Thanks, Tor.com

As some of you may know, October was Steampunk Month over at Tor.com. The month was jam-packed with interesting blog posts, steampunk tips for DIYers, beautiful free wallpapers, and tons of giveaways. I didn't stumble upon things until at least partway through the month, but then I entered every giveaway after that.

And, I won one!

My copies of Jay Lake's Mainspring and Escapement arrived in the mail today, quite promptly I must say. Also included in the parcel were a Tor bookmark and a handful of buttons, so it made a nice little prize package.

I was especially pleased to win this prize, because I am a big fan of the columns Jay Lake writes (often with Ruth Nestvold) over at IROSF (I always snag this one to proofread when I can!). If you are not familiar with the columns, I recommend you click over and check some out. They are available in the archives, many under the "features" tab, and are easy to find. Sadly, I haven't had an opportunity to read enough of his fiction, so I'm really looking forward to these books. They may even jump the line in my TBR pile, since I just finished reading George Mann's The Affinity Bridge last night and need something new to add to my being-read list.

Ending the Hiatus

Yesterday and today I'm working on a new issue of The Scriptorium. It's been "on hiatus" (read, "on my list of things I just couldn't get to") since the November issue. Not really surprising, but I could do better with a little planning. Planning...now that's another whole post.

At any rate, I'm trying out a couple of new ideas to freshen things up, which you really have to do with something that's been going on for eleven years now (!). I'm introducing a new networking option for readers (since our old message board has pretty much died), and working out the details for a new page I'd like to add, featuring some kind of blog feed from writers who blog regularly about writing. I haven't quite figured out the best way to do that yet, so it might have to wait until the March issue.

I'm also losing my columnist, Sue Lick, which is very sad for me. Sue has been a faithful contributor for several years, but she has to turn to other things in her life right now. I'll miss her "Everything But Writing" columns.

But, onward and upward! Time to see if I can get it online today.

Blueful

A friend sent me this link today: http://www.blueful.com/

If you have half an hour or so and would like to experience a really innovative combination of creative writing and the internet, follow the link, follow the instructions, and follow a trail of creativity that weaves its way across the web, through various transformations and incarnations. It's part interactive poetry and part treasure hunt.

Although it's not entirely creativity for creativity's sake, I think you might enjoy it.

Twitterhea

Okay, I don't know for sure if I'm the first to invent this word, but I've just coined it for myself, anyway. I am enjoying Twitter, but there seem to be some folks who are just addicted to it. They can't go five minutes without sending a tweet, and they often send out five or six in quick succession. They send out so many that you get tired of reading them to find the interesting bits.

I've decided those folks are suffering from Twitterhea. I don't know if there's a cure.

Domino Effect

Ever notice how sitting down at the computer to do what you expect will be a relatively easy task so easily dominoes into a huge, time-devouring project? That's the kind of day I'm having.

I decided that, of the many projects on my list, today I would work toward getting electronic versions of my stories for sale on my website. I've already made PDF files and cover images for the ones I'm starting with. While I spent some time looking at the ZenCart system in the fall, I decided it's a bit more complicated than I need right now--a page on my site, some PayPal buttons, and download pages are really all I need for now. Should be do-able, right?

I started setting up the page, uploaded my graphics files to Photobucket, and started in on the first ebook. Hmmm, I thought, I should make it available in more formats. Easy enough. I have both Mobipocket Creator and Microsoft Reader on my computer. That would give me three formats, which looks pretty reasonable.

Well, seems that the Microsoft Reader add-in for MS Word (to convert .doc files to Reader files) no longer works with Word 2007. Kind of a big oversight there, for the folks at MS Reader. Some time eaten up trying to determine whether I still have Word 2003 installed on one of the computers in the house. Oh yes, I do. However, for some reason, the add-in doesn't recognize it. Sigh. Okay, time wasted, forget offering the files in MS Reader format. Grrr.

Mobipocket Creator--great, easy graphical interface. Wait a second, only opens MS Word files. Okay, load up a story and transfer it into Word, save it. Make the e-book, easy as pie. Wait, the formatting is no good. Back to Word, change the layout. Make ebook again. Better, but not great. Ah, this should look better. Well, it would, but Mobipocket doesn't translate it the same onto the page. Off to the Mobipocket page...huh, there's a different edition that will import .pdf files--which I already have. Download, install.

I'm about to try that. That's where I am, after about four hours. Sigh. Cross your fingers for me. Right now, it looks like I could be at this all night.

A month?

Wow, I knew I didn't have time to blog lately, but I can't believe it's been a month! Well, maybe I can. I've certainly been busy.

Mostly with editing. And critiquing. I'm editing stories for the Undercurrents anthology, stories for my writing group, my own work, and articles for a Second Life magazine, of which I'm a junior editor. Also critiquing stories for my online critique group and a couple of outside projects. I'm trying to clear other things away so that I can do a final pass on my novel, but it's hard to get everything else off the list. Maybe I have to re-arrange some priorities.

June is always a busy month with school ending, but the busy-ness seemed to start in May this year, so it's been a hectic couple of months. However, grading day is Friday--hurray! Can't wait to get away from the schedule for a while. And summer has finally arrived here, after a non-existent spring.

The artwork at the top of this post represents the other creative outlet I've had lately--digital space art. It's been fun learning how to create the effects I want, and a great way to unwind after a load of editing. :) I have a small gallery at http://wordsmith101.deviantart.com/gallery/ (check it out and tell me what you like/don't like), and a gallery (A Space for Dreams) in Second Life as well. If you are in SL and would like to visit, the SLurl is http://slurlcom/secondlife/Foxboro/136/178/245.

Maybe I will get back to blogging now. Although I still have a lot on the go, I do feel that some of the pressure has eased.

Well, that's new

I just posted today's entry (A Little Self-Expression) and it posted under yesterday's date. How can this be? It's 8:02 in the evening (and no, it's not my office clock again!). Is Blogger having some kind of meltdown? It will be interesting to see what this one gets dated...

ETA: Okay, I have a guess at what happened. I saved the picture into a post yesterday but didn't write the post until today--but I guess it posted under the date the draft was started? Isn't that kind of a weird setup? What if I started a draft and then didn't finish it for two weeks? Would it still get posted 'way backdated? If anyone has the answers to these questions, I'd love to hear them.

FreeRice.com

I know I had an idea for a brilliant blog post this morning...but now that I sit down to write it, I have no idea what it was. Sigh. Maybe it will come back to me overnight, perhaps in a dream.

Instead, I'm going to mention www.freerice.com, a site which launched on October 7, 2007. It works like this:

It's a vocabulary-building game--you're presented with a word and four choices of definitions. For every definition choice you get right, a donation of 10 grains of rice is made through the United Nations food program. The rice is paid for by sponsors who place ads on the site.

Now, ten grains of rice may not sound like very much. However, it builds up quickly. I was up to 900 grains after playing for maybe ten minutes. The site totals are impressive: to yesterday's date, 1,008,771,910 grains of rice had been donated. Yes, that's over one billion.

My only worry is that it will be too successful--that sponsors will pull out if the donations get too high. I hope this won't happen. Innovative ideas like this make me think there's hope for the human race yet.

Procrastination with a purpose--two purposes, in fact. I love it. I
think it's already had an efficacious effect on my vocabulary, too.

eMate Update

I mentioned picking up a Newton eMate 300 a little while back. I now have the capability to connect it to my PC to export files that I create on it. I had to find the proper cable, and hoping to pick up some advice I joined the NewtonTalk list server. What a wealth of information! It's a very active list and after I asked where I might find such a cable, the replies came thick and fast. I found an online store and ordered one.

I should have held off a little longer as someone on the list offered to send me one for only the price of shipping from Holland, but mine was already ordered. Live and learn!

Anyway, the cable arrived today, I downloaded the Newton connection program from the United Network of Newton Archives, and installed the program. It took me about ten minutes of fiddling with my serial connection settings and ping! I had a connection. Now I can export any files I create on the eMate onto my PC in .rtf format, quick as a wink.

The last thing I'd like is a new battery for it--the one it came with works, but doesn't hold a charge for as long as it could. There are instructions on the 'net for building a new battery, which I might resort to, but right now I have a line on a new one that I could pick up for around $20 and shipping. If so, that would bring my outlay to less than 100 dollars. A great bargain! I'm thinking this rig is going to come in really handy during NaNoWriMo this year...

Bot-a-Blog

For those of you who had subscribed to this blog via Bloglet, I probably don't have to tell you that the service hasn't been working for some time. I've just added a new subscription vehicle, Bot-a-Blog, which should work the same way: you'll get an email when Under The Stars is updated. We'll see how it works out.

The link to sign up is in the left sidebar, just scroll down to find it.

There And Back Again

Well, we're home from our vacation and as it's plain to see, there were no blogging opportunities on the road. I do have some musings to share, which I think I'll get to over the next few days, but tonight my brain just wants to do fun things like check on my friends' blogs and do Internet quizzes. Like this one, the Book Quiz:

You're The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe!

by C.S. Lewis

You were just looking for some decent clothes when everything changed
quite dramatically. For the better or for the worse, it is still hard to tell. Now it
seems like winter will never end and you feel cursed. Soon there will be an epic
struggle between two forces in your life and you are very concerned about a betrayal
that could turn the balance. If this makes it sound like you're re-enacting Christian
theological events, that may or may not be coincidence. When in doubt, put your trust
in zoo animals.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Which is a fun and interesting result, both because when I first read the Chronicles of Narnia all the theological stuff was completely lost on me, and because I have very recently had encounters with many and varied zoo animals.

Facebook

Today I joined Facebook, mainly to see what all the hoopla is about. It was a rather disappointing experience.

First, Facebook wants me to enter my email address and my password so that it can check and see who's in my address book and find them on Facebook for me. Sorry, no. I'm not entering my email password. I used an email address and password that I keep specifically for things like this, so I got around that one.

Second, one can only join college/university networks if one has an email address for that institution. Well, when I was at university we didn't have email addresses (and I'm not quite a dinosaur yet). I was able to set up an alumni address for UKC and joined that network, but I don't see such a thing available for Dalhousie so I guess that's out. This seems a silly restriction to me. It's not exactly a given that one will have such an address.

Third, it was difficult to figure out how to find people without going through a network. I did find it in the help file.

Fourth, if you do come across someone you think you know, you can't view their profile (or any part of it) to verify their identity. You have to get in touch with them to do so. I don't like that restriction, either.

Fifth, and I suppose this is the big one--just about the only people I could find whom I knew were my sister and her husband. Perhaps all the people I knew in high school and university have become dinosaurs and Facebook is too young for them? Maybe they're techno-handicapped? Not Internet geeks like me? Who knows. At any rate, I don't expect it's a site I'll be spending a lot of time at.

Seasonal and other changes

Looks like about two weeks since I posted here--not hard to tell that the changing season impacts the amount of time I have for the Internet, is it? Suddenly the garden needs hours and hours of work, to say nothing of an itch to start spring housecleaning.

Another thing that's taking up a lot of my time is this healthier lifestyle change our family is making. While we're all seeing the benefits (I've lost ten pounds so far!) there's no doubt that right now it's a big time consumer. I think that aspect of it will improve as new habits become ingrained. I can't complain much because I do feel (and look) great!

I've also been working on editing a story for submission, which is finally completed and I sent it off today. I also re-subbed a story that was rejected last week (or was it two weeks ago?). Writing time has unfortunately been taking the biggest hit with all these other demands on my time, but today I finally had a few hours to sit down and re-group, catch up on a few things. I think I need an entirely new organizational plan for my days, which I might take some time later and work out. I always find that having a plan is helpful. I can't always follow it to the letter, but I'm more likely to accomplish things that are in the plan.

Thinking Blogger Award

My dear friend Karen has thoughtfully put me on her list for the Thinking Blogger Award, and as you can see I'm proud to display the logo in my sidebar. It's particularly nice because although I've had this blog for quite a while, it's only in the past year that I've really kept it up and used it to post a lot of things that are on my mind. I've been especially inspired in that wise by Karen and by Helen on her blog A Was Alarmed. (They both would have been on my list but have already been named by others...)

Now it's my turn to award it to five other bloggers:

M.D. Benoit for Life's Weirder Than Fiction, an eclectic collection of thoughts on writing, reading, and just about anything else.

Edward Willett for Hassenpfeffer, lots of science and fun.

Charlotte for Charlotte's Web, a blog that always seems to cheer me up when I visit.

Kerryn for White Thoughts No-One Sees, because she has a particular talent for writing about everyday things that make me ponder my own feelings and thoughts on similar matters.

Krista for Chocolate is Kryptonite, a new-ish blog which I feel is destined for greatness.

Here are the rules of participation:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

Time for...an Image Meme!

This one is a bit of work, but it sounded like so much fun I had to try it. I snagged it from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

The instructions: Plug your answers into Google Image Search and post the first image that comes up.

1. Your age on your next birthday.


2. Your favorite color:


3. Your middle name:


4. The last meal you ate:


5. Your bad habit:


6. Your favorite fruit or vegetable:


7. Your favorite animal:


8. The town you live in:


9. The name of your pet or last pet:


10. Your SO or best friend's nickname:


12. Your crush's name:


13. Your occupation:


14. Your birth city:


15. Your favorite song:


(Apparently there's no #11. I'm not sure if that's deliberate or not.)

Optimism and Internet Dependency

My last post was far too optimistic...almost a week later and today is actually the first day I've been able to do any real work on the rewrite. I'm still stuffy and uncomfortable, but I'm functioning at close to full capacity. My new deadline to finish the rewrite is February 10th. Nice to have a deadline that I set myself.

The other day, during a winter storm, our power was interrupted briefly, and after that we discovered that our internet connection was out. I was amazed to realize how profoundly this hit me. I don't think of myself as terribly internet-dependent, for all my blogs and websites and net savvy. But I felt bereft and cut off when the connection was out. What emails was I missing? What news of my friends? What group conversations?

When the company told us it could be as long as three days before the connection was restored, I felt even worse. I began mentally planning who I should contact from some other connection to let them know why I would be absent for a few days. Which was silly, since I hadn't worried about being out of touch while I was sick. But this was somehow different!

My husband was in a worse state than I was, because it would mean an enforced absence from World of Warcraft. :-)

As it turned out, the connection was restored by that night, and we survived just fine. But it made me question how healthy this dependency is. It's not that I spend enormous amounts of time on the internet, but I realize that I really rely on the feeling of connectedness I have with it. Is this a good thing or not? I really don't know. But I have have a feeling it's not going to change anytime soon.