Have you ever written a stalker protagonist before? My friends and I were talking about this this evening, and they helped me compile a list of some more twisted love songs.

Yes, I’ve written one. A short story. Her name is Lynn, she likes to jog (past people’s houses…), lol!

Also pasting the list here. There were some songs not available on Grooveshark, and also, Grooveshark likes to delete songs over time, so here’s a static list for reference:

“Meg White” by Ray LaMontagne
“Every Breath You Take” by The Police
“Olive Grove Facing the Sea” by Snow Patrol
“Possession” by Sarah McLachlan
“Lily” by Smashing Pumpkins
“Hungry Like the Wolf” by Duran Duran
“I Put a Spell on You” by Creedence Clearwater Revival
“Love Letter” by Bonnie Raitt
“The Blower’s Daughter” by Damien Rice
“I Will Posses Your Heart” by Death Cab For Cutie
“#1 Crush” by Garbage
“Creep” by Radiohead
“Possum Kingdom” by the Toadies
“Watching Alice” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
“One Way or Another” by Blondie
“Stan” by Eminem

Happy writing! Or not so happy, depending on whose point of view you’re writing it from!

This is going to be part rant on DRM, be warned, lol! (Other part on how I love my Nook, but I’m still a Amazon Kindle loyalist at heart! AKA how the Nook store sucks!)

On DRM (digital rights management):

I am in support of fair use of DRM-free ebooks. Meaning, if you purchase an ebook, you should be allowed to read it on whatever device you want. DRM on ebooks is like saying (in terms of paper books), even though you purchased your paperback, you’re only allowed to read it at home – not on the bus, not on the beach, not at the library, not at your friend’s house. That book has to stay at home, for the rest of your life, and well, if your home happens to be destroyed or you want to buy a better one, you’re shit out of luck!

DRM will not stop book piracy. I’ve been reading tutorials on removing DRM the past couple days, and let me tell you, while it is a hassle, it is not hard. It involves downloading freely accessible programs and scripts, and anyone who follows a tutorial can do it. Believe me, if someone was inclined to upload an ebook to the internet for the purposes of piracy, a pesky little thing like DRM is not going to stop them. They probably already have the tools at hand.

So not only does DRM *not* stop piracy (at all!), it only takes away the rights of paying, lawful customers. (more…)

I added a new toy to my collection yesterday!

My new NookColor (left) against my laptop (behind) and my phone (right). (more…)

First of all, if this needs to be said, no piece of software will ever write your story for you. And no program will ever be able to replace a human editor either. A machine cannot tell you if your story works or not. It has no idea. That said, there are some programs available that will make your life a lot easier.

The point of this is not to replace a human editor. Really. But what a machine can do for you is to catch all that lazy writing, the things that slip by your eyes after several thousand passes through the same sentence. The things that might even slip by your critique partners after they’ve read several thousand words of your work and have become similarly accustomed to your lazy mistakes.

But a machine won’t – not the first time, and not after the thousandth time. That’s where machines work best. (more…)

My friend Nina was the one to introduce me to Liquid Story Binder. I’ve been meaning to write something about this program ever since I got it, but I keep coming up blank. It’s very hard for me to put into words exactly how much LOVE I have for this program. (I know, that’s lame, but seriously people!) And it’s also hard for me to explain everything it can do… which is pretty much anything you need it to do!

I will never write anything in a Word document again. Never. Not a blog entry, not a poem, not even a freewrite-background-note. Nothing. It all goes into LSB, somewhere. And what I love about LSB is that there’s a place for everything in it. It’s more than just a word processor – it’s… well, a binder! If a binder could have just the perfect amount of pockets you wanted it to have, in the perfect order and shape, and in all your favorite colors. It can be whatever you want it to be. (more…)