writing category archive

On the Sharing of Free Software

Hi, loyal readers. I’m still here. Last week was busy at work, and getting up at 3:30am tends to make my evenings shorter. Any time I’ve had, I’ve been working on writing a Java utility to help with naming and sorting my pictures. It’s always a battle between finding time to write blog entries and finding time to write code. I like doing both, but writing articles tends to crowd out programming time. It hasn’t been as often that writing software has crowded out blogging time. And since I really want to write free software as well as write about it, I’m going to have to work on that balance.

I’ll be sharing my program here, with some trepidation. It’s not perfect; nothing ever is. …

Free Culture: An ‘Inside the Slush Pile’ Exclusive!

In the first installment of this series, I promised to lend my keen insight to a comparison between the old print publishing business and the new online publishing business. What qualifies me to perform this service? Well, I have limited experience in the traditional publishing industry, having garnered forty-two rejections on five short stories over a two year period, and I have a blog that’s all of two months old.

Who could possibly be more qualified to pontificate on the subject?

(Do rejected stories count towards publishing industry experience? Or is that just editorial experience? In either case, don’t worry, you will receive the benefit of my wisdom.)

Also as promised last time, and …

Free Culture?

I have some free culture I’d like to share with you. Written culture. A previously unpublished science fiction short story, by me. “No, thanks,” you say. “That’s the problem with the web. Any idiot can publish his adjective-laden tripe. If it was any good, someone would have paid you for it and published it in a magazine.” Ouch. The truth hurts.

But not really. I have a thick skin when it comes to literary rejection. (Or like to think I do, at least.) A few years ago, I was eager to follow the path of submitting stories to magazines and collecting rejections until I broke through. But I only finished and circulated five stories over a two year period. I didn’t mind the …

Blogging for ‘Free Software Magazine’

Tony Mobily and Dave Guard over at Free Software Magazine kindly invited me to start a blogging account there. I’m scheduled for Mondays and today you can read my first entry, Moving to Freedom, One Step at a Time. (Unless they saw what I wrote and decided to bury it :-)

If you found your way here from there, welcome, and thanks for visiting!

I’ll repost the entry here later this week and will try to have some new content soon also.

Update: I noticed the story is on digg. If you want to help promote my writing, you can digg it. Of course, that leaves me open for all kinds of scathing criticism, which might appeal to you more than the promotion. In either case, it’s still a reason to digg it …

How to Write?

Some people say you should be assertive. Don’t be wishy-washy. Don’t use watered-down language (”it kind of seems like…”). Don’t be afraid to own your opinion. Blah blah blah. I think this is good advice. (Although I don’t think Brenda Ueland would approve of the negative tone.) I like reading people who sound like they know what they’re talking about and aren’t afraid to stake out a position, even if unpopular.

But what if you don’t know what you’re talking about? What if you’re afraid of looking back on your published opinions with regret? What if even though you’re in your mid-thirties, …