By Monica Bean

Everyone quotes the first lines of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, but has anyone ever stopped to think about what the words actually mean? “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” My four-year-old cousin probably knows these famous words, so common are they in our society. What makes this part of Dickens’s tale so memorable? It is easy to start reading A Tale of Two Cities and skip over sections that seem superfluous or unrelated. However, from the beginning Dickens warns the reader that there is more than one side to the events in this time period, and more subtly, to the events in his novel.

A Tale of Two Cities is the story of two men living during the tumultuous French Revolution. Charles Darnay is the classic good guy, Dickens’s original version of Disney’s Aladdin, who is wrongly charged with treason and eventually marries the pure and loving Lucie Manette. Darnay displays great moralistic honor when he renounces his infamous family of Evrémonde, and later when he risks his life to return to Paris to rescue a former servant of his father’s.

Sydney Carton becomes lost within the heroic acts of Darnay, described as “careless and slovenly, if not debauched” the first time they are compared. He is an insolent alcoholic, and the only direction that his life ever appears to take is when he falls in love with Lucie Manette. He is, in short, pathetic and a nuisance to the reader. But “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” and true to his introduction, Dickens proves that life is multi-faceted in the end when Carton surpasses Darnay’s own moral character and becomes the hero in a selfless act that gives meaning to his existence.

Dickens successfully takes the historical events during the French Revolution and transforms them into a modern-day tale of love, virtue and sacrifice. If you’re looking for a novel with as many pieces as a puzzle, a story that jumps around like an intense game of table tennis and a plot that contains as many surprises and heart-wrenching moments as a reality television show, try reading A Tale of Two Cities and remember that life is full of contrasts.

Barry Trotter is a series of Harry Potter parodies written by Michael Gerber.

By Lindley Homol

According to Charles Caleb Colton, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It is not immediately clear whether fan fiction, the creation of new scenes, events, and stories by fans from an author’s original, should be considered a tribute or a travesty. Some authors, notably J.K. Rowling, view fan fiction as a compliment. Others even encourage fan fiction as a harmless, non-profit derivation of published material that, at best, can generate free publicity for the original work. Still other novelists, such as Ann Rice, take a decidedly different view, attempting to bar all use of copyrighted characters and settings from fanfiction sites, believing that fans should create their own original characters and stories.

Although many writers have divided opinions about fan fiction on principle alone, the legal issues surrounding the use of these copyrighted materials only serve to further complicate the matter. According to US copyright law, authors, as the owners of the copyrighted material, have the right to control the publication of works based on their own original material. Based on this law, some authors justifiably believe fan fiction to fall under the auspices of copyright infringement. Copyright law does, however, protect some types of derivative works, parody in particular, under the doctrine of fair use. To further confuse the issue, copyright law does not limit this fair use protection to only types of writing that are specifically mentioned as protected. Fan fiction writers generally use this clause to defend the legality of their creations.

Whether writers believe fan fiction is legally or morally permissible for pure entertainment or not is one issue. Another issue entirely is when a fan writer makes money off of someone else’s copyrighted material. Even notable fan fiction supporter Rowling sees a drastic difference in the use of copyrighted materials for pure entertainment as opposed to profit, raising a lawsuit against the publication of the Harry Potter Lexicon by Steven Vander Ark. The Lexicon is an encyclopedia of Harry Potter’s world that includes lists of spells, characters and creatures. Although the material has been available online on a site Rowling deemed award-winning, the publication of a Harry Potter encyclopedia would mark the first time Vander Ark would make money from the material.

Supporters of the encyclopedia claim that Vander Ark is within his rights to create scholarly source material, since it is not an attempt to adapt Rowling’s work. They further argue that the Lexicon, slated to publish only 10,000 copies, would most likely sell to only diehard fans, thereby not interfering with sales of Rowling’s own proposed Harry Potter encyclopedia. Rowling’s supporters, on the other hand, do not think Vander Ark should make money off of a mere compilation of Rowling’s original characters and creations. The decision in this case stands to set a precedent nationwide in copyright disputes, a decision that even the judge does not seem eager to make. Judge Patterson, who presides over the case, has encouraged both parties involved to settle out of court.

Click Here to Read More About the Pro's of Creating Fan Work.

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Ron Janson has a unique and broad-based career, including corporate management positions, business consulting, entrepreneurial ventures, education and writing. He is the author of the nonfiction book Shareholder Value—A Business Experience (Butterworth-Heinemann) and another SterlingHouse fiction title, What Is Hers, due out in 2009. He currently resides in Connecticut. Ron was a featured author at the Book Expo America in 2008.

Leslie Banks

Leslie Banks, voted Essence Magazine Storyteller of the Year 2008, has published books in romance, crime suspense, dark fantasy/horror, women’s fiction and non-fiction genres.

Q: How does a successful multi-genre author make the transition between books?

A: If at the core, you are strong in character development you can float between the various genres. Good research and solid plotting will take you into the different realms for the story backdrop, but the thing that keeps readers turning your pages is whether they feel invested in the characters.

Q: As a member of the Liar’s Club author’s support group, what do you get/give to other writers, and what does membership in such a group offer to published writers in general?

A: This is a place where you can get good, sage advice, can band together to do promotions that the publishers don’t pay for and can get constructive feedback. Once published, the struggle just begins; questions loom like, “Now that I’ve published, how do I stay published?” and “How do I get out of the rut and take my career to the next level?”

Q: The Vampire Huntress Legend is a 12-part series. How were you able to sustain this theme over such a lengthy project?

A: Trust me, there is more than enough fodder in the world news to keep one writing about evil and mayhem being unleashed on the planet. If you combine that with the three main religious texts.

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.

Photo courtesy: Malinda Welte

After a trip to India a friend told me about the one photo he did not get to take. One day in Mumbai, waste and litter lining the street, the polluted air intensified by the near 100 degree heat, he spotted a large, rusty tow truck. Though its tires were rotted out, the metal frame of the old truck supported two creaky chain swing sets. It was there that children laughed and played on the converted machine, lost in their fun in the middle of the city. When my friend described this untaken picture to me, it somehow became more real to me than the pictures of his trip that I actually got to see. I think he’ll remember that scene longer and more vividly than any of the others where he had his camera out.

I then started to remember all the pictures I never got to take because I was too busy living the experience to stop and click. It begs the question: Are the pictures that end up holding the most meaning those that we take with our minds alone? I was inundated with memories, remembering the times over the years that I had stared until an image became imprinted within me. Without a camera, senses other than sight take hold: crimson petals on the sand, deep blue eyes so easy to get lost in, piles of shoes at the door. The shadow of an oak on crushed gravel in my mind has the power to lead me beyond the obvious, taking me somewhere entirely different than a two dimensional 4x6. The photos in our mind lead us to faraway worlds that live inside of us that no technology can capture.

Physical photographs, both taken and developed, adorn my world, and I rely on them to trigger memories. Let’s take the pictures, especially during travel lest we forget, but only after studying and living it first. This means experiencing the moment; not just recording it. Allow the impression to come first-hand, and let the snapshot become a souvenir; not the main event. As writers, we must be touched in person. The most frame-friendly shots are not often where inspiration is found. Beauty may be harbored there; however, the thrill of the perfect scene may not necessarily be the most fascinating. Slant the shot away from the obvious. Skew the angle to the right or to the left down a side street and let your mind loose. What you discover there may not be as striking, but it will be much more interesting.

So often we are posing when we take pictures. Even buildings and landscapes can model. Certain angles give the illusion of a perfection that is not really there. Candid shots reveal the unexpected, intriguing angles we may have never contemplated before. As writers, that is what we must seek out.

There is always a camera in my purse, especially when I travel. I treasure my albums because the photos bring back to life details I have forgotten, and yes, they would be on the top of the list of my belongings I would rescue in the fire scenario. It’s just that I’ve learned that no other lenses but those of my eyes record memories that are so utterly vivid and breathed into with that first-hand contact. When I walk through life camera-free I find myself making up stories in my head while simultaneously real life stories are happening to me. I become real, and no scene gets lost in whether the lighting is right or not. I want to live more of those moments as I travel and write, sometimes with no camera, not even a pen; just myself and the sight. Only then can the impression of my eyes wrap itself so tight around the image that it morphs itself into something I cannot only see, but touch, taste and feel.

Tyler Oaks earned her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from California State University, Stanislaus and her Master of Arts in Spanish from California State University, Sacramento. Tyler lives in California's Napa Valley with her husband and twin daughters. Tyler is presently at work on her next novel.

Do you seem to spend a lot of time thinking you have been in a certain circumstance before? How many times have you said that you were one hundred percent positive you had been somewhere before? Of course it’s possible, but what could be the reasoning for the frequent remembrances?

Reincarnation seems to be a popular answer in many cases. It is perfectly conceivable for many to believe that they have lived here on earth before, in another time and place. But why are so many places and people so memorable, but there isn’t a single good memory of your pre-existence? Sure, you remember a hotel room, a smoky bar with a familiar bartender smiling back at you, or walking down a street you have been on before. But do you have a single clue as to your true identity, the person you were when you stood there at another time?

Is it really a past remembrance, or is it our mind playing a cruel trick on us? Certainly, your mind has forgotten plenty in your lifetime, let alone a barrage of past lives and experiences. Maybe we just like to think we have been someone else in another life to avoid the boredom and mediocrity to which we are accustomed. After all, most of us will never be more than another face in the crowd, just playing out our lives on a stage with no one watching.

Is it possible that our brain is playing us for a fool? Throwing us a curve by having us believe those split-second moments when we know we’ve seen this place before are actually events from our past? It must be a comical sight for our creator, watching us revel in our beliefs of pre-existence.

A word of caution: Be careful when you get on the bus tomorrow. Even if you are certain the person sitting next to you was someone you knew from a previous life, don’t bring it up. After all, you may have escaped their clutches in another life. They may still have a deep desire to see you suffer for something you did a long, long time ago. The next time you experience déjà vu, consider what your past life did in that very spot. Perhaps it’s something so horrific, it must be written in to your next book.

Brian Douglas Coyle, a graduate of Kent State University in Ohio, has over 30 years of experience in the banking industry. He is currently the Community Development Investment Manager at BB&T, the eleventh largest bank in the country. Brian is the author of Soul Riders and the 2008 release The Devil’s Sanctuary.

As I watch my eight-year-old daughter, Jade, playing games on her Nintendo DS, singing along to her iPod or sitting at her computer answering emails, I’m amazed at how life has changed since I was Jade’s age. I often pause to reflect on past decades when we didn’t have the extraordinary conveniences developed by advanced technology.

How did we ever get anything done? We communicated via telephone and the U.S. postal service. I remember writing letters to long-distance friends, waiting at least a week for a reply. Now with the Internet, we can transmit and receive information, around the world, almost instantaneously. A document that takes a few seconds to attach and send by email took several days by regular mail.

And shopping—what a difference 40 years can make! Shopping was usually a day long, family outing. We would visit local stores, and if they didn’t have what we wanted, we purchased the closest thing. Now, we shop from the comfort of our homes, using our computers to not only find exactly what we want, but at the best price.

Remember going to the public library during business hours to get information from reference books, encyclopedias and reference librarians? With computer search engines and the click of a mouse, we can find the same facts and a lot more, from the comfort of our home and at any time we choose.

In the interconnected world of cyberspace, it’s unthinkable to imagine life without the Internet. I spend several hours a day online; doing business or research, writing articles, surfing, shopping, or corresponding through email about countless topics.

Sometimes, however, I can’t help but reminisce about the time I was growing up without the emergence of modern technology. Were letters and conversations more meaningful and intimate back then? Did we pay more attention to our communications, and did we truly enjoy the anticipation we felt while waiting to receive an answer to a well thought out letter?

Yes, life with the Internet is easier, but not necessarily better. Often, it appears we can no longer be bothered to chat on the telephone, never mind face to face. We communicate with abbreviated language and minimal purpose, jumping at the chance to use instant or text messaging. Life has become more impersonal and fast paced, allowing us to hide behind who we really are.

So… as I sit at my computer, listening to music and emailing my friends, I may be feeling a bit nostalgic, but not enough to wish for the days when I was growing up. Maybe Jade is missing out on something special. However, she is growing up in a phenomenal time that as a child, I never dreamed could exist.

Lisa Martin owns Martin-McLean Literary Associates LLC. She represents established authors as well as new writers.