Alan Baxter's Blog, page 125

Testing my Wordpress iPhone app

I've downloaded the Wordpress app for my iPhone. I'm currently sitting on my couch with my iPhone linked to my home wireless network typing out this test post. Hopefully it works. If it does I'm going to have a little nerdgasm. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love the future.

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Friday Flash – The Darkening

I've been copping a bit of (friendly) flak the last couple of weeks because I've slipped on the Friday Flash thing. It's hard to keep up with all the projects that I have going on, especially with people hassling me for the next book and the next Ghost Of The Black novella. Plus I'm working with Blade Red Press on the first anthology, trying to write and sell short stories and keep a bit of freelance stuff on the go. No, I don't want your sympathy. I'm just making excuses for the...

"The Book" published in Antipodean SF #136

I'm happy to say that a piece of my flash fiction has just been published by Antipodean SF. It's a whimsical little yarn about a book. Therefore it's called "The Book".

You can read it here. Let me know what you think.

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Stories read and future predictions

Not much going on at the moment, just catching up with stuff. You know, life as usual. However, I do have some new books to help me cope. One of the blessings and curses of the whole convention situation is the dealer's room. It's a big room, full of people selling stuff you really want. A deadly thing. It's also a great place to hang out and chat with people and generally soak up the vibe of a con. As a result of this room of delight, as with every con, I now have a newly enlarged reading...

Kindle editions are back

Amazon seem to have finally started catching up with their backlog of emails and I'm happy to say that the Kindle editions of RealmShift and MageSign are available again. The price now matches the Smashwords and DriveThru price of US$2.89 each. That's less than a cup of coffee! It also looks like they've kicked in this bloody stupid region coding plan, so if you're looking from Australia, for example, you won't see pricing information and there's a nice green box telling you that you can't...

Whatever

I read this today and had to laugh. According to Language Log the Marist Institute of Public Opinion has released poll results that reveal the words and phrases that Americans find most annoying. The results were:

whatever – 47%

you know – 25%

it is what it is – 11%

anyway – 7%

at the end of the day – 2%

What the Marist Institute didn't reveal very clearly was that the above phrases were the only options respondents were given to choose from. Ridiculous.

As one of the commenters over at...

Nameless, the Paul Haines Challenge

This is something I've been meaning to get around to looking at for ages and I've finally followed up on it. The Australian Horror Writers Association has put together a very interesting challenge that involves horror, loads of great writers, a competition and a bit of philanthropy, plus a great prize. You can't argue with that.

Basically, numerous great Australian speculative fiction writers have each added a section to a single story, started by Felicity Dowker. The penultimate part was...

Seriously, don't fuck with the community

I've just been catching up on this situation, so I'm a bit behind on time, but I wanted to add my voice to the outrage. It seems we have a plagiarist in our midst. Now, I can't even begin to imagine the point of plagiarism. Are some people so insecure that they want to see their name in print but can't risk using their own words? Are they just so keen to see their name as a published credit that they'll use any means necessary? Well, yes, it would seem so. But what kind of pleasure or sense o...

The Top 50 Australian Blogs for Writers by Copywrite updated again

I seem to be on elastic between 11 and 9. What am I on about? The Copywrite Top 50 Australian Blogs for Writers list has been updated again. The first time it came out I was in at number 9, the next one I'd dropped to 11, third time around I was back up to 9. Now it's been updated once more and I've returned to position 11 on the list. The weird thing is that the blogs in all the places around me change all over the place. Maybe I'll just try to claim positions 9, 10 and 11 as permanent...

Conflux report # 6 – now with added pics

I guess this will be my last Conflux 6 related post. It has a rhyming title, it's the 6th post for Conflux 6, everyone is bored shitless of me going on about Conflux already, and so on. However, people wanted pictures – let it not be said that I never give the people what they want. So here's a quick pictorial rundown of the con.

This is the tremendous Karen Herkes – she organises cons like Batman beats up thugs:

(Pic: Cat Sparks)

This next pic is one of my favourites from the whole weekend...