Posts from — May 2008

From time to time I have written about various sorts of software for writers, and I even told you about my favorite text "tool," the little AlphaSmart Neo keyboard, which might be the handiest, niftiest little word processor in the world.

Personally, I sometimes enjoy just sitting down with just a couple of bic pens, a spiral-bound tablet, and a cool beverage or nice cup of my wife's coffee. (She NEVER drinks coffee, but she brews the absolutely best coffee in the world.) Those are the days when I've just had it with the keyboard, don't feel like facing the distractions posed by my always-online DSL connection, and simply want to write.

Most of the time, however, I write sitting in this recliner with my aging Toshiba laptop settled in front of me on my Tablemate adjustable stand.

I also enjoy having good music playing while I work, don't you? If I'm working in a room at the library, I generally have ear buds in while I listen to a few CDs I've loaded into Windows Media Player and iTunes. I'm partial to jazz, "smooth jazz," big-band swing music, and classical symphonies, pretty much in that order. There are no finer songs ever written and recorded for making the old blood flow and creative juices stir than Glenn Miller's "In the Mood" and Benny Goodman's "Sing Sing Sing" (the original long version).

For the best of majestic, beautiful music that soars, I prefer Beethoven's Sixth and Ninth Symphonies, with Dvorak's "New World" Symphony right up there, too.

What's your favorite writing method? Do you have an office you work in, or just wherever you can find space at home? Any music preferences? Tell us about it.

Technorati Tags: writing habits, writing methods, music for writers, writing tips at garyspeer.com

My son asked me a question much like the title of this post while he was watching me write some years ago. He was about seven or eight years old at the time, I think, and he really surprised me with such an unusual question. (He's a grown man now, has an engineering degree, and works as a senior research scientist for a university. He's always had a knack for unusual questions.)

I was typing (this was pre-computer) steadily away on an old electric typewriter. He walked up beside my desk and watched me for a few minutes without commenting. Then he pointed at the paper in the typewriter and asked, "Where did that come from?"

"What? Where did what come from?"
"That word. And that word. The whole sentence. Where did those words come from?"
"Uh, well. I guess they just sort of came from my mind."
"But why those words? Who put them into your mind? How did you know to use them?"

I've been struggling with those questions since that day. As a writer, I really don't know where the thoughts and words come from that travel from my brain through my fingertips to the keyboard and into the computer.

Do you? What are your thoughts on the "creative" part of the writing process? Are you able to explain it any better than I was/am? Tell us, please.

Technorati Tags: creative writing, word choices, writing process, writing and life, writing tips for garyspeer.com

This "Useful Website" is aimed at those of you living in California. I know you're out there -- I look at the stats for this site frequently and see that we get visitors from nearly every state and many nations outside the U.S. So, here's for you Californians out there -- specifically those of you who need health insurance or are thinking of changing your health insurance carrier.

The site I'm talking about is the website for Kaiser Permanente, the leading HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) offering health insurance in California. For those of you who need a California health insurance quote, this would be an excellent starting point.

Go take a look around the site, check them out for a specific quote, and find the information you need to make an informed decision about your individual or family health care needs.

Technorati Tags: Kaiser Permanente, California health insurance, useful website, writing tips at garyspeer.com

It's always fun, from time to time, to swap "war stories" with other writers and enjoy a chuckle over the odd or just plain fun things happening in the writing life. What sort of fun or unusual writing gigs have you been doing lately?

Whether it's a totally freelance project you're doing or something you're doing on assignment, tell us about the interesting and different writing you may be involved with.

I'll go first. I've resurrected a novel manuscript I started a few years ago and I'm having fun with it. The story I'm doing involves an elderly couple who stumble into a multi-million dollar fortune. I won't reveal anything else, but the challenge I'm facing right now is how to come up with the money in the small-town setting and lifestyle I've given the elderly couple. I'll let you know when I have it all together -- I really feel good about these characters and the ideas I have so far; maybe this could be the novel I finally get published? (I even have a couple of ideas in mind to make it into a trilogy or even longer series.)

What are you up to? I guess my offering isn't all that odd or unusual, but it's something I'm having fun with. What fun writing are you doing right now?

Technorati Tags: odd writing gigs, current writing projects, writing tips at garyspeer.com

I've written a million or so words, probably, in my lifetime. I've read probably nearly a million books, both fiction and non-fiction. Okay, maybe that's a few too many books -- million's a pretty big library, isn't it?

In all of my reading and writing, I've never before encountered the word "bollard," before I ran onto it at my "Useful Website" offering for this morning -- TrafficGuard Direct. If your church or civic group, perhaps even your next writers' club meeting, needs some sort of traffic control barriers, this is the site to find the security bollards you're looking for.

Bollards? Yes. They're the usually round, heavy posts you find on a pier for securing boat lines, OR, they are the posts and barriers you've seen blocking off locations and defining traffic patterns in parking lots -- usually removable.

If you're in the need of parking lot controls, or more likely you work for a company with such parking lot needs, TrafficGuard Direct is the site you need to see. If you're just suffering from the healthy sort of curiosity you should have as a writer, it's definitely a site you should see.

And if you want to impress your friends in trivia games, upholding the honor of writers everywhere, remember "bollard."

Technorati Tags: TrafficGuard Direct, defining bollards, useful website, writing tips at garyspeer.com

I was reading today about some changes to Google's Adsense "rules and regs" that a friend tipped me to. It seems to me their latest requirement about Adsense placement in relation to page headings and other links pretty much deals a blow to anyone still making much money with Adsense. If those folks truly comply with the new placement rules.

Most of you that blog or maintain websites must know what Adsense is, don't you? For the rest of you -- Adsense is Google's effort to give you some money when people go to your site and click on the Adsense ads you have allowed Google to place there. That's the short answer.

Their latest "decree" is not to place headings over Adsense ads which make it unclear they are ads, AND not to place Adsense ads so that people mistake them for your own site links instead of being ads.

Which all leads to the point of this post: Any of you out there making any serious income via Adsense? There was a time a few years ago when some of the "Internet gurus" out there claimed six figure annual incomes of enormous size through the Adsense program. Personally, I'm luck if I make a buck or two a day from all the Adsense on all of my websites and blogs.

Just curious, and I really would not want anyone to divulge specifics -- any of you earning good income from Adsense these days?

Technorati Tags: Adsense income, using Adsense, Adsense placement rules, Internet writing, writing tips at garyspeer.com

I'm not entirely clear about the finer points of file sharing via the Internet in regard to music or videos. I read the material under the "Legal" link at MP3Rocket, and it seems as though you do need to be careful not to infringe on any copyrights. But it can be done, and according to their website some 240 million people are "downloading and trading files legally on file-sharing networks."

So take that for what you will.

The software itself is pretty intuitive. If you have trouble figuring it out, there are user forums on the MP3Rocket.com website which are helpful. If you do upgrade to the Pro version, there is more support available for paid members.

If you love music as much as I do (jazz mostly, some classical, some "show tunes"), and you do any music downloads, MP3Rocket.com would be a good site to go to and take a look around.

Technorati Tags: MP3Rocket.com, free music downloads, useful website, writing tips at garyspeer.com

Anyone who writes content for a blog or website has at least heard the term "SEO." That stands for "Search Engine Optimization," and it's sort of the "Holy Grail" for bloggers and webmasters. If you've effectively done "SEO" on your website, you can expect to see traffic as a result. If you're "SEO" skills are poor or you've not really tried to implement good "SEO" ideas, chances are you aren't getting much traffic.

The catch is this (and I think I touched on this a couple of weeks ago): You run the risk of being so concerned about optimizing for the search engines that you build a website no one really finds valuable or responds to once you get there.

There's a fine line to walk when you do SEO on your blog or website. Of course you want search engines to index your site and you want to rank as high in the search engines (that mostly means on page one of Google for the keyword you've optimized around) as possible. Because you'll rarely draw much free traffic if you aren't indexed and ranking high. At the same time, you want to remember to write your content with real people in mind.

If you don't optimize your site well for the search engines, another way to get traffic is to buy it, i.e., using Google Adwords to pay for clicks for example. But even if you are paying for traffic, you still must remember PEOPLE are your ultimate "targets," not search engines.

Whichever route you take, PPC or SEO, you must always write website and/or blog content for real people. Real people are the ones who "get" your message, buy your products, or pay for your services, not search engines.

Technorati Tags: SEO, optimizing blogs and websites, optimizing content for people, Internet writing, writing tips at garyspeer.com

If you live in the Mont Tremblant Canada region, I envy you. I live in the so-called "Ozarks Mountains" region of Missouri here in the U.S., and they really aren't mountains.

I was looking at some information about travel, about vacations, all those nice things I hope to do this spring or summer (my son is planning a trip to Iceland this summer), and I found a beautiful, useful website if you're looking for a resort vacation -- Blueberry Lake Resorts, located in Quebec, Canada, in the Mont Tremblant region.

I've only been to Canada three or four times, and that was years ago and that was in the Vancouver, British Columbia, area. But from the Blueberry Lake website, I would say Quebec's Mont Tremblant area is absolutely beautiful and very much worth a look if you've thought about getting away to Canada.

Don't just take my word for it, go to the BlueBerryLake.com website for yourself and look around. It could be just the resort location you've been looking to find for a summer getaway.

Technorati Tags: Blueberry Lake Resort, vacation planning, useful website, writing tips at garyspeer.com

For all you bloggers out there who use WordPress, have you switched to the new 2.5.x version yet? It's been out now about a month -- a few days ago they issued a security upgrade so the very latest version is 2.5.1 -- and I'm still getting accustomed to the new look and functionality of the administrative "dashboard."

I don't really like most of the changes they've made. I'm pretty "techie" about a lot of things, one of them being WordPress, and I really wanted to love the changes. But for the most part, I don't.

One feature they got really "right" is the ability to quickly update WordPress plugins. You can do it pretty much with just a single click. Used to be you had to go to the plugin website, downloaded it to your computer. often unzip the file, then upload it to your server and reactivate it. That hassle's been eliminated. The dashboard alerts you under "plugins" when one has been updated. You have the choice of going through the hassle on your own, or clicking for automatic updating. Works pretty well.

I do NOT like the way they've totally messed up Widget management and made it harder to add, move, and edit widgets in your WordPress theme. They've just done so much wrong regarding widgets that I won't even go into it here.

So, those of you who blog with WordPress -- and I know you're out there reading this, aren't you? -- what do you think about version 2.5x? Good? Bad? Indifferent? Let us know.

Technorati Tags: WordPress 2.5 review, blogging software, writing tips at garyspeer.com

The term "debt counseling" has become more common these days. It used to sort of imply help for people who were perhaps impulsive spenders who couldn't control their credit spending and got themselves quickly and needlessly in debt.

Suddenly these days, more and more people who have lived financially careful lives are suddenly find themselves out of work, perhaps facing foreclosure on their homes, and struggling financially despite their best efforts.

If you've got debt problems, your cash flow has "turned south," or you're struggling to find work (writing or otherwise), here's a useful site that might be of value to you -- "The Credit Exchange." The site does NOT make loans or issue credit cards. They offer referrals to financial services, as well as a wealth of financial resources and articles, to point you in the direction that might help if you are struggling with debt or cash-flow problems.

Go take a look. There are some useful financial resources and information at The Credit Exchange, whether you need help with debts or credit problems or not.

Technorati Tags: debt counseling, financial advice, debt resources, useful website, writing tips at garyspeer.com

I have one piece of software on my computer that runs constantly and that I almost could NOT do without -- but I don't think I've ever tipped you off to it. It's called "ClipCache Pro 3.1." I would not recommend the earlier version, 2.9. That earlier version may still be around, but it was pretty buggy and caused me to lose a bunch of important data a couple of times.

ClipCache Pro 3.1 is what I guess is called a "clipboard extender," and it's the handiest combined text editor/text file storage system you could possibly imagine. I don't have an "affiliate link" that makes me any money if you buy, but I urge you to go take a look at it. The 3.0+ version has some excellent database innovations and backup options to help you save the clips. You can find out more about ClipCache Pro 3.1 by clicking on this link.

Here's my quick rundown on what ClipCache Pro does and how I use it.

I have it set to start up when I boot my computer. It runs in the background and copies everything I would normally just copy to the Windows clipboard. I have it set to copy in "text," because text formatting is the most universally usable. Unlike the Windows clipboard -- which holds sometimes only one thing at a time, in various versions of Word, up to 12 things at a time -- ClipCache will copy everything you copy, and store it as long as you want it.

The clips in ClipCache can be organized into any number of folders you want to set up, or all in one big "Inbox" folder. The advantage of this is that they are instantly accessible from a little tray icon.

I cannot tell you how many hundreds of text files, ranging in size from a few words to multiple paragraphs, which I have stored in ClipCache Pro. From time to time, I go into ClipCache Pro and delete clips, reorganize them into folders, etc. I have one folder, for example, that contains PHP code clips I use on several websites. All I have to do to use them is open the website file, pop open ClipCache, highlight what I want copied into it, and click.

If you've used a clipboard extender before, you know what I mean about the convenience. If not, you'll learn as you look around the site.

Of course, as a writer, my most-used and most-useful piece of software is actually the "old reliable" Microsoft Word word processing software.

But ClipCache Pro probably ranks right up there doing battle with Word as my most useful piece of software. I encourage you to give it a look. I bought mine a year or two ago, whenever they came out with version 3, and I think the price is still around $30 -- and well worth it.

Technorati Tags: ClipCache Pro, clipboard software, useful software for writers, writing tips at garyspeer.com

The old cliche always speaks of truth being stranger than fiction, and with regard to helicopter accidents that might be true. Here's a useful legal website to know about if helicopters do fall on you, or otherwise injury you, or otherwise entangle you in legal matters: HelicopterAccidentAttorney.com is the name of the site.

The website is run by research aviation attorneys who provide detailed information about helicopter accidents and will guide you to legal services and attorneys near you who specialize in helicopter accident issues. According to the website, helicopters crash 90 times more than conventional fixed-wing aircrafts. They add: "Although most helicopter accidents do not result in fatalities, there are times when helicopter accidents have deadly consequences."

This is not a tongue-in-cheek follow-up to my earlier post about the "ER" helicopter accidents. It's a real website with some really useful information. I encourage you to go to their website and look at the resources they offer. I find the "News & Articles" section to be especially interesting. I had no idea how frequently helicopter accidents occur and I suggest there are some useful links on this site. Take a look for yourself.

Technorati Tags: helicopter accidents, helicopter legal advice, useful website, writing tips at garyspeer.com

One of my favorite television programs, and one which I believe has a history of excellent writing, is "ER." You know the story line, I'm sure: It's sort of a well-written, very well-acted hospital soap opera in prime time. That's what my son calls it, usually with a great deal of disdain, and I think that's not too far off the mark.

Anyway, I rattled on about "ER" because my very favorite plot device has been instrumental in landmark past episodes: helicopters falling from the sky, or sort of.

Not many years ago, one of the obnoxious doctors on the show (ER head doctor? I think) was a Dr. Romano. He was the sort of character you really wanted to hate, but actually grew on you and became semi-sympathetic as ER characters go. A turning point in his career and in the perception of him as a character was when his arm was mangled and had to be amputated as the result of running into a helicopter rotor blade while aiding patients at the hospital's rooftop helipad. (Note: We live about three blocks away from a hospital helipad and the little devils come in pretty low over our house several times a week. Yikes.)

But the real high point of the Romano episodes for me came the next season when they killed the good doctor off. Anybody else remember how he died? Greatest laugh for a plot device in a drama, drumroll please: A helicopter crashed onto the street just outside the ER, terrible destruction, mayhem everywhere -- and when all was settled, they discovered that the whirlybird had crashed, yes, RIGHT ON TOP OF DOCTOR ROMANO.

I haven't written and published much fiction. But I vowed then to NEVER use helicopters falling from the sky to kill off my characters when I do write fiction.

Of course, it could happen, I suppose. Oh, well, I suppose it does happen. But not often.

Technorati Tags: plot devices, helicopters falling from the sky, writing tips at garyspeer.com

Not meaning to be a loan junkie here, but the earlier post about sources to cover legal finances got me looking. Here's a useful website that might come in handy if you are in need of personal loans -- "Personal Loans Mania" is the place, and according to the website, where you can find fast consideration for a personal loan for pretty much any purpose.

Of course, they are not giving money away. They do offer this as a LOAN service, which means that it must be repaid. They do seem to have very professional yet very liberal acceptance policies in place. They consider people with bad credit and with no credit. According to their on-site FAQ, the loans, with all the conditions met, can be for up to $15,000.

Always be careful about your finances. Those of you who are freelance writers are painfully aware of the financial ups and downs you must deal with. If this website has something useful to meet a need you have, great. Go take a look and see for yourself.

Technorati Tags: Personal Loan Mania, personal loans, bad credit loans, useful website, writing tips at garyspeer.com