Cheesiest Book Cover

When I started sketching this cover, I wanted an eyesore–something that screamed amateur. It’s not quite as bad as I intended. My hand hovered over comic sans, but I couldn’t press the button. My eyeballs got in the way.

Next week, I’ll begin posting The Invader’s Guide to Earth by Nrrlian Imperial Obeserver Merl–his human name, not his real name. (He says his real name’s pronounced like Rastafarian with Ms for the Rs and Ls for the As, or maybe it’s Ts for the As. Whatever…My poor human tongue can’t pronounce it.)

Read More

E-books, Ease of Use, and Reviews

Ease of use isn’t something I normally think about while writing book reviews. I should. If a book doesn’t have proper chapter headings and a table of contents, you can’t scroll through the chapters. This isn’t normally a problem, but what if you’re on Chapter 10 and decide to reread Chapter 3 …Without ‘em, you must go back to the first page, scroll through it, and waste your precious kindle battery skimming for Chapter 3. Let’s say after re-reading it, you want to skip back to Chapter 10…I hope you bookmarked it. Otherwise, you’ll be spending the next hour scrolling, skimming, and cursing the idiot who decided…

Read More

Bye Bye, Caffeine

I love caffeine. A few sips of black tea in the mornings jolt me awake and keep me going for hours. Homemade chai lattes are my poison of choice. My latte has its own pottery coaster between the backup hard drive and my computer. A hazardous spot for drinks, but it’s only 5 inches from my keyboard, making it perfect for drinking while working.

Hey, it could be worse…Actually, it couldn’t. I’m 28 with a BMI of 20.3 and I have high blood pressure. (Let’s not discuss causes. I still have this fairy tale belief that one day I’ll get it back under control.) Voluntary ingesting something I know raises my blood pressure by around 14 ml (top and bottom)…

Read More

10 Free, Open Source Tools for Fiction Writers

Software doesn’t make the writer. Shakespeare did his best work with a quill. Yes, folks, he wrote Macbeth with a feather.

Good writing software can organize your research, check your spelling, and help format your submissions. Everything else is still on you. It can also drive you batty, have high learning curves, lock you into a file format you can’t open on any computer without X application installed, and/or save your precious novel in a binary file format. All for $40-120 of your hard-earned cash…or not.

Writing

  • LyX : With a full screen view, minimum formatting, export to rtf, LaTeX, and pdf, it rocks for…
Read More

Why Pain Pushed Me Back to WordPress

I loved my Drupal installation. It offered power and flexibility. If I could dream it, Drupal could do it. For a price–server configuration know-how and coding skills. But Drupal needs brain power. If you want to keep your site updated and secure, it takes effort…and brain power. Lately, my brain power is in short supply.

I wake up in the mornings feeling like I haven’t slept in a month. Lava drips into my joints. Until recently, I had a kris in my kidneys and someone kept twisting the damn thing. Given all this, the ants crawling up my sides and constant exhaustion really weren’t big deals. The doc killed the kris wielder or at least temporarily disabled him. We still don’t know what’s causing the latest madness. All anyone…

Read More

Review: Sons of Lyra: Runaway Hearts

Sons of Lyra: Runaway Hearts by Felicity E. Heaton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sons of Lyra: Runaway Hearts by Felicity Heaton hits all the marks–hot guy, steamy sex, girl with some sense, and space ships. A perfect combination.

Lyran crown prince Sebastien has a problem–a mother with a bad case of weddingitis. When she signs a marriage contract and tells Sebastien his wedding date, he does what any sane person would do…he runs.

When Terea picks Sebastien’s pocket, he sees an opportunity–an unknown face/travelling companion who can buy tickets off world without rousing suspicion. He offers her a ticket if she’ll join him and Terea, needing immediate

Read More

Step 7: Finalize and Use | chart.

  1. Document > Properties
  2. Double click background by deleting 00 at end and changing to FF.
  3. Click Fit Page to selection (without selecting any chart elements) to change the document size to your chart size.
  4. For PNG:
    1. File > Export Bitmap.
    2. Change DPI to 300 and select either page or drawing.
  5. For SVG:
    1. Unlock all layers and delete the line layer.
    2. Edit > Select All in All Layers.
    3. Path > Object to Path.
    4. Save either as the default Inkscape svg, a plain svg, or a compressed svg.
Read More

Step 6.2: Create a Key

  1. For cable stitches
    1. Drag your vertical guides in your cable key stitch until the outer ones are slightly inside the stitch.
    2. Add vertical guides centered on each grid line.
    3. Edit your horizontal guides in your cable key stitch until the outer ones are slightly inside the stitch.
    4. Click “Draw Bezier curves and straight lines”.
    5. Duplicate the cross point with straight lines.
    6. Edit as needed.
  2. For purls
    1. Unlock your purl layer. Copy a purl.
    2. Turn off snapping.
    3. Lock purl layer and switch to the key layer.
    4. Paste the purl stitch and drag it into place.
    5. Repeat
Read More