Gerald Brandt

Arthur C. Clarke died today at 1:30 AM, after suffering breathing problems.  He was 90 years old.  He was one of the greats.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23697230/

It seems that late winter/early spring is a bad time for the blog. Last year at this time, I commented on how things were slowing down here. I wonder if it has anything to do with the ‘long winter blues’?

I do have excuses… of course. I mean, who doesn’t. The laptop fritzed out and I had to re-install the OS. Unfortunately, the install disc is so old that trying to upgrade from the install to something more recent turned into a fiasco. I ended up installing from scratch about 4 times before I figured out what I could and could not upgrade. That’s one of the pains of Gentoo/Sabayon. Oh well.

I’ve also received some contract work in the last month or so, and it took a chunk of time.

So, there ya go. Two pretty good excuses, and I didn’t have to think too hard about it!

I’ve pulled my Nano novel out of the drawer and started revisions on it. I’m keep track on a page by page basis. When my revisions are all typed in (I revise on paper), I’ll update my word count, and start revision 2.

Patry’s novel is being released in paperback today. Unfortunately, she has been diagnosed with an aggressive cancer and is receiving treatments. Because of this, she is unable to promote her books trade paperback release, and a number of Bloggers are banding together to do it for her.

What would you do if your best friend was murdered—and your teenaged son was accused of the crime? How far would you go to protect him? How many lies would you tell? Would you dare to admit the darkest truths—even to yourself?Jeanne Cross is an ordinary suburban wife and mother with a seemingly “perfect” life when Ali Mather arrives on the scene, breaking all the rules and breaking hearts. Almost against her will, Jeanne is drawn to this powerfully seductive woman, a fascination that soon begins to infect Jeanne’s husband as well as their teenaged son, Jamie.

Though their friendship seems unlikely and even dangerous to their mutual acquaintances, Ali and Jeanne are connected by deep emotional needs, vulnerabilities and long-held secrets that Ali has been privately recording in her diary.

The diary also holds the key to something darker. Though she can’t prove it, Ali is convinced someone has been entering her house when she is not at home-and not with the usual intentions. What this burglar wants is nothing less than a piece of Ali’s soul.

When Ali is found murdered, there are many suspects; but the evidence against Jamie Cross is overwhelming. Jeanne’s personal probing leads her to the question none of us would ever want to face. What comes first: our loyalty to family—or the truth?”

Patry’s novel is being released in paperback today. Unfortunately, she has been diagnosed with an aggressive cancer and is receiving treatments. Because of this, she is unable to promote her books trade paperback release, and a number of Bloggers are banding together to do it for her.

What would you do if your best friend was murdered—and your teenaged son was accused of the crime? How far would you go to protect him? How many lies would you tell? Would you dare to admit the darkest truths—even to yourself?Jeanne Cross is an ordinary suburban wife and mother with a seemingly “perfect” life when Ali Mather arrives on the scene, breaking all the rules and breaking hearts. Almost against her will, Jeanne is drawn to this powerfully seductive woman, a fascination that soon begins to infect Jeanne’s husband as well as their teenaged son, Jamie.

Though their friendship seems unlikely and even dangerous to their mutual acquaintances, Ali and Jeanne are connected by deep emotional needs, vulnerabilities and long-held secrets that Ali has been privately recording in her diary.

The diary also holds the key to something darker. Though she can’t prove it, Ali is convinced someone has been entering her house when she is not at home-and not with the usual intentions. What this burglar wants is nothing less than a piece of Ali’s soul.

When Ali is found murdered, there are many suspects; but the evidence against Jamie Cross is overwhelming. Jeanne’s personal probing leads her to the question none of us would ever want to face. What comes first: our loyalty to family—or the truth?”

Here it is, well into the month already, and I’m not sure where the time went.

Let’s see what I did:

1. A lot of work on WordSlinger. I broke it adding folders to the draft/scene area, but it’s almost working now.
2. Tore apart our bathroom and started rebuilding it. The previous owners of the house glued linoleum 4 feet up the walls, and trying to take it down destroyed the plaster and lathe walls. Doh. I also found rotten wood and some mold. Not nice.

Well, that’s it. Two items. Granted, both took a fair amount of work, and neither are finished, but still… Time to get back to a regular schedule.

Well, after a few mishaps and backtracks (yes, 2 years of being a stay at home Dad can effect ones software development skills), I've decided that my latest application is ready for Beta testing.  It took a bit longer than I thought to get to this point, but that's the way it is.

I'm now moving my current WIP into it, and we'll see how it goes.  I really wanted to get snapshots into it, but that can wait a bit. 

Watch the Video: wordslinger-010.htm

 Images:

December has turned into one of the busiest months I've had in a long time.  With all the Christmas stuff happening, include school concerts, shopping, etc, it was tough.  On top of that, I stopped writing novels and wrote some software instead. 

My previous post showed a screen shot, and things were actually working pretty good at that point.  But, the devil is in the details.  I now have something to send to Linux beta testers, but the Mac and the Windows version have a bug or two.  One of them may be related, but I have a Mac bug I'm not sure what I can do about.  At this point, I'm dieing to get back to writing, so progress on the code will slow down.  

Still, the Linux version is in a state I can use it, and that's why I wrote it.  I'll use it to outline and write my next novel.  I'm also thinking of moving my current WIP (work in progress) into it, and see how I can use it for revision.  Hmmm, I'll have to add snapshots…

Anyway, that's taken a lot of my time as well.  Oh, and my wife noticed that when I code, I tend to get very snappish and angry, which bleeds over into regular life.   When I write, that doesn't happen.  Cool. 

When NaNoWriMo was over (for me), I didn't know what to do.  I'd been in 'the groove' for so long, my days felt empty.  I had a lot of normal work to catch up on, but once I did…

So, I decided it was time to write some software.  I wrote what I consider an Integrated Development Environment for writers.  Previously I looked at Scrivener, Writer's Cafe and yWriter.  All of which looked good, especially Scrivener.   Still, I wanted my own thing, it's what I do.  I also use Linux for my day-to-day work, and none of these products run on Linux (except Writer's Cafe).

I now have a basic application that is character/scene oriented.  Here's a screenshot: (click for larger image)

The user basically enters characters and their related information.  You can also enter locations where your scenes take place.  Once a user is entered, they get a 'timeline' on the corkboard.  As a scene is added and given a characters POV, they are given an index card on the corkboard.  Each card has information related to the scene associated with it, including the text of the scene itself.  Also, each card can be moved to anywhere on the timeline, and even to another character.  The entire novel can be rearranged at will.

When editing a scene, the text editor can be made full screen, with no outside distractions.  I used Q10 for this during Nano, and I loved it. 

All information is stored in standard files, so if a user decides not to use the software, no data is lost.  Also, the entire novel can be exported as a whole, for import into a word processor.

It's not done yet, but it's getting usable!  All this runs under Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.

Here it is, about 70,000 words in manuscript format:

Yesterday, I reached the end of my outline.  I wrote 'The End' and called it a night, with only 1822 new words.  I became… depressed.  I know I have plot holes, since the outline shifted a bit during the writing, and my word count isn't where I wanted it to be.  True, I didn't think I'd hit 50,000 words, but once I did, I planned for 85,000 words this month.

I just ran out of plot.

I think I'm feeling down because I really expected to go all out all month, and now I'm done early, and I can't do that.  I'm not sure.  Anyway, I'll write up notes on where I know I made mistakes, and maybe what I should do to fix them, and then I'll put the manuscript in a drawer for a couple of months to give myself some separation.  After that, back at it with heavy duty revisions.  Maybe actually turn this pile of mess into something readable!

NaNoWriMo has been a sort of epiphany for me.  Yes, I got serious about my writing about three years ago, and yes, I did a lot of work in that time.  But Nano showed me how much work I could actually do, and the quality really isn't that bad for a first draft.  My total for the month then is 69,419 words in 24 days.  And I'm really happy about that.

Now, with Nano out of the way, I need to set my sights on my next project.  I'm not sure if I'll return to Anshi right away, but we'll see.

I do have some software in mind, but I'm worried that going back to writing software will hurt my writing.  Although both are creative, programming is creative in an entirely different way than writing, and I don't want to mess up at this point.