Just What Every Writer Has Been Waiting For - A Pen That Writes In Nanometers

I was about to post one of my big "science news" posts when I came across what you're about to read, and thus decided to spare you of my other exciting science stuff.
See, I'm subscribed to like a gazillion science, space, technology news sites and am just as passionate about that as I am about writing/reading. The only difference is my music preference while I do one or the other.

Anyways (don't I always have this tendency of making a short story long??!), I stumbled across this:
Writing at the Nanoscale: 'Electro Pen' may impact a host of developing nanotechnologies

At the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, scientists have developed a new chemical "writing" technique that can create lines of "ink" only a few tens of nanometers, or billionths of a meter, in width.

"Our new 'writing' method opens up many new possibilities for creating nanoscale patterns and features on surfaces.

Go over the picture with your mouse for an explanation.

(I think I'm not supposed to use the picture in the article but it's so cool I couldn't resist. I'd only leave it here for a couple of days. Promise).

Categories: writing, nanotechnology, science

Writing Update and a Game - Mazito

It comes with a warning this game. Maybe now you'll understand how I waste my time.
I mean, I just can't believe it. That stupid web game. Or rather, that real smart game. To my shame I had to admit defeat when I couldn't pass the 10th level. How can it be? Moi? Defeated by a game?

Well, try it before you mock me. It's most recommended, but it will take a few hours to complete. Heck, it will take a few hours even if you don't complete it.

What game? Why, Mazito of course, from SimpleCodeWorks.

Out there on the web there are detailed solutions for the lazy ones, if you must. I don't know where so I won't be tempted.

Writing Update:
I promised that yesterday would be different and I said I would update you at night. I'm happy to report I was too busy writing at night to update you. You can bet your sweet umm-umm I'm smiling here.
So here it goes: I've written about a thousand words in my novel (a bit low for me but a start out of the slump), and rewritten 1.5 short stories long overdue for a rewrite.

Categories: writing, games

Canada to Assist US

Me and all other Canadians have been waiting for this for three days now:

Canada prepares to assist U.S. relief effort

Canadian officials have started getting ready to send whatever type of aid the United States requires to help with the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan said today.

"We want to reassure the president and the people of the United States that we are their best friends and their neighbour, and we will be there to help them in a situation that truly is without parallel in our country or theirs," said McLellan.
...
"We stand at the ready to assist," said McGuinty, who added Ontario could help with its Emergency Medical Assistance Team.

Relief efforts by Canadians in disaster zones are largely organized in Ottawa, but McGuinty said he wants to know from Ambassador David Wilkins what specifically Ontario can do.

I hope we get a chance to help.

Categories: Katrina

Feeling and Writing

I slept in today. It doesn't happen often. I usually wake up before the alarm-clock dares to screech, but it happened today. Each time it happens I wonder why. Usually it has to do with my mental state. Watching too much about Katrina -- or maybe there isn't too much -- left me, in one word, sad. I escaped into my bed knowing so many were left without one. Yes, I feel guilty. I wasn't responsible for Katrina, and yet I feel like there should have been something I could do. But I'm no super hero...

My writing, or should I say, my ability to write is directly related to my state of mind. I know that for many, writing is a form of escape. ME Strauss, for example, explains why she writes. It's a great post, but it doesn't work for me because before blogging (a new thing in my life) I had never had a journal and didn't use to write my own feelings down. Before blogging I wrote only fiction and the occasional article. One could argue that writing fiction is expressing feelings and resolving issues. Perhaps, but I'm not certain I would agree with that because I actually find it hard to write (fiction) when I'm down, just like I find it hard to function at work when I'm down. And I mean really down. Like divorce/break-up down, or family member sick down, or death down. I'm usually a happy person other than these exceptional occasions so not writing doesn't happen often.

But it happened yesterday. The events affected me too much and I couldn't write worth a damn. Yes, I wrote a personal post about my feelings (something I've started doing in the past couple of weeks but I'm not sure I like), but I didn't write write.

Today will be different I promise. I will tell you the results tonight.

Categories: writing, process, personal

Insignificant

I sat today and tried to carry on with my normal daily routine but found it extremely hard. Everything just seemed so trivial compared to the devastation Katrina left behind:
People have lost everything. Destruction, floods and the future of New Orleans unknown. The despair.
Desperate, people are losing their heads. The looting, the shooting, a prison riot. It's insane.
People are still trapped in attics, on rooftops. Shelters and even hospitals are being evacuated.
Those people who didn't make it.

This is just the beginning. Refugees, rebuilding of cities, highways, streets, homes. No water, electricity, gas. No food. No water. Diseases.

The destruction almost seems unmanageable.

So everything else seems so insignificant.

Categories: personal, Katrina

A Few Goodies (or not) From National Geographic

Urine Battery Turns Pee Into Power - Apparently it's not just urine but many of our body fluids that can power these little batteries. Now the scientists are working on enlarging the size of the batteries so that they could charge cell phones, MP3s or laptops.

Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology created the credit card-size battery as a disposable power source for medical test kits.
...
Urine contains many ions (electrically charged atoms), which allows the electricity-producing chemical reaction to take place in the urine battery, said UC Berkeley's Kammen. Other bodily fluids, such as tears, blood, and semen, would work easily as well to activate the battery.

And what movie was it in? The 6th Day I think, where Arnold (yes, the governor) clones the family dog after the dog died. Now it's a reality - Dog Cloned by South Korean Scientists. These kind of news items always excite me yet give me the shivers at the same time. Notwithstanding stem cell research (I still hope scientists to find a different way of doing that), it's just plain that this is playing with fire. The dog is cute though - Photogallery. So was Dolly.

Categories: science

Coca-Cola Contest

I've been neglecting the freelance writers out there, I know. So here is something exciting: Coca-Cola Big Idea Contest.

Before you get too enthusiastic, the contest isn't actually sponsored by Coca-Cola. The contest, run by AdCandy, does seek marketing and promotion ideas for Coca-Cola in the hopes of being able to submit the ideas to the big soda company:

We're going to let the creativity fly here. You can submit ANYTHING that you think can improve or extend Coke’s marketing efforts: Concepts, sponsorships, product improvement ideas, marketing ideas, slogans, new product ideas, licensing ideas etc. We've extended the character limit so you submit more developed ideas.

Another contest AdCandy has with a fast approaching September 1st deadline is: The Da Vinci Code Movie Tagline Contest

The site has numerous other contests for those interested in this side of the business. Make sure to read the rules, FAQ and all the legal stuff.

Categories: writing, contests, freelance

Katrina

It was devastating to watch Katrina storming its way through Louisiana and Mississippi.
It was even more amazing as the real-time media coverage, which is increasing with each new disaster (just as it does with each new war) did not stay confined to the TV, but could be found on the internet as well:

Cameras:
The traffic cams from New Orleans stopped working early on but supplied pictures until then.
The cameras normally showing images on Nola.com are also not functioning now, but did earlier on.

Blogs:
Storm Digest Blog has been keeping up to the moment posts about the new developments.
New Orleans Metroblogs has also had heavy traffic today as frequent posts updated fleeing residents about the situation in their city.

Sites:
The official sites National Hurricane Center and Central Florida Hurricane Center were good sources too with frequent updates.

Maps:
Someone managed to put most satellite maps together: tropicwx
Then there is Google Map Plot of Katrina

And lest we forget Flickr with already hundreds of hurricane pics.

This nearly immediate pictures and updates helped me understand the magnitude of the storm and its effects. Katrina affected millions of people in a variety of ways. The luckiest are those who only had to leave and will be inconvenienced by having to stay away from their homes for a while. And those are the lucky ones. Many would have no home to return to as they lost their homes or their livelihoods or both. Some lost their lives.

Our thoughts are with all who were affected. Stay safe.

Categories: Katrina

Dare Call Me a Nerd!

First found this Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test at The Slush God Speaketh. It's been a long time suspicion of mine that I am a wee bit nerdy. Turns out, it's not so "wee bit":

Pure Nerd
52 % Nerd, 17% Geek, 30% Dork

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
You scored better than half in Nerd, earning you the title of: Pure Nerd.

The times, they are a-changing. It used to be that being exceptionally smart led to being unpopular, which would ultimately lead to picking up all of the traits and tendencies associated with the "dork." No-longer. Being smart isn't as socially crippling as it once was, and even more so as you get older: eventually being a Pure Nerd will likely be replaced with the following label: Purely Successful.

Congratulations!

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
You scored higher than 33% on nerdiness
You scored higher than 13% on geekosity
You scored higher than 45% on dork points

Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on OkCupid Free Online Dating
Categories: quiz, misc

Ralan's Writing Contest - August 31st Deadline

I know that in the past I've voiced my opinion regarding contests in which an entry fee is involved. In general I dislike the idea of paying any fee.

However, and this is a very big however, Ralan's short story contest is different. Ralan, the guy responsible for one of the best resource sites for writers on the internet, Ralan.com, is having a short story contest. The entry fee is $20 US and I think it's worth every penny. Forget about the fact that Sheila Williams and Stanley Schmidt (from Asimov's Science Fiction and Analog Science Fiction & Fact respectively) will be the final judges, the simple truth is that we've all been benefiting from Ralan's excellent site for years. If a subscription to a good site is worth this much (a year), then surely a contest is worth that too.

From Ralan's newsletter:

The contest is the main source of funding for Ralan.com. For six years, before I started the contests, I paid everything out of my own pocket, but the cost of maintaining a viable, fast web site is far greater than it used to be.

I also had plans to introduce a new web design and a searchable database (in addition to the lists) in the next year, but that will be tabled if the contest is called off. Many of those who have entered have expressed to me that they are entering not to win, but to support Ralan.com. What about you -- is the Webstravaganza worth $20.00 a year?

The contest - Ralan's 500-Word Clincher Contest - is now open.
I'm certain that most of us have a 2000-6000 word short story lying around. Take the last 500 words and sent it out.
Remember, other than the fact that this is a speculative fiction contest, also that Ralan is a stickler for guidelines and rules so make sure you read them carefully.

What are you waiting for? Go to Ralan.com and find out about the contest.

Categories: writing, contests

Magic In My Writing Process? or simply - Organizing My Thoughts

I can't believe I did this. Yesterday (Thursday the 25th) I wrote the post you're about to read (or not :), and then instead of publishing it I chose the 'Save as Draft' option. Since I had to run out (a five (5!) hour drive awaited me) I didn't notice. Only now (after a five (5!) hour drive back) I did. So here is Thursday's post (remember that all date references are a day old):

Yesterday I took a break from the computer for a few hours. I needed a change of scenery so that I could organize my thoughts.
I've been working on my novel the past few months now, but I felt like it's lost its direction, or maybe I felt like I lost my direction.
You see, I had such a clear idea in my mind when I first started writing it, but somehow it became a jumbled mess of choppy and disjointed parts. I'm probably too harsh with myself, but regardless it was time for a regroup.

So I went to Ashbridge's Bay Park. It was a beautiful day, something like 28c (I have no clue what it means in Fahrenheit for the Americans out there, but 28 is nice). The sun was out and the lake was blue (polluted blue, but blue nonetheless). I went there with my black hard cover journal, the one I take out only in emergencies.

An hour walk, then an hour sitting at a picnic table writing things down and I felt better, hoping it would get me back on track again.

That was yesterday and then today I read Carter's Good Work Day post about his magical writing process using meditation and tarot cards and I thought to myself, is going to a place where I can feel at peace in order to organize my thoughts (i.e. get inspired) counts as magic?

Categories: writing, process

Snipididooda

• Gotta love this:
  Porn makes you blind - Gory and erotic images can affect your vision
  

  IT'S true. Pornography can make you blind. Look at a smutty picture and, according to research by Steven Most, of Yale University, and his colleagues, you will suffer from a temporary condition known as emotion-induced blindness.



• And to those of you who didn't know about the Canadian/Danish dispute over a tiny island in the arctic, here's the latest update:
  Canada Sends Navy To Disputed Arctic Island
  

  The visit by two warships to the area is the latest move to challenge rival claims in the Arctic triggered by the threat of melting ice.

  The move follows a spat between Canada and Denmark, over an uninhabited rock called Hans Island in the eastern Arctic region. A visit there by Canada's defense minister last month angered the Danes.
  

  Who said nothing interesting ever happens in Canada?
  Wait, it was me...



• And to more serious things (do I even want to go there?):
  Fetuses May Not Feel Pain in Early Months
  

  A review of medical evidence has found that fetuses likely don't feel pain until the final months of pregnancy, a powerful challenge to abortion opponents who hope that discussions about fetal pain will make women think twice about ending pregnancies.



• Science fiction? No, just science:
  Scientists Mess with the Speed of Light
  

  Using a technique called Stimulated Brillouin Scattering, the researchers were able to slow down or ratchet up the speed of light like the gas pedal on a car. They succeeded in reducing the speed of light by almost a factor of 4 (although thatÂ’s still plenty fast at 46,500 miles per second), but even more dramatically, the team was also able to speed up the speed of light.



• And finally some spacey stuff:
  Black Hole Surprise: Multiple Eruptions Seconds After Birth
  

  Black hole creation is crazier than previously thought, new observations reveal. Over the course of just a few minutes, as a massive star dies and a black hole is born, multiple explosions cause the black hole to powerfully eject matter as well as greedily consume it.

Categories: science, space, misc

Writing the First Chapter

First chapters are little buggers, aren't they?
The whole novel can be written, and well I might add, and yet that first chapter can still be illusive. Darn annoying. How to write a first chapter that compels the reader to continue reading? Where to start the story? How to start it?

Maybe, before starting, it's good to pause and think about the premise of the novel. A really good first sentence can show the entire premise right there in the beginning. Austen's first sentence might not be the exact Pride and Prejudice premise, but it sure tells you what the book is about.

IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

I remember a few years back I decided to figure out how authors write their first chapters. From now on, I decided, when I read a novel I will pay attention to how they did it. Problem was, if it was a good book, I forgot all about the paying attention. And if it wasn't a good book, I rarely got past the first few pages. So if there was (still is) a secret formula, some code these really good authors were using, I didn't have it because I got too involved. I was too deep into the story.

Eureka! Can this be the secret? But of course - get the readers hooked from the first few sentences. How, though, I scream. How??? I mean, think about it - such a grave task the first chapter has. The ultimate goal of a first chapter is obviously to get the reader to turn the pages, but what else is it supposed to do - should it introduce the protagonist? Most likely. Should it introduce the conflict in some way? Probably. Establish time and place to a certain extent? Possibly.

So the first chapter has to do all that and keep the reader turning those page. The readers are investing their time and the first chapter must convince the readers it's worth their while.

How to draw the readers in? What does 'introducing' mean? Hi everybody, meet Andrea here. She's tall, pretty and smart. Is that it? Of course not. Where's the intrigue? Well, Andrea might be tall, pretty and smart, but she's not just that. When Andrea walks in a mall, she always walks along the stores on her right side. Why? Aha! Here's the hook. The reader is thinking, interacting. That's good. (Maybe my example sucks but I think the point is clear).

What about plot? Same thing. Must be interesting first of all. For some reason some writers start from a passive point and only bring in the action later. Even JK does it with each HP book. Harry always starts his summer at his uncle's house bored out of his mind, and I can't wait till we (me and Harry) get to the Weasley's house or to Hogwarts. So if the action comes in quickly, that's fine, but if the protagonist is bored or in bed, so would the reader be - bored or fallen asleep.

One way of starting is by putting the protagonist in a scene where conflict occurs. The conflict doesn't have to be action, but can be something in the protagonist head, some emotional problem, moral dilemma, or any other thought provoking on the part of the reader. What's the dilemma? What is the emotional crisis?

So we said interesting. We also said to get the readers involved. Getting the readers to ask the questions and wanting to know the answers is getting them involved. Just think of any great novel and you'll see that already with the first sentence the reader can feel intrigued and has questions, about the action, about the characters, about the conflict etc.

And yet, the author never gives the reader too much information. Some curiosity must remain. The reader needs to want to know what is going to happen next. (Sometimes the reader might want to know what had happened before.)

Big No-No's
Reliability - readers must feel they can trust the author. They will stop reading immediately if things don't make sense to them (and not in the 'there are no aliens' way, but in the 'it's inconsistent' way).
Investment - again. This time I'm talking about emotional investment. The readers must feel that their emotional investment will pay off. They must care about the characters, not like, but care.

Biggest No-No
To get bogged down with the first chapter. Especially not at the beginning. Easier said than done sometimes, but forget about the first chapter and simply write your novel and let the creativity flow. You can always come back to the first chapter later, or maybe just start with the second chapter - he he.

And finally a link Unfolding a Story from a First Sentence


Categories: writing, novel, process, elements

Blog Spam

I think that I got spammed the other day. Here in this blog and in another. And it annoyed me. Not too much because it wasn't a lot, but it still got to me a bit. 'Cause the thing with spammers is that you just know that once they start with you they're never going to leave you alone.

And just like that I saw this post on McVane's blog: Blogger.com & Spam.
She recommends not to reply Yes (that is, to reply No) when asked in the Blogger setting whether or not to add the blog to their listing.

I'm holding off on that for now but I'm going to remember this advice.

Just thought I'd share in case blog spam is getting too much for some bloggers.

Categories: blogging

Leeches

Do you know those people who leech on to you and suck the life out of you?

You know, those people who refuse to see cause and effect. Those people who won't take responsibility for their own action. Those people who believe the whole world owes them something.

And when those people are around, they're not just with you, they somehow enter your blood circulation and are inside you all the time, inside your mind. You just can't stop thinking about them and not in that great, happy kind of way, but in that 'I wish I never met that person' kind of way, and in that 'why can't that person solve his own problems without involving me each time?' and 'how come that person has all these problems? Can't he see he's the one creating them?'

And so those people sit there for a while, on a vein, sucking the life blood out of you and everyone around.

And it's not like everybody wasn't sympathetic at first, or understanding, or helpful. But it just never ends...

And you sit there, seeing the blood coming out of that vein the leech is sitting on and you just let it happen. You try to resist, you try to push it away. Not a lot, not completely out of your life, but just enough so he won't sit there on that vein. He is family after all. But you can't. And it seems that with each new cycle of 'problems' he masters the art of sucking your blood even more. He now swims in your veins. And you want him out. He's poisoning your blood, the other relationships you have with other family members. Oh, he swims in their blood too. They suffer just as much as you, they're just as poisoned.

So you go away on camping trips where no one can reach you by phone or mail. But then you return and the situation is even worse. You recognize that he actually sits very near the heart of people you care greatly about and pulling him away would tear their heart apart. And you promise yourself, this time I'll take drastic measures and make him see what he does. And you hope.

So you make an action plan. If you could just get him to flow back in the blood stream rather than sit near that heart, you could maybe fish him out later. But one step at a time. First the action plan.

It is now in place. It's going to cost. Blood and sweat (not to mention a great deal of money). But you want, you need, to give everybody their life back, and surely that's worth something.

And you hope.

And then you get a rejection letter to boot.

Categories: personal

It's All About Reading - Reading Your Baby's Mind That Is

When I started blogging I wanted to have two blogs: one about writing and one that is more personal and that would be about anything I feel like. The more personal one I was going to share with another person so that the strain of maintaining two blogs wouldn't be that hard. Alas, the other person was a no show and my more "personal" blog never really shaped itself into anything and with time I posted there less and less.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, because a few days ago someone sent me this wonderful article and I was about to post about it in my other blog only I didn't feel like it. So how about I post it here and see how it goes? Maybe you wouldn't mind so much if I occasionally talk about other things. Usually those other things tend to be in the realm of science.

So to all the parents out there, future parents or anybody who is interested, this Newsweek article is amazing:
Reading Your Baby's Mind
New research on infants finally begins to answer the question: what's going on in there?

It was a notion that held for nearly a century: infants were simple-minded creatures who merely mimicked those around them and grasped only the most basic emotions—happy, sad, angry. Science is now giving us a much different picture of what goes on inside their hearts and heads. Long before they form their first words or attempt the feat of sitting up, they are already mastering complex emotions—jealousy, empathy, frustration—that were once thought to be learned much later in toddlerhood.

They are also far more sophisticated intellectually than we once believed. Babies as young as 4 months have advanced powers of deduction and an ability to decipher intricate patterns. They have a strikingly nuanced visual palette, which enables them to notice small differences, especially in faces, that adults and older children lose the ability to see.

Categories: science

Amazon Shorts

Even though it's been up and running for about a month, I found the following post in Writer's Blog. It is now finally official - Amazon.com to Sell Short Stories.

Amazon's official announcement through Business Wire:
Amazon.com Innovation Aims to Revive Short-Form Literature -- Offers Exclusive Digital "Shorts" from Renowned Authors; "Amazon Shorts" Gives Readers Instant Access to Short Works for 49 Cents Each

Naturally I went to check it for myself at Amazon Shortsand what did I happen to come across if not an Author FAQ. (It is, of course, for well established and published authors but it doesn't hurt to bookmark it.)

Categories: writing, publishing, markets

Getting Back Into The Groove

Oh gees, where to begin?

I feel like I've been away for so long even though it hasn't been that long at all. I've only been away for ten days and yet I find it so hard to get back into "normal" life again.

I've had such adventures on my trip and was so far away from civilization that any thought of the mundane was as far away from me as the next pay phone.

I don't know, maybe after a couple of weeks of seeing beauty and being engulfed by nature my mind switched into such a gear that it's hard for it to switch back.

It is truly the first time I feel this way after returning from a vacation, but then again, I never had a vacation in which I feared for my life. And as I found out a few days later, I had good reason to. The big thunder and lighting storm that caught me canoeing on a remote lake was actually classified as a tornado. A camper died in that storm.

So maybe it was the few life-threatening moments that changed my attitude.

Whatever the reason, I haven't been able to write a single word ever since my return. Even writing this post is taxing for some reason.

And it's not like my mind isn't teeming with ideas, quite the contrary. Still, the words won't come out.

But then I read this interview with J.K. Rowling and it inspired me. At least it helped me write this post. Perhaps tomorrow I'll write write.
I hope.
Before my brain turns into mush.

J.K. Rowling and the Extraordinary Life

Categories: writing, personal, process

It's Good To Be Back

I came back home to noise and pollution and far too many people around. I came back to phone calls I don't want to get and emails I don't want to read and snail mail that is mostly bills. There is a bank account to take care of, and eaves trough to clean and all the other mundane things.

And yet, there's running water and a shower, a bathroom and a bed. There's internet and phone and TV. There's enough light to read at night and heat in case it gets cold. There's fresh clothes and laundry and soap. There's a fridge and a stove and actual walls and doors.

There's family and friends.

I'm so happy to be home again.

In and Out

Just resting in the wonderful USA after camping in the beautiful lakes of Ontario but getting caught in a life threatening storm - no kidding.
Tomorrow I'm continuing my camping trip with hopefully less survivor moments.

I'm grateful to all those who come to visit even when I'm not here and hope to return by the end of next week.