The Curse of MS Word 2007

A few weeks ago, I noticed there was something strange when I was editing the source document of my latest story. It seems as if I had been careless and left many words glued together without spaces. However, it was impossible because I was certain that I had weeded out all major typos beforehand. I fixed those glued words as fast as I could and resumed my normal editing. However, a few days later, I noticed similar typos appeared again. I then realized that I wasn't crazy! Something actively messed up my story! Later, I caught the culprit: Microsoft Word 2007 !!!

Beware! Word 2007 can mess up your documents!

I currently use MS Word 2013 to edit my stories at home. However, when I'm at the office, I still use MS Word 2007. It was very easy to detect the incompatibility between them. As I googled the internet, I was glad to know that I wasn't the only victim.

It turns out that DOCX created by MS Word 2013 has issues if it is later modified in MS Word 2007. Upon saving, Word 2007 will randomly erase some spaces between your words. It is not clear why it happens. Microsoft has provided a downloadable fix (around 150MB) for this problem. However, once a document has been screwed, you need to manually fix it! And trust me, it's no picnic!

There are several ways to prevent MS Words 2007 from screwing your documents (other than installing the fix):
1. Keep your documents in DOC instead of DOCX
2. Once you use Office 2010 or Office 2013 (ie: Word 2010 or Word 2013), never use Word 2007 to edit your file!!!

The End of Cheap Stock Photos?

Recently, I've painfully found that one of my favorite commercial stock photographers has erased all his stocks from various stock websites including DepositPhotos.  Ironically, I was just about to purchase a subscription there. His works are quite famous. If you read a lot of novels, you must have seen his photos adorning the covers. I myself used his photos for Adramelech and Bleak Woods. In DepositPhotos, he had reached the highest rank: Platinum, which gave him right to sell his photos more expensive. So why did he quit? I wasn't not sure why but vaguely got the idea that he quit because of subscriptions which hacked off his income. Other stock photographers complained the same thing.

Years ago, I dared NOT imagine the word "royalty free photo". The price was obscenely expensive! Nowadays, many cheaper stock websites appear which offer cheaper price but only if you agree to buy them daily. DepositPhotos for example offers daily subscription starting from $69/month which gives subscriber right to download high-res images. Images which normally cost from $5-15 are now available as low as $0.5. Apparently, many people prefer to subscribe rather than the expensive pay-as-you-go.

The only site which he doesn't leave is iStockPhoto. Want to know their subscription price? $995/ 3months with 35 credits/ day. For your information, a high-res image can cost up to 40-50 credit there, meaning you can only download 15 hi-res images/month! I'd rather buy a LAPTOP!!!

Women Love PORN!

"Mmm... Gay porn. Yummy!"

When I started writing explicit gay erotica back in early 2000s, I didn't expect to get fan emails from women. Later, when I decided to write gay erotica commercially (with more non-sexual plots), surprisingly 99.99% M/M readers I met (mostly women) stated they disliked reading explicit sex scenes a.k.a. porn. I honestly don't know what women want, especially after reading the article from Daily Mail UK. It states that women LOVE PORN! Hmm...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2376737/Women-seek-hardcore-porn-says-Belle-De-Jour-writer-Dr-Brooke-Magnanti.html

David Cameron announced on Tuesday that every householder connected to the internet will have their access to online porn blocked unless they ask to receive it. And while many people are heralding the 'opt-in' porn restrictions as a success, Dr Brooke Magnanti- research scientist, and writer, who, until her identity was revealed in November 2009, was known by the pen name Belle de Jour - has shed some interesting light on the new development.

Writing on The Telegraph, she said: 'One big assumption seems to be that only blokes will opt-in to porn, because the widespread myth is that only men watch it. But women seek out hardcore content too.'
Belle De Jour writer Dr Brooke Magnanti says Cameron's internet porn 'opt-in' system won't stop women watching sex online

"I love porn. Do you?"

She goes on to explain that women don't just seek hardcore content in erotic fiction such as Fifty Shades Of Grey but also online. She revealed that Google search terms such as 'porn,' and 'Playboy' are more likely to be entered by men than by women, however, generic words such as 'sex,' are equally as likely to be entered by women and they are actually more likely to type 'adult sex,' 'free sex,' and 'cyber sex' than men are.