Marian Allen's Blog, page 465

Fun With QR Codes

First, if you don't know what a QR code is, it's one of those black squares made up of blobby black patterns that are starting to appear everywhere. QR stands for Quick Response, and they're a kind of barcode. If you have a camera phone, you can read that barcode and … whatever. Here's a Wiki article about it.

So what? Well, I'll tell you so what: You can encode a web page in that little square. If you pay money, you can get one in color. If anybody knows a place to get a QR code free that includes color and an identifiable logo, please post that link in the comments.

Here's what you do: Set up a web page with your information on it–text, pictures, whatever, and go to where you can generate a QR code. I'm usually sending folks to a web page, so I use is.gd URL shortener. Once you've generated your short url, there's a little link you can click to generate a QR code for that URL. You can choose to track uses of that particular short URL. I've never used the KAYWA QR generator, but it looks simple and useful. Just do a Google search for free QR code generators and see what you like. Free because, you know.

So I set up shortened URLs and QR codes for the pages at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and OmniLit where my sf novel EEL'S REVERENCE is available. When the QR code is generated, just right-click on it and download it (it's only a picture) to your computer. Then you can play with it.

Click picture to enlarge

This weekend at FandomFest, I printed out some address labels with the codes on them. I put some on the backs of bookmarks and one on the back of an index card which I wore like a name badge. In the future, I think I'll include a blurb and cover photo instead of attaching a bookmark to the badge, although that certainly attracted attention.

I've heard of authors having T-shirts made up with their book cover on the front and QR coded buy links on the back. This weekend, I saw business cards with QR codes to the author or business' website in the corner. Imma do that.

Speaking of FandomFest, MomGoth saw enough ink this weekend to satisfy even her ink-starved heart. One of my Friday recommends is going to be the body art business that demonstrated to her how stencils are applied–to somebody else, I hasten to say.

And speaking of tattoos, here is the best use of QR codes I've ever seen–an animated tattoo! Enjoy:

WRITING PROMPT: If you could get an animated tattoo, what would it be?

MA

 

Free Sample Sunday – FandomFest 2011 – The Untold Story

Today is the last day of FandomFest 2011, and Stephen Zimmer has granted me permission to reveal The Story Behind the Story. I wish I could have let you know these things sooner, but it was just too dangerous.

FandomFest 2011 – The Untold Story

by Marian Allen

It was hot as hell in the FandomFest Literary Dealers' Room. This was no accident, nor was it an inadequacy of the hotel.

Agents Alicia Clarke and Meagan Ryana, spectacularly undercover in bikinis and high heels, patrolled the perimeter.

Convention attendees shuffled through the room, filtered into single file by the narrow aisles. Most of them had already been to the horror side of the Festival and proudly sported "bloodied" clothing and "mutilated" or "decomposing" faces and arms.

The authors and publishers eyed them and smiled, having been warned, having taken their tables in that room voluntarily and knowing what to expect.

A man with a bullhorn appeared on the entrance ramp.

"Attention, people!" After those two clear words, the announcement descended into gibberish.

That was the signal. Sara Spradlin stepped into the aisle, Smokey, her cat with attitude, by her side.

A man with an impressively fleshless nose turned to his friend, a woman with a savaged neck and bosom.

"Let's go," he said in a thick gurgle.

Smokey shook his head. "I don't think so, sucker."

Sara fixed the couple with a hypnotic glare.

The two backed up, only to be trapped by Sheri Wright and her killer nuns.

Fiona Young-Brown, Amy McCorkle, Pamela Turner and Bertena Varney converged on the couple, brandishing wooden stakes and dark chocolate.

The man reached up, pulled off his own ear and threw it at Sheri Wright, who only laughed and said, "I bet you only half listen to anybody else, anyway."

Robert and Karen Walker flanked the cornered duo, Robert's silver mane billowing in the wind from the industrial fans blowing super-heated air through the room. Karen raised her hands, her fingers and wrists bedecked with the Jewels of Power.

Above, on the balcony, General Stephen Zimmer and his right-hand man, Lieutenant Nathan Day, gripped the railing until their knuckles turned white, watching the drama on the floor below.

"Hold 'em," the General whispered. "Hold 'em!"

The couple joined hands and leaped upward with preternatural strength.

"Ahar!!!" Captain Cervantes Conradi jumped on a nearby table, Tankard of Death aloft, swashing and buckling until the airborn creatures shrieked and fell to the carpet.

"Hold 'em!" murmured Stephen.

The sun reached its optimum position. It streamed through the clerestory windows, bathing the area with its rays, increasing the room's temperature another ten degrees.

The undead — for they were undead, not just awesome fans in phenomenal makeup — screamed, writhed, and melted in the heat.

The vendors cheered and applauded. Attendees, believing it was part of the Festival, joined in.

On the balcony, Stephen and Nathan bumped fists.

"And that, Ladies and Gentlemen," said the General, "is how you defeat a zombie infestation."

"FandomFest," said Nathan. "When we say we'll take care of you–We will take care of you."

And that's what MomGoth did this weekend.

If you were in the literary dealers' room at FandomFest 2011, whether I mentioned you in the story or not, please leave your name, a link to your website, a little about your most recent release or product and, if you want to take a chance on hearing from me sometime, your email address.

If you come to the Festival today, stop by the Hydra Press table just inside the entrance to the literary dealers' room and say hello to the fine folks from Hydra/The Book Place and T. Lee Harris and me (yes, that is grammatically correct) from The Southern Indiana Writers Group.

WRITING PROMPT: The Undead: write a paragraph in favor of them and one in dispraise of them.

MA

Busy as a Bee, Hot as Blazes

I'm having a blast at FandomFest (hey–I made a poem!). I'm meeting people I know in meat life and online, and meeting new people. Finding new authors. Indulging in my favorite pastime of yakking my brains out.

Speaking of brains, if you see some dribbling out of my ears, it's because it SO FREAKING HOT! The "literary" (as opposed to the one where they have tattooing [real, not fake] and Jason masks and stuff) is in the "fitness" area (talk about a fish out of water!) and the room is MADE to be hot. And it works. I keep telling myself that people pay good money to sit in a sauna.

And speaking of tattoos, I got to watch a guy apply a stencil for a tattoo. SO cool! More about this in another post.

If you're at FandomFest this weekend, and if you can tear yourself away from the fake blood, come over and show me your tattoo and maybe buy a book. If it's a MomGoth's Sweet Little Baby Angels (see sidebar) tattoo, the book is free.

WRITING PROMPT: A character is trapped in a place that is too hot for comfort.

MA

 

Friday Recommends – Vampire Awareness Month

Fellow author Sara E. Glenn tells me that July is Vampire Awareness Month. I would have thought June, since it contains the longest day of the year and would therefore seem to be their time of greatest vulnerability and so present their greatest … er … window of opportunity for fundraising. Or bloodletting, or whatever Vampire Awareness Month is meant to elicit. Anyway, go to Sarah's blog for posts on vampires and their hunters (Oh! It's AGAINST vampires, not FOR them. Poor things! And them so vulnerable, too!) — I lost my place. Oh, yeah. Go to Sarah's blog and read her posts.

While you're at it, go to Bitten By Books for cool stuff about paranormal fiction, including but not limited to vampires and those who hunt them.

And now, I must be off to FandomFest! Fandom — AWAYYYYYYY!!!!!

WRITING PROMPT: Who does your main character root for: the cops or the robbers?

MA

FandomFest Looms. IT LOOMS!!!

FandomFest, in case you don't know, is a convention/festival for movie lovers. In keeping with its beginnings as Fright Night Film Fest, there's a measurable horror presence, which MomGoth doesn't relish. Mr. Death is her friend, and she doesn't appreciate his handiwork being embroidered with gore and other ghastliness. Nevertheless, I will attend.

If you're there, look for me at the table of That Book Place, where the Southern Indiana Writers Group will be helping out and selling some of our books. Also look for me wherever there's coffee. And chocolate. If you go to a place where there's coffee and/or chocolate and I'm not there, come find me and point me to it.

Last night, I even dreamed of being at FandomFest. I was helping to man the Friends of the Library booth (of which there will be NONE at the real Fest). Just outside the booth was a woman selling pashminas (using the inaccurate definition of "a rectangular shawl made of whatever's lying around waiting to be machine-woven into a rectangular shawl"). Before I could get out to buy one, she packed up and left. Everybody at the Fest was asking me for advice on one thing or another and everybody was rejecting my replies. Not the most pleasant dream I've ever had, but far from the worst. Meh.

I'll probably put up posts this weekend, but I may not be able to reply to comments Friday and Saturday. Just talk amongst yourselves.

WRITING PROMPT: What's your main character's favorite article of clothing, either a particular article (the blue shirt) or a type of article (addicted to hats)?

MA

A Treat For Kids To Eat

Yesterday on Fatal Foodies, I posted about bees. Now I'm going to give you some honey recipes. Sort of.

Our #4 daughter came up with this when she was little, so I know kids like it!

HONEY IN A LOG

bread with the crusts cut off – She liked Roman Meal (multi-grain with no identifiable bits in it).
honey

Let the kid mash the bread down sort of flat–not like paper-flat. Spread with honey. (The bread, not the kid.) Let the kid roll the bread up like a jelly roll.

Honey is also most tasty mixed well with butter and spread on hot rolls or toast. Honey is wonderful mixed with softened cream cheese and fruit and plopped on fancy crackers.

Do you have any quick-and-easy honey recipes, especially ones kids would like?

WRITING PROMPT: Write a paragraph about an under-six-year-old coming up with a recipe. Is it good to everyone, or just to him/her? Does the child intend for it to be good?

MA

Amazing Weight Loss Sekrit!!! ! !!

A friend sold me on joining SparkPeople as a way to jump-start my moribund weight-loss goal. Ever since then (and this post won't help), I've been getting spam comments (I call them Spomments) and emails about sure-fire methods. I got one this morning offering to help me lose by hypnosis. I'm like, sure, I'll lose weight, but I'll also go around quacking like a duck.

Okay, yes, I know that the power of suggestion can be a valuable tool in behavior modification. As a Mom, MomGoth knows this. Many's the time I've said, "I strongly suggest you eat those peas." Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

Anyway, SparkPeople was a good fit for me because it advocates and reinforces my own Sekrit 4 Wate Lohss: Eat less, move more. You heard it here, folks.

NOW, on a different subject: MomGoth loves her sweet little baby angels, you know she does, but so few of you leave comments! Come on–drop a line in the comment box. Chat with each other. We're all friends here. I mean, aren't we? While you're at it, grab yourself a Sweet Little Baby Angel badge from my sidebar and post it on your own blog, if you so choose.

WRITING PROMPT: A character who doesn't want to lose weight is bombarded with weight loss schemes, each sillier than the last.

MA

p.s. I'm posting at Fatal Foodies today on the subject of honeybees and books about them.

Guest Poster Floyd Hyatt – Summaries

The third in Floyd Hyatt's series of six. This one addresses a problem that's especially irritating when one is reading aloud.

When To Use A Summary

There are times when a summary is useful in a story.  The best use is where you are writing a serial, and need to quickly state what has gone before.  There are other appropriate uses,  though be careful with these.  

One might be in a long novel, where a sub-story or complicated plot has left the reader needing a long memory to return to the main story objective. Ideally, this shouldn't happen, but it can. When it does, the mechanism of updating some infrequent appearing character, or having your protagonist reconsider his progress might be useful.  Just be sure you are not being generally redundant, and that your use is necessary.  First, ask yourself why you have gotten in a situation that could require one in the first place.  Is there too much extraneous blather in your prose that has not "pointed the way" in your story? If there is, some revision might be a better option.

Story prose should all be shaped to tell the tale,  If somewhere you have wandered away from the story's needs, like a dementia patient's memories, fix these episodes, then re-evaluate your need for a summary.

I find summation overuse  a common problem, even with published authors' works. I often end up skipping over such word count wasters in novels.  Sometimes they are appreciated, but most often they seem just to pad the story out.  This is a good area to remain sensitive to in your Beta reader's general comments.  It is also a hard thing to evaluate on you own, as an author.

After all, you know where the plot is supposed to be going, and have it in mind every time you pick up the manuscript. Not so, the reader.

There is a general axiom that each chapter in a story should encourage the reader to want to read on.  I would soften this view somewhat.  The story should continually keep the the reader curious as to the story's outcome. Readers want to know "How It Turns Out".  It is hard to imagine this to be the case, if the reader comes to places where he/she no longer even knows where the story is going, what issues are being resolved, or what choices are looming or being shaped for your protagonists. The trick is not to depend on  a summary to provide continuity, if at all possible.  The old axiom, tell 'em what you told em, then tell 'em again, is better speech writing advice than good novelist technique.     

F.A.Hyatt

Thanks for another wonderful, useful post, Mr. Hyatt!

WRITING PROMPT: If you have a work in progress, scan for summaries–including ones in dialog–and be honest about whether or not they're really needed. Can the narration say, "Aileen filled the others in while they ate," rather than have Aileen detail what the reader just read?

MA

Free Sample Sunday – Dog Show

I can so too write romance.

Dog Show

by Marian Allen

Joseph tugged the leash–a gentle tug, a hint, not an enforcement–and Dutch came to heel. A few more steps, another tug. Steps. Tug.

"Just a minute, Mindy." Joseph stopped at the corner and tucked his cell phone against his sweat shirt. He regarded his dog with curiosity and disfavor.

The dog, an Austrian Alpine Shepherd, was a long-legged, barrel-chested, floppy-eared, big-eyed, salt-and-pepper Grand Champion, a gift from Mindy, Joseph's step-mother. She had wanted Joseph to call him Prince. Joseph called him Dutch.

He hadn't wanted the dog, but he and his step-mother were finally making an effort to get along after years of mutual aversion, and he couldn't reject her obviously well-intentioned canine olive branch.

Now he was stuck with this dog, this responsibility, this living being shoved into his life, this dependent he had to deal with. Not unlike Mindy being stuck with me, he thought, for the first time.

The several-times-daily walks had become tiresome, then pleasant, then routine.

Until this morning.

He put the phone back to his ear.

"Something's up with Dutch. He keeps hanging back. No, I'm not walking too fast. No, he doesn't seem to want to go home. He just doesn't want to follow our regular route. He's bored? That's–" he bit his tongue before the word "stupid" slid off it and substituted "–interesting. Okay. Well, see you this evening, then. Six-thirty at La Cucina. You, me and Dad. Sure, okay, I know I can bring a date. Bye."

Bring a date. As if he would be dating again less than a year after breaking up with Tanya. Tanya, who was perfect, as far as he was concerned. Tanya, who was so perfect, he couldn't believe she loved him. She had refused to speak to him after his last jealous outburst–just took off the engagement ring and walked away. She had even moved out of the apartment across the hall from his and changed her phone number.

But Mindy wouldn't have known about any of that. Tanya had come and gone in the days when Joseph and Mindy were barely speaking. The two women had only met once or twice. He had moved, himself, since then, and had changed his own number. He wished, now, he hadn't burned those bridges, but it was too late to undo.

Joseph continued his walk with Dutch. Again, Dutch hung back. Joseph stopped.

"Okay," he said, after exchanging a long stare with the dog. "How do you like this direction?" He crossed the street. Dutch trotted along without urging. They followed an unfamiliar avenue, crossed again, went another block and turned a corner. If Dutch resisted, Joseph tried again until he found the one the dog liked.

He couldn't believe it was happening. Dutch was absolutely leading him somewhere, in a sort of passive-aggressive way.

And there was Tanya's little blue Jetta in the driveway of a duplex townhouse, there were her signature moss rose plants in red clay pots lining half of the porch.

What if she saw him? What if she thought he was stalking her?

A second-floor window slammed open. Unseen hands clawed the screen insert away and Tanya leaned out.

"It's you! You came!"

The window slammed shut.

Joseph froze in place, Dutch a warm statue at his side.

Tanya burst out of the door. She seemed to take the space between the doorway to the sidewalk in one flying leap.

"She said she wouldn't tell you! I ran into her outside La Cucina one day, and I thought I could find you through her, but she said I had hurt you enough. She said I'd just have to hope things would work out for me. But she told you, after all! I love you so much! I missed you so much!"

The only woman he could ever love threw her arms around his neck.

After a long, wordless hug, she pulled away and sniffed back more tears.

Dutch gave a happy whimper, and she seemed to see him for the first time. She squatted and ruffled his ears.

"What on earth are you doing with Prince? The ladies in the other half of this duplex are in some kind of animal rescue society, sort of foster moms for dogs until somebody adopts them. I used to talk to Prince all the time, didn't I boy? Didn't I? As a matter of fact, I was walking him for them when I ran into Mindy. And now the two of you turn up together. How did that happen?"

"He was a gift," Joseph said, dizzy from the sudden inrush of joy. "A gift, from my fairy step-mother."

WRITING PROMPT: Give a character a gift from an unexpected source.

MA

The Game

Click picture to enlarge

Youngest Grandson made good on his promise yesterday, and brought a two-player game he made. It's called Escape From The Graveyard (Copyright 2011 by Youngest Grandson). He made the board and the playing pieces (one Live Guy and three Zombies), and he even made the die from a Lego piece with dots drawn on it.

Here's how it goes: The Live Guy goes first. LG rolls the die and moves as many spaces as come up. Since there ARE NO SPACES on the game board, movement is on the honor system, meaning the Live Guy moves a long way when Youngest Grandson is the Live Guy and a very little way when Grandmar is the Live Guy. If the Live Guy rolls and the bottom of the piece comes up, another Zombie joins the pursuit.

Either player (Live Guy or Zombie Master) can take the side path to the upper right to get money. Neither of us was quite sure what purpose the money served, but it added interest. The object of the game is for the Live Guy to — Do what, children? — That's right, to escape from the cemetery. The object for the Zombies is to catch the Live Guy and eat his brains.

It was most amusing.

WRITING PROMPT: Create a board game based on your own work or on your favorite book, story, movie or event. Don't just think up the idea, make the board, game pieces and rules. It's good exercise for "If this happens, then what?" thinking.

MA