What's In Your Toolbox?

[Graveside Tales]

OK all this talk about Google Earth makes me want to download it again.  I tried it out when it first came out.  It sounds like lots of enhancements have been added.

[jezzy wolfe]

WOW! I am such a software loser! That would come in handy no doubt. I do a lot of research when I write. Like in Harvest Hill. A shitload of research!

That would really help out with my top secret vampire story!   

[Graveside Tales]

Let me go out on a limb and say it's a story about a vampire ferret who turns into a man during the full moon

[rsmccoy]

Let me go out on a limb and say it's a story about a vampire ferret who turns into a man during the full moon

Spoiler!!!

[jezzy wolfe]

Let me go out on a limb and say it's a story about a vampire ferret who turns into a man during the full moon

No, I'm saving the ferret for a were creature feature. I had a little too much fun with that mythos.

Very few know of my plans for a vampire tale like no other!   

I am enigmatic. 

[Natalie L. Sin]

  *poof* 

[jezzy wolfe]

Heeeeey!   

     

[Guy Anthony De Marco]

I'll bring this topic back from the dead...

I use

• Duotrope, and I use Sonar4 for tracking submissions. Hey, I made money by writing a review on Sonar3.
• yWriter is a good alternative to Word.
• I use Notepad++, since it has tabs where I can work on different versions. This is my most-used tool.
• Dropbox, a free service where my drafts are available on every computer I own.
• Evernote, which assembles all those notes, napkins and images into one virtual notebook.
• Babelfish, if I need a simple phrase in a language I don't speak.
• Lulu.com. I don't sell anything, they're all private projects. I use it to have a copy of all of my work on my shelf.
• Ralen's and Gila Queen's Guide to Markets. The former is a quick reference, the latter is 70+ pages of places to submit stuff.
• A copy of the new Necrotic Tissue print magazine. Because R. Scott McCoy was crazy enough to publish something of mine in there. And it raises my cool factor when people see it on my desk. Because it's a cool mag.
• Social networking sites. Gets the word out when you have something published.
• AVG Free. Keeps my computer from getting infected and turning into a zombie machine. Ditto for Spybot: Search and Destroy and Malwarebytes. I run them all nightly.

[John W. Oliver]

For the Mac users out there, I've a couple of pieces of software I've been using that I have not seen mentioned yet. 

* Scrivener - A cool piece of writing software that allows you to divide up the document into sections. 
* VoodooPad - I use this personal wiki program for project bibles.  Really easy to use.  I tried to use other wiki writing programs and couldn't really figure them out.

[Myrrym Davies]

I recently acquired a Western Digital 500 gig Passport Drive.  That thing is da bomb.  I sync it up to my laptop once a week.  It stores everything--programs, stories, movies, pics, e-mail . . . you name it, it's there, right down to the friggin' background wallpaper.  I can then plug it into any computer and use it as if I were sitting in front of my own.  It rocks!