Google Reader Blues

A friend and crit partner of mine, Jeannie Lin, has been saying for a while now that blogging is dead.  Given the sheer number of posts I see in my collection of RSS feeds, I’m not so sure I believe her. Except that today, I got a message from my beloved Google Reader that they are shutting the service down as of July.

I am, obviously, disappointed.  Google Reader has been the best choice for me for a long time for catching up on local news, Woot deals, friends and authors, new releases, etc. It syncs my topics between my android phone, my tablet, and multiple computers (my work laptop, my home laptop, the family desktop).  Boo to Google for taking it away.

I cannot visit every site directly--I have no time, no way to track so many shortcuts across so many different devices, and a lot of authors’s websites are marked as 18-and-over, which results in nastygrams at work (and probably an email to some IT guy who will then believe I am surfing porn sites).

So I’m in the market for a replacement tool for reading news, and I’d love to see some suggestions, or reviews. I’d especially love to hear about any services that work fine in multiple webbrowsers AND an Android phone AND a Kindle Fire all at the same time.

 Here are a few options I’ve found that I intend to check into:

Newsblur - http://www.newsblur.com/ - There is a monthly fee if you have too many subscriptions. This might be a problem for me…

Skimr - http://skimr.co/

Fever - http://feedafever.com/ - I’d have to self-host this on kristilea.com in addition to paying a $30 fee, but at least no one will take it away from me

Feedly - http://feedly.com/ - Free and they might be able to automatically suck in my Google Reader subscriptions

The Old Reader - http://theoldreader.com/

Flipboard - http://flipboard.com/ - I had seen this “suggested” by Amazon for my Kindle, so I know that it would work there.

Tiny Tiny RSS - http://tt-rss.org/index.html - Another self-hosted option

Prismatic - http://getprismatic.com/

Google+ - http://plus.google.com/  I have set up a profile. But unlike Facebook, there were no other people on so I’ve basically given up on the service. I don’t have any circles. It does have an Android app. I have no idea what it does for RSS, just several vague online mentions that Google may consider it to be a sufficient replacement for Reader.

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P.S. Now that Google is taking away my blog READER, I’m a little concerned that it may also take away my blog WRITER. Surely not, as I add content and also run ads which should be generating them a little income. (Ok, my blog isn’t exactly bankrolling the company, but still…) The thought worries me enough that I may look into exporting my existing blogs and doing more with my own self-hosted Wordpress site over at www.kristilea.com.

What are you reading?

Something I don’t do often enough on this blog is talk about what I’m reading. And I’m not talking the latest pages from my crit partners*.

I think I’m a little gun shy about writing reviews because I haven’t done many of them. The last real book report I wrote was probably in middle school.

I’m going to start slowly, and tell you what I’m currently reading, plus what is at the top of my TBR pile. Yes, this list will have multiple entries. I never used to read more than one book at once, but this writing gig is messing with my brain.

In progress:

Inkspell by Cornelia Caroline Funke. The follow-up book to Inkheart. This one is much slower for me than the first, so I keep setting it aside when I want a faster pace.

Origins by JA Konrath. I’m a big fan of his blog, but I’d never read one of his books. This was the first thing I downloaded to my new Sony Reader last month. Its good so far, though its not a romance. Nobody’s perfect.

Song of Seduction by Carrie Lofty. I wanted to try one of Carina Press’s titles, and had heard good things about Carrie Lofty. And its another good excuse for the eReader

The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers by Angie Fox. I have A Tale of Two Demon Slayers sitting on the shelf waiting too.

Top of the TBR Pile:

LA Cinderella by Amanda Berry*.

The Time Weaver by Shana Abe. Regency-era romance with shape-shifting dragons. This is a new release in the series that includes Queen of Dragons and the Treasure Keeper. Earlier this year I hunted down a couple of used copies of The Dream Theif and The Smoke Thief that appeared to be out of print. I’m reading these all out of order, but I’m loving them.


What about you? What are you reading? What have you read lately?


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*Ok, so this one is by one of my crit partners, and I’ve read a lot of it already, in 10-page increments. But I finally have a real printed copy of the whole thing. Including the parts she didn’t share in the editing phase.

Thinking hard

In my category romance (with Claire and Helmut, who made their debut on this blog), I have an early scene in the boardroom where Helmut is trying, unsuccessfully, to defend a series of presentation slides to Claire, who's his boss. His very sexy boss. One he'd met earlier that morning and had attempted to hit on, before he realized she was the new CEO.

One of the critique comments I heard on this scene is that the readers wanted Helmut to come out of the scene having "won" or at least "tied" with Claire. While I agree that the scene could use some tweaking, upping of the sexual tension in the subtext of the dialogue, I'm not so sure that Helmut gets to "win" a contest of wits at this point in the story. (Don't worry, he does very well in the next few scenes...can't keep a good man "down" ;).

I have scientific evidence to backup my portrayal of Helmut and Claire. Check out the article from the Telegraph int he UK, detailing a study that found that Men lose their minds speaking to pretty women. And thanks to my hubby who kindly passed on the link to me (though I have no idea where he got it...)

Fun with the internet

You know I'm writing a sci fi/paranormal romance, right? Space aliens. So, when you think research, you probably picture the cosmos, energy theories, space travel, etc, right?

So what did I spend nearly 30 minutes researching yesterday?

What the inside of a semi cab looks like. Yes, as in those giant trucks on the highway. Big rigs. Specifically what the backseat/bunk are might have for size and amenities.

It was surprisingly difficult to word a query that would produce photos of the inside of one of those. I did find some, though, including many shots of the rear bunk (bed) part, and one that had a built-in fridge, closet, flat screen tv/computer monitor, etc. How very luxurious! (If I get around to it, I might post a link in the comments later)

So now that you know about my Thursday afternoon research, you're thinking "romance novel" + "bed", right? You know exactly where this is going....

..2 truckers, a nurse, a former pilot, and two space aliens driving a semi through the Ozarks, clearly. What else could it be?

Oh yeah, and I have a working title. Leap. It'll probably change again, but at least now I have a way to tie all my (copious) posts together :)

A little New Years present for the ladies

I'm doing a little research this evening. Still trying to come up with some good photos of someone who could be my hero, Dominic. I caught a movie this week called This Christmas that was a very fun, fast-moving family drama. And filled with yummy black men :)

And I saw a quick photo on the cover of one of the gossip rags recently about A Rod. He was shirtless. That got me thinking--he's from the Dominican Republic, I think. My fictional character, Dominic, is born in the midwest, but he's black/hispanic...which describes a fair percentage of the population of various Carribbean islands. Think I might use that to narrow my search a bit :)

Also, just for the fun of it, I found a useful blog called Fit Sports Men. I may not be the target demographic (not being a gay man), but I'm OK with that.

Here's a couple of the pics I saved for later. I don't think any of them are exactly my fictional hero, but I have definitely found inspiration.



(Hmm...I might have to watch my blog traffic after this post. I have a feeling that I might get a few extra hits....)

Use the Force, Luke...

I am taking the day off. Playing hookey, sort of. I had a densist appointment this morning, and an eye doctor appointment this afternoon. And in between there's not quite enough time to get hours in. Strange flex time system at work--I can't claim vacation or sick time on the same day that I claim normal work hours. Its one or the other. I can rearrange my hours so that I work, say, 5 hours on one day, and make up the other 3 across the rest of the week. But, today, I just called in sick.

So, after my dentist appointment, I went to the Y to work out. I brought my Ipod, but ended up on an elliptical machine with a built-in TV. I think I spent the first 10 minutes of my workout channel surfing (they ought to post a channel listing on those things...all I could find was commercials). Finally, a snippet of Star Wars caught my eye. The History Channel has a show called Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed. It was good. Very good.

They analzyed various aspects of the movie series, from the types of characters, the plot structure, the conflicts, the symbolism. There were many references to Greek tragedies, and Shakespeare. I do love literary analysis. And Star Wars.

How much of a geek am I that I worked out to the History Channel? It would probably be worse if I admitted that I was hoping for HGTV originally, huh.

Its research, I swear...

Ok, so I've been reading instead of writing.

At least one of the books I'm reading is about writing. That counts, right? I won a copy of the Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Erotic Romance from Alison Kent (the author)'s blog a couple of weeks ago. No, it's not all body parts and sex toys. Yet. I'm only on chapter 4.

As a book on writing, especially writing romances, it's pretty good. There aren't any magic formulas or strange diagrams to force you to lay out your plot like some sort of paint-by-number (*shudder*...I'm a pantser, you know....). But its got organized sections with plenty of things to think about for planning (yikes) and staging a novel.

So, it's research. And I added a few words tonight. I did a little revision, too, so there was slightly more progress than the wordcount shows.

Research

Research ideas come from the strangest places for me lately. I picked up a copy of Playing for Pizza by Grisham at the library a week or so ago. It was something different. I've read a couple of his books before--The Firm, The Pelican Brief, etc. Courtroom drama isn't my top choice in books, but its interesting. This one is about football. Well, football (American, not soccer) in Italy. The main character is a third-string NFL quarterback who can't find a job in the NFL after a spectacularly horrible championship-losing error.

I'm kind of enjoying it, which is a testament to Grisham's actual writing. Because I am not a football fan. Not even close. I used to attend all of our highschool games, because I was required to as part of the color guard (we performed for all of them). And I'd sit in the stands and cheer when everyone cheered, and occaisionally I would look up long enough to actually see someone doing something good. More often, I'd spend my time chatting with my friends, rating the butts of the various cute team members lined up on the side, making witty quips about "tight ends". I'm sure my father, a die-hard football fan and graduate of University of Nebraska Lincoln (the fans dont' get much more fanatic than that, I've noticed), thought I was hopeless. Line of Scrimage? First and Goal? Down? Who's down? What on earth does that mean?

Around my senior year of high school, I think the constant exposure to football and a few basic lessons from my dad actually did sink in. I'm still not a fan, but I did watch the Rams' superbowl victories (yes, it's been a few years), and I actually understand what's happening on the field these days. I have never played, wouldn't attempt to analyze a play or anything, but at least I know what the teams are doing whe they tackle each other. I have yet to actually watch a pro football game in person, but I think I could follow the action if I did. No promises on the "tight end" jokes, though...those guys wear white spandex for goodness sakes!

So, this post is about research, for my romance-novel in progress. Yes, there really is a connection here. One of my secondary characters I've been thinking of as a sort of overgrown frat boy. Not so much a horrible binge-drinking, womanizing type of frat boy, but more of a sports-loving have-a-beer-with-the-guys kind of frat boy. He's not in a lot of scenes, but he's still kind of important to the heroine's conflict. Reading all of the football lingo has given me a definite idea of how to make his character work better.

I feel like I should close this post with a witty football -phrase, like I'm 4th and goal, or that I'm going to punt. But really, it's more like 2nd and 8 on my own 40 yard line. In other words, I'm making steady forward progress, but I have a long way to go.