Short Story 7 - The Vigilante

This is the seventh short story in my Counting Down the Days book, currently a work in progress. We have so far taken a sneak peek into other short stories in this collection viz: The Right to Remain Silent, Networking or not working, The Dilemma, Power to the People, Counting Down the Days and Nothing.

The Vigilante

Julie has lost a husband she totally loved, thanks to the neglect, self interest and sloppiness of his friends. Njoroge, Wambua and Salim have deliberately opted to misinform her husband about the presence of law enforcement officials during a heist, and simply watch him unknowingly walk into a fatal trap.

With Kimunya now dead, she takes it upon herself to punish the remaining members of a terror gang she willfully belonged to and dutifully worked to protect. Her plan is to deal with them one by one, and successfully eliminates some of them, until something goes terribly wrong and exposes the enemy within.

How will she carry out her plan? Can she stop avenging Kimunya's death in view of the inherent risks?

My Current Reads

I have recently discovered eFiction Magazine on Issuu - my favorite online hangout where I get to read great stuff in an attractive, engaging and innovative presentation.
eFiction Magazine has been around for quite a while [how did I miss all this?], since April 2010. The August 2011 edition is the 17th issue!
Below are the very first and the current editions of eFiction Magazine. I'd urge you all to head to Issuu and subscribe to this online magazine that showcases the latest fiction across the web, for free. It is truly priceless for any writer worth his/her salt.

eFiction Magazine - then

eFiction Magazine - now

Do have a great day good people!
Cheers :)

Short Story 6 - Nothing

This is the sixth short story in my Counting Down the Days book, currently a work in progress. We have so far taken a sneak peek into other short stories in this collection viz:  The Right to Remain Silent, Networking or not working, The Dilemma, Power to the People and Counting Down the Days.

Nothing

My Current Reads

I have recently renewed my love for Issuu. This is partly because I'll very soon be publishing Connect eMagazine, with monthly editions available for online viewing and free download on our Issuu page.

The bigger reason, however, is that Issuu more than makes reading online an enduring pleasure. On Issuu, you get to read very useful documents as well. I have so far shared some of them both on The Walkabout and on this site.

Today, I'll share one about how to Innovate.
Hope you like it :)

As we eagerly await the Connect eMagazine launch later this year, I invite you to join Connect eMagazine on Issuu so that we can learn and share together, even as we count down the days...

Have a great weekend.
Cheers

Short Story 5 - Counting Down the Days

Counting Down the Days is both the title short story and the fifth in my upcoming collection Counting Down the Days.
We have so far highlighted The Right to Remain Silent, Networking or not working, The Dilemma and Power to the People.

Counting Down the Days

In this story, Edwin has been injured in what has been erroneously referred to as an accident. Interestingly, he had just watched Nokia's 4th Screen TV ad on YouTube minutes before this "accident". He was anticipating change, but is now forced to inevitably wait for that change for a very definite number of days.



With every passing day, Edwin gets to see a better version of the bigger picture that awaits him. He is able to better plan, and carefully review his choices.
In losing the ability to do something he really wants, he gains the latitude to ultimately attain what he actually needs.

My Current Reads

I am totally immersed in Chris Anderson's Free: The Future of a Radical Price. The book simply explains what has happened in our lives all along, where businesses make big money by offering free products and/or services.

Nothing is surprising or new in doing that, especially when you think about free-to-air radio and TV from commercial broadcasters.

Interestingly, Malcolm Gladwell [who authored The Tipping Point] doesn't agree with Chris Anderson. FYI, Chris also wrote The Long Tail. Malcolm had a lot to say about Free in The New Yorker.

As a strong advocate of online publishing and on-screen reading, I have recently started to read, and shall be actively sharing/embedding magazines in my reading list.
Most, if not all will be hosted at Issuu, which is my favorite hangout when it comes to reading online. Following is the June 2011 edition of CIO East Africa Magazine.

Please note that upon launch, Connect eMagazine will also be available for online reading and free download at Issuu.

Have a great week good people. Let's continue reading and writing together.Cheers!

:)

Books, eBooks, eReaders and Tablets

Last week, I engaged in some interesting discourse with both @Wamathai and @SonyK_Imani. It was about our preferences for book print editions or digital editions [e-Books].

Note: In this post, e-books will hereafter be referred to as eBooks, e-readers as eReaders and print editions of books as simply books.

On the same day, CNN highlighted the findings of a study where more Americans now buy eReaders than tablets. BNET has gone ahead and put this report [PDF, 774KB] in perspective, largely because the new shift is bad news for tablet makers, especially Apple.

Interestingly, Amazon in a press release says that it's now selling more e-Books than print editions of books.

eBooks
Much has been said about digital editions of books. I still stand by my word about the convenience, unparalleled mobility, reading [many might not agree with me on this one], and interactive elements such as in-text search and embedded multi media.

As  I work on my book Counting Down the Days, my only option is to publish online, and unless something drastic happens to change my mind, I intend to publish subsequent books online. Online publishing affords one a global audience, timeless archiving of the work and highly cost effective publishing, marketing and distribution.

Tablets
Reports and analysis aside, I love eBooks. In fact, I cannot wait for the day I finally get my hands on an ASUS eee Pad Transformer. I really need it to read eBooks among other things [writing, listening to music, streaming radio, access Internet, watch movies etc] and have already made my intentions public in that regard.

The thing with tablets for me, is that they can multi-task. The screens are full color. A definite plus for the ASUS Transformer is the physical keyboard [docking station] that makes typing easier, adds more ports to the device and enhances battery life. The keyboard makes it a media creation vs a media consuming device.

Other Tablet devices do exist, notably the Motorola Xoom, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Toshiba Thrive, Acer Iconia and Apple iPad. I just had to say a bit more about my personal favorite.

eReaders
The Amazon Kindle tops the list on this one, although it is faced with worthwhile contenders in the name of Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo eReader, Bookeen Cybook, Sony Reader and Pocketbook among others.

Wikipedia does have a very comprehensive comparison of all these eReaders. Every manufacturer seems to add more features with every new release, and the pricing is far much lower than for tablets.

3G Internet, Wifi, eInk, internal storage and integrated dictionaries seem to be fairly standard features.

Verdict
In light of all the above about  about books and devices used to read them, do you still swear by the traditional print book format? Have you embraced eBooks? And when it comes to reading them, do you prefer to use an eReader, a Tablet or a traditional desktop/laptop computer?

Counting Down the Days

Today, I get to tell you what my first book will be. I'll then say a few things about how I intend to do this whole writing, publishing and selling business.

First off, the cover for my collection of short stories.

In case you are wondering, the book is aptly titled to reflect the time in my life when I was counting down the days to the days when I would finally be able to type with both my hands, upon the removal of a POP cast that I had on my broken left arm. Without getting into details, let's just say that upon healing, I was left much stronger at the broken places.

The Writing
Many of the stories in this collection have been inspired by an incident I had way back in April 2008. It was a chilling life-threatening incident but I prefer to refer to it as a life-changing one.
The book in essence explores the human condition.

Every so often, I'll post on this blog, a sneak peek into or a synopsis of, a short story to give you a rough idea of what each story is about.
In addition, should I one day feel sufficiently philanthropic, I'll post an entire short story and may be even offer it as a PDF for free download.

With subsequent writing, I shall explore the option of serializing an entire work and thereby develop characters, the plot and explore themes which may actually be influenced by your feedback and commentary. That is the beauty of online collaboration.

Online Publishing
It is my intention to fully publish online. Counting Down The Days will be available for sale in 2012.
These are the days of niche markets, where books are read on e-readers such as the Kindle or the Nook, mobile devices viz: cellphones, tablet computers, netbooks, as well as laptops and desktop computers.

I am banking on the effects of 1000 True fans, endless choice and unlimited demand in the long tail, which are best realized on the world wide web.

Book Sales
I also see no need to restrict myself to a local market when my stories are relevant to persons across the globe. The Internet will also be a viable means to cut printing, marketing, distribution and shipping costs. To this end, I purpose to sell on online bookstores such as Amazon, Apple iBooks, Lulu among others.

So much for what we are looking forward to and how all the pieces will fit together.
Tomorrow, we get a sneak peek into one of my short stories, titled 'The Right to Remain Silent'.
See you then!

Welcome. Let's Read & Write Together

African Writing
Today is truly a great day for me, yet another important step in my writing.
Setting up this site marks the beginning of an exciting journey towards the publication of my books, books that I hope will be many and more important, profound.

It all started when at an early age, I began reading books from the Heinemann African Writers Series. This included such heavyweights as Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Cyprian Ekwensi, Wole Soyinka, Alex la Guma and others.

Reading
Through this site, I purpose to learn and share stuff about reading and writing. I happen to love reading more than most things in life, and I bet it'll be interesting to exchange ideas with you about good reads, be it fiction or non-fiction, and touching on nearly any topic under the sun [yeah, I have no qualms about what I read, almost anything goes].
Towards that end, I shall routinely write about the books I am currently reading. Not fully fledged book reviews but simply highlights and links to where you can get your own copy. That includes download links for free eBooks. Should there be no link, then I'll simply Email you a copy of such a book.

Writing
For years, my writing has been published both online and on several local [Nairobi, Kenya] print magazines. Much of it has been freelance writing, or driven by online advertising.
Along the way, I decided to write some books, staring with fictional short stories. This has grown into a cool collection that I feel needs to become a book. This will happen later this year :)

Still on writing, it'll be my pleasure to engage with others in the craft, both newbies and veterans. To this end, we shall be having guest posts and extensively share creative writing insights from across the web.
In addition, this site will be closely tied to Connect eMagazine, another of my projects [currently in incubation].

Starting Point
As always, it is a good thing to get into any worthwhile venture fully armed. When it comes to writing, nothing beats a small book about writing, that carries so much weight. Every writer worth his salt should have a copy of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. The book simply presents the principal requirements of plain English style, focusing on the rules of usage in literature, composition and grammar.

That said, let's link again tomorrow when I present my first collection of short stories. Thanks for dropping by.
Cheers!