Category: Teacher-author

Teacher-Authors: What’s Happening on my Writer’s Blog

A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share the most popular post from the past month on my teacher education blog, Ask a Tech Teacher.

Here is one of the popular posts from my writer’s blog, WordDreams, during July:

Tech Tips for Writers is an occasional post on overcoming Tech Dread. I cover issues that friends, both real-time and virtual, have asked about. Feel free to post a comment about a question you have. I’ll cover it in a future tip.

I used to think of a cloud document as its own backup–secure, safe, and always there. That–of course–is ridiculous. It’s one copy of an important file that can be corrupted or lost. It may become inaccessible–you lost your password or got hacked or your identity stolen and the bad guy changed your logins. Or, it may simply be you can’t access the internet. Whatever the reason, I realized I needed to back those up, too.

For example:

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Teacher-Authors: What’s Happening on my Writer’s Blog

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In this monthly column, I share a popular post from the past month on my writing blog, WordDreams:

Reasons Why Readers Quit a Book

It used to be I almost always finished any book I started. I’d think about all the work the author put into writing it, figure it was my personal lens not their skill, and continue in the hope I’d learn a different way of thinking. Over the years, I’ve changed. With Kindle Unlimited, I can borrow a book, read a few chapters, and then return it with no muss or fuss. Now, I quit about 10% of the books I start even after spending the time to preview, read the blurbs, and explore reader comments.

Why? There are good reasons to not invest the time required to finish a book:

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Teacher-Authors: What’s Happening on my Writer’s Blog

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A lot of teacher-authors read my writers blog, WordDreams. In this monthly column, I share a popular post readers over there enjoyed.

One of the popular posts on WordDreams was about progress on my next prehistoric fiction, but what really caught readers’ attention were 1) skills we never thought our ancestors possessed 150,000 years ago, and 2) the unexpected roots of music. See what you think:

Endangered Species is Book 1 of Savage Land, the third trilogy in the primeval man series, Dawn of Humanity.

One piece of man’s prehistoric past I’ve wanted to uncover is when our ancestors first discovered religion. Conventional wisdom says that came about to answer unanswerable questions like why does it rain? And proof man believed in a god arrived when we began to bury our dead.

But I wanted more so I kept digging.

I discovered an interesting bit of paleo history in France called Bruniquel Cave. This is a 176,000 year old cavern

built deep underground by Neanderthals.

We know they did it because they were the only early man in Europe at that time. It is about

350 strides beyond the reach of natural light.

Not just any cave, though, with stone walls and a hearth. This one had been constructed:

Neanderthals gathered over 400 pieces of heavy stalagmites and placed them in two rings, one within the other, and did it without natural light.

How did they see in the pitch dark? There is evidence of fire around the circles–to light the area? Watch this:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbTEwV3EfKs]

To build this structure required brilliant planning, advanced technology, and symbolic thought — traits never attributed to Neanderthals prior to Bruniquel Cave. Now we know:

Neanderthals wielded fire

traveled comfortably deep underground

cut and moved massive stalagmites long distances

created a complex subterranean construction

imagined a world beyond survival and procreation

No researcher I read would even venture a guess why this construction was there or what its use. But, I will, in my upcoming trilogy Savage Land.

There’s something else about stalagmites and stalactites I learned: They make beautiful music.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EokR9C3CrZU&w=560&h=315] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm1_aCjrC5o&w=560&h=315]

It makes me wonder if our ancestors built these stalagmite circles for music? Or worship? Any ideas?

Here’s the sign-up link for my writer’s newsletter if the image above doesn’t work:

https://jacqui-murray.aweb.page/p/46e8c9bf-eaed-4252-8aad-3688e233a4cc

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Teacher-Authors: What’s Happening on my Writer’s Blog

A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share the most popular post from the past month on my teacher education blog, Ask a Tech Teacher.

Here’s one of the popular posts:

Here’s a quick rundown of my favorite tech tips for writers. I find myself using these most days, many times a week. Tell me in comments if that’s true for you, too:

Teacher-Authors: What’s Happening on my Writer’s Blog

A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share the most popular post from the past month on my writer’s blog, WordDreams.

Here is one of the popular posts:

AI-generated art is a game-changer for writers who do their own marketing and newsletters. I was reminded of that when I received a newsletter from good blogger friend Luciana Cavallaro, author of amazing historical fiction centered in ancient Rome. She sent a newsletter and wanted to include an image of a coach being hit in the face by a volleyball (don’t ask–it’s complicated). As close as she could get was this image:

I accepted her challenge to find a better image and turned to DALL-E, one of the new platforms where AI generates art. Here’s what I got in about a minute:

This is new legal territory, but current thinking is that these images are free to use, owned by no one, similar to the legal permissions allowed by public domain images. Here’s an infogram explaining that, taken from DALL-E’s terms of service:

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Teacher-Authors: What’s Happening on my Writer’s Blog

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A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share the most popular post from the past month on my teacher education blog, Ask a Tech Teacher.

Here are the most popular posts from my writer’s blog. Apologies if you already saw this over there:

You may have seen this on my education blog

When I promote my books on Amazon, I want to provide a link that automatically takes readers/buyers to their country’s Amazon outlet without adding a reference to the website that provided the universal link. I don’t want to depend upon that site always being there to manage the link. What if they go out of business? Or their site is down? It’s the same reason I buy ISBNs directly rather than use the ‘free’ ones on offer from various markets. For a while, I thought there were no options.

Until I found this. Here’s how to set up a simple Amazon universal link without branding, that goes directly to Amazon:

Type in the Amazon Universal link URL http://a-fwd.com/asin=
Add your book ASIN after the =. For example, my book is: http://a-fwd.com/asin=B0B9KPM5BW

Sound too easy? Click the link! You’ll see my latest book, Natural Selection. I know–way too simple.

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Tech Tip #182: Easy Speech-to-Text–and Free

Tech Tips for Writers is an occasional post on overcoming Tech Dread among teacher-authors. I’ll cover issues that writer friends, both real-time and virtual, have shared. Feel free to post a comment about a question you have. I’ll cover it in a future tip.

You may have seen this on my education blog

A friend posted about needing suggestions for speech-to-text options for his writing. It reminded me that some people may not know that this tool is now built into both Google Docs and MS Word (for those with Office 365 only). Make sure your microphone is enabled and then here’s how to use them:

MS Word

Open a Word doc
Go to Home>Dictate

Google Docs

Be sure you are in Chrome
Open Google Docs (easiest way: type doc.new into your Chrome browser for a new file)
Go to Tools>Voice typing

That’s it! Questions? Ask them in the comments

Here’s the sign-up link if the image above doesn’t work:

http://eepurl.com/chNlYb

Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

Teacher-Authors: What’s Happening on my Writer’s Blog

A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share a popular post from the past month here, on my teacher education blog.

National Science Fiction Day is unofficially celebrated by many science fiction fans in the United States on January 2, which corresponds with the official birthdate of famed science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. While not an official holiday of any sort (in the sense that it is not recognized or declared by any government), National Science Fiction Day iss recognized by organizations such as the Hallmark Channel and the Scholastic Corporation.

Though I don’t write sci fi, I celebrate this event every year so I can share the good news about my favorite Indie (some hybrid) science fiction writers:

Alex Cavanaugh

Craig Boyack

Grace Blair

Jacqui Murray (yes, me! in my early tech thrillers)

Nicholas Rossis

Staci Troilo

Tyrean Martinson

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Teacher-Authors: What’s Happening on my Writer’s Blog

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A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share the most popular post from the past month on my teacher education blog, Ask a Tech Teacher. Today, it’s my Book Launch for my latest historical fiction, Natural Selection. History teachers: If you teach about our ancestors’ roots, this is for you!

I will visit blogs through May 2023 to chat about my newest prehistoric fiction, Natural Selection, and writing in general. Here are articles you can read:

A [Prehistoric] Day with Lucy
Could an almost-blind person get around feral Africa?
Did wanderlust drive man throughout the planet? Science thinks so. (Liesbet)
Early Man Can Talk. Change my Mind.
Early Man Could Run Down His Prey. Change my Mind.
Why Early Man didn’t Use Proper Nouns.
How Did Early Man Count?
How did Early Man Find His Way Around
How Did Early Man Tell Time?
How Smart was Lucy 2 mya
Prehistoric fiction is boring. Change my mind.
Why did Early Man Squat, not Sit?
Was Early Man Spiritual
What Did Early Man Eat?
What I learned from Lucy
10 Characteristics of Great Writing
10 Things you probably don’t know about me (Marcia Meara)
13 Writing Tips and 10 Criticisms I’ve Gotten from Twitter
60+ Characteristics That Make Your Character Memorable
5 Excuses Why Writers Don’t Write and 9 Ways to Overcome Them
Why Follow Genre Rules (OC Writing)

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Teacher-Authors: What’s Happening on my Writer’s Blog

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A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share a popular post with you on my teacher education blog, Ask a Tech Teacher. If you are subscribed to WordDreams, you’ve probably already read this!

I’ve used PowerPoint for all of my book trailers so far, following excellent directions from Diana Peach (see link under PowerPoint), but I want to change up the look in the last book of the trilogy, Dawn of Humanity so, I’m hunting for easy-to-use alternatives. Here are three I’m considering:

Canva
PowerPoint
Windows’ organic video editor

In the brief discussions below, I include how-to steps and examples of work completed with them. The YouTube video in Canva and Windows is from one of my go-to tech ed voices, Richard Byrnes.

Note: I didn’t include popular options like iMovie and Animoto because they are familiar to most.

Some elements you see (like the images and music) may be part of the Canva Pro fee-based option

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAJochoLo20]

Here’s my latest trailer–for Natural Selection, to be published late October 2022–made in Canva:

PowerPoint is a great way to create a book trailer. I could go through all the steps, but fellow Indie author, Diana Peach, does it much better. Here are her step-by-step directions:

https://mythsofthemirror.com/2019/09/10/book-trailers-with-powerpoint/

Here’s the trailer I made for Against All Odds, using PowerPoint:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5bpxvZDoSY]

This is Windows replacement for the old Windows Movie Maker. I haven’t used it recently because options like PowerPoint and Canva are so much simply for a ludite like me!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5pu7JjQw14]

***

More options I found when I researched this article that you might be interested in:

Adobe Spark
Fiverr

If you aren’t yet to the point of selecting a recording tool, maybe wondering whether a book trailer is a good idea and how to organize one if it was, here’s a good short video from Reedsy:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0YzZfQe1k]

What do you use for book trailers? I’d love to hear what works for you.

Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Man vs. Nature saga, the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers, and the acclaimed Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, blog webmaster, an Amazon Vine Voice, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. Look for her next prehistoric fiction, Natural Selection, Summer 2022