Friday Links -- volume 56

Nothing much to mention this week, other than the fact that my daughter's Kindle Fire stopped working... again.  My guess is that it's the battery, and I think it probably broke open.  A weird fog has developed under the screen, which moves about depending upon the temperature.  It's not water, and the only chemical I know inside the Kindle that could do this should be locked inside the battery.

The first malfunction occurred six months after we purchased the unit.  Amazon happily sent us a free replacement (which we've subsequently discovered was actually a refurbished unit). And now, one and a half years later, the replacement stopped working, showing exactly the same weird symptoms.  Unfortunately, this time Amazon wants us to pay for a refurbished unit.  :(

The Kindle Fire (1st generation) that I bought for myself three years ago hasn't had any problems at all.

I suspect Amazon is having some quality control issues with  later models.

Anyway, enjoy the links and have a great weekend!
ChemistKen


Writing a Blurb for Your Book Cover

The F-Word: Tackling the Nitty Gritty of Formatting

Repost: The Reversal

Story Openings: Five Choices

Self-Promotion: About As Fun As Bathing In Hot Wax

How To Be A Good Critique Partner

Kindleboards

Friday Links -- Volume 40

Began editing a new chapter this week and was appalled by how much work it's going to need.  So it's pretty much business as usual.  I'm still waiting for that moment when I go back to one of my older chapters and think "Hey, this is in pretty good shape!"

Have a great weekend!

ChemistKen


Writing Active Settings, Part 2

A Better Way to Open Your Novel

Do you know who owns your book cover?

Building a Killer Email List

Are Your Scenes Causing an Effect?

Why You Should Be Mercilessly Hacking Apart Your Favorite Stories

Build a Story, but Leave the Door Open

Kindle Unlimited: The Key Questions

Angry Birds Space is out for the Kindle Fire!!!!

Angry Birds Space is now out for the Kindle Fire! Yeah, I know I already said that in the title, but some people don't read blog post titles.

If you read my earlier post about the Kindle Fire, you know that my wife had to have the game immediately. She’s already blown through all the other versions of Angry Birds. Besides, it’s so easy to tap the screen a few times and have the game magically appear for your gaming pleasure.

Unfortunately, the Kindle went black in the middle of downloading the game and refused to turn back on. I tried plugging it back into the charger, but to no effect. I began to sweat. Was it the charger or the Fire itself? The Fire was less than three months old. What kind of warranty did I have? Argh!

Then I did what I always do when I’m feeling insecure. I went to the Internet. Sure enough, it didn’t take long to discover the Kindle occasionally requires a reset, which is accomplished by holding the “on” button down for twenty seconds. I did as the Internet commanded, finished installing Angry Birds Space, and all was happy around the house again.

Today I bought a backup charger – just in case.

What Program Do You Trust Your Manuscript With?

Now that I have critique partners, I’ve discovered the importance of document format. I don’t mean the formatting of the manuscript into standard critique style (double spaced lines, left justified, etc.). I mean the format in which the document was saved.

I use Word for most of my editing needs. I’ve heard some people like Scrivener, but Word suits me fine and I have the added advantage of being able to edit my WIP pretty much anywhere I have access to a computer. And my CPs use Word too, which makes things convenient. But we don’t all use the same version of Word. I know this because one of my CPs sent a chapter in docx format, which Office 2000 -- the version on my wife’s computer -- does not recognize. I have access to other computers which can handle that format, so it's no problem, but it made me think about this whole concept of compatibility.

You see, my manuscript has been edited by more programs and on more computers than I have characters. I believe my very first chapters were conceived on an old laptop which ran Word 97 (or some suitably old version). Since then, my poor manuscript as been edited on Word 95, Word 2000, Word 2002, Word 2003, Word 2007, and Word 2010 -- all depending upon which computer I'm sitting next to at the time. I’ve edited it on a Linux-based computer using Open Office in Word compatible mode. I’ve even started editing chapters on my Kindle using QuickOffice, which can be a bit problematic as older versions of Word often crash when presented with QuickOffice edited documents, unless I run them through newer versions of Word first. In short, I find it amazing that I haven’t had more compatibility problems.

Needless to say, I constantly make incremental backups of all my chapters, just in case.

So which programs do you use to write your novels?

I Love My Kindle Fire

I was fortunate enough to receive a Kindle Fire for Christmas and although my time on it has been limited, I thought I’d share a few of my experiences. You may wonder why I consider two months of ownership to be “limited,” but trying to pry the device out of my wife’s sweaty hands after we downloaded the free Angry Birds app was much, much harder than I expected.

Honestly, she's killed enough pigs to feed a small country.

First off, if you’re a sucker for buying books and music and such, stay away from this thing, especially if you find touching buttons labeled “Buy Now” to be even slightly pleasurable. I’m not kidding. This device was designed to make you want to buy stuff. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that! I hope to one day see my book sitting next to that little button.)

The surest way to safeguard your bank account is to buy just a few books and then immediately smash your wireless router. You’ll have to keep buying new routers every time you want to purchase more books, of course, but you’ll still save money in the long run. Trust me. Once you adopt this strategy, however, you’ll have to pay attention to where you go when you’re got the Kindle with you. Visiting places which offer free WiFi is right out.

There are many free books and apps to be had at Amazon, so it’s not like you’re always spending money. My kids have gotten very good at finding little games for free. There’s nothing quite so scary as sitting in front of your computer at work and seeing all these “Amazon thanks you for your recent purchase” emails pouring into your inbox, which get sent even if the purchased product is free.

The Fire doesn’t have all the bells and whistles the iPad does, but I don’t care. It does what I need it to do and it’s easier to carry around. I can surf the net and watch Youtube videos. I can check my email and Facebook and Twitter (although I’m so bad about keeping up with the last two, it doesn’t really matter). I can even work on my WIP using a $15 app which lets me edit Word files. I wouldn’t recommend using any tablet for a first draft (unless you have lots of time and patience), but for editing, it’s not too bad. Oh, I almost forgot -- I can read books on it too.

I have to go now. There are more levels of Plants vs. Zombies to complete.

Battle of the E-Books!

Back at the beginning of December, Google announced Google Editions, their foray into the e-book arena. Unlike devices like the Kindle, promoted by Amazon.com, Google’s approach will be cloud based. This means that when you purchase a book from Google, it won’t be stored in any one device, but somewhere on the Internet, where it can be downloaded and read from any device that has a web browser. Users of the Kindle purchase their books from the Amazon store and can only read them on the Kindle or devices that run the Kindle software.

Well, Amazon is now fighting back with Kindle for the Web,” a concept which sounds very similar to Google Editions. It remains to be seen how this will all shake out in the future, but it seems to me that anything that promotes e-books is a good thing, especially since that will most likely be the route I use to publish my stories – once I have something to publish, of course.