Check It. USB typewriter.

This strange Brazil-like contraption combines the best of both worlds: a vintage typewriter for a keyboard, and modern Mac, PC, iPad screen for a screen. Imagine the beauty of punching away to the click of typewriter keys, but also being able to omit the painful Wite-Out, and careful sentence-by-sentence, word-by-word writing that was synonymous with typewriter writing.

The USB Typewriter came about when inventor Jack Zylkin saw a vintage typewriter on a friend's mantel, and decided to put it to use, according to Nerdist.

They're now available on Etsy.com (I want the Underwood), or you can get fall in love with the typewriter of your choosing and buy the DIY kit.

-- Lauren Williams

Etc. An open call for guest posts.

We're interested in having some guest writers on the BEAT!

If you'd like to write for the blog, please email us at thebeatofyounglosangeles@gmail.com with your ideas.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

-- the BEAT

Photo credit: Pottery Barn

Check It. Duotrope.

If you're starting out your Monday after the holiday a little ambitious and you're an aspiring or published author, Duotrope's Digest is a great site out there for writers looking to publish their work.

The site matches writers with appropriate genres, mediums, and themes, as well as keeps track of deadlines for submissions. They also record the percentage of submissions actually published in the magazine (Some of the big ones: The New Yorker has a submission acceptance of .51%; The Atlantic Monthly has a 96.40% rejection; Believer has a 97.20% rejection.)

Duotrope does keep track of nearly every literary journal out there, and seeing each mag's stats is totally fascinating (for me at least). So if you have a short story laying around that you'd like to see in published, check it out.

-- Lauren Williams