Some Notes on Writing & Publishing

1.

Stones Gathered Together will exist as an ebook by the end of the month. Separate pieces with different layout is more tricky to format for a ebook than the running text of a novel, but I’m onto it.

2.

A friend who has completed the Whitireia publishing course has offered to do a print layout of Where The HeArt Is, as practice of what she learnt in the course, so later this year it may appear as a paper book.

3.

I finally feel as though I am getting going with Alice Green. I bought some software called Scrivener and spent several brain-itching days getting my head around how it works. Once I felt I had a handle on the basic ideas of it and after a couple of runs through the tutorial and perusing of the first part of the 500-odd page PDF format manual (free to download) I started using it. It actually seems to work, though it’s early days yet, both in the writing and in my control of the software.

What I can do, which I couldn’t do with Word, is have quick access to lots of web pages (for information) and each of the three strands I am writing, without having to go in and out of many files, losing my way and getting frustrated. For example I can have a writing page and a web site I am referring to open in the same window and move easily between them.

The software isn’t going to sort out for me the tricky business of bringing the three parts/aspects/strands of the story into a cohesive whole—once I have written them—but I am hopeful that it will help. That’s a way ahead. In the meantime I am pleased to be actually writing.

Soon, very soon, I’ll write about what I’ve been reading.