Wasted Continuum

Today, I met Mignon Fogarty, one of my favorite podcasters. She is more commonly known as Grammar Girl in which she does a podcasts that gives a grammar tip in a fun and informative manner in every episode. I was introduced to her work on Absolute Science, her podcast about science. Being complete nerd when it comes to science, I quickly digested all the past episodes. Sadly, at the time that I started listening to Absolute Science was also when the show was nearing its end. Because I loved that podcast so much I wanted to give Grammar Girl a try too. Not surprisingly, I was hooked on it rather quickly.

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My trial version of MarsEdit 2 is about to expire. MarsEdit is a blog publishing application from the people at Red Sweater Software. I’ve been using it to write for Wasted Continuum. After using it almost several times daily, I have decided to purchase it. It has already saved me from losing my work at least twice during this 30 day trial period. MarsEdit has definitely improved my workflow. With it’s tight integration to my Flickr account and simple template creation for my often used tags, it’s almost a no-brainer. MarsEdit is definitely one of those applications where you don’t know what you needed until you use it. There are so many little shortcuts and features that makes writing for a blog simple again. MarsEdit works seamlessly with WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type, LiveJournal, Drupal, Vox, and more. If you have been looking for a way to organize and streamline your blogging workflow, you should must give MarsEdit a chance. MarsEdit 2 is available for OS X 10.4 or 10.5 for $29.95. You can try a 30 day demo here.

Red Sweater Software
MarsEdit

I’ve been really putting off my writing this year. It was even one of my new year resolutions to write more. Well, now that I have my MacBook Pro and a fresh install of JDarkRoom, I have an incredible writing environment. In fact, right now, I’m sitting in one of my favorite coffeehouses with my laptop blogging away with a cup of dirty chai by my side. I’ve got iTunes pumping out some background music. I’ve been here for a good half an hour and I still have enough batteries to last another three hours or so before I have to plug in. I’m loving how portable my Mac is compared to my 17″ Sager. All I need now is to save up some moneys and buy the Crumpler bag for my new laptop. I love Crumpler. I have one for my Rebel XT. I have nothing but good things to say about Crumpler.

To get back to my original point. I’ve been rereading my novel over and I’m ready to dive back into it. I have missed my characters and can’t wait to finish their stories. I know my original goal was to finish it for NaNoWriMo, but I knew going in that I could actually do that. I did have another to actually finish before next November. I am going to try and complete it well before that though. My goal is to finish this novel, still untitled, in a month or two and then go through the editing process. After that, I think I’m going to publish it through LuLu and get a hard copy of it for myself.

It’s now 12:00am, November 1, here in Minnesota. Time to start on my novel. I have a few ideas that I’m going to put down. If you haven’t signed up for NaNoWriMo yet, go now.

Lifehacker just featured an posting on NaNoWriMo. “What the heck is a NaNoWriMo?”, you say. Well, November is National Novel Writing Month and tomorrow is your chance to turn the idea you had kicking around in your head into a best-selling novel.

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

What if you’re not a writer? Doesn’t matter. The point of NaNoWriMo is not about quality. The point is to force yourself to write. For me, I think I’m going to do just to see how far I can go. I’ve never attempted a novel before but this a perfect forum for it.

I just downloaded Dark Room for my laptop and will be creating a NaNoWriMo account right after I post this. Stop reading and go write. Actually, don’t cheat. Start writing tomorrow. Make sure you check out the rules of the contest. They are fairly simple.