When I was a kid, an elderly aunt used to tell me that I should learn something new every day. She made a game of it, finding interesting facts to teach me: why maple leaves twirl as they fall, what makes stars twinkle, how to grow beans.

How she would have loved the Internet. It's difficult to avoid learning at least one new thing each day. If you're addicted to research, as many writers are, it's a dangerous trap, into which one can fall for hours at a time.

Our favorite website is, of course, Uncial Press: www.uncialpress.com where this month's offerings are a Regency romance and a thrilling mystery. Lesley-Anne McLeod's CLEMMIE'S MAJOR is a moving story of love conquering class differences. In Kenneth L. Levinson's FINAL ARGUMENT follow Adam Larson as he tries to discover who killed Denver's most hated lawyer.

Valentine's Day is coming soon, and we have two perfectly enchanting stories for you to curl up with while you celebrate romance. We are delighted to bring you an old favorite of ours, long out of print. Sheila Simonson's A COUSINLY CONNEXION shows how love coupled with strong common sense can heal old family hurts. In her first book (which we are so proud to present), Jana Richards takes you on a Caribbean cruise with an abandoned-at-the-altar bride and HER BEST MAN. Coming on 16 February. Don't miss them!

While we were thinking about cool websites the other day, we asked our authors to suggest some of their favorites. What a selection. Everything from prehistoric art to movie spoilers, from increasing your vocabulary to finding esoteric e-tomes. And, of course, there are the authors' websites, well worth visiting, just to see what they've been up to.

C.S. Fuqua (http://www.knology.net/~csfuqua) says, "If you're into music and prefer not to listen to homogenized stuff on the airwaves, then check out www.acidplanete.com. It's a place where musicians and visual artists upload extraordinary music and videos in every genre,from bluegrass to metal, classical to folk. You'll be amazed at the talent that's offered for free."

Want to know how the movie ends without sitting through it? Anna C. Bowling (www.geocities.com/unzadi/) offers http://www.moviepooper.com/pooperpg2.html to solve that little problem. But if you take your entertainment more seriously, check out http://likesbooks.com/ as a first stop to check out what's going on among romance readers, great reviews, discussion and lots of features

Sheila Simonson (http://sheila.simonson.googlepages.com) invites you to visit a couple of off-the-beaten track sites. The first is the French government website of the Chauvet Pont d'Arc caves with their paleolithic images at http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/en/index.html. This cave will not be opened to anyone but scholars, so the government of France commissioned a brilliant photographic record of the paintings. You can read it in English or French. The second website has won more than fifteen awards for its excellent design and charming content. It's called Orkneyjar: the Heritage of the Orkney Islands, and it's maintained by Sigurd Towrie. Besides lovely photos of the Orkneys, it includes folklore and a personal journal and much interesting information about a remote and beautiful place. The address is http://Orkneyjar.com/index.html.

"Everyone loves freebies so here are two really cool URLs: www.giveawayoftheday.com provides free software--these are actual programs, not shareware or freeware, and are yours to download and install for free. The only catch is that you must activate the program within the 24 hours that it is available for free. The second URL is www.freebies.about.com. These freebies are gathered from around the web and are a variety of items including tea samples--perfect to brew and sip on while reading my murder mystery romance TAINTED TEA FOR TWO! You might have to provide your address (for shipping), email addy, etc. Hope you enjoy checking these sites out!" -- Susanne Marie Knight (www.susanneknight.com)

Lesley-Anne McLeod (www.lesleyannemcleod.homestead.com) writes, "A very cool website for Regency readers is "Good Ton: A resource for readers of Regency romance novels". Their addy is http://www.thenonesuch.com/ . It has lots of Regency research and facts and a ton (sorry couldn't resist the pun) of Regency book information."

Judith B. Glad (www.judithbglad.com) used to put her kids' art projects on the refrigerator door. Now she shows off links to their websites. One is http://www.aracnet.com/~ncglad/canoe/index.htm She adds, "Another favorite of mine is http://wordsmith.org/awad/, where you can sign up to receive a new word every day. I always did wonder what a fizgig was..."

And while we're speaking of words, Rob Shelsky (http://home.earthlink.net/~robngeorge/index.html) recommends Magnus Elke at: http://folk.ntnu.no/ekse/index.jsp?fil=sitater.jsp&side=div It has a very thorough listing of Latin quotes translated into English, and they are in alphabetical order. Very handy if one is doing period romances where Latin might have been used on occasion, such as in Elizabethan or Medieval period romances, e.g., quoted by either a knowledgeable professor, or just someone of the upper class studying Latin. Rob also reminds us of one of the best sources anywhere for old books: "Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page#The_Online_Book_Catalog), which has 20,000 free books available for download, many of them classics. These are all free because they are out of copyright in the United States. So, if you live in another country, please check to see that it is out of copyright there, as well, before you download a free book. You don't want to violate any of your home country's copyright laws."

Until next month--stay warm and happy, Star & Jude

Uncial Press is an imprint of GCT, Inc.
© 2006-2008