S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 97

Freely Ten

Ten Things You Can Have for Free

Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.

Creative Side is "a group of projects designed to unleash creativity through multimedia, allowing you to easily create digital content and share it with friends. creative side is home to the following open-source freeware projects: creative - create amazing graphics from images; enhance quality, colorize, convert bitmap images to scalable raster drawings; ultimate dictionary - 33+ Dictionaries in One (English, Spanish, French, Polish); examples finder - find example usages of words (dictionary examples, literature); flash video album creator - create online albums with downloaded youtube videos; crosswords - create crosswords, wordsearches, half a crossword ESL activities; movie player plus - fast playback, volume boost, subtitles, all codecs included; games - what's creativity without a little fun?; easy backup - one click backup of personal documents and settings" (OS: Windows)

Folders Popup allows you to "move between their frequently used folders like a breeze using both keyboard and mouse shortcuts. Main Features: Adding, removing, renaming and re-ordering folders; Adding any type of standard dialog box to support different programs; Setting desired keyboard and mouse button shortcuts for opening Folders Popup menu; Supports special folders, which can be either hidden or visible; Launching folders using numeric menu shortcuts; Displaying the popup menu at a fixed position" (OS: "Compatible with all modern Windows operating systems")

FreeText is "a simple and easy-to-use notebook for making notes, keeping to-do lists, storing information on accounts and contacts, etc. It can be helpful when you need to save a link, interesting citation, phone number or to simply insert text from a clipboard for a short time" (OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8)

Grisbi is "open source personal accounting software for practically any platform/operating system. The project strives to provide simple and easy to use software for managing your accounts. Grisbi lets you keep track of all transactions on your accounts. Grouping of expenses makes it easy to see of you are using too much money according to your budget for a certain category" (OS: Windows, Mac)

iDaily Diary "provides a simple interface that immediately gets you started taking daily notes, creating a journal, putting your thoughts into writing and much more. The iDailyDiary editor is "richtext" with the ability to insert graphics, URL's, Hypertext links and links to other diary pages. iDailyDiary is fully searchable so you can always track down those important dates and reminders. Key Features: Data files encrypted and password protected; Richtext Editor; Fully Searchable; Insert Pictures, URL's and Hypertext; Multiple "pages" for each day; Export to HTML format to create web pages; Supports Unicode (non-western character sets); Mutli-Language GUI, including Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Turkish and Japanese" (OS: "Works with MS Windows 2000, XP, 2003, 2008, Vista, 7, 8 32bit & 64bit")

Monex is a "personal finance manager based on double entry bookkeeping principles. You can organize your accounts into a tree structure. Branch expense and income accounts or join accounts by currency or type. Create, remove or change your account tree structure depending on your needs. View current, cleared and total balances of a single account or a whole branch of accounts" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8.0)

Novello is a "book writing tool for computer savvy writers." Designer notes: "I wrote Novello when I was trying to complete my book "Oom". MS Word was ok while I was spewing out the first draft but was no good for the later stages of book development. The quality of my first draft was a long way from what I wanted. I needed to plough through my manuscript to do rewrites, jiggle things about and throw away the crap. Novello made these tasks easier because it helped me split the book up into small (smaller than whole chapters) managable chunks. I was able to keep several major rewrites of each chunk together in one document" (OS: Not specified but looks like Windows)

PDF to Word Doc Converter is a "desktop document conversion tool to convert Adobe PDF file to Microsoft Word Doc file. The program can extract text, images, shapes from PDF file to Word Doc file and preserve the layout. It can convert all the pages, or any pages range of the PDF file. And it is a standalone program - you can convert PDF to Word Doc without Adobe Acrobat Reader or Microsoft Word installed" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/2000)

tinySpell is a "useful utility that lets you to easily and quickly verify the spelling of words in any Windows application. tinySpell monitors your typing on the fly and alerts you whenever it detects a misspelled word. It also checks the spelling of every word you copy to the clipboard. tinySpell installs itself in the system tray for easy access. It comes with an American-English dictionary containing more than 110,000 words" (OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8)

Zim is "a graphical text editor used to maintain a collection of wiki pages. Each page can contain links to other pages, simple formatting and images. Pages are stored in a folder structure, like in an outliner, and can have attachments. Creating a new page is as easy as linking to a nonexistent page. All data is stored in plain text files with wiki formatting. Various plugins provide additional functionality, like a task list manager, an equation editor, a tray icon, and support for version control" (OS: Windows, Linux)

Discover Your Story

As a storyteller and a fan of all things archaeology I'm fascinated when treasures from the past are unearthed. Lately there have been some stunning discoveries in the news, too:

Hidden fortress found beneath Alcatraz

Nine Manuscripts Discovered in Qumran Artifacts

Northern California couple discover cans filled with 19th century gold coins

These news items are particular stupendous: A Civil War fortress we didn't know still existed, nine more manuscript scrolls from the Dead Sea caves that have never been seen, and ten million dollars' worth of 19th-century gold coins hidden in a bunch of buried tin cans. In addition to the wealth of knowledge these discoveries will provide, they also offer some exceptional possibilities as story inspiration.

Take the Alcatraz find, for example. If they excavate, what else might they uncover down there? Could someone have been using it in the more recent past, perhaps? And why would you build a prison on top of a Civil War fortress, for that matter (were they trying to keep something else from escaping?)

Those nine newly-discovered scrolls likewise have great story potential. What if instead of scripture they contain some wonderful -- or terrible -- secrets? What if we were never meant to find them? I've used an ancient scroll as a story-telling device, and I can tell you from experience that playing with ancient media is as fun as it is inspiring.

Obviously ten million in gold coins is a truly life-transformative find for that happy couple. But what if your protagonist was the one to find them, or (if you're writing a historical) bury them? Even back in the 19th century, that was a heck of a lot of money to hide. What if those coins were connected to a particular historic event, the details of which will now be altered by their reappearance?

Every storyteller will answer those questions differently, which is the other cool thing about using discovery news for inspiration -- your imagination will provide the unique spin you need to change it from fact to fiction. So make it a habit to check out your favorite news feed or paper, and search for discoveries -- you might just uncover something pretty wonderful for your next story.

Elsewhere

Over at the Toriana blog I'm celebrating finding a new hat box prop for this year's online promotions (so much work, having to browse through all those amazing antique shops.) Stop in when you have a chance, enter the giveaway and you could win a signed print copy of Disenchanted & Co. as well as Cynthia Hart's 2014 Victoriana calendar.

Sail On

We all take journeys in life for which we have to rely on a spiritual compass; the short film explains why with a man and a canoe (background music, too, for those of you at work):

Spirit Canoe from Symbols of the West on Vimeo.

MD SF/F Contest

While I've lived in Florida most of my life I'm actually a native of Baltimore, so I thought I'd give a nod to my birthplace by posting this writing contest for Maryland residents:

"To promote the creation of quality genre literature in the state of Maryland, we're holding the annual Baltimore Science Fiction Society Amateur Writing Contest and encouraging everyone to enter. Anything that falls into the "speculative fiction" genre--science fiction in all its forms and fantasy in all its forms. Urban fantasy, hard science fiction, dark fantasy, it all counts. That is to say, the work must have a speculative element." Length: 1-5.5K; Prizes: "1st place is $250; 2nd place is $100; 3rd place is $50. 1st place winner will be published in the BSFSFan (our convention guide at Balticon) and invited to Balticon to do a reading of either a selection of their winning story or the entire story (depending on length and the availability of time and the wishes of the winner). The top five entries will all receive free memberships to Balticon." See contest page for more details, deadline: "The 2014 BSFS Amateur Writing Contest will begin accepting submissions April 1, 2014, and close June 15."

BAM Ten

Ten Neat Things I Found On My Latest Trip to Books-a-Million
(All prices shown are after application of my 10% BAM card discount)


#1 -- All of the remaining 2014 wall and desk calendars, like this lovely Secret Garden edition, were marked down to $3.00; I got it for $2.70.

#2 -- Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen is out! Hardcover, $23.39.

#3 -- Adorable bookmark and pen set featuring Grumpy Cat of Internet fame, $3.59.

#4 -- "Keep Calm and Type On" bookmark featuring an old typewriter, perfect for writer pals, $2.65.

#5 -- Joyful Abundance pad of cookbook page flags, which work equally well on other books and are the perfect size for carrying in my purse, $4.49

#6 -- Novelty Ninja Pen that makes the coolest sword sound when you press a button on the hilt, $4.49

#7 & #8 -- The Mind/Body/Spirit and Travel editions of Mini-Marks, sets of 6 themed magnetic mini bookmarks, $4.49 each.

#9 -- Don't Forget elephant-shaped sticky notepad, $4.49.

#10 -- Hmmm, this looks very familiar . . . $7.19.

The Wolf Arrives

Today is the official release of The Clockwork Wolf, the second novel in my Disenchanted & Co. urban fantasy series. Also, if you missed it last week, here's the video for the book:



I think that's all the promo I'll throw at you this time. Besides, I have to talk about some people who helped:

My editor, Adam Wilson, deserves much for every wise and amazing thing he did to bring the world of Toriana to publication. I also wish I could name all of the other folks at Pocket Star who put so much creativity and wisdom into the series production, because they did a fabulous job, too.

I am very grateful to author and filmmaker Jeff Somers for creating yet another superb video trailer for Kit and her crew; it was everything I wished for and then some.

Last (but never least) I must somehow thank NYT bestselling author and my dear friend Darlene Ryan for her nonstop support and generous encouragement during this entire adventure. Until I can think up something better, Bubba, know that you are the best writer friend on the planet.

Places where you can purchase The Clockwork Wolf (click on them to do that and keep me writing this series):

Barnes & Noble

Books-a-Million

iBookstore

Indiebound

Nook

S&S.com

Amazon

Kindle

Find Someone a Job, Win $1K in Books

I'm going to back-burner today's ten list for a neat offer from Library Thing as an incentive to help them hire a new programmer:

"We need to find a kick-ass PHP programmer, so we’re offering $1,000 worth of books to the person who finds them. Think of it. $1,000 in books. What would you buy? Everything.

Rules! You get a $1,000 gift certificate to the local, chain or online bookseller of your choice.

To qualify, you need to connect us to someone. Either you introduce them to us—and they follow up by applying themselves—or they mention your name in their email (“So-and-so told me about this”). You can recommend yourself, but if you found out about it from someone else, we hope you’ll do the right thing and make them the beneficiary."

For more details go to their blog and read the job post here.

Test Your Typing

Do you know how fast you type? This fun online test gives you a short fable to type and calculates both your speed and accuracy while you do so (it includes typing sounds and background music, which I think is what made it fun.) Here are my results:



I'm definitely getting slower, but I'm happy that I maintained decent accuracy despite my snail's pace. Take the test and post your results in comments.

And You Are . . . ?

Since I'm reading my own book at the moment (yes, I know, but I'm updating my series bible) this would make me Charmian Kittredge. Who are you? Let us know in comments.