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A writer’s speedometer
I may have to get me one of these. It's a USB Speedometer that plugs into your computer and tells you how fast you're typing in words per minute. And just like your car, it also has an odometer to show you how many words you've typed in a given day.On the other hand, maybe it's better not to know.(Via Gizmodo.)You can have my Scrabulous when you pry it from my cold dead fingers
Hasbro has sent letters to Facebook asking it to remove Scrabulous, the popular online version of Scrabble.SOS! Save our Scrabulous!The first sentence I wrote today…
"We've got to rescue him," she said.Words today: 2,984Total thus far: 50,405Percentage complete: 42A pretty good day: past the 50,000-word mark, and thus 42 percent of the way to 120,000 words (but remember, I'm only contracted for 100,000, and if that's what my total ends up being, I'm past halfway!).I hope to do lots tomorrow! It's cooking along pretty good now, and I got a new Bluetooth Stowaway Keyboard for my Pocket PC phone today via UPS--identical to the previous one, except for branding, but the old one, having been crushed a couple of times and having already endured my pounding fingers for a couple of hundred thousand words, was beginning ...Blogging!
Today's Web column for CBC's Afternoon Edition...***Over the past few years the growing use of computers and the Internet has contributed a lot of weird new words to our language. People talk about ROM and RAM and “megs of memory,” Googling and websurfing and more. But one of the weirdest words of all is blog, which sounds more like something you have to clean up—“Dear, the dog left a big blog on the sidewalk, can you take care of it?”—than anything to do with computers.But, in fact, blogging is big—and you can try it yourself for free.A blog is simply a series of posts that are displayed on a web page ...The first sentence I wrote today…and a horrible discovery
I've fallen down on the "first sentence I wrote today" posts, I admit, but since I need to tuck away a cool 2,000-plus words every day this month to meet my deadline, I think I'd better resume them.So here's today's:"Who are you?" Emily click-spoke.Out of context, it sounds like she was sticking a playing card in a bicycle wheel, but never mind.Now, the horrible discovery: somehow, I'm not entirely sure how, at least 3,000 words I wrote on Saturday and Sunday in Saskatoon have vanished into thin air. This included a big expository scene and a major action scene, both of which I will now have to recreate. I hate having to ...The first sentence I wrote today…and a horrible discovery
I've fallen down on the "first sentence I wrote today" posts, I admit, but since I need to tuck away a cool 2,000-plus words every day this month to meet my deadline, I think I'd better resume them.So here's today's:"Who are you?" Emily click-spoke.Out of context, it sounds like she was sticking a playing card in a bicycle wheel, but never mind.Now, the horrible discovery: somehow, I'm not entirely sure how, at least 3,000 words I wrote on Saturday and Sunday in Saskatoon have vanished into thin air. This included a big expository scene and a major action scene, both of which I will now have to recreate. I hate having to ...Cars that drive themselves
This evening in the car my six-year-old daughter, Alice, commented out of the blue that she wished our car could drive itself.“I’d like that, too,” I said, and explained that scientists were, in fact, working on cars that could do exactly that, thinking of the Grand Challenges for driverless cars held by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency over the past few years.“You should get one,” she said. I explained I couldn’t buy one yet, but maybe she could when she’s grown up.“That would be cool,” she said.Then I got home, started looking for a topic for this week’s science column, and the first item that popped up was John Tierney’s ...A digital restoration of the Mona Lisa…
...can be found here.Whether this is a completely accurate representation of Leonardo's painting as it originally appeared is impossible to know, of course, but one thing is certain: it didn't always have the dim, yellowish appearance we associate with it today.Rise of the (giggling, dancing, punning) robots
Download the audio version.Get my science column weekly as a podcast.***Robots were once science fiction: in fact, the word comes from the Czech word “robota,” meaning work, and originated in Karel Capek’s popular 1920 science-fiction play R.U.R. (for Rossum's Universal Robots).These days, there are robot vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers and dogs, and all kinds of robots that work on assembly lines and in other industrial capacities.But let’s face it, we all know that a real robot is one that resembles a human being: what science fiction writers call an android (as in Philip K. Dick’s story “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, which became the movie Blade Runner).The ...Memory? We don’t need no stinkin’ memory!
I've occasionally referred to my Pocket PC and, by extension, the Internet, as "my other brain."Turns out I'm not alone:Almost without noticing it, we've outsourced important peripheral brain functions to the silicon around us. And frankly, I kind of like it.Yeah, me too.
Edward Willett is a Subscribe to my weekly science column for free!
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Magebane
“Spectacular” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Evil wizards, multi-level conspiracies, hidden kingdoms…Lee Arthur Chane…has done a marvelous job…Magebane is a very entertaining book and well worth the time.” – A.M. Donovan, Night Owl Reviews
I happily recommend Magebane and I’ll certainly give Chane’s next novel a try based on this one.” —Bill Capossere, Fantasy Literature
“…an original and delightful tale of epic fantasy and magic, steampunk science, adventure, tragedy, and love…” – Errant Dreams Reviews
Eight centuries ago, the world changed. A devastating war swept the lands, and the MageLords, who had long ruled by virtue of their spell powers, were driven to a distant place, separated from those they had ruled by a magical Barrier. With magic banished from the rest of the world, the MageLords became mere legend and people turned to science to improve their lives. But if one man has his way, all that is about to change….
Written as Lee Arthur Chane (the middle names of my older brothers, Jimmy Lee and Dwight Arthur, and myself, Edward Chane Willett).
Marseguro
Winner of the 2009 Prix Aurora Award for Best Long-Form Work in English
Water world Marseguro is home to the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from human DNA. When an unmodified human seeks revenge on a Selkie by activating a distress beacon taken from the remains of the original colony ship, a strikeforce is sent from Earth to eradicate the genetic abomination. Yet Marseguro will not prove as easy to conquer as the Earth force anticipates…
Terra Insegura
Finalist for the 2010 Prix Aurora Award for Best Novel in English
Marseguro, a water world far from Earth, is home to a colony of humans and the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from modified human DNA. For seventy years the colony has lived in peace. Then Earth discovers Marseguro, and a strike force is sent to eradicate this “abomination.” But Marseguro has created a genetically tailored plague to use against Earth’s Holy Warriors. With the enemy defeated, the people of Marseguro feel they are safe. But Chris Keating, the traitor who signaled Marseguro’s location to the Holy Warriors, has fled to Earth, unknowingly carrying the deadly plague within him. The people of Marseguro feel they must send a ship to Earth with a life-saving vaccine. Only time will tell what awaits them when they reach their destination.
Lost in Translation
Kathryn was a human empath whose world and life had been destroyed when the alien S’sinn slaughtered her parents before her very eyes. Jarrikk was a young S’sinn, an unproven warrior who’d seen his flight mates slaughtered by the humans who’d sought to colonize his world.
As humans and S’sinn found themselves on the brink of war, these two Translators had to work together to find a common ground and avert catastrophe. But whether their Translators’ oath and training could overcome the enemies leagued against them was very much in doubt…
Archives
Song of the Sword
My new YA fantasy novel from Lobster Press
Before the Lady called her, Ariane’s life was a mess. Two years ago, her mother disappeared. She bounced around different foster homes until her aunt finally took her in. The meanest clique at her new high school has decided to make Ariane their prime target. And to top it all off, she is having frightening premonitions, and they are becoming more intense. The moment water touches her skin, she sees visions of a lake, a lady, and a sword. When a staircase opens up in the middle of Wascana Lake and the water begins singing to her, she has no choice but to answer the call….
Historic Walks of Regina and Moose Jaw
Ten walks to points of historic and architectural interest in the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw (eight walks for Regina, two for Moose Jaw).
Johnny Cash: The Man in Black
When country music legend Johnny Cash took the stage at Folsom State Prison in 1968, he solidified the public’s perception of him as a rebel who followed his own path. Born in Arkansas during the Great Depression, Cash endured poverty, the death of his older brother, and a difficult relationship with his father. He turned to gospel and country music to express the pain, and after many years of struggling, his songs of hardship and hope would finally reach the ears of those waiting for an artist who represented them, ordinary people fighting to survive.
Andy Warhol: Everyone Will Be Famous for 15 Minutes
“Paintings are too hard. Machines have less problems…” In the 1960s, Andy Warhol became the most famous creator of a new style of art called pop art, which transformed mass-produced items of popular culture into fine works of art. From Campbell’s Soup cans to photographs of Marilyn Monroe, Warhol’s willingness to use anything and everything from the mass media in his work expanded the range of subject matter available to artists. His avant-garde films, artistic usage of American icons, and unconventional social life made him a controversial figure, both greatly admired and deeply reviled. A trendsetter rather than a trend-follower, a dispassionate observer of both the seamy and celebrity sides of life, Warhol was a true American rebel.
Disease-Hunting Scientist
The true stories of six real disease hunters. Epidemiologists travel the world trying to keep us safe from deadly diseases—from high-tech labs in Canada to remote villages in Africa. Learn how these “disease detectives” are coming up with new ways to fight disease, and find out if you have what it takes to become an epidemiologist, too!
The Bounty Mutiny
The Bounty was a British ship visiting Tahiti in 1789 when some of the crew overthrew the captain, William Bligh, and set him adrift in a tiny boat with sailors loyal to him. The mutiny resulted in a number of trials–both of the men who mutinied and of Bligh for losing command of his ship. These fascinating events have been the source for numerous Hollywood movies, most recently The Bounty. The Bounty Mutiny: From the Court Case to the Movie explores the famous case and the movies it inspired.
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