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woc’s week at the typeface

Current project – a collection of stories

to 01-Apr-12. Still messing around with the selection of stories. I'm changing the criteria for the collection's theme faster than the weather and using the same unfathomable reasoning.

Another of my tweaks results in a tsunami: trying to capitalise first letters in my new email address resulted in the address being forever unavailable. Rethink my Universal Authoring Name.

Created my blog site. It's a mess but it's a milestone. At last I've recognised this project has a one-off activity, that being setting up and learning the tools required to publish and promote the book.

to 08-Apr-12. Work suspended over eight days due to IT issues (necessary upgrades being unstable, data inaccessible), garden priority (veg beds to dig, manure), head cold as mentioned above.

to 15-Apr-12. Three days to enhance my website because the computer analyst in me activated to chase down incongruities and glitches. More likely it was the the pernickety programmer in me. Thank goodness I'm not charging time and materials to myself.

Another tool acquired – Calibre – with more learning to absorb. Discovered the books I downloaded from Amazon (to analyse, to find word count etc) are DRM locked. Started thinking about that issue for my book. I want it circulating. End of thinking.

to 22-Apr-12. Created a mock-up of the cover. Suddenly feel I've made a big stride towards the ebook itself after all the preparation round production and promotion. Next day spotted the strapline had 'coffee table' rather than 'coffee break'. Too close to the font to see the word.

Disregarded my Project Timetable and embarked on a production process evaluation run. Not a displacement activity to avoid proof-reading. No, this is gathering essential information for optimally formatting the stories while editing them. Right.

Some . . . several evaluation runs later . . . I was satisfied with the process albeit in a local environment. From OpenOffice document through Calibre into Kindle App for Mac with a look and feel as it started out. That's a boost to confidence and optimism. What about the content? What about promoting it? Savour this moment before moving on.

to 29-Apr-12. Sent off for ISBNs with cheque in post [wocNotes]. Still learning how to blog, getting the blog and web sites to complement each other at least tonally. Bye-bye bright red links.

I've actually opened a Twitter account. What is this Cancerian doing? Also opened an OpenOffice master document created from revised template using aliases in the collection folder. I can make story-telling oh-so technical.

Put in the prelims and acknowledgements utilising hyperlinks at the end. So where's the filling in this sandwich?

PS. The enhanced website went live at 15:00, as shown by this displayed page, with this postscript as the first update to the site.

to 06-May-12. Before my long weekend break in Manorbier Youth Hostel (with 17 others including genuine youths) achieved editing a third of the stories for the collection. Must realise before I get complacent I started with the ones needing least editing.

After just one week, I'm thinking of taking a shotgun to my Twitter account. When it's not torrent advertising the tweets are so encoded with #hashtags, short-URLs, twt-abbrvs I'm finding it easier to read hieroglyphics.

to 13-May-12. Back to the desk midweek from Manorbier with sun/wind burn nose (no one took sun cream) and into days of man-type tunnel vision: editing, editing, editing. Out the far end of the tunnel with all the stories likely for inclusion edited to standard and set in the collection master document.

With the next collection being 'Espresso' stories firmly lodged in my plans I've been reappraising the inclusion of the shorter stories in SC1. So Hemp Rope (short and too erotic for this collection), the very short Goggling and (unfathomable) Carreras Stone are out.

With RG PI out because conversion back to narrative from play is too much time on this project, Heartsease has come in. It should have been in from the start as it still welled my eyes when editing the familiar tale. That probably means I'm too emotionally close to the work to be objective about its worth.

But the inclusion brings a complication as I want to link the story to the youth group stage play version. The Heartsease play is currently only visible on my website and I don't want that to become an e-commerce site. I'm happy for e-Sellers to take a commission for all that hassle.

woc’s week at the typeface

Current project – a collection of stories