Category Archives: Writing

Authors, Awards, Novels, Publishing, Reading, Writing

Celebrity Chefs – culinary pirates and adventurers of the chrome surfaces…!

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Bestselling Scottish author Janice Horton launches her latest book ‘Reaching for the Stars’ to Amazon Kindle this week in the wake of her ‘Wish I Was Here’ themed online launch party, when many Bloggers and Tweeters posted a photo or picture of their own perfect escape, in keeping with the theme of Janice’s novel about a celebrity chef who disappears to avoid media frenzy.

Reaching for the Stars is published in e-format to Amazon for Kindle.

Janice, tell us what inspired Reaching for the Stars and what the novel is about?

Hi Melanie – thank you for having me here today – ‘Reaching for the Stars’ was inspired by my own fascination for celebrity chefs. I find the passion displayed by the rock stars of the culinary world to be very appealing indeed and with their sharp knives and skilled moves, I see them as culinary pirates, adventurers of the chrome surfaces, who battle through flames and the intense heat of the kitchen. That kind of dedication to duty is very powerful and so I wanted to create a hero-chef for my novel who was an amalgamation of all the chefs I find attractive. In the writing however, and as the story develops, it becomes apparent that great success can only ultimately bring about the realisation these gastronomic gods are, after all, also just human beings.

Reaching for the Stars is a romantic novel about a disillusioned Scottish celebrity chef called Finn McDuff, whose third wife leaves him just as he wins his third star. The irony of this is lost on no one, except one particular newspaper journalist called Raine Sanderson, who falls in love with the chef’s worn out gorgeousness when she interviews him at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh.

But soon after she writes up her story in The Thistle to expose the man, the myth and the legend behind the chef’s star-studded façade, he decides he’s had enough of all the food campaigns, the TV cookery shows, the constant frenzy surrounding his private life and gives back his accolades, closes his restaurant, and disappears.

With the enfant-terrible of the kitchen missing, two rival newspapers, The Thistle and The City News, having lost their media meal ticket, compete against each other to whip up further public curiosity in the missing chef.

What follows is a media manhunt, a press feeding frenzy, a phone hacking scandal followed by speculation and supposition. Love him or hate him, everyone is out looking for Chef McDuff. Who will find him first? Will it be Raine, or her nemesis at The City News, Ross Campbell?

Buy ‘Reaching for the Stars’ now at the special launch price of just 95p from amazon.co.uk and for $1.30 US from amazon.com

Links:
Janice Blogs at: http://janicehortonwriter.blogspot.com/
Janice is a www.loveahappyending.com author
Follow her on Twitter @JaniceHorton
Facebook Author Page: Janice Horton

About the author:
Janice lives in Scotland and writes romantic novels with humour which are, for the most part, inspired by the beauty of the heather-filled glens around her country cottage. When Janice is not writing novels, she write lifestyle articles and has had work published in national and international magazines and regional newspapers. She is the bestselling author of humorous romance ‘Bagpipes & Bullshot’.

Authors, Interviews, Novels, Publishing, Writing

The Star Child Blog Tour with Stephanie Keyes

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I’m thrilled here at Celtic Connexions to host debut YA Fantasy novelist, Stephanie Keyes, on her blog tour for her launch of The Star Child.

So, over to you Steph. Can you tell us a bit about yourself? Sure Melanie! Let me start off by saying thank you for hosting me on your blog! It’s very exciting to be here. So, let’s see, I am a Corporate Learning and Development employee by day and a wife and mother at night. My husband and I just celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary and we have two little boys, one 4 1/2 and one 2 months. We also have a little cock-a-poo who thinks she rules the house. Actually, I think she does, who am I kidding?

Did you always feel compelled to write? Yes, I’ve always been writing. I wrote my first novel at 14, which was a dedication to Olympic Figure Skating Gold Medalist Brian Boitano, that detailed a fictional romance between the pair of us. Did I know how to live or what? Needless to say we never got together. However, I moved on to different topics and have spent the time ever since writing – short stories mostly.  When my father was diagnosed with Cancer in 2007, I found that I really needed an outlet for all of my emotions. That was when I started the Star Child. It wasn’t even a book in my mind for a while, I just called it “The Project”. However, a book it was.

Who were your favourite authors growing up? My favorite book was “Gone With the Wind”, which I remember reading about fifteen times in the seventh grade. I loved Margaret Mitchell. Aside from that I think I read every book in the Nancy Drew and Anne of Green Gables series. I also read classical fiction, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Victor Hugo. It really didn’t matter what was put in front of me, I would read it.

What authors do you prefer to read now? Well, because I am writing for a YA audience, I’ve been reading alot of that genre to keep in touch with what that audience is reading. Some of the authors that I’ve really enjoyed are J.K. Rowling, O.R. Melling, Cate Tiernan, Melissa de La Cruz, Carrie Jones, and PC and Kristin Cast.

Do you think they influenced your writing in any way? Absolutely. JK Rowling really intrigues me because she takes figures in history and mythology and gives them a real place in her stories. You think that they’re fictional when you read the books but then you find that they actually existed and they’ve just been placed in a context to suit the story. You’ll see that influence in The Star Child. Although it’s fiction and weaves in quite a bit of Celtic folklore and mythology, I’ve included many figures in the storyline and simply placed them in another context.

Cover design by Cathy Helms, Avalon Graphics

What made you decide on the YA fantasy genre? What really got me hooked on Fantasy is the idea that there could be an entirely different world co-existing with our own. Any story that blends reality and fantasy is interesting to me. The thought of something magical happening in between the day to day activities, for example, Kellen attending his graduation and stepping through a portal into another place, that’s something I would love to have happen to me. Imagine going to pick up milk and you find there’s a gateway to another universe in the dairy section below the sour cream.

I understand the idea for The Star Child came to you in the shower. Can you elaborate? Definitely. I was getting into the shower in the smallest bathroom in the world (smiles) when I looked out the window and saw a single star. Two words popped into my head: star & child. I got into the shower and started to think about a young woman who lights the stars every night. I didn’t know her name and I hadn’t even made a connection to Celtic mythology yet. However, I knew there would be a girl. Calienta and her immediate family, with the exception of Lugh, her father, are all fictional – they don’t even appear in legend.

In addition to your blog tour, what other methods of self-promotion have you employed? I’m on Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In. but I also have my own blog on Blogger, Stephanie Keyes and my website Stephanie Keyes. This month, the trailer for The Star Child came out on You Tube. I am also a featured author on loveahappyending.com and there will be a promotion there. Finally, I’ll be targeting local bookstores and book clubs.

Where can we buy The Star Child?  The Star Child is available in paperback and ebook format on Amazon, Barnes and Noble Nook, and Smashwords.

Thank you, Stephanie, for dropping by Celtic Connexions today. You are very welcome! I appreciate the invitation and good luck on the release of your own novel next summer!

 
Stephanie says she got the idea for The Star Child in the shower. What’s the strangest place you’ve been when a brilliant idea struck you? Use the comments section below and you could win a Starbucks gift card! Then use it to buy your coffee to accompany your read of The Star Child! Only comments posted on December 15th are eligible.

 

Authors, Novels, Publishing, Reading, Writing

Launch Day for Sophie’s Turn by loveahappyending author Nicky Wells

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Sophie’s Turn by Nicky Wells

Slapper. Slut. Adulteress. These are hardly words that Sophie Penhalligan would normally use to describe herself. And yet this is exactly how she is behaving, all things considered, even if she isn’t quite married to Tim yet. Aged nineteen, she travelled halfway across the country to honour an invitation by her favourite rock band, Tusk, to join them for the last gig of their tour. And now her past is coming to tempt her… How could Tim ever stand a chance against Dan, the charming, handsome lead-singer? How could she?

Sophie, now twenty-eight and a budding newspaper journalist, is happily embroiled in a relationship with Tim, her boyfriend of two years. Until recently, she was confident that Tim would eventually propose—probably as soon as he could get his act together. But just as Tim’s persistent inaction is beginning to cast a cloud over their relationship, Dan’s sudden reappearance turns Sophie’s world upside down. Thus unfolds a roller-coaster of events including an ill-fated trip to Paris with Tim, a night of unfulfilled romance with Dan, Sophie and Tim’s engagement party gate-crashed by Dan, and Sophie’s professional secondment to accompany Dan’s band on their revival tour—at Dan’s special request and very much against her will.

And then, one fine day in Paris, Sophie suddenly finds herself engaged to Dan while her erstwhile fiancé Tim is… well, doing whatever it is Tim does back in London. What is she to do now? Who wouldn’t give anything to meet their favourite star, let alone marry him?

Find out how Sophie gets into this impossible situation, and how she turns it around, in Sophie’s Turn, the charming, funny and sometimes bittersweet story of one woman’s entanglement with a rock star.

Here’s what the readers think of Sophie’s Turn:

“Absolutely loved it and want a sequel.” — Kristin Durham

“The attraction between Sophie and Dan is sizzling…. you can feel the heat coming off the pages!” — Shaz Goodwin

“I loved the British charm that was evident on every page, as well as the plot that kept me reading well past my bedtime.” — Jonita Fex

“Nicky Wells spins her story with a delicate hand that will have readers cheering Sophie on throughout the entire book. I felt Sophie’s confusion, her hesitance to spark up anything with Dan, her dismay at her betrayal to Tim. This was such a real book, with a real woman in a very confusing situation” — Samantha Robey

“Not only does the story bounce along breezily, her writing style is beautifully observant – she paints an emotional picture in prose that is very believable and develops a range of central characters that are easy to relate to.” — Andy Fraser

“The outcome, well what a great ending – not what I expected but totally satisfying.” — Sue Fortin

“…excellent debut novel… I love her style of writing, and this book was an absolute pleasure to read.” — Kim Nash

“Packed full of heated highs but also some very sad lows that might have you reaching for a tissue. (Loved the ending) Nicky has written a perfect ChickLit book that easily stands up against the others available today in the shops.” — Lou Graham

“I found there were also some lovely humorous touches in this novel which were not predictable” — Rea Sinfield

 

You can buy Sophie’s Turn from amazon.co.uk here, amazon.com here, amazon.de (Germany) here and amazon.fr (France)here.

You can find Nicky online on her blog at: nickywellslippert.wordpress.com

She’s also on Twitter at @WellsNicky and on Facebook at Nicky Wells Author

Authors, Novels, Publishing, Reading, Writing

Book launch of Astral Travelling, The Avatar And Me by loveahappyending author Richard Holmes

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Astral Travelling, The Avatar And Me by Richard Holmes

In 2000 my life hit rock bottom. I was totally spent and didn’t see any way out of the mire that I found myself in. This book tells the story how (with a little help) I managed to turn my life around.

Miraculously at the onset of the new millenium I started to embark on a series of truly amazing out of body adventures, and as the years have gone by I have learned to pass through solid objects, propel myself in whatever direction I wish to travel, and unbelievably, “will” myself back into my body when I became bored with the journey.

As if that wasn’t incredible enough, I have also been blessed by the Avatar of the age himself, Sri Sathya Sai Baba, who first entered my life in 2001. Since then I have had a series of truly wonderous experiences with Baba. The highlights of which were being held in his arms during an out of body experience in 2006 and seeing him in physical form at his ashram, Prasanthi Nilayam (abode of the highest peace) in Puttaparthi, Southern India in October 2009.

Paperback: 154 pages
Publisher: UKUnpublished (3 Oct 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9781849440738
ISBN-13: 978-1849440738
ASIN: 1849440735
Author’s website: http://www.richardfholmes.co.uk/
Author’s Blog: http://richardfholmes.wordpress.com/
Twitter A/c @atmicsplendour: http://bit.ly/kuyNKf
Amazon Author page (buy): http://amzn.to/kTNhhP *

* See Richard’s full range of booklets also available via his website and Amazon

Richard has recently put together a video which can be viewed on You Tube here.

Richard also has a range of meditation CDs, including a free online meditation to enjoy, on his website.

Review for Astral Travelling, The Avatar and Me:-

This is a true story you will want to read from cover to cover in one sitting, because you will find it hard to put down. Having been to see Richard on two occasions and having taken part in one of his Vedic Chanting and Meditation Workshops, I was truly amazed by this gentle man and the outcome of each visit for me personally. In reading this story I feel privileged to have been able to ‘share’ his very personal journey. What comes across so strongly is the way in which he embraces everything that comes his way and his appreciation for the lessons he has learnt from the negative things life often presents. It is a story with immense heart to it and I feel reading it has changed me in some way, inspired me to open up to something I’ve only recently (and tentatively) started to explore. The account of his trip to Southern India was fascinating and is told with an honestly that is refreshing. This isn’t a book that ‘preaches’ but a book that chronicles one man’s special journey from being ‘lost’ to being ‘found’. A truly inspiring read. (cheerfulchic, Gloucester)

Authors, Holidays, Novels, Publishing, Reading, Writing

Launch day for Holiday Magic The Gift Of Love by loveahappyending author Lavada Dee

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Holiday Magic The Gift Of Love by Lavada Dee

Priceless Love by Lavada Dee & Laurie Ryan

(a two story anthology)

“For Richer, For Poorer”

Taylor Hamilton, dissatisfied with a life designed by her parents, attends a friend’s fall wedding and finds small town life agrees with her. The problem is, her wealth doesn’t agree with the man she falls for. Is their love strong enough to find a bridge of trust where money isn’t an issue?

Healing Love by Laurie Ryan

“In Sickness and in Health”

Nicole Milbourne’s single-minded focus on a medical research career is thrown for a loop when charismatic Dr. Damien Reed shows her there’s more to life than studying diseases. Will an unexpected Christmas fill Nicole’s lonely heart and show her the healing power of love?

Length:  123 pages
Language: English
eBook: ISBN 978-1-4658-4203-9
Amazon (US) Kindle and Print (buy) : http://www.amazon.com/Holiday-Magic-Gift-Love-ebook/dp/B006896AQ0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321738334&sr=1-

Barnes & Noble (buy): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1036485537?ean=2940013486249&itm=6&usri=lavada+dee

 

Authors, Novels, Publishing, Reading, Videos, Writing

Book Trailers

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They look and sound fantastic when well done. Not so much when they’re not. Who would have thought they would be so difficult to do and do well? Certainly not this girl.

Yeah, yeah, I bragged that I’d worked on my trailer for A Shadow in the Past and would be passing on the link when the time to reveal it rolled around. Read on and you’ll see why the big reveal is currently on hold.

Shortly after I launched my website, a few years ago, I put together really primitive book trailers for the two complete manuscripts I had at the time – Sarah’s Gift and The Anniversary. When I say primitive, I mean there was no sound track (music or narration) and it wasn’t even made with Windows Movie Maker (XP version). I converted the photos to .gif format and used Animation Shop that came with the version of Paint Shop Pro I was using at the time. You could still have transitions and some good ones at that. My biggest problem then was my 640×480 pictures were too big and part way through making one of the trailers, I would run out of memory… the computer, too… (grin) In the end, I had to resize my photos down to 320×240 in order to be able to get a single animated .gif saved so I could upload it to my website.

Fast forward back to the near distant past. When I accepted the contract from 4RV Publishing, I took down my novels page. Sarah’s Gift wasn’t Sarah’s Gift anymore. Not anywhere close to that first story I’d put together and had received more reject letters/e-mails than I care to remember. So why leave something that outdated and irrelevant up there? My other manuscript, I withdrew from the publisher since they’d had it for over two years and hadn’t done anything with it. Now, with the new first novel, this second manuscript in its current form doesn’t fit with my current direction. But I digress.

Back to book trailers. I experimented with the old Movie Maker (Windows XP version) and the new Windows Live Movie Maker for Windows 7.0. I decided that it was easier to start from scratch so I got my photos imported, my transitions and effects chosen, titles at the beginning and credits at the end. So far so good, you say. Not quite.

It was after I had the video set up the way I wanted that I decided to record the audio track. I knew what I wanted for it but it was almost half an hour long! I mean I wasn’t making a television show. So I found a good place to end the audio track. I’m still at about the eight minute mark but far better than what I had before.

So, plug my USB MP3 recorder into my laptop and download the file, open it in Audacity and I’m off to the races. Took a long time to cut the excess time at the end but I got there in the end. Then I thought some of my pauses were a bit too long so shortened them. I’d flubbed in a few places so was able to cut them out entirely (yay!) as I didn’t relish the idea of recording it over again. Import the audio track into my movie and save it.

I watched and listened and was feeling pleased with myself so took the plunge and uploaded it to You Tube. I sent the link to two people who have made book trailers and made excellent ones. People whose input I value. They both pointed out the same thing. I’m talking about one thing but the photo on the screen didn’t match. That was something that never occurred to me.

Back to the drawing board… I went back to my script that I read from and have marked what pictures need to be put where so now it’s a matter of getting the correct duration for them and their transitions to properly align themselves with my audio track. Oh, and those gaps I shortened before? I’m stretching some of them out again.

I read that the best size of photo to use for a book trailer was 640×480. I’ve been able to find “most” of the original book trailer photos in that size or larger so have scaled them to that size. Now I’m good to go. I think there were only two that I would have to hunt down and re-scan and they weren’t overly relevant to the scene(s) I narrated so I’m not overly fussed.

Irritating, aggravating and addiciting! Even though things aren’t going as well as I would have liked, I’m learning as I go and having a blast doing it!

 

Authors, Novels, Publishing, Reading, Writing

Black Friday Special – Not 1 but 2 books from loveahappyending author Harry Leslie Smith! Hamburg 1947: A Place for the Heart to Kip and The Barley Hole Chronicles

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Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year on the US calendar. In keeping with that fine tradition, loveahappyending is proud to support featured author Harry Leslie Smith‘s launch of not one, but two of his Books of Memoirs.

Hamburg 1947: A Place for the Heart to Kip

Twenty-two years old and ready for peace, Harry Leslie Smith has survived the Great Depression and endured the Second World War. Now, in 1945 in Hamburg, Germany, he must come to terms with a nation physically and emotionally devastated. In this memoir, he narrates a story of people searching to belong and survive in a world that was almost destroyed.

Hamburg 1947 recounts Smith’s youthful RAF days as part of the occupational forces in post-war Germany. A wireless operator during the war, he doesn’t want to return to Britain and join a queue of unemployed former servicemen; he reenlists for long term duty in occupied Germany. From his billet in Hamburg, a city razed to the ground by remorseless aerial bombardment, he witnesses a people and era on the brink of annihilation. This narrative presents a street-level view of a city reduced to rubble populated with refugees, black marketers, and cynical soldiers.

At times grim and other times amusing, Smith writes a memoir relaying the social history about this time and place, providing a unique look at post-WWII Germany. Hamburg 1947 is both a love story for a city and a passionate retailing of a love affair with a young German woman.

Hamburg 1947 can be bought in paperback format from Amazon.co.uk for £11.95 or Hardcover for £18.95

The Barley Hole Chronicles

If you didn’t purchase Harry’s first book of memoirs, 1923: A Memoir, this is your chance to get it and Hamburg 1947 under one cover in The Barley Hole Chronicles – From Hell to Hamburg 23/47.

Barley Hole was for my great grandfather Canaan, the land of milk and honey. For my father, it was paradise lost and for my mother, Barley Hole was a curse. It was a place that haunted her spirit and her soul throughout her life. To me, Barley Hole is a name forever etched on the map of my family’s heart; it is where betrayal and injustice nearly thrust us into oblivion.

The Barley Hole Chronicles are an odyssey of the human spirit that stretch across time and geography to incorporate, diverse personalities, personal hardships, World Wars and the struggle for peace and love, in a society fallen from grace. These Chronicles document one Yorkshire family’s descent into the wilderness of poverty and hunger. It is a personal record of one young man’s struggle to survive the great depression, the Second World War and the hazards and wonders of life in post war Germany. The Barley Hole Chronicles are a summation of two memoirs by Harry Leslie Smith 1923 and Hamburg 1947. The Barley Hole Chronicles are a true account of a time and place when life, full of raw emotion, was never so real. It is also a social history of the 20th century at its bloodiest and deadliest time.

The Barley Hole Chronicles are available for the Kindle from Amazon.co.uk for £1.14 or from Amazon.com for $1.50 US.

Hamburg 1947 is available in Paperback for $17.95 US and Hardcover for $27.95 US from Amazon.com and will be available for the Kindle for $1.99 US.

And for Black Friday, Harry is reducing the price of The Barley Hole Chronicles to $0.99 US and his first book, 1923: A Memoir will be reduced to $0.75 US.

Authors, Novels, Publishing, Reading, Writing

Re-launch of Satchfield Hall by Pauline Barclay

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Author, Pauline Barclay has been busy behind the scenes working on re-editing and polishing her novel, Satchfield Hall, for a re-launch today. Along with the work between the covers, Pauline has a brand new cover designed by Cathy Helms of Avalon Graphics in the US!

When the news reached Henry Bryant-Smythe about his daughter’s indiscretion, he not only dealt with it, but stamped on it with such a resounding thud, that the consequences ricocheted through the years and well into the future. Henry Bryant-Smythe cared nothing for the consequences of his actions and even less for the feelings of those involved, with the exception of his own, and these he cosseted.

Celia Bryant-Smythe’s disgrace set in motion events that would affect the lives of many people, taking decades to unravel. Lives would be lost and destroyed and it would take until the death of the one man who had callously started it all, Henry Bryant-Smythe, until it was finally over.

Satchfield Hall is not about gentleness, tranquillity and privilege; it is about, power, love, lies and in the end revenge.

Satchfield Hall is available for the Kindle at Amazon.co.uk for £2.32 and at Amazon.com for $3.25. In addition, a paperback version will be released in the coming weeks.

About the Author

Years ago Pauline gained a BA (Hons) degree from the Open University, today she spends her time writing fiction and has three books published: Sometimes It Happens, Magnolia House and Satchfield Hall.

She’s a Yorkshire lass, from the UK but has lived in several different locations including, Suffolk, UK, Surrey, UK and the beautiful country of Holland. Today, Pauline lives on the beautiful volcanic island of Lanzarote in the Canary Isles with her husband and her two gorgeous rescue doggies.

Authors, Novels, Publishing, Writing

Launch Day for The One Who Got Away by loveahappyending author Jessica Strassner

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The One Who Got Away by Jessica Strassner

Everyone has that person in his or her life….. The One Who Got Away.

For Lucy, that person is Jackson.  Reunited after many years and many changes, Lucy and Jackson find themselves caught in a dilemma.  Both of them are struggling with the fact that their old feelings for each other have been reawakened…

And now both of them are involved with other people.

Should Lucy stay in a comfortable, routine relationship with her boyfriend, Matt, even though he doesn’t make her feel the way Jackson does?  Should Jackson keep going with the flow in his marriage to Sloane, his overbearing wife who is pressuring him to start a family?

What begins as a friendship rekindled, leads to a romance caught on fire as Lucy and Jackson question the decisions they made in their younger years and wonder if they are truly meant to be together.

The One Who Got Away is available for the Kindle at Amazon.com for $2.99 US and at Amazon.co.uk for £2.14.

Authors, Novels, Publishing, Reading, Writing

A Shadow in the Past book trailer

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Well, it’s almost ready to reveal. I’ve spent a lot of time today with my face in the computer working on it. And starting from scratch with the Windows 7.0 version of Movie Maker, it’s not so difficult to work with at all. So selecting my photos, transitions, effects and what not took a lot of time, albeit enjoyable. Then I spent a period of time where I was sequestered off in the bedroom recording the audio track of the first two chapters using my Sony MP3 recorder. It didn’t seem like it at the time but when I opened the file in Audacity, it was the better part of half an hour!

Another bonus to Audacity, is I was able to edit out any flubs I made since I don’t read out loud well (and believe me, I flubbed in a few places) and shorten some long pauses when I wasn’t able to move to the next screen on the iPad in a timely manner. My first recording might have lasted 30 seconds and I shut it down on my own. Second time around things went swimmingly but still a few moments but I perservered and finished the recording.

Back in touch with humans, I self-taught myself in the workings of Audacity. It’s a really cool program and am looking forward to doing more things with it than I did today. Anyway, I worked away at editing the audio track… reducing the length of gaps, removing moments of tongue-tideness and cut it down to about 8:00 minutes.

I’ll reveal the finished product here soon so stand by for the official announcement of its unveiling.