All posts by Mark

Software, StoryBox

StoryBox 1.2.99 Released

Alright, here’s the story on this release. Basic ePub support is in. You still can’t set all of the properties, and you can’t set cover art or add art into the document, but if you want a quick export to ePub to read on your iPad, iPod, iPhone, Nook, or what have you, it’ll do that.

Picture support, too, is in, but mostly you can only look at them right now.

If these things are limited, why are you releasing them now? Well, there’s this little bug that cropped up again. The scrollbars went missing, again, on the Storyboard, and I need to get that fix out there. The issue is some problem with the development environment always resizing them so they’re only one pixel wide/tall. I think I’ve solved it now so that it won’t happen again (I’m crossing all my fingers and toes here).

http://www.storyboxsoftware.com/download.htm

Reading List

2010 Reading List

What follows is my 2010 Reading List. I don’t list books that I did not finish. Like I said in an earlier post, they are listed regardless of whether I liked them or not.

Fiction

Sandman Slim: A Novel Richard Kadrey
Serial Jack Kilborn & Blake Crouch
Half Share Nathan Lowell
The Warded Man Peter V. Brett
Not What She Seems Victorine Lieske
The Last Centurion John Ringo
Live Free Or Die John Ringo
In Hero Years… I’m Dead Michael A. Stackpole
Warbreaker Brandon Sanderson
His Majesty’s Dragon Naomi Novik
Married With Zombies Jesse Petersen
Hunger Games Suzanne Collins
Mated Zoe Winters
Claimed Zoe Winters
The Runelords David Farland
Best Served Cold Joe Abercrombie
The Cost of Betrayal David Dalglish
The Weight of Blood David Dalglish
Invasion William Meikle
On My Way to Paradise Dave Wolverton
The Retrieval Artist Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Destiny Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Kept Zoe Winters
Disturb J.A Konrath
Kris Longknife: Audacious Mike Shepherd
Kris Longknife: Intrepid Mike Shepherd
Kris Longknife: Undaunted Mike Shepherd
Footfall Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
A Hymn Before Battle John Ringo
Quarter Share Nathan Lowell
Norse Code Greg van Eekhout
Hunting Party Elizabeth Moon
Sporting Chance Elizabeth Moon
Winning Colors Elizabeth Moon
Once A Hero Elizabeth Moon
Rules of Engagement Elizabeth Moon
A Shadow Of All Night Falling Glen Cook
Guilty Pleasures Laurell K. Hamilton
Sundiver David Brin
Brave Men Run Matthew Wayne Selznick
Playing For Keeps Mur Lafferty
Lord of Chaos Robert Jordan
The Fires of Heaven Robert Jordan
Ender’s Game Orson Scott Card
Victory Conditions Elizabeth Moon
Command Decision Elizabeth Moon
Engaging the Enemy Elizabeth Moon
Marque and Reprisal Elizabeth Moon
Trading in Danger Elizabeth Moon
World War Z Max Brooks
When The Wind Blows James Patterson
The Man Who Killed His Brother Stephen R. Donaldson
The Hero of Ages Brandon Sanderson
The Well of Ascension Brandon Sanderson
Kris Longknife: Resolute Mike Shepherd
Kris Longknife: Defiant Mike Shepherd
Kris Longknife: Deserter Mike Shepherd
Kris Longknife: Mutineer Mike Shepherd
The Reality Dysfunction Peter F. Hamilton

Non-fiction

The Successful Novelist David Morrell
Outliers Malcolm Gladwell
On Writing Stephen King
Bounce Matthew Syed
The War of Art Steven Pressfield
The Frustrated Songwriters Handbook Karl Coryat & Nicholas Dobson
It’s Called Work for a Reason Larry Winget
Mindset Carol Dweck

Software, StoryBox

StoryBox Exports ePub

2 Comments

Yup, that’s right. The next version of StoryBox will export to ePub format. The question I have for you, and please comment if you feel strongly, is whether to release it before it’s complete.

Right now, it will export an ePub without a cover image. There are also some minor formatting limitations, like not being able to add empty lines just by hitting a few times. You can do it by putting
in your text, but that’s not ideal. It also doesn’t convert urls into clickable links.

However, I think it’s soooo cool that I really want to release it and have some or all of you try it out.

So, do you want to see it this weekend? Or would you rather I wait until it’s reasonably complete?

Note that it’s reasonably easy to open it in Calibre or Sigil and add a cover image.

Shattered, Writing

Finished first revision of Shattered

1 Comment

It’s about time. Today, I finished the first revision of Shattered. It still needs at least one more pass, but I’m going to take a break from it through the weekend.

You may have noticed (if you were watching the progress bar) that the first third of the book took significantly longer to work through than the last two thirds combined. This is due, in part, to how the book was written in the first place.

I started the book as a NaNoWriMo project back in 2009, and wrote the first four and a half chapters. Then the book sat, for various reasons, until August of 2010, at which point, I blasted through the rest of the book in about 45 days.

Between those two dates, some of the details and motivations changed. The book didn’t go in quite the same direction I’d originally intended, and there were things in the last two thirds that really didn’t flow from the first third. The first chapter was pretty much awful and I rewrote it completely. Other parts of the first five also got large rewrites. The first third required a lot of work.

The last two thirds were much better and flowed together quite nicely. They didn’t need many structural changes.

On Monday, I’m going to start working through it, looking for all the little mistakes and stilted dialog and inconsistencies that I’m sure still exist. I hope to have that done by the end of the month.

It’s a neat story, I think, and I’m excited to show it off.