Michael Jasper's Blog, page 49

Digital Comics: Formatting Your Comic for the Nook (ePub)

ePub logo designed by Ralph Burkhardt

So what's all the fuss about ePubs these days?

Well, you can read all the details at the ePub entry at Wikipedia, but for digital comics creator, the key fact about ePubs is that it's the file type that's used by the Nook from Barnes and Noble.

And sales of IN MAPS & LEGENDS for the Nook tripled for us in December compared to November.

So I'll again stress to digital comics creators to get on board with the Pub-IT site for the B&N Nook.

What the Heck is an...

Fiction Friday: "Natural Order"

UnWrecked Press presents: Fiction Friday

This week's free-for-a-week Fiction Friday story is "Natural Order," the first of many reprints coming your way from UnWrecked Press this year.

UPDATE: Now that the free week is over, you can read the rest of this story by downloading a copy from  Smashwords or Amazon. Then you can read it on your laptop, desktop, Kindle, iPad, Nook, iPhone, or whatever device you use to read ebooks.

I wrote this story during the 2000 Writers of the Future...

Digital Comics: How We Set Up IN MAPS & LEGENDS as a Digital Comic

Let's start out this brief history of my experience starting up a digital comic with artist Niki Smith by saying this — Robot 6′s Brigid Alverson named Niki and me "Digital Creators of the Year" for 2010 for our work with IN MAPS & LEGENDS (we actually tied with Alex de Campi, author of VALENTINE, which I thought was very fitting, as we've used a lot of advice from Alex from her website and comic). Awesome!

(Kinda strange how, just 5 days into the new year, but 2010 seems so long ago…!)

I've b...

Fiction Friday: "The Doorstop Thieves"

UnWrecked Press presents: Fiction Friday

Here's this week's free Fiction Friday story, coming your way from UnWrecked Press.

UPDATE: Now that the free week is over, you can read the rest of this story by downloading a copy from  Smashwords or Amazon. Then you can read it on your laptop, desktop, Kindle, iPad, Nook, iPhone, or whatever device you use to read ebooks.

This is one of the first stories I ever wrote, dating back to my college days at the University of Iowa. Three-fourths of it i...

Fiction Friday: "Orc in the Family"

UnWrecked Press presents: Fiction Friday

This week's free Fiction Friday story from UnWrecked Press is "Orc in the Family."

UPDATE: Now that the free week is over, you can read the rest of this story by downloading a copy from Smashwords or Amazon. Then you can read it on your laptop, desktop, Kindle, iPad, Nook, iPhone, or whatever device you use to read ebooks

I wrote this humorous little story about an elderly critter for my students at a Young Writers Workshop, which was a blast to...

Podcasted! "California King" and "Natural Order" (plus a MAPS chat)

Something I missed while I was on vacation was the release of the podcast version of "California King" by Greg van Eekhout and me. This was a great story to write, set in the wacky world of California. Hard to believe it was over seven years ago when we wrote it, and five years ago(!) in '05 when we saw it published at Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.

The audio version of "California King" is now up at Podcastle, and you can listen to it here.

Also, speaking of audio versions, you can listen ...

Disney World Tips: A Top Ten List

Having spent the past week and a day in the World of Disney, and getting completely worn out chasing our 2 boys (ages 6 and 3) with my wife and her parents, I realized that we'd learned a lot about Disney World on our trip.

So I wanted to share my nuts-and-bolts list of what to do to maximize your trip to Disney World.

Here's my list of top ten tips:

1. Plan out your days there, but don't plan too much. Plan two days per park, if possible. There's so much to see, it's easy to get overwhelmed...

Fiction Friday: "The Chicken Project"

UnWrecked Press presents: Fiction Friday

Here's this week's free Fiction Friday story, coming your way from UnWrecked Press.

UPDATE: Now that the free week is over, you can read the rest of this story by downloading a copy of "The Chicken Project" from Smashwords or Amazon.

Then you can read it on your laptop, desktop, Kindle, iPad, Nook, iPhone, or whatever device you use to read ebooks.

Here's a short story I pulled out of my first novel, written many moons ago, about two brothers at...