Still in beta as I write this, Tom's planner offers a way to visualize projects with multiple phases in a smiple, straight-forward manner.

If you are a writer engaged in a big project involving other people, this online tool may be useful.

Some inspiration for the New Year: The Power of Words.

As writers, we are custodian of words. Are we doing all that we can to put them to good use?

In September 2009, Google teamed up with the manufacturers of the amazing Expresso Book Machine, what insiders are calling "an ATM for books." The machines are now beginning to show up at universities, libraries and a few independent booksellers in the US, UK and Australia. Plans call for 65 more of the $100,000 machines to roll out in 2010.

While the rollout will take a long time, this machine will offer writers an amazing delivery system for their own books. Stay tuned.

Seth Godin is one of the most provocative writers and thinkers today. In this very informal interview, he gives valuable insight into building your own tribe of followers. It's a lesson many writers should follow.

A new online application, still in beta, that will be a boon to another who must compare two or more different versions of a document. This tool makes it simple. A video courtesy of Chris Pirillo.

The JooJoo reader arrives amid controversy. Originally scheduled to be released by a development partner as the CrunchPad, the deal fell through -- and now it's called the JooJoo. 2910 promises to be the year of the tablet e-book reader.

This reader doesn't exist yet -- but this speculative demo suggests what is to come. This is exciting -- and suggests that magazines do have a future.

Blogger Darren Rouse describes his "ah ha" moment. This just might apply to writers as well. BTW, his blog ProBlogger is an excellent source of information for writers.

BBC offers a excellent overview of the various features of the different e-book readers, as of late 2009. The best such overview I've yet come across.

BBC reviews the Bookeen, Sony and Kindle e-book readers.

ElectricLiterature has come up with a very innovative idea: take a single-sentence from a piece of literature -- and draw together a musician and animator to illustrate it. The result is uploaded to YouTube. A great promotional idea. Maybe one of your sentences might qualify for this project.

eBook Summit, organized by MediaBistro and scheduled for Dec. 15-16 in New York City, is another sign that the publishing world is undergoing a revolution. This video gives a glimpse of some of the thinking going on.

OK, so you are already blogging as part of your effort to promote your writing career. BUT your blog's design sucks. With Artisteer, you can easily design yourself a customized theme. Chris Pirillo tells you how to do it with Artisteer.

This device may open up a new audience for writers, especially if they are willing to write with a visually impaired audience in mind.

The e-book arena heats up with a new, especially portable electronic reader.

An dedicated e-book reader for those enamored with the new "touch" technology. Reading just gets more and more simple.

Intel unveiled on 10 November 2009 its revolutionary Intel Reader, aimed at people with reading disabilities. The device transforms printed text into digital text, and then reads it aloud. Suddenly, all kinds of written material will become easily available to readers previously difficult to reach.

Like the narrator, I too am a big fan of outlining. I've used Word's Outline facility from time to time, but can't say that I've mastered it. This brief tutorial is helpful.

Especially helpful to writers who write long documents.

Part 2 about creating columns from HelpMeRick.com -- for more, visit the website.

This tutorial from HelpMeRick.com is a good followup from the previous video posted here, where I mentioned the design features of tables. This video shows the design power of tables when the grid lines are invisible.