Wow, is that a classy headline, or what?
Anyhow — remember ‘way back the beginning of the summer when NPR asked everybody within the sound of their pixels to nominate books-and-series for their Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Book List? Well! They’ve whittled the first list of 5,000+/- titles down to the top 250 and now they need your help again. Go here and choose your personal top 10 from the list provided. Full disclosure: Yes, “The Liaden Universe by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller” is on the list.
OK, that. What’s next? Droid apps! Actually, Droid app. Those of you who use your Droid to make notes-to-self — which app do you use? I had just about settled on one that looked to be everything I wanted and more! (having narrowly talked myself out of the one that takes notes in 18th century copperplate), but upon reading the fine print, it would appear that this particular app prevents the phone from going to sleep, which means, as I understand the matter, the phone will chew through its battery faster. Yes, the Droid does have the increased capacity battery (the first thing I do for my gadgets, after they’ve taken the Oath of Fealty, is fix ’em up with the high-capacity battery and more memory, if applicable), but I’m going to be traveling by train, and power outlets are not always as plentiful as one would wish.
How’m I doing here? One more topic to cover.
Who can help me with LJ-Book? I…can’t seem to get a book out of it. It’s probably something very, very simple that I’m doing wrong, but at this point it seems pretty clear that I’m not going to find it on my own.
In other news from around the Cat Farm, yesterday was the Official! Ghost Ship Release Day. The sales numbers on Barnes and Noble have been dancing around in the 400 and 500s, which is pretty dern awesome; and in the 700 to 900 range at Amazon.com, which also Isn’t Too Bad.
It’s been difficult to work without Hexapuma keeping a watch over my keyboard, but I have been paying attention to the submissions for the writing workshop Steve and I are leading on WorldCon Thursday, and also to George. That last is going a little less quickly than I want, but I’m at one of the anchor scenes, and it has to be right — set deep and straight.
The WorldCon dance card is filling right up. Looks like I’m going to sprint out to the museum for mummies on Wednesday morning before the con starts — which, for us, will be Wednesday at 3:45, at the Sierra View Library. Still have to locate a laundromat for…Sunday sometime, that looks like. Except for those two outside excursions, it’ll be All Con, All the Time.
Today…can’t figure out if it’s going to rain or just be cloudy, cool and damp. I can go with either of those, frankly, because? I’ll be at the dining room table, staring at a blank page until the drops of blood break out on my forehead.
Wish me luck.
Progress on the Book Presently known as George
45,844 words/100,000 OR 45% complete
“You see them don’t you?” she whispered, her breath hot against his cheek and smelling faintly of mint. “You see them, inside the darkness. They’re waiting for us, eh? Aren’t they? Waiting to eat us, and spit out our souls.”
I must admit that for memos and notes I use Evernote so I can read/make notes on either my phone or my desktop without having to think about syncing. Works both ways: that insurance info I got gets put into a note on my desktop so I can access it via my phone if I need it handy, and also my notes on the conference talk go in my phone and get copied and pasted into an email to a colleague because he was interested.
I usually make notes in a gmail draft, save it, and delete the draft when I’ve done whatever was on the note.
Preventing your phone going to sleep wouldn’t be a huge issue if you’re aware of when the app is running. I use Advanced Task Killer to manage running apps.
Other apps:
To extend battery life: JuiceDefender.
To read the Baen books versions of the Korval series: FBReader.
For better folder behavior than the built in: Apps Organizer.
To help find my phone when I lose it: Where’s My Droid
Please –Please don’t let Michael Shanks record any more of your wonderful books. I bought the audiobooks of Local Custom and no, he doesn’t caputure the essence of your wonderful love story.
Have a wonderful time in Minneapolis. Since I have all your work autographed, I even bought reading copies so I won’t have to damage the autographed copies, I won’t come to gawk at you at Uncle Hugo’s, but I love your work.
Bernice — I’m afraid it’s not up to us, who narrates our audio books; that’s the publisher’s decision.
Do come to Uncle’s if you can. We don’t insist you bring books to sign, and all the best book signings are like mini-cons, with people standing around to talk and visit with each other.