Here are some of my bookmarks, filed under different folders. I’m putting only the ones I have actually used (some are there, waiting to be used… I’ll leave them out for the moment!)
Feel free to pick any!
REFERENCE (for all that research – in my case mostly historical)
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/ a medieval archives name, you can also ask them for advice, they do reply (ex. you need a British name of the XII century or something)
Encyclopedia Mythica for worldwide mythology – gods and goddesses of our planet!
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ The Bibliotèque Nationale Française, has also English texts downloadable for free (something the British Library doesn’t seem to be able to do yet)
Internet Medieval Sourcebook – in case you didn’t notice, I have a passion for the Middle Ages
Awesome page of historical articles and various non fiction – I bookmarked the section on the Middle Ages, but the main page has it all.
I use the Osprey books when I need reference for battles/armies/weapons
Limyaeel’s fantasy rants on world creation and avoiding fantasy clichés (more here), the final collection, most comprehensive collection here (Catnip4 writers also has lots of links for writers… see sidebar/web pages)
UTILITIES (dictionaries etc)
Common errors in English usage
http://www.merriam-webster.com/ as suggested by Jim Cirile of Coverage Ink
Dictionary.com as suggested by Mickey Mills the Prodigal Scribe – I use also the Thesaurus and the Translator (when it’s only a word or two)
English wordfinder – useful for crosswords AND rhymes
Visuwords as suggested by Madison Woods
and I keep Wikipedia here as well for a first search on any topic
1001 Free Fonts for your experiments (I downloaded all the gothic/medieval-looking I could find…)
Indie Authors – here’s a comprehensive list of useful links to free stuff for your covers, book trailers, etc! (thanks, Joleene @ Self Published Author’s Lounge!) and more free pictures for covers.
E-book formatting for Open Office (not free)
Create you Kindle e-book (step-by-step guide)
list of insanely useful links for indie authors (editors, cover artists, promotion, etc)
WRITING
WGA (Writers Guild of America) to register the screenplays
US Copyright Office to register the novels
Keep your copyright – contracts©right for Dummies
Stop online copyright infringement
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice
IP lawyers (recommended by Laura Resnick and Dean Wesley Smith) as well as David P.Vandagriff (AKA Passive Guy)
Legal aid and insurance for artists (and writers)
Preditors&Editors – check the list of agents/beware
Writer Beware from the SFWA and WB list of helpful resources (scroll to the end of the post)
http://www.wordhustler.com/ to search your market for a publisher or an agent
http://www.agentquery.com/default.aspx to find your agent
On being a non-US citizen publishing on Smashwords and Kindle
The Pros:
Orson Scott Card on writing and writers workshops
Piers Anthony on publishing
Colleen Doran on agents
Neil Gaiman on agents
On COPYRIGHT: Colleen Doran, Brad Templeton, Moira Allen, more Moira Allen and SFWA Writers Beware
That’s all for now. If any screenwriter wants also the screenwriting links, just add a comment and request them…
From Smashwords: Apple widgets galore!











Stephen Watkins
/ 10/05/2010Hey,
I’d add this link, since you have such a strong interest in all things medieval:
Medieval Demographics Made Easy. It’s a great resource for figuring out roughly how big that medieval fantasy city really is, and who lives there, and how many such cities are in that medieval fantasy kingdom, and so on. The end of the article has links to calculators that use the information from the article to generate random values for medieval kingdoms that fit within the guidelines of the article.
Barb
/ 11/05/2010I have the article printed out! Thanks for the addition, though! Any more additions/suggestions?
Stephen Watkins
/ 11/05/2010Sure, for writing in general, David Farland (author of the Runelords series) puts out a blog-like daily e-mail with tips for writers. His site is http://www.davidfarland.net. There’s a sign-up for the daily e-mail on his site.
Barb
/ 12/05/2010Done! Subscried to newsletter and added to blogroll… thanks!
Mickey Mills
/ 23/06/2010I’m a little surprised you don’t have http://www.querytracker.net/ in your database of utilities. I track all my query work here. It’s a very substantial database of Agents with search features that make it easy to determine your query targets.
Barb
/ 23/06/2010Maybe because I haven’t started querying yet!
I had a Word.doc for my screenwriting queries… worked fine for me (and an Excel for the expenses – WGAregistration, coverages, etc. I have one for the Lulu expenses now)!
Thanks for the useful link!
Takako Papka
/ 26/03/2011An impressive share, I just given this onto a colleague who was doing a little analysis on this. And he in fact bought me breakfast because I found it for him.. smile. So let me reword that: Thnx for the treat! But yeah Thnkx for spending the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love reading more on this topic. If possible, as you become expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more details? It is highly helpful for me. Big thumb up for this blog post!
Barb
/ 27/03/2011This is more a page than a blog post. I update it whenever I find something useful (or somebody suggests I add something).
I’m a fiction writer, not an expert. I only add here what I find helpful in my “job”.
Thanks for stopping by.