Category: blog

I bought this scale at the beginning of 2013. At the time there was only this on and another by FitBit. Since then almost every connected-device fitness company came out with their own scale. I was swayed toward the Withings because it connected to almost everything. They didn’t make a fitness tracker then. So they were open to every app I used. This is still true. I don’t even need the Withings app installed for my weight data to be sent to the apps that I do use.1

This is something I had never heard of before. Apparently the League tries to even out a team’s loss of quality players by awarding extra draft picks.

Here’s a quick primer on NFL draft math:

Of course draft picks are the black market currency of the sport. Some teams are pick hoarders. Others are more casual and work with what they have. It seems like every free agency deal over the last two weeks had some sort of pick involved.

So far this year has been about writing. I’ve worked to improve my quality, quantity, and visible output. This blog has been huge help. Making the commitment to put my writing out in the world was both scary and liberating. I’ve also learned about myself. I’ve had to come up with new work habits and strategies. It’s also been an education in goal setting.

The one thing that I wasn’t expecting was the weight gain. In May 2013 I reached my lowest weight as an adult, 155 lbs. For reference, I’m 5'9" and that was a good weight for me. I also didn’t stay there long. Today I weighed in at 192.

It’s time for my weekly word count check-in. At the end of every week, I post a screen shot from my writing results spreadsheet. This shows the current week and the three before. My week starts on Monday. The numbers are current through Sunday night. I also only average over six days. This allows me one day of no writing that doesn’t impact the weekly totals.

This week started out strong, but I was hit with intense shoulder pain that sidelined me for the weekend. Goals for the next week: finish the WIP chapter of the ruby book, and do three chapter reviews of the WSF&F book.

Sometimes I run across an older book that’s usually out-of-print, but has exceptional wisdom locked up in its pages. I found this one at my local Half Priced Books.

See all of my WSF&F chapter reviews.

Chapter two is much longer than Heinlein’s chapter one, but covers more ground. It’s written by Gardener Dozois, and names the mistakes that plague writers new to science fiction. He starts out with a discussion of 1950s syndrome.

Sometimes you don’t notice something until it’s gone. In this case it’s TV commercials.1 I watch most of my shows on HuluPlus. Usually via an AppleTV box plugged into the main screen. As for the AppleTV, it’s probably in the top ten of tech items I’ve ever bought. It just works. The hardware can only go so far. The apps are what make my life better.

Genetics is something I only have a passing acquaintance with. When it comes to stuff like this, I have to start researching just to get a handle on the words used by people that actually work in the field.

But I ran across something very interesting today: The idea of gene drive. My initial confusion came because I didn’t understand how the word “drive” was being used. My first mental picture was of something like a hard drive for genes. But it’s not used as a noun. It’s a verb, as in a force. So gene drive is an action not a thing.

Sometimes I run across an older book that’s usually out-of-print, but has exceptional wisdom locked up in its pages. I found this one at my local Half Priced Books.1

See all of my WSF&F chapter reviews.

Sometimes the writing isn’t the most time-consuming part of “writing.” There’s quite a bit of housekeeping involved.

The one question that’s came up repeatedly, is where to submit fiction? Being a gal with a speculative/futurist outlook, I tend towards science fiction. So a good place to start is the list of SFWA Qualifying Markets.

This is an important list to be on. The magazines1 must meet the current SFWA “minimum wage” to qualify. Currently this is six United States pennies per word. While not a lot, it means the writing is valued. It also means the markets have a certain level of prestige.

It’s time for my weekly word count check-in. At the end of every week, I post a screen shot from my writing results spreadsheet. This shows the current week and the three before. My week starts on Monday. The numbers are current through Sunday night. I also only average over six days. This allows me one day of no writing that doesn’t impact the weekly totals.

This week the number look about average, but I feel I didn’t do much. I had a serious lull in the middle of the week. A couple of big bursts early and late in the week rounded out the numbers. Hitting 50K would’ve been nice. But I just finished a 2K techincal post. Verifying the code while writing really drags things out. No more tonight.