I wrote a werewolf book!

By /

A few years ago, I did NaNoWriMo. For those of you who aren’t aware of what this is, it stands for National Novel Writing Month and takes place in November. During this time, people (anyone can join) try to write an entire novel of at least 50,000 words in 30 days. I participated in this a few years back, during which I wrote a gay-themed fantasy novel that follows a group of werewolves.

I set it aside for close to a year, and I finally got around to starting the editing process. I made an entire first pass through it and was quite pleased with the way it was coming along. Well, as luck would have it, I became ill for a bit shortly after that, which was followed by a flurry of doctor visits, hospital visits, medical tests, x-rays, and drastic lifestyle changes. I got so wrapped up in all this that I completely forgot about the novel.

I mean, who forgets that they wrote a book? Apparently, I do.

So there I was, combing through my hard drive in an attempt to do a bit of digital spring cleaning when I came across a Scrivener file entitled, “Werewolf.” I then gave myself a good old-fashioned palm slap to the forehead once I realized what it was. How could I have forgotten? I’d wanted to write a gay werewolf novel for ages, and I was so excited when I finally did it. And then…..it gathered dust in a forgotten computer folder.

Anyway, I read through it last week and really liked what I’d done so far. I was surprised at how far I’d gotten in the editing process. So I resurrected the book and am now once again editing my heart away. I decided to put my Ghost Oracle series (Book 5) aside for a brief moment and instead focus on my werewolves. So hopefully, you should see a new werewolf novel in the coming months, followed shortly thereafter with another Nick Michelson ghost story.

I wrote a werewolf book! Read Post »

Exhausted by Toxic Politics

By /

aggressive furious young businessman shouting and working with computer in office HOKQ9sfr3g

I’ve been hearing from a lot of people that they are absolutely and utterly exhausted by politics. Are you? I know I am.

Over the past several years, I’ve been unable to go anywhere on social media without seeing people constantly screaming at each other about politics. So I completely stopped going on Facebook because it seemed especially bad there, with people’s political views overshadowing everything else. Sure, I could unfriend or block all the culprits, but there’d be practically nobody left in my feed if I did.

No matter what side of the political spectrum people are on, it seems they are outraged, appalled, and/or mortified by something and feel it’s okay to belittle or shout at others about it. They are in the right, and everyone else is wrong, and they ensure that everyone knows it. Insults flow like water.

Now, while it’s admirable and important to be a well-informed individual, I feel that being in a constant state of outrage cannot be good for the psyche. I certainly noticed the negative effect it had on mine.

So, I’ve pulled back a bit from the news and social media and find that I’m much more relaxed and much more productive since doing so. Being constantly outraged – especially about things over which we have no control — does take a toll on a person. I didn’t realize how much it did on me until I started pulling back. Yes, there are definitely awful injustices going on (and each political side will have a different view about what those injustices are) but being angry all the time about them does nobody any good. At least I feel that it didn’t for me. And screaming one’s political views at others, insulting people and belittling them has never changed anyone’s mind.

Who knows? Maybe it will lead me to leave social media altogether — and that probably wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Exhausted by Toxic Politics Read Post »

A Change of Plans

By /

Today is the beginning of my vacation. Initially, we’d planned on taking the scooters and traveling to Arkansas. It’s supposed to be beautiful country for motorcycling there, and I was looking forward to visiting the state. But then I noticed how the COVID numbers for Arkansas were going through the roof, and it didn’t take long for many other states to follow. I know many people had begun acting as if the pandemic was over and that it was “business as usual.” Here in Wisconsin, it’s not unusual to see bars crammed full of unmasked people.

So last week, we made the decision not to do any significant traveling this summer and instead stick close to home for our vacation. Given that I have a preexisting condition that led my physician to tell me, “Whatever you do, don’t get COVID,” I figured it would be best to err on the side of caution, especially in light of the fact that even fully vaccinated people are contracting the disease. So for the second summer in a row, vacation traveling plans are canceled.

Many people say that one of the best vacations you can do is to explore your own city, and that’s what we’ll be doing for the next two weeks (my spouse has two weeks of vacation — and given that I work from home and for myself, I can take time off any time I want). Many of our local parks have “music in the park” and “outdoor movies in the park” events, so we’ll be checking out some of them. We plan on also doing some touristy things like visiting the Harley-Davidson museum, attending local outdoor festivals, and even spending time at the beach — you know, all the touristy things that are available in your own city that you never get around to doing.

Perhaps we’re being overly cautious, but again, I feel better after having made this decision. I’ve noticed that even Wisconsin’s pandemic numbers have jumped, from about 10-20 new cases a day to over 200 the past few days, so there’s a definite new surge occurring. It may be time to go back to wearing masks indoors.

Photo by Chen Mizrach on Unsplash

A Change of Plans Read Post »

My Love for Scootering

By /

Scooter

A few years back, my partner dragged me to the International Motorcycle Show. At the time, I had no real interest in motorcycles, but I reluctantly agreed to attend. As we made the rounds, we came across a couple of red Honda PCX 150 cc scooters. “Those look like fun,” I thought to myself and then sat on one just for fun. Remember when I wrote that blog post entitled “What the Eyes See, The Heart Desires?” Well, that was definitely the case here. Once I sat on that damned scooter, it was all I could think about. Once at home, I began searching on the Web for anything scooter-related. The next thing I know, I was at my local motorcycle shop, putting a down payment on a shiny new scooter.

Oftentimes, we make a purchase on a whim — maybe buy expensive equipment for a new hobby that we never end up using. Well, that was not the case here. Once spring arrived, I went through a motorcycle safety class, obtained my motorcycle driver’s permit, and then I was on that scooter constantly. The more I rode it, the more I enjoyed it. The novelty of it never wore off.

After a couple of years, my partner and I talked about how fun it would be to go motorcycle touring. The thought of taking a trip on a motorcycle had never even crossed my mind. But before I knew it, we were once again at our local motorcycle dealer, putting a down payment on an even bigger scooter (300 cc). That summer, we rode our scooters from Wisconsin to South Dakota. It was quite an adventurous trip. I recall chatting with a local guy in South Dakota, and when I mentioned where I was from, he said, “You rode that moped all the way from Wisconsin? You’ve got gumption.” That gave me a good chuckle (and no, I didn’t tell him that it was a scooter and not a moped).

The following year, we took the bikes to New York, up into Canada, and visited Niagara Falls for the first time, which turned out to be another adventuresome trip and also tons of fun. Regretfully, COVID put a halt to our adventures for the past couple of summers, but I’m looking forward to continuing our adventures once things get back to normal.

But as for the scooter, well, I don’t regret buying one in the least. This hobby has turned into something far larger than I ever could have anticipated and has brought much more fun and adventure into my life. Time to get out my map and plan my next trip. But to where???

My Love for Scootering Read Post »

Weekly Roundup for July 17, 2021

By /

Weekly Roundup

Welcome to my Weekly Roundup where each Saturday, I post links to things I shared on social media throughout the week that I thought were interesting. I’ll also include book news, cover reveals, and more goodies.

By the way, I also send out this weekly round-up list each week to my newsletter. So if you wish to receive my weekly roundup in your email inbox each week, you can subscribe HERE.

So on to the roundup.

Weekly Round-Up – 15 Things I Thought Were Worth Sharing

  1. I’ve always been a fan of this show. Article: 5 really queer reasons we love ‘American Horror Stories’
  2. Some things to contemplate: 40 Hard Things You Need to Hear
  3. How photography allows us to bring back our dead and prove that we’re alive: Startlement and Stillness: David Searcy on Photography
  4. Do any of these resonate with you? “Stuff 38 Folks In This Online Group Would Do Differently If They Had Their Current Knowledge When They Were 15 Years Old”
  5. To brighten up your day: If You’re Feeling Down, This Wholesome Facebook Group Has Your Back (97 Pics Heartwarming pics)
  6. 1455 Literary Arts Summer Festival celebrates queer work
  7. Shutterstock has partnered with It Gets Better to challenge LGBTQ+ visual stereotypes and push for better representation of the LGBTQ+ community. What follows is one woman’s essay on why that matters: It Gets Better Collaboration: The Importance of LGBTQ+ Representation
  8. Privacy Watch. How Fear of Government Surveillance Influences Our Behavior
  9. If you want to get the most out of your phone’s video capturing capabilities, watch these tips.: 10 Tips for Shooting Better Videos With Your Smartphone
  10. People share examples of incorrect stereotypes about Religion, Race, Sexuality, Etc.
  11. If you like suspenseful movies: 10 best thrillers on Amazon Prime to wreck your nerves
  12. Racist trolls attacked England’s soccer team. Fans fought back.
  13. “Fun Facts” that aren’t true: 43 Annoying ‘Facts’ People Have To Finally Stop Believing In
  14. A new kind of Windows: Microsoft is bringing Windows to a web browser, and it will work on iPad and the Mac
  15. Respecting a Nonbinary Youth’s Name and Pronouns Can Be Life-Saving

Oh, and in case you missed it: Article: “People Are Sharing The Unwritten Rules Of Life And I Never Thought Of These, But I Agree”

From the Blog

  1. My Top 5 Quarter 1 Books
  2. Dwelling on Embarrassing Things
  3. Book Chat: The Art of Invisibility by Kevin Mitnik
  4. Wordless Wednesday: Badlands
  5. Some of my Favorite iPad Apps

Weekly Roundup for July 17, 2021 Read Post »

Some of My Favorite iPad Apps

By /

Linkedin sales solutions UK1N66KUkMk unsplash
Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash

These days, I do the majority of my work on my iPad, a device I’ve come to love more and more over the years. Many people often ask me what are some of my favorite iPad apps so in today’s post, I thought I’d share a few of them with you.

  1. Scrivener
    This is my main long-form writing app. I mainly use it to write novels though I have done certain types of journaling in it as well. It’s a powerful and flexible writing app that is probably my most used one as well. There are so many wonderful features to this app: the ability to easily rearrange sections/chapters, color coding, powerful outlining capabilities, project/session targets, export to ePub and mobi, corkboard (an Index Card view), full-screen composition mode, and autosave.
  2. Ulysses
    This is another writing app, but I use this one for my short-form writing, such as blog posts. I love its organizational tools, especially the single hierarchical library and its ability to export and share to various formats. I especially like its clean and distraction-free interface, which makes writing it in enjoyable.I’ve tried getting rid of it a few times because it’s a subscription, but I go running right back to it. It does so many things that other markdown apps can’t do, so for now, it stays.
  3. Netflix/HBO Max/Hulu/Amazon Prime
    I’ve grouped these into one category because I go back and forth between them. For example, if there’s a show I want to watch, I’ll subscribe to one of them, watch all the show’s episodes and then unsubscribe. This way, I only subscribe to the service that I’m actively using at the moment.
  4. Firefox
    My web browser of choice. I use this because of its security and privacy features. However, if there’s a site that refuses to work with Firefox, I’ll use Safari in that case.
  5. Goodnotes
    This is another note-taking app but one that works flawlessly with the Apple Pencil, allowing me to take hand-written digital notes. I actually keep my digital journal in Goodnotes. I also use this to mark up drafts of my novels. I’ll import a PDF version of the book and then make pen corrections to that version. I find that this app comes in handy for so many things.
  6. Kindle App
    The Kindle app is my ebook reader app of choice. Though I read most of my ebooks on my Kindle Oasis, I will occasionally read them using the Kindle app on my iPad, especially if the book contains illustrations. I love that the app will sync what I’m reading with my iPhone and my Kindle.
  7. Instapaper
    Instapaper is a read-later service that allows you to save web content so it can be read later on your devices, such as on a smartphone, iPad, or computer. I use this app daily to curate articles that I share on social media or articles that I want to read later on.

    Instapaper syncs the articles and videos you save so that they’re waiting for you on all your devices – iPhone, iPad, Android, or Kindle. You can read anything you save, anywhere and anytime you want, even offline!

  8. Drafts
    This is another of my most-used apps. Drafts allows you to quickly jot your ideas down, whether it be for a tweet or an idea for a novel. You can then come back later on and share it with a variety of services or apps. Almost all of my Tweets begin in the Drafts app.
  9. Lightroom
    I subscribe to Adobe’s Photographer’s package, which includes Lightroom and Photoshop. Though I do most of my photo editing in Lightroom Classic on my Mac, I often edit photos in the iPad version as well, especially if I quickly want to share them online.
  10. Playground Sessions
    I’ve recently begun learning the piano, and this is one of the apps I’m using to learn. It has some great lessons and methodology, and I use it every day. Unfortunately, the iPad app is kind of buggy (though they are supposedly coming out with an update shortly). But that aside, I’ve had a lot of fun learning piano with the app. They also have an amazing and supportive online community.
  11. Piano Marvel
    This is the other piano app that I’m using every day to learn piano. It has excellent sight-reading features, which initially drew me to the application. The method they use to teach songs is super helpful, especially the ability to work on only specific measures of a piece. Again, another app I use daily.
  12. YouTube Music
    Right now, YouTube Music is my music service of choice (I jump back and forth between Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music). One strong reason for subscribing to YouTube Music is that it removes ads from YouTube videos. I also enjoy watching music videos, and I can do so right from the app.
  13. Excel/Google Sheets
    Because I’m not too keen on Google’s privacy track record, I tend to use Excel for all of my spreadsheets (I have a subscription to Microsoft Office). I keep a few things in Google Sheets that I want to access from any device.
  14. DevonThink
    I’ve been using DevonThink since its early days, and it still is an app that I use almost daily. It’s essentially a database for storing, tracking, and tagging all types of information. What I love about this app is how easy it is to get data in and out of it. Additionally, you can store data in its original format, such as PDFs, Microsoft Office documents, HTML files, text, and files. I did use Evernote for a while, but it didn’t meet my needs like DevonThink does.
  15. BoxCryptor
    BoxCryptor is a reliable and secure software encryption app that I use to encrypting the sensitive files that I store on the cloud. What’s nice about BoxCryptor is that I can access my encrypted files from my iOS devices. I encrypt pretty much anything with personally identifiable information.
  16. Epicurious
    This is my favorite app to use when I’m cooking or baking as, for the most part, their recipes are foolproof. In addition, the app includes tested recipes from publishers such as Bon Appetit, Gourmet, and many others. I love the ability to save recipes, create shopping lists and find pretty much any recipe I’m looking for. I find the reviews for each recipe also incredibly helpful.
  17. Todoist
    I’ve experimented with many to-do/project management applications but always come back to Todoist. Todoist is a cloud-based task management service that is a cross between a to-do list app and a project management service.I love its flexibility, natural language input ability, the ability to use it on all major devices and platforms (Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, etc.), productivity reports, and the ease of use, though it is pretty powerful. This feature-packed app is one for which I don’t mind paying the yearly subscription fee.
  18. ByWord
    If I need to create a quick text or markdown document, I use Byword. I also use this sometimes to make a quick, on-the-fly blog post. It’s simple yet an app that I always return to. The app also allows you to publish directly to Blogger, Medium, or WordPress.
  19. iThoughts (MindNode went subscription)
    iThoughts is a mind-mapping tool that I use to generate quick ideas. It’s excellent for visually organizing your thoughts. I also use it for general brainstorming, coming up with novel ideas, project planning, goal setting, and more. You can also export to a variety of formats such as PDF, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Project, Microsoft PowerPoint, PNG, and Markdown.I used to use MindNode until it went subscription. I’ve been an iThoughts user for many years now and am still extremely happy using this flexible app.
  1. DayOneDayOne is a journaling app that I’ve used on and off. I mainly keep my journals in physical notebooks. I did start transcribing my journals in DayOne a while back. Additionally, I take a break from pen and paper writing every now and then and instead do all my journaling in the DayOne app. Regretfully, DayOne went subscription a few years ago. I feel silly paying $36 per year for a journaling app, especially when I have other tools (that aren’t subscription) that I can use. When they started charging yearly for the app, I didn’t move over as I deeply entrenched into their ecosystem. Okay, but I’m seriously thinking of moving my digital journals into Scrivener before my next subscription renewal date. We’ll see.
  2. TextExpander
    TextExpander is a productivity app that allows you to insert blocks of text using keyboard shortcuts. For example, whenever I type in ddd, TextExpander will insert directions to my house. Likewise, typing my initial will insert my email address. Though this app also follows the subscription model, I don’t mind paying for it. I find it an invaluable tool in my workflow, and I save tons of time using it.

What are your favorite iPad apps?

Some of My Favorite iPad Apps Read Post »

Scroll to Top