Writer's Notebook - James Rafferty Blog

Going Online with 3G

As noted in one of my other posts today, I am in Los Angeles on business.   Up until now, my way of connecting to the net would be to look for a WiFi connection and hope for the best.   

Now, I have another way.   A colleague passed on their Sprint 3G card to me.  Voila!  I can now connect to the Net even if Wifi is either not available or only available at cost.   Already, I can see that this is very nice.   Like most techies, I like to be able to connect to the net with a minimum of hassles.   

As I sit here, I'm listening to a speaker from Nokia, who is talking about what he calls the transition to holistic mobility.   Key message: we are in the early days of mobile connectivity, but there is much more to come.   

This is good.  Most of my internet use for business is pretty lightweight, consisting of sending / receiving emails and checking the web; this card is really doing the job. 

For the most part, we are still not yet at the point where my mobile device also has a Wifi access in addition to 3G.  Ideally, both my PC and mobile device (in my case, a Treo) would be able to access both the cell network and the IP network.  We're not quite there, but there are some good signs.   The Iphone has taken steps in this direction, but still does not allow users to run VoIP apps over Wifi, which is purely an artificial restriction.    However, the iPhone web access works over both Wifi and GSM 3G. I can only hope that the bonds between the "dual mode" phones and the US network providers loosen, so that the user can choose which applications they want to run and do so without interference.   

First Chapters Romance Writing Contest

About two weeks ago, I took the plunge and entered a novel writing contest, known as First Chapters Romance.   Yes, this contest is strictly for romance novels.   I looked at some manuscripts that I'd been working on and decided I had something that might just qualify.  Moreover, I wanted to get some more feedback on the draft of this novel.   

My entry is called Summer Days of Desire and is posted on Gather.com for about one more week.   The rules are simple.  Any member of Gather can review the entries (of which there are roughly 300) and rate them.  In this contest, only "10" votes count.   Many new members have joined Gather in order to enter the contest, or, to read and rate the entries.   

On the whole, it has been a good experience.  I have gotten 80 comments so far, which is more feedback than I've ever gotten on any of my fiction writing.  I'm learning a lot about what readers like and what they'd like to see change.  However, as an author, there is a certain pride in your work, so it requires a thick skin when reviewers take a hard line on your beloved text.   

Before this, I did not know too much about the Romance genre, but I have been learning a lot.   I just read a book called "Writing Romance Novels for Dummies", which is actually an excellent book, written by Catherine Lanigan, an editor for Harlequin Books.   Much of what I learned in the book would have been great to know about 2 months ago, but so it goes.   The good thing is that even though my chapter has not adhered to all of the normal conventions of romance novels, it has still received a good response.   For a blurb on the novel and a really cool cover concept, go here.   I'd love to hear your comments.   You can read it even before joining Gather, but if you want to vote, you'll need to go through their short signup procedure.   

Internet Telephony in LA

It is a clear day in Los Angeles as the Internet Telephony Fall conference begins today.  I got up at 6:30 after a good night's sleep, had breakfast and then headed to the show. 

I spoke on SIP and SS7 to an audience of about 35 people at 10:00 am.   This talk built on themes which I'd previously written about in an article for SIP Magazine earlier this year.    In essence, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) has won the standards wars, but there is a still a lot of Signaling System 7 (SS7) in the network, so there will be a need for carriers to support both SIP and SS7 for years to come.   

As usual, this is a good networking show.  I have already run into many of my friends from the industry here and have also had numerous conversations with new acquaintances.  If you are in the LA area and have an interest in next generation communications, stop by and check it out.   I have a speaker pass, so I'll be roaming  both the show floor and attending conference sessions.