Barbara U. Hague Editing and Proofreading

Here are some of my favorite resources:

For editors and writers

• I have been a member of Chicago Women in Publishing for over 20 years. Membership benefits include career development seminars, job listings, a freelance directory, and a newsletter that features the latest developments in the publishing industry.
• The University of Chicago Press features essential books for writers, editors, and publishers:
  • The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition.
  • Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations.
  • Wayne Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, The Craft of Research.
  • Carol Fisher Saller, The Subversive Copy Editor.
  • Scott Norton, Developmental Editing.
• The Slot: A Spot for Copy Editors by Bill Walsh is an entertaining and informative site that features The Curmudgeon's Stylebook, "an opinionated and thorough guide to the many things that can go wrong in print."
• Guide to Grammar and Writing dedicated to Charles Darling is a comprehensive site with many good links.
• Puzzled by those pesky possessives and plurals? The Apostrophe Protection Society explains it all. You'll enjoy their collection of examples of apostrophe abuse.
• Visit Common Errors in English to check that phrase that doesn't sound quite right. This is the site of Paul Brians, professor of English at Washington State University.
• If you like to read inspirational and entertaining stories, or want to try your hand at writing them, you'll enjoy Faith, Hope and Fiction. Founded by writer and speaker Patricia Crisafulli, this site features short stories, poetry, essays, and author interviews submitted by readers. People of all beliefs are welcome and the content is totally free.
• For a contrarian view, you'll enjoy June Casagrande's Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies, in which she takes on the experts and attempts to make arcane grammar rules understandable to the average reader.
• If you're interested in etymology along with some good writing and editing tips, take a look at Tom Gillispie's TG-Editor-Proofreader blog. He always has something worthwhile to say.
• Translation Services
  • Applied Language Solutions offers translation services by human translators for 140 languages and all types of documents.
  • All Translation Services provides language solution for over 130 languages. Their language solution includes translation, interpretation, transcription, desktop publishing, proofreading and editing, and language typing services.

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Marketing and business

• The Online Women's Business Center offers timely advice for women on all aspects of business and careers.
• Digital Women provides an International online community for women in business.
• WomanOwned.com offers small business resources for women business owners.
• Advancing Women is a great portal for career and business advice.
• Sales and marketing expert Dennis Frantsve's many talents are showcased in his Web site, ProfessorDennis.com. His business services include custom PowerPoint presentations; presentation development and training; sales process development and training; and proposal development. Dennis is Associate Professor in the Advertising Department of the Illinois Institute of Art, and is also the author of The Celtic Phoenix (2004).
• Another great networking group with many chapters in the Chicagoland area and southern Wisconsin is the Dynamic Professional Women's Network.

Computing and web site development

• The Chicago Computer Society has monthly interest group meetings on computer-related subjects at all levels, from beginner to professional.
• Elizabeth Castro, author of HTML 4 for the World Wide Web, which I used in creating this page, has two valuable sites:
  • The companion web site to the book at Peachpit Press features example files showing both the HTML code and how the code appears in your browser.
  • The other site is at www.cookwood.com.
• Make your own animated banners, buttons, and displays (like the one at the bottom of this page) for free at Animation Online, Addesigner.com, and Bannersnbuttons.com.
• Lynda Weinman has written several excellent books on Web design. Her site also features CD-ROMs, informative articles, and other Web resources.
• Get beautiful buttons and backgrounds at AAA Buttons.
• High-quality free software, including an HTML editor and ftp, and cool Web templates are available at CoffeeCup.
• I Just Want My Computers to Work! by Jerry Karson is the title of a handy guide for small-business owners struggling to understand and keep up with new technology. This book and other resources are available at CMIT Solutions.

Bright ideas

These web sites offer something unique and useful to their audience, a bright idea that makes you say, "Wish I'd thought of that!" Let me know who else should be included in this list.

• e-Tutor offers lessons on the Internet for kids from Kindergarten through high school. With the movement to make the Internet accessible to all schools, comes the need for quality content, and this site provides it. There are free sample lessons and many resources for the teacher, homeschooling parent, and anyone interested in the rapidly changing field of education. e-Tutor pays teachers (and other professionals) to write and submit lessons right online on their LessonPro template.
• Poetry Is Alive is the Web site of Blue, a young poet, novelist and actor based in New York City. Blue's experiences growing up in Harlem and Europe give him a unique perspective on urban life and culture. The site features excerpts of his work and videos of his performances.
• Vonda Sines is a writer and editor whose passion is animal rescue. Check out her blog, Campaigning for Barbaro--Virginia for information on the fight to stop the abuse and slaughter of horses.
• For business and professional women who want to be stylish but at the same time don't care to bare it all, take a look at Funky Frum. This site features fashionable, modest clothing for women of all ages, and has great sales. My daughter loves their hats!

More than 20,000 bunnies rescued in 20 years...keep up the good work, HRS!

For book lovers

Is there a book you love? A book you want to tell everyone, "You gotta read this!" It can be old or new; a literary classic or popcorn for the mind; if it's touched your heart, inspired you, taught you something important, or made you laugh; tell me about it and I'll include it in this space.

Here are my picks for spring:

• My favorite food historian, Rae Katherine Eighmey, has a new book out, Food Will Win the War: Minnesota Crops, Cooks, and Conservation during World War I. Fascinating reading, especially in these hard economic times, to find out how our predecessors coped with it all. You just might be inspired to start growing and canning your own. Interspersed with the text are a number of recipes to try, and vintage posters from the WWI era.
• Peter Straub's great new book, A Dark Matter, just blew me away, especially when I read that his hero and I once lived in the same building! (It turns out that a friend of Straub's really does live there.) In this novel, Straub revisits some previous territory: unraveling a mystery in the past that affects people's lives in the present.
• If you like a dark and compelling mystery, you'll enjoy Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. Flynn's badly flawed heroine, a reporter for a second-string newspaper in Chicago, gets sent down south to her hometown to investigate a series of child murders. Besides the usual stalling cops and suspicious townspeople, she has to contend with the family from hell, as well as her own compulsions.
• You'll need a few laughs now, and maybe a bit of romance. I highly recommend Laurie Viera Rigler's Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict and Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict. Two young women who are dissatisfied with their lives, one in Regency England and the other in modern-day Los Angeles, each visit a mysterious fortune teller. Next thing you know, they wake up one morning in each other's world. Will they find their way back home again? Keep reading!

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