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The Ins and Outs of Free Writing Contests (free writing contests) Free writing contests are available by the thousands. They are virtually a dime a dozen on the Internet. No matter what your niche is in the writing community there is a free writing contests out there for you. How do you know which ones to enter and which ones are legitimate? That’s simple. You do what you do best-- research. While providing the story for the free writing contest will probably be the easy part, researching the thousands of available contests will be a daunting task. If this is un-chartered water for you, you have the start at the beginning. Finding what free writing contests are available. Grab a notebook or start a word document and list the contests that are available. Beside each contest name you will want to put what kind of writing they are looking for and when it needs to be done by. By doing this first you will be able to eliminate any that do not coincide with your writing niche or with your schedule. Now the free writing contest research begins. Finding out if a contest is worthwhile and legitimate is comparable to running a background check on a person. First check the contest website. Do they have all contact information available? Do they tell you what company is hosting the contest? If they are not, you will have likely found warning number one that it is a scam. So scratch those off your list or at least move them to the bottom until you can find out more information on them. Start asking around to colleagues and writers groups. Search the writing forums and the Internet scam sites. The Better Business Bureau is also a good place to look. Once you narrowed the free writing contests down to the legitimate ones, read the contest rules and regulations. Some contests require you signing over all rights to a story even if you don’t win. Are you willing to do this? Giving up rights to you writing is a lot easier to do when you are getting something in return. After you enter there is no going back, so make sure this is what you want to do. The final thing you need to look for is if the contest is just a cover up to get you to buy services or products. This does not necessarily mean they are a scam or don’t actually award winners. It simply means that they will try to entice you to use their critiquing services or offer you a book at a reduced fee that your work will be published in. Being published sounds like a great deal but is it a book that carries prestige that people are going to see? Many authors think that writing contests will launch their career into a successful endeavor. This is not the case, especially for free writing contests. Even winning the grand prize of a smaller known contest is not going to affect your literary journey. Even though they may not springboard your career, there are good reasons to join writing contests. You will get unbiased opinions and valuable feedback from the judges. If you make it into the higher rounds, editors could also see your writing. Ultimately whether you enter a free writing contest the choice is yours. Just ask you self if the time spent writing and researching the piece you choose to enter is worth writing for free in most cases. The critique and feedback may be the most worthwhile thing you receive from the contest. But then again the judges opinions are a dime a dozen just like the contests.

Taking Advantage of a Free Service to Find Great Grocery Deals Are you interested in saving money on your groceries? Are your grocery bills getting you down? With the rising cost of food staples, it is becoming more important than ever before to choose carefully and shop smart. Fortunately, if you are willing to do the research and homework, you can find many great deals that can save you hundreds on your monthly grocery bill. Here is a free service that can help you find great grocery deals. This new grocery service is known as mygrocerydeals.com. Here is a brief run-down of what this new system can do for you. What Can MyGroceryDeals.com Do For You? There are many web-based services, and while many offer fine free services, very few can help you save actual money on your grocery deals. It is a good thing that mygrocerydeals.com came along, then. What can this web-based service do for you (and your grocery food bill?). Mygrocerydeals.com is directed at those savvy food shoppers that rifle through the weekly circular ads on a regular basis, and those that spend their long Sunday mornings clipping coupons with a cup of coffee in hand. If you are tired of this dull ritual, fear not—mygrocerdeals.com is here to save you from this routine. Discovering the Scope of MyGroceryDeals.com Basically, this fine web-based service saves you the trouble of having to rifle through all that newsprint and coupon circulars. This web-based service is basically a giant database of local grocery store offers and specials. By using this easy web-based service, you can build your very own grocery list and even build shopping lists for the store that you prefer to shop at. You can also choose to browse the various deals and steals at your local grocery stores. Furthermore, you can even get information about the products you are shopping for. With this easy to use web-based service, you can even check out the nutrition database, food allergy alerts and other pertinent information. You can create your own virtual shopping list and then print it out for when you are ready to hit the store. Even better, you can download special deals and coupons for foods on your shopping list. How You Can Use MyGroceryDeals.com If you are ready to use this free web-based service, you can begin by registering a new account. You will need to enable pop-ups in order to get the full scope of the website. Most links will show up in a pop-up, so be sure that you check your Internet preferences before you begin. The website allows you to compile grocery lists and even save lists for future reference. You can try the 'try us now' link in order to browse your local store and select your closest location. You can even browse the stores in your surrounding areas. Before you submit your registration, note that there is a small check box asking you whether you would like to receive a free copy of Taste of Home Magazine. Make sure that the box is checked or unchecked accordingly. Get a Taste of the Printable Coupons One of the best things about using the mygrocerdeals.com web-based service is that you can gain easy access to a large collection of printable coupons. Make certain that your printer is ready to go before you log on. Also, be forewarned that in order to print out many of these coupons, you will need to install a browser plug-in from Coupon.com if you don't already have this driver installed on your computer. If you have already printed coupons from the World Wide Web before, chances are that you already have this plug-in installed. You can test this by attempting to print out new coupons.

The History of Writing Tools (history of writing tools) Writing tools are essential to written communication. A person is not able to write without the proper writing tools. However, many people don’t realize that writing tools did not just pop into existence; writing tools have a long history. Writing tools have helped societies write their history and bring civilizations to life. The history of writing tools begins with the cave man that invented the sharpened-stone, which was later developed into the first writing tool. Cave men used these instruments to scratch pictures onto the walls of cave dwellings. The drawings were said to represent events in the daily life of the cave men, such as the planting of crops and hunting victories. Clay was later discovered, which made portable records possible, and many merchants of the time used clay token with pictographs to record the quantities of materials being traded and shipped. The Greeks developed the earliest form of pen and paper. They used the writing stylus, which could be made of metal, bone, or ivory, to make marks on wax-coated tablets. The tablets used by the Greeks were made in hinged pairs that were closed to protect the scribe’s notes. Cadmus was a Greek scholar who seemingly invented the written letter, which is a text message on paper sent from one individual to another. The written letter proved to be a major event in the history of writing tools, and was the starting point for the development of ink. “Indian Ink” was developed by the ancient Chinese society, and perfected for writing. The ink was originally designed for blacking the surfaces of raised stone-carved hieroglyphics, but was later used for writing. This early ink was made of a mixture of soot from pine smoke and lamp oil mixed with the gelatin of donkey skin and musk. By the year 1200 B.C. the ink had become common as a writing tool. Inks were also developed by other cultures, who used natural dyes and colors derived from berries, plants, and minerals to create them. The different colors of inks had ritual meanings attached to each color in early writings. In the history of writing tools the development of ink paralleled the introduction of paper. Early cultures such as the Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, and Hebrews used papyrus and parchment paper to write on. Romans invented a reed-pen for parchment and ink, from the hollow tubular-stems of marsh grass and the jointed bamboo plant. The bamboo stems were converted into writing tools that resemble the fountain pen. The plant was cut at one end into the form of a pen point, and ink filled the stem, by squeezing the reed, writers could force the ink from the point and write on parchment paper. The early forms of ink and paper were great developments in the history writing tools, but were often unstable. A stable form of ink was developed in 400 A.D., which was a composite of iron-salts, nutgalls, and gum. The ink was seen as having a bluish-black hue when applied to paper, but quickly becoming a darker black color, and fading after years and appearing as a dull brown color. The Chinese created a wood-fiber paper in 105 A.D., but it was not known to other cultures until 700 A.D. when the Japanese learned the secret. Eventually, the wood-fiber paper was brought to Spain in 711 A.D., but was not widely used in Europe, as most European societies did not use paper until the 14th century. The quill pen is also a major invention in the history of writing tools. The quill pen was introduced to the world in 700 A.D. The pen was made of bird feathers, and the strongest quills were typically taken from live birds from the outer left wing feathers. After the development of the quill pen, plant fiber paper became the popular medium for writing. Then another invention changed the history of writing tools; Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. This invention has led to various other developments in printing and writing tools. Writing tools are essential to writing, and without the development we would not be able to show others our ideas and thoughts.