Captain's Blog
Ahoy, Critterfolk!
New entry May 03
Critter Notices
New Book from a Critter Member
Awesome new book,
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SPECULATIVE FICTION OPENINGS,
from a Critter member whose unearthed a shard of The Secret
to becoming a pro writer. Really good piece of work.
"...if you're at all concerned about story openings, you'd be nuts not to read what Qualkinbush has to say." —Wil McCarthy, author of BLOOM and THE COLLAPSIUM
Stayin' Alive
If you want to make a career of SF writing, STAYING ALIVE - A WRITER'S GUIDE by three-time SFWA President Norman Spinrad, published by your Critter Captain's ReAnimus Press, is an indispensable guide to the SF publishing industry by an expert.How to Write SF
Hot off the presses from ReAnimus Press! The Craft of Writing Science Fiction that Sells by Ben Bova, best-selling author and six-time Hugo Award winner for Best Editor. (This is one of the books your ol' Critter Captain learned from himself, and I highly recommend it.)
Book Recommendation
It's like discovering a new Heinlein book:
POINT ULTIMATE
by Star Trek writer Jerry Sohl.
Announcing ReAnimus Press
If you need help making ebooks from manuscripts or print copies—or finding great stuff to read—look no further! An ebook publisher started by your very own Critter Captain. (And with a 12% Affiliate program.) [More]
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FEATURED BOOK
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[yeah, yeah, just take me to the form]
About CritStyle
CritStyle is a simple web app that lets you format and print manuscripts from www.critters.org.
It gives you basic control over type size and line spacing (double or single), and will also apply bolds and italics specified with the *asterisk* and _underline_ conventions. You can also minimize the header info.
How to Use
To use CritStyle, simply copy a manuscript from the critters website and paste it into the yellow box. Click the Preview checkbox to switch between paste box and preview mode. In most browers you can also double-click in the preview box or paste box to switch views (this does not work in Internet Explorer).
In Internet Explorer you will be prompted to allow direct pasteboard access - if you click 'Allow Access', the contents of the pasteboard will be automatically inserted and CritStyle will go straight into preview mode. Explorer will prompt you on first loading the webpage, and each time you click 'New'.
The Autofit button will set a font size optimised for the maximum line width.
Preferences
To store your preferred default settings, click 'New', then save the current browser address as your bookmark/shortcut. The font size, line spacing and header minimization settings are stored in the address, and will be applied each time the page loads.
Privacy
CritStyle does not store any data on the server. All processing is done with client-side Javascript.
System Requirements
CritStyle has been tested in Firefox 3.x (PC), Internet Explorer 7/8 (PC), Safari 3.x (Mac) and Google Chrome (PC). Results on other browsers are not guaranteed.
Known Issues
Runs very slowly with Firefox RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin enabled.
I hope you enjoy using CritStyle
Mike Alexander, 2009
