A Shoutout for the Authors Guild

I'm always encouraging fellow writers to join the Authors Guild for the legal services and the invaluable Model Trade Book Contract and Commentary (we're talking super crunchy boilerplate, much more than is available on the webpage, and whether you work with an agent or not, yes, you can keep your wits about you when they start talking about subrights clauses that sound like Masonic incantation). But it does cost more than the price of a hamburger dinner for seven to join, and I was just thinking, gosh, they really should offer a member directory with a little more oomph, when lo, that very invitation to fill out my new page arrived in the inbox! 

It was easy to do and it is elegantly designed. If you join, your page would like this this:


Author's Guild Member Page for Yours Truly


My one criticism of the Author's Guild is that it's oriented toward those with traditional publishers, yet these days, increasing numbers of even the most impressively published writers are becoming "hybrid," that is, going to ye olde publishers for some works, and self-publishing others as Kindles, PODs, and more. No doubt, I am one of many authors, whether current or prospective members of the Authors Guild, who would warmly welcome more information and support for the latter.

That said-- so I hear from other members-- the Authors Guild author webpage services (check out Neal Gillen's and Sara Mansfield Taber's) and Backinprint.com program (see Sophy Burnham's The Art Crowd, for example) are very good.

> Your COMMENTS are always welcome.









Cyberflanerie: Solitario Dome Edition

Inside The Solitario
Photo: C.M. Mayo
March 2015
For my Far West Texas book-in-progress and the Marfa Mondays Podcasting project, I am working on an interview with Texas historian Lonn Taylor, plus a short piece about the Solitario Dome of Big Bend Ranch State Park in Far West Texas, which is to say, US-Mexico border country. 

Meanwhile, a few links about the latter:
Chase Snodgrass's flight over the Solitario:






Flora and Vegetation of the Solitario Dome
by Jean Evans Hardy, Iron Mountain Press, 2009
(Whoa, call the chiropracter, I brought this one home in my carry-on.)

Geology of the Solitario
by Charles E. Corry, et al. Geological Society of America Special Paper 250, 1990.

"Igneous Evolution of a Complex Laccolith-Caldera, the Solitario, Trans-Pecos, Texas:
Implications for Calderas and Subjacent Plutons" 
by Christopher D. Henry, et al. Geological Society of America Bulletin, August 1997
(Super-crunchy PDF)


Google Maps screenshot
"The Solitario: Sentinel of the Big Bend Ranch State Park"
Megan Hicks, The Big Bend Paisano, Winter 2004/2005
(PDF)

"Geology at the Crossroads"
By Blaine R. Hall, Big Bend Ranch State Park
(PDF)






Entering the labyrinth of the Solitario via Los Portales
(That's my guide, Charlie Angell, he's the best,
check him out on Tripadvisor.com)
Photo: C.M. Mayo, March 2015


>Your COMMENTS are always welcome.

>Listen in to all the Marfa Mondays Podcasts anytime. The most recent is "Tremendous Forms: Finding Composition in the Landscape," an interview with Paul V. Chaplo, author of the magnificent Marfa Flights.

Sergio Troncoso on El Paso, Flannery O'Connor, Borges at Harvard, Zyklon-B, and Our Lost Border

Back in 2012 for my Conversations with Other Writers occasional podcast series, I posted a fascinating interview with novelist and essayist Sergio Troncoso. You can still listen to that interview anytime on podomatic or iTunes, and the news is, I've just posted the complete transcript.




There is also a transcript of my podcast interview with Rose Mary Salum.

More podcasts and transcripts of same are in-progress-- coming soon, more Marfa Mondays.

> Your COMMENTS are always welcome.

What is actual Reality of Extended Loan Terms and condition?

What is actual Reality of Extended Loan Terms and condition?
    Extended loan terms or longer loan terms are attractive because they allow you to buy an expensive car while making smaller payments. But, before you opt for such a loan program, it is important to understand its reality.

It is the situation before the loan upside:
                     Upside down car loan means that you owe more to the lender than the car's actual worth. It is a very dangerous situation because if your car is written-off in an accident, you will still have to pay the loan amount. It means you will have to pay money for a car that you no longer drive.
If you opt for a longer term and smaller monthly payments, you will end up with an upside down car loan. It is because lenders will direct monthly payments towards the interest and will not reduce the principal amount.

Negative situation:
                     A car's depreciation rate is higher in the first few years. And, if you opt for extended loan terms, you will make smaller payments. As a result, the outstanding loan balance will not reduce quickly. It will create a situation of negative equity. Remember that it is harder to trade-in a car with negative equity because it doesn't have the power to reduce the new asset's cost.

Payment mode of the insurance:
                      Suppose your loan amount is $40,000. If the interest rate is 5% and the term is seven years, your total interest amount will be $7489.97.
 Now, let's assume that your loan amount and the interest rate is same as mention. If the loan term is reduced to four years, you will end up paying $19,108.12 in interest. So, it is advisable to opt for a shorter term and save money in the long term.
Now that you have understood the reality of extended loan terms, it is advisable to stay away from it. Remember that it is always the bigger picture that matters.
Get destination regarding car which is the most important thing, here customer get his car after the all process regarding payment, clearance, insurance, registration etc.
In the last you should aware about the whole category of the car situation about loan and insurance installments 60 month or less or more which is decided with you by the companies or bank representative. You should also understand clearly that there will be no hidden charges or other dues which is mentioned in these matters.
                      The conditions and terms basically held by the companies or banks but these terms and conditions selected by the views of the customers and the people after the huge survey so these terms and conditions well be changed and set aside by the competent authorities .

Cyberflanerie: Amusingly Strange Edition

OK Go Pilobolus dance video (hat tip to Swiss Miss)



More dancing, with pixels.


Field Lab blogger in Terlingua recites his poem, with pet longhorns.

Frank Chimero on what screens want.

>Your COMMENTS are always welcome.