Thursday, October 27, 2005
Epiphany Fantastic
Despite deepest autumn trundling towards us with unstoppable force, today was the "warmest 27th October since records began." It reached 20C here (55F) and even warmer down in London. It was most unpleasant. It felt like summer, but with autumn leaves on the ground. I do hope this doesn't continue because the office was sweltering all day. It's bad enough having to go there without spending the whole time smelling like an onion in a bin.
I worked on my latest Great Scottish Authors piece, with a final word count of circa 2500 words. I reckon after some strong edits I can get it down, but again he's lead such an extraordinary life, you feel guilty about chopping things out just to get the word count down. I'll obviously make it tighter and then make a judgement call after that when I see how many it drops by.
I told myself I had to make a cover decision and get the technical problems sorted out with Fringe Fantastic before midnight. So I got the laptop out and worked in the living room, installing, fiddling about and uninstalling software to try and get the cover the way I want it. It took me most of the evening.
Then, an epiphany.
I have a little used software package hidden away on my main PC that is not intended for this kind of work, but I thought might just be able to apply what I want to do. I went upstairs and sat down at the computer, fiddled about some more and voila! I was able to get the new fonts onto an original image of high resolution for the cover.
I had done this test with my leading choice and after it was complete I sat back and looked at the cover with distant and fresh eyes. It started to call to me. It looked right. I t felt ok.
The front cover is complete. I'll generate it tomorrow and straighten it up and post the cover here for its first public airing. Now I can roll with the marketing plan and design the leaflets, bookmarks, website and start to tell the world; Fringe Fantastic is a huge step closer to reality.
I worked on my latest Great Scottish Authors piece, with a final word count of circa 2500 words. I reckon after some strong edits I can get it down, but again he's lead such an extraordinary life, you feel guilty about chopping things out just to get the word count down. I'll obviously make it tighter and then make a judgement call after that when I see how many it drops by.
I told myself I had to make a cover decision and get the technical problems sorted out with Fringe Fantastic before midnight. So I got the laptop out and worked in the living room, installing, fiddling about and uninstalling software to try and get the cover the way I want it. It took me most of the evening.
Then, an epiphany.
I have a little used software package hidden away on my main PC that is not intended for this kind of work, but I thought might just be able to apply what I want to do. I went upstairs and sat down at the computer, fiddled about some more and voila! I was able to get the new fonts onto an original image of high resolution for the cover.
I had done this test with my leading choice and after it was complete I sat back and looked at the cover with distant and fresh eyes. It started to call to me. It looked right. I t felt ok.
The front cover is complete. I'll generate it tomorrow and straighten it up and post the cover here for its first public airing. Now I can roll with the marketing plan and design the leaflets, bookmarks, website and start to tell the world; Fringe Fantastic is a huge step closer to reality.
Colin 3:21 pm