Update-ish Things

Okay, first off: I have to tell you, those of you that played the Flash-Fiction 2-paragraph game did an outstanding job!  Am-AZING work, y'all!  Thanks for playing!  And if you had fun, the LOML has a site just for this kind of thing.  She wants it to be a fun, creative place for writers to go when they need to loosen their writing muscles, slap their muse around, or just take a break from their projects.  That site is:

The Writers Nesst

She's going to work hard to make it fun, so stop by and get involved.  Tell people about it, too; if you know writers that aren't hanging around in other places and doing those sorts of things, let 'em know they're welcome and can come by.  They can make suggestions, too, if they have a favorite game or a good idea they want to share.  All are welcome, so spread the word!

Again, thanks for taking the time to play, everyone.  I'm going to repost what we've got so far and then, if anyone is still interested, they can add two more paragraphs to it in the comments section of the new post.  The old post will be closed to comments, but I'll add an update link to the new post.

If you didn't get a chance to play, don't worry -- like I said, it's still open, and of course, the Writers Nesst will be available too.  Make your presence known!

Now, as for me -- I've no more software to review.  I really don't.  Most of what I have to say about software has been said, but if you guys know about a cool piece of freeware that you want to find out about, let me know.  I'll check into it for as long as I have the Internet.  Drop me an email, or leave me a comment here.

I've added a contact block to my ever-growing sidebar with a new email address.  Reach me there if the mood strikes you.

My precious wife and I are still hacking through the edits of Ghost Hunters.  Most nights we do one or two chapters, but we've got a ways to go yet.  I think we just finished Chapter 29, so ... only 17 left to go.  Some of the chapters need more ... help, let's say ... than others, so it's hard to do a set number of chapters per day.  We try to do at least two, but lately, we haven't gotten more than just one.  Ahem.  That's a testament to my poor post-writing editing skills, unfortunately, but it's coming along.  When it's finished, it's going to be time to start putting query letters together.  Sherri, if you're still willing to critique and assist with the rest of the process, I'd be very grateful; but if not, that's cool, I know you've got your own stuff hap'ning.  Just let me know.  :)  Like I said, I'm not there yet, but it's coming.

While we're on the topic, I'll need critics and beta readers for the new, updated version.  Raga?  Interested?  Bryce, do you have time or interest?  Anyone?  I'll be looking for help with it soon.

Of course,  Witch Hunt isn't going as well as I wanted.  It's a harder story to write from the get-go.  There's a lot of plotting I have to do, and outlining isn't taking the priority it should.  Bryce's Text Tree program has been a Godsend though; if you're an outliner and haven't tried, it I recommend it.  Highly.

The good news is, I have some idea where the story's going for the immediate future.  I can probably (!) pen more of it before the end of the week.  Now, I've made that promise before, and you all see how it turns out, so I'm not saying I will pen more by the end of the week.  But I have a little path to walk before I run out of rope.

That's for those of you that care about Witch Hunt, of course.  All three of you.  :)

As for our personal situation -- nothing's changed.  Nothing.  We sure can use all the prayers and PPT you can spare us.  Please know we love and appreciate you all, and thank you for your support in our hard time.  It means more than we can say.

God bless, everyone.

-JDT-

Technorati Tags: random thoughts,blogging,life,writing

Software Review - FireShot

Technically, FireShot's not software.  Well, it's not stand-alone software.  It's a FireFox add-in.

As a semi-regular blogger (for as long as I can be, at least), I often find myself blogging about things in the blogosphere or on the web.  It's not unique; I think most of us do that.  But when I'm blogging about things like weird search terms (which are some of the most popular posts I do) or doing software reviews, having tools at my disposal for the task makes it much easier, more enjoyable, and faster.

You may have noticed lately that some of my posts have included screen shots of portions of my Wordpress dashboard.  Those screen shots were taken with FireShot.

FireShot is one of those tools.  For blogging, it's amazing.  Once it's downloaded, the installer prompts you for choices.  One of which is whether to include FireShot as a context-menu item.  For the less geeky, that means when you right-click on your browser somewhere, FireShot is able to be among the choices you're presented with.  This is a cool feature, and one I use a great deal.

What happens is this: you have an icon on your browser's toolbar.  It's a big red square with an "S" in it.  There's a drop-down arrow next to the icon.   When you click on the icon, there's a list of things that FireShot can do.  Those items are Resume Editing (grayed out unless you're editing a shot), Take  Screen Shot (Entire Page) and ..., Take a Screen Shot (Visible Area) and ..., Preferences, View Demo, Write a Review, Support, Donate and About.  Most of these are self-explanatory, but some of them aren't as intuitive.

Take a Screen Shot (Entire Page) and ... does just that: it takes a shot of the entire page you're visiting.  That's great if there are multiple things you want to include in whatever you're writing, or you want the unedited content as it is, or you're showing the entire page for any reason.  Be aware, this feature will create quite a big image file in pixels, depending on the page you're visiting when you take the shot.

Take a Screen Shot (Visible Area) and ... again does just as it indicates: it takes a shot of the portion of the page visible within your browser.  The smaller your brower window, the smaller the area snapped will be.  This is the one I use the most; and from there, I do more editing still.

I won't really discuss the rest of the options.  Support is where you get tech support on the product.  About tells you about the version and such.  View Demo -- 'nuff said there.  Et cetera, et cetera.

Now, once you've captured the screen shot, you can do a few things with it.  That's the "and ..." part of the menu entries.  FireShot prompts you for the next step.  You can edit within the built-in editor (very cool), upload the image to your image storage location, save the image to your local drive, copy the image to the Windows clipboard, email the shot and open in an external editor.  Lots of choices.

The FireShot image editor lets you drag and drop the image size (don't expect the resolution to adjust, though; it gets pretty grainy very quickly), crop the image, and manipulate it just as you would in any simple image editor.  It also allows you the opportunity to upload, save or copy the image once you've done the editing, so those buttons are available too.  There's a Select button that makes choosing the portion of the shot you want a snap with either an ellipse or a rectangular call-out.  And there's a nifty Shapes button that allows you to highlight certain parts of the shot for annotation.  You can also do annotation outside the Shapes menu with the Pointer and Text buttons.  There's a Drawing button, too, which enables freehand drawing of lines, shapes and probably note-writing too.  Very slick.  While it's not Adobe Photoshop, it's a nice little image hacker, and it lets you stitch an image together cleanly and neatly, without having to get a graphic designer's degree to use the program.

I've used it on a couple of occasions, to create images of the portions of the screen I want to use in my blog post.  I capture the image, then I select the portion I'm interested in with the Selection tool of choice.  That brings up a sub-menu in the sidebar to the right of the screen, and I can crop the image there.  (You can do a lot of other things, too, including blur, invert, grayscale convert, annotate, add glow effects, fill ... nice).   Then I add the call-out shape I want and type in any text, which you can control (font and size).  I can move the call-out and the pointer will automatically be adjusted.  I like it a lot.

If you like blogging on web sites or portions of pages, FireShot's a very nice little package that makes grabbing sections or portions easy and fun.  It's simple, powerful and very light-weight.

I declare, with all the great add-ons to FireFox, we won't need to use other programs at all pretty soon.

I recommend FireShot highly to bloggers and web0philes.  It's really nifty.

Try it and see.  Let me know what you think.

-JDT-

Technorati Tags: software,reviews

Witch Hunt - Ch. 6

The next installment of Witch Hunt is up on my main blog!  Check it out!

-JDT-

Technorati Tags: fiction,writing

Come and Play!

If there are any writers that visit here, I've got a little writer's game going on over at my main blog. Come and join in the fun! You don't have to register to play; just sign in with your email and have at it! All are welcome!

Still Not Much to Say ...

I still got nothin'. But I'm workin' on changing that.

I'm going to write something ... tonight. It will be up tomorrow. Shame on you if you don't follow your blogs over the weekend. What're you, a person? What, you think you gotta life or somethin'? Sheesh.

I may just do some flash fiction to warm up. How about a game? A two-paragraph game. I'll write two paragraphs. You follow in the comments with two more of your own. We'll see how many takers we have by Monday morning. I'll post the full story by Monday evening. Wanna play?

This is the sort of thing we'll do over at the Writer's Nesst when it's up and functional. LOML tells me it'll be soon, but she says we're gonna be rich and thin too. That magical "someday" never seems to arrive, does it?

Anyway, I'll have something for you. I promise. Something.

God bless, and keep praying for us, you all. We need it. We're praying for you too, just so you know. :)

-JDT-

Technorati Tags: blogging, life, random thoughts, writing