I’m going to be interviewed on Len Edgerly’s The Kindle Chronicles this week
I’m honored, and excited, to be interviewed by Len Edgerly for The Kindle Chronicles podcast!
The Kindle Chronicles
I’ve described it this way: “It’s a brilliant podcast about the Kindle…gentle, insightful, and with really major guests.”
I’ve been on the show before, but it’s been years. I was very pleased to get an e-mail from Len, asking if I would do the interview this Tuesday (February 2) for broadcast on this Friday (February 5). Of course, things could interfere, but that’s the plan. 🙂 These are my previous appearances:
I’ve mentioned TKC in the blog before, most extensively in this post back in 2011:
Another reason it came up here more recently? Listening to it on our
Amazon Echo (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)
which I wrote about here:
That’s the easiest way! If you have an Echo, just say, “Alexa, play The Kindle Chronicles podcast on Tunein”. You might be able to say it in a simpler way, but that’s what I’ve used. 🙂
What are we going to discuss?
I don’t know yet…and I don’t think Len has finalized the topics, either.
That’s one reason I asked Len if I could let you know now.
I’m curious what you would want to hear me asked and answer.
I suggested some topics as possibilities:
- The Amazon Echo and books
- Copyright reform and the argument for permanent copyright
- Blogging through the Kindle store
- I’m always happy to discuss text-to-speech 🙂
However, as I’ve told my co-workers, I love chaos. 😉 I’m a trainer, and I get a real adrenaline rush walking into a classroom or meeting and not knowing what I’m going to be expected to do. That doesn’t mean I don’t like preparation! I like that, too, but I love it when I need to hyper-focus on the other people and have my mind going at top speed. Hey, years ago, I was in an impov troupe…same idea.
This is a rare opportunity, though, and like love, the internet is forever. 😉 I really value the ideas and insights of you, the readers of ILMK. The comments I get, and the discussions we have, are one of my favorite things about doing this.
So, any suggestions for the podcast? I think if you make them by, oh, Sunday early evening, they could perhaps have influence on the Tuesday recording.
If you’d rather send your thoughts directly to Len, this is the address on the website:
podchronicles@gmail.com
I certainly view this as an opportunity for growth, and you might send Len a more insightful topic or question than you would want to share with me and my readers.
I also thought I’d take this piece to address another topic…how I write.
I write quite a bit…when I started, I told myself I’d average a thousand words a day in this blog. By traditional word counts, that’s about four pages of a book.
That’s ambitious, but I’m confident I’ve maintained that over the life of the blog (which began on August 28, 2009).
I usually write at least two posts in a 48 hour period (I sometimes go 24 hours without publishing a post). This will be my 3,008th post in this blog.
Some obvious questions: how do I come up with topics? When do I write? Do I re-write? Where is writing in my priority list?
I’ll take the last one first.
I’d have to say it goes family (and I use that term pretty broadly), my day job, and then writing. If it was better for my family that I left my job, I would. If I have to do something for work which prevents me from writing for that day, I will.
However, I do love the writing! I’ve always had some kind of creative outlet, and writing has usually been part of it. My Significant Other has finally gotten me to consider eventually retiring. One way that would work for me is that it would mean more writing (it would then become my second priority). I’m now trying to take one writing day a month…using a PTO (Paid Time Off) day for that.
I write in the morning or in the evening during the week, usually. While I think of myself as constitutionally a night person, I now wake up quite early (most people would consider it unreasonably early). For years, I would go to sleep at 9 (after my night owl years) and get up at 5 AM…the “recommended” eight hours sleep.
Maybe a year or two ago, that changed…and I normally wake up between 2 AM and 3AM. That means I get about five hours sleep a night. I talked to my doctor about it. I’m not having negative impacts that I can see. In my job, if I had cognitive decline, I’d know it right away. I don’t fall asleep during the day. I might fall asleep in the hour before I plan to go to sleep (my SO laughs because it may happen while I actually am exercising, and it can happen while I’m writing, sitting up with my hands on the keyboard). It seems okay to me that I’m sleepy when it is about time to go to sleep…that’s the way it should work, right?
My doctor thinks it is not unhealthy at this point.
I don’t usually write during breaks or at lunch at work. I do review comments and might do a short answer during a break, and I might answer an e-mail, but I’m more likely to exercise.
That’s been a big change since I started the blog! My baseline for exercise is ninety minutes a day, but it’s usually more than that.
My Kindle/Fires have been part of my getting in the best shape I’ve been in for decades. That’s because I used an app:
I didn’t start using it without first checking with a Registered Dietician at work, though.
Over about two years, I lost about forty pounds in a healthy way (I work for a healthcare company, so I have a lot of information available to me). I’m not losing more weight, but I still plan to get into better shape.
While I’m working out, I may be reading when I can…especially
Flipboard (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)
I can do that while doing “floor work” or some of my other personally designed routine…I have my now discontinued Kindle Fire HDX 7 on a shelf during part of it.
Flipboard brings me around to how I get ideas about what to write.
I don’t plan out carefully what I’m going to say before I write. That also goes for when I write fiction, which surprises some people.
When I started writing
Doctor Watson’s Blog
of which I’m quite proud, I didn’t know what the answer to the mystery was. Even when I was foreshadowing, I wasn’t sure where it was going.
Right now, I’m writing pretty much stream of consciousness.
When I started writing this post, I didn’t know I would include the “How I write” part. “How I write” was what I had planned to write this morning…but then it occurred to me to ask you about the podcast. When I’d written that, it seemed too short…so I decided to keep going on this. 🙂
Yes, the word count drives me to write longer pieces…which is why it’s there. I’m not padding the word count: I’m not avoiding contractions, for example. I think it helps me give enough context and explanation. There are times people criticize me for too much explanation, but I think that tends to be people who are particularly sharp, quick, and knowledgeable of the topics. I’m also writing for people who aren’t techie and aren’t (or at least haven’t been) serious readers. I want somebody who stumbles into this blog with a question to feel included. I think intelligent people are often also empathetic, and understand why I try to be clear and helpful for those with less fluency in e-books and publishing.
I also don’t significantly rewrite. I will polish a piece…I’ll notice that I left out a word, or had a misspelling, or just wasn’t sufficiently clear. I like to fix those, and I really appreciate it when readers point out issues. Usually, though, there is enough of a flow that it would be hard for me to go in and delete or add a section. I will do that with breaking news (like a new model announcement), sometimes, and indicate that it is an update.
Why was I going to write about how I write?
It just came to me. 🙂
I’ll have an inspiration like that: just a single idea, which gets me started.
As to Flipboard, it’s a news aggregator. That’s a place I’ll see something that will intrigue me, and might lead me to more research. It’s also a great source for my Round-ups, where I do a number of short pieces.
The most common type of post I abandon after starting to write it is the round-up. What happens is I start writing what will be a short piece…but then I flesh it out, and it becomes enough to be its own post.
Do I want to be first with a story?
Sure, that’s fun. I love it when I find something original through analysis and share it.
On a complex topic, though, I may hold off a few days while I research it. I’d rather contribute something to the understanding of the topic than just blurt it out to be the first place you see it…and then you see it five other places pretty much the same way.
If I need to do something in a hurry, I may tweet it…if it’s significant and time sensitive enough (like a big sale), I may do a short sort of interim post in this blog.
I also have some recurring features…for instance:
- First day of the month, I do my Snapshots
- Within the first few days of the month, I write about the Kindle monthly deals and the Kindle First books
- Towards the end of the month, I write about some books being released in the following month
- Maybe once a year, I do A Day in the Life of a Kindleer
- At the end of the year, I do The Year Ahead and The Year in E-Books
- Irregularly, I analyze the bestseller list, and do a post on my Flipboard magazines
Finally, and one of the most important, I sometimes get ideas from you. It may be a comment that leads us to a discussion, or that just sparks me to write something. More rarely, people specifically ask me to write about something.
There you go! A bit of insight into my writing process…if that prompts you with more ideas for The Kindle Chronicles interview (or you had ideas before I went into the second part of this piece), feel free to share them by commenting on this post.
Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. 
Shop ’til you help!
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.
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