Monday, October 30, 2023

Emily Suvada - This Mortal Coil / This Cruel Design / This Vicious Curse

Audiobook Review

Post apocalyptic YA with a great concept that becomes a little too far-fetched in the latter half of the third book. Concept: the world is overrun by a virus that blows up people. The only way to survive is eating the flesh of someone who’s sick but didn’t yet explode.

From there we move into split brains, gen splicing, and virtual reality, served with a dash of betrayal and a royal helping of romance. Like I said, pretty good all the way up to the virtual reality, that’s where it looses some steam.

Sunday, October 29, 2023

Indents in Kindle Create, using a Word source file

Writing.

Simple, step by step instructions on how to maintain indents for regular text, as set in Word.

In a nutshell: you need to set the indent used in Word styles.

Read on for examples and instructions.

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Lena Horne - One for my Baby (1957?)

Music.

Yeah, that’s a song, not a book 🤔 Although the original was performed by Fred Astaire in the musical The Sky’s the Limit, and the best known version is perhaps Sinatra’s, this one’s my to go to. It’s night, and nobody knows if it’s the end of a love affair, or the end of the world.

Shivers... I think I'll have to read a Chandler / Marlowe next...

Here she is on YouTube...

Monday, October 23, 2023

HDD - SMR versus CMR

Datatalk

Some newer drives use SMR instead of CMR recording. Unfortunately, manufacturers are not clear when they are using SMR technology.

SMR mostly affects the writing speed, may decrease lifespan, and greatly hampers (if not completely blocks) recovery of data upon OS failures, drive failures, or power failures. It should be cheaper (to manufacture)...

Patricia Briggs versus Faith Hunter (and a little demographics)

Column.

I’m alternating between two fantasy / romance series, Faith Hunter’s Jane Yellowrock and Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson, trying to understand the appeal and writing styles.

It’s interesting to see how they both approach the classical notion of vampires and werewolves, and twist the readers’ expectations, whilst on the other hand serving them exactly what they want...