Category: Writers’ Tools of the Trade

Writers' Tools of the Trade

Tools of My Trade 2012 Edition: Day 1 Sleep Machine

It’s been a full year since July 2011 when I did a weeklong series of the favorite tools of my trade. Things that make my life easier. Some for work. Some that do double duty for work and for play (because you know what they say about all work and no play). It’s time to revisit the topic. A year later, what am I still using? What new things have I discovered? And have I changed my mind about some of my last year favorites? Stay tuned all week and find out. Today’s featured tool is new to me and good for anyone, doesn’t matter if you’re a writer or not. You can use it daytime or nighttime. You can be 8 days old or 80 years old and use this tool. What is it? Sleep Machine Lite by SleepSoft LLC (www.sleepsoftllc.com) is a white noise app that I’ve fallen in love with. How did I find it? I was watching two authors I know chat on Twitter about how much work they get done while traveling. I chimed in and said I wish I could but I can’t seem to write when away from home. I also find I […]

Writers' Tools of the Trade, writing romance

TOOLS OF MY TRADE: #7 FLIPBOARD

Though a few of my tools this week were writer focused, this one is great for anybody. My friends’ 16 year-old daughter even has it installed on her iPad so perhaps for once, I’m in with what the young, cool kids are doing instead of being a step behind. What is it? Flipboard. I love it and you will too. Check out this video to see why… [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2vpvEDS00o] So in case you can’t see this video, I’ll give it to you in a nutshell. Flipboard is an App that takes all those many different social networks we belong to and all those blogs we follow, and even blogs we don’t follow, and it compiles them into the prettiest damn digital magazine you could ever imagine. I’m serious–it’s absolutely beautiful! Who would have thought that the stream of crap that comes through my Facebook and Twitter feeds, usually in ugly lines of URLs and written text, could look like a glossy magazine you’d pay a bunch for if you bought it at a newstand? But it does. Wanna see? The first picture below is the Cover–the page that opens first when you select the App on the iPad. The cover automatically […]

Writers' Tools of the Trade

TOOLS OF MY TRADE: #6 iPAD

The iPad. This is one of those things that you don’t know you need until you get it and if I’m being perfectly honest I don’t NEED it, but I am finding more uses for it constantly. Could I live without it? Yes. Is it totally cool to have and can you use it for a bunch of things? Hell yes! But seriously, I think it’s a bit of a quality of life issue. You remember life, don’t you? It’s what we all had before we started spending hours on the computer. So what does the iPad do for me? Here are a few examples: Reading: I already mentioned on Tools of My Trade Day #1 that I use the iPad in conjunction with the free DropBox App for reading submissions for ARe. It frees me up so I can get away from the computer but I still have access to my files. I can read my PDFs and Word documents on the iPad rather than the computer. I also find I’m using it more and more as an eReader, even though I have a Nook and also used to read a lot on my iPod Touch. I have the Kindle […]