That’s my lesson of the moment.
I listened to the latest episode of Writing Excuses (the latest Alexa and Anypod had), and the topic was the cultural elements of a story — which led to one of my favorite subjects:
Food!
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Falling In Love with Scrivener and… The Letdown
I fell in love with Scrivener for Windows earlier this year. It’s a great app in that it collates everything to do with your novel into one place. It’s highly customizable. It allows you to move scenes around with ease. It tracks meta-data for each scene in a number of different views.
What’s more, the Scrivener development team promised a major release and update for Windows users, to bring them up to the same level of functionality Mac users have enjoyed for some time.
What wasn’t to love?
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Looking Forward
As my summer break draws to an end, I’m looking forward, and moving forward, in several areas of my life.
I find that even my paltry amount of writing time is being squeezed in this season of life, so I’m working even harder to make that consistent writing time happen — even if it’s only for a short window of time.
Due to personal circumstance, I’m picking back up my previous career as a software engineer — well, a slightly different flavor of a career on a part-time basis. And it has the possibility of tying into my writing career to some degree. More on that later.
The formidable amount of work in this present season of life has made me realize I’m working what amounts to at least 3 part-time jobs. As I move forward, my life will require planning and organization to stay on top of things.
FAQ on Podcasts, Alexa, and More
Over the years in conversation with other moms in-person or online, the subject of how we use Alexa at home has come up. Here are some of the common questions people have.
Feel free to send me more questions on this — I’m glad to help.
BrainsOn is the best for children. All others you really need to screen, as you are the best judge of what topics you want your children to hear.
Having said that, our favorites have included
— 365 Days of Astronomy (on Alexa, “Alexa, play 365 Days of Astronomy on TuneIn”)
— Planetary Radio
— Science Friday
Entire articles are out there. Check out this child-oriented list or this one, a more general list, or this one for space-related podcasts.
Having said that, our favorites have included
— 365 Days of Astronomy (on Alexa, “Alexa, play 365 Days of Astronomy on TuneIn”)
— Planetary Radio
— Science Friday
Entire articles are out there. Check out this child-oriented list or this one, a more general list, or this one for space-related podcasts.
Enable the Anypod skill, and ask Alexa to play podcasts through it:
“Alexa, ask Anypod to play BrainsOn… Alexa, fast forward five minutes.”
Last time I checked, Alexa’s native podcast player did not include rewind or forward.
“Alexa, ask Anypod to play BrainsOn… Alexa, fast forward five minutes.”
Last time I checked, Alexa’s native podcast player did not include rewind or forward.
For Alexa, I enable the Anypod skill. Then, I can ask Anypod to play episode 300, the earliest episode, etc. Anypod will keep going for the podcast, playing the next (or previous episode) for you. You can Google Anypod commands.
For other ways to play podcasts, I use podcast players on my phone (FM Player) and PC (Grover). Those usually allow for more control, including adding episodes from different podcasts to one playlist.
For other ways to play podcasts, I use podcast players on my phone (FM Player) and PC (Grover). Those usually allow for more control, including adding episodes from different podcasts to one playlist.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2019 Cindy Rae Johnson
Summer… Break?
We talk about summer break so much in this culture, especially those of us with children. However, it’s not really much of a break, is it?
The long, hot, hazy, lazy days of summer are part of the American mythos, a fading reality for most of us. Summer is packed with camps, camping, special lessons, holiday and family celebrations, travel, vacations, training, projects… the list is endless.
Whatever you’re doing this summer, I hope you’re enjoying it. Or at least taking moments to stop, breathe deep, and be in the moment.
Happy summer!
A Personal Note: Travelling Light
On a personal note, I remain bemused that I travel so much lighter than my husband and child. The above pictures gear we took into the hotel for an overnight stay on our way to Texas. My gear is circled; everything else is the guys’.
May Writing Status
Work continues on Salvage, Book 1, Part 2. I’m writing new scenes and expanding skeletal scenes to more robust ones. I’m not worrying too much about critiques, either outgoing or incoming, this month.
Salvage Scene 1: Original vs. Now
The first main scene of Salvage has been polished from the initial rough draft several times. See what you think of the first few paragraphs.
Continue reading Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2019 Cindy Rae Johnson
Screenshots of Salvage Project from Scrivener
Scrivener outputs your manuscript, or parts thereof, in many different formats. Here are screenshots of what the output looks like with comments and synopsis included, for one particular scene in Part 1 of Salvage. Note I still need to learn to keep internal thought italicized, instead of changing to underlined.
Writing Advice: 5 Best Writing Resources of 2019
Currently, my five top writing resources:
- Writing Excuses. This podcast rocks. Professional authors, relevant information, no fluff, just the meat of what good writing is.
- The Business of Being a Writer. Jane Friedman’s Facebook group is invaluable to prepare me for professional publication, electronically or otherwise.
- Scrivener. There’s no doubt this writing tool has organized my writing and increased my productivity.
- Absolute Write. This website forum is massive with very active members. It’s helped answer wide-ranging questions, given me a way to hone my critiquing skills, provided a mechanism for others’ input to my work, and much more.
- Google. Yes, okay, it’s ubiquitous. But, it’s still so very useful. How do I use it?
- Google Search: writer’s workshops, the difference between alpha and beta readers, whether or not making water from hydrogen and oxygen in space is better than collecting ice and melting it… and so much more.
- Google Drive, principally to share writing excerpts for critique, or to critique others’ work
- Google mail. I have an account just for my writing, including newsletters that I subscribe to.