eBook Blues

Blog No. 351

Remember when everything even remotely related to the internet had to have a lowercase ‘e’ in front of it? Then Apple made the ‘i’ a thing and we’re still feeling the backlash from that. It’s all a moot point, though. I just wrote the title and it struck me that we’ll be stuck with eBook for the foreseeable future. No Light Tomorrow came out at the end of 2015 (so long ago now). I did the layout, making many mistakes along the way, but ultimately getting a good handle on the process. I assumed, especially since it is an advertised feature of most modern layout and design programs, I could just knock out the ebooks too. I could not. Eventually, Mirror World took up No Light, so I didn’t have to worry about that any more, but I have two books of a novella series (The Synthetic Albatross to be exact) and since I did those ones on my own, I wanted to make sure I had some good ebooks to go along with them.

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Update Time

Blog No. 350

It’s August, and you know what that means. Nothing in particular. Oh, it also means that I have a month left to keep working on the Invasion Novel before I have to have decided to start the novella.  I started earlier for Neon Heart (than Thinking Machine) giving myself lots more time to edit and do the layout, and still felt rushed at the end. It was a lot better than Thinking Machine (and I think it shows) but I want to give myself even more time to edit and get beta reads. This next novella, Broadcast Wasteland, should be shorter than Neon, but longer than Thinking, if I manage to write it the way I’m planning. I don’t want to take a break from the novel, but I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that I’m not getting as much done as I’d hoped (and the novel may be bigger than I had planned). I don’t think either of those things are too terrible (especially the bigger, that should come in handy with the edits) but since I’m going to be taking a break, I’d like to get close to the halfway point before I do.

Retro Futurism

Blog no. 343

/ˌretrōˈfyo͞oCHəˌrizm/

noun

noun: retro-futurism

1. the use of a style or aesthetic considered futuristic in an earlier era

So, recently, I bought a minidisc recorder. It’s a Sony model from the early 2000s, used, with some cosmetic wear—but it works. It didn’t come with and discs, though, so I had to buy a pack from Japan. (Did you know Sony still makes new minidiscs, because I didn’t). Because it would take close to a month (three weeks at least) for that shipment to get here, I scoured the local used goods marked for anything minidisc related and found that someone in the city was selling a partially working model with a disc. I talked him down to $20, and then I had two recorders (they are players too) and a single, used disc. Mostly, I wanted the disc so that I could confirm that the first player I bought worked (it does) but having the backup player, even for parts, at such a low price was worth not getting lunch one day. (Also, if I can get it to work (which would be neat) I’d have two players with slightly different abilities and styles that I could go between depending on what I want or need). The problem is that it didn’t stop there.