Blog for writers

If you have had a go at writing your own book, or want to know how to do it, there is a blog especially for you. http://lulu.com (the writers' publishing system on line) has just announced their blog.


http://lulublog.com/

There you can find lots of information and hints on how to write your book and publish it.

Having gone through this process some years ago, I can tell you a few things about the process.

1) You need to prepare your work in a suitable format using a word processor.
I used Word for Windows.
Note: If you make mistakes in the text, they will appear in the printed work, so go over it carefully before publishing!
Divide the work up into sections for easy handling. I found individual chapters practical (one for each chapter).

2) When you are ready, upload your chapters, introduction etc to your account on lulu.com and create a cover for it (title, image, author's name etc). Then download the PDF file of your creation to your PC. Note: It may take years of work before you get to the publishing stage.

Go over it carefully to spot problems (formatting errors, spelling mistakes, other boo boos in the story).

When you are convinced you have done a good job, publish a copy in its final form (choose cover, style etc). Note: The format of your pages is something you set when writing your Word document(s). If you do a bad job here, it will show up in the published work, so watch out for that.

It may be wise to have a skilled person go over the work and spot problems before you turn it loose on an unsympathetic public.

Star Trek Technologies (real or fiction)

One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do. (Henry Ford)
Shades of Star Trek!
Is it here already?
Star Trek Technology: Real or Fiction?
Multi-spectral communication
That first article reminded me of an old series that introduced new ideas to many of us. In those days they seemed futuristic and very ambitious. The interesting part is that now some of them are becoming realities. The series of pages beginning above explains how to vastly increase the amount of information moving along a single optical fiber. It is explained in fairly basic terms, but the reality is that the means already exists to take a fibreoptic cable and multiply the amount of information passing along it, efficiently separating each signal at the destination point. The idea has been on my site for some years, but is only now being employed by those who require this kind of powerful information system.