I’m going through the last third of my novel – and I thought I’d share one of my reference photos for the location of the closing chapters.
The place alone suggests a number of possibilities for action.
Category Archives: Writing
Smashwords, LibreOffice and Me – doing it with Style
So I just set up my account on Smashwords.
It’s now 18 months I’ve been a self-publisher through Amazon Kindle, and now I’d like to widen my horizon.
So far I’ve been quite intimidated by the Smashwords formatting rules – they have a fame for being complicated and not exactly user-friendly. That, and the fact that the Smashwords system requires me to upload a .doc file – being a Linux user, I don’t use MS Word, and that could lead to formatting troubles.
But now it turns out I can upload an .epub file too – and that’s much easier for me, as the epub is often a by-product of my own coding of my books for Amazon. Continue reading
The Blurb Muse
Some guys have all the luck.
They write, and have a muse.
And I don’t mean a girl they fancy, and they are trying to impress with their writing – no, I mean they actually have this spirit that gives them Inspiration.
Isn’t that great – some of us have only perspiration to fuel our writing.
The way these artsy guys talk about it, their Muse is something out of an Alfons Mucha print – rosy-cheeked and classy, wrapped in a simple dress, golden hair piled-up in some kind of Edwardian do, barely treading ground, bathed in soft light, spring breeze caressing her.
The Muse suggests these guys their lofty stories – not narrative but Literature, not entertainment but Art.
She gives them her support in homeopathic doses, doling out one painful sentence per day, so that they don’t write much, usually taking months for a short story.
Then you go and read these guys’ blurbs, and synopses, and they leave you aghast. Continue reading
Writing advice from Bruce Lee
I was talking with my friend Claire, a few days back – about writing, for a change – and I blurted some Bruce Lee quote about time.
She, being a serious writer – while I’m a hack – was somewhat surprised.
Well, here’s some more good, solid writing advice from Bruce Lee.
Surviving NaNOWriMO – 10 ideas
So the NaNOWriMo is on.
My compliments and best wishes to all participants.
As I mentioned in the past, I will not be NaNOWriMo-ing this year simply because I’m doing a thorough revision and final draft of a text in 45 days (and as you read this, we are on day 29).
Anyway, I was rather surprised by this whole writing fast/writing good thing I’ve been through.
So far the going has been easier than anticipated – and I’ve been learning a lot of things.
So, why not share them?
I’m probably just re-inventing the wheel, here, but who knows?
Maybe someone out there might find them useful – for their NaNoWriMo marathon or for anything else.
So, here goes… Continue reading
Playing with the Puppy
My old netbook has been with me through many years of freelance lecturing and then for four years as a PhD student.
It’s an old Acer Aspire One and it has served well – it gave me problems with its battery and HD, but I was able to solve them pretty easily.
I used to run Linux Mint on it.
Some mishap with my luggage during one of the more recent trips caused the solid-state HD (basically, an USB drive) to finally kick the bucket.
The machine is still working great – but the HD is broken.
Replacing it is beyond my tech skills, and having it replaced by a technician would cost me little less than buying a new netbook.
I can’t afford it at the moment.
And yet, the machine would be pretty damn handy for writing on the road – it was before, it would be great should it be again.
So, I looked around and tried to find a way, at my skill level, to fix it. Continue reading
Karavansara 