I recently bought a Kindle from Amazon, fearing that it would end up being one of those devices that would quickly lose its luster and end up lost in a stack of books and papers on my desk.  Since I opened the box, my Kindle has not left my side for a second.  I currently have over 170 books on my device, including free, purchased, already owned and self-written stories.  In addition, I have a small collection of music and an audiobook in my collection.

There are some books, primarily those that I plan on sharing out, that I will buy physical copies of.  All the books that I read from here on out, I will purchase for my Kindle.  I still love real books.  The feel and smell of them is among my most treasured sensations.  Still, it is easier on my back for me to carry my library in this small device rather than carry the books I am reading in a backpack like I usually do.  I tend to read three to five books at a time and the Kindle holds my place in each of them.

In other digital news, I am researching podcasting as a method for getting my first novel and some of my short stories published.  It worked for Scott Sigler and Mur Lafferty, it can work for me.  I have an author website, but it is very barebones.  I need to check out some authors who started out online and shamelessly mimic them. 

One of those mimicry ideas is posting stories on Podiobooks.com.  I have researched the equipment I would need and the basic setup starts at $125.  I have a friend who has a decent setup and am thinking of asking him if I can borrow it to record my episodes.  I am going to do some further editing before I get to that stage, though.

Many novelists across the span of novel-writing history have started as their works in a serialized format.  Sheherazade told her “One Thousand and One Nights” in a serialized format, but they were individual stories so they might actually be closer to an anthology, but that’s a bit pedantic.  Perhaps more appropriately, Charles Dickens’ and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories were primarily presented in a serialized format.  I have seen a movement back to that format and sincerely wish to jump on the bandwagon.  I’m not ashamed of riding in the wake of others so long as my endeavors end in success.

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“Running a close second [as a writing lesson] was the realization that stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.”

~ Stephen King

 

Listening to: Primus – Tommy The Cat