Writing and the Online Clock Timer

Since I became a full-time writer working at home, I have added some weight and now I have to watch my blood pressure. Like anything else, writing can be cruel when one does it for too long. We are often told by health experts to take hourly breaks away from the laptops or computers and now I am paying the price for not doing this.

When I worked with my collaborator, Jack Shepherd, on Realmwalkers, I spent hours without a break almost everyday. I did this also when I wrote The Priestess and the Ravenknight. I kept forgetting to get up and walk or do chores or whatever. It never even occurred to me to buy a kitchen timer of some sort to help me remember. Hours would fly by before I realized I hadn't taken a break.
Well, I think I have an answer to this problem and I wanted to share it with you. No, it's not a Tiaeran timer, but this may help keep you from gaining weight and getting sick. It's an online clock/time/music/video website: http://onlineclock.net/

It has an long list of different types of clocks and timers, in various colors and functions. It's also free and definitely worth a try. Now that I am in the middle of my next book, Sirens of Swansong, I am already using this clock timer for it and it works for me. This reminds me. I should go when this timer goes off and do some archery outside! No, wait, it's too hot now. Maybe later! But I can go do something else to stretch my legs and get some exercise. I know! Dance! Dance and do a load of laundry!

Till then, back to this post.

In the world of Tiaera, time is not as important as death makes time not so precious as in our real world. Thanks to Goddess Astria and the druids, Tiaerans don't have to worry about dying as we may. And despite all the hours spent in the libraries and great scholarly halls, reading and writing doesn't affect my fictional characters. Besides, their life is still mostly medieval and so there is a lot of physical work that needs to be done. This helps to keep the inhabitants of Tiaera healthier and stronger. I guess the closest thing they would have for timers would be hour glasses. Sun dials would only work outside and only when the weather allowed. I also hear that special candles could be used as timers. Marked in hour long sections, one would be able to measure time as the wax melted from notch to notch. For more information about candle clocks there is a wiki about them. CANDLE CLOCKS  No doubt, the tiaerans used these as they could afford them. I can imagine Audrey now, dipping candles at her convent.

Photo by www.myrandburg.co.za
I am sure there are other types of modern clocks and music players for those of us who work at our desks all day. If you know of any other site that offers a similar clock timers you would recommend, please leave a comment and share it with us.

Flickr and My Blog Slideshow

Flickr has opened up it's server "gates" and is now offering it's members ONE TERABYTE of server space and that is great news for those of us who like to take screenies and photos. It also lets you upload and share your videos too. Up until recently, it limited the non-paying members about 200 images max. So if you like to share photos, screen captures (screenies) or artwork, check out the new Flickr.com and enjoy all it's tools and benefits. Oh, and it saves all your images in FULL resolution. For those of us who want that, it's a real benefit. I have tried Photobucket, Revel and Picasa.  They all have limitations. I also see that Google's Drive now offers you up to 15 GB of space. Well, Flickr offers a Terabyte. I still can't believe they can do this for FREE!

What does that have to do with my World of Tiaera blog? Well, for those of you who haven't noticed, I have a slideshow of graphics about Realmwalkers and Tiaera. If you scroll down and look at the left column you will see my dragonling logo.  It looks like this:


Click on it and Flickr's slideshow will appear to show you my virtual gallery of graphics. Most of these graphics are in color and you might recognize a couple of drawings from Realmwalkers. It only has about a dozen images right now, but in time, I will be adding more. The slideshow also has controls so you can control the speed of each of the images.

On a side note, you may also notice that I have added another column to this blog. In an effort to make improvements, I decided it was time to try three columns instead of two. Please leave some feedback about these changes and definitely let me know if you ever have problems with any of the links here. I would really appreciate it.

I hope you take a minute to check out the slideshow and feel free to share it with your friends. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

More Archaic Words

Greetings! It's been awhile since I shared a few more of my favorite archaic words I try to use in my writing. Tonight I would like to cover some archaic samples of greeting others. As usual, I used the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary and an (online) glossary book written by Shakespeare. Enjoy!
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Good morrow = Good morning 
(13th cent. noun)

Good day = Good day (said before noon)
(12th cent noun)

Hail or Greetings = Hello or Salutations
(13th cent noun)

God ye good den or Good den =  Good evening or good day (said after noon)
(according to The Works of William Shakespeare it means "God give you good e'en")

Good e'entide = Good evening or good night 
e'en = evening + tide = A time or season. Often used in combination: eventide; Christmastide; Shrovetide. (13th cent. noun)
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Next post will be samples of saying good-bye.