Hodge Podge Ten

Ten Interesting Things I Found on the Internet

Archaeology Magazine provides online, interactive access to digs all over the world -- see the links list here.

Someone asked me if I'd ever found an mind mapper site that allows you to work online versus downloading a program, and I finally found a free one -- Bubbl.us

e.e.cummings was an amazing poet, but did you know he was an artist, too?

Don't walk like an Egyptian, write like one with this online Egyptian Hieroglyphic typwriter, which produces fun texts like this:



Found in a junk shop: the creations of Charles Dellchau, by day a grumpy butcher, by night a secret and wildly imaginative artist (and I brazenly lifted this link right off Kris Reisz's live journal.)

Check your grammar for free online with this free online grammar checker.

Need an idea on what to write for your blog? Try a random Mind Bump.

If you're a devoted notebook addict like me you'll probably want to avoid Notebook Stories (not.)

SelfPubBookCovers.com -- Create a cover for your self-pubbed book with art from independent artists that is not resold to other writers, starting at $69.00 (and since the artists make 70% of the purchase price I thought that was nice.)

Learn how to sit properly at your desk to eliminate lower back pain with this short YouTube video from Park City telvision (and I tried it and it actually worked for me.)

Got some interesting links you want to share? Post them in comments.

Virtual Safeguards

I was putting together a proposal the other day when I realized something. Thanks to the internet, social media, e-readers, smart phones and digital cameras virtually all of my work has become, well, virtual. I'm sure it's the same for most of you. Technology allows us to communicate in an instant without paper or ink; in a sense we've all become electronic writers.

Publishing also now conducts most of business with writers virtually; correspondence, contracts, manuscripts, cover art, copy-edits and even some galleys are created and worked on in electronic form. This is not a bad thing, either. After fourteen years of wrestling with six to eight pound manuscripts and waiting on the postal service during production, I'm quite happy we've gone virtual.

What occasionally gives me nightmares is what would happen if some manner of catastrophe silenced or erased all the things we've entrusted to virtual form. In a way this has already happened to me once; many years ago I lost three computers on the same day, and eight years of my writing, art and photographs simply vanished. That included about fifty manuscripts I'd never bothered to print out. Eventually I recovered everything, but it taught me a valuable lesson. Ever since that disaster I've been making multiple back ups and hard copies of everything I do, and storing other virtual copies on flash drives elsewhere. Naturally that's no guarantee it will survive a major catastrophe, but it's the only creative insurance we've got.

Btw, have you backed up your files lately? If you haven't, do it now, and make a commitment to doing the same at least once a week. Trust me, you never want to face losing any work, much less eight years of it.

It takes time to put things into physical form, time no one seems to have anymore -- even me. Whenever I visit an old internet bookmark and find a site with content that I used or liked has vanished, it's almost always one that I never bothered to print out or save in electronic form or hard copy. One of my favorite sites of all time recently disappeared, and I tried to e-mail the owner to see if I could get copies of the content. The e-mail bounced back, unread, and since the owner lives on the other side of the planet I can't exactly go over, knock on his door and ask what happened.

While the virtual world is fast and convenient and hardly any trouble at all, it's also vulnerable. As busy as we are these days, we tend to forget this. Depending solely on it to preserve our voices, our writing, our art and all the things we create and love is dangerous. For the things that exist solely in virtual form, the things that are important and/or can't be redone from scratch or replaced, everyone needs a backup plan.

So what are you doing to protect yourself and your virtual property? Have you used any online services that you've found helpful (and free or cheap?) Let us know in comments.

Talking Internet & YA

My sixteen year old daughter and I were sitting and talking after dinner tonight, and (as I sometimes do) I asked her what she was doing on the internet.

Her answers:

1. She was working on her history homework before she got online (she even unplugged the laptop and put it on her bed so she wouldn't be tempted.) She did turn on her desktop to listen to some music, got bored with homework, and went on Facebook.

2. She posted her status as lurking on Facebook = looking at other people's dramas and then laughing because she has none of her own.

3. A guy on Facebook asked her to go to his church.

4. Her brother came on Facebook and commented in reference to her status, "I know you're lying."

At least the kid is honest. I decided to start taking notes on our conversation, which evolved into this:

Kat: I want to send you some songs.

Me: About what?

Kat: Have you ever hear about this person who writes free music, I think the name is MindThings, he writes a bunch of instrumental songs that are really pretty. They're like ambient sounds that are like New Age music, no lyrics. I can't listen to songs with lyrics when I'm doing homework.

Me: Send them to me. What's the most surprising thing you saw on the internet this week?

Kat: I found the (Facebook) page for one of the most popular senior guy at my school. He suddenly posted that he's single and not going to Prom. Shocker! Got dumped right before Prom. Everyone feels so bad for him. I finally found out how to make a server for [her favorite online video game.] I went on Skype with [friend of a friend] and he talked me through how to do it.

Me: Did you see anything this week about books on the internet?

Kat: No advertisements. I saw some Amazon.com ads but I ran away from them. No, saw one ad circulating around for some kind of Twilight rip-off. Not interested.

Me: Do you know who Amanda Hocking is?

Kat: Who?

Me: Do you know which big chain bookseller declared bankruptcy?

Kat: Nope.

Me: What book are you reading right now, and what book do you want to read next?

Kat: Reading DotHacker now and I want to read Aion next (both are manga).

Me: Other than manga, what books do your friends talk about?

Kat: Most people in my grade don't talk about books. We're all about video games. Right now everyone is talking about 3DS -- it's the DS in 3-D. This sounds cool. Can you get me some 3-D glasses so I can use the 3-D option on [her favorite online video game]?

Me: Sure. Since you've been reading so much manga, what's your favorite?

Kat: Blood+ is my favorite manga of all time. It's so awesome because I can reread it and see new things each time. It's pretty gory, not like the nice manga I usually read.

Me: Tell me about the story.

Kat: This girl is the last descendant of a vampire, and she has to slay vampire-like monsters developed by the military, which escaped to Japan where she goes around slaying them. Her twin sister, who is like the opposite of her, is working with the monsters, so she knows she's going to have to kill her sister. The storyline is unique, this girl is fighting for her life and trying to stop the monsters and save the world.

Me: You know that's not really a unique storyline.

Kat: (makes a face at me.)

Me: What book would you want me to take you to the book store right now to buy -- any author, any book.

Kat: Chris D'Lacey. I'd go to the bookstore to get a new dragon book by him.

Me: Do you ever hear any other kids in school talking about books?

Kat: Some guys in my history class are always talking about that book you asked me about the last time we were at BAM.

Me: The Hunger Games.

Kat: Yeah, that one. (makes another face.) It doesn't sound like a girl book so I don't want to read it. Why are you writing all those notes?

Me: So I can make this into a blog post for other writers to read. Do you want to tell them what you want to read -- what sort of book?

Kat: No more Twilight ripoffs. So over Twilight. Anything with unique storylines, big plot twists, surprises but not too many because you get jerked around too much.

Me: What do you think will be the next big thing in books for kids your age?

Kat: Nobody at my school has heard of steampunk yet but I think all the gears and stuff are cool. That could be the next big thing.

Me: Any advice you want to give to YA authors?

Kat: Write a good book first. You can have a million ads and stuff on the internet but if your book is crap we won't read it. Write something really great and then kids will talk about it.

Wish Sites Ten

Ten Sites I'd Like to See on The Internet

AbsolutelyWillNotWrite.com: An online writing community where you can go and hang out to talk about your struggle, pain, writer's block, frustration with the industry, envy of productive writers, mysterious maladies and all the other excellent reasons as to why you can't write. Maybe. We're not sure. Are the planets aligned correctly? We don't feel so good. Come back next Tuesday.

Faceoffbook: A site on which you are not permitted to post any images of yourself or your body parts, which includes any/all Glamor Shots, sex act partials, meaningful personal symbols, short animations from porn movies or Seinfield episodes, pictoral-enhanced famous quotations, celebrities you secretly believe you resemble, participation in drunken revelries or anything that may be introduced as evidence against you in or out of a court of law. If you've used it as an avatar, you won't use it here.

Guildless Authors.org: Created for writers who can't stomach writers' organizations. Site provides no professional advice, never meddles in copyright issues, awards nothing, isn't terrified of Google, doesn't meet once a month, refuses to elect any officers, will not hold workshops or seminars, and could care less about conferences. You don't want to join? Good for you.

Muter.com: For people who don't own mobile phones, hate texting and/or prefer to hold all of their conversations in private without an audience. Welcome! Now, shut up.

NeverPimpAnythingAgain.net: (no description available.)

NotYourKidTube: Do you have a home video that doesn't feature your child performing, singing or otherwise doing something cute, clever or humorous that you intend to exploit so they can appear on Ellen, go into child modeling or acting and make you millions before they mature, lose their childstar appeal and end up suicidal, in therapy, living under a bridge or making a reality show about their various addictions and the many kinds of permanent psychic damage you've inflicted on them? We'd love to see it.

PffftFiction.org: A site that doesn't care who an author is, what they've written or what their latest release is, and flatly refuses to SPAM them twenty times a day asking for book excerpts, bios, guest blogs etc. Why are you bothering us? We haven't heard of you. Go away.

SilentPodcasts: Click on their link to hear nothing, or nothing enhanced by a faint echo of crickets chirping in an enormous empty room.

Unromantic Times.net: The premiere site for the unattached, happily single and not planning on getting involved with anyone ever ever ever. Members may freely communicate without fear of being matched on any level, having to meet, make committments or film a commercial that requires them to fake how happy they are together. Their motto: what's love got to do with it? Uh, nothing.

WorkingWriters.com: Sorry, but we'll have to get back to you after we finish the book.