Greetings,

This week, something a little different from the normal. Notice I wrote "different from" not "different than" or "different to." This curly topic was raised by one of our Merry Group, Mike, who's Editor & Publisher of Recreational & Educational Computing in Clarks Summit, PA.

I have always taught that it's 'different FROM' - (and 'similar TO') and that you never use 'different than'. But I've come across so many writers who use 'different than' that I thought I'd better look into this. After a happy hour spent browsing, I've discovered that the general consensus (from the major dictionaries on line and various university sites) seems to be that 'different from' is the grammatically 'correct' and preferred usage; 'different than' is becoming more common in US and 'different to' is often used in UK.

So-o-o, this week, something different from the normal ...

If you enjoy writing for fun (as opposed to "business writing"), you'll be looking for places to have your work read by others - here's a venue for all those Antipodean writers out there. It's a new book called Oze Tales and will be available for sale next month.

Are you an avid short story writer? Do you relish the simplicity and brevity of a short story? If that’s the case, then we would love to read your work. Our soon to be released Oze Tales will feature fourteen Australian short stories. This anthology will be a regular feature and best of all it’s a paying market offering generous royalties to authors.

The only requirement for inclusion in Oze Tales is that the writer must be either currently residing in Australia or an expatriate Australian. This gives Oze Tales a unique Australian focus and exposes our writers to a worldwide audience.

There is no fixed format for stories and they can be of any genre, political or sexual persuasion. We are looking for fourteen short stories to include in our first edition. We are currently budgeting for 70% of the book profits to go into a writer’s pool, to be shared out equally between all contributors, meaning that each writer receives 5% of the profits. The book remains on sale indefinitely, which means that the short story you write for the first edition could quite feasibly be making money twelve months or five years from now. This is a much better deal than any print publisher can ever hope to offer.

NB Writers are permitted to send more than one short story but only one will be included in each edition of Oze Tales. You can however grant us the rights to hold extra stories over for inclusion in later editions of Oze Tales.

The first edition of Oze Tales goes on sale May 16 and retails for $4.50.

We look forward to reading your submissions.

Alastair Rosie (Editor Bard-list)

Stay tuned for some exciting information regarding another opportunity to have your work published on the Internet!

This week's quiz: another step in the campaign to eliminate "a lot" from our language! Match up the collection next to each word:

Collections: anthology, archipelago, bale, bunting, chain, fusillade, gaggle, hand, index, menagerie, posy

1. poems - ANTHOLOGY

2. flowers

3. bananas

4. names

5. islands

6. animals

7. wool

8. mountains

9. shots

10.flags

11.geese

See if you can give a couple of English words derived from the following Latin - they must have a similar meaning and should utilise some (but not necessarily, all) of the root word:

1. Bellum (war) - BELICOSE, BELLIGERENT, REBELLION

2. culpa (a fault) - CULPABLE, CULPRIT

3. fugio (I flee) - FUGITIVE, REFUGE, REFUGEE

4. loquor (I speak) - ELOCUTION, LOQUACIOUS, VENTRILOQUIST

5. ruptus (to break) - RUPTURE, INTERRUPT, BANKRUPT

6. stinguo (I mark) - DISTINGUISH, STIGMA, DISTINCT

7. tentus (to hold) - TENTATIVE, TENACIOUS, TENANT

8. unda (a wave) - UNDULATE, INUNDATE, ABUNDANT

9. versus (to turn) - VERSATILE, REVERSIBLE, CONVERTIBLE

10.voro (I devour) - VORACIOUS, CARNIVORE, OMNIVOROUS

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip. After a good meal and a bottle of wine, they lay down for the
night and went to sleep.

Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend.

"Watson, look up and tell me what you see."

Watson replied, "I see millions and millions of stars."

"What does that tell you?"

Watson thought for a moment. "Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially
billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. I also deduce that the time is about a quarter
past three. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful and that we are small and insignificant.
Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautifully day tomorrow. Why, what does it tell you?"

Holmes said, "It tells me someone stole our tent, you idiot!"

And a Latin phrase for next Sunday's easy dinner after the footy:

Mea dilectissima! Farrago thunni! (My favourite! Tuna casserole!)

Regards,

Jennifer

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