For better or worse, being jacked into the WWW is an essential part of life as a professional writer in the ’00s. For those who know where to look, the Internet provides some powerful tools to help bring journalists and clients together, besides help them network, organize their lives and of course, advertise their services.

We all know about Google, Yahoo, Altavista’s Babelfish and Wikipedia. And of course, PWAC’s own ListServs. Here are a couple you may not know about and should definitely check out (feel free to add your own favourites in the comments area below):

• Newsbureau
  A Canadian company that offers a sort of match-making service between journalists looking for a lead, editors looking for stories and businesses (including PR firms) with stories to tell. Allows freelancers to advertise their skills or expertise to assignment editors.
• Mediabistro
  A US site that aspires to be a media guild for the 21st century, providing opportunities for professionals across various disciplines to meet, share experiences, learn from the pros, promote themselves, and most of all, get the inside scoop on how to pitch over 250 major publications.
• MediaKitty
  The travel-specific counterpart to Newsbureau, connecting journalists and PR professionals in travel and lifestyle industries. Allows writers and photographers to advertise their services, including the destinations they can cover.
• Travelwriters
  A US website similar to Newsbureau, with the addition of a bulletin board system.
• Evernote
  A nifty tool that allows you to capture digital information — random thoughts, web links, excerpts of text, even words in a photo — and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.
• Sonar
  Somewhat archaic, but still one of the only software applications I’ve found specifically for keeping track of manuscript submissions.

Cheers,

-G

Former PWAC Quebec member Sandy Wolofsky is having a party at her cottage in Ste-Agathe-Sud, Sunday, June 29, 2pm til dawn (for those of you keeping track of our event calendar, it’s the day after our chapter summer party.

For all the details, and to RSVP email Sandy at ydnas@wolofsky.com.

P.S. Feel free to pass this on to anyone you think might want to come.

On Tuesday, June 17, at 7:00 p.m., the Dix Mille Villages in NDG is hosting a chocolate tasting with liqueurs. The cost is $10 and includes three different liqueurs and three luxury chocolates. The store managers will begin the evening with a short presentation on the history of Fair Trade Chocolate. This will be followed by a guided tasting of some of the finest fair trade chocolates in Montreal, made by Les Divins Chocolats de Sandra. To complement the chocolates, all participants will be offered a selection of liqueurs.

If this interests you and you (and maybe your friends) would like to attend, please let Kathe Lieber know.

Urgency
Public conversation with Greg Lynn and Yung Ho Chang
In conversation with CCA Director Mirko Zardini

Friday 13 June
Café-causerie from 9 am
Presentation from 10 am to 12 pm

Baile Park
Free admission, no reservation required

Renowned for their innovative projects and thinking, these two major international figures of the architectural world presents issues of vital importance in contemporary practice. The event includes individual presentations followed by a conversation moderated by CCA Director Mirko Zardini.

GREG LYNN
Greg Lynn founded his office Greg Lynn FORM in Venice, California, in 1992, after working in the offices of Peter Eisenman and Antoine Pedrock. He graduated from Miami University of Ohio in 1986 with degrees in Philosophy (B.Phil) and Environmental Design (B.E.D.). He received his Master in Architecture from Princeton University in 1988. Given his dual degrees in philosophy and architecture, Lynn has been involved in combining the realities of design and construction with the speculative, theoretical, and experimental potentials of writing and teaching. In 2002, he became a Professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. He has also been a Studio Professor at UCLA and was Davenport Professor at Yale University for several years. Lynn was ranked among the ‘’100 Innovators for the Next Century’’ by Time Magazine. He is the author of six books that combine his interests in contemporary and popular culture with the rigours of architectural theory and history, including: Intricacy (2003), Animate Form (1998), Folds, Bodies and Blobs: Collected Essays (1998), Folding in Architecture (1993).

YUNG HO CHANG
Yung Ho Chang is widely regarded as one of China’s most accomplished architects. Professor of Architectural Design and Head of the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he was previously Head and Professor of the Graduate Center of Architecture at Peking University. He received his Master in Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley and taught in the United States for fifteen years before returning to Beijing to establish China’s first independent architecture firm, Atelier FCJZ, in 1993. FCJZ’s projects range from private residences to large and small-scale museums, government buildings, urban planning projects, and installations at the Venice Biennale and Centre Pompidou in Paris, as well as experimentation in furniture and graphic design. He has exhibited internationally as an artist as well as an architect, and his many publications include the monograph Yung Ho Chang/Atelier Feichang Jianzhu: A Chinese Practice. His interdisciplinary research focuses on the city, materiality, and tradition. He often combines his research activities with design commissions.

It’s that time of year again: PWAC Quebec’s summer party will be held Saturday, June 28, at 6 p.m. This year, our membership chairperson, Marijke Vroomen-Durning, is hosting at her Châteauguay home (it’s not that far, honest!)

Full details can be found in the “Members Only” section.

Hope to see you there!

The Schmoozer - Monday, June 2, 2008

This month ELAN is teaming up with YES Montreal to host the biggest Schmoozer of all time! On June 2, 2008, from 5 to 7 pm at Bistro Origine in the Old Port, ELAN invites participants from the 8th Annual Montreal Self-Employed Artists’ Conference to join ELAN members for an evening of socializing and networking.

With a beautiful outdoor terrace in Old Montreal, Origine offers a great view of the Old Port, delicious beverages (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic for those who prefer a coffee or tea), and an atmosphere that just hums of summer and Montreal fever.

Admission to the Schmoozer is $2. To help us plan for this event, please RSVP to the office by sending an email with Schmoozer in the subject line. To find out more about the 8th Annual Montreal Self-Employed Artists’ Conference, visit the YES Montreal website.

Directions to Bistro Origine:
From métro Place d’Armes, walk towards Notre Dame St. in Old Montreal. Turn left on Notre Dame and walk one block. Turn right on St- Laurent Blvd. to the river (becomes Quai King Edward when you cross de la Commune). The red flags on the Quai lead to the Montreal Science Centre; Origine is situated to the left of the flags. The address is 2 rue de la Commune Ouest.

Do you make a living from your pen or keyboard, or aspire to do so? Then you will not want to miss this opportunity to meet and network with other communication professionals and discover the various organizations supporting them.

The Panelist’s choices for the Quebec Writers Federation June 2 Schmoozapalooza! – with the texts themselves – are now online at http://qwf.org/events/qwfreads.html. Read them all before coming to the event (details below), and be prepared to help shape English Quebec’s literary history… a little.

The next Quebec Writers’ Federation Schmoozapalooza! invites you to help choose the best poem or short story by a Quebec English-language writer!

Six short but stellar works of literature will be championed by two panels of well-known writers, and your voice can be heard, too!

Each poem and short story will be posted at www.qwf.org from Friday, May 16 until the evening of the event, Monday, June 2, so you can read them all before you arrive. Paragraphe Bookstore will be onsite to sell the books, so come prepared to boost your favourite author’s royalties!

The evening will be hosted by CBC Radio Noon’s Anne Lagacé Dowson.

And our celebrity panelists are…

For Poetry: Stephanie Bolster, Geoffrey Cook, and Catherine Kidd

For Short Stories: Ami Sands Brodoff, Tess Fragoulis, and Neil Smith.

WHEN: 6:30 p.m. on Monday, June 2

WHERE: Volver Café, 5604 avenue du Parc, Montreal, (just above Saint-Viateur)

Admission is free, but please come with an appetite for food and drink, as well as literature and schmoozing.

Our annual Chapter Business Meeting will be held April 23 at 7 p.m. at the Atwater Library. This is an important meeting for all members.

We will be electing our executive for the next year and selecting delegates for the National Conference held this May in Winnipeg. We ask that members please try and attend this meeting. We will also discuss the past year of events and take your feedback and suggestions. Bruce Wilson, our regional director, will offer a report
about national issues and initiatives. It runs from 7-9 p.m.

AGM Delegates
We still have space for delegates to the National Conference. Being a delegate enables you to vote on important PWAC business, and it also comes with a travel subsidy and chapter subsidy to help defray some of your costs. We will decide on the chapter subsidy at the April 23 meeting. Please email if you want to be a delegate. Info about the Conference is here.