CrossMe Color app for Android

I have been remiss in posting on More Red Ink over the past few weeks. And therefore I must confess: I have become an addict. Yes, you read correctly! I have become addicted to an Android app, a game, called CrossMe Color on my Nexus 7 tab.

The game is available from Google Play and the Amazon App Store, and probably wherever else one might purchase Android apps. The cost for such an addiction is a mere $4.95; but let it be known that my addiction came to me free of charge: CrossMe Color was Amazon's free app of the day a couple weeks back.

I'm only on level two (Ashigaru), but there are eight levels (level eight being Shogun, or Expert, level) for a total of 150 puzzles.

The object of the game is to fill in the appropriate number of squares with the appropriate color, matching color and number of squares both horizontally and vertically. Here's the opening screen of the puzzle I just completed in level 2; this one is 25 by 25 squares, but many of the puzzles are rectangular.

It actually looks more difficult than it really is, at least at this level; though a couple of the puzzles, so far, have been fairly trying. This one only has three colors, but I completed one just the other day that had five colors. Here's the completed puzzle:

Note: Should you care to share in my addiction struggle, be sure to purchase the "Premium" $4.95 version of CrossMe Color. Otherwise, you will be sorely disappointed to discover the lack of color...regardless of the word "Color" in the title.

By the way, I tend to keep the sound off on my N7 when playing this game, but you might want to leave the sound on for the traditional Japanese music that accompanies the game play. And lastly, the developers promise future updates -- with more puzzles.

If you seriously want to check out this game, you can "test drive" it on the Amazon App Store.

Here's one more screen: a completed puzzle from the Expert level. I didn't complete this myself, rather I snagged the graphic from Amazon:

And when I'm not playing this game, or doing real work to pay the bills to allow me to play this game, I've been reading a dozen or so Android-related blogs and forums and ezines, trying to learn this new OS.

Harper Voyager to Accept Unagented Manuscripts for Two Weeks in October

This is not something I typically post in and of itself; rather it would be more appropriate for my month-end Links & Things roundup. However, if I wait until the end of September (considering that I haven't tackled the lengthy August Links & Things as yet!), there would be insufficient time for readers to act. So... this information is courtesy of mediabistro.com's @galleycat email newsletter:

Publisher Harper Voyager, "the global science fiction and fantasy imprint of HarperCollins," will accept unagented -- and complete -- manuscripts for two weeks in October: from October 1 until October 14.

Note that manuscripts are being accepted during this two-week period for "digital publication." Here's more:

The manuscripts will then be read and those most suited to the global Harper Voyager list will be selected jointly by editors in the USA, UK and Australia. Accepted submissions will benefit from the full publishing process: accepted manuscripts will be edited; and the finished titles will receive online marketing and sales support in World English markets. Voyager will be seeking an array of adult and young adult speculative fiction for digital publication, but particularly novels written in the epic fantasy, science fiction, urban fantasy, horror, dystopia and supernatural genres.

The link above provides submission guidelines: please read these carefully and completely. Harper Voyager has even provided an online "submissions portal," which is not yet active, and probably won't be until October 1.

So finish up those manuscripts, and be sure to at least spell check your work! You have a wee bit more than 4 weeks until that cutoff date.

One final note: I have absolutely no connection whatsoever with Harper Voyager -- but should they be in need of an experienced editor, line editor, copy editor....

September 11, 2012

Politics may divide us, but there are always those who will hate us specifically because we can and do argue so openly with one another. Freedom – especially of speech – has always been anathema to dictators, tyrants and ideologues. Let's not forget that on this of all days.

—Dani Kollin

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Dani Kollin, along with his brother Eytan, is the author of The Unincorporated Man, a Tor Books SciFi Essential book, which went on to win the 2010 Prometheus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel of the year. Their second and third novels, The Unincorporated War and The Unincorporated Woman, were also nominated for the same award. The Unincorporated Future, fourth in the series, was published in July 2012.