Writing Contest News
January 11, 2007
I pulled this off a newsletter I get called Shelf Awareness:
So, if you're interested, good luck.
In the Life Isn't Stranger Than Fiction, It's Just Plain Strange cagetory, there was an article on MSN.com today about how some US intelligence contractors have discovered Canadian coins that are actually hollowed out and contain miniature transmitters in them.
Although there's a part of me that says, "Wow, that is so cool!" there is a part of me thinking that this is primarily useful if you intend your surveillance to take place in the inside of a Coke machine. Of course, they were Canadian coins, and although I'm in Michigan relatively close to the Canadian border, not all that many vending machines except right in Detroit or perhaps Saulte Ste. Marie or Port Huron actually accept Canadian coins.
So this sort of wins the Maxwell Smart Shoe Phone Award. Cones of Silence, anyone?
Best,
Mark Terry
I pulled this off a newsletter I get called Shelf Awareness:
Days after the Sobol Award program collapsed, Simon & Schuster's Touchstone imprint and Gather.com, which just e-inked an agreement with Borders for a book chat room, are setting up First Chapters, a prize for unpublished writers, today's New York Times reported. Under the program, aspiring authors post chapters of their works on Gather.com, and its members vote in several rounds for their favorites. (Unlike the Sobol Award, there are no entry fees, and winners aren't forced to sign a contract with an agent.) Finalists are judged by a panel that includes S&S's Carolyn Reidy and George Jones, CEO of Borders. The brass ring is the same as the Sobol Award: a publishing contract with Touchstone. The winner also receives $5,000 from gather.com.
So, if you're interested, good luck.
In the Life Isn't Stranger Than Fiction, It's Just Plain Strange cagetory, there was an article on MSN.com today about how some US intelligence contractors have discovered Canadian coins that are actually hollowed out and contain miniature transmitters in them.
Intelligence and technology experts said such transmitters, if they exist, could be used to surreptitiously track the movements of people carrying the spy coins.
The U.S. report doesn’t suggest who might be tracking American defense contractors or why. It also doesn’t describe how the Pentagon discovered the ruse, how the transmitters might function or even which Canadian currency contained them.
Although there's a part of me that says, "Wow, that is so cool!" there is a part of me thinking that this is primarily useful if you intend your surveillance to take place in the inside of a Coke machine. Of course, they were Canadian coins, and although I'm in Michigan relatively close to the Canadian border, not all that many vending machines except right in Detroit or perhaps Saulte Ste. Marie or Port Huron actually accept Canadian coins.
So this sort of wins the Maxwell Smart Shoe Phone Award. Cones of Silence, anyone?
Best,
Mark Terry
posted by Mark Terry at 6:12 AM
3 Comments:
Whooooohooooo! thanks for the tip on the Gather place. Might give it a try. Does the book have to be finished? :)
The canadian coins....are you sure that wasn't from one of your books?
Don't know any details about the contest.
And I gotta tell you, I'm thinking about those coins...
Heh.
Why do you think we call our one and two dollar coins "loonies and toonies"?
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