Plowed through four chapters of The Stupid Novel today. Including rewrites and ruthless cutting, I netted a total of 1.3K words. I think there’s a decent chance the last hour or so of prose might be of the “See Jane nod. Nod, Jane, nod” variety, but it was chok full of plot bunnies. I’ll get some carrots and see if the bunnies are as hoppity tomorrow when I have a fresh morning brain instead of the tired bedtime one I’m currently sporting.
G’night bunnies. G’night brain. G’night Stupid Novel.
Rounding out my best Droid apps reprise are five additions to my “Most Fun” apps list:
And some honorable mentions: Continue reading
As promised, following my review of five new “Most Essential” apps for my Droid, herein five additions to my “Most Useful” apps list:
Then the developers put out a couple updates, fixed the glitches and bugs, added some shiny features, and it turned from “meh” to “squee!”
I compiled lists of my Top 10 Essential, Useful, and Fun Droid apps back in January, and since then, my Droid has been upgraded to Android 2.2 (Froyo), accompanied me to the Nebula Awards and Atlantis shuttle launch, and weathered Dragon*Con with me, and I’ve discovered new apps and retired old ones. I figured it’s high time I revisited my “Best Apps” lists.
Today I’ll review five additions to my “Most Essential” apps:
It’s a super-slick, super-smooth, super-fast home screen replacement to end all home screen replacements. It’s completely customizable with up to seven home screens and up to three scrollable docks, with each dock icon able to do two actions–the standard “tap here to launch app/do something” as well as a “swipe here to launch app/do something.” (So the dock, all by itself, can perform 30 separate actions–five icons in three docks multiplied by two!) LauncherPro also has a snazzy preview feature, i.e., see+select all your home screens on one screen; lets you hide apps in the app drawer that you don’t use (or just to keep things tidy); specify what the home key does; change how icons are highlighted when you select them; and specify how many rows and columns you want on your home screens. You can also choose from a number of stock docks, download custom docks from the dedicated forum, or create your own custom dock. And that’s just the free version. It is the god-king of home screen apps.
LauncherPro epitomizes what I love about the Android platform: it improves on the stock, provides a dizzying array of options, is completely customizable, and has a thriving and enthusiastic user community. If I ever meet the developer, I will hug him.
Well, the good news is that I do seem to have rectified the “lost my characters’ voices” problem I was having in my last foray into finishing Part 5 of The Stupid Novel. The bad news is that re-finding those voices has shown me that huge swathes of Part 5 need to be rewritten.
The story couldn’t progress, and I needed to review Parts 1 through 4 in order to see how sections of Part 5 were fundamentally flawed. So I should be grateful to my writing subconscious/instinct/laziness that wouldn’t just let me plow forward. But I’m mostly mad at myself for writing such dreck in the first place. Meh.
However, I do think it’s still possible to bring The Stupid Novel to zero draft by November 1.
Chugging along.
By tabling nearly everything else this week, I’m making good progress on The Stupid Novel. Cut something like 1.3K words yesterday (and wow did they need cutting) and finished the editing pass on Part 4. Starting on the final section, Part 5, today. Might even be able to/hoping to start laying down new words.
But that does mean that I am, as always, falling behind on my to-do list. If you’re waiting on me for something, um, it’s going to be a bit longer. Sorry. Sorta afraid to do anything to derail my momentum at this point.
[Edit: Managed about 20 pages into Part 5 and realized that a massive rewrite was necessary. About 500 new words done today and much ruthless chopping. Brain feels like watery sludge. Rah.]
Just heard from my Cricket editor that “The Princess and the Golden Fish” is now slated for publication in the January through April, 2011, issues as a four-part serial. I knew it was going to be serialized, but I didn’t realize they were doing it in four parts.
I’m tickled, both to have a publication date for this story and because four parts means it gets that much more artwork. Hurray!
With my folks visiting this weekend, I didn’t get much in the way of writing (or other) work accomplished. But I did manage to complete this editing pass on Part 3 of The Stupid Novel, and I started Part 4 on the train this morning.
I’ve said it before, but it bears whinging about again: my creativity appears to be indelibly hardwired to my stress center–and possibly my too-many-hamsters-on-my-plate center. Why is it inevitable that the words clamor to be put down and the story inspires with a jackhammer when I don’t have time to write? What exactly is the cosmos trying to tell me?
Stupid cosmos.
A few folks have asked me about the availability of an e-book version of Returning My Sister’s Face. I’ve actually been thinking about that and e-books in general for a while. It’s hard to avoid all the industry fuss and furor about e-books, their pricing, and electronic rights in general.
Until I got my Droid, e-books hadn’t made much of an impression on me as a reader. I had my laptop and have been reading a lot of fiction, primarily short stories, in various formats for years now: PDF, Word/RTF, HTML, and epub mostly. And while I d0 prefer the convenience and portability of electronic files, I wasn’t sold on it as the evolution of printed books. It was just a convenient medium that had its advantages and disadvantages–the primary disadvantage being that even though my VAIO is teeny (11.1″ screen, 2.8lbs, less than an inch thick), I couldn’t just pop it out of my purse or backpack and flip it open like I could a good ole paperback. I had to be somewhere where I could set it down and boot it, a process that took a minute or so. And it was too awkward to juggle while standing. While its size made standing use possible, unlike my behemoth of an HP laptop which is clunky as an anvil and nearly as heavy, I was always too afraid it would get jostled out of my hands or I’d fumble and drop it.
And then I got my Droid. Continue reading
Came in to work this morning to see huge equipment trucks parked in front of the capitol. Seems they’re shooting a movie here today. A quick Google check informs me that it’s Lost Valentine starring Betty White and Jennifer Love-Hewitt.
They’ve set up white lighting backdrops and several furniture prop pieces in the rotunda. I’m amused that all it takes is a few long benches to transform the interior of the Georgia State Capitol into a train station:
Continue reading
