Another two submissions sent off today. I've also started looking through one of my earlier sci-fi books because it has an LGBT theme, and I've got some information about a magazine that might be interested in such merging of themes and genres. I still have to finish the edit for the second edition of 'Orb of Arawaan'. I'm finding motivation hard (I dislike revisiting older works for any reason) but it's getting there. I'm fitting it in though around my work on promoting my current writing. The idea is that it would be nice to have several novels really nicely polished, just in case a big publishing deal comes sniffing!
Those who have been following the printer saga may be interested that I have a new image drum and toner cartridge on order courtesy of Ebay. They are alledgedly brand new OEM products, but for the price I feel suspicious that the seller will be likely to somehow renage on the contract. It's been several days since I paid for them with no contact from the seller, so I'll give it until after the weekend and send them a message. That's the problem with Ebay - you never quite know about the legitamacy of the items. I've had a few things turn out to be not quite the way they were advertised.
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Progress is a dirty word unless buffed with polish.
I'm quite pleased that both The life of Nob T. Mouse and All over the house have started up again after an enforced break of a month because of Zoë's work. They're up online now, and hopefully they'll be regular again just as they were.
In other news, my printer toner cartridge has spluttered out again. I'm really disappointed as the cartridge is supposed to be good for 6,000 pages, yet instead has managed only 500 before a combination of mechanical issues and a toner leak have meant its all out at the equivelent of the princeley printing cost of 12p per page. Ouch. I've got a replacement on order, and I now at least know to look out for old cartridges which have been refilled one too many times so as to avoid them like the plague.
Two rejections arrived in the post today. That's not too bad, but it takes the total number of rejections up to five. Of those, one was patronising, one doodled their reply on MY cover letter (please, at least use your form reject letter), one said it wasn't the sort of thing they represented but that it was good and I should keep sending to other agents, and one politely said they weren't looking to take on new clients. Fair enough.
In other news, my printer toner cartridge has spluttered out again. I'm really disappointed as the cartridge is supposed to be good for 6,000 pages, yet instead has managed only 500 before a combination of mechanical issues and a toner leak have meant its all out at the equivelent of the princeley printing cost of 12p per page. Ouch. I've got a replacement on order, and I now at least know to look out for old cartridges which have been refilled one too many times so as to avoid them like the plague.
Two rejections arrived in the post today. That's not too bad, but it takes the total number of rejections up to five. Of those, one was patronising, one doodled their reply on MY cover letter (please, at least use your form reject letter), one said it wasn't the sort of thing they represented but that it was good and I should keep sending to other agents, and one politely said they weren't looking to take on new clients. Fair enough.
'Progress' is a dirty word unless buffed with polish.
I'm quite pleased that both The life of Nob T. Mouse and All over the house have started up again after an enforced break of a month because of Zoë's work. They're up online now, and hopefully they'll be regular again just as they were.
In other news, my printer toner cartridge has spluttered out again. I'm really disappointed as the cartridge is supposed to be good for 6,000 pages, yet instead has managed only 500 before a combination of mechanical issues and a toner leak have meant its all out at the equivelent of the princeley printing cost of 12p per page. Ouch. I've got a replacement on order, and I now at least know to look out for old cartridges which have been refilled one too many times so as to avoid them like the plague.
Two rejections arrived in the post today. That's not too bad, but it takes the total number of rejections up to five. Of those, one was patronising, one doodled their reply on MY cover letter (please, at least use your form reject letter), one said it wasn't the sort of thing they represented but that it was good and I should keep sending to other agents, and one politely said they weren't looking to take on new clients. Fair enough.
Thanks to an SAE, I have one hard copy that I can send out again, and I have some agents to approach who will accept email submissions (the modern technological age is upon us! Run for your lives!). Also, I'm looking at submitting to a magazine for serialisation. It's American based, but it looks quite good. They seem to like LGBT themes for sci-fi, and I'm actually tempted to see whether they might be interested in one of my other sci-fi works that has an LGBT theme - there can't be that many writers combining LGBT issues with sci-fi, can there?
In other news, my printer toner cartridge has spluttered out again. I'm really disappointed as the cartridge is supposed to be good for 6,000 pages, yet instead has managed only 500 before a combination of mechanical issues and a toner leak have meant its all out at the equivelent of the princeley printing cost of 12p per page. Ouch. I've got a replacement on order, and I now at least know to look out for old cartridges which have been refilled one too many times so as to avoid them like the plague.
Two rejections arrived in the post today. That's not too bad, but it takes the total number of rejections up to five. Of those, one was patronising, one doodled their reply on MY cover letter (please, at least use your form reject letter), one said it wasn't the sort of thing they represented but that it was good and I should keep sending to other agents, and one politely said they weren't looking to take on new clients. Fair enough.
Thanks to an SAE, I have one hard copy that I can send out again, and I have some agents to approach who will accept email submissions (the modern technological age is upon us! Run for your lives!). Also, I'm looking at submitting to a magazine for serialisation. It's American based, but it looks quite good. They seem to like LGBT themes for sci-fi, and I'm actually tempted to see whether they might be interested in one of my other sci-fi works that has an LGBT theme - there can't be that many writers combining LGBT issues with sci-fi, can there?
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Techno wizard - she sure plays mean netball!
Well, not quite (the last time I played netball I ended up with a scar on one of my knees that I still have). I've been fiddling with the printer, and in a surprise move it seems that it is the new toner cartridge causing the issues. Let me explain: it appears to be a refilled and remanufactured cartridge. (Here comes the science part) Unfortunately the bearings on its mechanical gubbins are, well, on the verge of being shot. That means the extra resistance is juddering the toner roller and causing issues with the print quality. There isn't much I can do, though I've oiled every moving part I can find. It has helped but not solved the problem.
So there we are. It seems the only solution is to be more careful when buying replacement cartridges. Also, if I can get some Epson original cartridges off Ebay, that too would help. For the time being though, I am still stuck with questionable print quality at the very best.
So there we are. It seems the only solution is to be more careful when buying replacement cartridges. Also, if I can get some Epson original cartridges off Ebay, that too would help. For the time being though, I am still stuck with questionable print quality at the very best.
Technology is so helpful... if it works.
The printer woes are still plagueing me. I've cleaned the photoconductor unit to no avail. I've even taken a look at the image conveyer belt, and that seems fine. Actually, I've seen far more of tyhe inside of laser printers than I really ever wanted to.
I'm left wondering about the quality of the new toner cartridge. It was a cheap non OEM one, and whilst it managed 400 or so trouble free pages, it has to be seen as a little suspicious that so soon after replacing the original cartridge did printing anomolies arise. I'm trolling Ebay for replacements for both the toner and the photoconductor. Until I succeed in getting some spare parts for a small outlay, I have to regard my printer as annoyingly out of service. It picks its moments, so it does.
I'm left wondering about the quality of the new toner cartridge. It was a cheap non OEM one, and whilst it managed 400 or so trouble free pages, it has to be seen as a little suspicious that so soon after replacing the original cartridge did printing anomolies arise. I'm trolling Ebay for replacements for both the toner and the photoconductor. Until I succeed in getting some spare parts for a small outlay, I have to regard my printer as annoyingly out of service. It picks its moments, so it does.
Sunday, 4 October 2009
Help me! Printer troubles.
I have an Epson EPL-5800L mono laser printer. A couple of weeks ago I replaced the toner because it had run out. All went fine for around 400 pages of printing, but now I'm getting lines of printed text looking washed out, as if for one line the toner didn't quite stick to the paper right. All the other lines on the page look fine, and it seems to happen quite a few lines of text appart - it never affects two adjacent lines. I've tried cleaning out the printer and the photo conductor unit to no avail. Sometimes the problem gets so bad that two out of every three printed pages are badly affected. Occasionaly a page comes out just fine as if there is no problem.
I'm at a loss, and don't know whether there is a problem with the new toner drum, or the photoconductor drum or even something else in the printer and I'm not prepared to do diagnosis by expensive trial and error opf replacing parts (laser printer parts like the photo conductor drum and toner cartridges are NOT cheap!). According to the printer's memory, the photo conductor drum is the original, and the toner cartridge I replaced was also the original. As the drum is good for 20,000 pages of printing, and each toner cartridge does around 6,000 pages then I should be well within the lifespan of the photo conductor.
Does anyone have any helpful suggestions of what the issue could be and how to easily fix it?
I'm at a loss, and don't know whether there is a problem with the new toner drum, or the photoconductor drum or even something else in the printer and I'm not prepared to do diagnosis by expensive trial and error opf replacing parts (laser printer parts like the photo conductor drum and toner cartridges are NOT cheap!). According to the printer's memory, the photo conductor drum is the original, and the toner cartridge I replaced was also the original. As the drum is good for 20,000 pages of printing, and each toner cartridge does around 6,000 pages then I should be well within the lifespan of the photo conductor.
Does anyone have any helpful suggestions of what the issue could be and how to easily fix it?
Thursday, 1 October 2009
Toner, toner and n'er a drop to drink.
It's been a busy few days, despite being laid low by some mysterious illness that leaves me tired and full of fatigue. I've been getting more submissions off; I'm up to eighteen altogether now, and still have more to go. My trusty laser printer has been acting up a little. I suppose after some eighteen months of relative inactivity, suddenly being called upon to print hundreds of pages must be annoying. If it had a personality and could think, that is.
I've been getting odd lines of text looking faded. I've cleaned the optical unit with a can of compressed air (seriously - people do sell cans of nothing but compressed air. In some ways isn't that like selling sand to Egyptions?) and a lot of dust came out. Latterly this seems to have worked and the print quality has improved. However it is apparent that cheap-n-cheerful refil toner cartridges aren't as good quality as the super-duper overpriced Epson originals. Still, I never print graphics so I guess it will be okay.
Right, the printer has stopped chundering paper out so it's just envelopes to address and I'll post them all on the way to vote. Yes, I do vote - anything to get one useless bunch of career charlatons out to be replaced by another set of career charlatons. Gosh: aren't I a cynic?
I've been getting odd lines of text looking faded. I've cleaned the optical unit with a can of compressed air (seriously - people do sell cans of nothing but compressed air. In some ways isn't that like selling sand to Egyptions?) and a lot of dust came out. Latterly this seems to have worked and the print quality has improved. However it is apparent that cheap-n-cheerful refil toner cartridges aren't as good quality as the super-duper overpriced Epson originals. Still, I never print graphics so I guess it will be okay.
Right, the printer has stopped chundering paper out so it's just envelopes to address and I'll post them all on the way to vote. Yes, I do vote - anything to get one useless bunch of career charlatons out to be replaced by another set of career charlatons. Gosh: aren't I a cynic?
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