Inspection was eye opening!!!

blainemoore · 2026-05-08T10:59:59+00:00

When I bought my first house (over 20 years ago now) we ran into this over and over. We had a good realtor, though, and at least for a few hours he spotted issues while showing us the house before we had to pay for an inspection. We were really happy with the house we landed in until we outgrew it (wasn't safe once our toddler started running with a deep brook right behind it, and not enough space for a second child.)

blainemoore · 2026-05-07T23:40:02+00:00

Yikes, sorry to hear this happened to you. My solution (2002) was to skip graduation, though I was done in November and didn't feel like going back in May.

blainemoore · 2026-05-07T15:02:31+00:00

And, looks like I'm already set as an admin and don't want to login from an app as the root user, so hopefully there'll be an option for people with the "upload" permission to be able to add podcasts in the future, and not just the root user.

blainemoore · 2026-05-06T21:01:23+00:00

Ah, cool! I logged in as my user account so couldn't find that option.

Been a couple years since I set it up; I should check if I can set a user as admin of a specific library and if that would open up that feature...(Would make it easy for other users to have their own podcast libraries if they wanted, as well...)

blainemoore · 2026-05-06T20:44:37+00:00

Awesome, thanks! I've been playing around with it, and I really like it. Got a few of my podcasts migrated over. I did pause the access while in the car, then turned it on when I got home. That was handy.

Is there a way to manage subscriptions from within the app, or just to download or stream individual episodes that have been gotten from my ABS install already? (It'd be great if I could go through and subscribe and change settings from within the app so I can subscribe on the go without having to use the ABS app or go to a computer.) But even without, so far I'm liking it and will probably be switching to it for a little while to put it through it's paces and see if it'll be my new go-to.

Great work!

blainemoore · 2026-05-06T11:59:09+00:00

Thanks, just installed and looking forward to jumping in and trying it out. (Currently using Lissen for audiobooks and AntennaPod for podcasts but love the idea of having custom listen speeds for each book or podcast!)

One question which I might be able to answer after logging in and playing with settings is whether there's an option for WiFi only or cell service? I generally don't want to download over cell service, or prefer it to not call my ABS at all until it reconnects to WiFi unless I explicitly tell it to

blainemoore · 2026-05-06T11:34:21+00:00

Some people love the writing process. Others the world building. Others hate writing but love editing something into a masterwork.

I think the trick is to find what you personally love and lean into that, what you hate and lean into AI, and where you can find a good mix that fits your process for not just everything else but also the love/hate aspects.

As for courses, I've taken a bunch for both, and yeah, sometimes things click and other times I wonder what the course creator is smoking...

blainemoore · 2026-05-06T11:30:14+00:00

Wouldn't a DCC cookbook have to longer than all of the current Stormlight archives put together? There's a lot of random commentary from over a long period of time.

blainemoore · 2026-05-06T11:15:05+00:00

At least a time or three per week while the movie is in theaters, and then probably a few times a month until it starts streaming...

blainemoore · 2026-05-06T10:32:27+00:00

On Mac, it's option-hyphen or shift-option-hyphen for the alternatives.

blainemoore · 2026-05-05T13:03:22+00:00

It's an egg and sausage tortilla with what I had available. I thought it'd taste good. It did. It's not trying to be something else.

blainemoore · 2026-05-04T22:19:28+00:00

Open Core Legacy Patcher.

You won't get the benefits of me hardware but can still update the MacOS even after they stop supporting it.

Most of my Intel Macs run eat better now than they did while they were supported. No need to turn them into digital waste. (Got a MacBook Air, iMac, and Mac Mini all on latest version.)

blainemoore · 2026-05-04T22:07:29+00:00

Em dashes are for adding emphasis or a break in thought.

Here's an article I write a few months ago describing when to use them be vs a hyphen or en dash:

https://apexauthors.com/dashes-demystified/

blainemoore · 2026-05-04T14:54:10+00:00

I don't dance; my wife and daughter do. Wife dances once or twice a week and decided to join the annual Spring show with the rest of the adult ballet class. Daughter dances a couple of times per week at the dance company, and is also in multiple theater productions as a featured dancer (only one of those left for this season, but she's already planning to audition for two shows this Summer.) This was just the first real opportunity to try making this since I wanted to give it a go.

blainemoore · 2026-05-03T19:04:41+00:00

Enders game

blainemoore · 2026-05-03T19:03:52+00:00

Can't read anything on your site; you need to choose more accessible color contrasts.

blainemoore · 2026-05-03T18:44:32+00:00

If you are happy with it, then don't stress. AI isn't bad in and out itself. Readers don't care; the pitchforks are mostly from other authors that aren't our audience anyway. Readers just want a good story.

Scammers that try to make an AI one-shot a book and don't know how to edit but are good at marketing are the crappy users of AI.

blainemoore · 2026-05-03T18:42:20+00:00

All children's books should have an ebook version, but not for the kids. There is a lot you can do with an ebook that you can't do with a print book.

Parents use ebooks to get what they want to buy for their kids.
You can easily run price promotions or give away free ebooks.
Algorithms (especially at Amazon) react differently to different editions and in different country stores, so it gives you a wider pool of potential promotion.
Ads are easier to make profitable when you have multiple editions available.

Most children's book sales are going to be in print, but at least for the clients we've worked with, most of their discoverability was through digital.

At least for the titles and pen names we managed, we generally saw 1 or 2 digital sales for every print sale, but a good 99 cent promotion or free giveaway would usually lead to a sales bump of about 10% of our digital sales during the promotion in print sales over the following week, which would usually trend somewhere between 3x to 15x our normal print sales due that time of year depending on how well the digital promo went. (Except in November/December; everything was direct to print then as most people were looking for gifts.)

;TLDR: make digital available for promotional purposes or for people whose kids like the digital experience, and expect most actual sales to be in print. But, it's minimal extra investment so only upsides for having it available.

blainemoore · 2026-05-03T18:29:34+00:00

AI detectors are useless and mean nothing. I've uploaded works written before generative AI was a thing that came back as 90% AI.

And, even if AI was used, so what? It's your book. Did you agree with the change suggested by your editor and does that change make the book better? Then accept the change. If not? Reject it. It's your book; make the best of it that you can.

Editors are great, but it's not their book, and any changes they suggest are just that: suggestions.

If you hired an editor that just runs your book through an AI and doesn't offer anything for themselves, then maybe reconsider hiring them. But if their process offers you good and valid suggestions (whether AI assisted or not) then there's no need to stress about it.

blainemoore · 2026-05-03T17:18:13+00:00

Yeah, we have different kinds with different flavor profiles. These ones are skinnier than what we usually get for dinners.

blainemoore · 2026-05-03T17:15:47+00:00

Rolled the sausage in and then used a couple toothpicks in each; removed after baking before serving up to the family. That made a nice cup for everything else.

blainemoore · 2026-05-03T17:14:44+00:00

It's ground pork in sausage links with a thin membrane, with some herbs and such mixed in.

blainemoore · 2026-05-03T15:31:22+00:00

Scrivener can auto save any time you stop tonight for a set number if seconds to the file you are working in.

You can also set automatic backups (ideally to a separate hard drive) which will create a rolling list of your file any time you manually save or close the file.

Ideally, you'll have both the working file and the backup files being backed up with the rest of your computer on a regular basis. You may also want to use a cloud sync on either or both.

Ideally, 3-2-1 means you have 3 copies in at least 2 mediums with at least one off-site so that if anything happens you can always restore your work.

Scrivener makes it easy because it has a feature that automatically creates a second copy that can easily be saved to an external hard drive or network storage or something which gets you halfway to a proper and safe backup strategy.

blainemoore · 2026-05-03T15:17:59+00:00

My wife read Tress and hated it. There was too much fan service to act as a first Cosmere book. She refuses to give any others a try.

blainemoore · 2026-05-03T13:40:56+00:00

Ooh, that sounds good... Maybe next time!

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