Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
~ Mark Twain

"If you don't know where you are going, you might end up someplace else."
~ Yogi Berra

Quick Links

Letters of Note (fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos--that you were never expected to see)
About Pat (site host)
E-mail Pat
(pat at patmcnees dot com)
Aha Moments (from the brilliant Mutual of Omaha campaign to record people's stories about moments of clarity, defining moments when they gained the wisdom to change their life)
TED: Ideas worth sharing
Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world
Demystifying ID Fraud (C-Net FAQ)
Local idiot to post comment on the Internet (The Onion)
Freelance National Anthem (Bill Dyszel, 4 minutes)
KeepMeOut (addicted to a website? bookmark this page and it will remind you to get back to work!)
Today's Front Pages (check out Newseum's U.S. map -- move your cursor across the map and see the front pages change)
PostSecret
Comic Strip Generator
150 resources to help you write better, faster, or more persuasively (Online Education Database)
Help a reporter out (useful for reporters and for sources)
Paris Review "Writers at Work" Interviews
(selections from 1953 on, a gift to the world, and with a single click you can view a manuscript page with the writer's edits)
Padraic Cassidy's great links for investigative journalism
A tutorial on the Web
The Onion (if the news is making you sick, try this approach)
Writer's Digest's choices for 101 best websites
Truth-o-meter (St. Pete Times on whether, and how much, various notable people are telling the truth)
Fact Check (Annenberg sorts political truths from half-truths)
Telling your life (or family) story
Medical links for smart patients
Find Authors
Blog roll (and other great stuff)

Major writers organizations

(many of them strong on fighting for creators' rights and ethical behavior)

This list is subjective. I want the writer or editor new to a rather large world of specialty organizations to know which organizations are the big ones, in size and influence. That doesn't mean they're the ones that will prove most immediately useful for an individual -- but they tend to have more clout than the others, when it comes to something like a fight over copyright, for example. Let me know if you think one of these organizations doesn't belong here, or if an important organization is missing.

American Society of Journalists & Authors (ASJA, stronger on newspaper and magazine rights than on book rights and stronger right now on marketing than on rights)
Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ), strong on getting health care and medical stories right
Authors Guild
(strong on authors rights, negotiating good book contracts, with a legal staff and a board of famous writers that offers some defense against publishers' tendencies to whittle away at writers' rights and share of income)
The Authors Registry
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
IRE (Investigative Reporters and Editors, strong on training and freedom of the press issues)
National Association of Science Writers (NASW, 2,500 science writers and editors and science-writing educators and students)
National Writers Union (part of United Auto Workers; very easy to join)
PEN America (poets, essayists, and novelists), with an emphasis on world literature
Poets & Writers (PW), with an emphasis on literary writing
Society for Technical Communication (STC)
The Society of Authors (serving the interests of professional British writers, 8500 members strong)
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)
Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ)
Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW)
The Writers' Guild of Great Britain

Allied organizations strong on fighting for creators' rights


American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP, music rights)
American Society of Media Photographers
Creators Network
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF, defending freedom in the digital world)
Graphic Artists Guild

Websites, organizations, and other resources

A GREAT READ
About blogs
Blog roll, too
Book news, reviews, interviews
Books for book clubs
Best reads and most "discussable"
Books for writers and editors
Great search links
Fact-finding, fact-checking, and news and info resources
Memoirs (a reading list)
Recommended reading
Narrative nonfiction
BOOK AND MAGAZINE PUBLISHING
Acquiring, swapping, or selling books
New and used books, Amazon.com and elsewhere
Agents and book proposals
Book collaboration, ghost writing
Communicating and marketing online (Web 2.0)
Blogs, social media, podcasts, ezines, survey tools and online games
Freelancing,contracting, telecommuting
Getting published (starting out)
Job banks, publishing marketplaces
And finding freelance gigs
Marketing, publicity, promotion
Blogs, video promotion, intelligent radio programs
Publishing (and e-publishing)
See also Self-Publishing
Self-publishing and print on demand (POD)
Indie publishing, digital publishing, POD, how-to articles
So, You Want to Write a Book!
Includes original text by Sarah Wernick
WRITERS AND CREATORS
Adding images, sound, story, humor
Awards, grants, fellowships
Plus contests and other sources of funding
Conferences, workshops, and learning places
Corporate and technical communications
Copywriting, speechwriting, marketing, training, and the like
Fiction writing
Literary and commercial (including genre)
Film, drama, and documentaries
Journalism and journalists
Local and regional organizations
Major writers organizations
Mastering art and craft
Writing, reporting, multimedia, equipment, software
Media pros and other allied professionals
Translators, indexers, designers, photographers, artists, illustrators, animators, cartoonists, image professionals, composers
Memoir, biography, and corporate history
Nonfiction
Poetry and verse
Science and medical writing
Specialty and niche writing
Groups for writers who specialize in animals, children's books, food, gardens, family history, resumes, sports, travel, Webwriting, and wine (etc.)
The writing life
ETHICS, RIGHTS, AND OTHER ISSUES
Copyright, work for hire, and other rights issues
Google Books Settlement (Pro and Con)
Ethics, libel, freedom of the press
Plus media watchdogs, FOIA
EDITORS AND EDITING
For editors
Preface, foreword, or introduction
Style, grammar, diction
Tips on tact and tone