Reviews

I appreciate how much better my Kindle has made my life.

I will never give up having at least a laptop, but I’m not chained to it anymore. I have something that more easily fits my hand. I can work outside or thanks to Swype write while I’m walking somewhere.

I use ColorNote to write posts, then email them either to myself or directly to my blog. I’ve nearly completed a novel with it.

And for proofing … The Kindle has become my hero.

I make a mobi file, then use notes to tell myself where changes should be, and the dictionary has saved me a few headaches. I bookmark the page where I left off so I never lose my place. And when I’m all done, I see where changes need to be made and I do a Find & Replace on my document.

Maybe I’ll upgrade to a better and fancier tablet, but the Kindle has been a great introduction for me. It’s given me a taste for what I want a tablet to do and I didn’t have to sell my soul to afford it.

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Read slashy stories at Kimichee.

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Have an excerpt of “Fierce,” by Harper Kingsley. mm contemporary.

EXCERPT:
Rating: teen+ to be safe

Being on location was one of those things Simon used to love but that now made his stomach churn nervously. He didn’t really like being out of his safety zone, but it was something he felt had to be done.

Looking over and being able to see Byron Hughes standing with the rest of the crew made him feel better. His bodyguard had a gun and was willing to use it. He was perfectly safe.

“All right, Simon, in this scene you and Colby are entering the Dragon’s Tomb,” the director, Paul Bleek, said. “Just like in practice, you bring the gun up and it’s just ‘bang-bang-bang.’ Colby, you get hit and fall down, knocking over the Orb. We all good?”

Colby nodded and Simon said, “We good.”

They were standing in front of the archway leading to the “Dragon’s Tomb,” a temple built by the set designers in the middle of the desert. It was already hot and Simon could feel the sweat trickling down his forehead and sticking his clothes to his skin.

Waiting for the cue, he flashed a smile at Colby. “So what’s it like being the male Lara Croft?”

Colby Jackson gave his world famous grin. He really was amazingly good looking, a tall African-American with a leanly muscled body and a perfectly trimmed beard. “I feel very pretty.”

They’d never worked together though they’d known each other for years. It had only been because Colby asked so nicely that Simon had even accepted the role of “Percy Walden,” assistant and sidekick to itinerant explorer “Nicholas Blaine.”

“Places!”

“Let’s Indiana Jones this bitch up,” Simon said, earning himself a laugh.

Dressed in black pants, a long-sleeved black shirt, and a flak vest jangling with all kinds of faux-weaponry, Simon already felt like he needed a break and they hadn’t really even started yet.

“All right… Action!” Bleek called.

Simon drew in a deep breath and hurtled forward and kicked the stone door down with a grunt. He had a gun in his hand and he didn’t hesitate to run forward into the tomb. His head moved back and forth alertly and it seemed natural to bring his gun up and start shooting.

An Asian-looking tomb all shining with gold and jade. Dangerous looking men in lots of brown and gray clothing toting machine guns as they worked at stripping the place bare of treasure. They dropped what they were doing when he started shooting them and brought their own weapons up.

There were screams and shouts and the plink-plink of misses near his head and feet as he jumped, rolled, and dodged until every one of them was dead.

He stood from his crouch and turned to Colby. “It’s clear, sir.”

Colby sauntered in, his lips forming a disappointed moue. “Really, Percy, did you have to come charging through like a bull in a china shop? Perhaps some of these gentlemen would have liked the chance to surrender before you shot them in the face?”

Simon holstered his gun with a shrug. “We’ll never know now, will we?”

Colby smiled and started to say something, then hesitated. His expression congealed, his brows coming together, and he raised his right hand to his left shoulder.

“Sir?” Simon took a step toward him.

Colby pulled his hand away and there was blood on his fingers. He half-turned and there was a giant, bleeding wound in his back. “I think I’ve been shot,” he said calmly, then his legs wobbled and he stumbled sideways before collapsing. His flailing arm knocked against the pedestal and the glass Orb trembled and fell with a crash against the floor.

There was a puff of glittery dust that obscured everything.

/EXCERPT

Panoply at Amazon

I guess I’m a member of the tablet family.

I just got my Kindle Fire HD 8.9 and I’ve completely fallen in love with the ease of use. The minute I took it out of the box I was incredibly happy.

Then like four hours into my having it, Amazon did an update and wow, completely changed my world.

Swype.

The new keyboard allows sweeping from one letter to another to write words with your stylus. It’s so easy to do. It’s like drawing and it bypasses the need for an external keyboard at all. And with how quickly it learns your draw patterns, you could be drawing up your novel in less than five minutes.

I can already see people unable to write or type because of disability being given a voice of their own. And it’s at an amazingly affordable price.

Don’t believe me that the new sweep writing is awesome? Well, I wrote this whole thing with ColorNote Notepad and it was shockingly easy. Even more so than regular handwriting. I didn’t even have to hit the space bar–I just flowed from one word to the next and I barely had to touch the screen. So if you have a weak grip, all you have to do is just touch the screen with your stylus in a swirling pattern and you’re writing. Just make sure you catch the first and last letters and maybe a letter in the middle.

Having a tablet is great for me and my budding writing career because I don’t let myself get as distracted as I do when I use my laptop. Switching between apps means I don’t have my browser open as a window I can jump to. I have no self control and I would immediately spend
seven hours screwing around on the internet.

With my Kindle I have done an amazing amount in a short amount of time:

I have played games — I will admit that this might be a bit of a problem for me, since I’ll probably want to play all the time.Still, great fun, lots of free games if you’re cheap (like me.)

I have read books — Okay, this is where the Kindle won me over. Not only did I load my Kindle books, I also put on a bunch of downloaded books with Calibre (you might have to update your version of Calibre.) Still, I was able to download stories from Tthfanfic and AO3, then
move them to where I wanted with ES File Manager. So I now have a portable fanfic machine. Makes me so happy.

I have Tweeted — I got the Twitter app and I’ve been sending tweets and it was pretty easy, so that’s nice. I do like keeping you apprised of my still being alive.

I have watched Netflix and Hulu movies — Netflix needs to learn how to buffer, or maybe I just need to change up my settings, but Hulu was beautiful. I also checked out Viki, which worked great, I just wish DramaFever would come out with a Kindle capable app. Still, love watching what I want when I want.

I chose the Kindle Fire HD even though my brother tried to talk me out of it because I was hoping to write with it. Since I didn’t get a separate keyboard,I was starting to think I might have made a mistake because I had to tap hard to get the stylus to work. The Swype update
is a big step forward for writers using tablets. The words just seem to flow.

My big request is for the keyboard to be moved up the screen. It’s hard trying to see what I’m doing. My hand gets in the way of seeing the Amazon keyboard.

Anyways, love the Kindle Fire HD. Does what I want and didn’t cost ridiculous amounts of money.

My advice though, if you’re going to use one to write on, you can write what you want on a free notepad app, then email your writing to yourself as a backup. Then it’s simple to select and copy from your email and paste the writing into your word processing program. Backs
everything up easily and doesn’t cost anything. And yes, I am incredibly frugal, but what I really like is being able to write in bed without the heavy weight of a laptop over-heating on my legs. Very very nice.

I totally recommend the Kindle Fire HD as a winning Christmas or birthday gift. Now that I’ve got mine I have no problem with them being sold to the point of selling out of stock. Enjoy. Happy holiday shopping.

Hogfather at Amazon

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Title: Keller #1
Writer: Trevor Luckman
Penciler/Inker: Ryan Gutierrez
Colorist: Ashley Christensen
Letter: Fred C. Stresing

Summary: Martin Keller a 700 year old vampire has to deal with his new life after he undergoes a procedure that makes him human. Keller is now hunted by a group of vampires determined to kill him for betraying his race. As a civil war among vampires rages, he must protect himself and his friends without his supernatural abilities.

Panoply at Amazon

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Title: The Mighty Titan
Writer/Creator: Joe Martino
Penciler: Luca Cicchitti
Penciler: Cory Smith
Inker: Jeff Austin
Colorist: Keith J. Betancourt
Letterer: Johnny Lowe
Cover art by: Jerry Ordway, Jamal Igle, John Byrne, Bob McLeod, and Phil Jimenez

5 Issue Miniseries that wraps Joe Martino’s cancer in a superhero shell. Who will protect The Mighty Titan’s alter ego from cancer?

 

From Joe Martino: “The Mighty Titan is my newest creation that essentially takes my cancer (and other) experiences and wraps them in a superhero shell. This isn’t autobiographical. I have researched and talked to other cancer survivors to try and get the feeling of what other people have experienced. The plan is to do a 5 issue mini-series with the possibility of it continuing. I created Titan in 2004 during my first bout with Kidney cancer. It was a tough decision to take some of my personal experiences and put them to paper in order to entertain and possibly allow people a glimpse of what some of us go through while battling this potentialy deadly disease.

“Make no mistake, this is still a cool, fun superhero book with vile villians, giant Mechas and some really great mythological creatures. But there is certainly an underlying theme of fear and loss.”