Digital Delta: Charting a course through the changing world of publishing.
Fun Stuff
Writing on Glass
May 14th
No, it’s not walking on broken glass. Nor typing on broken glass, although I wouldn’t count that possibility out entirely if my three year old has anything to say about it!
I’m writing this post on an iPad, using the virtual keyboard. No external keyboard, not bluetooth. Thus, writing on glass.
I was always a little iffy about the idea of writing on a virtual keyboard. I type pretty rapidly. On a good hour, I’m putting out fifteen hundred words. Losing writing speed in any serious way would be bad for me. But I had two experiences which made me want to give it a try.
First, I bought a laptop with one of those chicklet type keyboards about a year and a half ago. I’d typed on regular key type keyboards my entire life, you understand, starting with a manual typewriter over thirty years ago. It was a big adjustment. But I very quickly got my writing speed back up to full speed.
The second was talking to a college professor I know about tech. He commented that the new thing on campus was students using an iPad. Not alongside a laptop or desktop, but often instead of another computer. Simply typing out papers and assignments on the glass screen and turning them in.
OK. In my experience, college students are something of a litmus paper (perhaps canary in a coal mine is a better metaphor) for where tech is going. If the college students have moved to typing on glass keyboards, then not only can it be done, it’s likely things are moving in that direction for everyone. On the theory that this might be an upcoming vital life skill, I decided to give it a try.
A week in, and I’m basically up to full speed typing. There is no appreciable loss of speed. Oh, my fingers still stumble on the keys sometimes. But they always did that anyway. I’m back to touch typing, watching the screen more than my keys and fingers. Getting better as I go.
Remarkable.
I’m not sure I’d have thought that was possible. But here I am. And it’s VERY freeing. With Storyist, I have a decent option for typing that I can export to my laptop. Daedalus Touch is a good program as well, but without support for RTF export there’s no way to retain formatting. Storyist retains bolds, italics, and other bits. I’ll be watching both as I go forward, as well as keeping eyes on the upcoming Scrivener for iPad.
So I can take this little pound and a half device with me anywhere, type away on it anywhere for eight or more hours, and upload it to my laptop via Dropbox when I hit an Internet connection. I’ve got a 3G iPad, but don’t have the service turned on right now. So far, I’m really liking it.
What have your experiences been with writing on tablets? Ever tried it? Thought about trying it? I’d love to hear your opinions on tablets for writing in general, and “writing on glass” in particular. I look forward to seeing what other folks are doing with these devices!
Apologies about the virus warning
Jan 26th
A long time ago, I had another domain, kevinwriting.com, which I had intended to use for this site. I swapped over to this one fairly early on, and I like having my full name in the URL. Just makes more sense.
When I switched over, I set the other one to auto-forward to this site. Either I messed up the forwarding script and Google just noticed it – or someone somehow got into the page and tweaked it. I suspect that Google just got more sensitive about a certain type of script.
But anyway, the old domain is nested with this one under the same hosting account, so both were tarred and feathered with the same brush when Google decided it disliked the script. The offending script has been removed, Google has been asked to review the site, so all should be good soon.
Just wanted to let anyone still coming through the big red screen that YES, the site is safe, and NO, you’re not going to mess your computer up by coming here. Totally what I wanted to spend my day doing today, let me tell you. ;)
NaNoWriMo 2011: or “Oops, I did it again.”
Nov 26th
Every doggone year, I want to do NaNoWriMo right. I want to get out there, and write not just 1600 words a day – but more than that!
And every doggone year, it seems like things just explode around me every November. Instead of getting more work done, I get less. Instead of having more wordcount accomplished by the end of the month, I find myself wondering if I can actually finish NaNo at all.
In 2009, I had to write 20,000 words in the last day, in order to finish the book in time.
In 2010, I wrote just over 25,000 words on November 30th, in order to finish By Darkness Revealed. Yes, that was a NaNoWriMo novel. Yes, the second half of the book really was written that fast. No, that was not a very fun day. Although it was exciting. And I noticed that the writing from that day was overall more crisp, more clear, and LESS in need of editing that the first half. Go figure.
So this year I’m sitting at something like 6000 words done on the 26th. I have work tonight, and work tomorrow night. If I’m lucky, I might be able to pull out a couple thousand words before Monday. Which leaves me three days.
About 72 hours.
To write maybe 42,000 words.
I’m off from work all three days.
Yes, I’m going to do this.
And as penance for being a dummy AGAIN this year, I’m going to let you all watch.
I’m going to update this blog at least daily, at least briefly, with little bits about how I’m doing. I’m also going to tweet progress on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. So you can root for me – or mock me, if you prefer – on Twitter if you want to follow my feed there.
Forty two thousand words.
Three days.
Signing off for work now. I’ll see you on Monday. ;)
Spooktacular Giveaway Hop!
Oct 24th
So, today I am part of another blog hop – hope to see some folks popping in! This is the second time I’ve done this, and I’ll be doing things a little differently. This is an enormous hop. Tons of blogs involved. So if you’re new to the site, welcome! Please feel free to pop around a bit. I have an old award-winning short story of mine which I posted here for visitors to enjoy; if you’re into traditional fantasy stories, take a peek.
Challenge Story #0: Trial by Fire
Oct 11th
Trial By Fire
Tessa glanced up at the tower as she entered the glade. The shadows seemed to cling about its spire, and the sun seemed to shine less brightly upon it. The old stone building radiated an aura of awe and foreboding. Were a less intrepid mind to combine this feeling with all the tales the bards had spun about this place, a response of deep fear might be evoked.
But not from her. She strode down the path toward the tower without hesitation. The narrow gravel track crossed a lawn of bright green grass, spotted by the occasional tuft of a yellow dandelion. Somehow, Tessa thought, the flowers made the place seem less ominous. What truly horrible place would have dandelions growing in the front yard?
She felt decidedly uncomfortable walking in the new robes the village Elders had insisted on providing for her. In their “infinite wisdom”. At least she had been allowed to pick the color. The turquoise cloth provided a bright contrast to her red hair. She’d always liked wearing the color. But turquoise or no, the garment hampered her movements almost unbearably. She thought with longing of the soft deerskin breeches she’d been forced to leave behind. But the hide-bound idiots had informed her that if she was to be tested for apprenticeship with a wizard, she would go to the testing looking the part. Tessa brushed an unruly lock of hair away from her eyes. The Elders were a bunch of busybodies with too much free time to meddle.
She pulled a worn leather belt from where she’d kept it hidden beneath her robes. She buckled the belt around her waist, gaining confidence from the familiar weight of the knife on her right hip. Tessa had no idea what the Elders would think of their “young lady” wearing a six inch blade at her side. She didn’t care, either. That dirk had been a gift from her father, and she’d be damned before anyone would take it from her.
She reached the front door. It was constructed from thick oak planks, bound together by twisted bands of iron. A silver knocker hung in the middle of the door. Tessa ignored the implied request for courtesy and lifted the latch instead. At her insistent push the door creaked open.
The room inside was larger than it had looked from the outside. A crystal carafe filled with clear liquid sat upon a table in the otherwise bare room.
But it was the Efreet which immediately drew her eye. Continue Reading
Story Challenge
Oct 8th
This one’s aimed at writers, but it’ll also interest readers out there, since I’m going to be posting some fiction here for folks to read. Yes, soon. Maybe tonight. Definitely by tomorrow.
Writers, I’m going to guess most of you are following Dean Wesley Smith’s blog. If you’re not, I can’t recommend it strongly enough. There’s very few websites I’d consider “required reading” for the modern fiction writer. That’s one. Passive Voice is another. Kris Rusch’s Thursday blogs on the writing business are right up there as well. Oh, just check my Links on the sidebar. Every website I have is there for a reason – they’re ALL worth checking out.
But anyway, Dean. There is an enormous wealth of information on his site, from his “Sacred Cows” articles debunking the myths around writing and publishing (sort of like Mythbusters, but for writers), to his New Age of Publishing, Thinking Like a Publisher series, and tons of other assorted posts, Dean gives from decades of experience writing over a hundred books. Really not kidding – super, super stuff there.
Back in January, he announced that in addition to his other writing, he was going to write a hundred short stories this year. He’d already done one a week before, so he wanted to make it really challenging. He would post each one on the website; he’d make a cover, and publish them to the major ebook sites. And he’d tell us how long he spent doing those things. The stories would stay up on his website until he wrote the next one, then he’d take the old one down.
The year started off well, but…life happened. And Dean wrote a post recently where he mentions that he’s only done 28 stories so far this year. Math wizards have already figured out that means he needed to write 72 more stories – and this was September 25th, with just 97 days left to go.
Most people would give up. Or at least, scale back expectations. No – instead, he wrote “But I still think I can do this, or give it a good run, … So not tossing in the towel just yet.”
This isn’t just a challenge anymore. This is epic, epic stuff. =)
My gut wanted to say I’d match him story for story for the rest of the year.
My head said that was crazy talk. I have work, and kids, and NaNoWriMo coming up in November, and two novels to finish and get out the door. So I bit my tongue and just posted an “attaboy!” comment to his post, saying how inspirational he is.
I got to thinking about that a little.
If we back away from chances to fail, we also back away from opportunities to be great. Dean isn’t a great writer because of his successes or because of his failures; he is a great writer because he is not afraid to fail.
Another writer, Bob Mayer, has a statement he believes in so strongly that he made it the name of his publishing company: “Who dares, wins.”
I’ve paused a few times in the writing of this. Because I take this sort of thing seriously. But if Dean’s going to keep going with his challenge, I will do my utmost to match him.
That’s what this is about: I will match Dean story for story til the end of the year.
Sometimes with longer stories; maybe sometimes with short ones. You’ll get to see them all – I’ll follow the same rules he has. I’ll be writing fast and streaming the work up here for you all to read, but each will be pulled down as the next is posted, available only from the major ebook retailers from then on. Some of the stories you’ll probably hate. Hopefully, some of them you’ll really like.
Should be an interesting time. 
It’s a lot of writing, but practice is how we get good.
Why?
Because it’s crazy.
Because it’s epic.
Because it supports the effort of a man I respect and admire, while at the same time pushes me to excel.
Because sometimes, you have to Dare to be Bad. ;)
And because if we do not dare, we cannot win.
Star Trek FREE for Amazon Prime members (Amazon Tablet thoughts)
Sep 23rd
I’ve been an Amazon Prime subscriber for a couple of years now. It’s been a huge money saver for the family. Free two day shipping on books and many other items is an absolute life-saver sometimes. It also means I don’t have to fret – or wait long! – on a print book I want. Love it. Two days isn’t the two minutes it takes to grab an ebook, but it’s pretty good. And some books, you just want the print version, you know?
Amazon’s been stepping up Prime benefits, though. They recently started adding free video to the membership. Lots of TV series, buckets of films. My wife tore through a couple of seasons of Torchwood using Amazon video – free. She’s watching Dr. Who right now. Stargate SG-1 is up for free as well.
And they’ve just added Star Trek. Not some of them, but every live actor televised episode of every series. The original is there, Next Gen is there, DS9 is there, Voyager is there, Enterprise is there… Wow.
I’m sure this is all part of the prep for the release of Amazon’s Android Tablet later this year. The idea is simple: tablets are not computers. Tablets are media consumption devices. Tablets are for listening to music, watching video, surfing the internet, reading books, etc. Amazon already dominates the ebook market. They have a Cloud Music player with free storage, and often cheaper prices than iTunes on the same tracks. They have an Android App store which is easier to navigate than the Apple one, and head and shoulders above the Google one. And now they have a video arsenal which seems to rival Netflicks. In short, Amazon is building the infrastructure they need to go toe to toe with the iPad.
But there’s a critical difference. Apple built the infrastructure for media consumption, but their focus is still on sales of the device, which costs $500-800. Amazon is building an equivalent media consumption system, but seems intent on making that their money-maker – with a device cost predicted to be $249 that includes free Prime membership (a $79 value), so the tablet effectively costs only $170. That’s remarkable for a color tablet. The low price coupled with the strong set of offerings makes Amazon’s entry into the tablet market a potent one.
And it’s good for the rest of us, too. Even if you’re not planning to buy their tablet, having access to thousands of hours of popular TV shows and films is pretty amazing!
Camp NaNoWriMo Coming Up
Jun 3rd
NaNoWriMo is a blast. My wife and I have done it together three times now, and I credit NaNo with no small part of my renewed interest in writing, the last few years.
What’s NaNoWriMo? National Novel Writing Month. Every November, tens of thousands of writers get together (was over 150k last year) and try to write 50,000 words of a novel. You can start November 1st; you have to finish by the end of November 30th. Literally tens of thousands of people accomplish it each year. There’s a wonderful and supportive community, with writers ranging from full pros to complete novices and amateurs.
But what is Camp NaNoWriMo?
The Office of Letters and Light – the non-profit responsible for hosting and managing NaNo – have started something new this year, “Camp NaNoWriMo”. The Camp is an attempt to bring a smaller version of NaNo into the summer months.
Starting in mid-June, folks will be able to sign in to the site and look around, getting used to the interface. In July, a pared down version of the Camp will kick off – write a novel in July? Yikes! In August, they’ll be running it *again*, and writers should be able to use the full feature set of the Camp website.
Never tried to write two novels in a month back to back. Could be really interesting to give it a shot this summer.
Or, just pick one and do it. But get writing – after all, a novel in a month is only about 1600 words a day. With a little pushing and
a little willpower, that’s not beyond the pale for just about anyone to accomplish.
I’ll be updating more as we get closer. November NaNoWriMo is always an outstanding time. I think these Camps sound like they could be a lot of fun – and very useful for productivity as well! Anyone else thinking about giving this a try, this year?
New Nook – Looking good.
May 26th
OK, I haven’t even seen this gadget, but if I didn’t already own a Kindle, I’d be sold.
First, appearances. OK, we’re working from photos and videos right now, unless you happened to be at BEA this week where they announced the device. But the new Nook has a sort of clean, streamlined look to it that other readers have largely lacked. It’s got nice “lines”, I guess you could say. And honestly, if I am going to be holding a device in my hand for a couple of hours a day, 5-7 days a week, for a year or more, I really don’t feel bad about wanting it to look pretty and feel good in the hand. Knowing about the latter will have to wait til we actually see them in two weeks – but it certainly looks nice.
It’s a touchscreen ereader. Gone are the buttons which users of other devices have complained gradually lose their paint and sometimes stop working. Instead, you can pull up a touchscreen keyboard. That also means when you’re reading, pretty much the whole device is the page, sort of like…well, like a book. My feeling is that this style will make for a better, easier reading experience. I don’t think having to open the touchscreen keyboard will bother many folks – most of the time you’re reading on an ereader anyway, not writing; and touchscreen keyboard seem very popular in cell phones. Not to mention the iPad.
The new Nook is only 80% the weight of the Kindle, but is reported to have much longer battery life. Not sure how they extended the battery without raising the weight, but if so, I’m not going to complain! B&N is advertising that you can go two months between recharges. Obviously, that depends upon how much you read (I’d be more interested in hearing the actual battery life in page turns or hours read). But they’re claiming they now have the longest lasting battery in an ereader. If so, it’s another big plus.
I want to talk a moment about Nook Friends, too. Nook Friends is B&N’s upcoming book-related social network. Now, there’s other social networks out there for books. But by tying the network into the ereader, B&N is opening up a lot of new worlds. Joe Konrath recently wrote an exciting blog about how ebooks could become social communities in their own right. It looks to me like what B&N is trying to do – link books directly into a reading focused social experience – could be a powerful step forward. And a lot of fun, to boot. I think this is a great move, and look forward to seeing what they do with it, and what opportunities they offer publishers to make their books more actively involved in Nook Friends.
Having the ability to put any picture I want in as the “off” image is something else about Nooks in general that I am fond of, and the New Nook retains this. The storage system for books on the new Nook is supposed to be a bookshelf style set up, like the iBook layout I assume. I think that’s dramatically better than the Kindle layout, where books are stored by title, in folders, with a fairly crude level of organization involved.
Don’t get me wrong – I still like my Kindle. I like having free 3G wireless internet, for one thing. Being able to read blogs on the fly or use my Kindle 3G to mapquest or read email from anywhere is pretty nice. But this new Nook is a serious step forward in a lot of ways. And if they do a good job rolling out the social network Nook Friends, that could be a huge impetus for folks to jump on board this ereader.
Overall, I’d say this looks like a great effort on B&N’s part, and I look forward to seeing the devices themselves soon!
Geek Foo
May 17th
Something a little different this time.
Had a fun chat at work the other day. Oddly enough, it was about surviving the zombie apocalypse. No, I don’t really think there is one coming. No, zombie movies and books are not a staple of my entertainment (although I liked 30 Days Later and Ms. Hocking’s Hollowland). But it was an interesting chat, discussing weaponry and such. I was going for guns with high velocity rounds and good sights, ideally military grade stuff I’d had loads of experience with. The conversation ended something like this:
Me: “You know, I used to teach marksmanship. And could put a three round shot group in a space the size of a quarter at a third of a mile.”
Him: “OK, you can join our zombie survival group.”
No, he doesn’t really think there are zombies coming, either.
But the whole chat got me thinking about the zillions of useless or semi-practical bits of Geek Cred I’ve accumulated over the years. It’s not the sort of thing I think about often, because it doesn’t exactly fit on a regular resume. But I had some fun composing a fictional Geek Resume while driving, chuckling as I did. Something like this:
- Second highest ranked Magic The Gathering player in the world; multiple M:tG Pro Tour competitor.
- Third Dan Black Belt. Owned own dojang for six years. Multiple national medalist. Combatives instructor for US Army Infantry.
- Expert marksman. Sniper cross trained. Qualified expert on pretty much every small arms in use by the Army.
- Guild leader of MMORPG guild for over a decade, spanning almost a dozen games and over a thousand players total.
- Multiply-published writer. Won award for short fiction.
- Semi-pro artist for multiple computer games. Actually made and (briefly, for fun) launched own MMORPG.
- Squire to a Knight in a medieval re-enactment organization. Also leader of local group. Also co-sponsor of Battle of Hastings recreation at the Pennsic War (where I played Harold last year – and won).
- Yes, that means I have a full kit of 1066 armor. I also have an awesome plate armor kit set in the late 14th century.
- Started playing D&D from age 7 on. Wrote own RPG and gamemastered it at GenCon 1993. Teaching kids, ages 5, 5, and 2, how to play D&D right now (which they love, btw).
- Used to build PCs for money, back in the 90s. Now do it for fun.
- Programming HTML since before it was cool.
- Can accurately quote at least 50% of the lines from “Princess Bride”.
- College activities: fencing, SCA, RPG gaming, online gaming (MUDs), Tae Kwon Do, running my own small business.
Well, that’s what came to mind. (No, I really don’t take this any more seriously than the zombies, but it was fun!)
Of course, I lose a lot of cred because I have never to this day sent a text message from a cell phone (listens for gasps of horror).
So, what does your “Geek Resume” look like? ;)
