the front rather than collated. So I did that. I think I freed-up close to two shelves.

Then I began doing the same thing to manufacturers’ catalogs and data. I only did a little of this, yet freed-up at least two shelves there. Today will be the main work of catalog culling.

CEI is selling some surplus furniture: bookcases, folding tables, file cabinets, etc. I bought some and loaded them in the pick-up last night, took them home via Wednesday night church, and unloaded them into the garage. Consequently I was exhausted physically, which affected my mental state as well. I did no writing, spent a little time on Facebook, played some mindless computer games, and read in the book off the top of the reading pile.

Tonight promises more of the same, as the library work today will not doubt tire me again. I may, however, finally go to the link friend GB sent me months ago and watch Diary of a High School Bride, at least the critical scene an hour in, and re-live a college prank from freshman year. That’s a good way to spend an evening while batching it.

Suite 101, Writing

A New Submittal

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As I wrote in a post some time ago, we are in the fall submittal season for literary magazines connected with universities. I have not yet done the research needed to know what submittals to make, but I think I will have time to do this over the weekend. I’ll hopefully submit my short story to three or four more magazines, and I’d like to submit poems to close to a dozen mags.

If I can do that, I will be up to 32 or so submittals for the year. I’m sitting at 17 right now, having made my 18th this morning. The results of those submittals so far are:

18 submittals
4 acceptances
7 rejections
7 not yet heard
0 withdrawn

I may have to come back and adjust those numbers. My submittal log is at home and I’m writing this from work, going from memory. Edited on 8 October, to put in the correct numbers.

This includes a couple of contest entries as well as a couple of engineering articles that were submitted and accepted or assigned and published. That’s not a lot of submittals for someone who fancies himself a writer, but it’s what I’ve been able to do this year. I suppose I could pad the numbers by saying each of my Suite101.com articles is a separate submission. Then I’d add 52 submittals and 52 acceptances to those numbers. Since each article is reviewed by an editor and could be disabled and eventually deleted if not up to snuff, it might be legitimate to includethem. But I’m counting Suite 101 as a single submission, my initial application.

Actually, my submission this morning was to Suite 101, suggesting a new category of article topics, and proposing that they promote me to Feature Writer over that category. I did some research into how many worldwide Google searches there are in a month for a number of keywords and keyword phrases associated with that category, and what is the typical rate for an ad associated with those keywords. I’m hopeful that the research will pay-off, as will the faithfulness I have shown at writing for Suite. I’m past the threshold number of articles you must have before you can be considered for a feature writer position.

Being a feature writer means: you must write a minimum of one article per week in your category; and you receive a 20 percent bonus on your revenue immediately and another 10 percent bonus when you hit 100 articles. I’m not bringing in much revenue right now, so the bonuses won’t add up to much. But every little bit helps; and the promotion would look good on a writing resume.

Stay tuned.

American Colonial History, Engineering, Suite 101, Writing

A Little Progress

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This was a strange weekend. First off, I ate too much, almost all on Sunday. We went out to eat after church with good friends, and had way too many chips and salsa. I actually ate a smaller entree than I normally do at this place, but the chips were too much. Then we had an evening gathering at church last night, a soup dinner. The event was our Alabaster offering, a twice a year offering for missions building projects. The soup was good (both bowls), the dessert was good, and the fellowship was good.

By the time I got home I felt bloated. I didn’t feel like doing much of anything. We were having Internet connection troubles, and I re-booted the modem and router twice. While doing that, I started a virus scan on my computer. It’s an ancient computer, and it wasn’t done scanning an hour later. I took the time, after playing some mindless computer games, to file papers. I tend to let this go then file a bunch in a flurry of activity. I filed a few, then was down to those that defy being put in a preset category. By evening’s end I had a bunch of those done.

But the big thing to report is that I got back to writing for Suite101.com. I posted two articles: one examining Robert Frost’s poem “The Mountain”; and one talking about British loyalists in the period before the American Revolution. These two articles actually did fairly well with page views over the last three days. I had intended to write the second article about “The Mountain” on Sunday, but after eating so much wasn’t up to it.

So, what’s on for today? In the office I’ll be archiving projects and copying time sheets. At noon I’ll head out to the Crystal Bridges Museum construction site, where I’ll be giving two talks this afternoon, to the Arkansas Floodplain Managers Association, about the floodplain issues we faced in designing the museum. Then tomorrow and Wednesday I’ll attend the convention. I’ll miss this morning’s activities at the convention, but I have to get ready for my presentation.

Engineering, flood studies, writer's platform, Writing

I’m Still Not Writing—but I’m Making Progress

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Well, last night once again I didn’t feel like writing. I spent a little more time in Father Daughter Day, finding most of the tweaks I had wanted to make and maybe an extra one or two. I read a couple of writing blogs I follow. But otherwise I just read and did crosswords and wasted time.

Today, on my to do list was writing that article for Suite101.com on preparing to give a deposition. I started it, but have mostly the outline and first paragraph or two done. I reserved the noon hour for that, but do you think I got it done? No, I read writing blogs and critiqued a poem at the Absolute Write Water Cooler. And, I found one more place to tweak in FDD. And I got all the edits made to my FDD master file.

In a way, I suppose that’s progress. At least some of my time is still spent in writing activities. Along with what I said above, I shared a strategy for publication of FDD with an agent whose blog I read and comment on. He agreed with what I’m thinking of doing. No I just have to do it and see if it will work.

Meanwhile, my 47 articles at Suite 101 had 1559 page views in the last seven days (ending yesterday). That’s over a rate of 81,000 page views a year. That may not be enough platform to convince an editor or agent to take a chance on my books, but it feels pretty good. I’m sure some of those page views, with come mostly from people searching for some topic using a search engine, may be nothing more than a quick look at the opening paragraph and going on to something else, but it still feels good.

Today, in my working hours, I completed two major tasks, and set about archiving my files for the period when I served as Centerton’s city engineer (by contract with CEI). About four projects are unfinished and I can’t archive them yet. Another six I have to keep here until I extract information from them for the second Centerton flood study, which I began work on this week. They they will go off to archive with their brethren. All these files consume about 25 feet of shelf space. When I’m finished archiving them, which will be late next week or the week after, I should be down to no more than 8 shelf-feet of files. That will feel good, and I’ll be able to do without two book cased in my new, smaller office when we move in late October.

Time to prepare for the weekend. On Monday I give a presentation on the Crystal Bridges Museum flood plain work, to the Arkansas Floodplain Managers Association annual convention. It’s being held locally, and the presentation is at the overlook of the construction site. Then Tuesday-Wednesday I’ll attend the convention in nearby Springdale. Another chopped-up week.

poetry, Robert Frost, writer's platform, Writing

I Should Be Writing

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Back from the funeral, no major household projects going on, reasonable workload at the office, no upcoming trip to prepare for, the checkbook mostly up to date, household finances needing only 30 minutes to bring them up to date. I should be writing. But I’m not.

Yesterday I posted one of my older poems for critique at the Absolute Write poetry forum. Three crits later it’s sinking and will hit the oblivion of page 2 today. That caused me to pull out Father Daughter Day yesterday and go through it last night and mark edits that had either accumulated in my mind or that I saw as I read. That’s done, and I’ll type those edits today sometime. And I did a very minor critique of another person’s poem yesterday.

More than a week ago I began a new article for Suite101.com, about preparing for a deposition. Since I had just done that, I thought it would make for a good article, quickly written. Then the funeral trip interrupted me, and I haven’t felt like getting back to it. I even did some key word research using some Google tools, and it looks as if it will be a profitable article. Yet, I just don’t feel like writing it.

I suppose I’ll snap out of it soon. Maybe if I get those few entries made in my financial spreadsheet I’ll feel freed-up to write again. I think what’s holding me back is the utter futility of it all. And the realization I’m trying to build a platform that may or may not grow to the size I need. My articles on Suite 101 are getting page views at a current rate of 80,000 per year. That’s good! Eighty-thousand people a year are reading my stuff. But almost none of those people are looking for my writing. They are looking for information on something, and happen to find mine by a search engine. So will an editor see all those hits and all those people reading my writing as evidence of a platform and quality writing, or as an accident?

Still, I’ve nothing else to do but plunge back in and get some more articles up. Three more and I begin earning a ten percent bonus. I could have three articles up in three days. I’ll do it. I’ll probably get that one article finished and post it tonight, and shoot for having two more up by Sunday. During our weekend trip I worked on the analysis of another Robert Frost poem. That will give me at least three articles.

I still need to articulate steps two and three of my platform-building plan. Maybe I’ll make that my next post.

Suite 101, Writing

Happy New Year!

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The month of September has always been considered the start of the “program year” for many organizations. This was probably tied to the beginning of the school year, which happens between the third week in August and just after Labor Day depending on where you are in the country. The calendar year may begin January 1, with all its celebrations and resolutions, but the true new year is just after Labor Day.

So, do I have any new program year resolutions?

I wish I did. At the moment my writing is rather dull. Adding articles to Suite 101 is not really adding much to the bank account, though the veterans there say to be patient, the revenue per article builds with time. I hope they are right. As I feared, this has taken up almost all the creative writing time I have available. I made my August goals and September goals, hoping to somehow keep my mind and hands working on other things, but have struggled with that.

So, I really have no new program year resolutions, except to keep on keeping on. I’ll try to get to 100 articles on Suite 101 by sometime in early 2010, and see how things stand. If by then I’ve learned to divide my time, keeping a portion hoarded for other writing endeavors, then I’ll continue at Suite 101. If I haven’t learned that, then I’ll assess my options at that point.

Danny Tompkins Short Stories, poetry, Writing

‘Tis the Season – for Submittals

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I had good intentions of blogging over the weekend. The wife is away, I’ve kept the house neat, and had no major yard work to do. But a summer cold hit, and I found myself with no gumption to write much of anything. By Sunday evening I felt much better (thought my scratchy voice belied that), and I finished a difficult article at Suite101.com and came close to finishing a second. Today I’m much better, at work, and have energy for writing.

At the Absolute Write forums I responded to a post titled “when you fell in love with poetry…”. I explained my hatred for poetry for many years, brought on by a series of English teachers who insisted on interpretation of poems I didn’t see–but I don’t really want to get into that today. I got over my hatred of poetry, rather late in life I’m afraid, but not too late to embrace it for appreciation and try it for a writing outlet. As I wrote that post at AW, and as I thought about when it was I began enjoying and then writing poetry, it suddenly dawned on me that it was August 31, 2001 that I began writing my first serious adult poem. Eight years ago today. I remember it well, sitting out in the grassy area near the pines on the north side of our former house. But I prate.

The other important thing about this date is actually tomorrow, September 1. That is the day that many, many literary magazines open up again to submissions. Most of these are associated with universities and colleges, and close down during summer. September through May submission periods are quite common. Last spring I sent out six submissions for my short story, “Mom’s Letter”. I think I missed the submission window by a couple of days on one of them. Heard back on three or four–rejections.

With the new submissions season, I need to decide what to do about the short story and about submitting some poems. I didn’t submit any poems anywhere in 2008. I think I need to make some submissions this year. So over the next couple of weeks I’ll be reviewing my inventory, seeing which ones seem most promising to me. Then I’ll have to get back to work researching markets and see which ones look most promising to me. Then I’ll have to marry the two.

This isn’t the type of work I enjoy about writing, but it’s necessary, so I will do it. Now, back to engineering for a couple of hours.

Suite 101, Writing

Back in the Writers Group?

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I went to the writers guild tonight. I went last Tuesday, but nobody showed up. Since I’m not a regular, they wouldn’t have thought to call me when they decided to cancel for a week. I was the first one there, and waited ten minutes, till about 7:05 PM until someone showed up. Three retired ladies who rode together came in, then one more. We started out by reading one of theirs, then had just started on another when another lady came in. That made six of us, a good number.

This is the writers guild I went to for about five years when we first moved to Bella Vista. Most of the time I was the only person in the group who wasn’t retired, though from time to time another working stiff wandered in. I left the group because no one besides me was writing with the goal of seeking publication through a royalty publisher. I say that not to demean their writing goals, but rather to say we were not like-minded and so approached things differently. At the Spavinaw Writers, which I attended for about six months until dropping it earlier this year, they were all seeking royalty publishing, but we were not like-minded in other ways (politically, that is).

I suppose finding a writers group close enough to attend regularly where everyone is reasonably like-minded will be next to impossible. So I think I will go back to this one. Part of the night we discussed promoting the group, including what to call it and how large we would want to get. I’m not sure we were all like-minded in that. Four of us read something. I read the latest article I’d written for Suite101.com, the third in the series on George Washington’s presidency. You can see the link in the box widget at the right hand side of the page. One lady read four pages from her latest novel-in-progress. Another read a short poem and then a brief selection from her journal; she doesn’t intend to publish either. Then a lady read from her novel, but she didn’t have copies for anyone.

It was good to be with this group again. Three of the others were attenders before I left the group; two were new to me (well, one was there when I attended a month ago). It was nice to be in fellowship with other writers again, in real life and not merely on-line.