Formatting your Masterpiece for the Kindle

Seeing as I said I’d post this two months ago, I thought it was high time I pulled my finger out and actually did it. Hellos are due to some lovely new followers and also a promise that my blog isn’t usually so slow to update. Usually…

Anyway, you came here to learn how to make your work publishable for the Kindle so let’s get on with it, shall we? Everyone seems to have a slightly different way of doing this and the method I’m about to show you is simply what works for me, cobbled together from information written by other helpful people. I live in the Dark Ages and still use Word 2003, but these instructions remain valid for later versions of Word; you just might have to look a bit harder to find some of the features we’ll be using.

Before I begin I’m assuming your novel is saved as one long Word document and not as individual chapters. If it’s not, I’m afraid you’ll have to open up each chapter and cut and paste the whole thing into one document. Don’t worry, I’ll wait here for you…

If you want to include a table of contents (essential if you also want to publish to Smashwords), now might be a good time to create it. If you haven’t already, you’ll also want to include some sort of copyright notice. I use a standard one which looks like this:

 

Dunraven Road

Copyright 2009 – Caroline Barnard-Smith

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real people, or events, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

The right of Caroline Barnard-Smith to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988.

 

You can add other things to your copyright notice if you’d like. I also include credits for my cover designer and cover art and tag on a link to my website.

The layout of my novels looks something like this: Title page – Copyright notice – Dedication – Contents – NOVEL – Acknowledgements – short author bio (About the Author) – blurbs for my other books (Also Available)

Of course, you can set your work out any way you want to, this is just to give you an idea if you don’t have any clue where to start.

I’ll usually include a short preview of one of my other novels as well, about three chapters. Being able to include things like this is one of the great advantages of e-publishing, so don’t miss the opportunity to introduce people to more of your work while your book is still in their hot little hands.

Okay, now I recommend doing what the Smashwords.com Style Guide refers to as ‘nuking’ your document. It sounds more complicated than it actually is; just highlight your entire document and cut and paste into a blank Notepad file. Then highlight the text in the Notepad file and cut and paste into a new, blank Word file. Doing this means that any crappy or corrupt formatting is erased and hopefully you’ll save yourself a lot of problems further down the road.

Next you’ll want to turn on Show All. Show All is your friend. Either find a button on your tool bar that looks like a backwards ‘P’ (this,  in other words) or hit Ctrl + *. Your manuscript should now look like a maniacal clown scribbled all over it but don’t panic, it’s a good thing. All the backward ‘P’s indicate a place where you pressed Enter (or Return if you’re rocking it old school), while the dots appear every time you hit the space bar. Having Show All turned on is really helpful when you’re trying to achieve a uniform look, with a certain number of spaces beneath each chapter or section heading for instance. Now you can actually count how many Enter marks there are, instead of trying to guess. You’ll also be able to see how many times you’ve left a double space at the end of sentences. This one can be a hard habit to break and I do it myself, but it’s not necessary on the Kindle.

An easy way to get rid of them all in one go is to use Word’s Find and Replace function (Ctrl + F). First get rid of those double spaces by simply tapping the space bar twice in the ‘Find What:’ field and pressing ‘Find Next’. Obviously, it looks like you haven’t entered anything for Word to find, but trust me this works. Next you’ll want to get rid of any errant Tabs, usually found at the beginning of paragraphs. Again, this isn’t necessary on the Kindle and they will play havoc with your beautifully polished formatting. Instead of pressing Tab in the Find What field, this time you need to type ^t. Voila, you have an extra-space-and-Tab free document.

Worried that your document all bleeds together without any Tabs or spaces? You can stop worrying because next we’ll be setting up your paragraphs. Highlight the entire text and go to Format / Paragraph. A box like this will pop up:

Adjust the settings as follows:

Alignment: Left

Indentation -

Left: 0 cm

Right: 0 cm

Special -

First line: 0.5 cm

Spacing -

Before: 0 pt

After: 0 pt

Line spacing: 1.5 lines

These settings are just a guide and can be played around with. I use a first line indentation of 0.5 cm, but this can be made larger if you prefer. Just remember that Kindle won’t display first-line indents greater than 1.5 cm. The spacing can also be played around with depending on your preferences. A spacing of 6 pt before and after paragraphs and single line spacing also looks nice, but be aware that some readers find too much space around their paragraphs distracting.

Now you can manually set the nitty gritty elements. This is the bit that takes time, so get comfortable! All your original formatting will have been lost when you nuked the document, so now you’ll have to go through and replace any pictures and put things that were centred back in the centre (by right clicking the object or paragraph and selecting Paragraph / Alignment: Centered). Likewise, anything that was italicised or in bold will also have to be done again.

There will probably be things in your document that you don’t want to be indented along with the rest of your paragraphs. These could include the title page, any copyright notices, the table of contents or the first line of new sections/chapters. Unfortunately, Kindle won’t recognise a first line indent of 0, but you can trick it by right clicking the object or paragraph in question and selecting Indentation – Special: First line, By: 0.1 cm. This creates such a teeny tiny indentation, the reader won’t notice it.

Last but not least, if you have a table of contents you’ll need to link all those chapter headings up to their respective chapters. To do this, highlight each chapter title throughout the document and go to Insert / Bookmark. You’ll be prompted to give the bookmark a name so just call it something easily identifiable like ‘Chap1’, ‘Chap2’ etc. When you’ve done this, go back to your table of contents; highlight each chapter title in the list and right click. Select Hyperlink and click the Bookmarks button in the box that pops up. Now you can scroll through the list and marry each bookmark up with its respective chapter heading. Simple but repetitive, think of it as a type of meditation.

Finally, save your document as Web Page, Filtered. This will produce a .htm file of your work and a separate folder with any pictures you’ve used in it. Highlight the .htm file and the folder and right click. Select Send to, then select Compressed (zipped) folder. A .zip file will magically appear in the same place where you saved your .htm file. This is what you upload to Kindle Direct Publishing.

With a few tweaks and additions and a quick perusal of their Style Guide, you’ll also be able to upload your newly formatted masterpiece to Smashwords. They will distribute it to Apple’s iBookstore and Barnes & Noble among others, so it’s well worth doing. That’s it; crack open the champagne, you’re a published author.

If anyone knows an easier way of completing any of these steps, or a better way, please feel free to comment!

The Fevered Dream of a Two Toilet Household

I have very good excuses for the recent lack of posting (aren’t they always?) After months of saving and searching, we’ve finally found a new house and are busily preparing to move in. This is both scary and exciting because Mr Smith and I have lived in the same small flat for 8 years now (wow). We’re on the first floor and there’s no balcony so in the summer you either have to travel to park your arse outside or hang your head out of the window like a sad dog when it gets hot (which it does frequently thanks to the floor to ceiling windows). There’s also no parking space which has been a bloody nightmare with the Sprogling in tow, struggling to find a space next to a precinct frequented by the shuffling hordes of the Grey Dawn. I think I’ve actually moaned about my flat here before, this all sounds horribly familiar… Anyway, the rather drawn out point is that I no longer have to moan! I have an actual house! A house with a whole other level – just like entering a new dimension every time you stumble across the stairs; with a downstairs loo (TWO toilets?! madness!) and a yard with a washing line… and a shed godamnit! It’s awesome but it’s kept us busy (the carpets were soaked with the interesting smell of “cat perfume” and the oven had either been recently used to bake mud pies or had never been cleaned since rolling off the assembly line), hence the radio silence.

Hand on heart, I will try to post the long promised guide to formatting a text for Kindle sometime this week, it’s been almost finished in draft form since Christmas… In the meantime, I’m reposting an email sent out by Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords. It was sent at the start of the month so I don’t know if any of the information is out of date yet, but if you’re a writer or if you just don’t believe in arbitrary censorship, it’s worth a read.

________________________________________

PAYPAL CENSORSHIP UPDATE
________________________________________

In case you haven’t heard, about two weeks ago, PayPal contacted Smashwords and
gave us a surprise ultimatum: Remove all titles containing bestiality, rape
or incest, otherwise they threatened to deactivate our PayPal account. We engaged
them in discussions and on Monday they gave us a temporary reprieve as we continue
to work in good faith to find a suitable solution.

PayPal tells us that their crackdown is necessary so that they can remain in
compliance with the requirements of the banks and credit card associations (likely
Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, though they didn’t mention them
by name).

Last Friday, I sent the following email to our erotica authors and publishers:
https://www.smashwords.com/press/release/27 Then on Monday, I issued an update,
and announced we would delay enforcement of PayPal’s guidelines so we and PayPal
could continue our discussions: https://www.smashwords.com/press/release/28

THE PROBLEM:

PayPal is asking us to censor legal fiction. Regardless of how one views topics
of rape, bestiality and incest, these topics are pervasive in mainstream fiction.
We believe this crackdown is really targeting erotica writers. This is unfair,
and it marks a slippery slope. We don’t want credit card companies or financial
institutions telling our authors what they can write and what readers can read.
Fiction is fantasy. It’s not real. It’s legal.

THE SOLUTION:

There’s no easy solution. Legally, PayPal and the credit card companies probably
have the right to decide how their services are used. Unfortunately, since they’re
the moneyrunners, they control the oxygen that feeds digital commerce.

Many Smashwords authors have suggested we find a different payment processor.
That’s not a good long term solution, because if credit card companies are behind
this, they’ll eventually force crackdowns elsewhere. PayPal works well for us.
In addition to running all credit card processing at the Smashwords.com store,
PayPal is how we pay all our authors outside the U.S. My conversations with
PayPal are ongoing and have been productive, yet I have no illusion that the
road ahead will be simple, or that the outcome will be favorable.

BUILDING A COALITION OF SUPPORT:

Independent advocacy groups are considering taking on the PayPal censorship case.
I’m supporting the development of this loose-knit coalition of like-minded groups
who believe that censorship of legal fiction should not be allowed. We will grow
the coalition. Each group will have its own voice and tactics I’m working with
them because we share a common cause to protect books from censorship. Earlier
today I had conversations with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), The
American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the National
Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC). I briefed them on the Smashwords/PayPal
situation, explained the adverse affect this crackdown will have on some of our
authors and customers, and shared my intention to continue working with PayPal
in a positive manner to move the discussion forward.

The EFF blogged about the issue a few days ago: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/02/legal-censorship-paypal-makes-habit-deciding-what-users-can-read
Today, ABFFE and NCAC issued a press release: http://www.scribd.com/doc/83549049/NCAC-ABFFE-Letter-To-PayPal-eBay-re-Ebook-Refusal-2012

I will not be on the streets with torch in hand calling for PayPal’s head, but
I will encourage interested parties to get involved and speak their piece. This
is where you come in…

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

Although erotica authors are being targeted, this is an issue that should concern
all indie authors. It affects indies disproportionately because indies are the
ones pushing the boundaries of fiction. Indies are the ones out there publishing
without the (fading) protective patina of a “traditional publisher” to lend them
legitimacy. We indies only have each other.

Several Smashwords authors have contacted me to stress that this censorship affects
women disproportionately. Women write a lot of the erotica, and they’re also
the primary consumers of erotica. They’re also the primary consumers of mainstream
romance, which could also come under threat if PayPal and the credit card companies
were to overly enforce their too-broad and too-nebulous obsenity clauses (I think
this is unlikely, but at the same time, why would dubious consent be okay in
mainstream romance but not okay in erotica? If your write paranormal, can your
were-creatures not get it on with one another, or is that bestiality? The insanity
needs to stop here. These are not questions an author, publisher or distributor
of legal fiction should have to answer.).

All writers and their readers should stand up and voice their opposition to financial
services companies censoring books. Authors should have the freedom to publish
legal fiction, and readers should have the freedom to read what they want.

These corporations need to hear from you. Pick up the phone and call them.
Email them. Start petitions. Sign petitions. Blog your opposition to censorship.
Encourage your readers to do the same. Pass the word among your social networks.
Contact your favorite bloggers and encourage them to follow this story. Contact
your local newspaper and offer to let them interview you so they can hear a local
author’s perspective on this story of international significance. If you have
connections to mainstream media, encourage them to pick up on the story. Encourage
them to call the credit card companies and pose this simple question, “PayPal
says they’re trying to enforce the policies of credit card companies. Why are
you censoring legal fiction?”

Below are links to the companies waiting to hear from you. Click the link and
you’ll find their phone numbers, executive names and postal mailing addresses.
Be polite, respectful and professional, and encourage your friends and followers
to do the same. Let them know you want them out of the business of censoring
legal fiction.

Tell the credit card companies you want them to give PayPal permission to sell
your ebooks without censorship or discrimination. Let them know that PayPal’s
policies are out of step with the major online ebook retailers who already accept
your books as they are. Address your calls, emails (if you can find the email)
and paper letters (yes paper!) to the executives. Post open letters to them
on your blog, then tweet and Facebook hyperlinks to your letters. Force the
credit card companies to join the discussion about censorship. And yes, express
your feelings and opinions to PayPal as well. Don’t scream at them. Ask them
to work on your behalf to protect you and your readers from censorship. Tell
them how their proposed censorship will harm you and your fellow writers.

Visa:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=V+Profile

American Express:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=AXP+Profile

MasterCard:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=MA+Profile

Discover:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=DFS+Profile

Ebay (owns PayPal):

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=ebay+Profile

_________

Starting Sunday, if our email systems can handle it, we will send out an email
to several hundred thousand registered Smashwords members who are opted in to
receive occasional Smashwords service updates. The email will combine Read an
Ebook Week with the censorship call to action. Let’s start a little fire, shall
we?

Thank you for your continuing support of Smashwords. With your help, we can
move mountains.

Best wishes,

Mark

Mark Coker
Founder
Smashwords

http://smashwords.com

blog: http://blog.smashwords.com
twitter: http://twitter.com/markcoker

Web Travails – January 2012

So, in the first of what I hope will be an ongoing series to document the sometimes strange and interesting places I end up on the web, here’s where I’ve been lurking this month…

Have you ever thought about an actor you haven’t heard about for ages and wondered what they’re up to now? Maybe it’s just me having nothing better to think about but I do it all the time (what, for instance, happened to Rachael Leigh Cook from She’s All That? Okay, a quick search on imdb.com has revealed she’s been working all this time but I’m not a Robot Chicken fan so how would I know? Speaking of She’s All That, I watched another similar-but-not-really Freddie Prinze Jr. offering called Down to You on Netflix last night. It wasn’t great. Why did Freddie and Julia Stiles fall out so easily? Why did he pine after her for so bloody long instead of growing a pair and moving on? Why was he not locked up by the nice men in white coats for drinking shampoo of all things? What the hell was up with Julia Stiles’s walk?! Anyway, I’ve digressed…) Another actress you might not have heard about for a while is Heather Donahue from The Blair Witch Project.

You remember her now, right? – the hysterical girl with the bungee jumping snot. Well, it turns out she’s been growing medicinal marijuana since 2007. I kid you not; she’s even written a book about it:

I should thank Gef of Wag the Fox for posting this on Facebook. Closer inspection of Growgirl: How My Life After the Blair Witch Project Went to Pot actually reveals it to be well written and more than a little intriguing, starting with Donahue’s life as a sometime actress and charting the ensuing fallout from Blair Witch Project media mania. It’s not available for Kindle though

When I’m not obsessing over the fate of late 1990′s teen movie stars, I love reading about other writers’ lives, particularly anything about how they write. It’s probably something that’s only of interest to another writer, but Susannah Conway’s interview with dark fantasy author Justine Musk is a really interesting example of this. She talks about how her ideas come to her (often while rocking out in her car, of course), how a daily word count doesn’t work for her and how she deals with writer’s block. If you’re into this kind of thing, Susannah has a whole series of interviews like this on her blog. They’re called My Creative Life and they’re excellent.

My favourite photograph this month is this portrait of a girl with the most beautiful red hair found at ThatBohemianGirl.

Wouldn’t she make a great character in a story?

Finally, I found this site yesterday – Baby Goth Knits – and instantly wanted to own/make everything on it. BabyGothKnitter, site founder and self-confessed ex-hellraiser and mother of three, makes all her knits herself and sells them on eBay and Etsy. Her stuff’s reasonably priced too.

I am so in lust.

Flirting with Plot Ninjas

We’re into the last few days of NaNoWriMo (already!) yet my plot wants to morph and deviate away from my carefully laid plans – little bugger. I think this all started with the dream I had in the early hours of this morning. I get a lot of my ideas from dreams and this morning I dreamt of a town I knew well. It’s a fictional town, a dream town that for some reason my subconscious keeps returning to. When I woke up I was struck by the notion that I knew certain features of this dream-place so well, I really should be writing about it. Then I realised it would be the perfect setting for my Nano novel whose original setting was also a fictional Devon town but one that I wasn’t wholly happy with. So there we have it, apparently my subconscious wants me to change the entire backdrop of my novel. Well it can wait until December.But enough of my griping, who wants some Nano-tastic inspiration?! I’m talking plot ninjas, an idea borne from the madness of the NaNoWriMo forums that just might help propel your novel over the finish line. A plot ninja is an idea, device, character or piece of dialogue created by someone else which you can “borrow” and use in your own story. This could help shift the dreaded writers’ block, or simply provide a good chunk of the day’s word count. Here are some places to spot a wily plot ninja in the wild…

Dragon Writing Prompts
PinoyWriMos
D*I*Y Planner – The Care and Use of Plot Ninjas

Almost forgot… There are currently a few copies of my debut vampire novel, Dunraven Road, up for grabs on eBay and they’re very special because they’re signed They make great Christmas gifts, hint, hint… (lol!) Here’s the linkage: eBay

Eye of the Writer

Well, it’s day 18 of National Novel Writing Month, leaving me only 13 days to complete 50, 000 words. At least I have (what I think is) a good idea for a novel though, characters and some sort of outline; so I’m definitely doing better than I was in my last blog post, even if my word count is slightly lacking… I’m trying not to freak out, 13 days is a long time!

Week Three of NaNoWriMo...

Before I started this I was worried I wouldn’t be able to quell the urge to edit as I wrote, to just plough ahead, mistakes and all; and let the word count pile up. Lots of people have said they love this aspect of NaNoWriMo and find it freeing to write unhindered by doubt and constant re-reading of what you’ve just written. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find these people are right (because I might have been just a teeny bit skeptical…)  It is amazingly freeing to write without looking back, even if you’re positive that your output is nothing but a steaming pile of gibberish.  At least that gibberish is something – something that could maybe be shaped into a thing of beauty after a few rounds of feverish editing.

Now, back to work…

Nanowrimo-orama

I’ve entered this year’s Nanowrimo! (cue lame drum roll and two sweaty palms). I’m in the mood for a challenge, plus I won’t be working full-time until December so I definitely have the time to do it. This started as an idea for a section (i.e. time filler) on my radio show. I’ve challenged other literary-minded (or addle-minded) listeners to join me in the race to write a 50, 000 word novel in 30 days and I thought, I bet people would love to hear about this on my blog too… I actually don’t know if you bloggy-type people would love to hear about this palpitation-inducing (mis)adventure or not, but you’re obviously going to hear about it anyway…

I’ve talked about Nanowrimo before, but in case you have a short attention span, here it is again. Nanowrimo is shorthand for National Novel Writing Month, a yearly madness that started in 1999. Folks sign up at the website; and agree to sign away their Novembers in the pursuit of writing 50, 000 words of a novel before the end of the month. The emphasis is on quantity, not quality (you can edit in December!) Writers are encouraged to leave their inner critics at the door and plough ahead, grammatical mistakes, clunky sentences and all. This will be difficult for me as I often re-read and edit my work one paragraph, even one sentence, at a time. I don’t even know what I’ll be writing about. I have the vague idea for a novel I was preaching about back in July but the idea is still just that: vague. I decided while writing Jinn Nation that a plan was definitely the way to go. Dunraven Road was a bloody nightmare to edit because my storyline was all over the place. So, that’s the first thing: a plan for a novel and an idea for a main character in the 11 days I have left before the start of November. Simples!

Um… Help?

Or if ya just want to laugh at me, I’m signed up over at Nanowrimo as Cazzy_Smith.

Life in a Sweat Box

I think I’m having a strange summer. The weather was beautiful until July (yes, I know us Brits are obsessed with the weather) and then it clouded over, trapping all the heat beneath and turning my little corner of the world into a clammy sweat box. I’m terrible when the climate is like this: I’m constantly uncomfortable and my brain turns to mush. I’m sure that knitting like a mad woman for the last two weeks to prepare for the upcoming street market I’ve signed on to do hasn’t made matters any better. Perhaps sitting for hours with a rapidly growing length of knitted fabric pooling on my lap isn’t the best way to cool down. I’m really looking forward to this market though. It’s in a village outside Exeter called Silverton on Saturday August 7 – Gates open at 10am (more details can be found on their website). I’ve actually attended this market before with a poorly thought out jewelry venture (basically, it was boxes of cheaply made costume jewelry gleaned from Ebay), but that was another lifetime ago. There’s always a theme at the Silverton Streetmarket and the locals dress up and compete in a fancy dress competition. This year the theme is musicals, so I’m hoping to see some Phantoms! (though I suppose the black cape would be a tad heavy for August…)

At least all the knitting has made me eager to start writing something new. I finished the first draft of Jinn Nation about two months ago; and I felt so drained when it was done I’ve barely started to edit it. Now though, a delicious kernel of a new idea is slowly turning and brewing in my overheated mind… I’m also planning to do something exciting with my zombie novella, The Undead Alliance – More details soon! I think knitting and crafting is a good excuse to let my mind wander and refresh itself, returning with new story ideas. I’ve been talking to some really interesting people through my radio show, Write Around Devon (every Thursday from 2-3pm UK! – www.riviera.fm) and last week I interviewed Susan Young, author of The Ultimate Defiance and creator of the Two Stories photographic exhibition. She’s also a keen wildlife photographer and she was telling me how waiting for hours, camera poised, for the perfect animal shot gave her plenty of time to plan her writing. I think this ‘planning’ time is important. Other people take a walk every morning and think about what they’re going to write that day. It all seems like quality procrastination to me and that’s where I am right now, entrenched in some high quality procrastination

I already have more local writers lined up to interview on the radio show and even more in the pipeline. Here’s a rundown:

22 July – Patricia Oxley – Creator and editor of the Acumen Literary Journal and organiser of the annual Torbay Poetry Festival.
29 July – Zion Lights – Author of More Things Should Be Thought Out Thus.
12 August – Graham Sclater – Author of Hatred is the Key.

I’m still looking for guests to interview and books to review, so if you’re a writer of anything in the South Devon area – fiction, non-fiction, poetry, even blogs – or if you have a new book out that you’d like to promote, send me an email and I’ll get you on the air

And finally… An old irritant has reared its ugly, botoxed head. Back in October, I pondered the question of why people buy glamour model Katie Price’s fiction when she openly admits to hiring a ghost-writer for every turd of a novel that has ever had the misfortune of having her name splashed across the cover. I never did get an answer. Well, she’s about to unleash more literary nonsense upon the world, prompting these search terms to pop up in my incoming links doo-dah on WordPress – “when is katie price next novel out” and “katie price new novel”. People!! If you’re so enamoured by novels to which the only contribution the so-called author has made is her name (and her signature on the hefty contracts), at least put me out of my misery and tell me why you read them. Please? Anyway… If you have come here from Google after following my ‘Katie Price’ tags, at least click this turgid link and send some Amazon Associates pennies my way (does this make me a two-faced, bandwagon-humping fool? Quite possibly).

Paradise (Hardcover) by ‘Katie Price’ – released July 22, 2010 (available for pre-order).

Blurb
When vacuous model Angel was forced to make a life-changing decision and choose between Ethan, the rich and famous Californian baseball player, and giving her marriage to poor-as-dirt, failing football player Cal another go, many were stunned when she picked Ethan. But life in LA is good: Ethan uses her and Honey to get his mug in all the celebrity magazines, making huge sums of cash; and their life could not be more glamorous. But nothing is perfect, and after a year together problems are beginning to surface: a stalker seems to have singled out Angel, her silicone implants have begun to sag; and when Ethan faces financial ruin the couple are ‘forced’ to star in a reality TV show about their life together, sickening the country and causing thousands to turn off their TVs in disgust. Despite everything, though, Angel is convinced that Ethan is the man for her. So why does she always feel breathless when Cal is around? (especially once he signs a new football contract and is able to buy a pink-painted mansion with a paddock out the back?) And why can’t she stop thinking about him and his new younger, even larger breasted girlfriend? But as the tabloid headlines have always been quick to point out, the path of true love for our moronic celebrity has not always been smooth (nor have the huge offers from OK Magazine for the exclusive rights to print pictures of her emergency bowel investigation always been forthcoming).

Sounds like a page turner!

Secret Squirrel

Sorry I’ve been such a slack Alice with the lack of posting – Must try harder! I do have some secret squirrel-type news though… I am now a radio presenter You’re impressed, right? I can hardly believe I’m doing it, actually. I barely recognise myself these days, I suppose a little self-confidence goes a long way. Anyway… I’m presenting on the same radio station I mentioned in my last post – Riviera FM. I must have done something right during my interview because I was asked if I’d like to present my own show, centred around local authors and book reviews. I didn’t need to think about that one for very long…

I called the show Write Around Devon and I’ve been broadcasting for three weeks, on a Thursday from 2-3pm (UK). Today is a special day because I’ll be interviewing my first guest – local author Tony Brown of Cadenza Press. I’m really looking forward to this. I’ll be asking him about his impressive back catalog of novels, where he finds inspiration and what motivated him to create his own press. You can listen in from anywhere in the world at the Riviera FM website – www.riviera.fm. Email the studio or click the Live Chat box to request a song or ask Tony a question. More guests are lined up for the future… Watch this space! (or blog… whatever ).

Cazz Crafts

I’ve just found out I’ll be live on The Jon Atkins Show on Riviera FM, Mon 17 May at 7.00 PM to talk about my writing and new crafty venture, CazzCraft Riviera FM is a new community radio station broadcasting in Torquay, but anyone can listen in all over the world from their website: http://www.riviera.fm. I’m quite excited! (which is far better than being pants-wettingly terrified like I was before appearing on the radio for the first time last year…)

I think I’ll primarily be talking about CazzCraft, my new crafty business. I started this late last year to try and generate some extra money, and I’ve been really enjoying it I started by selling my hand-knitted items; and I’ll soon be branching out to sell my own knitting pattern collections (wooo, exciting!) It’s going fairly well so far. I exhibited my woolly wares at Exeter’s first KNIT expo in April and I’ll be attending a craft fair called Ladies Indulgence Day at the Passage House Hotel, Newton Abbot Devon on Saturday 9th October 2010 (email Melanie Tinne for more details). I also sell online at Etsy (US) and Folksy (UK). I make all sorts of gifts, accessories and clothes, but I think these original design faeries are my favourite creations…

Want to check out CazzCraft and maybe buy yourself some handmade goodness? (you know you want to!) I have a website and a blog.

Experimental (Mental?) Speed Writing

I’m about to embark on an experiment (woo, sounds ominous!) I am literally on the brink of finishing my new novel, Jinn Nation; and with other projects looming and real life annoyances threatening to consume my time in the next week, I’m going to try and push myself to complete it in the next couple of days. The grand finale chapter may or may not get written – I don’t want to rush this part and my ideas about how it will play out are still fuzzy – but I want to at least reach this point. I’m three chapters and roughly 10, 000 words away from my goal. 5, 000 words a day doesn’t seem impossible, especially because I plan to use Write or Die (see my last blog post if you don’t know what this is).

I’ll be starting this today and continuing on Monday – Follow my progress on Twitter!

But what the hell is this novel about? I hear you ask…

Jinn Nation picks up the story of the vampire Dylan, right where I left him at the end of Dunraven Road, ostracised from his kin and witness to their demise. Dylan takes immense joy in immortality and delights in freshly-let blood; using his tall, toned physique and mesmerising azure eyes to lure countless unsuspecting mortals to untimely deaths.

Having never been alone in his long unlife, he becomes obsessed with the idea of belonging – an obsession that leads him to a preternatural race of creatures called the jinn. The jinn were human once, just like vampires. Unlike vampires however, they need to eat the gleaming, still-warm organs of unwitting victims in order to maintain their incredible strength and agility.

Dylan joins the jinn and for a time he revels in this new companionship, never telling them the secret of his vampiric origins. Then he meets Christa – a strangely childlike woman with the power to control minds and read thoughts; and is instantly intrigued. Together they set out on a blood-soaked road trip that crosses the United States and the Atlantic Ocean; finally leading them beyond the thinly veiled doorway to the mysterious Inbetween.

…Wish me luck