https://iangmcdowell.com/blog/posts/ Recent content in Posts on Ian G McDowell's Blog Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Sun, 19 Mar 2023 20:06:35 -0800 https://iangmcdowell.com/blog/posts/laying-out-a-book-with-css/ Sun, 19 Mar 2023 20:06:35 -0800 https://iangmcdowell.com/blog/posts/laying-out-a-book-with-css/ In which I embark on a quixotic quest to make a physical book using web rendering technology. https://iangmcdowell.com/blog/posts/anshar-chat-gpt/ Sat, 03 Dec 2022 20:17:50 -0800 https://iangmcdowell.com/blog/posts/anshar-chat-gpt/ I’ve been reading a lot about ChatGPT, the latest large language model to come out of OpenAI. I just spent the last year painstakingly writing a technothriller, and wanted to know how close I was to obsolete. I decided to kick the tires and ran ChatGPT through some of the tasks I went through making The Anshar Gambit. It’s not ready to write a book yet, but I thought the output was pretty damned impressive. https://iangmcdowell.com/blog/posts/crypto-primer/ Thu, 10 Nov 2022 16:39:39 -0800 https://iangmcdowell.com/blog/posts/crypto-primer/ Encryption is a fancy word for a simple concept. You can think of encrypting a message as putting it inside a box with a padlock and locking it. No one can read what’s inside unless they have the same key you used to lock it. https://iangmcdowell.com/blog/posts/ghost-comm/ Sat, 05 Nov 2022 14:23:17 -0700 https://iangmcdowell.com/blog/posts/ghost-comm/ Talking silently is obviously a huge advantage in combat; it’s one step away from telepathy. It sounds like crazy sci-fi, but most of the pieces already exist today. https://iangmcdowell.com/blog/posts/write-the-query-letter-first/ Mon, 31 Oct 2022 17:05:38 -0700 https://iangmcdowell.com/blog/posts/write-the-query-letter-first/ Picture your future. You’ve written your masterpiece. You’re ready to find an agent who can sell your book to Hachette or Tor or whatever. What do you do next? https://iangmcdowell.com/blog/posts/intro-to-marketing-newsletters/ Wed, 19 Oct 2022 17:05:38 -0700 https://iangmcdowell.com/blog/posts/intro-to-marketing-newsletters/ The only thing harder than writing a book is selling a book. I enjoy reading what I wrote, and I think others will too. But helping people to find it in the crowded world of independent publishing? Tricky.