Year: 2013

Click Here (If You’re Bored)

Recently, I got in touch with Kensington customer service for a technical issue. They conjured up an SEP field around my problem, and, as is routine with these organizations, followed their “sorry, can’t help you, try praying” response with a customer satisfaction survey e-mail. The e-mail, of course, included a Click Here To Go To The […]

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Just A Minute, Sir

De Nederlandstalige versie van dit bericht is te vinden op mijn Nederlandstalige site. The Big Blue Swedish Store has a web store these days, did you know? After having used their online presence for years for advertising their products only, but stubbornly refusing to sell the stuff anywhere but in their Big Blue Boxes, they are […]

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Customer Service – And How To Hit A Return Ace

De Nederlandstalige versie van dit bericht is te vinden op mijn Nederlandstalige site. As if the eventful day of traveling to Villa Diodati 11 wasn’t bad enough, I discovered upon my return home that Avis had unilaterally decided to take €605 more of my money than they were actually authorized to. Of course, I immediately […]

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A Quiet Cup Of Coffee

De Nederlandstalige versie van dit bericht is te vinden op mijn Nederlandstalige site. With a satisfied sigh, I settled into my seat. My fresh cuppa found a place on the small table, as did my selection of hot rolls. It was 6:20am, early even for me, and I had easily caught the direct train to […]

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VD 11 – KLM vs Literature

So why, I hear you ask, are you all dancing around Grayson Bray Morris? The answer is a tad involved, I’m afraid. Yes, it is true that last weekend was supposed to be a (semi-) serious writers’ retreat, with critiquing, writing exercizes, lots of laughter, and good food. And it was all that, in at […]

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Proof That The Kindle Is Really A Great E-reader

The Amazon Kindle is a really, really, great device. I’m not basing this on any intrinsic qualities of the thing, but on the fact that Amazon believes they can get away with the kind of customer “service” they provide, and that they appear to be right. In fact, I like my Kindle so much that […]

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When In Doubt, Buy Gadget

What to do if my on-train writing during my twice-daily 45-minute commute is frustrated by bad technology? Swiftkey, the app I embraced as God’s gift to writers, may on second glance not actually have been created by a Supreme Being after all, despite being all but worshipped by Android users around the globe. At first […]

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Going Babel

Okay, I write in English, I publish in English, and most of my writing friends are English, American, or Australian (or Dutch, but with the same penchant for writing in their second language). That doesn’t mean I’m not still Dutch! High time then to make my website content available in my mother tongue as well. Make […]

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Clarion West Write-A-Thon

Now I’ve done it. No escape. No excuses. No more easy weeks of seeing how many words I can manage to pound out in my daily commutes. In the six weeks the Clarion West Workshop runs this year, from 23 June through 2 August, I’m participating in their Write-A-Thon, and committed to write 21600 new […]

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Prisonnier de Guerre – La Traduction

How exciting! French publisher Dreampress.com has translated Prisoner of War into French! The translated version, Prisonnier de Guerre, is now available in Ténèbres 2013, their anthology of science fiction, fantasy and horror.

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