It's been a while but it's time to blow the dust off the old blog and post to it. I would apologize for my absence, but hey, let's not pretend either one of us are regulars around here, okay?
I've been writing on Twitch for a while now. Early-on, I think I was being naughty, so I tried to hide nonchalantly in the Music channel, and I played music to CMA. At that time, Twitch's TOS said that all streams should be gaming-related, and sure, while games get written all the time, I'm streaming a fantasy novel. The best argument for which I could hope was that the novel had the potential to be turned into a game, and maybe in 10 or 20 years Twitch streamers would stream games set in a world created on Twitch. Meta-poetically, it works, but it's a pretty shaky argument against a TOS should Twitch want to be by-their-book. However, nobody ever told me to go away, so I kept hiding in the Music channel, poking away at my book.
Twitch's response to me (well, people like me, I'm not deluded enough to think it was really me) was to give me a Creative channel. It's quite a fascinating place.
You can watch people engage in their creative side and broadcast your own. You can join a fanbase or build one! You can't always call it art, but it's assuredly always entertaining.
Best of all, a community of writers has been building there, both who stream and do not stream, and with the addition of the NaNoWriMo streamers this month, there is quite a lot of writing happening right now on Twitch.
Getting you into the business end of streaming is beyond the scope of this, but overall, streaming is pretty easy and well-documented on Twitch. You'll need some software (like OBS or Xsplit). A microphone and web cam are handy but not required. Getting some of the "bells and whistles" like follower announcements or social bots can be a little intimidating to the uninitiated, but after a few pokes of trial and error, I was able to get them up and running without too much hassle.
Specifically, check out JudyDawn and SilentWillow, both of whom have writing talent exploding from their word processors. If you follow them, you can set Twitch to notify you by email when they go live.
Come join us.
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Release: Ignite
An unlikely couple finds love in the vortex of violent social upheaval. Can their relationship survive their differing political stances? A terse political thriller, infused with an uncompromising romance.
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Point Blank Idiocy
Every time a writer uses the phrase "point blank range" to mean "extremely close range", God clubs a baby seal to death with a physics book. Just because most of the English-speaking media uses the phrase incorrectly does not imply that you must, too.
In ballistics, it is the distance at which a projectile will hit the ground if you perfectly level a gun and fire it, which can be over 300 yards for high powered rifles. That's three football fields, which is obviously the opposite of "extremely close range". And if it's a handgun and its PBR is only three feet, then your gun sucks, because the PBR on even the most piece-of-crap squirt guns is about 2 yards.
If you must use the phrase and the victim is indeed at very close range, use the qualifier "within". Within point blank range is perfectly acceptable, because the victim's range falls inside the range of PBR, but by saying "at point blank range" implies the victim was shot at the gun's maximum PBR.
Think of the goddamned baby seals next time, won't you?
In ballistics, it is the distance at which a projectile will hit the ground if you perfectly level a gun and fire it, which can be over 300 yards for high powered rifles. That's three football fields, which is obviously the opposite of "extremely close range". And if it's a handgun and its PBR is only three feet, then your gun sucks, because the PBR on even the most piece-of-crap squirt guns is about 2 yards.
If you must use the phrase and the victim is indeed at very close range, use the qualifier "within". Within point blank range is perfectly acceptable, because the victim's range falls inside the range of PBR, but by saying "at point blank range" implies the victim was shot at the gun's maximum PBR.
Think of the goddamned baby seals next time, won't you?
Friday, May 23, 2014
Procedural Language Generator
As of late, I've been spending far more time tinkering with
linguistics for my tastes. For instance, I took a three day diversion
from a paragraph to figure out the linguistic rules set just to
establish a two word phrase. The language is from a far-off country called Eshet, whose
citizens wear a particular style of ankle-length toga. The fashionable
people of Anchorest love the style, but in order to continue to sound fashionable
they kept the name straight from the Eshan language, which is lor nobre in Eshan, and never mind that in their own language it just means 'the long cut'.
Granted, that far-off land is pretty important and the language will end up being used a lot more than those two words that it initially spawned, so the time isn't necessarily wasted. It could just be better-spent doing some actual writing.
Granted, that far-off land is pretty important and the language will end up being used a lot more than those two words that it initially spawned, so the time isn't necessarily wasted. It could just be better-spent doing some actual writing.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Decimate the Lightning Bugs
“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” Mark Twain
Let's talk about the word decimate. It's a lightning word when used correctly, but more often than not it's used as a lightning bug.
Let's talk about the word decimate. It's a lightning word when used correctly, but more often than not it's used as a lightning bug.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Goodreads and the "Community"
Here is an interesting perspective on Goodreads and the "community" that it has created.
First, I have to say that I really like Goodreads for all of the reasons stated in the article. It gives a place where authors can engage readers and vice versa. It gives a good "landing place" for your novel. It also connects to your blog, so that what I'm typing here will show up there eventually. Goodreads is a great site for authors and readers.
Dealing with negative reviews is tough, however. As authors, we spend so much time with our work that it is easy to be sensitive about it. The books we write are like our children, and nobody wants to have their little snowflakes criticized. That being said, though, once we bring our work to the table and release it, it's up to the public to judge it, even if we might think that judgment is unfair, incorrect, or even spiteful in origin.
First, I have to say that I really like Goodreads for all of the reasons stated in the article. It gives a place where authors can engage readers and vice versa. It gives a good "landing place" for your novel. It also connects to your blog, so that what I'm typing here will show up there eventually. Goodreads is a great site for authors and readers.
Dealing with negative reviews is tough, however. As authors, we spend so much time with our work that it is easy to be sensitive about it. The books we write are like our children, and nobody wants to have their little snowflakes criticized. That being said, though, once we bring our work to the table and release it, it's up to the public to judge it, even if we might think that judgment is unfair, incorrect, or even spiteful in origin.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Risan Bracelet Design
Friday, September 20, 2013
Fallen Rise: Book I statistics
Fallen Rise is the first novel in the the gritty, epic fantasy series that I have been writing. It is the story of a noble woman who has fallen into disrepute, and her search for redemption in the eyes of her people. Here is Chapter Two, the introduction of one of the main protagonists.
The novel is broken into two books, and the first draft of Book I is pretty much complete. I've said that before, however I wasn't entirely satisfied with the notes on which it ended, so I added another chapter, which serves to both ratchet up the tension and clarify the stakes. With a little bit more work, it could potentially be published independently, if it weren't for the fact that there are no resolutions to any of the problems, as Book I ends with all the protagonists in crisis.
I've yet to decide how I'm going to proceed when it is all finished, whether I'll try to shop it traditionally or whether I'll try to self-publish again. Offering the first half of the novel for free might be a way to sell the series.
Here are the first draft statistics for Book I:
Chapters: 24
Words: 63,133
Cut Words: 24,528
Average Words Per Chapter: 2630.5
Book I Estimated Words: 60,000
Total Estimated Words: 120,000
Project Status: 52.6% complete
Characters: 345,979
Average Word Length: 5.48
POVs: 7
Deceased/Named Characters: 10/42
I'm 2.6% over budget in regards to my word count, but I'm not terribly concerned by that. I hit close enough to the mid-point that I'm satisfied, and there is yet some editing to do, besides. Everything seems on track to end at about the 120k word mark, and overall I think I'm in a pretty good position in regards to the story arc and overall pace.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
A Preview of Fallen Rise
Here is Chapter Two from Fallen Rise, the low-fantasy novel on which I'm presently working.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Quietude
I've been quiet as of late, it would seem. However, my pen has yet been flowing, as I've been working on a full-length, gritty, low fantasy novel called Fallen Rise. Plot-wise, it's about a young woman of high birth who has fallen into disrepute, and she must redeem herself in order to claim what is rightfully hers. There's romance, high adventure, murder, magic, plague, demonic infestation, addiction, betrayal and brotherhood, just to name a few thematic elements.
I'm about halfway finished with it, having hit the 55k word mark this week. Ultimately, it'll be about 100k-120k words. I've had a few alpha readers along the way, and feedback has been very positive. I've been flitting back and forth between writing, editing, and world-building, and on the days the proverbial pen hits the paper, I've been knocking out about 1000-1500 words per session. It's the largest project I've ever worked on, encompassing thousands of hours of work (world-building has gone on for 7 years). All the preparation has allowed the words to flow with relative ease, and I'm hoping it will evolve into a series of books. It should be ready come summer.
That's when the agent shopping-fun begins.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Review of Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John BerendtMy rating: 4 of 5 riots
Though I took a few extended breaks while reading it, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It accurately paints a portrait of a town as insular and isolated as Savannah, and while much criticism has been thrown its way regarding the "grotesque" characters, I did not find them objectionable or out of the realm of possibility. I usually regard first-person narrative as indicative of writers that have not found a voice of their own, however Berendt pulls off this perspective with aplomb; it is the very model of how first-person narratives should be constructed. The narrator is relegated almost solely to the role of observer. He is in a unique position among his subjects, that of Savannah outsider but defense counsel insider, and this generates much-needed tension in what would otherwise be a flat plot. Berendt expertly draws us along the events like the drawl from the loveliest of Savannah's Southern Belles. If you like the genre of true crime, then you will assuredly be as entertained as I was.
View all my reviews
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Free Foo Foo
To celebrate 11 years of American Proto-Fascism, I'm giving away my ebook Foo Foo for free over the next 24 hours.
Use coupon code MT92H for a 100% discount off of Foo Foo!
If you pay full price, then the terrorists win.
Use coupon code MT92H for a 100% discount off of Foo Foo!
If you pay full price, then the terrorists win.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Microfiction: Chang Ming
...He's alive...
The crowd pulsed through the narrow cacophonous alleys of the county carnival like blood in a vein, pumping in a furious circle, desperate to live in the chilly night. Thin, steel knives of clouds stabbed into the harvest moon as it hung oppressive, bloody, lifeless.
Shadows licked from between the carnie booths like fingers beckoning the locals, closer, closer, play the games and win the prize, guess your weight, win a prize, it's easy to win a prize. Sirens go off and the customers, like so many sheep, gawk in that direction. Their anxiousness is quickly overcome by boredom when they realize it's just a strong-man hammer game. The staccato click-rumble of dispensing skeet-ball machines compete with the rolling thunder of the balls as the players roll them back again, forming an organic white-noise rhythm of the unconscious.
...He's real...
Guns popped at the shooting gallery, and a jaunty, raucous tune filled that corner of the midway as someone hit the target over the piano, and the crude animatronic player, dressed in his red pin-stripe shirt, went through his jerky motions all over again.
A miasma of piquant odors lurked amongst the people like the masque of the red cholesterol death, a mélange of cotton candy, greasy hamburgers, fried Twinkies, hot dogs and cow patties straight from the livestock show.
...He's Chang Ming...
A motorcycle rumbled in dizzying donuts through its spherical cage, and the rider was hunched over the handlebars, wearing a grin that bespoke of the sheer madness that filled his heart. He defied gravity, but he defied the carnies, too, for he alone among them did not seem steeped in blasé boredom.
The yellow and red folk-art busking for Chang Ming had been carefully painted by an artist who had obviously never been to neither Paris nor China. Lines of elephants flanked Chang Ming, and the beast had been adorned in the armor of an ancient Chinese emperor, and it breathed fire onto terrified onlookers.
...The Elephant-Skinned Dog...
The fire-breathing elephant-skinned dog's real name was Patches. He suffered from the worst cases of halitosis and psoriasis that any canine should ever have to endure. He had come to the carnies six months ago, begging for scraps. They had teased the thing, both horrible to regard and smell, before recognizing one of their own and by the second night, Patches had a new home with the carnival. They carnies named him Patches because he still had a few swatches of hair. Last month he'd lost the rest of his hair and they put him on display.
"That dog's right ugly," one of the carnies had said.
Now his nights were a steel cage, with barely enough room in which to turn. People passed him in his dungeon, disgusted and jeering as they went, and to each he would give the same silent, desperate plea: take me home, take me home, take me home. Will you take me home?
The carnie on the mic echoed his own mantra, drawing customers, over and over and over to lure the suckers out of their curiosity dollar.
...He's alive...
...He's real...
...He's Chang Ming...
...The Elephant-Skinned Dog...
Copyright (c) 2012 Patrick Riot
The crowd pulsed through the narrow cacophonous alleys of the county carnival like blood in a vein, pumping in a furious circle, desperate to live in the chilly night. Thin, steel knives of clouds stabbed into the harvest moon as it hung oppressive, bloody, lifeless.
Shadows licked from between the carnie booths like fingers beckoning the locals, closer, closer, play the games and win the prize, guess your weight, win a prize, it's easy to win a prize. Sirens go off and the customers, like so many sheep, gawk in that direction. Their anxiousness is quickly overcome by boredom when they realize it's just a strong-man hammer game. The staccato click-rumble of dispensing skeet-ball machines compete with the rolling thunder of the balls as the players roll them back again, forming an organic white-noise rhythm of the unconscious.
...He's real...
Guns popped at the shooting gallery, and a jaunty, raucous tune filled that corner of the midway as someone hit the target over the piano, and the crude animatronic player, dressed in his red pin-stripe shirt, went through his jerky motions all over again.
A miasma of piquant odors lurked amongst the people like the masque of the red cholesterol death, a mélange of cotton candy, greasy hamburgers, fried Twinkies, hot dogs and cow patties straight from the livestock show.
...He's Chang Ming...
A motorcycle rumbled in dizzying donuts through its spherical cage, and the rider was hunched over the handlebars, wearing a grin that bespoke of the sheer madness that filled his heart. He defied gravity, but he defied the carnies, too, for he alone among them did not seem steeped in blasé boredom.
The yellow and red folk-art busking for Chang Ming had been carefully painted by an artist who had obviously never been to neither Paris nor China. Lines of elephants flanked Chang Ming, and the beast had been adorned in the armor of an ancient Chinese emperor, and it breathed fire onto terrified onlookers.
...The Elephant-Skinned Dog...
The fire-breathing elephant-skinned dog's real name was Patches. He suffered from the worst cases of halitosis and psoriasis that any canine should ever have to endure. He had come to the carnies six months ago, begging for scraps. They had teased the thing, both horrible to regard and smell, before recognizing one of their own and by the second night, Patches had a new home with the carnival. They carnies named him Patches because he still had a few swatches of hair. Last month he'd lost the rest of his hair and they put him on display.
"That dog's right ugly," one of the carnies had said.
Now his nights were a steel cage, with barely enough room in which to turn. People passed him in his dungeon, disgusted and jeering as they went, and to each he would give the same silent, desperate plea: take me home, take me home, take me home. Will you take me home?
The carnie on the mic echoed his own mantra, drawing customers, over and over and over to lure the suckers out of their curiosity dollar.
...He's alive...
...He's real...
...He's Chang Ming...
...The Elephant-Skinned Dog...
Copyright (c) 2012 Patrick Riot
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Ghost of Cabin 664
I just published The Ghost of Cabin 664 at Smashwords. It's a (FREE) short story, inspired by Chinese ghost tales.
Chinese ghost tales are different than in the West. Usually, the ghost is traveling rather than haunting a specific place. More often than not, the ghost is seeking revenge for some injustice done to them in life, and only through obtaining that revenge can the spirit be put to rest. I used these themes within Ghost, setting the tale on a cruise ship with a ghost that is looking to correct an injustice.
Publishing this go-round was a lot easier than when I published Foo Foo, mostly because I had a template document already set up and waiting. Foo Foo took at least 8 hours to prepare for publication, and this round only took about 4 hours. I had one extraneous tab in the file and Smashwords spit it back out at me, but that was corrected easily enough and off it went into the Premium Catalog queue. We'll see how that goes, but I don't anticipate any problems.
Ghost has already garnered one four-star review, wholly unsolicited. It's an awesome review:
Life has been crazy. I broke up with my girlfriend for being a lying bint. Frailty, thy name is woman. Oh well, her loss. I'm better for it. I feel better about myself than I have in a long time; I feel liberated. I'd rather be single than be lied to, yaknowhatImean?
Besides, I've still got my right hand, and it doesn't fucking complain if we skip the foreplay.
My mom has breast cancer and is currently undergoing chemotherapy. She had a double mastectomy in April. This has put a damper on my creativity, but it has improved our relationship a lot. We're able to talk without snapping at each other, which is a plus. It's a shame that it took forty years and some fucked-up cellular divisions to make it happen, but I'm glad for it nonetheless. I've been cooking a lot of dinners for my parents and enjoying the time I've been spending with them.
My muse has been off crack-whoring in strange ports of call, but I think I've wrangled her ass back, and I'm hoping to produce some more words on paper very soon.
Chinese ghost tales are different than in the West. Usually, the ghost is traveling rather than haunting a specific place. More often than not, the ghost is seeking revenge for some injustice done to them in life, and only through obtaining that revenge can the spirit be put to rest. I used these themes within Ghost, setting the tale on a cruise ship with a ghost that is looking to correct an injustice.
Publishing this go-round was a lot easier than when I published Foo Foo, mostly because I had a template document already set up and waiting. Foo Foo took at least 8 hours to prepare for publication, and this round only took about 4 hours. I had one extraneous tab in the file and Smashwords spit it back out at me, but that was corrected easily enough and off it went into the Premium Catalog queue. We'll see how that goes, but I don't anticipate any problems.
Ghost has already garnered one four-star review, wholly unsolicited. It's an awesome review:
There are some interesting things going on in this author's mind. All you have to do is read his profile and the author's notes to see that. It's great that some of those interesting things are making it onto the page. This story was enjoyable and well written.I giggled incessantly. Interesting things, indeed! If you people only knew!
Life has been crazy. I broke up with my girlfriend for being a lying bint. Frailty, thy name is woman. Oh well, her loss. I'm better for it. I feel better about myself than I have in a long time; I feel liberated. I'd rather be single than be lied to, yaknowhatImean?
Besides, I've still got my right hand, and it doesn't fucking complain if we skip the foreplay.
My mom has breast cancer and is currently undergoing chemotherapy. She had a double mastectomy in April. This has put a damper on my creativity, but it has improved our relationship a lot. We're able to talk without snapping at each other, which is a plus. It's a shame that it took forty years and some fucked-up cellular divisions to make it happen, but I'm glad for it nonetheless. I've been cooking a lot of dinners for my parents and enjoying the time I've been spending with them.
My muse has been off crack-whoring in strange ports of call, but I think I've wrangled her ass back, and I'm hoping to produce some more words on paper very soon.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Cover, Me Matey
I've been working on a cover for a pirate-setting erotica book called Beneath the Jolly Roger by Andrea Trask and Blake Sinclair. It's been pretty neat working with the authors via Google Plus. G+ actually makes for a really nice collaboration environment, and we were able to settle on a basic design quicker than if we were bouncing emails around.
Friday, April 6, 2012
Foo Foo, Smashwords Adventure Part II
A few months ago I published Foo Foo on Smashwords. It took a month of waiting, but it ended up on the Smashwords "Premium Catalog". While this did not generate any extra sales, the extra potential purchase avenues are ones you want to be in.
Since, I have updated Foo Foo three times, correcting errors, and niggling the details as Tolkien would say. The updating process, provided your document conforms to the Smashwords publishing guide, is absolutely painless. While I haven't sold enough books to warrant receipt of a check from Smashwords (yet!), their online store is pretty awesome. It has a coupon manager you can use to provide discounts, which is really useful for promoting your work.
Smashwords also provides ISBN numbers for your books. That service alone is really awesome, and it doesn't cost you a dime.
Overall, as an author, I've been really impressed with Smashwords.
5 Riots
Since, I have updated Foo Foo three times, correcting errors, and niggling the details as Tolkien would say. The updating process, provided your document conforms to the Smashwords publishing guide, is absolutely painless. While I haven't sold enough books to warrant receipt of a check from Smashwords (yet!), their online store is pretty awesome. It has a coupon manager you can use to provide discounts, which is really useful for promoting your work.
Smashwords also provides ISBN numbers for your books. That service alone is really awesome, and it doesn't cost you a dime.
Overall, as an author, I've been really impressed with Smashwords.
5 Riots
Monday, December 5, 2011
FreeMind - Software for the Writer
I've been working on an idea for a low-fantasy epic for several years now, but as of yet I've had zero success at actually spinning the idea into a story worthy of telling. I know it has to do with prostitutes, rat demons and redemption, but that's the big picture. The little picture has plagued me. The sheer volume of information that I've been collecting over these past four years have morphed in scope to become more epic than any yarn I could weave. I've had this problem with stories in the past, stories which have been tossed by the wayside because I couldn't figure out how to tell them effectively. It's like knowing that you want to drive from New York to LA, but you have no idea what roads you want to take, and therefore it's safe to say you'll be stuck in the Big Apple for the rest of your life.
Recently, I dug up my epic in an effort to revive my work on it. I beat my head on it for several days before realizing that what I needed was a mind map that would diagram all of my ideas in one centralized location.
For those who live under rocks, a Mind Map is a graphical representation of various ideas centered around a main idea. The ultimate objective for using a mind map is to hack a statue of David out of a block of intellectual marble.
I've used a variety of tools to create mind maps. Mind maps can get sloppy very quickly, and thus I've found pen and paper (and their white board equivalents) too limiting. I'm constantly erasing as I'm refining the ideas, or crossing out huge blocks of text. Note cards are satisfactory, but they do not suit the purpose of the early stages of idea construction, and the cards eventually hit a ceiling of unwieldiness. Software, therefore seems the best solution. Relatively infinite space, no unwieldy cards, easy editing.
I looked around at several software solutions, and the best I found, by far, is FreeMind. Within seconds of installing it, I had created the basic outline of my epic. By the end of the second night, I had compiled almost all of my notes into the map, and had become rather adept at using the software. I'd even taken the time to generate a nice story structure mind map, containing the 3-act, 5-act, and Monomythic story models and another map regarding my notes on mythology. All three maps are enormous, now, with text, images, links, etc.
The software is very easy to use. Creating a new sibling node in the map is as easy as hitting Enter, and inserting a child is as easy as hitting Insert. The arrow keys move you about in the map. Space bar collapses and expands nodes, allowing you to hide portions of the map that you don't want to see. You can use clouds to help organize ideas into visual clusters. You can hotlink nodes, or have them expand to sub-maps, draw arrows between nodes... It has all sorts of wonderful bells and whistles. For the writer organizing his ideas, the software is invaluable.
The very best thing about FreeMind, however, is that it is free.
It's not perfect, however. In my own mind maps, I will sometimes draw relationship arrows and note the relationship on the arrow itself. I can't find this capability in FreeMind if it exists, but thus far it hasn't hindered me overmuch. There's also some weird node-jumping by the cursor when you swap to a different program and back again, causing you to have to arrow around a bit to get back to the node you were working on.
Overall, I'd highly suggest FreeMind to, well, everyone. It's really helping me find that statue of David that I've been looking for, and I think it can help you, too.
Five Riots, indeed.
Recently, I dug up my epic in an effort to revive my work on it. I beat my head on it for several days before realizing that what I needed was a mind map that would diagram all of my ideas in one centralized location.
For those who live under rocks, a Mind Map is a graphical representation of various ideas centered around a main idea. The ultimate objective for using a mind map is to hack a statue of David out of a block of intellectual marble.
I've used a variety of tools to create mind maps. Mind maps can get sloppy very quickly, and thus I've found pen and paper (and their white board equivalents) too limiting. I'm constantly erasing as I'm refining the ideas, or crossing out huge blocks of text. Note cards are satisfactory, but they do not suit the purpose of the early stages of idea construction, and the cards eventually hit a ceiling of unwieldiness. Software, therefore seems the best solution. Relatively infinite space, no unwieldy cards, easy editing.
I looked around at several software solutions, and the best I found, by far, is FreeMind. Within seconds of installing it, I had created the basic outline of my epic. By the end of the second night, I had compiled almost all of my notes into the map, and had become rather adept at using the software. I'd even taken the time to generate a nice story structure mind map, containing the 3-act, 5-act, and Monomythic story models and another map regarding my notes on mythology. All three maps are enormous, now, with text, images, links, etc.
The software is very easy to use. Creating a new sibling node in the map is as easy as hitting Enter, and inserting a child is as easy as hitting Insert. The arrow keys move you about in the map. Space bar collapses and expands nodes, allowing you to hide portions of the map that you don't want to see. You can use clouds to help organize ideas into visual clusters. You can hotlink nodes, or have them expand to sub-maps, draw arrows between nodes... It has all sorts of wonderful bells and whistles. For the writer organizing his ideas, the software is invaluable.
The very best thing about FreeMind, however, is that it is free.
It's not perfect, however. In my own mind maps, I will sometimes draw relationship arrows and note the relationship on the arrow itself. I can't find this capability in FreeMind if it exists, but thus far it hasn't hindered me overmuch. There's also some weird node-jumping by the cursor when you swap to a different program and back again, causing you to have to arrow around a bit to get back to the node you were working on.
Overall, I'd highly suggest FreeMind to, well, everyone. It's really helping me find that statue of David that I've been looking for, and I think it can help you, too.
Five Riots, indeed.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Free Foo Foo
Until midnight tonight you can download a free copy of Foo Foo using the coupon code UK82D.
Get it here.
I've also dropped the price to the lowest possible: $.99.
I suppose the next step is to give steaks away to people who read it.*
*(No steaks are included with the ebook, yet.)
Get it here.
I've also dropped the price to the lowest possible: $.99.
I suppose the next step is to give steaks away to people who read it.*
*(No steaks are included with the ebook, yet.)
Thursday, September 29, 2011
The Smashwords Adventure
I've taken Foo Foo down from LuLu and put it up on Smashwords, instead. Smashwords seems to have a wider distribution model, including stores for Sony, Amazon, and some that I've never even heard of. Eventually, I'll return to LuLu for some hardback copies, but that's down the road a bit - there are a few more illustrations to be done before Foo Foo is ready for hardback.
Foo Foo at Smashwords
Smashwords has been an adventure, to be sure. Their formatting document is the War and Peace of style guides, and it took me about a week to make sure the Word copy of Foo Foo met their standards. It was worth it, though, because the book looks so much better than the LuLu version, and while the Style Guide is hefty, it is very easy to use and understand. In the end, I only had one problem from the AutoVetter (the program that scans your document for formatting errors), and that was one of my fonts was 2pts too large. Fixed and resubmitted in minutes, and it's now eligible for their premium catalog. I'm not sure how elite of a club that actually is, but I'd settle for even just a tiny bit of elite right now.
I had to redesign the cover, unfortunately, since I really liked the old cover with the dead rat. Smashwords doesn't allow the depiction of violence on their covers, and while the old cover ranks up there with Itchy and Scratchy in terms of horror content, I didn't want to risk being off the premium catalog because of it, so I just went ahead and did a little redesign.
The Smashwords site appeared to be a little slower than LuLu's, which isn't good since LuLu's site is already pretty slow. Thus far, though, the overall experience at Smashwords has been easier than LuLu's, formatting aside.
I've already made 6 revisions to the text (you can sort of get away with it if nobody has read your book), but I think that the Smashwords edition will be the standing edition for a while, at least. One of my writer friends suggested that the allegory was a little heavy-handed, so I took the effort to tone it down, some. I think it adds to the experience, personally.
Foo Foo at Smashwords
Smashwords has been an adventure, to be sure. Their formatting document is the War and Peace of style guides, and it took me about a week to make sure the Word copy of Foo Foo met their standards. It was worth it, though, because the book looks so much better than the LuLu version, and while the Style Guide is hefty, it is very easy to use and understand. In the end, I only had one problem from the AutoVetter (the program that scans your document for formatting errors), and that was one of my fonts was 2pts too large. Fixed and resubmitted in minutes, and it's now eligible for their premium catalog. I'm not sure how elite of a club that actually is, but I'd settle for even just a tiny bit of elite right now.
I had to redesign the cover, unfortunately, since I really liked the old cover with the dead rat. Smashwords doesn't allow the depiction of violence on their covers, and while the old cover ranks up there with Itchy and Scratchy in terms of horror content, I didn't want to risk being off the premium catalog because of it, so I just went ahead and did a little redesign.
The Smashwords site appeared to be a little slower than LuLu's, which isn't good since LuLu's site is already pretty slow. Thus far, though, the overall experience at Smashwords has been easier than LuLu's, formatting aside.
I've already made 6 revisions to the text (you can sort of get away with it if nobody has read your book), but I think that the Smashwords edition will be the standing edition for a while, at least. One of my writer friends suggested that the allegory was a little heavy-handed, so I took the effort to tone it down, some. I think it adds to the experience, personally.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Buttons and Tricks
The mouse with the flag is Buttons, an otherwise intelligent mouse that ends up getting sucked into the fervor of nationalism in the face of an invisible enemy.
The dark mouse is named Tricks, and he is armed with a blood-soaked hammer.These were created using CAD software, then exported into Photoshop and the gray tones added. They are in black and white because the color printing process is so much more expensive.
I've got about 4 or 5 more to do.
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