Current Events – Page 74 – Blue Ink Alchemy

Category: Current Events (page 74 of 91)

The Future of Free Fiction

With March here, I’m taking a look at how this Free Fiction project’s gone so far. It hasn’t been bad, but it hasn’t been that great either, especially if I want to do anything significant with it.

I think the idea of retelling old myths with newer genres still has merit, but getting it out to people in such a way that I know it’ll be enjoyed and distributed, as well as being quality writing I can truly be proud of, is going to take more than dashing off a story as quickly as possible to meet a deadline.

What I’ve already written is not my best work, taken overall. Some of it’s not bad, some of it needs some revision and editing. Rough patches need smoothed over, sketchy corners need to be filled in and it all needs to flow together properly. This is something that will take some time, and it will mean that the end result will be different from what’s currently sitting in that subdirectory of the server.

The big question is if people will be willing to pay for the final result.

Anthologies, even on a service like Kindle or B&N’s BuyIt, can be a dicey proposition. They’re cheaper than mass market novels, to be sure, especially with some publishers still trying to figure out a reasonable price point. Blizzard, seriously, $13 for the Kindle edition of The Shattering? Maybe the price will come down when the paperback edition arrives, but I’m not going to hold my breath, if I’m honest.

The question becomes, if I mean to blend these currently raw ingredients into a tasty anthology to earn some extra bucks, what becomes of the extant fiction? For one thing, I need to move it to a monthly schedule for the time being, until things on my end of the keyboard shake out a bit more. Maintaining a day job, working on a new novel, churning out query letters for a completed work and brewing up articles to feed into my pitching machine can be a difficult schedule to juggle, and I mean to up my game on all writing fronts. I’ve been letting my real passion lurk in the areas of ‘hobby’ and ‘passing fancy’ for far too long, and it’s time for me to change that.

What I think will work best is paring down the current offerings in the Free Fiction section to samples. A synopsis of the story, background on the origins of the myth and the genre, and a snippet of the actual text. This will pique interest, show my writing chops and maintain the content in the area, without needing to worry myself overmuch over the final fictional product right away. I can also release samples of novels and other works this way, and if a story does spill out of my brain with no place in either a novel or anthology, up it goes on Free Fiction!

Writerly types, those of you with real ink to your names, I need you to sound off. Is this a good idea? Am I going in the right direction? Or should I forget the thing entirely and keep on filing those TPS reports?

Sandy Bridges & Bulldozers

February 22, 2011 / BlueInkAlchemist / 0 Comments

My house growing up was something of a neutral zone during the console wars. None of the three kids in the house really declared ourselves as Nintendo or Sega fans, and we enjoyed Sonic games just as much as we did Mario & Zelda. Company rivalries have never really mattered much to me, and in the Coke & Pepsi debate, I’m the guy looking for the ‘root beer’ option.

I’ve gotten into the habit of building my own computers, and the time is rapidly approaching where I’ll be doing it again. Opening up a computer case also opens one up to a lot of similar rivalries: ATI vs. Nvidia in your graphics slot, Microsoft vs. Apple vs. Linux as your OS and Intel vs. AMD for your processor. With the hope of having a rig to run games like StarCraft 2, Civilization V and Dragon Age 2 at decent if not optimal levels, I’ve been directed to keep an eye on Intel’s latest golden child, code-named Sandy Bridge.

Intel designed Sandy Bridge to provide a greater amount of performance and flexibility to high-end graphics programs and gamers. It’s aimed at putting out more power for those applications while being efficient in terms of power. However, the chipsets quickly evinced a problem and the products were pulled. Now, the problem is with the motherboard chipsets instead of the processors, and the issue’s been addressed and new chipsets are being minted as I write this. The question is how much this hiccup has hurt the brand and how quickly Intel’s rival, AMD, can turn around their own next-generation chipset, the ‘Bulldozer.’

While Sandy Bridge integrates new hardware pathways, Bulldozer’s a completely new architecture. It’s ambitious on AMD’s part, and the complete redesign promises performance and flexibility comparable to Intel’s highest-end processors as well as “intelligent, automatic overclocking” built into it. We aren’t going to get a good look at Bulldozer until some time in March, while Intel is promising Sandy Bridge will be back on track by late February, which is fast approaching.

I’ll be curious to see if the ‘repaired’ chipsets become available through NewEgg soon, or if Bulldozer will demolish Sandy Bridge before that happens. AMD is sounding pretty aggressive in my opinion, and as much as I’m inclined to go for the new technology if the price is right, I might have to go with a lower-cost option.

Snowblind

February 20, 2011 / BlueInkAlchemist / 0 Comments

I’m a little sore.

Mostly it’s from being behind the wheel for the better part of twelve hours, but some of that time was occupied with attempting to get my car out of a ditch. A perfect storm of lake-effect snow, high winds and nearly bald tires caused Vera to lose her grip on the road. Vera, for the uninitiated, is my 2004 Honda Civic. We eventually got winched out and were able to complete our journey to Kitchener, Ontario. But it was still a harrowing experience.

My father-in-law gave me a touch of advice: “Next time you wipe out, look to where you want to go, your brain will follow you.”

As I was trying to get Vera out of the ditch, I was wondering if there was something to learn from the experience, other than keeping your car well-repaired and being mindful of weather conditions while you travel. During the drive north I replayed the incident, not only looking for mistakes I might’ve made but also for lessons to learn and convey. This little snippet, however, sums it up nicely.

I’ve always been better at visualizing the endings and climaxes of stories than writing the middle. It took me some time to realize that such visualizations need not be ends in and of themselves. The means are just as important, and the path from where you begin to that ending need not necessarily be straight. In fact, it probably won’t be. Characters are going to change and an event’s flow might slide unexpectantly even as you write it.

Keep your eyes on where you want to go and you’ll get through it.

Technology Rots

February 7, 2011 / BlueInkAlchemist / 1 Comment

Technology may seem like a purely static thing, unchanging as years go by. Something that’s painstakingly perfected and replicated through manufacture should persist in its level of performance and precision, right? Unlike houses and cars, which are some of the highest maintenance bits of property anyone can own, computers are completely self-contained electronic instruments. Websites don’t even have physical components other than the servers on which they exist, going back to the aforementioned computers. However, there are factors in play for both computers and websites that make them just as succeptible to the need for maintenance as your car or your home.

Computers do have moving parts: hard drive motors, fans, etc. But even if these ran flawlessly for years, their parts would ‘rot’ in a sense. As technology advances, software grows in terms of the ways it uses processors and renders graphics. From games to productivity suites, software is constantly finding ways to do more tasks more efficiently in a shorter amount of time. Just shaving a few seconds from a process can place diabolical demands on a processor from two years ago. Like replacing a struggling furnace in your house, upgrading your computer’s internal systems can have your system doing what it does faster and more efficiently for years.

Websites, similarly, suffer from what is colloquially called ‘code rot.’ As the average speed of our Internet connections increases, processors grow more efficient and browsers get better at displaying colors and graphics, older sites begin to look dated, shoddy or even incomplete. Better coding techniques and updated programming scripts can leave older, less efficient methods behind causing old animations and banners to either display incorrectly or not at all. And the chances of developers or programmers being either familiar with these old methods or willing to deal with their antiquated and inefficient ways and means are slim. It’s more often a better investment to look into a redesign, preserving the essence and content of your site while incorporating the latest design methodologies and programming techniques, as well as integrating SEO options and flexibility, something old sites very rarely accounted for.

Sure, some folks will keep a Commodore 64 or an original NES in the corner for the sake of nostalgia. And others will find ways to squeeze more life out of computers that maybe should have been recycled years ago, keeping their old workhorses shod. But more often than not, a time comes when one needs to take a hard look at the extant systems at home or the office, compare them to what’s available, and make the decision to invest in an upgrade.

I mean, you could also spend that tax refund on a coffee machine that tweets your favorite blend, but the novelty of that’s likely to wear off pretty darn quickly.