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Documents of Tabat: An Instructive and Useful Listing of the Chal Shops of Tabat

What are the documents of Tabat? In an early version of the book, I had a number of interstitial pieces, each a document produced by the city: playbills, advertisements, guide book entries. They had to be cut but I kept them for this purpose. I'll release them at the end of April in e-book form; careful readers will find clues to some aspects of Beasts of Tabat in them. -Cat
What are the documents of Tabat? In an early version of the book, I had a number of interstitial pieces, each a document produced by the city: playbills, advertisements, guide book entries. They had to be cut but I kept them for this purpose. I’ll release them at the end of April in e-book form; careful readers will find clues to some aspects of Beasts of Tabat in them. -Cat


An Instructive and Informative Listing of the Chal Shops of Tabat, being Pamphlet #4 of the second series of “A Visitor’s Guide to Tabat”, Spinner Press, author unknown.

While in Tabat, the visitor will want to try the drink it’s famous for: chal, salty fish and seaweed mixed with strong black tea in what is admittedly an acquired taste. The abundance of such establishments supplies the city dwellers with places to exchange thoughts and news. Many chal houses pride themselves on the antiquity of their brews, which may be years, decades, or in at least one case, centuries old.

Located at the edge of Salt and the Serpentine, the Dancing Cup hosts students from the nearby College of Mages. Go here to catch a glimpse of them showing off new spells and minor magics, particularly in the open air of the back courtyard. Their house chal is over a hundred years old, but they offer many variants, including cider and other fruit drinks. Open all hours.

Two chal shops near Tabat’s Arena are renowned: the Blade’s Savor and Berto’s. The fierce rivalry between the two often leads to free chal for customers willing to switch allegiance. Both shops frequently sponsor gladiators, many of which can be found drinking in one or the other. Bella Kanto and the majority of the Brides of Steel school can be found in Berto’s. These are the only shops you’ll find open during Tabat’s Games. Open all hours.

The Salty Purse, situated a block from the docks on Trade Way, claims a chal of over 200 years provenance, and serves only that, along with ship’s hardbread, doing a hearty business in the former, if not the latter. Open all hours.

In Tabat’s small theater district, actors and wealthy theatergoers favor the Fuchsia and Heron. The most expensive shop in the city, it subsidizes actors’ tabs and even pays a few to patronize it, ensuring a steady flow of Tabat’s most glittering figures. Open from the last afternoon bell till the last night bell only.

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Love the world of Tabat and want to spend longer in it? Check out Hearts of Tabat, the latest Tabat novel! Or get sneak peeks, behind the scenes looks, snippets of work in progres, and more via Cat’s Patreon.

#sfwapro

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Links from the Blogging 101 Class - SEO Resources

SEO is HUGE, and while one could do a class on that alone, I’m pretty sure I’m not qualified to teach it, having only explored the iceberg’s tip. If anyone’s got a text or resource on it that they’d recommend, please drop it in the notes.

Mentioned in class:
Keyword resource: www.trackur.com
Free tools for SEO analysis on your website: woorank.com, websitegrader.com
Way to see how search engines see your site:
http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleWebmasterHelp#p/c/B52807846359D2EA
Beginners Guide to SEO: http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo
SEO Basics: http://knol.google.com/k/seo-basics#
Search engine ranking factors: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors
Keyword investigation: http://adwords.google.com and http://knol.google.com/k/seo-basics

Useful information:
Building a Monthly SEO Action Plan: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/building-a-monthly-seo-action-plan-whiteboard-friday
Conversion Tweaks: http://www.copyblogger.com/test-and-tweak/
Dirty Little Secrets of Search Engine Optimization: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/business/13search.html?_r=1
Get Ahead with a Grasp of Semantic Web: http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a10755.asp
Google’s Cat and Mouse SEO Game: http://www.seobook.com/googles-cat-mouse-seo-game
How Google Makes Its Billions: the 20 Most Expensive AdWords Keyword Categories: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2095210/How-Google-Makes-Its-Billions-The-20-Most-Expensive-AdWords-Keyword-Categories
How Will Google+ Affect SEO?: http://www.readwriteweb.com/biz/2011/07/google-plus-impact-on-seo.php
Intelligent Site Structure For SEO: http://yoast.com/site-structure-seo/
Keyword Discovery Tips:http://www.suite101.com/content/keyword-discovery-tips-a126098http://www.suite101.com/content/keyword-discovery-tips-a126098
SEO Copywriting: The Five Essentials to Focus On: http://www.copyblogger.com/on-page-seo/
SEO Higher Learning: http://www.huomah.com/Search-Engines/Algorithm-Matters/SEO-Higher-learning.html
Shoestring Budget SEO Tips For Small Businesses: http://www.seobook.com/shoestring-seo
Sitemaps XML format: http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.php
Tutorial: Web Information Retrieval: http://www.tcnj.edu/~mmmartin/CMSC485/Papers/Google/icde.pdf
Website Optimization: The Art of Making Websites Awesome: http://www.sofionik.com/blog/search-engine-optimization/website-optimization-the-art-of-making-websites-awesome
What Social Signals Do Google and Bing Really Count?: http://searchengineland.com/what-social-signals-do-google-bing-really-count-55389
Will Google+ Affect SEO?: http://www.readwriteweb.com/biz/2011/07/google-plus-impact-on-seo.php
5 Easy Ways to Boost SEO: http://socialmediatoday.com/len-ostroff/268803/five-easy-ways-boost-seo
5 Free Tools for Keyword Research: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/5-free-tools-for-competitor-keyword-research/28015/

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Teaching Blogging

I just sent my scheduler in to Bellevue College last week – I’ll be teaching the Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction class again this spring as well as the Blogging 101 class. I’ll post the dates for that when I have them in hand.

With both classes, I’ve gone through my notes, getting them together. With the blogging class I’ve been using a new online tool I saw mentioned during the great “Yahoo is getting rid of Delicious!” flak, Trailmeme.

WIth Trailmeme, the central metaphor is “trails” of links, which you can annotate. So I’ve used the outline from my Blogging class to collect my Delicious links on the topic. Here is the Blogging 101 “trail”. A cool feature of Trailmeme is the ability to discuss links – please feel free to make suggestions and/or forward the link to the trail along to people who might find it useful. I know a lot of those links are ones I’ve frequently referred to and often continue to use.

One of the reasons I’ve gone to that trouble is that I’m pushing a couple of consulting services next year, and one of them is a critique of your blog or website talking about its current structure and organization, its search ranking and strategy, how you might use it more effectively, how you might be using social networks, and directions you might want to take it in, based on what a student gets out of that class. For $100, you get a 500 word write-up. If you want to go more in-depth, contact me and I’ll give you an estimate.

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