I had fully intended to spend New Year’s Eve sitting in front of my computer, finishing up on the InDesign training module that I was watching. As it turned out, I had to work all day yesterday with little to do in a dead environment while my family enjoyed their day off. So I took advantage of the situation and finished that training module.

Then I drove home, mulling over whether or not I should go to the New Year’s Eve party that one of my husband’s friends was throwing. I normally don’t drink. If I do, I’ll nurse one glass all night. That’s not the case with my husband or our friends. The truth was, I just wasn’t up to partying last night or socializing, for that matter. So I dropped my family off and drove back home, wondering how I was going to spend the evening.

I was in a mood and needed to go to my happy place for a while. The house was very quiet, perfect for a good writing session. That’s what I did for the majority of the evening. I pounded out the rest of Chapter 13, where my MC is forced to face her childhood and her disastrous first marriage inside the cramped office of the local police station. A lot has led up to this scene, which will take too long to explain here. But it was one of those scenes where I needed absolute quiet so that I could think it through.

I was getting quite drowsy by the time I finished the last sentence. The phone rang at that point, which was a good thing because I didn’t know how much longer I was going to be able to stay awake. My husband told me that he was ready to go home. I had a good one-on-one visit with two of our friends, something I wouldn’t have been able to do had I stayed for the whole party. We caught each other up, promised to stay in touch and watched the fireworks in the distance.

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I had been wanting to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for quite some time. So when it became my turn to select the next book for my book club, I decided to choose this. It’s the first book of a trilogy written by Swedish author, Stieg Larsson, who passed away shortly after delivering the manuscripts.

The story begins with the main character, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, who just lost a defamation and libel suit against him by financier Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. Not only has Blomkvist lost his reputation, but he is expected to pay a huge fine and serve a small time in jail for his crime. I slogged through this part of the story, hoping that the rest of this book wouldn’t be as dry and melancholy as this section was.

My interest perked up when I was introduced to the character of Lisbeth Salander, a misfit who was under the guardianship of the Swedish welfare system. She works only when she wants to work, much to the annoyance of her boss and his employees. Salander specializes in digging up people’s secrets in excruciating detail, using shady and/or illegal means.

The story switches between her POV and Blomkvist’s until they meet in her apartment, where he confronts her for hacking into his computer. By this time, Blomkvist has agreed to investigate the 40 year-old case of Harriet Vanger, who disappeared in September of 1966. Her Uncle Henrik believes that she is dead and wants Blomkvist to find out who killed her.

Blomkvist and Salander work together to uncover some shocking evidence that will rock the wealthy Vanger family to the core, as well as put them in a very nasty light. Larsson did an excellent job with fleshing out his characters and building the suspense. There were plenty of twists and turns, but I didn’t find myself too surprised by the ending. I won’t say why because it will spoil it for those who haven’t read the book yet. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is definitely worth reading, despite its slow start.

My favorite character was Lisbeth Salander who has had a very rough life. She is the reason why I bought the second book The Girl Who Played with Fire. I’ll let you know what I think of this book when I finish reading it.

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I approached this holiday with anticipation and determination. With the passing of my mother-in-law in June, I knew that this Christmas was going to be very different. Christmas was her favorite holiday, a time where she baked a ton of cookies, cooked a huge dinner, decorated every square inch of her house and piled more presents under the tree than we ever needed (or wanted). This year, it was just the four of us and I found myself really looking forward to the day, despite the emotional impact her absence would have on my family.

My husband and I didn’t go hog-wild on gifts this year. Due to the economy and its impact on our household, we took the simple approach. The kids had fun playing their video games and munching on the snacks that I had made. I called my grandmother and had a nice two-hour conversation with her, something I’ve always cherished.

This was the first year that I attempted to make Rouladen (a traditional German dish) by myself. I wound up having my husband help me because we wouldn’t have eaten until late, otherwise. The meal turned out better than I expected. The meat was so tender that I could cut it with a dinner fork, even the next day. I always experience a bout of anxiety whenever I attempt to cook something that I’ve never cooked before. So you can say that 2009 was a year of “firsts” for me––the Thanksgiving turkey and the Christmas Rouladen.

My brother called after I had just finished eating, with some wonderful news. He landed a job a day or two before Christmas! After being out of work for almost a year, that was fantastic to hear.

Yesterday, I plowed through the rest of the book I was reading for my book club, which I will review later. My parents called me later in the afternoon and we talked for a while. After I got off the phone, I finished Chapter 10 and started on Chapter 11, managing to finish the first scene before my youngest brought out his new Monopoly City game. If it weren’t for the confusing directions, we would have had more fun. The object of this version of the game was to have the most money. So on that end, my youngest won, much to his delight.

Today I plan on relaxing, perhaps finishing up the chapter I’m working on now, and going to my book club meeting later this afternoon.

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When one of my friends called me yesterday afternoon and told me that she would love to have a Kindle, I told her about the Nook. I gave her the pros and cons, based on what I had read in the GeekTonic article. We talked for a little while and made plans to go out to Barnes & Noble after New Year’s. Then I got off the phone and realized that I had to hurry and get ready to take my son to a birthday party.

Before we left the house, I realized that I hadn’t made it to the B&N to test out the Nook yet. So I went there after I dropped off my son. The place was packed with Christmas shoppers, but I didn’t have to stand in line to check out this gadget. I had to deal with an annoying employee, who wouldn’t let me hold the thing at first. Then I was disappointed because the battery was down to one bar. Why they didn’t have the Nook on the charger was anyone’s guess.

But I got to turn it on and try it out after waiting what seemed like several minutes for it to boot up. I loved how clear the text was and that I didn’t have to deal with any screen glare. That impressed me right off the bat. The size of the screen wasn’t much smaller than a standard trade paperback, which is another big plus for me. Turning the pages turned out to be a bit of a challenge for some reason that I’m not clear. I pressed the forward and backward buttons repeatedly but managed to turn one page. Maybe it was the low battery.

I set the Nook down and continued my shopping, thinking that I will wait another six months to see if they iron out the bugs that I’ve been reading about. You can read other user reviews by clicking on the links below. The general consensus is that the Nook is a strong competitor of the Kindle. Since I’ve never owned a Kindle, I can neither agree nor disagree with their statements.

That said, I came away fairly impressed with this ebook reader. I’ll test it out again when I go out with my friend. Hopefully, the management will make sure that the battery isn’t too low so that we can have more than a mere minute to explore its features.

Barnes & Noble Nook Review: Pretty Damned Good
GeekTonic: A Look at the Nook
Barnes & Noble Nook Review – SlashGear

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Talk about a crazy, crazy month. Isn’t December always that way? In the middle of all the Christmas craze, I’ve been watching InDesign videos on Lynda.com so that I can gain more than a working knowledge of the program. Much to my surprise, I retained more than I realized when I started working on a self-initiated book design project yesterday afternoon. It took me half the time than it normally did to format and design the first section of the book, thanks to this training.

I’ve taken other Lynda.com training courses and have to say that I enjoyed most of them. The course for Excel 2003 was excruciatingly dry, as was the 2002 version of a typography principles course. My favorite teachers are David Blatner, who teaches InDesign, and Deke McClelland, who teaches Illustrator and Photoshop. Their voices are lively and engaging, which is vital in keeping my attention.

Lynda.com offers a subscription-based service that is quite reasonable. $25 per month gives you access to every video on their site. However, you’ll have to upgrade to the premium subscription if you expect to download the exercise files. One feature I really like is the transcript. If I’m at a place where I can’t watch the videos, I can read the narrative. The big disadvantage to that is that I can’t see what the instructor is talking about.

Neither can I download the transcript or the videos for offline viewing. If there is one feature that I would love to have it would be that, to download the videos to my computer so that I can watch them offline.

While these videos are very good, I’m not limiting myself to just this one resource. I’ve found others that look very promising, such as Aquent’s Digital Classroom series and Shangara Singh’s Exam Aids. I have a very clear goal in mind for 2010; getting Adobe Certification so that I may qualify for a career change in the design field.

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This year marks a new tradition for my family. In the years past, my mother or my mother-in-law would cook the turkey for Thanksgiving. All I had to do was make the hors d’oeuvres and help clean up. My mother moved away several years ago, and my mother-in-law has recently passed on. Neither of them taught me the fine art of cooking a turkey. I never asked them to teach me because I figured that they would be around for much longer than they were.

I became quite proficient at making the goodies, but now I need to learn how to bake a turkey. Needless to say, I turned to the Internet on Monday (nothing like the last minute, eh) and found what I’m hoping is a great recipe for my Thanksgiving turkey.

I’m hoping the bird is thawed. I’m hoping I don’t screw something up in the cooking process. I’m hoping that whoever carries the bird into my sister-in-law’s house doesn’t drop it . . . or fling it across the room while trying to carve it because I overcooked it (see above video for a good laugh). If any of that happens . . . well, I hope a Boston Market is open.

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Photo Credit: Barnes&Noble.com

Yesterday, I took my boys over to Barnes & Noble with the intention of having a quick look for a hands-on training book for Photoshop CS4. I almost made it to the checkout counter when my oldest piped up about needing a book for a project. That ended my good intention, much to my delight. We found him a book that he might enjoy reading and started back towards the checkout counter.

As we passed the customer service counter, he mentions that they are having a presentation on the Nook, which I told him about a week or so ago. Naturally, I head in that direction and am immediately approached by a clerk. I started asking her questions about the device because although I read the articles online, the information had left my mind at the moment.

The first thing she told me was that the Nook was on backorder until January. I wasn’t surprised or disappointed by this news, given how the Kindle was on backorder for quite some time because they couldn’t seem to make enough of them. I could order the Nook right now and not have my credit card billed until they shipped it. That was reasonable, but I am still on the fence.

The lady kept answering my questions. Then, another walks up and starts comparing the Nook to the Sony Reader, which she found too user-unfriendly. They gave me a friendly hard sell, stating that the major media outlets had given kudos to the Nook. I watched the short presentation on their TV. Then, I took my boys up to the checkout counter.

I have to admit that I was tempted to buy this gadget despite its price and the fact that I’ll have to wait for it. It’s a very stylish device, roughly the size of a paperback, and it has some very attractive features that the Kindle doesn’t have.

1. The ability to download books to my computer and any mobile device that I have.
2. The ability to loan my books out to friends for up to two weeks.
3. I can go into any Barnes & Noble to download books or order them online at home.
4. I can highlight passages in books and make notes, which is especially helpful if I’m reading a textbook.
5. I can expand my memory with a memory card to hold an impressive 17,500 books.

As you can tell, I’m drooling over the Nook. But I won’t be completely sold on it until I’m able to hold it in my hands and test it out first. I want to hear what other people have to say about it. Is it user-friendly? Does it do what it promises to do? Will this first generation have a bunch of quirks and bugs that need to be eliminated in the second and subsequent generations? These are the reasons why I’m willing to wait.

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I started this year’s contest with the best intentions, but it just didn’t happen. Every time I launched my word processor, my mind would immediately focus on the rewrite of Shades of Evil, even as I stared at the words of the outline I started the weekend before the start date. My progress on that is still going well. I’m about finished with Chapter 9, and the story is progressing nicely so far.

The characters are making more sense to me. There is more emotion than in the first draft. However, I’m now undecided as to how the climax is going to play itself out. Once I finish Act I, I’m going to have to pull up my mind maps again and see if I can figure it out. It’s either that or do what I’ve always done . . . wing it and see what happens.

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The Eternal Quest for Immortality, by John Evans

I’m very pleased to announce that John Evans’ book The Eternal Quest for Immortality is published and available on Amazon.com and Amazon UK. This project reminded me how much I enjoy designing books. There was an exciting learning curve, as I had never used Lightning Source before.

Their system looked somewhat daunting at first until I remembered having to wade through pages and pages of material when I published the anthology on Lulu. One major difference between Lulu and Lightning Source is that they provide templates with the barcode on them. That was such a godsend, as I didn’t have to search for a software program to generate the barcode, and then place it on the back cover myself. All I had to do was request a cover template and import the files that I had already designed.

As with Lulu, you have to make sure that your files are embedded properly before you convert your files into PDF format. To make things a little more interesting, LS requires you to convert your files into PostScript format, and then run them through the Adobe Distiller in order to generate a PDF file that is compatible with their printers. I was so glad that they provided step-by-step directions on how to do this because I had never converted a file into PostScript, much less used Adobe Distiller.

I was amazed at the speed in which Lightning Source posted his book on Amazon.uk. Three days after publication, compared to Lulu’s six to eight weeks. I’m not sure if that’s normal or not, but I was impressed enough to consider publishing my future books through them instead of Lulu.

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About two weeks ago, it occurred to me that this year’s NaNoWriMo is starting soon. To get myself in the spirit, I poked around and found these posts.

Must-Have Tools for NaNoWriMo from Learn to Write Fiction
NaNoWriMo: How I Create Characters Benjamin Solah has got some great posts on how he prepares for NaNoWriMo, but my favorite so far is how he creates characters.
NaNoWriMo final days prep roundup Angela Booth’s post is 3 years old, but it still has some great resources for writing and word count meters.
NaNoWriMo: Writing with the Bulls An inspirational post by Alegra Clarke, who tells her readers why she enjoys this contest.

Usually by this time, I have some sort of plan sketched out. Not so this year. I had to resort to scouring my writing folder on my hard drive to see if I had any outlines or lists for story ideas. Fortunately, I found an outline that I had discarded last year for Shades of Evil. Time to start planning, plotting and scheming.

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