Wednesday, January 25, 2012

New Years Resolutions so far...

So far, I've not been doing that good on my new years resolution to write more. I got a big chunk of story done today, and almost finished the scene, but....

... it's the first time I've really written anything this month. :(
I've got to be more consistent, and what's worse is I know I can do it. Perhaps if I set an alarm to go off each day...

As to the scene I worked on, it's almost done, and after it's over I'll just have a few more wrap up scenes and Threat From The Past will be done! (Well, the first draft anyway, then the real work begins.) After I get that finished, I'm going to set it aside and let it percolate for a while while I edit more of A New Threat. There's a few scenes there I want to tweak, then it's out to the sharks again.
I'm hoping to get it ready to publish sometime this year. The current plan is to self-publish both that and the sequel at the same time...

In other news, I also tweaked my ePub tutorial a little bit. I've fixed a few minor errors and typos and color-coded some of the code examples. Hopefully that will make it easier to follow. Check it out if your curious about how to make your own eBooks. Coming this summer, I plan to expand it to cover making eBooks using Sigal, and possibly a few other tools, to help out those who aren't quite so hands-on with their file formats (and it's MUCH faster to make a good book with Sigal than by hand... not to mention the built-in error-checking.)

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

SOPA and Protect IP Protest

Today, many sites on the internet are going offline to protest two bills currently trying to worm their way through Congress: SOPA in the House, and Protect IP in the Senate.

These bills are backed by Hollywood, the music industry and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They would give the government the right to shut down websites, block sites DNS entries, and otherwise restrict what content is and isn't allowed to be on the web, and what content citizens are allowed to access.

No, this isn't happening in China, these bills are currently working their way through the United States of America congress.

Although I am a copyright holder myself, and agree with the idea of stopping people from stealing other people's works and not compensating them for it, the fight against piracy CANNOT compromise the freedoms that the United States was founded on.

From the 1st amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." (emphasis added)

"Well," you might say, "The government should certainly have the right to take anything that's been stolen!"
How about the 4th Amendment?:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

I certainly agree with prosecuting people who have stolen things, but shutting down sections of the internet or blocking peoples access to it just in case they might steal something is just plain wrong.

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

More information on the bills here:
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/18/morning-bell-an-internet-blackout-over-sopa-and-pipa/

To contact your elected officials, go here:
http://sopastrike.com/

Friday, January 6, 2012

Holidays are over, back to writing...

Well, I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and a happy new year. I know I did. Lots of fun with family and friends, and now, back to writing.

Let's see, 51,000 some odd words in November, 100-ish words in December, and zero so far for January. Looks like I'm not starting out the new year that well as far as writing goes.
Which leads me to this years resolution: I'm going to write more, and get at least two books ready for sale by the end of the year. Actually, I'm aiming for closer to May or June, but that gives me some leeway for editing.

In other writing related news:
Articles like the one below always encourage me. If some committee thinks that Tolkien isn't a master story teller, then I can just ignore any hurtful criticism that comes my way. Some people obviously don't know what they're talking about.

Tlkien denined Nobel prize for...