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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Creating a Blog to Book from A to Z Posts : Guest Post by Pauleen Cass

        Publishing a book does not always mean producing something to sell on Amazon or in the book stores.  There are publish on demand and other publishing services that will print limited quantity or even single editions for family members, friends, or other specific audiences.  Some of you have compiled your blog posts into keepsake editions.

         Today we hear from Australian family history blogger Pauleen Cass who can be found at Family History Across the Seas.   When Pauleen told me that she was going to publish a blog-to-book based on her A to Z Challenge entries, I invited her to share her story with us.   In this post she tells about the process that she used to publish her keepsake editions for her family members.

A to Z Becomes Family Treasure


        My passion, and the focus of my main blog, is family history so it was inevitable that this would carry through to the A to Z challenge 2012. Family history usually discusses the people and their lives, this challenge would focus on place as a character in its own right.

        The theme I decided on was a dollop of travelogue combined with what I called a genealogue: a travel tale of the places important to the stories of our families (past and present). 
               
        My goal was to write something interesting for my fellow bloggers (the geographical/travel underpinning) but mainly to preserve the stories behind the places which might otherwise be lost from our family history.

         My plan was to publish the posts in a blog-to-book thereby preserving the stories for my children and grandchildren.

         Throughout April the blog toured many places in Papua New Guinea, Australia, England, Ireland, Scotland and Germany. My fellow tourists included some of my regular readers and some newbies. Their comments encouraged me to reach the finish line.

        In terms of my planned book, I decided that I would combine the A to Z posts with another series, 52 weeks of personal genealogy and history from 2011, as this also contained memories I wanted preserved beyond the digital world.

       I’d used Blurb previously and been very happy with the standard of the publication I received. The benefits of using Blurb are:

1.       It’s possible to bring in footnotes as well as the web links from the posts. This is important in family history where citing sources is critical.
2.       The file is auto-saved as you work, so you can work at it progressively.
3.       It provides different photo/text layouts per page so you can choose what suits that particular story.
4.       The photos you’ve used in your posts are imported and placed into the photo boxes of the layout you choose per page.
5.       You can select which posts you want from your blog.
6.       It also imports comments if you want them included.

      Because I’d decided to combine two hefty series, the initial book length was quite long. I think this affected some of the issues I had in preparing the book. So what do I see as the downsides of the Blurb blog-to-book process and what would I do differently?

1.       In retrospect I would ensure my book size was smaller as I think some of the problems I had with this book arose from its length.
2.       While the importation of footnotes and citations is automatic, it doubles up the citations, cross-referring to your own post, so some editing is required.
3.       Some of the comments flowed over many pages, with blank spaces, again requiring editing.
4.       The photos come in at what seem much lower resolution than that of the original photos, presumably they’ve been reduced to web-standard, and some have to be reduced further –a helpful exclamation mark tells you when it’s not up to print quality.
5.       To ensue you have good quality photos throughout you may wish to re-import the photos you used in the blog post. This certainly gives a better quality final product, but is surely tedious.  If you get stuck and can’t find the image you used on your computer, check its title on the blog and do a search.
6.       If I was doing another long series I wanted to publish in print, I would copy all the photos from my post at the time, and put them in one folder. With the A to Z, I used photos from different file directories so it’s another challenge to go back and re-import them all.
7.       Blurb didn’t cope with the fancy google maps I’d used or the slideshows. Again, more importing.

        Based on my previous Blurb book I expect that I will be very happy with it once it’s completed. Only the individual writer can decide whether its worth the preparation and editing process of getting it print-ready. Because recording these stories is important to me, I’ve deemed it worthwhile, though I’ve had to take a break before finishing upgrading all the photos.



          Have you had any experiences with limited run book services such as this?    Have you ever published your blog posts in book form?    Let us know your thoughts or experiences. 
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Monday, July 9, 2012

Downhill Slide Begins

Steel Force and Thunderhawk roller coasters at...Steel Force and Thunderhawk roller coasters at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

         Has this year seemed to be going extraordinarily fast for anyone else besides me?

          We've hit July and that means we're at the top of the roller coaster and on the downhill side.  Yikes!  There's a wild ride ahead with summer (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere) wrapping up and a parade of holiday seasons to follow.   Many schools start back in August now.  So much for those long drawn out summers like I used to have when I was a kid.

          Before we know it Halloween will be history and cooler weather will be gusting in--a welcome respite for many who have been experiencing record high temperatures this year.  I'd say more than a few are looking forward to snow and colder weather.

          Of course that colder weather brings NaNo November for the writers, Thanksgiving for those who love to eat, and all of the December holidays for all of the rest of us.   And then it's another year--2013!   The next A to Z is just around the corner it seems.

           Maybe we need to slow down and get back to July.  Oh, sure, we can keep stimulating the A to Z brain for ideas for next year.  Perhaps a few of you will even start writing a few posts as flashes of inspiration hit you.  That's fine, but that flying time has got to be grounded.

           How about a walk on a mountain trail?   Head for a glacier I'd say.  Or bask at the beach if the sun and salt spray is your thing.   Drift on a lake or down a river in a canoe or kayak.  Visit the zoo or an air conditioned museum.   And speaking of AC, there's always the mall.  So much to do and a lot of it can be found right close to home.

         Of course, you could do like I'll be doing for the next few weeks.  My wife and I will be driving cross-country to spend a few days with a daughter in Houston, Texas and then heading on for a few days with relatives in Orlando, Florida.   With about eight 12-15 hour driving days and other days filled with family activities, I have a feeling that I won't be doing too much on the computer during that time.

          And here I thought I was going to be doing some serious writing this month of July.   Well, there is August.  I hope I can manage to keep that month under more control.

          Hope you're having a great summer--or winter if that's what it's like where you are.

           What are your summer plans?   Anybody just staying around the house and doing things there?   Are you going anyplace unusual?    Are you ready to do an A to Z Blog guest post?   Let us know if you are.  We've got some open dates to fill.
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Friday, July 6, 2012

Alphabet Soup - Looney Last Names


The following activity is brought to you by Nicole from The Madlab Post...


It’s time for Alphabet Soup - The Word Scramble Puzzle of A to Z Champions!

For every person who has a funny, strange or embarrassing first name, there are probably just as many with unordinary last names. If one strange name isn’t awkward enough, just think of how hesitant some people are to answer to roll calls or fill out a form when their full name causes other people to snicker. It reminds me of the male nurse named Gaylor Focker in “Meet the Parents” and who could forget the female banker named Marcy D’Arcy on “Married with Children?!” So today, L is for Last Names, particularly where movie titles are concerned.

Unscramble the following movie titles that end with a Letter L word. The first commenter who is able to correctly unscramble all or most of these movie titles at best wins this weeks’ Alphabet Soup game. Answers and the name of the winner will be posted here at the A to Z blog during next week’s “Friday Fun Time.”

1. LoeaotLhdtsnf________________


2. etoLosgnothNi________________


3. inneLhlTBeiu________________


4. hTeaLmaorpustseLferot________________


5. edoLfsBoyi________________


6. ffmoienaIitLtio________________


7. izroyaeLutSdCvp________________


8. e8tya2rsDaL________________

EXTRA CREDIT: What are some of the strangest names of people you’ve met in the workplace, school, casual outings, meetings or on vacation?

Sign your blog up for the Monday Movie Meme, a weekly group blogging series that inspires discussion about entertainment in a whole new light and provides recommendations for your DVD, on-demand or theater fix. New topics are posted every Monday!
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NICOLE
Blog: The Madlab Post
Also @MadlabPost on Twitter

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

The Higgs Boson

The Higgs Boson In light of the exciting and amazing and awesome news coming out of CERN, I thought I’d post some highlights from an article from Reuters concerning confirmation of the long sought after Higgs Boson. And it only cost about $10 billion dollars!

(Reuters) - Scientists at Europe's CERN research center have found a new subatomic particle, a basic building block of the universe, which appears to be the boson imagined and named half a century ago by theoretical physicist Peter Higgs.

The discovery of the particle is likely to shed light on other mysteries of our universe. Scientists see confirmation of this theory as accelerating investigations into the still unexplained "dark matter" they believe pervades the universe and into the possibility of a fourth or more dimensions, or of parallel universes (now we're talking my language!). It may help in resolving contradictions between their model of how the world works at the subatomic level and Einstein's theory of gravity.

CERN's Large Hadron Collider is the world's biggest and most powerful particle accelerator. Two beams of protons are fired in opposite directions around the 27-km (17-mile) looped pipe built under the Swiss-French border before smashing into each other. The collisions, which mimic the moments just after the Big Bang, throw off debris signals picked up by a vast complex of detectors and the data is examined by banks of computers.
Large Hadron Collider (see the man standing in the center?)

The Higgs theory explains how particles clumped together to form stars, planets and life itself. Without the Higgs boson, the universe would have remained a formless soup of particles shooting around at the speed of light, the theory goes.




We will certainly get into the conversation of God and science in future posts!

It is the last undiscovered piece of the Standard Model that describes the fundamental make-up of the universe. The model is for physicists what the theory of evolution is for biologists.

What scientists do not yet know from the latest findings is whether the particle they have discovered is the Higgs boson as exactly described by the Standard Model. It could be a variant of the Higgs idea or an entirely new subatomic particle that could force a rethink on the fundamental structure of matter. The last two possibilities are, in scientific terms, even more exciting.


We do live in exciting times and I’ll have more to post on this matter in the days and weeks to come. Stephen Tremp is author of the Breakthrough trilogy. You can visit him at Breakthrough Blogs.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Common Misconceptions About Greece: Guest Post from Bex at Leaving Cairo

        Bex blogs at Leaving Cairo, the UK, and Back to Greece.  She is quite the world traveler and she writes about places that many of us will only dream of ever going.  Visit her blog and let her take you away.  Today she takes us to her adopted country of Greece.  This country has been getting some bad press of late and Bex wants to address some of these issues in this guest post.

Common misconceptions about Greece
            As an EFL teacher, I had started my career in Sri Lanka pre-CELTA as a volunteer for 3 months.  I soon realised I loved teaching and after completing the CELTA, decided I wanted to continue my visit to far flung destinations, anything in Europe to my mind was not far enough removed, both geographically and culturally.

         How wrong could I be?  Thinking I would spend just one year in Greece to gain experience and move on, 3 and a half years later I find myself loving this diverse country and choosing to stay.

            Unfortunately there are some common misconceptions about Greece and the Greeks, especially with the International media’s reportage.  I hope to give you a slightly clearer picture here:

1) They throw plates a lot

Zebekiko
            Er, no – it’s not even really traditional.  They actually have a special Greek dance called “Zebekiko” where women sit in a circle (or men) and in the centre, a man dances to the women (or visa versa) whilst the admirers in the circle clap and throw flower petals at him/her.  The dancer is expressing their love for someone in the circle – you have to hear the accompanying music to appreciate how expressive it is, and how FREE people are when they dance to this.  It brings tears to the eyes.


2) Greeks are lazy

Fisherman mending his net.
            OK, this is clearly a racist comment, particularly flouted around in Northern European countries like Germany to discredit the Southern European states. The Office of National Statistics shows us that, ironically, Greeks have a longer working week that Germans (42.2 hours per week compared to 35.6 hours).  Many Greeks, due to recent austerity measures, hold down 2 jobs and I think what people need to concentrate on is the inflated public sector.  But not every Greek is a public sector worker, remember that.  And not every Greek is a tax dodger!!  Look at the people in the upper echelons of every nation – THAT’S where you’ll find the tax dodgers.


3) Greeks are always rioting

The_great_summer_outdoor_experience_-_
Cine_Paris,_Plaka,_Athens
    
        Oh dear – the International Media have a lot to answer for don’t they?!  Bombarding us with pictures of rioting Greeks in Syntagma (Parliament) Square. 

       Greeks have always been a passionate race and due to hard austerity passed down to them, instead of sitting around moaning about it – they take to the streets and demonstrate.  Unfortunately, occasionally these demonstrations can turn nasty – but invariable it’s by a minority of people instigating it.  I’ve been quite happily sitting at home, updating my blog when the phone’s rung and a panicky voice of one of my friends had bleated down the line:

“Oh my God!  I’ve just seen the news – are you OK?!”  for me to reply“What are you talking about?” 

          I’m sure the media use ‘library footage’ a lot.  Remember, the majority of Greeks are NOT violent people.  Which brings me onto: 
Old house in Kypseli,
Athens Greece
  
4) Athens is constantly burning

            Athens is not in the midst of mortar fire constantly.  Interestingly, I have been sitting down having a coffee (a famous Greek pastime) whilst round the corner a demonstration has passed by…with no problems!  Which reminds me…


5) Greeks spend all day in the coffee shops/Kafeneos

Tavli
            Hold on, you don’t hear a Greek saying “Well, the British spend all day in the pubs don’t they?”  And I ask you – what’s a more civilized picture in your mind: a Greek sipping on a frappe with his mates, slapping each other on the backs in a friendly fashion or a British man drinking ridiculous amounts of beer and spoiling for a fight (see what I mean about stereotypes)?


          So I do hope you’ll come and enjoy all this country has to offer.  I, for one, feel like an honorary Greek, which is an honour indeed.  These people have taken me into the bosom of their homes, fed me, looked after me and accepted me.  I love Greece – may she continue to fight against the negative stereotypes bestowed upon her.

Paros

Sunset --Paros Island
Paros Sunset

        Have you ever been to Greece?   Have you been to Cairo?  What is your dream place to visit?   Perhaps Bex has been there and can tell you about it.








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