Free NaNoWriMo progress spreadsheet

As discussed in my NaNoWriMo workshops, I use an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my progress throughout November (see pic below). There was particular interest in this in last night's talk at Milkwood; as promised, I've uploaded the tool (empty of my data, but with all the formulae you need in place) here for free download.

Come check out Cafe Huck...

My hut at the Autumn Writer's Exhibition this year is based on the cafe used in 'Be Right Back' and 'Just so That You Know'. Come check out some great exhibits - but hurry, it only runs until the end of October.

New (cheaper) print version of AFK

I've been unhappy for a while now with the ISBN paperback of AFK I put together on lulu a while ago. It seemed like a wonderful idea at the time, but some sort of irregularity in the system somewhere has seen amazon.com prices as high as $30. Way too expensive. Not good at all.

I'll be replacing the 'pocket-sized' paperback version soon with a non-ISBN version that should keep a fixed price (probably of around about £8/$12). In the meantime, I've put together an even cheaper 'digest' version that exploits a larger page size, columns, a slightly reduced font size and an economy paper option that's available on lulu.com for books printed in the US. And it can be bought right now for just £3.25 ($5.20 approx). Click here to visit the lulu page for this product.

Since this is a US only product, readers from outside of the US should be aware that the cheapest postage option is about $10 (it's much cheaper if you live in the US).

Getting ready for NaNoWriMo 2009

In the run up to National Novel Writing Month 2009, I've been asked to do a couple of workshops in Second Life about the business of putting down 50,000 words within the space of a single month. On Saturday 17 October I'll be speaking at Bookstacks at 4pm SLT and on Friday 23 October I'll be Speaking at Milk Wood at 2pm SLT.

As for my own NaNo plans, a novel provisionally titled 'My Avatars and I' is beginning to take shape in my head. Not much to say at this stage, other than it will be set entirely in SL and presented through SL dialogue.

National Novel Writing Month will take place in November.

Second draft finished

And not a moment too soon. After nearly ten months of work, 'Beside an Open Window' is now ready for public consumption. At just over 80,000 words, it's the longest thing I've ever written. I won't be making this available as a PDF download, since I'm going to have a try at sending this to a publisher. I will, however, be making the entire novel available online in a non-downloadable format, hopefully within the next couple of days.

Blue Angel Landing issue 1

We're getting perilously close to launching a print version of Blue Angel Landing (initially mentioned here). In the meantime - and courtesy of www.issuu.com - you can browse the electronic version right here. Flip forwards and backwards through the magazine using the arrows to the left and right of the pages and click on the magazine itself to view fullscreen.