Million Short

What a cool idea for a search engine! When you type a search into Million Short, it cuts out the top million most popular sites on the web when pulling results. That way you can see what exists for your topic beyond Wikipedia. The creators describe it as more of a "discovery engine" than a search engine. One of my co-workers said it reminds them of what it was like to search the web around 1999 or so.

You can also adjust the filter so you're only cutting out the top 100,000, with levels down to cutting the top 100. Great time waster if nothing else. Anyone find anything good?

Tor/Forge goes DRM free

Another publisher has realized the wisdom of removing DRM from their ebooks. According to Publisher's Marketplace, Tor/Forge is the first of the "Big Six" to make the move. Here's hoping the others follow suit.

Interview with Jaleta Clegg

The awesome Jaleta Clegg interviewed me over at The Far Edge of Normal. Stop by and say hi!

Appearances

Here are a list of my appearances so far for this year. Stop by and see me!

Millennicon: March 16-18, Cincinnati, Ohio
Marcon: April 6-8, Columbus, Ohio
Context: September 28-30, Columbus, Ohio

Millennicon's just around the corner. Also there will be Denise Verrico, head of the Central Ohio Broad Universe chapter. This will be my first year at Millennicon, so I'm looking forward to it.

Slideways coming out soon!

I've been sitting on this news forever. My first novel, Slideways, will be released with Samsdot Publishing next month. I'll be posting cover art soon. So excited!

My response to a literary fiction writer

I just finished reading Andrea Grassi's post on literary writers and selling out over at Little Red Umbrella. Grassi makes the well-worn point that if literary writers want to attract more readers they should focus more on storytelling and not run away from genres. Of course, I agree with her on this.

She also points out how literary minded authors have more access to grants and seem to rely on them to finish their work. Oh, to be a writer who could rely on a grant...but I digress. Anyway, I posted a comment with my thoughts over there if anyone cares to read it.

Nano redux

Just after midnight last night, I typed out my first words for Nanowrimo this year. Technically I'm doing what I call "Cheatowrimo". In the strictest interpretation of the rules, your project only "counts" if you lay down the first words on November first. I started with around 19,000 words on my current novel; I'll be using Nano to add to, and hopefully finish, this draft.

Maybe I don't have the same stake in it as someone who's starting from scratch. But whatever gets me writing, right?