Friday Recommends – Tools and Time-Wasters

January 27, 2012 in Friday Recommends | 4 comments

Sometimes they’re the same thing, yeah?

But first, a repeat of a FANTASTIC tool for anybody who has to write anything. It was designed for the fiction writer, but would be great for a report, a speech, a non-fiction book, and anything else that needs to be free AND structured. You could probably use it to plan a web site. Anyway, it’s yWriter5. It’s kind of complex, but there’s an ongoing help forum on the web site, lots of help documentation, and working with it opens up its possibilities. I am SO NOT an outliner, but this program makes outlining work for me as part of the flow. It’s amazing. And it’s FREE. Did I mention it’s FREE?

If you have any questions about spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, or usage, Dan Persinger is your man. He does not suffer fools gladly, but he does suffer them, which is why he tolerates me. He writes mysteries under the name of Jack Hardway. The fact that that name totally cracks me up probably says something analyzable about me. Anyway, Jack Hardway also has a blog (or, as he correctly calls it, a web log) with the subtitle A Lot Of Writers Are Dopes.

While at WordCamp last year, I met Niles Flores, a woman who loves blogging, social media, web design and Egypt, not necessarily in that order. Her business site, blondish.net, is the mostest funnestest business site EVAR.

My new BFF is HootSuite. That’s what I’m using to schedule promotional posts on FaceBook and Twitter. I can schedule three at each place at different times a day, then relax and just use the social networks to be social. I like it because it works on both networks, and I can write the promos that make sense for each. No Twitter hashtags in MY Facebook stream, (oops! I think I just did that by askident. My bad.).

[By the way, many grammarians ~waves to Dan Persinger~ dislike multiple sentences inside parentheses inside a sentence. Tough.]

My best time-waster is Pinterest. It’s invitation-only, so, naturally, Holly Jahangiri invited me in order to waste my time and distract me from the Race to the Hugo Award. Nice try, Holly. Won’t work. yWriter5 has foiled you. Ha HAAAAA!!

WRITING PROMPT: A character “wastes” a lot of time on something that becomes suddenly useful. An oldie but a goodie.

MA

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Do and To-Do Due, Too

January 26, 2012 in Grab bag, Writing | 9 comments

Okay, Mom and I went to the hairdresser’s yesterday and got perms. I haven’t had one for a long time, so I was a little … Yeah, that’s boring. Anyway, here’s my new ‘do. I didn’t tell her to slap all that gray in it, so don’t ask me what that’s about.

Here is Hope Schneider, who gave me the ‘do. Love ya, Hope! She looks a bit iffy here, but she was just in a hurry to move on to her next customer, for she is much in demand.

While you’re at it, check out the color on that wall. I think part of why I love going to Hope’s is that warm, friendly color.

Anyway.

Karen Syed of Echelon Press, my publisher, has tasked me with (Do you hate that? I hate that. Forget I said that.) Karen Syed of Echelon Press, my publisher, has given me the task of promoting my books regularly rather than desultorily on Facebook and Twitter. I said, “Ebberyday?” She said, “Yes.” I said, “EBBERY day?” She said, “EBBERY day!!” So I’m trying out some tools which, if they continue to serve my purpose, I’ll recommend tomorrow. So far, so good.

WRITING PROMPT: A character who wears his or her hair the same way for years gets a new do. On purpose, by mistake, under compulsion or why? What’s the effect?

MA

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Egg Salad SUPREME

January 25, 2012 in Food | 4 comments

pickled capers photo from Wikipedia

Okay, you already know that any recipe with “supreme” in the name probably has black olives in it and, look at this, no surprise, this one is no different. It really turned out to be good, though.

EGG SALAD “SUPREME”

  • hard-boiled eggs, cut up
  • thin-sliced celery
  • thick-sliced green onions
  • sweet pickle relish
  • black olives (ta-daaa!)
  • pickled capers
  • mayonnaise
  • salt and pepper

Mix and eat. Good on fresh-baked bread. Good on toast. Good warmed and sprinkled with cheese.

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you might detect an uptick in promotional posts. That’s because I want to sell more books. Apparently, “If you build it, they will come” only applies to baseball diamonds in cornfields. Or maybe I should be doing all my book signings in cornfields out in the country. Yeah, yeah, that’s it! And I bet having a ghost with the voice of Darth Vader looking over my shoulder and giving advice wouldn’t hurt, either.

WRITING PROMPT: A character tries to make something plain seem fancy with a couple of slight additions.

MA

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On Having Had A Cold

January 24, 2012 in Grab bag | 5 comments

It’s almost worth having a cold, for how wonderful you feel when it’s over. No, not when it’s over, when it’s almost over. You know that day? You have the day when you think it’s hit it’s worst, then the next day is even worse than that? And you have to cough and blow your nose, even though doing either one kills your head? And then the next day, you’re stuffy, but your eyes aren’t watering much and your head doesn’t hurt? Well, the next day. You’re almost totally better, but still just stuffy and snuffy and wheezy enough to appreciate how much better you feel today and how completely over it you’re going to be tomorrow or the next day.

Funny, isn’t it, how often you have to be in that balance between suffering and not-suffering in order to appreciate not suffering? Kind of gives you some insight on people who do controlled damage to themselves, doesn’t it? It does, me, anyway.

I’m posting today at Fatal Foodies, on the subject of Wild Rice, which I ate last night and did not like.

WRITING PROMPT: What’s the first smell a character notices when his or her cold is over enough for him or her to smell things?

MA

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On Being Your Own Product Placement

January 23, 2012 in Writing | 6 comments

Back in November of 2011, I wrote a short post called Once Upon A Very Grimm Time at Echelon Explorations in which I said, of Once Upon A Time, “There seems to be some connection to Disney and Barbie, based on the costumes, characters and commercials.”

Well, color me perceptive if uninformed, because OUAT is a Disney production. It is rather amusing to see the Disney Princesses in their Disney Princess dresses, although I’m desolate that Maleficent didn’t look a bit like Gloria Swanson and had a cutesy-tootsy unicorn for a pet instead of a massive, fire-breathing dragon.

Hi. I'm scary. And disturbingly hot.

I like the little “Easter eggs”, like Dr. Hopper having a Dalmatian named Pongo, but I find the idea of Jiminy Cricket somewhat disconcerting. Now Gaston has come to town. Gaston, or, as my mother says, “A made-up made-up person,” meaning a character inserted by Disney as opposed to a character originating in the the fairy tale. I told her I’m waiting for Pocahontas to show up.

Not that I’m complaining. Disney Studios can plug itself in its own production all it wants to, especially when Robert Carlyle is in it. In fact, I do a bit of the same thing, myself, kindasorta.

I have these books, EEL’S REVERENCE (not about eels) and FORCE OF HABIT, and I’ve written short stories, “Line of Descent” and “By the Book”, respectively, set in the same worlds. I have several books in process in the Spadena Street mystery series, and I’ve written short stories about characters in them.

As Disney knows, why have a platform and then not plug your own product? Er, I mean, it’s very hip to be self-referential. Yeah, that’s what I meant.

WRITING PROMPT: Outline a story in which characters from two different fairy tales come together.

MA

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#SampleSunday by Floyd Hyatt

January 22, 2012 in Uncategorized | 4 comments

I said last Monday that Floyd had sent me a piece of fiction for today, which is a jolly good thing, since I still have a cold and my brain is full of germs.

So here it is, from F. A. Hyatt:

(the following is just a short excerpt from one of my projects, but I thought it might serve to illustrate part of what this rant is on about)

Frankenstein
By
F.A.Hyatt

“So, how does it feel; I mean, how do you feel?”

“Good.” Ben turned his hands up off the table in a sort of palm shrug. That kind of off-hand response was promising.

“There are differences. Touch is more localized. Tips and pads of the fingers, only four spots on each foot–that sort of thing, but phantom nerve effect, kind of fills in the gaps.”

“That’s not what I mean. You don’t feel, disconnected, remote?”

“No. Its me, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes.”

He looked good. They always looked good. Like golden, diamond statues. I checked the Mag shielding. The flux meter showed a good field. Between it, and the collapsed crystal armor, he should be able to fiddle around during solar storms without damaging himself. Still, there were other things. Human things.

“Any phantom pains, unnatural sensations?”

“Nope. We already did the range of motion and sense routine, remember? Ann, I’m fine. Can I go now?”

I looked at the pressure tests, cold penetration results. All were highly compliant, still I was reluctant to let him leave.

“Remember, there’s no such thing as ambient sound in a vacuum, Ben. External sound cues come to you only from other Belter’s transmitters, or from impacts on the suit skin, or are internal. Think of sound as non-ambient, or as a knock, unless you are on a breather ship, or in a breather dome.”

“Yes Ma’am. No offense, but I’ve had the training. I’m of age.”

I nodded. The problem was with me. I had passed by the opportunity, no that’s not the truth­–had chose against, conversion when it was available to me. Fear? Something religious?

Out the port window, small flashes of milling citizens darted among the rocks and platforms of the Albequere’ collective. He would be fine here. They were all fine. Mining, exploration, energy without limit, entire world-lets of resources. Even with Marsport, just ten months away, it just seemed—alien. I waved Ben off the table and escorted him to the lock.

“You have family here?”

Ben hesitated, one metallic hand glittering on the seal frame. “Uh, no Ma’am, some class-mates though.”

I bit back my tongue, embarrassed. Albequere’ was a new collective. There were no breather domes here. His parents and such, would be mostly too old, not convertible so as to face the vacuum. The hardness of space, a desolation to them.

They scooped out the human body, to do that. Only the spine, for stem and blood cell generation, along with the nerves and organs, transferred to the shells. Took three weeks. Bone wouldn’t be of any use anyway. First year without gravity you’d loose more than half the mass of it, and sixty percent of any muscle you had. Wouldn’t be safe, to try and pack all that extra baggage along, maintain it, heat it. The Exo-shells had to substitute for all that support and much more.

Ben lifted his hand from the frame; made a tentative motion towards me. “You okay? You did a good job. Glad I had you for final orientation.”

“Just thinking. Good luck; it was nice knowing you.”

He snapped off the external speaker and stepped through into the lock.

I cycled him out.

The outer door opened on two golden, floating figures–the Welcome Wagon, I guess. Odd, knowing that while they could come visit me, I could never even survive the life they lived. But, when I get back, I have the trees, the grass, blue skies, my parents, furniture to wax, Sundays at the Zoo. I remain content.

Good stuff, eh?

WRITING PROMPT: Write a character who is willing to give up life as he or she knows it to live in an alien place. Why is he or she willing?

MA

Artsy and Sneezy

January 21, 2012 in Grab bag | 2 comments

No, that’s not a new couple who just moved into Storybrooke. That’s me.

Although it took me while to find it out, since I have a cold and I was moving … well … like a turtle with a cold, my internet service provider was down yesterday. I missed it very much. I missed it a lot more yesterday than I did Wednesday, when I had planned to be offline.

Spoiled? Why, yes. Yes, I am.

Today, the Southern Indiana Writers Group is scheduled to do a signing at the Arts Council of Indiana‘s current exhibit, “The Animals In Us”. If my cold is sufficiently advanced to be non-contagious, I plan to be there. We’ll be selling our anthology of stories to do with animals, BEASTLY TALES. If you follow the link I just dropped to the anthology page on the SIW website, you can read excerpts from most of the stories.

Mine, “Fish and Visitors”, is from the point of view of a very small girl whose best friends are her stuffed armadillo and her inflatable tyrannosaurus.

Pop in and see us, if you’re in New Albany this evening. I promise I won’t be there if I’m spreadable.

WRITING PROMPT: Were you fascinated by one particular kind of animal when you were little? How about your main character? Your villain?

MA

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At Larst – Friday Recommends

January 20, 2012 in Friday Recommends | 2 comments

That means, “At last,” in case you didn’t know. My internet service provider has been down all morning, and I was reduced to typing messages to myself.

Anyway, here are some cool places I’ve been this week.

Because of all the SOPA/PIPA hoo-hah, I looked up some information on Intellectual Property. I also read a most interesting article by Cecilia Tan, a publisher, on Digital Book World, entitled “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Ebook Piracy“. Intriguing title, yes?

Author Lois Winston has a good article on Five Scribes on the subject of rejection, with a list of the top 10 reasons a manuscript is rejected. Some are beyond our control, but most are not. It’s probably a good idea for all of us, whether we write or not, to take a dispassionate look at the reasons people do poorly in our chosen line of endeavor and another dispassionate look at our own practices. We don’t need to be defeatist because some things are matters of chance or circumstance until we’ve optimized everything WE can.

The How To Write Shop is chock-full of information and resources. Check it out!

Crabfu Steamworks has a super-fantastic post on how to draw Steampunk Machines. That car at the top? I have that car in a story! Only now I know how it works! Is that cool, or what?

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a cold, and I’m going to crawl off somewhere and sneeze.

WRITING PROMPT: Give a cold to a very dignified character.

MA

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I’m Ba-ack!

January 19, 2012 in Food, Race to the Hugo | 6 comments

Didja miss me? If you used your cursor to select the blank space in yesterday’s non-post, you saw that I was striking to oppose the SOPA and PIPA bills proposed by the movie industry … I mean the United States Congress.

NOW, since yesterday was food day and I missed it, here is a food post:

We had spaghetti and marinara sauce last night. In the interest of eating fresh and local, the spaghetti was harvested by my husband and me at a nearby pick-your-own pasta farm. Okay, yeah, that’s a lie. Bought it in a box. Bought the sauce in a jar. But here’s what went with it:

GARLIC TOAST

I keep a jar in the refrigerator of light olive oil with a couple of cloves of garlic stirred in. So last night, I spread some bread with that (the oil goes semi-solid in the cold), sprinkled the oiled bread with Romano-Peccorino cheese, (Oxford comma, I love you) and broiled it until the cheese was browned. It was VERY good!

The Race To The Hugo has begun! Holly Jahangiri, Mitchell Allen, and I have challenged each other to writing Hugo-winning fiction this year. Holly even put up a web site for it: Race To The Hugo!

They’re both writing novels. I figure six short stories would give me six more chances than either of those. But — OH, NOES!! Mitchell has already posted the first installment of his novel and he and Holly are each planning to write stories AS WELL!! Will this get me off my lazy feet and onto my productive backside? We shall see, my precious. We. Shall. See.

WRITING PROMPT: Your main character is challenged to a contest. Would he or she cheat? Would he or she even be tempted to cheat? What if it were a matter of life and death, rather than for fun? Would he or she be more or less likely to cheat if the stakes were high than if they were low?

MA

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This Space Intentionally Left Blank

January 18, 2012 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

On strike in protest against the SOPA and PIPA.

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