Internet sites I Couldn't Live Without

As a writer, my list of essential Internet websites is probably different from the average, but quite similar to those of other Helium Writers. I live on my computer. My first three days of each week are spent earning a more or less guaranteed income by working from home as a Customer Service Rep. I therefore, couldn't, just yet, do without my password-secured access to the Virtual Desktop Internet created by Citrix that I use.

Following that are the few places I use for relaxation, to take a break from thinking or to think if I am temporarily blocked. I therefore rely heavily on mindless games such as Freecell, Winster, and Peggle.

My all-time favorites are the writers websites, which allow me to learn and practice and offer feedback.

Next are my grammar-related websites, where I learn more about my craft and practice: dictionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedias, and grammar sites.

There are my bookstores, where I buy books for research and entertainment.

Last are the websites where I do my most serious research so that I won't make a complete fool of myself by saying something stupid such as Australian Cattle Dogs make good apartment pets, or worse. (Aussie's are my favorite dogs, and they are truly people lovers, but their level of energy does not confine well to small spaces. They do best with lots of work to perform beside of their outdoor-working human masters.)

To cut to the chase, these are my top ten favorite websites:

1. MSN.com is my home page, where I get a quick look at the top news of the day, and thus will know if a tidal wave is due to hit my coastal home before nightfall. There I find some of my "mindless games" and the three search engines I use daily: Bing, Google, and Yahoo.

2. Writers Releif.com is one of the most generous and helpful commercial websites for writersI have yet seen, and I subscribe to both the newsflash and the newsletter. I ask questions about grammar, and always get answers.

3. Wikipedia is not as dependable for information as I'd like, because it's user-written, and who knows the credentials of the contributors? But it is a great place to start, and often gives me ideas I might not find elsewhere. I just double-check the facts I write.

4. Dictionary.com is invaluable, and in addition to being a good place to look up words, sends me "Word of the Day," which sometimes teaches me I'm not as smart as I thought I was. Merriam-Webster online is another great one.

5. Helium.com is a super place for a writer to test herself: to write to the best of her ability, and be compared with others writing on the same subject.

6. One Spirit.com is my very favorite bookstore, as it has a wide variety of both fiction and non-fiction with a heavily spiritual penchant. Since I write about Native American Shamanism, this offers both pleasure and support for me.

7. Amazon.com has the best used book suppliers I've yet found, which is good when I need seven books on one subject, and when I need to clean out my bookshelves.

8. Mayo Clinic's website is among the several very dependable places to look up health information.

9. T-jobs.com is my favorite starting place when I'm looking for a real on-line job, like the one I do Mon-Wed. I'd hate to do a job search without it. 10. shamanlinks.net is another special treasure, because it leads to more information on the subject of my novel.

These are the major places where I spend my days, when I am not actively writing an article, a story, or a novel. I hope readers will find them of value. There is one more I particularly love to visit, because of the podcasts available there: Unity of Hawaii.org.

Learn more about this author, Faye Westlake Newman.
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