New Design And Other Various And Sundry Items

Well, how about this neatness. I logged on this afternoon to write a little something while jamming to a Dave Matthews live album and found out that Blogger is hooking us up with some fun new templates and backgrounds. So I played around until I found something I liked. What do you think?

Progress is somewhat slow on my new project with Devan, partly because I'm still mulling over my approach in my own head and party because the days have been busy here lately. However, I'm still pretty excited and optimistic about where this is all going.

I did polish off Imager: The First Book of the Imager Portfolio by L.E. Modesitt Jr.. I think with this series Modesitt has created something that I'm going to enjoy just about as much as his Saga of Recluse. I believe I'll wait until the price drops a bit on book two before taking that plunge. In the mean time, I have four more voyages awaiting my reading pleasure with Captain Jack Aubrey. Birds with french fries aren't as happy as I am about that.

Modesitt, again, made me reconsider my approach to writing. What he does with his characters and the way he builds the worlds he creates just leaves me sitting in awe of that talent. I really admire the approach he takes in making his character human first and giving the reader every opportunity to identify with him before the hero of the tale really becomes the hero. It just makes for a slower, much more satisfying and solid read as  opposed to jumping all over the place to different perspectives. I believe I'm just about decided that his style is about to have a major impact on my own writing.

In related news, Imager was only the third book that I've actually paid for on my Kindle (the other 30 were free) and the second time that I've polished off an entire novel on that handy little gadget. There's no doubt that it has changed the way I shop for books. These days I just go into a book store to see what titles I'm interested in downloading. I know it is a pretty broad departure from having a library stocked full of actual hard copies of books, but carrying my library around in my hand somehow appeals to me too. I'm hoping that it'll be much more appreciated if I get to go on any kind of vacation later this year.

I did come to appreciate the fact that I could take notes on what I read, without damaging the book, and store those notes in my Kindle for access later. That feature is great for those times when something strikes me and I find myself staring at the same page for minutes on end as I follow the thought down the rabbit hole.

And speaking of all this writing, I'd better go get something on paper...