Why an Index?

With 550 posts as of today, I’ve started to have problems remembering what I’ve already put on here. This is particularly a problem with posting existing content such as poems, short pieces from the Summer Arts Festival, or science explanations originally written for the Alaska Science Forum. I can’t remember which books or DVDs I’ve posted reviews on. It also is starting to be a problem when I want to link to a previous post and can’t remember when it was put up or what the title was. And there are posts on this blog that have permanent information, like the series on planet building and the one on horse color genetics, or the book and DVD reviews. I want to make it easier for my readers as well as myself to find things.

I made a start some time ago by adding an index page, which can be accessed from the menu at the top of any page. Right now, the only links are to index pages on my author site. This takes you out of the site and sometimes back in, which is rather clumsy. The index list is also incomplete.

I’m going to start posting an occasional entry which is strictly an index of past posts on a particular topic. These posts will be linked from the index page, and will link forward to the individual blog posts. As it takes a while to find all the posts that belong together, this will be a slow process—probably extending over the next few months. The first in this series, on DVD reviews, is already queued for January 3. Others will follow, most on Thursdays.

I probably won’t be indexing every post. Some, like those early posts which were simply glossary entries for my books, are on the author site and really belong there. Others, like the regular Monday updates on North Pole weather starting in November 2010, can be found easily enough just by using the calendar on the site. But I hope that by the time I have finished this, older posts of interest will be easier to find.

500th Post and Drawing Results #IAN

This is my 500^th post, and I’m celebrating by announcing the results of my drawing and posting a few of my favorite pictures. Thanks, all, for making this blog as successful as it is.

Lately I’ve been trying a post a day, with different themes for different days of the week. Monday I talk about the local weather (which at the moment is unseasonably cold, even by Fairbanks standards — we set a new record low a couple of nights ago.)

Tuesday I review something – a book, a DVD, a tourist attraction, a class I’m taking – anything goes.

Wednesday I give the contexts for the quotes I’ve been tweeting the previous week from @sueannbowling. Can you guess the book and context from the tweet? Mostly I quote from fantasy and science fiction, since that’s what I write, but this week I’m quoting from a non-fiction book, one I’ll probably review next Tuesday.

Thursday is random. Could be a poem, a bit of fiction, a rant – whatever comes into my head.

Friday is the backstory for the world in which my science fiction is set. Right now I’m giving (actually writing as I go) entries from the fictional journal of an alien stranded on Earth about the time modern humans were evolving.

Saturday is something related to science or health, so since this is Saturday I figured at the very least I should explain how I’m doing the drawing..

Sunday I give a six-sentence snippet from something I’ve written. Right now it’s the first book of a trilogy I’m trying to polish.

Oh yes, the drawing. I’ll give the results later; I’m not closing the drawing until midnight November 18 my time, by which time I should be in bed. So the actual drawing will be about 9 am November 19. This post will go live at 8 am, so I’ll edit it to give the results as soon as I have them.

How am I doing it?

First, I’ve made a list of everyone who’s commented on any of my posts since I announced the drawing, and put them in an Excel table. As I said, up to five comments per person are allowed, though only one comment per post. There were 33 entries.

Second, I’ll have Stat Trek generate a random number table, using the number of final entrants with no duplicates allowed. These random numbers will be put in the next row of the excel table.

Third, the person who lines up with random number 1 is the winner. The people who line up with random numbers 2 through 5 are the runners-up. It is possible, of course, that a person with multiple entries will get more than one of the 3 winning numbers. In that case, the placing will go to whoever lines up with random number 6, or in the unlikely case that the same person gets several placings on this round it may be necessary to go as high as random number 10. (This didn’t happen.)

The results? (Drummroll.)

The Winner: Candace Coghill.

The Runners-up: Lee Shapiro, Christine Warner, Karysafaire and Krystal Wade.

I will post the results here and on Twitter, and will try to contact the winners by e-mail. I will need a physical mail address for the first place winner. Again, first prize is winner’s choice of a softcover version of Homecoming or its sequel Tourist Trap. Second through fifth places get the same choice, but in PDF, or an unpublished story in PDF.