The Lit Net Monthly News

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[FONT="Book Antiqua"]September 2009[/FONT][/SIZE][/CENTER][/I]Welcome to the September edition of The Literature Networks online newspaper. Every month, we will keep you updated with information regarding threads, contests, Book Club and lots more!
Happy Reading.

[I][CENTER][SIZE="4"][FONT="Book Antiqua"]Forum Book Club[/FONT][/SIZE][/CENTER][/I]
The Book Clubs Summer Challenge this year is As for Me and My House by Sinclair Ross
[url]http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44642[/url]
The Book Club is now reading the September Comic Novel A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
[url]http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46595[/url]
The vote for the October Horror Read [url]http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46028[/url]
The nomination period for the November Philosophical Novel is now in full swing.
[url]http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46596[/url]
The Forum Shakespeare Discussion Group is currently starting on Henry IV Part I. Pop over to the sub forum is you are interested in participating in the Discussion or any other forum Discussions. [url]http://www.online-literature.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=5895[/url]

The Forum Book Club is always happy to have new participants. If you are interested, you can find it in the Reading section of the Forum Index page.

[I][CENTER][SIZE="4"][FONT="Book Antiqua"]Official Forum Contest[/FONT][/SIZE][/CENTER][/I]
The August Elimination round is now over. The winner of the August Elimination round is “The Child”. Congratulations to the Author.
The October Elimination Round is now open. Please don’t forget to send in your entries to Scheherazade.

[I][SIZE="4"][FONT="Book Antiqua"][CENTER]Unofficial Poetry Contests[/CENTER][/FONT][/SIZE][/I]

The Personal Poetry forum is one of Litnets’ most active forums and comes complete with a sub-forum dedicated to poetry games and contests. We have three very popular poetry contests located in the sub-forum; The Picture [URL="http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23675&page=42"]Poetry Contest (continued…) [/URL] , [URL="http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23444&page=34"]The Form Poetry Contest [/URL] and [URL="http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38056&page=4"]The Subject Poetry Contest[/URL]. Why not pop in and give it a go. You might just win!
The current winners are;
Form: Dark Muse
Picture: Pendragon
Subject: LMK
Congratulations to you all!

[I][CENTER][SIZE="4"][FONT="Book Antiqua"]Featured Personal Poetry[/FONT][/SIZE][/CENTER][/I]
This month we have selected two poems from The Personal Poetry Forum, posted during the month of August, to feature in the Litnet Monthly News! I hope you like them too!

[U][B]The Winter of Our Discontent [/B][/U]
(With apologies and respect to John Steinbeck)

We sang of leaves and trees and flowers,
Did our wishing upon distant stars—
We could waste away the precious hours,
Lost in drugged dreams and flashy cars…
Hours spent perfecting guitar riffs,
Dreams of strutting upon the stage
Never thinking of the chances missed
We thought that we were all the rage—
Now the leaves have turned and fallen off,
The trees stark naked, flowers gone
The stars have somehow turned their burning hells off
Youth has vanished into old age’s storm…
Still somehow we think ourselves the universe’s center
Never realizing spring has now become winter…

Pendragon
© Sunday, August 16, 2009

[U][B]The judas kiss[/B][/U]

You said you had to go away,
Just a day or two
A business trip
Something you had to do

But I knew better
I knew that you were leaving
I found out
About the cheating and deceiving

I wait for the truth to come
But you just keep lying
You’re leaving me
And inside I’m dying

But you won’t see me cry
I just smile instead
I won’t let you see me
I will do that in my empty bed

You kiss me on the cheek
And look me in the eye
And with that Judas kiss
You turn and say goodbye
By Biggus

[I][SIZE="4"][FONT="Book Antiqua"][CENTER]Forum Advertisement[/CENTER][/FONT][/SIZE][/I]
Do you want to let off that steam and vent your anger? Then why not visit [URL="http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25259&page=27"]Get it off your Chest![/URL]
Or if you are looking for advice, but want to remain unknown then why not contact Scheherazade and have your problem posted in [URL="http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36313&page=5&highlight=personal+anonymous"]Personal and Anonymous[/URL]. Your fellow Litnetters will pass on their own words of wisdom.

[I][CENTER][SIZE="4"][FONT="Book Antiqua"]Featured Members Profile[/FONT][/SIZE][/CENTER][/I]

Each month we will be sifting through Litnets member profile pages and selecting one as our Featured Profile of the Month. So get personalizing, decorating and designing your profile.
This months profile of the month is NickAdams [url]http://www.online-literature.com/forums/member.php?u=33500[/url]

[I][CENTER][SIZE="4"][FONT="Book Antiqua"]Blog of the Month[/FONT][/SIZE][/CENTER][/I]

Each month we will be selecting a blog and awarding it the title of Blog of the Month right here in Lit Net Monthly News.
This months Blog of the Month is AimusSage’s! [url]http://www.online-literature.com/forums/blog.php?b=8893[/url]

[I][SIZE="4"][FONT="Book Antiqua"][CENTER]Featured Threads of the Month[/CENTER][/FONT][/SIZE][/I]

Every month we will feature different threads and games. This months Thread of the Month and Game of the Month are:
Thread of the Month is School Bells [url]http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40837[/url]
Game of the Month is Pam [url]http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16968&page=330[/url]


[I][CENTER][SIZE="4"][FONT="Book Antiqua"]Lit Net Book Reviews[/FONT][/SIZE][/CENTER][/I]

This month’s book review was randomly selected from the Write a book Review sub-forum in general Literature.


[U][B]Brideshead Revisited [/B][/U]

Pleased be advised that the below review contains spoilers.

I cannot say that Brideshead Revisited is Waugh's best novel as I haven't read all of them but of the four that I have read, it is definitely the best.
Unlike his other work, Brideshead has very little comedy and is concerned with with the problems of faith: in this case catholicism. The story concerns Charles Ryder an Englishman and his friend Sebastian Flyte who meet as students at Oxford university and strike up a homoerotic relationship. Flyte is the scion of an ancient aristocratic family who have a magnificent country seat in Wiltshire:the Brideshead of the title.
After an idyllic end of term holiday at the house which the two young men have to themselves, for the family are abroad for the summer, their return to Oxford presages the tragedy with which the novel unfolds. Flyte's mother, the Marchioness, is a fervent catholic whose husband, Lord Marchmain, has been driven by her religiosity to leave her to live in Venice. Sebastian's older brother 'Bridie' and sister Julia have been brought up as devout catholics along with a younger sister, Cordelia. Sebastian, however, like his father, feels that his independance is threatened by his mother's insistence but is unable to escape what he sees as a family conspiracy to force him into compliance with her wishes. He takes to drink and the story reveals the impact of his decline on the narrator and the family when he goes abroad and wanders through various countries sinking into the obscurity he longs for as his ultimate refuge.
Waugh handle's his tale with great sensitivity and introduces a number of susidiary characters who add colour to the story and extend the interest beyond its central theme. The prose writing is exquisite without being precious although his description of various settings is sometimes overlong.
Another problem is that the dialogue sometimes seems contrived but is otherwise quite natural. The story is set over a period of some twenty years against a background of rising political tension in Europe and eloquently depicts a social class in decay following on from the first World War.
Weighing in at 331 pp., Brideshead is considerably longer than Waugh's other novels and might have benefitted from a slimming down, especially towards the end. Despite this it remains essential reading for those who appreciate fine writing.

Brian Bean

[I][SIZE="4"][FONT="Book Antiqua"][CENTER]Forum Advertisement[/CENTER][/FONT][/SIZE][/I]
Wondering what Litnets top 100 books are? Why not pop on over to Dark Muses Lit Nets Top 100 Books Official List and see for yourself! [url]http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40711&page=7[/url]

[I][CENTER][SIZE="4"][FONT="Book Antiqua"]September Birthdays[/FONT][/SIZE][/CENTER][/I]

Here are this months Litnet birthdays! Also, don’t forget that many of these members will be sent an interview, so look out for the [URL="http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36273&page=4"]Getting to Know You thread[/URL].

Happy Birthday!
Sarasvati21, cipherdecoy, Tabula Rasa, Video Done, tokyorose, Qimisung, Bakiryu, Reccura, Nightshade, idiosynchrissy, Alt+Control+Delete, Saladin, Maraki16, Nikhar, Carrolb2, bazarov, Weisinheimer, Taliesin, hoope, higley, Maximilianus, Kafka1978, mayneverhave.

[I][SIZE="4"][FONT="Book Antiqua"][CENTER]New Additions to the Site[/CENTER][/FONT][/SIZE][/I]
There are some new quizzes added to the forum by Logos. If you have some free time on your hands, why not give them ago! [url]http://www.online-literature.com/forums/quiz.php?catid=1[/url]
There have been some recent upgrades to the forum. If you are interested in seeing what Admin has now created and changed, please follow the link below. [url]http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45417[/url]

[I][SIZE="4"][FONT="Book Antiqua"][CENTER]Letters to the Editor[/CENTER][/FONT][/SIZE][/I]

Dear Lit Net Newsletter:

I have two points about posting threads in our beloved, and thoroughly indispensible Literature Network Forums.

1. Recently some of our participants experienced a harrowing and notorious plagiarism incident, and which some of our members, especially Firefangled, exerted Herculean efforts to rectify.

It might be time for us to reconsider the
ways in which we post our creative works
here.

Please consider following the suggestion from one of our moderators to post all of our creative works in a single thread, one thread each for personal poetry, short stories, and creative essays and such. The general thread could be like this: "So-and-so's Poems." Post each new poem as a separate "reply." It might also be a good idea to put a by-line including your screen name under the title of each individual poem. (Some of us have posted copyright notices, but apparently this doesn't thwart the thieves in anyway.)

2. I've been reading in the mainstream
media about several incidences of ordinary people (not just celebrities)suing anonymous bloggers for "flaming"
or otherwise injuring them online. I'm bringing this up because one of the articles about such incident contained a
piece of excellent advice which all of us would do well to remember:
"Think before you click 'post'."

That's all for now, except thank you, LitNet, for being the best site on the Web.

Auntie

dear lit-net news,

I have been here for a number of years now, and seen numerous changes take place on the forum. From the days of being able to dissappear for weeks and come back to find you can catch up on all the missed posts in 2 hours. To now where you miss a day and you have a week to go through.

I have been very impressed with the addition of the serious discussion forum and the blog section, these at times have the most interesting threads to read.
Kilted Exile

[I][SIZE="4"][FONT="Book Antiqua"][CENTER]Blog and Customized Profile of the Year Nominations[/CENTER][/FONT][/SIZE][/I]

The Blog and Profile of the Year Nominations!

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The Lit Net Monthly News will be one year old in November and to celebrate a successful first year, we are asking YOU to nominate and vote for YOUR favourite Blog and Customized profile.
In the month of September, we will open up the nomination period. Please forward your nominations to me via PM.
In October the top ten nominated will be added to a poll for you to vote.

The rules are simple;
-You can not nominate/vote for yourself.
-Once you have nominated/voted you will not be allowed to change your choices so be very sure of your choices.
-Any members found to be requesting other members to vote or nominate for them will be disqualified from being in the run for Blog and Profile of the year.
-Forum members are requested to not alter their profiles during this two month period, especially if theirs is one of the final top ten. Your profile may have been been nominated for a certain reason and alterations may remove this reason. Of course if yours is not one of the final ten, you can continue to alter to your hearts content.
-This is open to ALL forum members who have above 50 posts.

The nomination Period is now open so get your nominations in before the end of the month.
Any queries dont hesitate to PM me or leave a message on my Profile
The Litnetter



[I][SIZE="4"][FONT="Book Antiqua"][CENTER]Special Thanks[/CENTER][/FONT][/SIZE][/I]

I would like to thank everyone who helped contribute to the Newsletter, whether they were aware they were contributing or not!
Also a special thank you to all those that subscribe to the newsletter.
Yours truly
The Litnetter