Just a quick note…


I’m on my way out of town until Friday. I’m hoping to be able to check in here from time to time, but I can’t guarantee it. If anyone makes a comment and is waiting for it to be moderated, or for a response, please be patient.

Writing schedule

Well, my try at writing for 30 minutes first thing in the morning, before reading email and news, didn’t work out well. For one thing, I’m worried there might be an important email that needs a response. It just wreaks havoc with my OCD tendencies. Also, I’m often still tired from being up before I would naturally awake, so I don’t feel creative. I did manage to do a 15 minute practice on The Write Practice, but that was actually over lunch time. Which brings me to…

I’m going to try a new schedule: read my email, news, cartoons and blog posts in the morning as I have been, but make sure I skip less important things and get through it all before I start work. Then I’ll have my lunch hour free to write. I think this will work much better, but we’ll see.

A great checklist

I just wanted to mention one other thing: David Farland posted this checklist he says he used for his writing. This is one of the most comprehensive lists I’ve seen for the things that could go wrong with your story. I highly recommend it.

That’s all for now, back next week.

Clipping Web Pages For Later


Cover of "Kindle Wireless Reading Device,...

Cover via Amazon

Today I want to mention a nice tool I found for Kindle (and Kindle reading app) users: Klip.me. Klip.me allows me to quickly send a web page to my Kindle. This has worked great for me with both Chromium 16 and Firefox 13.

Klip.me comes as a browser extension for Google Chrome (or the open source Chromium) and Apple Safari, as well as a (beta) bookmarklet supporting Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari and IE9. Continue reading

Refocusing on Writing


P writing blue

P writing blue (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This blog is supposed to be about my writing, as well as other random thoughts. Lately there’s been too much random and not enough writing.

The little writing time I’ve gotten in lately has gone entirely to my blog.I haven’t mentioned Write 1 Sub 1 since my post about it in mid-April. Well, I failed for May. I started a short story, but got sidetracked and never got back to it. Now we’re half way through June, and still no progress. I need to get refocused. Continue reading

Choosing an E-Reader


various e-book readers. From right to left iPa...

various e-book readers. From right to left iPad (Apple、2010) kindle DX (Amazon、2009) kindle 2 (Amazon、2009) kindle 1 (Amazon、2007) PRS-505 (Sony、2007) PRS-500 (Sony、2006). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A few weeks ago I decided to blow some of my tax refund on an e-reader. This led to a bit of research…

Which Display Type?

This was an easy decision: I wanted a dedicated e-reader, not a tablet—my Android phone does all the mobile stuff I need, and for everything else I use a laptop or desktop. This is just for reading, and I want to be able to read anywhere.

The tablets all use LCD displays, the same as laptops. These have serious glare and washout problems in bright light, making them virtually impossible to use outside, especially if the sun is shining. Plus the backlight uses a lot of power, greatly shortening battery life, and potentially requiring larger and heavier batteries.

All of the dedicated e-readers use essentially the same E Ink technology. These are ultra-low-power (up to a month on a charge!). Also, they are reflective like real paper, so they’re readable in any light (as long as there’s some light, but who reads in the dark?).

Continue reading

No post this week


Sorry, no time to write a proper post this week. It’s been one thing after another. Power was out all Monday for electrical upgrades (was supposed to be only four hours). Some minor basement flooding to clean up after severe thunderstorms last night. Have to prepare for a short talk I’m giving tomorrow, and for a trip that’s coming up. And so on. Hopefully back to our regularly scheduled programming next week.

By R. E. Hunter Posted in Writing