Daily Archives: 12 April 2008

Infected

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I had to ask one of the BBtL people who Scott Sigler was, and then, I forgot to bookmark any of the sites mentioned where I could read about the recent (by which I mean over the last couple years) of authors using podcasting to share their work, as a means of attracting an agent.

If I had the courage, and the technical skills, I’d do it. As it is, I’m serializing one of the threads of my novel over at Pink Nighties, and using one of the fragments as a jumping off point for a contribution to a friend-of-a-friends’ coffee culture book. A friend of mine who is also a writer adopted the term “prepublished,” and I like that idea a LOT.

Writing has come a long way from people using spiral notebooks and cheap pens, and spending endless hours holed up in garrets or garages a la Josephine March in Little Women. There are scary rumors of the publishing industry going to pot, but I don’t think that’s entirely true. Rather, I think it’s evolving to include new media, and that’s a good thing. Anything that allows us to share stories is a plus.

But back to Scott Sigler. He’s an author who’s been podcasting his fiction. He’s amazingly cool, and pretty talented, and if you like horror and sci-fi you should check out his first hardcover work, Infected, which is available at your local bookseller, as well as Amazon.

Not sure you want to risk the money? Check out the book’s promotional trailer, below (linked from YouTube):

Cruising on Alpha Waves

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I’ve barely slept since Tuesday, until last night, but today even though I did get a full night’s rest, I couldn’t shake the sleepies. I went back to bed around 10:30 AM when Fuzzy went to work, and didn’t wake til after two. Slept again from 2:30 – 4. Ate something, had tea, talked to my mother – my throat felt tight, but not really achey.

At 7:45, knowing Fuzzy would be late, and that he’d be stopping at Jamba Juice on his way home, I went to sleep again, and dreamed that I was on a cruise, like one of those royal caribbean type things you always see advertised. I like the ocean a lot, but I’ve never been on an actual cruise. (I do want to take an Alaskan cruise someday though), so I don’t know what induced the dream. Maybe my “under the sea” light theme? Maybe the sea turtle background image?

Or maybe I’ve seen the movie Out to Sea one too many times.

In any case, since then I’ve had a peanut butter MOOD smoothie, a hot bath, and 2.5 bottles of water. I woke from that nap with a raging fever, sore throat, and swollen glands. And yes, Fuzzy, you probably WILL have to take Zorro to the vet without me in the morning.

Pynk

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“Pynk” is what I named my new Alienware laptop on our network, though not what I plan to call the computer itself. Actually, I don’t plan to call it anything except “my new laptop,” because while I do name cars, I don’t feel the need to anthropomorphize everything I own. My cello doesn’t have a name either, and I only refer to the weight machine as Marcy because that’s what’s stamped across the seat-back.

In any case, a shiny new computer meant that when I was writing an article about term life insurance earlier today for work, I wasn’t cursing because I never can remember that there’s no forward delete on the MacBook, or yelling at the poor mouse response from the touchpad on the Vaio.

Speaking of which, this machine has a touchpad that is seamless, and they also provide a cute texturized sticker to put over it, so that you can actually have better traction.

I’ve only had it since 5:00 PM CDT yesterday, but I’m already in love.

Oh, and the pink backlights and system lights? Were very pink, so right now I’m running with a combination of blue and deep green. Feels very oceanic.