journal
Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad; whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen.
- John le Carre
- John le Carre
Let's cut right to the chase. Here's the sneak peek of the cover for my forthcoming serialized fiction - Ghost Town. The first episode should be released very soon, if all goes as planned within the week. I haven't decided yet if it will be a weekly or bi-weekly release but it'll be between those time frames. The way it's looking, it might end up being 5 to 6 episode total but we shall see. These things have a way of expanding beyond the original concept and taking on a life of its own.
I'll post the synopsis during the release date. For now, enjoy the eye candy. I'll discuss the cover design process in another post but there's one thing I wanted to introduce to this particular series which is a logo/stamp which is on the upper left corner. I've been a fan of pulp art for some time now but lately I've been really using them for inspiration not only for stories but also for the images associated with it. The stamp has Z2R (for zerotorockstar) and an old-school toy robot image. For my next post I'll upload a larger image so you can see the details. Website updates Like the new digs? I figured it's time for a new look. I pared down to the bare essentials to eliminate distractions. I haven't done much blogging the past year but I have done quite a bit of fiction writing. For the next year the goal is to ship out more of it.
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First release of 2012 is a short story - clocking at a bit over 9k words. Did the cover design to this one as usual. This one's called Primer. Available in Amazon and Smashwords for a whopping $1.50 Synopsis: Five years ago, the monsters arrived and decimated the village. Everyone perished...except the children. The young band of survivors have had to fend for themselves ever since, keeping a close eye on the nearby forest where the monsters have receded until the time is right. But children grow up and become adults - and that's when the monsters come out of hiding. Around here, birthdays are feared, not celebrated. *** If you're into survivalist, zombie, apocalyptic type fiction - you're definitely going to want to give this one a read. More to come shortly. Site changes: Rearranged this place a bit. There's no way I can keep up with the other sections. You can still sign up for the newsletter for occasional updates. But I wanted to really eliminate the unnecessary and tidy up the place even more in accordance with my current goals. There's still some minor tweaking to do esp. in the books section but as it stands I think it'll stay this way for a bit.
Yours truly, Your friendly neighborhood letter-puncher Dear friends / readers / wanderers:
I hope you have everything you need. Happy Holidays Here I come to save the day! No NaNoWriMo for me this year. I feel like the kid that skipped on prom night - lots of excitement for the annual novel writing madness, and me? Just can't do it. I was a Nano participant a couple of years back and I got up to the midpoint and just couldn't go anymore. But I've written significantly more since then. This time around I'm skipping it because: 1) I've got a lot of studying to do for my current coursework. 2) I have a book and a couple of other things I'd like to get out by the end of 2011. 3) I have a handful of sites to run. Writing schedule: I'm winging it baby. Anytime, anywhere. Currently inspired by: The Black Angels (music) Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (music) Vintage Posters (art) Survivalism (topic, reading, movement) Death Note and The Filth (comic books) Geeking out on: Matte Painting (art & technique) The Big Bang Theory (TV show) On Halloween: Not enough trick or treaters. Horror movie marathons never get old. Ghost story? I have a few paranormal experiences. You know the cold chill that paranormal investigators talk about? Yeah, that shit is real. Also shadow figures. And those otherworldly entities do drain the power out of electronic devices. That's all I have to say about that. It still gives me the creeps. I have a few moments to spare and have been thinking about this since this morning so I thought I'd jot it down real quick and share. What tabs do you have open most frequently? I'm asking because it really says a lot about where your focus is at that very moment. Does it align with your daily goals or is it just a mish-mash of different pages that interest you? When you click that browser open, which tabs do you leave open longer than the others? Maybe you're one of those rare breeds that can actually just leave one tab open at a time. I'm not. I've been consciously keeping tabs on my tabs for about a month now and for the last week I've had these 3 open almost all of the time: one to make lists, one to take notes, and one to keep time. More specifically: Teuxdeux - the most simple to-do list ever. Anything you don't finish automatically rolls over to the next day. I take care of web-based tasks in the order that I can knock them out the fastest. Evernote - I can't say enough good things about this. I just wrote an entire novella on it. Eggtimer (yes it's an actual site name) - My default is 1 hour of writing. If I feel up to it I just add another hour or two. You'd be surprised how much more you write when you have a timer silently chasing your ass in the background. Honorary mentions: Spotify - it's technically not an open a tab, but a desktop application. Gotta keep that music flowing, helps me focus. Hootsuite - When I take my breaks in between, I pop in here to chat. I can broadcast simultaneously to Facebook if I want to. When it's time to get back to writing I click it close or else it takes over everything.So be aware of how you spend your time, what's keeping your attention, and how that fits in your goals of the day, or goals for the week, or whatever. P.S. I purposely did not put the hyperlink on the sites mentioned because then you would've clicked on it and not finished reading, a quick Google search is all it takes to track them down. =) P.P.S. In case you were wondering what's up with the picture of a panda with a gun....nothing behind it really. I think it's funny. And it's a panda...with a gun! Come on. It's a wee bit funny. I recorded this video awhile back and never got to upload - my classes this last semester kept me super busy. So now here it is. Snapped it up for an excellent price, I was looking for something more portable and pocket-sized and I originally thought I'd end up w/ a Flip but I couldn't pass this up. Anyway in the vid I mentioned that there didn't seem to be any ArcSoft software. I was looking for an actual disc but apparently the camera is pre-loaded with it. The first time you plug it into a USB drive the option to install the ArcSoft software pops up. My mistake. Also, there's an update on the software which it will automatically detect and ask you if you'd like to skip on it or proceed. It was painless, no hassle and only took a minute or two. I've tried the editing software that came with it and it works well, I'll try to do a more in depth review or at least a follow up once I get a little more use out of it. Let's start with the bad. 1) When you zoom in, the quality of the video file becomes noticeably grainy during playback and the image stabilization won't work that well. It gets a bit shaky.So no extreme close ups taken from all the way at the back of an auditorium or whatever. 2) The camera froze a couple of times since I've had it (maybe a couple of months or so), no biggie, just pop the battery out and pop it right back in. No loss of data. 3) Overall product design is nice except for the USB connector plug that pops off from the side - it's too short and the camera ends up bumping with all the other wires I have plugged in next to the USB input. Minor issue but it gets really annoying when you have to unplug the mouse or the laptop cooler just to make room for the camera. (I'm just being nitpicky I guess) 4) Not for low light settings, it doesn't have an external light source. 5) This is more on Office Max - where I ordered this. The camera came in a large box, just shuffling around inside with no packing peanuts or anything. Could've been packed better I think. The Good: An external mic can be plugged in for better audio. As I mentioned in the vid I'll be picking one up and trying it out, will let you know how it goes. Even without it, the audio is sufficient. It has a place for a tripod attachment. Expandable storage. HDMI cord - most companies don't include this (as I've mentioned in the vid) Tons of accessories. What I use it for: Mainly to capture images of my family and whatever we're up to at the moment. I also use it to take pix of food - yeah I'm a bit of a foodie. I like cooking when I have time and we enjoy eating out when we can. Take reference photos for drawings/illustrations as well as images used as photoshop textures (for photomanipulation). I'm not going to go over specs here but it has a lot going for it. Overall impression Great portable and affordable HD camera for casual use. Takes pretty good quality vids (in MOV format), just keep it short (easier to edit). The still camera produces great images (plus there's a macro mode). Recommended nerd gear to add on to your arsenal.
First things first:
I'm on Kindlegraph - if you want signed and inscribed copies of my eBooks A video review of Bad Juju: Vol. 2 - many thanks again to @meandersfit for taking the time do this.
Writing-related stuff I managed to get done in the last week and a half:
This upcoming week's writing-related goals: 1 post - zerotorockstar.com Finish one of my many WIPs. That's right, finish it. I'm starting this sucker today - have the outline in front of me. Will let you know next week how it went. Oh yeah, school started this week so the time management skills is in fuel rocket mode right now. Woo!!! How's your week been? ****** If you like this post pls. take the time to Tweet RT, link back, send a link to someone who might like it, subscribe to my blog, sign up for the newsletter, leave a comment, etc. |
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