Category: Internet

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featured Internet project the3six5

the3six5 Project.

I’m currently sitting in JFK Airport’s T5, waiting for my delayed flight back to San Francisco. It’s a New Year, another year, another chance at more changes and accomplishments. 2010 so far has been a mixed bucket: joys and sorrows. But, let’s write about something else, shall we?

I’ve signed up to participate in the3six5 project, a project featuring 365 people’s views on all the days of the year. Each author picks a day in the year 2010 to write about that day, the current events, reflections, etc. Basically, what are the lives like of 365 people in the US? After the project concludes (one year from now), the creators of the project (Len Kendall and Daniel Honigman) hope to publish the project as a “crowdsourced journal of 2010”.

There were several days I wanted to write an entry for, but unfortunately, all of those were already reserved for other authors. So, I went for the next best thing, which was essentially the next available consecutive date. Look out for my entry on April 24, 2010. Perhaps that day will be something spectacular.

Then again, isn’t everyday spectacular in its own way?

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#amwriting contest Internet magazine news Twitter

Cell-phone novels: A Fad or More?

I read about cell-phone novels in the latest issue of The Writer Magazine, and honestly, I hadn’t even thought about cell-phone novels before the article (didn’t even know they existed). According to the article, this genre really took off in Japan (not surprised), and is just now starting to catch on in the US (isn’t it always like that when it comes to technology/trends?). The point of a cell-phone novel is material posted serially via, you guessed it, cell-phones. 140 characters per post–sounds like Twitter to me. Two websites, Quillpill and Textnovel have popped up in the US serving this genre: post your clips on the sites, get user feedback, and, possibly win a prize for a well-written cell-phone novel.

I think this genre has potential, but it also seems too early to tell since I had never even heard of this genre before I read the article. Since the article was featured in The Writer Magazine, I’m not sure if non-writing folk know of this genre just yet.

For some people, reading novels on a cellphone works for them; for me, I still prefer to hold an old-fashioned book and read that way. I am sure there is still a considerable number of people who prefer to read books the old-fashioned way.

Also, I took a look at the two websites earlier and my first impression of both places (in terms of layout/usability of the site) was not so great. Quillpill had a cleaner look than Textnovel, but Quillpill was also pretty dark with colors. Textnovel uses lighter colors, but I can’t help but feel like the colors don’t work so well in usability either. The point of the websites is not to show off great layouts, but still…when it comes to drawing people in to use their services, it’d be better to have layouts that are usable and attractive to some sense.

But, that’s besides the point of what Quillpill and Textnovel are offering. Would I consider signing up with one of the websites to try things out? Well, I’d consider it, but I believe I could do the same (write a “cell-phone”/serial novel) via Twitter. The difference between Twitter and the other two sites is that Twitter doesn’t have the votes/feedback options. Textnovel offers a contest for the best written cell-phone novel, and one Textnovel writer is actually in the process of getting her novel published traditionally. Sounds like a good deal, right?

I’ll probably wait on this prospect since I’m already bogged down by my backlog of blog entries and other writing projects. I already post little clips of potential stories to Twitter, so I’m not sure if I’d be able to utilize Quillpill or Textnovel fully. Would you try these services out? Do you think the cell-phone novel can survive?

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featured Internet news Scribd

Featured on Scribd


Well, a pleasant surprise to the start of my Sunday: I usually check my email in the mornings, and today I was greeted with a notification email from Scribd. The email said that four people had indicated that they Liked my short story, “Riches to Rags”; I checked up on my post at the website and saw that somehow my story ended up having 300+ views in the past day. Surprising, until I noticed that the post had been awarded as Featured on the Scribd homepage. Nice, very nice.

So, check out the feature, read it, and if you like it, please let me know. Post some comments as well, let me know what you really think about the story. There’s always room for more improvement.

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#amwriting editing Internet news Novel 1

Blog mishaps & Laying out the cards

I apologize for the brief outage of the blog yesterday; I decided to upload my website and put it live on the web since I had been working on it diligently all weekend. However, all weekend I have also been racking my mind with how to make my blog show up on the homepage of my website. I had attempted to install WordPress on the server, but the program kept crashing and I could not figure out how to customize the layout. Due to the seemingly never-ending frustration with WordPress, I decided I would uninstall it and keep with this current blog.

Then, I thought I had figured out how to transfer/re-publish all my blog posts from this one to the FTP server…only to find that the blog posts simply weren’t showing up on the index page as I had hoped. I know there was some line of code I must have been missing, but I could not figure it out on my own. The Blogger Help Group was no help, ironically; nobody had an answer to my question. So, long story short, the blog has migrated back to Blogger for the timebeing. If any kind soul out there knows how to solve this problem, please, drop me a line here.

Aside from that, I did have a pretty good day of editing/revising yesterday. I laid out the PowerPoint slides I had printed out of Novel 1 and I was very impressed to see my first novel’s work all laid out on the floor (see picture above). Last night, I went through the cards and cut out a few nonessential scenes; the next step now is to shuffle some scenes, rearrange some parts of the plot. I also typed a brief plot synopsis to send to a few of my close friends for critique/insight; have received one response so far, and looking forward to the other responses.

I shared the first draft of one of my short short stories with one of the online writing communities I’ve been a part of for some time; got some tips and revised the story. The story, entitled “Tight Jeans” is now available under “Other Works” via downloading (.pdf) or you can view it on Scribd. Please feel free to read and review the short. Let me know what you think.

More works will be available soon. =)

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editing Facebook Internet My San Francisco Chronicles Myspace Novel 1

Gorgeous Friday in San Francisco; More Book Work


It was certainly a gorgeous day outside today, so I decided to go out and take a walk at Lands End Park/Sutro District. I hadn’t been back since September, despite the location being relatively close to my place. The weather has been unseasonably warm and sunny here all week; today was my first day to be able to take advantage of the weather, though.

Even though I spent a couple of hours at the park, the majority of my day was spent back in my apartment before and after the outing. I woke up at my usual time to get some work done on my website; it’s registered, it’s there, but no content yet (was working on that earlier). I say that it’s scheduled to launch in February just to give myself these next couple of weeks to finish editing/revising a few short stories so I can present them on the website right when it launches. So, bookmark the page and stay tuned to this blog–there will definitely be content there soon. =)

I also signed up for Facebook and Myspace again…despite my feelings towards re-joining those sites for personal reasons. But, this time, I realize I am able to separate my professional self from my personal self–that I will try my best not to get myself caught up in the past again. I’ll only be using the websites for what the founders really wanted to use them for: networking.

Tonight I topped off the full day of progress by completing my movable outline. I’m noticing more and more plot holes in my novel than before; the rest of this weekend is going to be reserved for shuffling up the plot a bit before I go back and actually start micro-editing. I know editing is a long process, but so far it seems like I am going at a good pace. =)