per/Simmons

The laptop is back and seems to be working fine—though it took awhile to reconfigure all systems. There are still a number of “clean-up” issues—coordinating files and programs between the desktop and the laptop, catching up on emails (triple digits in my inbox, not counting the subfolders in Outlook), blogs and newsgroups, as well as catching up on related business in general. The “coordinating” issue is a bit complex as I want a certain amount of redundancy against future mishaps without confusing issues of primacy and document versions. As a writer, I edit and rewrite a number of documents where there is more than one version before finally discarding older efforts. In some cases I’ll toss a newer version of a chapter, story, or essay and return to an older version—on purpose. I don’t want this to happen accidentally. So I have multiple versions of documents, which offers a minor degree of file naming and organization to keep straight. It’s a little more challenging, however, when you’re moving between two machines.

On the related business front, I am reading manuscripts that were submitted to me several months back, working on my own manuscripts, and building a new website at my own “hosted domain.” The latter is a lot of work but offers the advantage a “private” area where I can post works-in-progress with password protections. This allows a select group of individuals to read and offer feedback without such postings constituting actual “publication” and affecting their status for future sales rights. I have just posted my first manuscript there and in the process of introducing members of my writers group to the new setup. It’s another project in process.

Blogging has always felt a bit awkward to me—a bit exhibitionistic. There are some great blogs out there…and then there’s a lot of blathering at the other end of the spectrum. However a number of readers and friends have convinced me that they want to know what’s going on with me (especially when I disappear off the grid for many months) so I’ll start posting again, figuring if folks aren’t interested, they don’t have to bother with it. I figure posting progress reports on my writing will help put me back on track, as well.

Now that I have WordPress in my new domain, I’ll be phasing out my LiveJournal account. I still have too many blog options with MySpace and Amazon and Project Shadow, not to mention my sff.net newsgroup. If anyone has technical insights into the multi-posting option, I’m interested…

–
Wm. Mark Simmons

http://www.sff.net/people/Wm.Mark.Simmons/
http://www.wmsimmons.com/
http://www.wmsimmons.com/Conversations.htm