Darcy Pattison Reading

But what if there’s nothing going in? I’ve been reading less lately and it shows in less coming out. Well, that’s not strictly true. I’ve been reading, but mostly internet articles, websites, blogs–not books. This week, though,I’ve read two novels and have a stack of a couple more to read. It’s a breath of fresh air, a coming home that I didn’t know I needed to do.

Why did I leave? I’ve been swept up in the online world for a bit this year. It’s a vast, uncharted world of opinion, with bright spots of voice and humor. Reading around has been interesting, but even here, my habits were shallow, skimming and not staying for a long time on any site.

But this week, I read two novels and was swept away in Story, falling in love again with the language, characters, events,with the way you get lost in the flow of a story. Hours pass, as you travel, meet new people, feel strange emotions, live in the moment of Story. I read Eva Ibbotson’s fantasy middle grade novel, The Secrets of Platform 13. Then I jumped to an adult mystery with Look Again, by Lisa Scottoline. In line next is an adult fantasy novel, and waiting in the corner is a fantastic new bookstore I’ve just discovered. Meanwhile, I’ve stood in B&N and read through board book after board book, in search of the special ones to give to my new grandson for Christmas. From short to long, baby audience to adult, I am devouring Story.

I am gearing up to write and write and write a new story in January. And this is the right preparation: read and read and read. Literature in, literature out.

What books are you currently reading? What are you giving for Christmas presents?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

This is an odds and ends day! Lots of illness in my family, so I’m just trying to hang in there and get my 750 words written today.

Independent Bookstores Get Branded eBook Reader

IndieBound Mobile APP (only for Android right now, but soon for iOS) was released this week. It is a branded ebook reader, The IndieBound Reader™, that allows you to order shop local bookstores’ websites and purchase books. Read more here.

Children’s Book Character Costumes

Oliver is available to visit your school.

Nominations for Top Writing Blogs

Write To Done is having its “Nominate Your Favorite Writing Blog: 6th Annual Top 10 Blogs for Writers Contest”. Would you nominate Fiction Notes for this contest? Or, nominate your favorite blog?

Here’s how:

• Leave a comment with Darcy Pattison’s Fiction Notes at http://www.darcypattison.com. (Cut and paste, if it helps.)
• You must include a comment on why Fiction Notes deserves to be in the Top 10 Blogs for Writers, or the nomination doesn’t count.

DEADLINE: December 10, 2011.
Yes, I need you to nominate this blog, because to be considered, a a blog must be nominated more than once and the more the merrier. Hey–thanks. I appreciate each and every one of you.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Are Ebooks finally ready for Prime Time?

I hated it when, about ten years ago, my local library went to the online digital version of the reference book, Books in Print. I tried to look up something about quilts. There were about 5-600 entries beginning with Quilt in the title, and in the paper version, I’d just flip a couple pages and Voila! 2 seconds to find what I needed. In the online version, I had to go through about 30-40 screens before I came to the end of the Quilt titles. Wasted time. Are digital versions or ebooks still a waste of time? Maybe.

Are Ebooks Viable? Yes.

When are ebooks used the most? When traveling.
Friends report that they love to load up several ebooks and keep the weight down in their luggage. Ebooks are used in schools, when textbooks are changed often, as a way to reduce costs to the student. Ebooks are here to stay and will probably co-exist with paper versions for a long time.

We’re going to read ebooks, that battle has been won. The next question is this: are dedicated ebook readers the best option for reading ebooks? Should you buy a Kindle or Sony ebook reader (or some other brand) as a Christmas gift?

Dedicated Readers, iPods and Screens. The biggest problem with reading ebooks has traditionally been the inferior quality of screens and the eye-strain of reading from a screen. In some ways, this is a McGuffin, because, well, we all read online right now, and many of us read many hours a day from a computer screen.

Enter e-ink. It is supposed to be a higher quality, less eye-strain and should be available in color in another year or so. So, let’s agree that the screen-quality problem is about to be solved, or else call it a moot point.

What Happened While You Were So Self-Absorbed. But there’s a complication when deciding on how to read ebooks: technology hasn’t stood still while e-ink has been developing. We now have the iPhone and other smart phones. Here’s where I think the current discussion of ebooks goes wrong. I mean, how many pieces of technology do I want to carry around? The answer for most of us is, not many. Which is why the Apps market for smart phones is so dynamic right now. If I’m carrying around this smart phone, which is always hooked up to the net, then why not do everything on this one piece of equipment.

Optimal Screen Size for Multiple Tasks. Which changes the problem from screen quality to screen size. What is the optimal size screen for multiple tasks? For me, most smart phones fail this test. I want huge, 18″ or bigger, flat-screen, best-quality-I-can-afford monitors. But you can’t carry THAT around with you. And now, we’re down to this question: what size screen is the best compromise for portability, flexibility and easy viewing? What’s the best compromise of features and quality?

Do you see what has changed? My requirements for an ebook reader has been changed by the advent of smart phones. I now want one piece of electronics that has instant, almost-everywhere access to the internet; the screen must be large enough to read comfortably (very important), so I have flexibility in choosing what tasks I’ll do on this device; it wouldn’t hurt either, if it also included a keyboard in a usable size, instead of the teensy-tiny Blackberry and other smart phone keyboards.

Netbooks. For me, the answer is a NetBook.
Can you read ebooks on a netbook? Yes.
Is the netbook dedicated to one and only one task of reading an ebook? No. It’s versatile.
What about travel, is a netbook just as easy as, say, a Kindle? No. But it’s close. The weight is close to that of a hardcover book, making a netbook a good compromise because I gain the flexibility of tasks.
What about letting me choose my brand/style of equipment, instead of a proprietary device like Kindle? Yep, I can choose from a very wide assortment of netbooks, with all sorts of options.
With any dedicated reader except Kindle, I also gain that wi-fi access. (That will likely change in the next few years, with more ebook readers adding internet access.)

So, what’s the best way to read on a Netbook? For those companies using e-pub standards, there are several “desk-top” applications that make ebooks easy to read. The Mobipocket reader is the one I currently use.

Bottom line: I won’t buy a dedicated ebook reader any time soon. Instead, at about the same price, I have a netbook.

Why I Choose a Netbook over a Dedicated Ebook Reader

Advantages

• Small, weighs about the same as a hardcover book.
• Wi-fi enabled
• Flexible computing for multiple tasks
• Good compromise for screen size and keyboard size

Disadvantages

• I can’t download from Amazon, because their Kindle format is proprietary and doesn’t fit with ePub standards. However, Mobipocket, Smashwords, Fictionwise and similar sites all have formats that I can read on my netbook.
• So far, netbooks can’t double as a phone. But neither do I have to get the smartest phone I can find, either, because the netbook can take over some of those tasks.

The Wayfinder, my fantasy novel is now available is now available as an ebook on Mobipocket.com

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Yep. You gotta get feedback on your novel and you gotta act on it. On everything? Yep. But what if. . .

Yes! Oh! No? Uh-oh! Huh?

Okay. Here are five reactions I’ve had to recent feedback: Yes! Oh! No? Uh-oh! Huh?

• Yes! It’s great when feedback confirms what you were already thinking needed work. You knew this area was weak, and sure enough, the reader confirmed it. These changes or revisions to your novel are made easier by this confirmation.



• Oh! These are unexpected, new ideas for ways to solve a problem in a particular way. I love it when the reader gets what I’m doing in this novel and suggests a perfect revision. These are often ideas about adding, omitting, changing or rearranging.

  For example, one comment recently was to take a line from page 76 and use it as the opening line. I’m still not sure it will work, but it’s shaken me out of my rut on that first line and now I’m more likely to find the right place to start.

• No? Now what? The hardest comments are those which contradict what I set out to do. Did the reader just not understand the story, or am I not understanding my story? It’s confusing for a while and hard to decide because, in the end, I must trust my own judgment – something every novel faces, but something that takes courage. Fortunately, I’m not getting lots of these, but even one throws me for a loop for a while.
• Uh-Oh! I hate it when I know what I meant, but the reader clearly didn’t get it when they read this draft of the novel. That means the story is still stuck in my head and it’s not on paper yet. Clarity. That’s the goal when facing these type comments. Not changing my ideas, or abandoning them. Just clarifying them, so the reader gets it. THEN, we’ll see if the next reader of the next draft has another reaction. But first, I want my idea to be clear to the reader before I abandon or modify it.
• Huh? I love these wild card comments. My first response is, where did THAT come from? Sometimes, these odd-ball comments on the novel can spark a fresher, more unusual, more interesting way of showing the story. It’s a revision I would never have thought of but – WOW! – what a great idea.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win