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Category: Website Updates

Technical stuff about Quacking Alone, the website (usually posted by my husband).

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Amazon is rolling out their "Read the first chapter FREE" web gadget called Kindle for the Web slowly but surely.

The big news for Quacking Alone is that you can read the first chapter(s) of two of Mary Anne's books right on the web for free, thanks to this new nifty gadget. Brotherly Love and E-Mail Enticement will display right in your browser - no need for downloads or buying expensive devices or other messiness just to get a sample of her work. Just click on the provided links and VOILA you're reading!

The gadget is in beta right now, but as Amazon irons out the kinks, more and more books will have this option available. So check Mary Anne's list of books regularly and look for the appropriate links.

In the coming weeks I plan to do some little website tweaks that will hopefully make navigating the site a little easier with the added benefit of making it more aesthetically pleasing. So be on the lookout, mateys! Ahoy and avast!

Surrender the Booty! YARRR!!

(No, I'm not converting the blog to a pirate theme... no matter how much I'd like it  😉  )

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Just wanted to notify you guys that we have a few more links and buttons in the sidebar, mainly related to a new venture that Mary Anne is exploring. Marianne Stephens, a romance author in her own right, is starting a new blog in October called All Day, All Night Divas. Its hook is that it features blog entries exclusively from romance authors with the name of Marianne, Mary Ann, or Mary Anne. And guess who here qualifies to blog there? Hmm? Hmm? Anybody you know? Anybody?

Anyways, that's the big news so far. The other news is that I'm going to try and get a new Kindle feature working on this blog - a "Read the First Chapter Free!" button.

Keep your eyes peeled for that and for Mary Anne's first blog entry on All Day, All Night Divas. Until then, kiddies, keep it realz0rs.

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Your favorite nasty fat fellow here. Things on the blog front are much better since last week.

If you haven't noticed, down below each post there are now a series of tiny buttons that will allow you to print, e-mail, or save a post to your Favorites folder, as well as pass it on via Facebook, Twitter, or Digg.

This is courtesy of the Sociable plugin. I am enormously grateful to the author of this plugin. He made it so that it just dammit works, unlike the ShareThis plugin that I'll never use again.

The buttons you see at the bottom of each post and on each page aren't the only services available; the new plugin allows for at least 50 more, like del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, etc. If there's a button you want added, please e-mail Mary Anne (use the Contact box in the sidebar) and she'll get word to me and hopefully I'll be able to add it for you.

Hasta luego, muchachos.

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I am declaring jihad on ShareThis. May Allah roast their stomachs in Hell.

We are having severe technical difficulties. The first one we had was with Yahoo Small Business Webhosting. Their computers somehow forgot how to find other websites, thus breaking our website to the point that it looked like a squirrel murdered with a motorboat propeller.

I went into a panic because I didn't know if it was something I did, since it happened shortly after I got the e-mail subscription thing working. I began uninstalling and reinstalling things, reconfiguring other things, and beating my meaty face on the desk in desperation. Finally I gave up, cursed and blasphemed myself into a fitful sleep.

The next day Yahoo had their junk fixed. Allahu snackbar! But then when I went to this blog I kept getting an error message saying ShareThis needed a Publisher's key. I then remembered in my fury the night before that I had updated ShareThis to the latest version. So I went to the configuration page and you know what I saw? The Publisher key, sitting there as pretty as a naked Kansas City whore in Italian stiletto heels.

The cursing began anew. I pounded the desk in rage. After I cooled down a bit I uninstalled the fresh version of ShareThis and put an older version that worked back in. I went over the blog pages, expecting to see the tiny, yet functional, ShareThis button I had grown accustomed to for the past couple of years.

Nope. Oh HELL no. No button. Nothing. Tried a couple of tricks, still got nothing.

I don't know how many clumps of hair I've yanked out in frustration or how much screaming and cursing I've done, but this is why I now wish death upon the infidels.

May each one of them have a thousand palaces in the afterlife, and may each of those palaces have a thousand bedrooms, and may each of those bedrooms have a thousand beds, and may they forever roll from bed to bed, burning with an agonizing fever. Inshallah.

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Quick little update from The Angry One. Because of a thoughtful e-mail sent to us by a wonderful lady, I was compelled to add e-mail subscription capabilities to the blog.

The easiest way to subscribe to e-mail updates, notifications, etc., is to click the appropriate links in either the Contact Us box or the Site box in the righthand sidebar. Or if you'd rather, you could click here, but this post isn't going to be here forever. Just sayin'.

The other way is to go ahead and fully register to the site via the Site box in the righthand sidebar. It should give you an option or two to fill in about e-mail subscriptions along with the usual stuff. The added benefit there is that you can post comments without needing to go through further rigamarole or wait for me to spot your comment in the spam filter, pick it up, wipe it off, and insert it into its proper place.

So do it now while supplies last!

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Published on 1 Comment on The Duke (Part 1) Has Arrived

Howdy, it's the irritated overweight male here.

If you haven't heard, seen, felt, or used your Jedi Force Sense powers to figure it out yet, Mary Anne is trying something new - she's writing a serialized novel titled The Duke of Eden. She's got the first four chapters up for a mere 99¢ on the Kindle, so check it out. If you like it, feel free to sample and/or grab her other books.

Because of various contractual obligations, we can offer serialized works only on the Kindle. We're sorry about that; we'd like to offer it everywhere else we offer Mary Anne's books, but... lawyers. You know. Ahem.

I've added Duke to the sidebar and to the book list page. As Mary Anne finishes a sizable chunk of chapters, one of us will announce it and link to those pages for you.

In the meantime, stay chilly peeps. And stay away from lawyers, they're nothing but trouble. Ahem.

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Hi there my little steamed dumplings, it's yours truly, Angry Old Fat Man. We've decided to add a new feature to the website, mainly me rambling on about stuff in the middle of the week to augment Mary Anne's weekend posts.

Mary Anne has a lot on her plate, especially writing-wise. She writes legalese while daylight burns, then comes home and puts in another work shift taking care of me and the children while trying to find time to write her books. Then the weekend comes, and it's laundry, cooking, and bill-paying while trying to think of something to fill a blog post. And then actually typing out the post.

I swear to you, I don't know how she does it. I would have run out naked into the street with a growling chainsaw and a Pez dispenser full of Xanax if I had that kind of schedule.

So being the helpful hubby, I suggested to her that I could post something in the middle of the week to keep readership up.

Yeah, she bought it. HA!

Now I get to torture entertain YOU, the formerly unsuspecting blog reader, with inane garbage insightful comments on random brain flotsam whimsical ideas and interesting events.

Just look for AOFM-MWU in the title of the post around Wednesday or Thursday of a single an occasional every week.

Tentative subject for next week: Apple overtakes Microsoft. See you then!

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Hi kiddies, AOFM again. Just wanted to inform you all that Griffin's Law is now available in both paperback and e-book from Amazon, Smashwords, and CreateSpace. Once a few other e-tailers' systems get finished digesting it, it should be out for the Nook and Barnes & Noble as well. Keep watching our book list page for updates on where all of Mary Anne's books can be obtained.

Have a great Sunday, and talk atcha laters. AOFM out.

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The book that, to date, I had the most fun writing, Griffin's Law, is being published as I type. It's out there on Smashwords and almost out there (it should be through the publishing grinder shortly ) at Kindle. It'll take a couple of weeks or so for us to get the paperback version out.

The Amazon process for Kindle puts the book out in stages. As I write this post, Griffin's Law is up on the Amazon site, complete with hubby's fantabulous cover image and, by the Great Green Toad Frog, with a buy button. The cover blurb hasn't fed up yet. And this blog post is partly about Griffin's and why it was my most fun book to write, and partly about that cover blurb.

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I'm a huge fan of Grey's Anatomy and of its creator, Shonda Sunshine (Rhimes). And Grey's Anatomy inspired this book. One night, as I watched the folks at Seattle Grace Hospital, I asked myself one question -- What if Grey's Anatomy took place in a law school? 

...continue reading "Griffin’s Law – To Compare Or Not To Compare?"

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Hello again kiddies! Now that we've moved to a fully-functional website, the big, old, and ugly AOFM has been busy putting little things up here and there in our little abode on the webbernets.

I can't show you what I've done behind the scenes, because really those things are boringly technogeek and hair-tearingly frustrating. What I can show you, though, is over in the sidebar. You will now find Google News headlines about e-books, publishers, and the literary industry in general.

Try it out and see what you think!

As usual, I am open to suggestions that you, the reader and our customer, may have about improving the website, so by all means e-mail us if that's the case. Or even if you want to just shoot the breeze or ask about Mr. Brick's humble origins or whatevs, we'd be happy to hear from you.

Peace, AOFM.