Today, every attempt to write more of Chapter 23 of Secrets has been thwarted by interruptions.
Firstly (which was not so much an interruption as I said hello to Andrew and discovered he was editing the book cover design he had created me), I helped with my opinions and image searching to edit the book cover of Dark Side of the Moon that my friend designed. It looks even better than it did and I think he’s even more of a genius with graphics. He’s going to be designing the graphics for my new site. Personally, I reckon that this will make the site even more fantastic than I could have originally designed. He has a knack of being able to figure out exactly what I want from the mass of congealed matter that makes up my brain. Anyway, results of today’s editing are below so you can tell me what you think of his lovely design:
Secondly, I’ve had lots of people trying to talk to me about various things… which is fine… but I don’t need the distractions right now. I want to get Secrets finished instead of getting sidetracked (you could probably argue that this is sidetracking me, but I wanted to mention all the stuff I needed to mention so I could continue on with Secrets). I know people don’t mean to distract me, but they always seem to know when I’m on a roll with whatever I’m writing and they just barge in with their hellos. I’m maybe being a little dramatic, but you have to admit that it is frustrating. Other people might say that I should just ignore whoever they are. I would do, but then I feel inordinately mean by not speaking to them. Dreadful, isn’t it?
Nevertheless, a friend instant messaged me and he’s started doing some writing of his own. His introduction to his piece can be found here and I’m sure that if any of you can provide him with feedback, then he’d be really appreciative. Personally, I think it’s an excellent start. His narrative voice is really strong and it draws you in and interests you straight away. To say that it’s not something I would normally pick to read, I’m glad I did. The title doesn’t really make me jump at it, but the actual writing of the piece is engaging and does make me want to read more. The writing is humorous, too, as if you’re listening to your friend describe something that has happened to him or her whilst you wait for the bus to arrive. My point is, I enjoyed it.
He’s also told me that he uses some freeware especially for writers to type in. I’m reliably informed that it’s a useful tool… and also that, if you want it to, you can set it so that it makes typewriter noises whilst you write. I think he finds this particular feature the best. Personally, I wouldn’t use it, but that’s because I’m rather set in the system I have for my writing. Nevertheless, it seems like something that could work for a lot of people so I thought I’d give it a quick mention. It’s called Q10. At first, I thought Didrik was trying to say I needed some skin care for wrinkles (I should hope I don’t have wrinkles. I’m only twenty!), but I had a look for it on the ‘net and it seems to have a number of good features. Despite this, I still don’t want to swap MS Word for it, but everybody is comfortable with different things. I’ve linked to it, anyway, so you can have a gander for yourself. It may or may not suit you. If you’re like my friend Didrik, though, you’ll love it just for the typewriter noises. It seems to work for him anyway.
Something else that I want to mention is my friend’s online magazine. I’ve mentioned it before, but this is Greyson’s second issue of OverByte and it still seems to be doing really well. It looks a lot more professional now and he’s had a lot more support getting the latest issue sorted. It’s primary audience are independent game makers on the internet. I’m not a game maker but I did skim it for the jokes and the ending comic, which were all thoroughly enjoyable. Plus, it’s nice to see how far he’s come along with it. On a private note, I think it’s helped build his confidence a lot too. In a weird way that makes me really proud of him. So, in support of my friend, you can find OverByte at its own site and, if you’re an indie game maker and you’d like to write articles for the next issue, you can register to audition.
(Lyrics in the title are from Oxygen by Colbie Caillat)
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Glad you're pleased with the first book's cover. I loved reading the book, it's the least I could do as a token of appreciation. Now I have to think about the design for Shadows & Ghosts 😛
Hopefully you'll get Bk3 done soon. If it's me that's ever causing distractions you're more than welcome to tell me to shut up 😛 And I don't think if you said to anybody else that you couldn't chat as you were busy writing, they'd understand. For anyone that doesn't, then ignoring them is substatially less rude!
I liked Kin's piece. For somebody that doesn't use English as a first language, he's very good at using it effectively.
Lastly, glad you liked the comic in Overbyte (as requested it went uncredited but, as I believe you know, it was me that made it :P)
I like the cover. The only issue is your name is hard to read with the graphics/texture on the letters. Otherwise, it's great.
Dawn Herring
I don't think the lack of clarity of Rebecca's name is a problem.
It certainly fits well and adds to the rich feeling given off by the cover.
As well as this, the book will of course have her name in completely legible font on one of the first pages in the book.
It looks absolutely superb and I don't know how Andrew did it. @_@