S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 182

NaNoWriMo Prep III: Food and Fire

Home for Setting Starters

Benjamin Franklin once said that a house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body. I've always liked that quotation, and not just because I agree with it. Ben throws down a challenge for us to define exactly what is food and fire for the mind.

My guy and I are semi-minimalist homebodies, and over the years we've refined what I think of as the 3-C home: casual, comfortable and calm. We don't care about impressing people or following rules, which is probably why we have a country kitchen, a Mission bedroom and a beach cottage master bath. The high school kid has a red/black/white quasi-Asian/Anime cave going in her room. The guest room is serenely sea-nautical themed. My office is all about books and the job. Our living room has no particular theme other than a general air of "sit down and relax"; our dining room with its wall-size Victorian crazy quilt is half mini folk-art museum, half tea room.

The walls in almost every room are hung with quilts and art and family photos. I try to keep things tidy, but most days you'll see something one of us left out: a chunk of my latest manuscript, my daughter's sheet music, my guy's computer printouts. There isn't a harsh color or highbrow stick of furniture in the place. You will find dog toys in unexpected places because we're always playing with the dogs.

Whenever I come back here after being on the road, the minute I walk through the door I feel like I shed a thousand pounds. I know my guy feels the same, I can see it on his face when he gets in from work. Home is our favorite place to be, because home is all about us and what we love and the people we love to be with.

Back to the Mountain

While climbing to the top of your book mountain, you will be making stops in different places. Part of your job is to describe these places to your reader so that they can see them, too. While locations are not as active as characters or plot, they do provide the setting (and often the time period) of the story, so they're necessary.

I used to really dread writing setting, and most of the time I still have some bad moments. It's not as fun as writing characters, and it's very hard to find the right balance of showing the reader an interesting place without boring them to tears with endless or over-the-top description. I think the root of my problem is related to the way I've always researched setting: by using real-life models and locations. I'm always so engrossed in presenting the right/actual details that I forget to consider the characters who have to live or work or travel through there and/or what they'd want. This is why if a character of mine lives in Paris, they usually get a house very similar to one I've seen or visited in Paris.

What I've been trying to do lately is to temper the obsessing over details by making my settings more about the character than me. I came to this conclusion because I finally realized why writing settings for my StarDoc books was never a problem; I invented them from scratch based on my world-building and my characters.

At the moment I'm putting together an apartment for one of my female protagonists. She's nothing like me, so to create the right home for her I have to see it through her eyes and put it together using her heart. Although my girl is an edgy, ultra-modern young female, she has very feminine, secret longings for all things Victorian. Because she's lived alone for a significant number of years, she will have had the time and means to collect and arrange her living space with exactly what she likes.

Personally I couldn't deal with all this fussy stuff (I'd be dusting it for the rest of my life), but I know my character loves it. She adores rose-colored velvet and tatted ecru lace and milk glass and beaded lampshades and ruched satin. Her bathroom looks like a time tunnel to the thirties. She has little rose-shaped soaps in a porcelain bowl by the sink, a vanity table with a crackled mirror, crystal perfume atomizers and a bud vase with peacock feathers.

Finding the Food and the Fire

What makes this space a home for my character isn't about the stuff inside it, it's that it creates a space in which she can relax and feel happy and be herself. This safe-haven feel to her home is very important to her for reasons that relate to self-esteem, backstory and personality. Thus her home is about the person she is on the inside, this very old-fashioned girl who is romantic and loving and genuinely sweet. What's so cool about bringing this side of her out in her home is that it's the only place you would see it. The minute she leaves she puts on the edgy, ultra-modern persona, wearing it almost like armor, and to most of the outside world she is a completely different person (and her office is nothing like her home, because that's where she's on display.)

When you think about the settings you create in your stories, consider not just what suits your character's situation, but reflects on their personality as well. Think about what they do when they come home; what is their favorite room in the house, and why do they spend so much time there? (My girl doesn't cook so her kitchen is a bit like Mother's Hubbard's, but she loves spending hours soaking in her big bathtub, so the bathroom has everything she could possibly need or want in it, including a shelf of books, a mini-stereo and a cordless telephone.)

What are some of your concerns with writing setting? Do you have any tips on how to make it more effective or easier to put together? Let us know in comments.

Setting Building Tools: Nicholas Morine's Ideas in Creative Writing: Setting ~ Keith Gray's Creative Writing Masterclass 4: Setting (video) ~ F. Locke's Writing Creative Fiction: Setting

Also, PBW's Fun with Setting ~ Props ~ Virtual Design Ten

Image credit: © Virgil Graham | Dreamstime.com

NaNoWriMo Prep II: Stand Out Characters

Instant Recognition

Last week we went out of town to a band competition to see the high school kid perform, but didn't find the place until her band was already on the field. We got inside in time to see the performance from about half a football field away, but when I looked out I saw my kid playing a standard flute, which was the wrong instrument (for band she plays the picolo, which is a tiny version of the flute.)

"That's not her," my guy said when I pointed her out. "She's over there, in the back."

I told him that no, he was wrong, and started taking pictures. Throughout the entire performance I snapped shots of this girl while he told me I was mistaken. I insisted I was right. Finally he admitted he couldn't tell which child was ours because to him they all look alike in their uniforms.

After the show we caught up with my daughter, and I asked her why she'd been playing the flute. Turned out she'd lent her picolo to her section leader, who had accidentally left hers behind and had a more difficult musical part to play (and my daughter had studied the parts for picolo and flute, so she could switch to a spare flute on hand at the performance with no problem.)

Later my guy asked how I had been so sure that the girl with the wrong instrument had been our daughter. One is always tempted to claim maternal privilege, aka "a mother always recognizes her child", but I don't think recognition is always instinctive (even for moms.)

Instead, I relied on what I know about my kid. For example, I've seen this show lots of times so I know her exact position on the field. While her helmet covers her hair and shadows her eyes, and most of the girls in her section do look alike in uniform, I spotted the shape of her ear (which she inherited from her dad) and her mouth (which she inherited from her aunt.) She's very serious about marching, so she never slouches or fidgets, and she always holds her instrument in the correct position. Finally, I zeroed in on her movements, and while she was perfectly in step with everyone else, I knew it was her by the way she looks when she moves.

Now, Back to the Mountain

Yesterday I introduced you to the mountain of work that is writing a novel and talked about starting your climb. Today we're going to look at who you're taking up with you -- the imaginary friends of any storyteller, also known as your cast of characters.

You'll often hear writers talk about their characters as if they are real, living, breathing people. They have conversations with their characters, listen to them, believe in them, cheer them on, take their advice and even go shopping for them. This is of course a lovely fantasy, and one of the primary reasons people think writers are so strange.

Yes, I know for a fact that my characters are not real, but to me, they have to be as close as possible to real, living, breathing people in order for me to write them. So I do odd things like sketch them and play songs for them. I write poetry for them. I visit the places where I want them to live or work or find themselves handcuffed to a naked stranger (about whom I know everything, too.) I give them birth dates and bad habits and big problems. I know what they love, what they hate, what annoys them, what they want, what they don't want, what they think they want. And yes, occasionally I hear them talking to me in my head.

It comes down to this: the more I know about the admittedly imaginary people who are going up the mountain with me, the better and faster I climb. Since I don't like to dawdle, I pretty much try to know everything about them before I start up. And what little I don't know, I will find out on the journey, because I'm annoying that way.

Who Do You Take with You?

When you're building a character the natural temptation is to make one that conforms to a popular archetype within your genre: the tall/dark/handsome romance hero, the tough tattooed urban fantasy chick, the strapping fantasy warrior, the girl-next-door freckled heroine, the Captain Kirk or Luke Skywalker SF protagonist, the vampire brotherhood musclebound dude. While there's nothing wrong with using an archetype -- some novelists have built very successful careers while writing the exact same cookie-cutter characters over and over -- there's nothing particularly memorable about them. To offer a character that your reader will remember, you need to craft a character who in some way stands out in a crowd.

Every writer has their own attitude about what needs to go into creating characters. My personal philosophy is this: if I'm going to spend weeks climbing a mountain with the same bunch of people every day, they can't be ordinary, shallow, two-dimensional interchangeable, nothing-special characters. They'll bore me off the mountain. I need unique, interesting, absorbing characters, not only to provide the reader with a great book but to keep me motivated while writing it, too.

As many of you know I begin all my characters by asking my infamous three questions: Who are you? What do you want? What's the worst thing I can do to you? For me, the answers have to be fascinating, thrilling, and definitely something I want to explore at length. Since I'm doing the asking and the answering, that also means putting everything I've got, all my writing mojo into the character construct.

For NaNoWriMo, you're going to be spending a solid month with your characters. You don't have to use my three questions; make up your own -- or use another method to build your characters that works better for you (see the links below for some interesting alternative approaches.) But once you feel you've built your character, ask yourself this: If they were standing among a big group of other characters, all dressed alike, and you were half a football field away, could you spot them? How? Answer that question in enough different, interesting ways, and you will probably know your character well enough to write them for thirty days.

What problems are you having with your creating characters? What methods do you use that help you build the best? Let us know in comments.

Character Creation Tools: Evernote freeware ~ Greg Knollenberg's Web Resources for Dveloping Characters ~ Karen Lotter's Character Development in Fiction ~ The Lazy Scholar's How to Create a Character Profile

Also, from PBW: ABCharacter ~ Character Trading Cards ~ Know Thy Character Ten ~ The Complete Friday 20 Index, with lots of questions and my answers about characters.

Image Credit: © Gina Smith | Dreamstime.com

NaNoWriMo Prep I: The Mountain

[image error]The UpHill Battle

No matter where you are with your work, the prospect of writing a novel can be very intimidating. For one thing, it's a big project. And a mean one. A book-length story can be a demanding harpy from hell who is never, ever satisfied. Hundreds of blank pages, waiting to be filled; all those words that have to be written. And collectively the book has to be original, interesting, correct, logical, creative -- and that's simply to make it readable. If we're talking major-house publishable, then up the wattage to dazzling, inventive, jaded-editor-stunning . . .

Before you even approach the book mountain, you first have to wade through every failed story, every abandoned partial manuscript, every single page you ripped out of the printer and crumpled or tore to pieces. You have to get past the sneering effigy of every person who has ever told you that you can't do it, or that you'll do it badly, or that as a writer you suck, or otherwise kicked you in the story cods.

Okay, so somehow you find the courage to fight through all that (probably because like me, you're just that stubborn) and you're finally standing at the mountain's base, and you're ready to climb. Only you can't stop looking at how far it is to get to the top, and you're already tired and worried and scared. You're convinced that it's never going to be the way you see it in your head. So why put yourself through this?


Stop Looking at the Damn Mountain

I think the biggest obstacle to writing a book is thinking "Hey, I'm writing a book. Oh, God, I'm writing a book." Actually, you're not. No one, no matter how fast they are, can write an entire book all at once. The book happens in stages. At any stage of creation you will be writing words, sentences, and paragraphs that are part of a book. During one session you may write a page, a scene or an entire chapter; if you're very lucky you'll write multiple pages, scenes, maybe two or three chapters.

That's what I suggest you think about every time you sit down to write. Not the whole book, not the mountain, not the enormity of what you're hoping to accomplish in thirty days for NaNoWriMo. Today's session, the stage you can manage to do now, is where your head needs to be.

To figure out what that is, I suggest setting a daily writing goal or quota. You don't have to, but it helps to keep track of what you need to do and what you've already done. If you're joining in NaNoWriMo, your preset goal is to write at least 50,000 words in 30 days. That would make your daily goal approximately 1667 words, or about seven double-spaced manuscript pages (and I know all of you are not going to be writing daily, so adjust that quota to whatever your writing schedule will be for the month.)

If NaNoWriMo were a mountain to be climbed, it would be 50,000 feet high. Fortunately if you write every day in November, you have only 1667 feet to climb per day.

Jinxing the Climb

As you're heading up the book mountain there will be things that try to kick you back down to the bottom. Everyone has their own set of writing jinxes, but there are a few that I think are pretty universal.

Uncertainty over the writing seems to make writers do two things: go silent, or talk too much about it. I'm of the go silent and not share anything with others mentality, primarily because I've tried the talk about it too much method and it's always jinxed me (which is also why I rarely if ever discuss a book I'm actively writing with anyone but the agent or the editor.) I think for me it's because I have enough of my own doubt to deal with; I don't need additional contributions from outside sources. Also, I've been derailed in the past by well-intentioned but bad advice; one time it almost cost me a three-book contract. I recommend not talking about too much. Exception: if you have a wonderful reader or writer friend, critique partner or family member who is always genuinely helpful to you as a sounding board, this may actually help your climb.

Judging the writing before the book is done is another common climbing jinx. It usually happens in the middle of chapter three, when you suddenly suspect everything you've written is complete crap. This is like being ten thousand feet up the mountain and deciding that all the climbing you've done sucks, so naturally you can't climb any higher. Sounds stupid, right? Well, it is. No one is born knowing how to climb a mountain or write a book. You have to learn how to do it, and the only way I know is to do it over and over until you get it right.

More often than not this judging jinx comes from your own doubts and fears, which will certainly knock you off the mountain if they can. You can stop, fall down, start over, give up, or you can agree with your doubt 100% but keep writing. Just stop worrying about what you've already climbed and keep going up. Why should you do that? Because you can always edit and rewrite whatever you don't like later.

The final jinx I want to mention is a malady among writers commonly referred to as writer's block. Or, you just can't write. For a long time I didn't believe in it, but I've watched too many writer friends suffer from it to doubt it's real.

I don't get what I'd call writer's block. I get tired of writing, I don't feel like writing, or something gets between me and the page that stops me from writing. Publishing is the #1 cause of this. Distractions are #2. Depression is #3. I deal with the causes as quickly and efficiently as I can. I do everything I can to keep Publishing out of my writing space, from unplugging from the internet to turning off the phone. Since Publishing in general has absolutely no respect for my writing time, I don't feel the slightest bit guilty about kicking it out of my writing space when necessary. As for distractions, I remove them, or remove myself to a distraction-free writing space. If they have one, I highly recommend the quiet room at your local public library.

Depression is what it is, and there's no easy way around it. I'm particularly fortunate in that no matter how I feel, I'm an insomniac who hates television and can't stand sitting around and doing nothing. Thus if I'm so depressed that I can't write, I go fold laundry, or vacuum the living room, or mop the kitchen until I feel better. Cleaning helps me work out a lot of frustrations and negative energy, and afterward my house looks great and I feel good about that. I also walk the dogs, play ball with them, garden, quilt, cook, or do anything that naturally helps lighten my mood. For me the key to fighting depression is to do something else besides feeling depressed. So try getting active. Do something physical. If the weather permits, go outside, commune with Nature. Or do something that you really love other than writing.

Next up: I'll discuss the gang you can take with you on your climb -- your story's characters -- and what you can do to make them outstanding. But in the meantime, anyone have any questions? Please post them in comments.

Book Mountain Climbing Tools: Another Little Progress Meter ~ NaNoWriMo Word Meter ~ Word Count Tool ~ WordFlood 1.2 freeware ~ Writertopia's Progress Meters

Image credit: © Emmanuel Lacoste | Dreamstime.com

Spooky Ten

(Sorry I'm late posting this morning; having some problems with Blogger again.)

[image error]Ten Things to Do for Halloween

Try whipping up some Healthy Halloween and Fall Favorites recipes from CookingLight.com.

CountryLiving.com has some great ideas here for homemade Halloween decorations.

Food.com has a ton of recipes for homemade, creepy-looking treats on their Halloween page here.

Wondering why we carve pumpkins into Jack-o-Lanterns? History.com has a neat article here that explains how it started.

Christine Cadena has some good ideas on pet management in her article Halloween Safety for Your Dog (and I'll second her suggestion of walking your dog before the trick-o-treaters arrive.)

Speaking of Jack, Howdini has a good instructional video here on how to carve a pumpkin.

Want to make your own Halloween costume, makeup, mask or just need an easy idea? Check out this guide on Mahalo.com.

MentalFloss.com has six seriously spooky stories here about real-life cemeteries (link swiped from Gerard over at the Presurfer.)

If you're interested in listening to some spooky music, Pandora.com has a very cool Halloween party radio station here.

Enter to win a giveaway for a zombie backscratcher or a set of monster family stickers for your car over at the Presurfer.

Mini-Project #3: Book Bag

[image error]For my final Spoonflower mini-project I decided to make a book bag, and for the design a free pattern I could find available online. I chose this Hip to be Square pattern posted on Craftbits.com because it was a good size, looked different and came with a free .pdf of the pattern pieces I could print out on standard paper.

At first I didn't bother to register with the site to get the printable version of the sewing instructions. It was a little bag; I thought I could figure it out from the pattern pieces. (we'll call this Major Mistake #1. Print out and read the instructions before you try putting it together.)

Originally I had picked out a pretty embroidered organza to use for the front panel, but on closer inspection I found that even lined it would be a bit too delicate for my application. Fortunately I am an abstract batik junkie, and among my stash I found a pretty remnant that almost exactly matched the background of my swatch. It was thin cotton, but I figured I'd just double up on the batting (yes, I also decided to bat it to give it some substance versus using a heavier textile as the pattern maker suggested. Major Mistake #2.)

I started cutting and sewing, and quickly discovered that I wasn't putting it together correctly. I'm stubborn, of course, so I ripped out the seams and tried two more times before I finally accepted that no, guessing wasn't going to get the job down, and went back to register with the site to get the printed instructions (registration is free and all they want is your e-mail.)

Here's the finished bag:

[image error]

I did make some adjustments to the pattern. I intended to use the opal tower swatch from Spoonflower as a patchwork inset, but it was the right size to make another pocket, so I made it into one and added that to the outside of the bag. I used contrasting broadcloth for the handle on one side, but it was such a pain to sew in place I decided to just run a satin stitch around the edges of the handle on the other side -- and in the end I actually liked the look of that better than the handle.

Because I didn't bother to quilt any of the component pieces I also had to constantly pin and repin the batting to keep it from bunching up while I was putting the tote together. To avoid this problem if you want to bat yours, definitely quilt the pieces before you assembly them into the tote.

The things I love about this pattern are that there are no handles to attach; they're built into the bag. The size is good -- almost more like a purse than a tote -- but not so big that it feels like you're carrying luggage. It has a roomy inner pocket you attached to the lining, but you can probably add more to suit your needs. In fact if you're good with altering patterns you could probably make this work for more than just a book bag; with some resizing and different fabrics and notions you could probably use it to make a gift bag, a smaller make-up bag or even a clutch purse.

My final Spoonflower project will be the quilt I'm planning to make with the yardage I designed. I haven't started that as some other fabric I need won't be arriving until next week, but as soon as I have it done I'll post some pics and tell you how it went.

Winners

I think the Cool Cats giveaway will end up being my favorite PBW post of the year. Not because of what I wrote, but because of what you all told us about the pets you've loved. There is so much love in these comments, it's making me tear up again just typing that.

We got the magic hat working, and the winners of the giveaway are:

Juanita Olson

M. Powell

nightsmusic

Winners, when you have a chance please send your full name and ship-to address to LynnViehl@aol.com so I can get these books out to you. Please also let me know if you'd like both of Sofie's books.

While reading through the comments I discovered Darlene Ryan (aka Sofie Kelly) stopped in to add her own donation pledge for this post, and I want to thank her for her generosity. You make Owen and Hercules proud, lady.

As for the rest of you, you were so honest and eloquent that I've decided in your honor to up my donation to $2.00 per comment to Bideawee, so they will be getting a check for $106.00 from me. I also think your little pals were as blessed to have you as you were to have them. My heartfelt thanks to everyone for sharing your stories with us.

Cool Cats

Bidawee is an animal adoption center in New York City that has a web cam and remote-controlled toys set up in one of their kitty rooms. Visitors to the web site can have a 2-minute play date with the cats that are up for adoption by entering a special chat room and controlling the toys from there while watching via the web cam. While you only get two minutes at a time to play with the cats, you can join the queue of cyber visitors as many times as you like and have virtually as many play dates as you want. I love the internet.

I also love cats, so I have to mention how much I enjoyed reading Sleight of Paw , Sofie Kelly's second novel, which continues the story of small-town librarian Kathleen Paulson. Kathleen is trying very hard not to become Mayville Minnesota's crazy cat lady. Only Kathleen has two furry feline friends at home, Owen and Hercules, who aren't what anyone would consider normal (unless your cats can turn invisible or walk through walls and doors.)

Right now Kathleen is trying to decide if she wants to return to the life she left behind in Boston, or stick with the new one she's made for herself in Mayville. She loves her friends, her job and her cats, and there might even be something brewing between her and fellow cat lover, police Detective Marcus Gordon (Kathleen is in denial, but I'm pretty sure there is.) But Mayville doesn't seem quite as cozy or friendly when Kathleen discovers the body of an elderly woman, one who devoted her entire life to helping others in the town -- one of whom may have murdered her.

I love cat stories where felines are portrayed like their real-life counterparts but come with a little something extra. It's that lagniappe that we cat lovers suspect they possess but can never actually prove. That probably only makes sense if you're owned by a cat. The two-legged characters in this series are also becoming like old friends, and the puzzle in this one was totally absorbing -- and not that easy to solve, either; at some point I think I suspected almost everybody in the story except Kathleen. I think Sofie Kelly (aka our blogpal Darlene Ryan) really delivers with this one.

Together Bidawee and Sofie have given me an idea of something different to do with the extra Nightshine ARCs I have on hand. In comments to this post, tell us something about a pet you've loved (or, if you've never had a pet, toss your name in the hat) by midnight EST on Friday, October 21, 2011. I will draw three names at random from everyone who participates and send the winners a signed ARC of Nightshine by yours truly, an unsigned copy of Sleight of Paw by Sofie Kelly (and if you haven't read the first book, Curiosity Thrilled the Cat, I'll throw in an unsigned copy of that one, too.) By entering this giveaway you'll be helping animals as well, as I will donate one dollar for every comment left for this giveaway, up to a maximum of $100.00, to Bidawee. This giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.

NaNoWriMo Necessities

[image error]In less than two weeks NaNoWriMo begins, and while I can't join in by writing this year I'm playing with some ideas of what I can do here at PBW in November for those of you who are taking on the challenge.

In previous years I've posted things like ten lists, satires, fun stuff, writing through the tough parts and reality checks. I had to chuckle when I was searching through the archives and came across this post from my 2010 Nanofailure; my agent is currently negotiating a contract for the same book that got such an unpleasant bounce last year (which is why you should never let a harsh rejection bother you. For one thing 99.9% of editors are never that snotty or unprofessional, and when you do sell the book to another publisher it feels especially wonderful.)

I'd like to do some NaNo Q&A writing-related sessions, which is where I think I can be of the most practical help. I like to do virtual workshops, but I worry they're always too long and/or may be distracting or undermining. I always like to hunt down links, and wouldn't hurt to put together a mini-master list of freeware and resources tailored to the specific needs of NaNo'ers.

Your turn: what do you guys think I can do to help inspire, motivate and otherwise cheer on the NaNoWriMo'ers through November? Let me know in comments.

Name Sketching

This is a game you can play to exercise your storytelling powers and pick up some interesting character ideas at the same time. Using the white pages from a telephone book or an online name generator, randomly select and write down a list of ten names (to avoid using real names, I pick the surnames and first names separately and randomly pair them.)

Once you have them all jotted down, look at the name, imagine a person to go with it, and write a one-sentence description of who they are and/or what their story is.

Here's my list:

1. Elisabeth Raber: ordinary business woman by day, street artist by night. Likes to sketch people who are unaware of it and sells her artwork in her little gift shop. Unknowingly draws a portrait of an international hitman.

2. Hershel Sterry: Mortician, funeral director, protector of the dead. Hershel is the human embodiment of that ferryman who transports souls across the river Styx.

3. Courtney Hiott: Gorgeous, blonde, the Paris Hilton of her high school. Has just landed a promising modeling contract but has a terrible secret.

4. Paul Queler: average-looking, mild-mannered, nice guy whom everyone likes. I think he's Elisabeth Raber's hit man.

5. Millie Signorelli: A lovely middle-aged Italian lady who travels to the States to set up the American branch of her family's fashion design firm. Designs the most expensive purses in the world, but can never find her own.

6. Doug Taylor: Ambitious executive with a taste for low-grade blackmail, which backfires on him in a big way on a golf course.

7. Josephine Chatulani: a somewhat mysterious, temperamental islander who runs a ramshackle beachside cafe. Tells fortunes spontaneously. Her food always makes you happy.

8. Robert Oehling: Salesman, quick-talking, Bob to his friends, of which he has a thousand. Has to become a hostage negotiator when he accidentally walks into a bank robbery in progress.

9. Oswald Sarno: Officer Ozzie. Career patrolman, big guy, heart of gold. Looks after the elderly folks on his beat. Runs into the Angel of Death one night and arrests him.

10. Cedric Winterfield: born silver spoon in mouth; he definitely has a III after that last name. His grandfather made his fortune in something very unsavory, like strip-mining. Falls in love with a homeless girl who wants nothing to do with him.

Related Links:

Zero Cost Ten

Ten Things You Can Have for Free

The Flipping Book PDF Reader allows you to "Replace the standard Adobe PDF Reader with the nice flip book. The Flipping PDF Reader allows to read PDF documents in user friendly interface with flipping book effect. Good looking and convenient alternative for Adobe PDF Reader" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7)

If you like WebStunning.com's flip book reader, the free/demo version of The Flipping Book PDF Publisher allows you to "easily add Flipping Book on your website or create CD/DVD/Blu-Ray disk with stunning presentation. Just select one or several PDF documents, configure the look of the book and click publish button" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7)

For a beautiful, simple writing environment, Fountain Pen "has just what you need to write, with none of the clutter. A menubar, a compositions panel, a toolbar with four buttons… all can be hidden. It's just you and your writing" (OS: Mac OS X; designer notes: "FountainPen 0.7 was made for Snow Leopard, but Leopard will get the job done.")

For those of you who are making your own cover art these days, Fusion "allows merging several images of the same scene in one. You can merge photos taken with the same exposure or images taken with different exposures. When blending together images taken with different exposure, the program creates an image with high dynamic range of brightness (HDR). Subsequent tone mapping to low range (LDR) uses nonlinear algorithms and allows preserving maximum details of the original images. Key features: Automatic alignment of photos; Summation operator (averaging of pixels); HDR operator" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7)

The Image Collector is "an application that has been designed to allow the quick viewing, categorisation, and downloading of images from a range of web services. TIC allows you to choose the web service you would like to download from, fetches the latest available images and displays their thumbnails in a scrollable grid. You can then left-click an image to download and display its full version; if you want to keep that image, middle-click on it and it will be downloaded to the selected category. Categories point to a location on disk, so you can activate a category and download an image, and it'll be automatically placed into that category's location. This, combined with queued downloading, allows images to be downloaded and categorised very quickly. There is no need to wait for images to complete downloading before viewing and downloading more" [PBW: if you're working on a color reference notebook and want to grab some images from the web, this seems like it might help speed up things] (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7)

iText Express is a "cute, intuitive, and refined text editor with word processing completely rewritten in Cocoa, and is suitable for Intel Macs. iText Express provides the simplest way to make gorgeous manuscripts on your Mac! Yes, it's Yummy ! iText Express has lots of attractive features it shares with LightWayText, besides giving good vibes by fully complying with Mac OS X. iText Express blends seamlessly into the OS X environment, and will continue to grow with the power of Mac OS X. iText Express perfectly covers every feature of TextEdit basics and Microsoft Word compatibility as well. iText Express even supports still more lovely features including header/footer, footnotes/endnotes, page layout and numbers, multiple columns, hyperlinks, lists, bullets, tables, bookmarks, customizable guidelines, background color, and vertical writing, yet is so much easier to use. You can embed pictures, movies, and other files (e.g. other text files, spreadsheets, or PDF files) or entire applications within a document too. iText Express can also enhance the find features with the regular expression. You will sure find your manuscripts are led to effortless, lightning-quick navigation. iText Express also allows you to open .epub files in RTFD. With iText Express, please enjoy reading a variety of .epub public domain eBooks. iText Express features flexibility in an elegant, intuitive interface. iText Express will definitely make your writing a pleasure. Remarkable for anyone who expect a reliable simple word processor for Mac OS X" (OS: Mac OS - X 10.3.9 or later)

Jet Photo Studio 5 is "a feature-rich and easy-to-use digital photography software. Features: Organizes photos in albums; Manage photos with the calendar and map; Geotag photos with GPS; Create Flash and Web galleries; Publish web albums with JetPhoto Server. New version 5 can also manage video clips and make Flash or web galleries contains videos" (OS: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7; Mac OS X 10.3 / 10.4 / 10.5 / 10.6 / 10.7)

LazPaint is a free "Image editor, like PaintBrush or Paint.Net, written in Lazarus (Free Pascal). Includes BGRABitmap, a set of drawing routines. Features: antialiasing; multiple undo; alpha blending; BGRABitmap; selection of any shape; rotation; filters; update checker" (OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7)

Listen N Write freeware "can be used to play and transcribe ordinary WAV or MP3 recordings. Listen N Write has special features simplifying the transcription work as you can control via keys (while using its integrated word processor) and insert time markers (bookmarks). Moreover, the audio stream is automatically rewinded a few seconds when pressing the Stop key." (OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/2008/7)

TextCast "turns any text — documents, web pages and entire blog feeds — into personal podcasts you can listen to right on your iPod and iPhone. Catch the bus, forget the paper. Bike, bus, foot and rail: Textcast is ideal for commuters. Just sync Textcast and then your iPod or iPhone, and you can listen to your favorite news, articles and blogs on your way to work. Because Textcast works with iPods and iPhones, it seamlessly plugs into iPod-auto integration systems offered by most manufacturers (and third-party solutions). Stay safe by listening over your car's speakers. Textcast features Alex — Mac OS X's ultra-high quality voice — to clearly speak any text you wish to listen to. Alex is also optimized for fast rates, allowing you quickly plow through even lengthy texts" (OS: Mac OS X 10.5, Leopard)

Finally, a heads up on a very cool giveaway: Quiltmaker.com is holding an online contest to win a lovely quilt designed by author Jennifer Chiaverini, her newest book and her newest fabric for Red Rooster Fabrics. To enter, check out the contest page here. Deadline: midnight 11/30/11.