Rusty Carl's Blog, page 24

This Stupid Pineapple is...

... Finally beginning to understand where pineapple juice comes from.
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As mentioned Wednesday, today is Briane Pagel's Stupid Pineapple blogfest. Not only does he host the thing, he is giving out prizes - choosing to do so in a manner so hopelessly complicated that he might as well just give it to whomever he feels like. Anyhow, if you want to know who's entered and all that I'd recommend you check out his twitter feed, because I'm not sure if there is an official list a...

Insecure Writers - February Edition

There are several things going on today that I'd like to mention.
First! I mentioned on Monday that if anyone managed to sit through all those videos I posted I'd make a big deal about it today. Well, congrats to  Gail  who patronized me by watching them all. She was too pooped to really have thoughts about it. But hey, she was like a marathoner that wouldn't quit. Alex  emailed me later and mentioned that he watched them all (and that doesn't mean he watched his own five times either, I asked)...

Book Trailers - What's the Deal?

It seems to me that the whole concept of book trailers has taken the world by storm in the past couple of years.  I wonder where the concept even came from. I do recall seeing TV commercials for L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics, when I was a kid. But I either never noticed others, or that was pretty much it. Well, unless you count the thing the Latter Day Saints used to do. But I'm having a real hard time figuring out the origin of non religious books as trailers.

Regardless, I've heard a few market...

Oh Crap, You Just Destroyed the Earth

Work is wearing me out. I mean, really wearing me out. Not only am I spending more time there than I want to, but I'm also working much harder while I'm there. What that means for me of course, is that I'm having a tough time right now even remembering to post, let alone all the other stuff I need to do to maintain a semblance of an online presence. Heck, I haven't even been reading very much lately, very odd for me.


So, I dusted off a post I wrote a long time ago (you know, last year...

A Star Trek Love Song

Part I
*if you don't like Star Trek  this post will bore you out of your head – Don't feel obligated to read. Seriously. I won't get mad*
I mentioned a few weeks ago about my long dormant love affair with Star Trek. Something that I fully expected to continue fading into the night as more and more years went by. I mean, other, grittier, more emotionally driven shows have really upped the ante since ST was on the air. Well, entirely out of the fondness of my memories for the series, I added...

When You Just Can't Do Any More

Had a busy week last week, and a busier weekend. I've not written a word of fiction this new year. I'm kind of freaking out about that. I spent some time doing more book cover stuff this weekend though, worked at my day job (on a Saturday!), cleaned the house (looks good) and tried to get a copy of my unpublished novel printed (via Lulu) and sent to me to do another read through to see if I want to do some more revisions to it.

That last thing, about my novel, it looks like Lulu crashed while ...

The Great Internet Blackout

Yesterday was the 'blackout' of the internet that many participated in to protest the draconian SOPA/PIPA bills that, if enacted, would make the internet a whole lot ickier than it should be. Click ---> Here <--- to learn more.

Also, I was just lazy this week and didn't feel like doing anything. So it really worked out for me, I can be lazy and get points for being an activist.

For me, when people post videos on their site I rarely watch. As I am often reading posts on the go and can't really s...

News, Notes and Updates

Not really, but I always find those types of posts irresistible. Not enough happens to me that warrants real updates though. So, I don't actually have any of news. Nor notes. And definitely no updates.

Wait, I do have one. A few people emailed or otherwise sent me a message to let me know they couldn't comment on Friday's post. I couldn't help but notice that it coincided with Blogger's update to allow threaded commenting. That sounds about right. I like using Blogger I suppose, but it seems l...

How The Cola Wars Proved You Can't Trust Anything From Anyone... Ever!

I'm a big fan of Coke Zero. It tastes like Coke, but 0 calories. Yum. Funny that, as Coke already had Diet Coke on the market for a very long time. Same product with all new marketing? Not exactly. I actually think it's an important thing though, so I'll come back to that in a moment.

Firstly, I'm in "art mode" right now and am struggling to communicate via the written word. I'm still working on another cover that will probably take me through the weekend to get close to being good enough...

Book Cover Week Continues!

I'm sure no one is entirely thrilled with this post, but since Grumpy Bulldog, Secret Agent, has publicly been soliciting advice about his book covers for his upcoming novel releases. I thought I would answer my own question that I asked during one of my comments at his site a few days ago... found here
I mentioned that he might want to consider doing minimalist covers instead of the characters in environments covers he has mocked up. This way, the bottom half of each book stays the same with ...