Category Archive: Tips and Tricks

Jun 05

Wolfram Alpha: The Sci-FI Writer’s Friend

Any discussion of Wolfram Alpha should start with Wolfram’s flagship and source of dominance in the universe: Mathematica®, upon which I imagine Alpha is built.  There are any number of categories of software that leave me amazed that such works of accomplishment can even spawn from the limited human mind: regular expression parsers, C++ compilers, …

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Jan 19

The Portable Writing Solution

My need for portable writing came abruptly: my laptop died. It wasn’t a spectacular death; it just refused to recognize that I had the power adapter plugged in. If the battery would charge, it would still work. I noticed this failure a while before it drained its last watt-second, and made provisions to stay in …

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Jun 06

Greebling and the Future of Starships

Even if you haven’t heard of greebling before, you know what it is.  It’s that addition, in 3D modelling, of all kinds of silly and realistically unnecessary detail just to add interest.  It has a history in Hollywood, albeit one much shorter than the history of Hollywood itself. As of today, it has become the …

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Jun 04

How I Make Covers and Promotional Images: the Software

OK. I fooled you.  I can’t actually tell you how I do it, because there is a long learning curve.  However, my intent is good.  This post is a follow-up to an earlier one on self-publishing skills.  I’m hoping to leak this information out a bit at a time so as to not overload newcomers, …

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Sep 23

Ten Things that K-O my Suspension of Disbelief

It happens in film, I think, more often than in literature, but it infests all areas of storytelling in some way or another.  You know the moment.  Your suspension of disbelief is complete; you are immersed in a reality of someone else’s making, having forgotten that there is a world outside also called reality.  Then, …

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