Digital Dementia: Prevent It by Reading with Your Kids

read with your kids for-reading-813666_960_720The jury is far from in on this but there is a growing body of evidence indicating that spending too much time with electronic devices in the formative years can, quite literally, interfere with brain development in some areas. The theory is controversial but from what I know of child development, there may be some truth in it. We will not know the final verdict until the current generation becomes adults. These articles from The New York Times, Psychology Today, and Science Daily, explain a bit about it.

The term “digital dementia” was coined by South Korean researchers when doctors reported seeing young patients with memory and cognitive problems, conditions more commonly linked to brain injuries. Others noted issues including aggression, moodiness, restlessness, strange cravings, emotional control and relationships. Continue reading “Digital Dementia: Prevent It by Reading with Your Kids”

Calibre for Readers – Part 2

calibre logoIn Part 1 of this series I discussed using Calibre for library management of your eBooks and a little about the things to consider in deciding if doing this made sense for you. I also outlined how to get an eBook from your Calibre library to an eReader that is connected to your computer. In this installment, we’ll cover a few other functions of the Calibre program you might find useful. Continue reading “Calibre for Readers – Part 2”

Calibre for Readers – Part 1

calibre logoA few months ago I did a post about using the free program Calibre to create a Kindle compatible eBook file. That barely scratched the surface of the program’s capabilities. In this series of posts I’m going to discuss some of those other uses with a focus on how the program might be used by a reader. This won’t be a full blown tutorial. Instead I’ll make some suggestions and point you in the right direction. Obviously before you can do any of this you’ll need to download and install the proper version of Calibre for your computer. Continue reading “Calibre for Readers – Part 1”

eReady and eAble

If you have ever had a book published by a mainstream publisher you will know that the publishing house generally takes care of most things in regards to polishing your manuscript and preparing it for public consumption. Depending on the publisher in question, they may have performed a better or worse job on any, or all, of the tasks that contribute to the success or failure of your masterpiece.

If you have been fortunate enough to secure a contract with one of the Big Six, the ePublishing agenda will probably be tied in with the digital rights of your contract. If you have not already secured a contract with one of the Big Six your chances of being taken on by any of them now are probably more remote than ever. The Big Six are of course sticking with their tried and proven, established, best-selling authors, taking fewer and fewer chances on unproven newcomers. Continue reading “eReady and eAble”