Here are a few SCI FI Wire pieces I’ve had published recently, but didn’t have time to link to when they were initially posted.
Laurell K. Hamilton: Hamilton Bares All In Candy
Scott Lynch: Locke Lamora Mixes Fantasy And Cons
Fiona McIntosh: Odalisque Talks Turkey
Marjorie M. Liu: Eye Is ‘Electrokinetic’
Orson Scott Card: Card Details Empire‘s Scope
Robin Hobb: Son Messes With Birthright
SCI FI Wire just published a piece I wrote about Catherynne M. Valente’s new novel, The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden.
God bless the men and women who work at the Hampton Inn Austin-NW/Arboretum. The maid who cleaned my room did find my iPod and set it aside in the lost and found. I imagine my room was somewhat confusing, as I actually left quite a bit of other stuff in there–a few books and pamphlets from World Fantasy that I didn’t want to pack and take with me (and also the broken strap of my watch band), but of course the iPod was not just a really good tip. The fact that I’ll be getting the iPod back restores my faith in humanity.
I’m not really sure why the hotel didn’t call me immediately once the maid cleaned the room, to inform me that I’d left some stuff in there, but I can’t complain about the end result!
I don’t know why I never thought to google the phrase “transcription software,” but it occurred to me today, and up came the website for Express Scribe Transcription Playback Software. It looks like it used to be shareware, but is now freeware. I downloaded it and played with it a bit, and it seems to be pretty great. It has an audio player built into the same program as a text editor, so you can play your audio file, transcribe in the same program, and use the function buttons to execute transcription commands, such as the most essential one of all: rewind. And you can even set how far back it jumps each time you hit rewind — 5, 10, 15 seconds, whatever works best for you. It also has a rather useful feature that slows down the audio speed, so that when transcribing interviews, it’s easier to type what the subject is saying. I’ve used something like this before, but this is much superior to anything I’ve tried, as it manages to slow the speech down, yet has very little distortion.
If you have need of such a thing, I highly recommend checking it out. Not only does it seem to work pretty great, but the price is also right: free.
And here’s a worthy piece of reportage for SCI FI Wire: my interview with Dave Duncan, which was conducted live at World Fantasy.
Get out there and vote today, people. Well, Democrats that is. Democrats vote today. Republicans are supposed to vote tomorrow. No, really.
Again, for my own record-keeping purposes, here’s a link to the rather boring little SCI FI Wire piece I wrote about the World Fantasy Award winners.
Read the story, or ignore, as you will.
Pretty much for my own record-keeping purposes only, here’s a link to the rather boring little SCI FI Wire piece I wrote about the World Fantasy Convention.
Read the story, or ignore, as you will.
Alas, too busy to post my con report today, but I will do so soon, promise. Meanwhile, please enjoy the pics I took. Pictured here are two members of my con posse.
Here’s a link to the whole set. And for more photos, check out the World Fantasy Group setup by John Klima.
Just got back from World Fantasy, and will likely post a wonderful con report like thing tomorrow, but I wanted to just quickly, before passing out from exhaustion, put out this notice that I seem to have misplaced my iPod, and so if anyone at the convention happened to have found one, to please let me know. It’s a brand new 80 GB black video iPod, in a black Marware case. If you take it out of the case, it’ll be obvious it’s mine, as it’s got my name and phone number engraved on the back of it.
I’ve called lost and found at the hotel I stayed at, at the con hotel, and the rental car place, but all of their lost and found departments were closed for the night, so it’s possible it’ll turn up at one of these places. No need to check the airline, as I checked no luggage, and it was on the plane that I discovered it was missing. But if anyone has any other ideas, please speak up! It would be quite sad if I’ve lost it; I only just bought it like a week or two ago.
