Special Participant Feature - Andrew Leon

The A to Z Challenge saw some awesome themes. One of the most intriguing was Fiction to Reality by author Andrew Leon at Strange Pegs. Andrew put so much into his posts – the research he conducted was amazing. I asked Andrew to share a little about his theme for the 2012 Challenge:

Your theme was fiction to reality – what made you choose that?

Actually, my wife came up with the theme. I was sort of thinking out loud to her about all of the themes I'd thought of and why I'd rejected them (and having a theme was make it/break it thing for me; I wouldn't have done a to z without one), and she said something like, "Well, why don't you talk about things that started out as science fiction but are now real?" It was a great idea, and I went with it. Of course, not quite everything I chose is science fiction, which is why I did just fiction to reality.

What subject was the most difficult to research?

I didn't really have any topics that were difficult to research in and of themselves, but there were some letters that were difficult to find topics for. Like "J" and "Y." I could find physical -things- that we have that started with those letters, so I had to be a little more creative with those.

Who’s your favorite robot?

Oh, man, that's not even a fair question. Oh, well, wait... do you mean something that's just what we would call a robot, or do you also mean android? I'm gonna go with the 'droid answer, and I would pick R2-D2. I want one. Of course, I also love 3PO. I also love the character of Daneel Olivaw from Asimov.

Who was Tom Swift?

Tom Swift was a character from the, appropriately named, Tom Swift books. He was a boy genius that got himself out of trouble through his inventions. Tom Swift was conceived of by the same guy that thought up The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. There's still a current series of Tom Swift books out there a century after they first started being published.

Any plans to go back to school for a degree in Xenobiology?

You know, I think I'll skip anything that's going back to school. I think of taken a very Ray Bradbury view and decided that free education is the best education. Which is not to say no education, but reading and choosing what to read very deliberately is a much better way to learn than paying an organization a bunch of money to get a piece of paper.

You’re not secretly building a laser or raygun, are you?

Hmm... I can't really tell you that, now, can I? Just, you know, be wary if you wake up one morning to find your living room filled with a giant Jiffy Pop container. I actually do have an old story -somewhere- about a boy that makes the first handheld laser weapon. That was back in college, though, and I'm not sure where that's packed away.

If you do the Challenge next year, what theme would you tackle?

At this point, I have no idea. I haven't had any good ideas, yet, so that question is still just hovering around out there. I won't do it without a theme, though, and it has to be a theme that I'm not gonna find on a dozen other blogs.

Thanks for having me Alex! I really did enjoy all the research and stuff I learned by participating in the challenge.

Andrew, thanks for doing the interview and can’t wait to see what you come up with next year!

Co-host Ninja Captain Alex is the author of CassaStar and CassaFire and his blog can be found HERE

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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Downhill Slide Begins

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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