Randomness, personal edition

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First things first: I earned my three-gallon pin today. Folks, if you can give blood, please do so. It saves lives. Plus you get snacks.

Second things second: Child of Fire has a Kindle edition. I’ve seen Kindles on the bus and they aren’t for me, but maybe there’s someone reading this who would love to get a discounted electronic copy of the book.

Third things third: According to the Internet, I read 300 wpm (approx) with 91% comprehension. My Complete Idiot’s Guide to Speed Reading says that’s “above average” but only barely. Come on, self-improvement!

Fourth things fourth: I’m willing to let people hate me. Just sayin’.

Today is better than yesterday.

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It’s amazing how much good a little quiet time can do.

And now, something fun

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Woody from Dan Britt on Vimeo.

via Andrew Sullivan

Nervous? Me?

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Less than a week until Child of Fire officially publishes, and I’m in a confused, detached state of anxiety. Today, sending an email to someone, I fussed with the text of it so much that I ended up sending a completely blank message. Seriously, there was nothing in it at all.

Blah blah about a first novel and stress behind the cut. Continue reading

Randomness for 9/23

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1) qotd: “I don’t mind hidden depths but I insist that there be a surface.” — James Nicoll

2) Best Fiction Generator Ever.

3) Reverse image search. Pretty cool.

4) What are the effects of killing all the pigs in Egypt? via Jay Lake

5) “Writers want to write short fiction and they’re going to keep finding ways to get them to readers. Writers seem willing to keep writing, even in the face of comparative commercial indifference.” Short fiction as loss-leaders for novels? As hobbyist activity? via matociquala

6) Real estate agent sends listing to sf/f lit agent for two and a half million dollar mountaintop retreat, because of course her millionaire genre writers will want to snap that right up. I wish she’d linked to the listing; I’ll bet Castle would look great perched on a rough wooden bench, staring thoughtfully into the morning mist.

6a) How to get rich as a writer? (geniusofevil, skip this part) Donald Maas’s free e-book has some interesting conclusions about the things writers do and don’t do to make a six-figure salary. I can’t help but wonder if he’d get the same results if he ran that survey again.

7) International Beard and Moustache Championships. Honestly, some of these make me a little sick.

8) Homes with cats 8 times more likely to contain mrsa. Not that it isn’t totally worth the risk!!! More interesting are the things listed that do not increase the germ risk.

Interview today, and other stuff

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I had my interview with Sohaib Awan at http://www.fictionalfrontiers.com today. It went pretty well, I think. I was damn nervous, but I didn’t stammer too much, and I don’t think I did the quiver-breathing thing I sometimes do.

It will probably air next Monday (or the Monday after that) between 5-6 pm, on WNJC 1360AM Philadelphia, simultaneously webcast on http://www.wnjc1360.com/. After that, there’ll be a podcast to listen to, if you can’t catch it live. I’ll post a link when it’s available.

Also, the first thing I did this morning was to give one last read-through of my Big Idea essay for John Scalzi’s blog. Good thing, too, because Christ was that opening paragraph stilted. It’s been sent off now. Hopefully, it’ll be well-received.

Today I mailed out the first batch of books, too. I called Random House to order more, but I’m thinking I need to have some sort of plan targeting where I’m going to send the rest.

And, finally, I had a morning meeting with my director buddy, about the movie we (mostly he–I just wrote it) made, and what the next step for him was going to be. He has another one of my scripts, a vampire script about infidelity and bad marriages, which he’s hoping to set up somewhere, but he first needs to find out what he can get from the walking-dead-on-TV movie we already shot. In any case, it was good to see my friend again.

Randomness for 9/21

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1) Parasite eats fish’s tongue, then lives in its mouth feeding off its food. This one gives me goosebumps.

2) For The Love Of Scottie McMullet — Romance novels retitled to match their covers. I wish they’d do some sf/f/h novels.

3) PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, a micro-budget horror film from a few years ago, is finally going to get a release. Check out the trailer, too.

4) Making your own video game monsters. I don’t know a thing about Bioshock, but even I know this is cool.

5) OMG, one week until Child of Fire‘s book release day.

Interview tomorrow

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I have my first interview tomorrow, over the phone, for these folks.

Nervous? Me?

I will try to be animated (ie: not drone) and try to avoid inadvisable jokes. We’ll see how it goes.

Oh, and I got my first review through the Amazon.com Vine program. It’s five stars.

“This is a great fantasy story plus a noir mystery with a complex plot. I read it in one sitting!”

Online backup

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I downgraded my Dropbox to a free account and signed on with Mozy.com. Dropbox is a great service for backing up and syncing my writing between two computers, but for backing up my family photos and videos online it just doesn’t work. There’s no way to back up files without also putting them on both computers, and my laptop doesn’t have space for all those files. With the free 2GB version, though, I back up my writing and everything is good.

Mozy.com offers unlimited backup from one computer for five bucks a month. That works out perfectly: I save the file on my laptop, dropbox copies it to the desktop (as well as keeping an online copy) and then Mozy backs it up again. I also have a 2 TB Time Capsule drive running Time Machine at its regular pace.

I hope that covers it.

Only downside is the initial backup to Mozy. I started it yesterday afternoon, and the download window says it still has three days, thirteen hours to finish.

Bleh

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We have our first muggy, rainy day in a while, and after a short, brisk walk I find myself… sticky. Gross. Time to go home for a shower.

For some reason, I’m still struggling with the end of Man Bites World. I have no idea why, but I’m pretty unhappy about my progress. Usually, I struggle with a scene because I’m doing something wrong with it, somehow, but in this case I’m pretty sure I have it worked out nicely. I just can’t seem to focus on it. Bad me.

Earlier today, I dropped off a copy of Child of Fire (Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble online, Borders, Powell’s, Mysterious Galaxy, Indiebound.org) with the owner of the bookstore that’ll be hosting my signing. I wanted her to see what she was getting in for, not to mention ask if there was anything she’d need. As it turns out, I need to print up a copy of my author photo for her. No biggie.

Now I need to pick up some thank you cards, my library holds and head home. I have to introduce my son to Godzilla movies and get started on those speed reading books I’ve been meaning to tackle.