Life
Apologies to all for the lack of updates lately. It’s for good reason. I’ve recently picked up a great part-time job that’s actually somewhat related to the career I had prior to my ill-advised job change to the real estate business–a change I made right before the economic meltdown. It’s with a small nonprofit, a new area for me. With luck, it will lead to a full-time opportunity there or with another nonprofit, or maybe open some door I haven’t thought of yet.
The problem is, I’m now extremely busy. I also have a part-time night job, which means I work (with a long break partially ruined by a long commute) from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM. This doesn’t leave much time for reading or writing.
Guest posts
So I need some guest posts. If you would like to write one, please contact me. If you’ve seen a piece on another site that you think would make a fine addition to this site, let me know about it and I’ll check it out and ask for permission to reprint it if I think it fits. It doesn’t matter how old it is–a good piece is a good piece and if it should be in the archives, let’s get it in the archives!
Hopefully, I’ll settle into a nine-to-five soon and have time for reading and writing again, but until then…I need content, dammit!
(Oh, and I should have a special guest post next week, so continue to check in–or subscribe to the Twitter feed to see when new stuff is posted, plus news related to Stark, Westlake, and other crime fiction.)
E-readers
If you use an e-reader, please tell me about it. It’s getting to the point where I pretty much have to buy one. I think I’ll probably go with the Kindle, but I have some concerns. How does it do with PDFs? With Word documents? Is it too small? (I can’t afford the big one.) Tell me what you use, and what the benefits and drawbacks are with regard to anything, but especially those two formats. I have to read a lot of long business documents (and some pleasure documents) in those formats, and can’t stand doing it on my desktop or laptop.
Other miscellany
Don’t forget about The Handle/Hammett Challenge! There’s about a week and a half left to enter. The prize is an autographed copy of the new trade paperback edition of Wallace Stroby’s Gone ’til November.
And, just for the hell of it, here is my brother’s band’s most recent music video. If you’ve ever wondered what I look like, the answer is, a heck of a lot like the guy playing the bagpipes in the screenshot.
squint – “We All Break the Same”
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Both PDFs and Word documents should be fine on the Kindle. The Kindle will display PDFs with no conversion necessary, but if you use their email conversion they will work even better. (The conversion is free.) Plus there is plenty of free software out there that will convert any kind of file to the Kindle format as well. There are a few applications that will take any web page on your browser and convert and send them to your Kindle as well. I’ve not really had any issues with compatibility. My understanding is that earlier versions of the Kindle (“2” and “1) may not have been as multi-format friendly.
Appreciate your input! I did end up going with the Kindle thanks in part to the information here.
Hey congrats on the new gig. Good luck with it! I work in the non-profit sector and while going in that direction caused me a drop in salary, it also helped me be happier in my life in general. If you do get into it fulltime and it is for a cause that you believe in, I do give one piece of advice. Don’t give too much of yourself. When we work in a field we actually care about, it is an easy trap to get over-dedicated. Burnout results. I don’t know if that’s relevant to your situation at all, but just throwing it out there.
I’ll cogitate on some potential guest-posting ideas. But first I have to go back and skim through the Score for that friggin’ contest! :)