I've all but decided to self-publish my second fantasy novel, The Five Elements. I'll go into the reasoning in an upcoming post as well as discuss the strategy for how I intend to release it (serialization, Kindle store, etc.).

As I go through this process, I'm finding the hardest part is coming up with a decent cover. Book covers are important. Studies have shown that a cover has only seconds to entice a buyer to pick it up. So, it's important the cover look professional and possess some element to make the buyer want to see what's inside. Then, hopefully the writing takes it from there.

Now, I'm no graphic... [More]

I'm taking LibraryThing's 50 Book Reading Challenge for 2010. This is my 31st read of the 50.

Novels in the Tales of the Dying Earth series include:

1. The Dying Earth
2. The Eyes of the Overworld
3. Cugel's Saga (this post)
4. Rhialto the Marvellous

Cugel's Saga by Jack Vance is the third of his Tales of the Dying Earth novels and continues the tale of Cugel from the previous book in the series, The Eyes of the Overworld. That book started with Cugel crossing Iucounu the Laughing Magician, who pays Cugel back by transporting him halfway across the world. Much to Cugel's chagrin, the end of that novel finds him right back where he star... [More]

I thought as I came across notable words from Wordnik's Word of the Day service, I'd post them here. Short and sweet. Here you go. Yes, I'm a little behind on this one.

The Wordnik Word of the Day for August 12, 2010 is was

couple-beggar

http://www.wordnik.com/words/couple-beggar

(noun) One who makes it his business to unite beggars in marriage; a hedge-priest.

A 'couple-beggar' was originally a person who officiated marriages between criminals in the notorious Fleet Prison in London.

Example:

"Casey's bodyguard, who tied Andy neck and heels, and in that helpless state he witnessed the marriage ceremony per... [More]

And now for something completely different. I usually keep topics of a technical nature confined to my technical blog and those of a writing nature to this one. But sometimes the lines blur, at least a little.

Microsoft recently released Internet Explorer 9 Beta. Truth be told, I'm more of a Chrome user now, but that doesn't mean I won't jump at the chance to try something new. Besides, I work for a Microsoft shop, so I'm always evaluating their latest and greatest technologies.

One of the cool new features in IE9 is the ability to pin web sites to the Windows 7 taskbar. What this basically means is that a web site ... [More]