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I, for one, am glad Kevin Williamson is so busy lately. I watched The Faculty tonight, and let me tell you something - I love that movie. I have it on VHS somewhere, and the soundtrack is tucked away in box of CDs (probably near the VHS). I just got the Bluray for it, and it's an excellent choice. Do you ever watch movies when you're a teenager, think they're totally awesome, then go back and watch them years later and go, "Wait. What ?" (*hint hint nudge nudge* Reality Bites *cough cough*) Well, thankfully, The Faculty wasn't one of those movies. It's as fantastic as I remember it being, and it's always a pleasure to seen Bebe Neuworth and her never ending gams. If you're not familiar with Kevin Williamson, he made a few popular gems in the late 90s and early 00s, like Dawson's Creek , the first two Screams , I Know What You Did Last Summer , The Faculty , and Cursed. He also did Teaching Mrs. Tingle , which I believe was loosely based on K...

Tonight Christian Bale won a SAG award for his role in The Fighter , and as he was walking up to the stage, he was hugging a whole buncha people, and my roommate Eric said, "I wonder if he's going to hug the sound guy," and I laughed for a good ten minutes. Really loudly. I eat peanut butter with frozen cheese pizza because it tastes awesome. I know all the words to every song ever written by Fall Out Boy. I've seen pretty much every movie made in the 80s (and most of them from the 90s and the 00s too). I really, really love Michael Wincott. I try on shoes a lot, but I rarely buy them. I'm obsessed (unhealthily so) with possessing Sharpies. I live in the same house my parents bought twelve years ago, and I live with the same guy I've been friends with for the past ten years. Last night, my friends threw me a surprise party at a bar.(Thanks everybody!!!!) My mom, my roommate Eric, and my good friend Pete did most of the planning, along with my friend Fi would m...

I got this email today, and I like rhinos, so I'm spreading the word. They have an option to donate as little as $8 a month, plus there's options to donate one time, and you can use PayPal, your checking account, or a credit card. PLUS when you donate money, some employers will match or double the amount you donate. You've probably heard the grim report already: An astonishing 333 rhinos were killed illegally in South Africa in 2010 --the highest rate ever experienced in the country. Ten of these were critically endangered black rhinos, of which only about 3,500 individuals still remain. Help WWF protect rhinos and other wildlife and habitats around the world from threats such as poaching--make a monthly donation today . White rhino horn being transported to a secure holding facility. © Michel Gunther/WWF-Canon Free gift when you make a monthly donation to WWF in honor of rhinos. Why are so many rhinos being killed? The recent rhino crime wave is largely due to a...

Jason Letts has a new book that just came out. It's a young adult paranormal romance called Inevitable that I did some editing on it. I don't know if that's technically enough for me to be considered a co-author, but there you have it. Here's the description... Every choice is played out in a world unto itself, and so the only Nathan who needs to be saved is the only one who can’t be. A supernatural spirit holds all of these worlds together, bending fate from her place outside of time. When eighteen-year-old Nathan Wheeler sacrifices himself to provide for his orphaned sister, this entrancing spirit goes back to when the death of his mother forced him to quit college and attempts to make his life better before his inevitable death. But for all she knows about the future, assuming human form is not as easy as she thought it would be, and getting close to Nathan comes with consequences she could never expect. Inevitable is available at both Amazon and Barnes ...

Look at this you guys: In case you don't know, Doug Jones played the thing the with the hands in Pan's Labyrinth, which I dubbed the scariest thing in the scariest movie. Some other terrifying thing he's played includes: the scary zombie at the end of Quarantine , the ice cream man with the arms in Legion , and Billy Butcher in Hocus Pocus. (Okay, Billy Butcher isn't scary but he is neat.) He's also played Abe in Hellboy . So anyway, Doug Jones is awesome. And that's my favorite tweet ever. Rick Springfield is playing at the Mayo Civic Center next week, and I'm debating on whether or not we should go see him. I love Rick Springfield. But... well. I guess it's not much of a debate. I don't really have a "con" for not seeing him. I mean, it's flippin Rick Springfield, right? I have an actual album (as in vinyl) of Working Class Dog . That album came out 3 years before I was born. Also in fun news - James Franco was nominated for an Oscar...

This blog entry isn't directly related to WPF, but there are cases where a WPF project is deployed to a unix environment and there is a need to work with xwindows. I've been successfully using vcnserver for many years with various flavors of unix, but I've always been stumped by something - when I ssh into another machine, my xwindows display stops working. As long as I stay on the original machine that is running vncserver, everything is fine but if I move to a different box I get the following error: pdvboxb:/home/dsixe>xcalc Xlib: connection to "pdvboxa:1.0" refused by server Xlib: Client is not authorized to connect to Server Error: Can't open display: pdvboxa:1.0 Well today I was in need to run an application that required xwindows and I decided to buckle down and find a solution to this nagging situation. Since my memory isn't what it once was, I'm going to record it on this blog so the next time I run into it I'll be able to trace my solu...

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Hey, did you guys ever see that movie where Billy Zane taps his sister? It was supposed to  be some kind of noir thing. It was called like First the World, Then the Firework s or something. On a related note, did you ever see The Grifters ? That movie is MESSED up. It was nominated for like four Oscars. And I don't get it. I love Anjelica Huston and John Cusack, and the movie actually was interesting and enjoyable. It was just John's relationship with his mom that was totally... crazy. Anyway - I had my first television interview today. It was actually a lot of fun. I wasn't really nervous, and Tom Overlie is a really swell guy. For those of you interested in watching, it will air on KTTC (the NBC affiliate out of Rochester, MN) sometime next week probably. Tom said he'll drop me an email when he knows when it will air. He also said that it will be up online, so people out of the viewing area will be able to see it too, and see what a total goon I am. Onto a clarificati...

Here's what I don't like: Not being able to talk about everything that's going on. I am the worst secret keeper in the world. And I never know how much of anything I can talk about, so to be on the safe side, I'm not really talking about anything. And it sucks. But here is something I'm pretty sure I can talk about: I'm having my first television interview tomorrow. It's for a local news station (KTTC out of Rochester), and it should be fun. It's with Tom Overlie, and  I'm secretly a big fan. He sang at a telethon last year, and I had it on my DVR for like a week. (I think it was "Unforgettable.") So that's fun. It's at the Coffee House on Main which has the single greatest iced cappuccino drink ever. Is that what's it's called? I don't remember. I just know it's a cold cappuccino with raspberry syrup added, and it is probably the greatest beverage I've ever had in my life. I probably won't be putting out a n...

I'm no longer on vacation! I had a ton of fun in New Mexico, and I miss my friends already. (And I missed an episode of Jersey Shore :( ). Sorry this blog is short. I just have a couple things I wanted to say real quick. I updated the FAQs section of my blog, so you can check that out if you want. If you ordered a signed book from me, but haven't received it yet, email me: hocking_amanda@hotmail.com. I'm at war with the postal service. Oh, and how excited are you about Anne Hathaway playing Catwoman in the new Batman? I'm like a 20 on a scale from 1-10.  Here are some fun pics from New Mexico (all courtesy of my friend Valerie): Mountains in Albuquerque (I think the Sandeas?) The sun setting over Albuquerque My friend Greggor admire the sunset from the top of mountains Mountain view from my friend Val & Greggor's apartment

Ascend is out in paperback now . Here is the link: paperback . It's $8.99, the same as the other two. (Here's Switched and Torn ). Onto other news - I've had some issues with the US Postal Service. As in they returned to me a mutilated package that did not contain a book, and said they don't know where the book went. I've also heard reports of at least one person not receiving a book. As of last week, I had mailed off all my autographed books that people had ordered and any paperbacks won in giveaways. I will be gone all of next week, but if by Monday, January 24th you have still not received a book that you ordered from me, please email me so we can get it straightened out. I'm also going to discontinue selling autographed copies of books for the time being. Because of the postal issues. Um... what else. I felt like there was something I thought I should tell you guys. Ah, well. I can't remember what it is. But I'm gone now until January 22nd. I might...

Anyone who has played with portlet factory will quickly learn that it depends heavily on xml defined by a schema. Putting some thought into this I realized that a schema is really a way to define a type and a WPF variable is an instance of that type. For example there is a close correlation between a java type definition such as: public class Contact{ public String name; public String phone; } ... public class Data{ public List<Contact> dsixe; } and an xml representation of the same information as <dsixe> <contact> <name/> <phone/> </contact> </dsixe> with a schema that looks like this <xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:dsixe="http://dsixe.com/contact" targetNamespace="http://dsixe.com/contact"> <xsd:element name="dsixe"> <xsd:complexType> <xsd:sequence> <xsd:element ref="dsixe:contac...

Portlet factory has a great feature which allows creation of custom builders, fantastic for extending the already rich set of builders provided by the tool. Sometimes these custom builders are used to encapsulate business specific functionality to be shared across an organization and providing some help documents can accelerate their adoption. Adding custom help files that integrate with the designer is quite easy, just take a look at the builder definition file and you'll find a HelpFile element:   <HelpFile>WEB-INF/builders/com/dsixe/builders/doc/schemagen_builder.htm</HelpFile> The developer can specify a location for html help that will be tied to the help button on the builder. I like to follow the same look and feel of the stock builder help, so I usually start with an existing file which can be found in {WPF_INSTALL}\Designer\eclipse\plugins\com.bowstreet.designer.doc_*\designer and copy it to my local project. Using this approach I can put together some really ...

In case you missed yesterday's post, Ascend is now for sale on Amazon  and Barnes & Noble ! There's also a discussion at Amazon where spoilers are welcome. So if you're interested in discussing the ending of Ascend , there's a good place to do it . The paperback for Ascend is just waiting for them to let me approve the proof. Also, I updated Switched and Torn 's paperbacks (like I've needed to do for awhile), so they're going to be unavailable for a little bit. I hate to do it, but the only way I can make changes is to unpublish them. The good news is that Switched , Torn , and Ascend should all be for sale in paperback around the same time again. I'll make updated links as soon as they are. So it's just starting to set in that the Trylle Trilogy is over. It's weird. There's so much time and energy put into the three books getting them ready and so many people talking about it. It feels really strange to think that this is it. I know o...

Ascend is for sale on Amazon right now!! UPDATE: Ascend is now for sale at Barnes & Noble ! Not sure when it will be on for sale on Barnes & Nobl e. I published them both at the same time, and last time I published a book, B&N went up faster. But Amazon went really fast this time. It took about 24 hours exactly, and it usually takes around 48 or more hours. I think Amazon went faster because I emailed them about my name. I did also email B&N because of issues with PubIt! being generally stupid. So maybe that will speed it up. But I expect Barnes & Noble have Ascend for sale within the next 24 hours. But again, if it's not up on B&N by Friday, I will be publishing it through Smashwords, and you'll be able to buy it from them for the Nook. At this time, I have not control about when Ascend will be for sale at B&N . Once I hit publish, it's out of my hands. Here's the link for Ascend on Amazon : get it here . Here's a link for Ascend o...

Here's what's up: Today I published Ascend to Amazon and Barnes & Noble. So when will you be able to buy it? I don't know for sure. Somewhere between 24-72 hours. From this point out, I have no control when it publishes. It's all up to them. On the 14th, I will publish Ascend to Smashwords. That will be available instantly after I hit publish, and it sells formats that are supported by pretty much every ereader, including the Kindle, nook, Kobo, Sony ereader, and iPad. So even if the books aren't for sale on Amazon or B&N, you will definitely be able to buy them through Smashwords on the 14th. As for paperback, I'm working on getting that formatted correctly. It usually takes a bit longer for it to go through, because Createspace and I are forever locked in battles about how big .5 inch margin really is. Ideally, I'd like to have the paperback for sale by the 15th too, but if Createspace and I end up fighting like we always do, I won't be able ...

Yesterday was my friend Valerie's birthday. Also - it would be Alice and Wendy and Remy's birthday. Yep. My main character's always share a birthday with Val. I don't know why exactly. I started doing it years ago, and every character I've had since then has had January 9 for their birthday. It just makes it easier for me keep straight, I like my friend Val, and having birthdays in January makes it easier to keep track of their ages through the years (if that makes sense). So that's today's fun fact about Ascend . In a completely unrelated note, I've been thinking lately about what albums I would classify as the Top Ten from 2000 through 2010. Why have I been thinking of that? I don't know. The year ended or something. But I've thought about it. And here's what I come up with. Silverchair - "Young Modern" blink 182 - "(Untitled)" Green Day - "American Idiot" Interpol - "Antics" Ryan Adams - "Gold...

Okay, so I went through all your questions and tried to answer them. If questions were repeats or similar to other ones, I answered the first one that came up. And if I didn't answer your question, it's because the question will be answered in Ascend . Will Ascend have a conclusive finish or will there be a door left open for the possibility of a future book or novella down the road? This storyline is completely wrapped up at the end of the book. I haven’t completely crossed out the idea of spin off yet, but it wouldn’t be with the main characters. I’ve thought a little bit about it, and I’ve considered something possibly with Finn’s little sister Ember.  Who is your favorite character and why? I can’t really say out of the boys because that might give something away. But I definitely have a favorite there. I really like Duncan and Elora. I’ve seen some Willa hate lately, but I dig Willa, and she does some growing in Ascend too, so hopefully people will like her more.  How d...

I'm still taking questions about Ascend that I will answer on Friday. But I'm answering one now - Ascend will be out on Kindle and Nook before paperback. I will publish them both at the same time, and they should go on sale about roughly the same time. (With Letters to Elise , I think Nook beat Kindle by about two hours.)  As some of you may know (or may not), the character of Oren in the Trylle Trilogy was written specifically for Michael Wincott. I'm not saying the trilogy will ever be made into movies - because honestly, I really don't have much control over that. But I have been a die hard Michael Wincott fans for years. Ever since I saw Robin Hood: Prince of Theives when I was seven (and subsequently became unnaturally obsessed with Bryan Adams), I said to myself, "That Michael Wincott is for me." And he is. Unfortunately, the film industry does not seem to feel the same way as me, and Michael Wincott's gravelly voice has been absent from the silve...

As mentioned in a previous blog post, dojo's rich text editor includes a plugin mechanism to add custom toolbar items. In this post I will explore how I accomplished this, details of how to integrate into WPF can be found here . My goal is to be able to click on a toolbar button and have a modal dialog box with a lightbox effect appear. The contents of the dialog is a custom search result where individual result items can be selected, causing the dialog to close and inserting a link to that item in the rich text edit. Create a New Plugin Since writing code from scratch is tedious (I am impatient) I always prefer to start with something that works and then modify it to meet my needs. In this case I've taken the plugin named factory\dojo\dijit\_editor\plugins\ToggleDir.js since it's nice and short, and re-purposed it to create a modal popup window when clicked. I'm going to copy it into a new file named SearchPopup.js . dojo.provide("dijit._editor.plugins.SearchPop...

Quick, before I get into the fun stuff - SouthLAnd season 3 premieres on TNT tonight. Watch it. Tell your friends to watch it. I have been fighting for this show since it got canceled because it's the greatest cop drama on television ever . I've signed petitions, emailed TV stations, attended Facebook chats, tweeted, blogged, and just generally harassed the world into keeping this show on the air. And I will continue to do that if I have to. So go watch it, so I can talk about stuff other than saving SouthLAnd , okay?  Teaser Tuesday is a meme I frequently mutilate for my own purposes, and today will be no different. It's supposed to be "pick two random lines from a book you're reading." I was going to pick two random lines from Ascend , but the part I "randomly" picked really needs more than two lines because it's short. So pretty much nothing about this follows the Teaser Tuesday meme rules, but it is Tuesday, and this is a teaser, so it'...

The Trylle Trilogy continues to be compared to Twilight , which completely baffles me. Other than the fact it's paranormal and has romance, I personally don't see similarities. Here a list of things that the Trylle Trilogy is more like than Twilight : - Labyrinth -Pretty in Pink -The Princess Diaries -Star Wars This isn't really a fun fact about Ascend , though, and I said I would start today. Here's what I'm thinking would be fun. And factual. If you guys have questions about Ascend or the characters, post them in the comments, and I'll answer them on Friday. I'm not going to answer spoilers, such as "How does the trilogy end?" or "Do Wendy and Finn end up together?" But if you have questions about the book, the trilogy, or any characters, ask away. As long as it's not a spoiler, I'll answer it on Friday's blog. And just a reminder, Ascend will be out by January 15th. So... the end.

First off, I want to thank everybody for their support and encouragement. It really, really means a lot to me. I hate commenting back to comments on blog, because it's not like on Facebook, where I can just click and comment directly. And if there's five people I want to say something to, it seems confusing to me, so I'm just writing a big thank you here, and promising to figure out how to respond to comments in more a timely fashion. It's been 2011 for a little over a day, and I've already made a few decisions. But before I get to them, I just want to say: Ascend will be out before January 15th. I don't know what date exactly, but I will be sure to let you all know the second it goes up for sale. It will be up for the Kindle and the Nook about the same time, and follow very shortly in paperback. Throughout the next two weeks (starting on Monday), I'll be posting teasers and fun facts and stuff like that for Ascend . Now onto my other decisions. First - my ...

There's only one day left until Switched hits bookshelves, and I'm filled with a mixture of unparalleled excitement and absolute terror. I hope all of you have that pick up a copy enjoy the book, and I can't wait to hear what people think of the brand new short story - "The Vittra Attacks." Nobody's read that yet, and I'm excited to get feedback. Also, if you do pick up Switched in stores, don't forget to take a picture of yourself with the book in the store and send it to me (via Twitter , Facebook, or email - hockingbooks@hotmail.com). I'll be posting my favorites this week. Just make sure that if you do take pictures, you don't do anything to get yourself in trouble. I'm not encouraging lawbreaking or rule-breaking of any kind. Only fun.  made a video the other day where I pronounced all the words in the Trylle Trilogy that I get questions about. The most obvious one is, "How do you say Trylle?" I've got that one in there,...