I’m very proud to be a member of this group, and excited about our new anthology, which I was privileged not only to contribute to (“The Frog and the Unicorn”), but to edit and publish.

Here’s our story:

In mid-2011, eight members of the Saucy Ink writers group (http://saucyink.net) decided to create a short-story anthology, with “unicorns” as the unifying theme. This collection is the result of that project. These are definitely not the unicorns of fairytales (although there is at least one fairytale here). Rather, they are good, evil, chaotic, and calm. And while unicorns are the theme, they aren’t always the central characters—but they are always significant.

THE ALABASTER QUEEN: The Protector has performed her duties for eons, without knowing or remembering quite why she does so, and now she has waking dreams she has with one of her Protected. At times disturbing; at others, uplifting, this story epitomizes the “differentness” of the stories in this collection.

THE FROG AND THE UNICORN: If we’re going to have unicorns, we need a fairytale, don’t we? True love, evil magic, and a beautiful princess: all the classic elements in anything but a classic tale.

PUREHEART: What happens when a unicorn breaks the taboos of her kind? What happens when a being of purity succumbs to the appeal of another whose soul is pure, but allows a dark evil to spring forth? Discover the answers in this hauntingly beautiful story.

ENTRAPMENT: There seems to be a recurring theme in unicorn lore regarding the link between unicorns and virgins. This story just might be the key to understanding that link. Who are you or I, to dispute it?

AUTHENTICITY: Bound on one hand by a treaty that obliges his kingdom to care for an enemy’s unicorn as an honored guest, and on the other by the deep and abiding love for his queen, King Jeho is rather stuck on the horn of a dilemma. Can he fairly balance his love and his duty?

THICKER THAN WATER: A murder mystery involving an old god, demigods, and blood. Remember: there are unicorns, and then there are…unicorns.

WHAT YOU WISH FOR: All Daivik ever wanted was to be a powerful mage—a Master: to have the respect of his peers, the admiration of those below him.

THE TAXIDERMIST: The Hunter is growing old—dying, in fact. But when a young girl intrudes into his life, he is forced to decide, quickly, whether she is what she seems, and whether he can be again what he once was

On Sale Now – Saucy Chronicles I: The Unicorns is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

On Leap Day, Microsoft made the Consumer Preview version of Windows 8 available to anyone with 3.1GB of available storage space. Within twenty-four hours, over a million intrepid—or merely curious—souls had downloaded one of the various flavors of the beta software. Both 32- and 64-bit versions were available, in several languages. The immediate reaction of those who had previously installed the Developer Preview, or alpha version, was universally positive.¹ As expected, much of the dev code was removed, thousands of bugs were squashed, and many more device drivers were available.

Although I switched to Macs and OS X several years ago (yes, Vista claimed me as a victim), my wife has continued using Windows, and I’ve maintained Windows 7 on my desktopin a virtual machine under VMWare Fusion.² As anyone who has used both Vista and Win7 knows, Vista was a dog, while Win7 is the best version of Windows since (and probably including) Windows XP. (My oldest son works for Microsoft as a Premier Field Engineer, so I have free lifetime tech support. *grin*) Thus, I was expecting a favorable experience with the Windows 8 beta.

Installation

So, I braved the waters and downloaded the Consumer Preview (64-bit). On the iMac, I installed Windows 8 under VMWare Fusion. Installation was quick and painless. The highlight for me is the visual pun, pictured above, which appears during installation and on the boot screen: a whimsical Siamese fighting fish, also known as a betta fish.³ Setup is very straightforward, and fairly familiar, although I do like the more modern look of the screens in Windows 8 compared to earlier versions.

The MacBook Air (MBA, henceforth) was a bit more problematic. I’ve actually been trying to install Windows 7 in a Boot Camp partition for the better part of a month, off and on. The MBA has no disc drive, so you need a Windows .iso file and a USB flash drive. No matter what I did, I was getting one error or another—usually the MBA would freeze up trying to format, partition, or otherwise manipulate the USB drive. When I started to work with Win8, I got the same problems. The .iso file that worked flawlessly on the iMac wasn’t recognized or was otherwise disliked by the MBA. I even went out and bought an external Apple Superdrive, burned a DVD on the iMac, and still no joy.

I finally realized that if Disk Utility and Boot Camp Assistant were working fine on the iMac, then they should be working on the MBA. That they weren’t could only be attributed to one thing: corrupted files on the MBA. So, I bit the bullet and went through the lengthy but ultimately successful process of reinstalling OS X Lion on the MBA (including reformatting the hard drive).⁴ Once I finished that, the installation of Win8 on the MBA was just as quick and easy as it was on the iMac.

The Metro Interface

Windows 8 "Metro" Start Screen

Yes, the Windows user interface has changed. The introduction of the Metro interface (left) has traumatized a lot of users. Just as OS X did previously with Snow Leopard and later with Lion, Microsoft is beginning the unification of its desktop and tablet/cellphone operating systems. (A lot of Mac users screamed bloody murder about changes in OS X, just as Windows users are weeping and wailing about changes in Win8—remember when MS introduced the MS Office Ribbon? Yeah. Like that, only more so.)

Granted, the tiles look better, and work better, with a touch interface, such as that on a phone or tablet. But really, using a mouse isn’t that tough. As you can see if you compare the picture here to those in most other articles, my Metro screen has been modified: I’ve moved some tiles, removed others, and generally played around with it. It’s not horrible!

And, once you click the Desktop tile (and isn’t that a gorgeous wallpaper Microsoft provides?), about the only visible difference between Win 7 and Win 8 is the absence of the Start button in the lower left corner. Instead, if you place your mouse down in the bottom left, a thumbnail of the Start screen pops up. Don’t move the cursor; just click, and the Start screen opens up. You can also get there directly via the Windows key. (For Mac users, it’s not unlike the Launchpad—only easier to use.) Oh, by the way: you do not have to use the Start screen! Nosirree Bob! Just as in Win 7, you can pin all kinds of stuff to the taskbar. Or, you can right click and pin just about anything to the Start screen. Or both!

Frankly, hitting the Windows key (well, the Command key⁵ on Mac keyboards) and selecting a program tile is pretty quick ‘n’ easy. About those tiles—Mail, Internet Explorer, Calendar, for example—selecting one of the Metro applications, as they’re called, opens a full-screen version of the app. Again, that’s probably a lot handier on a mobile device than even a laptop, much less a desktop computer. However, I’ve read a lot of favorable press about (especially) the Mail client, and if you’re someone who prefers a standalone mail client to, say, Gmail in your browser, the interface is clean, the ability to add accounts (Gmail, Yahoo! mail, POP3, etc.) is there, and the client itself is robust.

Once you’re through with a Metro app, you can hit the Windows key to return to the start menu, Alt-Esc to return to the Desktop, or Alt-Tab to choose among open apps. You don’t actually exit a Metro app, either: it goes into standby, using zero CPU cycles, and very low memory footprint (one screenshot I saw showed Metro apps using well under 10MB of memory apiece; most were in the 5–7MB range.

 Other Observations

I mentioned that Windows 8 is in beta, right? (That’s what “Consumer Preview” means, just in case you weren’t clear on that point.) On my iMac, in a VM, Win 8 is so much peppier than Win 7, it’s ridiculous. For one thing, resuming from a suspended state takes less than 30 seconds.⁶ So that’s nice. But so far, I’ve noticed no lag or sluggishness at all, whether I’m in Internet Explorer (version 10, in case you’re curious) or using applications.

Internet Explorer

I won’t be using IE as my full-time browser, but I will try to hold off on installing Chrome for a little while, at least, just to see what bugs, if any, I run into with IE. I’ve already found one thing I dislike, and that’s having the address bar on the same line as the tabs. Fortunately, that can be changed easily in IE’s preferences. Otherwise, tabbed browsing is the best it’s ever been in IE—and is a damn sight better than in Apple’s native browser, Safari.

Supposedly, IE blocks popups, but it sure seemed to me that I had some obnoxious ad windows underneath the main browser a couple times; however, I’m not ruling out the possibility that I launched those windows. The Magic Trackpad on the iMac is very responsive, and it’s not difficult to accidentally give an extra tap or two if you aren’t paying attention.

Gaming

No, I haven’t tried to run World of Warcraft under Win 8, and I’m not going to, either—especially not on a beta client that doesn’t have optimized video drivers. However, there is a pretty cool pinball game included with Win 8, and I could get addicted to that pretty easily! The game was very responsive, graphics were excellent, and gameplay was . . . well, potentially addictive! I also tried Bejeweled Blitz on Google+, and unlike playing under Windows 7, the game was as responsive as it is in native OS X on Chrome.

MBA Specifics

On the MBA, there’s no driver specifically for the Apple trackpad; I may have to use an external mouse there. On the other hand, my Magic Trackpad works almost perfectly on the iMac, but I think that is primarily due to inheriting the Apple drivers, since “natural scrolling”—the way you scroll on a touchscreen—is supported on the Magic Trackpad.⁷

Overall, I’m Pleased

I spent most of the day Thursday in Windows on the iMac; installing to the MBA didn’t get finished until around 9 p.m. However, I plan to spend most of Friday on the laptop, and if I have anything salient to add, I’ll do so in a comment to this article (since updates won’t get into the RSS feed).

Has anyone else given Windows 8 a spin? What are your thoughts? If you haven’t, are there any questions you haven’t found the answers to yet? Ask away, and I’ll see if I can enlighten you.

First Impressions of Windows 8—From A Mac User is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

As someone whose preference for a smartphone and tablet operating system (OS) is Android, this was heartening news, reported from the World Mobile Congress now playing in Barcelona.

Samsung's Galaxy Nexus, courtesy Samsung USA

Personally, I believe the past year was Android’s boom year, because of the increasing appeal of smartphones (and thus, alternatives to the iPhone), coupled with the mass influx of tablets to compete with the iPad. But I think this year will really tell the tale with respect to Android’s staying power. Ad campaigns, such as the recent one from Samsung, are making sure the public understands there are viable (and, arguably, better) alternatives to the iPhone. For example, Verizon and AT&T, the two largest US cellphone providers, are expanding their so-called 4G LTE networks—heck, we have 4G from Verizon in Rapid City now, and we’re only the second-largest market in South Dakota! The iPhone, though, doesn’t support LTE and its much faster speeds. (As for the iPhone 5, who knows?)

On the other hand, there are new or reinvigorated players in the smartphone market. But there are a couple questions to be answered before we know their impact in the US. The first, of course, is which companies will market in the US? Right now, the biggest actors are Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony (no longer Sony Ericsson), and Motorola (now a Google subsidiary). Nokia is trying to regain the position it had before the smartphone boom, but it’s also throwing a lot of its eggs in the Windows Phone basket. But if other manufacturers decide to invade North America, especially in the lower-end market, it will be interesting to see how increased fragmentation affects Android overall.

I don’t know what level of market penetration would be considered a serious threat to iPad’s dominance. I haven’t seen any consistent numbers for market share, and when I see any numbers, it’s often “Android vs. Apple,” with no differentiation between 7″ and 10″ form factors for tablets. Add in Samsung’s new Galaxy Note—at over 5″ diagonal screen size, it’s a hybrid phone-tablet (phablet, I’ve seen it called)—and the choices begin to approach staggering. So convincing people to go for something other than an iPad is definitely a challenge. Much as I prefer Android to iOS (the key for me is flexibility), I have yet to see an advertisement in any medium compelling enough for someone to say, “Wow! Gotta have that, and forget about iPad!” Of course, rumors regarding iPad 3 continue to fly around, including the possibility of a 7- or 8-inch iPad tablet.

Panasonic's Eluga, Android handset. Courtesy: Android Phone Fans

On the other hand, a strict “Android vs. iOS” comparison is just as valid as the old “Microsoft vs. Apple” comparisons when the PC was the only thing people cared, or talked, about, although I think Android vs. iOS is a fairer fight.¹ But when we start to do that comparison, it’s pretty weak, given the huge—let’s call it insurmountable—lead iOS has in terms of an installed base. Forget iPhones and iPads—just count iPods! Granted, there are some Android media devices out there (did you even know that?), and if I were in the market for an iPod, I’d give them serious consideration, but their market penetration is minuscule.

Clearly, Android is growing phenomenally, and it isn’t going away. However, there are criticisms that its openness is a drawback, because it allows both the manufacturers, as well as the carriers, to dictate features, bloat, and create other irritations for users. There’s no difference between the AT&T iPhone and the Verizon iPhone except for the internal radio. But the controls on my son’s Samsung Galaxy SII don’t look anything like those on my Motorola Droid X—yet they’re both running the same version of Android.

It’s going to be interesting to see where we end up a year from now. I’m particularly interested, as I will probably be upgrading my phone. And to be perfectly honest, I’m still undecided whether I will stick with Android (I’m definitely leaning that way), or switch to the iPhone 5, or Windows Phone with Windows 8. How about you? Thinking about upgrading to a smartphone this year? If so, what’s caught your fancy?

Disclaimer: My PC is an iMac, and I also have a MacBook Air. My wife’s PC runs Windows. She also has an iPad, while I have a Nook Color that I’ve modded to be an open Android tablet. I have a 4th generation iPod Touch, and my smartphone is a Droid X. I really am an equal-opportunity OS fan.

______________

News Item: Android OS Grows 2.5x in the Past Year is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

Today, September 24, is National Punctuation Day. I’ve written about this before, but last year’s offering was fairly broad-based. This year, I’m going to focus on an area of fiction writing that comes quite easily to some, but for many, is a labyrinth of false starts, dead ends, and forbidding alleyways. What I’m not going to do is tell you how to write scintillating dialogue that turns your characters into real people your readers care about,  all the while deftly advancing your plot. Instead, I’m going to show you how to punctuate your dialogue so your readers understand who said what, and to whom, without having to reread every other line of conversation.

“He said,” she said.

The simplest dialogue, of course, is a conversation between two people:¹

“You look lovely today,” Tom said.

“You look quite handsome yourself,” Susan said.

Two lines of dialogue, each identifying the respective speaker. Some salient points:

• Dialogue is enclosed with double quotes. Many text editors and word processors will convert those to typographical (open- and close-quotes) if you wish.²
• Each change in speaker starts a new paragraph.
• Each bit of dialog (in this example) is a complete sentence, in and of itself; however, within the double-quotes, the punctuation is a comma instead of a period.
• There is no space after the open quote or between the comma and the close quote, and one space after the close quote.
• The period goes at the end of the complete sentence, which consists of the dialogue and the attribution.
• Each line of dialogue is attributed to its speaker.

But what if the dialogue is something other than the simple declarative sentences shown above?

“Look out below!” yelled Tom.

“Why?” Susan hollered back.³

Once again, we see (more or less) complete sentences, but in the first case, the ending punctuation for the dialogue is an exclamation point and a question mark. Both are inside the double quotes, and the complete sentence again ends with a period. Another example before we move on:

Tom watched as Susan entered the room. She looked so beautiful, it almost took his breath away. “You look lovely tonight,” he said.

“Thank you,” replied Susan.

Note that Tom’s dialogue continues the paragraph. We’ve already identified Tom, so it’s perfectly natural to use he said rather than Tom said—and it sounds better, too. It’s also okay to put Tom’s speech in another paragraph, and often, you’ll probably want to do that, especially with longer introductory material or lengthier speeches. Finally, if you prefer to write she replied, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t. As we’ll get into in more detail later, you do want to be sure your pronouns refer back to the intended antecedent, but that’s not an issue in this short passage.

“He said,” she said, “there’s more.”

Dialogue can get pretty repetitive, monotonous, and boring if we write nothing but “he said, she said” conversations. Remember, one of the key purposes of dialogue is to move the action along, or at least to show (rather than tell) what characters are doing.

Tom tried not to stare as Susan entered the room. She looked so beautiful, it almost took his breath away. As she walked up to him, he smiled shyly. “You—you look lovely tonight,” he stammered, blushing.

“Why thank you, Tom,” Susan dimpled. “You look quite handsome tonight, yourself.”⁴

We’ve added quite a few embellishments to our original “he said, she said” bit. Let’s take a closer look.

First, there’s a bit more introductory material before Tom speaks. Rather than simply watching, he’s trying “not to stare.” Clearly, he’s taken with Susan. Not only that, but he is somewhat overwhelmed: his smile is shy, and he stammers out his greeting. And then (horrors!) he blushes.

There are some who would say—and I won’t necessarily argue the point—that the “You—you look lovely” bit is evidence enough that Tom stammered, so a simple Tom said is sufficient. Note the use of the em dash, which indicates a sudden break, rather than an ellipsis . . . which means his voice trails off. (More to come on these two punctuation marks.)

But, what I want you to focus on, in addition to the use of the dash, is the use of the comma before blushing. As a general rule, if you place a gerund or descriptive phrase after said, replied, uttered, spoke, queried, asked, answered, yelled, shouted, et cetera, put a comma after the verb. The general exception to the general rule is, unless it’s an adverb (or adverbial phrase):

“To arms! To arms! The British are coming!” he yelled, galloping through the center of town.

“To arms! To arms! The British are coming!” he yelled, as he spurred on his horse.

“To arms! To arms! The British are coming!” he yelled excitedly.

“To arms! To arms! The British are coming!” he yelled with gusto.

And finally, “You—you look lovely tonight,” he stammered as he blushed.

Back to Susan now. There are a lot of ways the first part of her reply could be written; I chose one of the simplest. That doesn’t mean it is at all good: a lot of people would probably argue about she dimpled. The point is, you and I both know what I mean. Here are some alternatives:

“Why thank you, Tom,” Susan said, dimpling.

“Why thank you, Tom,” Susan replied, as her dimpled face lit up with pleasure.

You get the picture, I hope. Again, I’m not trying to tell you how to write scintillating dialogue, but how to properly punctuate it. Speaking of which, note the second example immediately above. Here, I’ve put a comma before “as,” which begins an adverbial phrase, but I didn’t in the final example of the previous set. This ventures into the whole area of comma usage, which is worthy of an entire article (or more) of its own. In this case, I’m using the comma to help break up the phrasing for the reader. If you prefer to omit the comma in the last example, I won’t argue. I will argue, though, if you omit the comma from Susan said, dimpling.

In the main example, after Susan’s initial reply, she continues speaking. In this instance, I’ve ended the first sentence and started a new one. But if you put your attribution in the middle of the spoken sentence, punctuate it thusly:

“Tom,” answered Susan, “you look quite dashing yourself.”

The attribution is set off by commas on both sides, and the continuation is lower-case.

“There is,” he added, “more yet.”

Quotes within quotes

Occasionally, a character speaking in dialogue is quoting someone else. I try hard to avoid doing that in my own writing, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. So here’s how to do it properly:

Tom turned to Susan and said, “So your father told me, ‘Have my daughter home by eleven, or else.’”

Tom said to Susan, “Your father told me, ‘Have my daughter home by eleven, or else.’ I don’t think I want to know what ‘or else’ means.”

The first example is pretty straightforward: A quotation within dialogue is surrounded by single quotes. If the inner quotation ends the dialogue, there is no space between the closing single and double quotes. Otherwise, all the spacing and punctuation we’ve talked about above apply.

In the second example, the dialogue is expanded past the internal quote. Put a space after the closing single quote. Tom also repeats part of what Susan’s father said in his concluding sentence, and that material is also set off by single quotes.

“Thought speech”

A common theme in speculative fiction (science fiction or fantasy) is telepathy or thought speech: mind-to-mind communication. Conventionally, such speech is set in italics, without quotation marks:

I don’t think this is a very good idea, the Rowan said, broadcasting her thoughts to the rest of the family.

I don’t either, replied her husband, but there isn’t a better alternative.

The italics generally suffice to indicate telepathic communication, so standard attributive terms—said, replied, answered, stated, asked—are preferred to awkward constructions such as “he thought at her.”

Pronoun antecedents

Pronouns (he, she, it, they, and so on) generally refer to someone or something previously identified in your text. However, it’s not too difficult to create confusion with pronouns: “Eric visited Scott after his discharge from the army.” Whose discharge: Eric’s or Scott’s? The same questions can arise in dialogue. In the examples above, we’ve used names, so there hasn’t been an opportunity for confusion. But consider this example:

Tom went off in search of the others. He found Larry and Gary quickly, but it took him a bit longer to locate Harry, who was walking near the dock.

“Hey,” he said, “I’ve been looking for you.”

“I was looking for you, too,” answered Tom.

Raise your hand if you initially thought the first speaker was Tom, not Harry. Yep, quite a few of you. Okay, hands down. Now, if you were confused about who spoke first, until you read Tom’s answer, raise your hands. Not quite so many…but still, more than a couple. The confusion is understandable: I mentioned four names, two of whom were involved in the following dialogue. But the preceding action was all Tom, so most people assume he’s the first speaker. To avoid that confusion, be sure your pronouns refer to the immediate antecedent, unless there is no possibility for confusion:

Tom went off in search of the others. He found Larry and Gary quickly, but it took him a bit longer to locate Sherry, who was walking near the dock.

“Hey,” she said, “I’ve been looking for you.”

“I was looking for you, too,” answered Tom.

Dashes and Ellipses

According to The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Ed., there are specific ways to use dashes and ellipses to indicate, respectively, sudden breaks and faltering or interrupted speech.

 §6.84 Em dashes to indicate sudden breaks

An em dash or a pair of em dashes may indicate a sudden break in thought or sentence structure or an interruption in dialogue. [...]

“Will he—can he—obtain the necessary signatures?” asked Mill.

“Well, I don’t know,” I began tentatively. “I thought I might—”

“Might what?” she demanded.

If the break belongs to the surrounding sentence rather than to the quoted material, the em dashes must appear outside the quotation marks.

“Someday he’s going to hit one of those long shots, and”—his voice turned huffy—“I won’t be there to see it.”

§13.39 Faltering or interrupted speech

Suspension points—also used to indicate an ellipsis—may be used to suggest faltering or fragmented speech accompanied by confusion or insecurity. In the examples below, note the relative positions of the suspension points and other punctuation.

“I . . . I . . . that is, we . . . yes, we have made an awful blunder!”

“The ship . . . oh my God! . . . it’s sinking!” cried Henrietta.

“But . . . but . . . ,” said Tom.

I hope this relatively brief overview of how to punctuate dialog has been informative and helpful. There are certainly some aspects I’ve omitted, either by accident, or because I tried to keep the scope of this article fairly narrow. But if you have any specific questions or examples you’d like to discuss, please post them in the comments.

National Punctuation Day: The Mechanics of Writing Dialogue is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

But the comma may also be used in places where it is not grammatically required. Writers of fiction in particular use it to indicate the pauses in speech. It may also be freely used to indicate emphasis, with less intensity than a dash. And the preceding sentence is an example of that use.

Tomorrow, look for another post here on writing dialogue. Consider that to be a tease.

John E. McIntyre on Commas is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

Alie and her dolphin

Last Thursday, Mrs. Kestrel and I flew down to Tampa, where we’ll be through October 4. We’re here to celebrate our granddaughter Alison’s seventh birthday on Wednesday, and to help move Alie’s playroom upstairs, and convert the current playroom into a nursery. Originally, we had planned a to be in Tampa a week, followed by a week of “real” vacation further down Florida’s Gulf Coast. Those plans were modified with the Mother’s Day announcement that we were expecting another grandchild around Christmas.

So, we flew down on Thursday, spent Friday pretty much goofing off (Alie was in school, of course, and Eric was working), then on Saturday, packed swimsuits and sunglasses and headed to SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove, in Orlando.

It’s a pretty great place, a saltwater lagoon dug into the land near Orlando. We all thought the layout was outstanding, although a few people we overheard didn’t feel the same.There are different packages available, depending on whether or not you want to interact with dolphins, and whether you want the use of a private cabana for the day. Since this was a special event for Alie’s birthday, she and her dad added the dolphin swim, and we also got a cabana. The cabana had a locker and refrigerator, which was kept stocked with plenty of beverages—soft drinks, juice, and beer—and snacks (chips, cookies, trail mix, granola bars) throughout the day by Camilo, who was very personable, and provided outstanding service. While not everyone may want to pay the extra cost for the cabana, it worked out well for our family. The locker was huge, and gave us plenty of room for bags and backpacks, hats, purses, what-have-you.

In fact, one of the hallmarks of our day-long visit was the universal five-star service throughout the resort, from check-in, through greeters who showed us to our cabana and gave us an overview of the resort, to the dolphin trainers, as well as lifeguards and service staff. Everyone we met made a point of helping to make our day a very special one.

Regardless of the package you get, one price covers everything for the day: parking, drinks—including (pretty much unlimited) beer and cocktails, snacks, meals (both breakfast and lunch are served, cafeteria-style, with plenty of shaded outdoor seating), Panama Jack sunblock, Crabtree & Evelyn bath products in the showers, all the towels you need, wetsuits or wetsuit vests (required if you go in the water) . . . in other words, everything except your bathing suit and sunglasses (and if you need to, you can purchase those on site, at fairly reasonable prices). They also provide a mask and snorkel—and you get to keep the snorkel!

Eric and Alie got to interact with a dolphin about an hour after we arrived (which gave us just enough time to get the lay of the land, and put our stuff in the cabana). Diane, Janet, and I were able to observe from a nearby vantage point, and we got plenty of pictures and video. The dolphin interaction starts with a short introductory briefing and video: all told, about 15 minutes. Even those of us who weren’t going in the water with the dolphins were welcome to attend. Then, a short walk took us to the dolphin bays. Each group was about ten people, with a trainer and still and video photographers.¹

Alie with Dixie the dolphin. Her dad is on the far right.

The trainer introduced the dolphin and provided some information about the dolphin pods living at Discovery Cove. Participants were able to pet and, of course, kiss the dolphin. They also got a short swim with the dolphin, which Eric described as “fast!”

Eric and Diane had purchased a birthday package for Alie, so the last event of their interaction was for Dixie (the dolphin) to bring Alie a small buoy with “Happy 7th Birthday, Alison!” printed on it in permanent marker. However, Dixie decided that rather than give up the buoy to Alison, she wanted to play with it. After a few minutes, though (and, fortunately, just as their time was up), the dolphin found something else to entertain her, and Alie got her buoy, as well as a pretty cool bag of swag, including a stuffed toy dolphin, a tee-shirt, and a waterproof camera.

By then it was around 11:30, so we decided to have lunch. There was quite a nice selection, including coconut chicken curry, pulled pork sandwiches, hamburgers, salads, fresh fruit, and pretty tasty desserts. (I recommend the carrot cake, although the cheesecake was pretty good, too.)

After lunch, we donned our provided wetsuit vests, masks, and snorkels, and explored the lagoon and reef. We petted rays, and swam among thousands of tropical fish. There were quite a few more fish, in a much smaller area, than we’d seen while snorkeling in Hawai’i. ²

Alie, of course, had a blast taking underwater pictures with her camera. After about 45 minutes, we decided to take a break and rest a bit in the cabana. We then ambled over to the Lazy River, which is a freshwater river that flows through the aviary, and is a nice easy float trip (using buoyant “noodles”) that lasts between twenty and thirty minutes. We then explored the aviary on foot, and Alie had birds eating out of her hand…literally! Of course, we hadn’t brought cameras with us. Oh, well.

After another short stay in the cabana (and a margarita, or maybe two), we headed back into the lagoon. This second time we went snorkeling, Alie suddenly turned into a fish! Even her dad, who has done a couple triathlons, had trouble keeping up with her sudden changes in direction. We’d gotten a floatation vest for her, in addition to the wetsuit vest, so she was able to swim without tiring at all.

We finally got out of the water about 5:15 (the water is emptied of people at 5:30), and showered and changed. We picked up pizzas on the way home, and pretty much collapsed after a very full, very fun day. If you’re planning a vacation to central Florida, I highly recommend a day at Discovery Cove.

A Day at Discovery Cove is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

If you’re not familiar with G+, as we pioneers like to call it, it has some similarities to Facebook, except it’s better. For example, you don’t really have a “wall” per se, but a “stream.” And that stream contains posts only from people you want to read, because you put them in your Circles. Don’t want to read a particular individual? Don’t add them, or, if necessary, block them. And the beauty of circles is, if you don’t have time or the desire to hear all the latest Hollywood gossip from your Vanity Fair Circle (yes, I’m making this up), don’t read ‘em that day!

Oh, and if you play poker online, I’m always looking for more G+ Poker Buddies. You can find me on Google Plus at http://plus.kestrelsaerie.com.

Hey…instead of me going on and on about G+, just click here. Unless you clicked the logo already. Remember, I only have 149 invitations left: Act quickly! If you do take me up on this offer, feel free to thank me in the comments.Or click that +1 button up top. Or both!

Want an Invitation to Google Plus? is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

Then, be sure you let your mouse cursor hover over the cartoon below.

Oh, sure, just blame me! is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

Instead, I am going to share some of my early observations, questions, and what-not about Google Plus, that I’ve made over the past eight or nine days. If I’m in one or more of your G+ circles, chances are you’ve seen some or all of these. There may also be the occasional (well, at least one that I know of) observation that was posted on G+, but isn’t actually related to G+. I’ll save that/those for the end. So without further ado…

On Google Chat

Sometimes, I/you/we just want to chat (IM-style). I know there are 3rd-party chat clients out there: I use two of them. But wouldn’t it be nice if Google Chat enabled tabs if you’re having more than one conversation? (It does happen.) I grok Huddle, and Hangouts, but I’d still like those who want to talk to me, one-on-one, to be able to do so through Gmail Chat or Google Chat, and keep ‘em in one window. Am I asking too much?

Add Google’s +1 Button to Your Blog

I did it; it’s pretty easy. Here’s how:

Plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-plus-one/screenshots/

PHP Script: http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/

Because I use Headway theme, I opted for the script, since adding php scripts to the header or footer (I used the footer) is pretty easy.

Beginner’s Guide to Google Plus (TL;DR: You don’t need one.)

Gina Trapani, the most-followed woman on Google+, is a programmer and Google fangirl (and I mean that in the most complimentary fashion). She wrote the best guide for Google Wave, a year or so ago. However, when asked if she intended to write a companion guide for G+, she answered, ”There’s no need.” Another G+ user, Nat Williams, had this to say:

GUIDE TO GOOGLE+ IF YOU’RE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO SAY; I’ve got a Google+ account but now I don’t know what to do/how to use it.

First off: Seriously? Really?
But I’ve seen this sentiment enough to feel like a handy how-to guide may assist people. So without any further delay…

POINT ONE: Google+ is a social networking tool and website, made by Google. If you are having difficulty with this concept, perhaps the “internet” as an entity just isn’t for you yet. But in brief, the goal of G+ is to connect, share and interact with other people. Pretty simple, huh?

POINT TWO: This is an opt-in beta. This isn’t the finalised product. It’s not complete. They’re allowing access so that we, the users, can assist in the development process. So use it, try stuff out, push it around, see what it can do, see if you can break it. You see stuff you like? Don’t like? Think should be included? Doesn’t work? Then let Google know. That’s why there’s a “Feedback” option, after all. If you’re here, and wondering where all your friends are or not using any of the features or providing any feedback, then perhaps you don’t really need an account yet. Double that sentiment if you only wanted/got an account because it seemed like the cool thing to do this week. And if you’re using the G+ beta as a spammer, you really are missing the point.

THAT’S IT. THAT’S ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW AS A BEGINNER’S GUIDE. SERIOUSLY.

So if you ever feel the urge to open your mouth or flex your two keyboard fingers to opine “I’m in Google+ but I don’t get it”, this is for you. Really. It’s not that difficult.

General Comments, Questions, and Feedback I’ve Submitted

Is there a way to tell which members of your many (or few) circles are online? GChat almost works, except it doesn’t, really.

In 5 nine days, I’ve “+1′d” way more than I clicked a Facebook “Like” button in over 2 years.

A couple things I’ve sent feedback to Google, for G+:

• Allow shift+Enter for Comments/Edit Comments.
• Reduce post thread synopses to just a couple lines, to preclude scrolling forever to get to the “more” button

Folks, the reason G+ exists is to share. So, for the love of kittens, put something in your Profile! Please?

One thing I really like about G+ is that as I scroll through Notifications, I can comment directly in that dropdown, without having to go to the original post!

As easy as G+ makes it to share photos from my phone (via the Android Google+ app), I may just have to start using it a lot more. Just wish the Droid X’s phone were as good as the one in, say, iPhone 4. But it’s better than the iPod Touch 4g. (To clarify, the Droid X takes great pictures in daylight/bright lighting conditions; it’s not so good in low-light situations.) There is an option in the mobile app to automagically upload photos to your Google account; however, they aren’t shared until you explicitly share them.

A Couple Places for Useful Information on Google+

Google+ Info—Unofficial information about Google+. Tips, tricks, how-to, et cetera.

Welcome to Google+—A collaborative (120+ people!) Google Document that is practically a G+ Wiki.

Shorten your Google Plus ID

G+ ID Shortener—Your Google+ ID is a 20-digit number. Now maybe some of you have no trouble remembering strings of twenty random digits, but I (and a lot of others) do. gplus.to is an unofficial site that will shorten your G+ ID to gplus.to/YouPickIt. Google will probably come up with an “official” one at some point, but until then, this does the trick.

A Tip on Curating Circles

This tip was originally shared by Pavan Desikan, who works at Google, on Gmail and Google+:

When you get a notification that a random stranger has added you to a circle, do not feel compelled to create a circle for “Random strangers” and add them to it. It is okay to ignore the notification. They are only going to be able to see your public posts.

Your circles should contain people who you know, not necessarily all the people who know you.

Put Googlers in Your Circles

A list of Google employees on Google+—Here is a list of Google employees, including its founders, so pick a few whose interests or areas of concentration interest you, and keep in touch with Google. Folks, these people DO want you to encircle them, read their posts, ask them questions. So DO IT!

The level of engagement and interaction by Google employees during this field test has been nothing short of phenomenal, and by that I mean phenomenally excellent. We all know there are glitches in beta tests (which, in truth, is what the current field test is). But I think it’s going above and beyond when one of the devs posts a public apology on a weekend when something happens that might have negatively impacted some users.

Add Google Plus to you Search Engines

If you’re using Chrome (no idea if/how this works for other browsers) you can also add G+ to your search engines:

• Preferences > Basic > Scroll down to Search > Manage Search Engines
• Search Engine: Google+ Posts
• Keyword: post
• URL: {google:baseURL}search?q=site:plus.google.com inurl:posts/* %s

Then, make this your default search engine so it jumps up with Google, Bing, and Yahoo!, then revert to your normal default.

Hangouts and Headsets

I’d love to take part in, or host, Hangouts. But I have a problem: No matter what magic I try to invoke, the Settings options won’t let me change my mic at all, and even when I select my headset for the Speakers option, saving my changes reverts everything to defaults.

Is anyone else able to use a headset? (I’m using an iMac, and the settings dropdowns clearly show my two different headsets, as well as, of course, the default input/output devices.)

And Finally…

My youngest son, who turned 30 a few weeks ago, shared a Gizmodo article on Google Reader: “Why Google+? Your Parents Can’t Find You There.” His comment in GReader cracked me up: “Umm…my dad was the first person I know who had G+, so…no.” 

I should note that while I’m in at least one of his circles, I haven’t seen him post anything on G+. You don’t suppose he’s excluding me, do you? *grins*

Perspective

Fifty years ago, I wanted to be the first man to walk on Mars. Fifty years ago, that idea didn’t seem quite as farfetched as it is today. I mean, we were going to send a man to the moon, and safely return him to earth, before the decade’s end. Mars in another forty years certainly seemed doable.

Well, it’s been almost 39 years since a human being last stood on an extraterrestrial body. Mankind hasn’t left low-earth orbit since. And last Friday, the United States launched its last manned space flight for…how long? Did I watch the last US space launch of my lifetime?

Some Observations on Google Plus is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

Simple Press Logo

One of the things we missed most in the phpBB setup previously in use, was the lack of a reliable RSS feed. It was frustrating and discouraging to come to the forums and discover threads I wanted to post in, but were already weeks or months old. Even marking all forums to send email notices of new posts was unreliable. In an effort to find something that might better serve our needs, Bre came across the WordPress plugin, Simple:Press. I set up a couple sandbox WordPress sites and played around with the plugin for a bit. It became readily apparent that Simple:Press provided everything we needed—and more importantly, everything we wanted—in forum software for our writing group.

Once we realized there was at least one forum plugin for WordPress, I spent a bit of time looking at alternatives. In the final analysis, Simple:Press provided the best mix of functionality and ease of installation and use. In addition, it incorporates Janrain Engage (formerly RPX), which allows members to use their choice of Twitter, Google, Facebook, and more to log in to the site.

So enough with the nuts and bolts. What will you find at Saucy Ink? Originally, the reason for the creation of the forums was as a support group for NaNoWriMo 2010. But it quickly evolved into more general writing support. There are topics on plot, characters, editing, and styles: in short, anything and everything to do with writing fiction, long or short. So if you’re a regular follower of this blog (or of Bre’s or Tami’s), and you’re a writer, aspiring or otherwise, you’re cordially invited to join us as Saucy Ink. For that matter, we invite you to join us even if you don’t regularly read our blogs!

We look forward to welcoming you to Saucy Ink: Forums for Writers.

Announcing Saucy Ink: Forums for Writers is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie