Observations on the world and its inhabitants
After a two-week break, work on Book 2 – The Kael’Nyrin Scrolls: The Atlas Edict – of the complex metafictional trilogy resumed. Within hours, something became apparent. The text looked different. Not because it had changed — but because the relationship to it had. Sentences that had seemed acceptable now carried visible excess. Words that ...
This post is really a note to myself. The guide is me teaching myself as a new author. The bottom line is that ‘writing’ books is not just about making sentences and having them make sense. It’s about thousands of words painting pictures. This is very different to writing a journal paper or some academic ...
Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is widely recognised as the industry standard for software development. However, its core strength—managing complex text files with precision—makes it an exceptionally powerful tool for authors of fiction and non-fiction alike. Luddites and lazy folk should stop right now – leave this blog and get back to Netflix, Instagram and ...
A View from the Trenches Over the past year, the journey of writing and publishing the first novella The Kael’Nyrin Scrolls: Our Children of Starlight on Amazon has been an education in reality. It was a process defined not by the romanticised notion of “being discovered“, but by the difficult, granular lessons of production, formatting, ...
For writers, journalists, and professionals operating within the United Kingdom, adherence to correct UK English spelling is not merely a preference; it is a fundamental requirement of competence. Official and academic audiences expect consistency, and mandate the use of British conventions. Using the established standards ensures clarity, maintains editorial authority, and respects the national linguistic ...
The chances of anybody becoming an expert brain surgeon is small and not going to happen overnight or over a specified period of nights. We’re talking years of training and work. But.. but when it comes to authorship and ‘sales’ there are people out there who think: ‘Put book on the market and rake in ...
This document outlines the evolution of a print distribution strategy for an independent paperback title, detailing the journey from an ambitious “Hybrid” objective to a pragmatic final execution, and the subsequent pricing strategy adopted for market entry. The Search for the Perfect Distribution Model This case study documents a specific strategic journey taken to solve ...
Rationale: The project was initiated after a significant discovery: new Gemini-TTS models offer high-quality, expressive, multi-speaker audio generation. A cost-benefit analysis revealed a dramatic disparity between professional human narration (previously sourced at ~£490 for 1.6 hours) and AI-driven production (estimated at ~£1.51 for 100 minutes). This project was undertaken as a long-term investment to build ...
I recently discovered two books that have quietly become my new writing bibles: New Hart’s Rules: The Oxford Style Guide (2nd Edition) and The New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors. And honestly? I wish I’d read them years ago. As I’m deep into drafting my second novel, The Kael’Nyrin Scrolls: The Atlas Edict, I’ve ...
1. Introduction The motivation for this workflow exploration was the necessity of converting existing Microsoft Word documents (.docx) into well-structured Markdown (.md) files automatically. While Markdown is an ideal format for documentation, version control, and lightweight text editing (such as in Typora), manual conversion or reliance on simple tools often results in corrupted formatting, particularly ...
Publishing a first book on Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) can feel overwhelming. This guide consolidates practical lessons learned from the self-publishing process. Whether publishing fiction or non-fiction, these insights will help avoid common pitfalls. If you’re one of those people who will go, “Why would I want to publish a book, let alone use ...
This article is not designed to be a book review. I have not read the whole book as yet: “The Manipulated Man” by Esther Vilar. Of course, you never heard of her. Who cares! To learn less do not read Wikipedia. I have read several parts of the book and will complete it soon. This ...
As ‘some’ may have realised, something is happening in the background. So, I’m sharing Scrivener which is a nifty piece of software – or an ‘app’ for those who like the new terminology. This post is not a software review. Before anyone goes there, I derive no pecuniary or other advantages (in the past, present ...
Today I’m proud to have been called a conspiracy theorist. That means I was just about a year early. Well, you looked down the page, and thought “He’s among his own kind – so there!” It is fine. As I’ve said a zillion times before ‘truth and reality are my only friends!‘ Well, when I ...
Following up on my recent post What is a Mindset?, I did some more private research on the topic. As was mentioned, there are different kinds of mindsets, in different situations for the same person. Some mindsets may dominate a person across a range of activities. Then I came across Success Mindsets by Ryan Gottfredson ...
It’s the name of a book! In the event that you don’t know Dr Bo Bennett, you are expected to jump on the net and start Googling madly. After all, you don’t know who’s who in this world – and everybody out there is a guru of some sort – right? I mean – like ...
The way most people will answer the question is like – ‘Well it depends…‘ or ‘They may help some people but not everybody‘. And that right there represents the market for people who will more than likely purchase self-help books (SHB). Now calm down – I’m not saying that SHBs are bad. This post will ...
This is for ‘bookworms’. ?? If others don’t know what this means – tough, Google is not your friend! But I say be cautious. This is not a recommendation to purchase anything. I derive no advantages in the past present or future by sharing the above information.
It may sound like a stupid question to some. If you ‘know the answer‘, move on swiftly. This post is motivated by a web-based conversation I had the other night. I mentioned some book in a forum as a reference – not a recommendation to purchase. Someone then responded, within a few minutes that they ...
