#IWSG for July - Disappointment

Another month has passed and it's time for a new IWSG post. Once again so much has happened that it's all a blur, most of it personal stuff, not much writing related at all.

I have been very productive personally but not professionally so the theme for this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group is DISSAPOINTMENT.

I really had planned to write a lot of the first draft of the next book in my Klondike Mystery series, "Almost a Touch", while hubby was in the US for the birth of his newest grandbaby. (Isn't she sweet?)

That didn't happen - for several reasons. First, we ordered new MacBook Pro's for him to bring back. That meant a concerted effort to clean up my current PC. I found client files from the mid 90's. Why? Because I never deleted any client information. Then it was on to duplicate files, especially photos. Thank goodness for the freeware, Duplicate Cleaner Free. It did a wonderful job but with over 40k duplicated files (many justified), it took several runs through to clean things up.

Then I spent time trying to locate adequate replacement software for the programs I use daily. While we've been told the native Mac apps are good, I knew there were some things I would need get replaced. For anyone interested, here is my list:

• Epim ---> Thunderbird  [NOTE: Made the transition to Tbird on the PC first]
• Kingsoft Office ---> Apache Open Office or LibreOffice 
• Jarte ---> ApiMac Notepad $20, MacVim, GEdit or Clean Writer Pro $3 
• Scrivener ---> Scrivener (small fee for transfer)
• Irfanview ---> XNViewMP or Image Bucket Pro $5 
• ClipCache ---> Clipboard Center $5,  SmartNotes $10 (each?)  (iPad, iPhone & Mac) or $30 ClipBuddy if those don't work out
• CoreFTP --->   File Zilla
• FrontPage ---> Rapid Weaver $80, Sandvox $80 or BlueGriffon free
• Araneae --->   Tincta Free  or Taco Edit $25 
• Evernote ---> Evernote
• Lastpass ---> Lastpass
• Dropbox  ---> Dropbox
• Google Mail/Calendars/Contacts ---> Google Mail/Calendars/Contacts
• Word Counter ---> Word Counter $3 

I think I have everything covered other than my old Image Composer software. It's been my go to program for all things graphic that Irfanview couldn't do. I will play with the native Mac apps to see if I need to look further.

Phew! Wiping my brow.... The other major impediment was the decision to look for a new apartment. We lucked into finding this one before our move to Ecuador and we rented it sight unseen other than having a couple of friends visit and take photos. The price was right, the location very safe and across from a beautiful river with a walking trail and very roomy at 2000sf.

The downside that has really started to bother us is the lack of any views (Cuenca is surrounded by the Andes Mountains) as well as no outdoor seating space. We were taking more and more walks along the river and when we'd get back we'd both lament the fact we couldn't sit outside and continue enjoying the weather. Since we were renting month to month, we started looking for an alternative.

Well, we found it. A bit over budget but offers amazing views, in a great location, easy walking distance to the other major river in town and a full rooftop terrace. You can see some photos in my recent blog post about moving.

So yes, I was productive, just not writing-wise. Oh, but I did get my first monthly newsletter out to 165 subscribers (of course only 77 opened it...LOL). And I have managed to write a flash fiction story every Saturday in the last month.

So it's my readers who are waiting for book three who are the most disappointed. Do you ever feel like you are disappointing your readers?

Happy Monday, MacBook Pro and a Survey

I know, all you work-a-day folks aren't so happy but now that I'm retired, I barely know what day of the week it is. I knew today was Monday because I had an appointment for a mani-pedi at the little shop around the corner. Part of the joy of living here is being able to splurge for a mani-pedi, topped off with a haircut trim plus a wrap repair on one fingernail. Cost? $20 including two tips. Nice, huh!

The only downside to living here is I haven't been able to concentrate long enough to do much fiction writing. I have committed myself to working on book three of my Klondike Mystery Series in June. When the first draft is done, I'll tackle book four. Both are roughly outlined - well, as much as I outline now. ;) Target is to have both books available before Christmas. Keep your fingers crossed!

As I mentioned in another post, I have made the final decision to move from a Windows laptop to a MacBook Pro this fall. I believe I can find most of the software I need to continue writing and doing minor website updates as well as personal chores. I've been spending time researching replacements and love the site alternativeto.net for this.

A couple years ago I switched from Thunderbird/Lightning to Essential Pim Pro for email, contacts and calendaring. I had paid for EPIM years earlier and knew it was stable. For whatever reason I was having issues getting Lightning to play nice with Google Calendar. With the move to a Mac, it was time to move back to Thunderbird/Lightning. What a pleasant surprise! It has come a long way since I last left and the conversion, although a little time consuming on the email side, was pleasantly painless.

Time to ask for a little input. I am trying to broaden my audience for my blog and one way to help others find it is to visit other blogs and comment. So, wondering what your favorite non-writing or reading related blog is - please leave a comment below with the link. I greatly appreciate it!

My Love/Hate Relationship with #Google - Take 2

A couple days ago I posted my frustration with Google and losing both Google Reader and iGoogle. I mentioned a couple of places that I thought I'd try as replacements. Here's what's happened since then.

First, today there was a post on c|net: Google Reader has expired, but your data lives until July 15. That's good news for anyone who didn't realize that ti was going away and needs to retrieve their feeds for importing into another service.

I had wanted to try Feedly but over the weekend I couldn't get to Google Reader and ended up exporting my feeds from The Old Reader where I had imported them as soon as the first announcement was made. Unfortunately, Feedly will only import directly from Google Reader and Google Reader is no more. I suspect they will be allowing a direct OPML import soon.

On my other computer I had used RSSOwl for quite a while and liked it. I had just gotten seduced by having Google Reader on my iGoogle page and had neglected it. While The Old Reader was adequate, it was almost too simple. It also seemed to be slow in picking up new blog posts.

So I headed off to download and install RSSOwl on this laptop. Well, to make a long story short, it needed a Java installation. I broke down and installed it. Still wouldn't work. After several frustrating hours I gave up and uninstalled the whole thing.

I started searching for another stand-alone RSS reader and found GreatNews. Easily installed, easily set up, everything imported easily including my folders. Sweet! 

There are a lot of other alternatives, try them and see if they work for you. Everyone is different in what they want or need. GreatNews works for me but may be terrible for you.

Here are two PC Magazine articles to help: The Google Reader Shutdown Survival Guide and 9 Great Google Reader Replacements

Now, on to my iGoogle replacement. For the last year I've had both my iGoogle page and my MyWay.com custom page open in my browser. I used them both daily. With the demise of Google Reader, I had no real reason to continue with iGoogle, which is disappearing in November anyway. There were things I liked there that I couldn't do on my MyWay page.

So as I posted, I tried two alternatives. NetVibes and ProtoPage. I spent an hour or so on each, setting up my custom page, picking and choosing the feeds I wanted (news, health, technology, etc). I customized the colors, dragged and dropped the content until I liked the placement.

I kept both pages running over the weekend. As often happens, there were things I liked on one that I couldn't do on the other. And there were operational things I liked on the other that I couldn't do on the one. In the end NetVibes won. The good news it that I now have one less tab running in my browser.

Once again, what works for me may not for you. Some folks like the Flipboard.com approach. I use that on my Kindle but find I only use it when I'm bored. I like a concise headline type approach and both NetVibes and ProtoPage provide that. 

So jump on in, you've got nothing to lose but some time!

A love hate relationship with #Google

I admit it. I have a love/hate relationship with Google. I was an early adopter, quickly changing to Google as my search engine after years of poor search results from Yahoo!, AltaVista, Lycos, DogPile and more. When I got a chance to be a beta tester for Gmail, I jumped in with both feet. Then came the calendar, how wonderful! When I entered the blogging world, Blogger showed me the way. Of course then I needed Google Reader to read all my friends' blogs. Google Docs came next...I think you see the pattern.

Well, as Google brought out more new products that I loved and used, a little fear niggled at the back of my mind. "Are they going to become the next Microsoft? Am I becoming too dependent on them?" But I continued on, blinders firmly in place.

My first shock was the announcement that iGoogle was going away in November 2013. While I still used my personal MyWay.com page (which I transitioned to when Yahoo! ads drove me nuts), I had also grown to love my personalized iGoogle page. There was a frenzy of checking out alternatives, all put on the back burner because, well, November was a year away.

Then they announced that Google Reader was going away. Initially this wasn't an issue because I was using the standalone program, RSSOwl. But when I added an ultra notebook to my stable, it quickly became my primary laptop and since it had limited memory and hard drive space, I was back to reading blogs on my iGoogle page. Like others, I checked out the alternative all of whom were overloaded with people migrating their reader lists. I chose The Old Reader and migrated things over. BUT, it was still easier to read things on my iGoogle page so I continued to use it daily.

This morning I was in the middle of reading new blogs on iGoogle and suddenly I got an error message. The gadget no longer was valid. Sigh... Time to find a reasonable replacement for iGoogle. I ended up going back to NetVibes which I had tried initially but it seems to be much more fleshed out now. While my page isn't as clean looking as my old iGoogle page, it has all the basic information that I want and need.

So, have you replaced either Google Reader or iGoogle with an alternative? If so, what is it, how do you like it and how's it working for you?

TOOLS: Jarte Word Editor

I was looking for a free program to replace my old copy of EditPad Classic which had served me well over several Windows OS upgrades but was getting a little long in the tooth for what I needed. My version has been replaced with EditPad Lite and as much as I've tried to get used to that, I missed the cleanness of a basic text editor.

My search ended when I found, downloaded, installed, tried and fell in love with Jarte. NO, it's not free, but for under $20 it has proved to be my most used piece of software next to my browser and email. While powerful enough to create .doc and .rtf files, it's also simple enough to use as a plain text editor for those times that you just want to jot down notes.

Jarte \jär · 'tay\ noun (est. 2001) 1. A free word processor based on the Microsoft WordPad word processing engine built into Windows. 2. A fast starting, easy to use word processor thatexpands well beyond the WordPad feature set. 3. A small, portable word processor whose documents are fully compatible with Word and WordPad. [from their website]

[click to enlarge]

In this example I have several text files and one rich text file open. I am using the standard toolbar as well as the clickless menu buttons. I'm still toying with the best layout for me.

I love that I can mark files as favorites and quickly access them with a flick of my mouse. Once I got used to it, I love the clickless interface. Just hover the mouse over a button, the menu automatically expands. I love that I can define defaults for both plain text and rich text. I love the quick dictionary/thesaurus look-ups as well as the spell checking. I love the infinite ways I can choose which toolbars and layouts to use.

There are just too many features to list here, please take time to visit their website and read more. Oh, and did I mention that the support has been amazing? Twice I emailed offering suggestions, only to get a reply back that the feature already existed and an explanation on how to find and use it. ...and I don't think I have found all the great features yet, even after six months of use.

My Twitter Roundup

We've talked my Twitter beginnings and how I've grown my followers. We've discussed how I manage lists, follow and unfollow folks. We've chatted about how I keep things organized and stay on top of tweets. Now it's time for the final roundup. A few tips and a few last sites to help you stay on the Top of the Twitter heap!

My first tip: If you haven't already set up a Twitter account, when you do (if you do), try to keep your handle as short as possible. Why? Because when people RT (retweet), the shorter your handle, the more text/tags they can add. If you already have a Twitter account, you can change your handle at any time. I recently went from @DonnaBMcNicol to @DBMcNicol.

But remember, you will need to change any reference you have to it - like on your website, blog side columns, signatures, Amazon, Goodreads, Pinterest, Smashwords, Google+, Facebook pages...you'd be surprised where you might have put it. In my early e-books I listed my Twitter account. Now I just list my website, they can get to the rest from there and it cuts down on maintenance time for issues like this.

Here are some other sites I use: We've talked about TwitListManager, JustUnfollow, ManageFlitter, Buffer and HootSuite. There are other useful sites out there and two I use are Paper.li and Triberr.

Paper.li lets you set up your own little newsletter that it will publish based upon your preferences, sending you an email message when it's published. You can then tweet it out, referencing the tweeps that are in the newsletter. Try it...set up your own newsletter and see how it works. If you never tweet it, only you will see it. [NOTE: You can also produce a paper from your Facebook page or Google+ account. I haven't played with these yet.]

Triberr is more of a flock than a bird and it can be hard to explain. When you first join, you automatically become a tribe of one. You can then invite people to your tribe or you can just join other tribes (when invited) or do both. I opted to grow my own tribe. I also got invited into two other tribes. Currently there are 71 members of the three tribes and we collectively tweet to over 138,000 followers. Now that's power. [UPDATE: since I wrote this a week ago, it has grown to 81 tribemates with a total reach of 155,791 Twitter followers.)

Once you are a member of a tribe, you connect the feed for your blog (yes, you HAVE to have a blog as well as a Twitter account) to that tribe. One blog per tribe. That adds your new posts to the Tribal Stream. As tribe-mates log in, they see the new posts in the stream and can choose to approve the post or not. If approved, it will be retweeted to all their followers.

In the tribes I am a part of, we seem to have good members who all stay up to date on approving blogs. I've personally only not approved a couple and only because the content was too X-rated for my current audience. If it had been attached to my pen name Twitter account, they would have been fine.

So for a minimum of personal commitment, at least once a week, preferably more, you approve/tweet posts and your tribe-mates approve/tweet yours. I know this has increased my followers and I've also found a few new writing friends among the tribes.

If you are interested in joining my tribe at Triberr, please pass along your Twitter handle and I'll send you an invite! In fact I now have TWO tribes, My Write Spot - for general writing related blogs, and Flash Me - for flash fiction blogs. Let me know which one suits your blog best.

Others that I have tried but don't use are Friend or Follow and TweetDeck. Friend or Follow wasn't intuitive to me and I gave up quickly. I've gone back a couple of times based upon good reviews, sorry, not for me. TweekDeck is a site equal to HootSuite. If I hadn't tried HootSuite first, I might be using TweetDeck. I recommend you try both. They're free...

I also want to pass along something I just discovered about JustUnfollow, another great way to follow new folks. We all develop Tweeps (our Twitter BFFs), now you can see all their followers and chose to follow the ones that interest you. Just click the Copy Followers tab, enter a Twitter ID and scroll through the list. For me, this seems a perfect way to find more folks that interest you (and might be interested in you).

I have barely touched on the wide variety of tools that are available and I haven't gone into great detail on the ones mentioned. But hopefully this multi-part series on Twitter has helped you better understand how to use it without it abusing you.

One final note for those new to Twitter, Melinda Dozier had a great article this week about Twitter hashtags for writers. Check it out here.

Twitter Tools: ManageFlitter, HootSuite & Buffer

Here we are in Part 3 of my Twitter Journey and there are three more tools/websites I'd like to discuss.

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The first is ManageFlitter which was my go-to unfollow page before I found and joined JustUnfollow.com

Simple and easy to use, a quick stop to clean out those who don't follow you. I used this for several months and it works well, except sometimes I ended up unfollowing someone who I really DID want to follow. LOL!

HootSuite is next up on the list. This is my main dashboard for Twitter, both on my laptop and my Android phone. I have gone through umpteen iterations of how it looks but that's okay because it's easy to do. This is what my current dashboard looks like.

I've connected three Twitter accounts, my Facebook fan page and my LinkedIn account. I initially had my main Facebook page linked but had to drop it or pay when I added my latest Twitter account. I just can't justify $10/month for that, so I'll stick within the free limits.

I continually find new ways to do things in HootSuite but my favorite feature is the scheduling. I can easily setup multiple tweets for various accounts, all set to tweet at a later date/time.

There are apps for your phone as well. I use the mobile app for my Android phone and any time I make a layout change on the website, I can refresh it on my phone. It works well...what else can I say. There are many more features but I try to keep it simple.

The last tool is Buffer. I am new to using this, it's another way to automate tweeting interesting links. I subscribe to a wide variety of blogs and often run across articles that I think other folks would like. With Buffer I can send the links, on a regularly scheduled basis, to my Twitter account (I'm only using my main one), my LinkedIn account and my Facebook fan page.

Once your account is set up, and I highly recommend using the same number of daily tweets on all your accounts otherwise the buffer for one will be empty before the others and you won't be able to add to it, you install the add-on for your browser. That will add a little black icon in your tray (as well as a button for Facebook and other pages). When you are on a page you'd like to share, you click the button and it will automatically add the link to your buffer.

This image shows you where you can customize the outgoing message before it is added to your buffer. If you enlarge the image you will see the small black layered-paper icon that represents Buffer. That is what I clicked to bring this up. You can see at the top that my buffer is almost empty. You get ten free a day. If you want to buffer more, there is a pay version.

---->Tomorrow is the final roundup of my Twitter articles.

Wake me later, I'm napping...

#IWSG - July Post - 3P's

Hi there, guess what - I'm on vacation in Ft. Lauderdale right now and yes, I'm writing this in advance. [snicker] Surely you didn't expect me to miss my third Insecure Writers Support Group post. Hey, I'm nothing if not a planner...and that can be a problem.

I'm working on my first ever novel, a romance (with a dab of mystery) that is set in Montana. I wrote the basic outline in 1996, during my first go-round of fiction writing. I updated it and started writing, using Scrivener. I've been fortunate to connect with a couple of great critique partners (thanks to Rachael Harrie) and the feedback I've been getting is priceless.

As a novice writer, I'm know I'm making a lot of mistakes. All I do is write...spit out the words...without any thought to the basics: creating conflict, making sure a scene moves the story along, leaving the reader wanting more at the end of a chapter. I know I can go back and rectify all this but I also want to keep it in mind as I write new chapters.

How does this relate to planning and outlines? Well, as I edited my first chapter, I ended up with two more scenes. Moving into my second chapter, I added three new scenes plus four new characters crawled out of the woodwork. Now, after the critique of my second chapter, I realize I need to add a new chapter in between the two originals.

So I'm thinking I may be more of a pantser than I thought...it will be interesting to see how this all translates to my Camp NaNoWriMo in August when I'll tackle my mystery set in PA. I have a body, a location and some characters. No idea who dunit....LOL!

Oh, the 3P's? Planning, Pantsing and Polish!




PS. I hope you will all take a peek at my new blog, Write4Ten, where I provide a prompt for a ten minute writing exercise. It's fun, creative and won't take up much of your day!

Twitter Tools: JustUnfollow & TwitListManager

Yesterday I wrote about my Twitter Journey. Today it's all about the tools. I've tried several tools and eventually settled into a couple that worked best for me. They all have free versions but I have paid for the premium for one or two (hey, I can always use a tax deductions). Here goes!

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Lists are a great way to filter folks into common interest groups, this makes it easier for you to follow their tweets in one spot. Back in Feb-Mar I started adding my current followers to lists plus any new followers were categorized as well. I started simply with categories like:

• My Fav Authors
  [the *famous* who I knew would never follow me]
• My Writing Friends
  [those I felt I had the closest relationship to]
• Writer/Authors
• Writing Business
• Readers
  [anyone who followed me and didn't fit elsewhere]
• Bloggers

This process became cumbersome. I was already following a couple of hundred folks. How to plow through hundred of profiles, adding them the lists I had created? The best solution I have found, and still use from time to time, is Twitlistmanager.com. It shows me a spreadsheet-like page with all my lists across the top and my subscribers down the left side. I can easily add/delete people from my lists. [One caution - be sure to update/save at the bottom of each page. The first time I tried checking everyone and then going to the next page. I lost all my changes. LOL!]

Over time my tweeps and thus my lists have changed. A bonus was finding out that you DON'T HAVE TO FOLLOW someone to add them to your list (I only recently learned this). In addition, you can also follow other people's public lists. I recently started following one public list for Fiction Writers. My current lists are:

• A-List
• My Writing Friends
• CampNaNoWriMo [private]
• Tribemates [private]
• Writing Business
• RV/Travel
• Personal [private]

While lists and hashtags help keep me organized, I still needed to better manage the following/unfollowing of folks. I had learned, as mentioned in my last post, that I needed to continue following new folks or I'd end up losing followers. I learned that will rarely continue following someone who doesn't follow me, although there are a few exceptions: major companies, top writers/bloggers and special interest accounts. Why? Because once you follow 2000 folks, you can't follow more until your followers are at 90% of the number you follow. For a better explanation try this page. The 2000 Following Limit On Twitter.

My number one favorite site for managing followers is Just Unfollow. The interface/dashboard is intuitive and very easy to use. I spent one day using the free account and on the second day I opted for the premium pay version. It was only $9.99 for a year and lets me blacklist/whitelist 10,000 profiles. Another bonus, it lets me access both my Twitter accounts. (My pen name for erotica profile has been sadly neglected lately, @MarieDouglasxxx, it's on the free plan which lets me follow/unfollow up to 50 profiles a day.)

An interesting thing I have learned by using Just Unfollow, some folks will follow you and as soon as you follow them, they unfollow you. Yup, hard to believe....LOL! Now I can just as quickly unfollow them. I can also choose to see inactive profiles for 1+, 3+ or 6+ months.

Here is a sample from my dashboard with the photos/IDs shaded to protect the not-so-innocent.

[click to enlarge]

NOTE: Latest update on Just Unfollow, after using it for less than two weeks, I decided to pop for the $24.99/yr plan so I could add a third Twitter account, @Write4Ten. The bonus is now all three accounts are on upgraded and I no longer have daily limits. I emailed the contact account and almost immediately received a reply and was presented with an invoice for the difference between the two accounts...on a Sunday! Now that is customer service.

One more Twitter Tool post to go! Hope this is helping at least some of you navigate the Twitter maze or encourage you to give it a try.

---> More to come on Thursday

Backing up isn't so very hard to do....

[photo credit: cell105 via photo pin cc]

We've all been there....

1. You forgot to save a file and your computer crashed or the power failed.
2. Your hard drive failed and the last time you backed anything up was on floppies 5 years ago.
3. You accidentally deleted a file or wrote over the original.

Those are just a few of the things that can happen. You try to remember to back up to CDs, DVDs, flash drives, smart cards and external drives. But if it isn't automated....yup, you're going to forget. And it will always be at a crucial time.

So what can you do? Well, there are external drives with software that automates your backups. That's a great start. I picked up a 600GB Maxtor One Touch drive at Sam's Club almost four years ago. It's automated and has saved my butt several times. But there are two downsides to this.

First, I've already run into an upgrade issue. When I installed the software on my new laptop, I found out Maxtor has been bought out by Seagate. Okay, that's not a bad thing, is it? Well, for this drive it is....they no longer support it and I can't get any updates (even though the website tells me there is one). I'll continue to use it until it fails.

Second, what happens if your home is destroyed - fire, tornado, hurricane, flood - you get the idea. What good is your on-site backup when both it and your computer are lost? None at all....

What I have done is sign up for on-line backups with Carbonite. I looked into several services,  , but liked the pricing and ease of use I found at Carbonite. You can try it free for 15 days, no credit card required. It's easy, painless and backups are done automatically in the background. [NOTE: If you use my link to sign up, you get an extra month FREE and I do, too!]

I've used it for over a year and wouldn't be without it. Oh, and the amount of data you want backed up? Unlimited. There are plans for faster backup speeds but for me, with about 100GB to be backed up, the basic $59/year plan is perfect. And yes, I have had to recover data....LOL!

Got any horror stories about losing data? How do you handle backups?

Software and Productivity - IrfanView

I love software, especially free...and if I really like it and use it regularly I look for a donate button on the website. Over the years, across many computers, I have used quite a variety of programs so I thought I'd write a few posts about my favorites.

###

My favorite image viewer program, IrfanView, is free for non-commercial use. I first used it back in the late 1990's. It's hard to believe that the author continues to add enhancements and still keeps it free. Yes, I made a donation. If you download and install it, please be sure to also download and install the plug-ins for some extras.

IrfanView is so much more than an image viewer. I can change file types, make my own .ico files, listen to and watch files, crop images, resize and optimize files, add special effects, flip/rotate images, insert text and watermarks, auto-adjust coloration on photos, manually change coloration settings and much more. But, this is NOT a Photoshop type product so be aware of its limitations. [Check out GIMP or Zoner for better Photoshop replacements. I've downloaded both but as a non-Photoshop user, I find Zoner easier to use.]

I probably use maybe 25% of the capabilities and this program is the one that keeps me from moving to a Mac....this is a Windows only product and so far I've been unable to find a satisfactory replacement.

On a scale of 1 to 5 stars, this is definitely a 5 star winner with bonus points for being free. The only downside I have ever found is the need to check manually for updates. I can live with that!

PS. If you are on a Mac, I'd love to hear about anything you think might be a good replacement.