Test Post: Blogging on MyTouch

Image via CrunchBase

I blogged on my Blackberry. I got this MyTouch in February, and I'm just now trying mobile blogging from this phone. Yes, I'm easily distracted.

Anyhoo, I'm using Blogger-droid from Android Market. The photo is from one of my Picasa photo albums. (Photo was edited. See below.) Picasa is required for this app. Don't like that, but only because I don't use Picasa very much.

First thing I checked was if it could save drafts. It does. Second thing I noticed is that the predictive text function isn't working. I don't like that, either. Guess I'd better brush up on my texting accuracy skills, or find another app that will allow predictive text to work.
 
My point in all this is that I don't have the luxury of having a job that allows me to bring my netbook to work anymore. That is what saved my ass during NaNoWriMo last year. So the time I am at the keyboard has been greatly reduced.

I have to find a way to blog on the go as well as work on my novels on the go. My productivity must increase in proportion to the reduced amount of time I now spend at my computer. Hopefully this phone will save my ass this November. Saving as draft now to check if that works. It does.

I have Dropbox, Documents to Go, and the amazing Evernote all on my phone for working on my novels. But I need to blog more often. I got a kick in the creative pants in June on Twitter from my friend Warren Wooden of PLR Internet Marketing. Thank you for that kick, Warren. I needed it. Moreover, I deserved it. Six months with no post! *hangs head in shame* I told you I get distracted easily, didn't I? *checks post* Yes, I did.

I'm also going to check out blogaway 4.2 from Android Market, and also Mail2Blogger with my Gmail. So there will possible be more posts similar to this one. I know they aren't interesting. Sorry 'bout that.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.7

Update: Predictive text is working in edit mode. Links are a pain in the ass on the phone. And I won't lie. I've got that Honest Scrap Blog Award thingie on the sidebar, so I have to be honest. I updated and edited some of this post and changed the post pic using Zemanta on Elvira, my trusty desktop eMachine. And I am not ashamed to admit that. Some habits are hard to break. ;)
Update2: blogaway 4.2 from Android Market won't work right on my phone. That is really sad because that app rocks! It lists all your blog posts and saves drafts. Predictive text works in it. You can even read blogs with it, but it doesn't automatically load my Google Reader, so you have to add the blogs URLs you want to read manually. I don't like manually adding anything nowadays. If the bugs were fixed, this would be the best blogging app for Android in my opinion. I'm following them on Twitter @blogaway to hopefully find some solutions.

Oh, well. I guess I'll stick with Blogger-droid for now. Less temptation to read instead of write that way. And God knows I am distracted easily enough these days. ;) It's a pretty cool app. It lists all my published posts, and when I click on them they come up in my browser so I can see my whole blog. I like that. It seems a little unstable, though. Sometimes the page won't load when I click on "Published Posts." Other than that, it's very good. If the instability continues, I'll have to uninstall and stick with Evernote and Mail2Blogger. I just can't label in Mail2Blogger, and that's pretty important for my blog posts. What's the point of mobile blogging if I have to get on the computer and edit my post for something as trivial as a label? ;)

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New Look for the New Year

The blog has a new look to go along with the new horizons I'm moving toward. I'm very pleased, and I hope you like it. Please leave me some comments and let me know what you think. Just click 'Friends Said' at the top of this post.

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The Purple Bar: Nirvana

NaNoWriMo Soundtrack song that was playing when I validated the win: "Come As You Are" by Nirvana. I came with no plot. No plot? No problem! ;)

On Nov. 1st I had absolutely no idea what to write. I knew Lily's story wasn't finished, but didn't have any ideas about where it was going to go. This month has been a series of discoveries and moments of amazement as I watched her story unfold on the page before me. I started this journey last year with other writers from all around the globe. I've 'met' some wonderful people, and received so much encouragement from everyone. I can't tell you how much of a 'wannabe' writer I felt like when I started my first NaNoWriMo last year. Could I do it? Was I just fooling myself? Could I do this and dare to call myself a 'novelist' when I had yet to publish a novel? (Notice I said 'yet' to publish a novel. I'm a firm believer in mentally manifesting what you desire. The universe usually delivers. It will happen, hopefully soon.)

I'd wanted to be a novelist ever since I was fourteen years old and read "The Shining" by Stephen King. I didn't sleep for three days and was constantly nervous. I startled at the slightest noise, for certain Jack Torrance was after me with an axe.

I had my "Aha!" moment right then and there. I wanted to be a novelist. I wanted to write novels that made people lose track of time. To forget the dishes in the sink, the bills, their problems. And look up at the clock amazed that they had been reading for hours. That's the kind of writer I wanted to be. And I still want to be a writer on that level of skill. I'm not comparing myself to Stephen King. That would be insane on my part. He's the Master of Horror, and always will be in my book. But it's his level of skill and ability to take me out of my own world and put me in his that I admire. And it's a world that I don't want to leave once I'm in it. That's what I want to achieve as a novelist. To take my readers out of their world and put them in the one I've put down on paper. And make them want to stay in that world I created, and be filled with regret when they reach the last page and have to leave.

But last year when I finished "Cast the Circle Widdershins" and not only tied up the plot in the ending but also a sub-plot, I was amazed. I couldn't believe I had tied up all the loose ends without even thinking about it very much. I thought, "Maybe I can do this again. Maybe I can tell a story, and it be good."

And I must say that this story is really getting good, even if I did write it. I'm anxious to find out what happens myself. :)

"Cast the Circle Widdershins" isn't finished. And neither is "Call the Four Corners". I've yet to type "The End" on this second novel in a series of four.

Stay tuned. It's going to be a wild ride.


P.S. Happy Birthday, Toney. I miss you.

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The Strongest Start Novel Writing Competition 2009

I got an interesting email in my inbox today. The Strongest Start Novel Competition 2009* is underway. Deadline for entries is May 16, 2009. The First Place prize is sweet with $500 cash and a self-publishing package! The prize provider is BookSurge, an Amazon company. Amazon also sponsors the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest.

I am thinking about entering this competition, as I did not get to enter the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest due to having undiagnosed Celiac disease at the time. I got my diagnosis in February of this year, and I'm just now making significant progress and able to go back to work. Plus the Strongest Start competition is only requiring the first three chapters for submission and not the whole novel. I can do that. Editing the first three chapters in two weeks is a much less overwhelming task than trying to edit a 50k word manuscript in three months. I did not have time to edit my whole novel for the Breakthrough Novel Award contest. Which is a pity, because I think my novel might have had a chance. This year when I compete in NaNoWriMo I will have a better idea of what I'm looking at and what I need to have accomplished by December so that editing won't be such a daunting task.

I'm really blessed that I have a job where I can take my manuscript and edit while I am at work.

*Membership at the site is required. The yearly fee is $49.95. Maybe I can swing that? We'll see. *sigh* Stupid recession.

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Inspiration. Some days it actually shows up.

The writer's life. It's not exactly what I envisioned it to be. On the days that inspiration actually shows up, I'll get three or four ideas for articles. Some days an idea or two for the next chapter of my novel will pop in my head. Or maybe a whole poem will suddenly start unfolding in my brain, and the next thing I know I'm scrambling for pen and paper, struggling to write as fast as my thoughts. Most of the time I don't lose the material. Some days I just can't write fast enough. Evidently my muse, Melpomene, is camping out in the back yard and I just didn't know it on those days.

Then there are days that there's just nothing there. I'll do my morning pages, hoping to shake something loose. The amount of time it takes me to fill those three pages of longhand lets me know if I'm going to have a productive day or not. I finally give up, and look out the sliding-glass door to see an abandoned campsite, with Melpomene nowhere to be found. Oh, well. I guess it just turned into a research day. Maybe tomorrow...

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