Open Source Office Software
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Computers & Technical, Writing on January 17, 2017
I’ve been looking at laptops. Until now all my writing’s been done on desktop PCs and, if I’m out and about, in notebooks and typed up later. Currently our household has two desktops, one on Windows 7 and one on Windows 8 but no tablet or other ‘on the move’ device apart from smartphones. But I like coffee shop writing and my husband fancies sitting with his feet up in the lounge when he’s on the internet, rather than at a desk upstairs – hence the decision to look at laptops.
A new Windows 10 laptop demands a new version of Microsoft Office. Microsoft are trying to move towards an annual subscription model but there is still, currently, the option of a one-off fee version, which will not get any software updates. Both of these are expensive on top of the laptop cost. So I’ve been looking into the free open source alternatives.
There are two main free open source alternatives to Microsoft Office: OpenOffice and LibreOffice. Both contain a Word equivalent and an Excel equivalent. Both can read and write in .doc and .docx formats (making them Word compatible) and have similar capabilities to Word. Both are compared to Microsoft Office in this useful article by Techsoup.
I decided to give LibreOffice a try on the Windows 8 desktop PC prior to making any laptop decisions. Downloading and installing was straightforward and the install automatically put a nice little icon on my desktop. I created a document in LibreOffice Writer and saved it as .docx and then opened it in Microsoft Word, amended it, saved it and opened it in Libre. Everything seemed totally compatible (that was one of my worries about not using the ‘proper’ Word) within the simple document that I used as my initial test.
LibreOffice Writer feels like Word but without the final ‘polish’. I haven’t tracked down how to do everything yet but I’m sure a quick question to Mr Google will get me the answers. First impressions make me think that LibreOffice Writer will do the job on our new laptop – especially since I’ll still have access to Microsoft Word on the desktop PC to give manuscripts a final once-over before submission.
Does anyone else use ‘free’ word processors?
I put ‘free’ in inverted commas because LibreOffice does encourage donations towards the software’s further development and support. I didn’t donate on download but if the software turns out to be as useful as I hope then I will return to their donation page. But first we have to make a decision on which laptop to buy…
The Famous Five are 75!
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Books, Events on January 9, 2017
Five years ago, in 2012, I wrote about Enid Blyton’s Famous Five turning 70. 
It was one of my most popular posts.
In May of this year, that gang of four children and a dog will turn 75. The anniversary of the first publication of Five on a Treasure Island is being celebrated as part of Visit England’s Year of Literary Heroes 2017.
To mark the occasion the Royal Horticultural Society is creating four ‘Five Go on a Garden Adventure’ trails, one in each of their gardens: Harlow Carr, Hyde Hall, Wisley and Rosemoor. All four gardens will also hold a picnic party on 11th August to celebrate Enid Blyton’s 120th birthday.
A series of new paperback books will be released in May to coincide with the anniversary. These have new covers, an example of one of these can be seen on the Bookseller’s website. Have a look and tell me what you think. I’m not keen but I guess today’s children wouldn’t be impressed by the ‘old-fashioned’ original covers. I much prefer the one I’ve used to illustrate this post.
However, I do fancy that picnic – especially if there’s lashings of ginger beer plus plenty of ice cream (didn’t Julian always buy an ice cream for Timmy the dog?) and then we can relax on a bed of springy heather and keep watch for the smugglers on Kirrin Island …
Mr Two Bomb by William Coles
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Books on December 31, 2016
If you read only one book in 2017 then let it be Mr Two Bomb by William Coles. I guarantee it will stay in your mind for a long time to come. 
This novel is based on the true story of one of the twelve people who survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs. Having survived the first bomb, the main character (the story is told in the first person and I don’t think he’s given a name) catches the last train back to his home, wife and child in Nagasaki and arrives 90 minutes before the next atomic bomb explodes.
There is much description of the terrible injuries and deaths inflicted by these bombs and there is no way this book can be described as ‘enjoyable’. However, if, like me, you were vaguely aware that America dropped these bombs on Japan but know little else about their impact, this book will be an education for you.
Running through the book is the question of whether the main character was blessed to have survived these two bombs or cursed to have been in the vicinity of both. This is a great example of a novel where the main character goes ‘on a journey’ and emerges as a slightly different person at the end.
Above all, I felt Mr Two Bomb was life-affirming – and I think there’s a case for it being required reading in secondary schools.
Birmingham Reader’s Map
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Events, Promotion, Resources on December 16, 2016
Last week I was invited, along with comedy writer Heide Goody and children’s author B. B. Taylor, to take part in a rally to save Sutton Coldfield library.
We collected signatures for the petition, marched through the town centre shouting ‘Save Our Library’, were interviewed by ITV for Central News (but unfortunately that got left on the cutting room floor), listened to speeches by the rally organisers and our MP Andrew Mitchell, Birmingham City Councillor Rob Pocock, Sutton Coldfield Town Councillor Ewan Mackey and eventually we stood up and said a few words ourselves in support of the library.
In between all this excitement we managed a bit of writing chat. Heide told us about the Birmingham Reader’s Map that she curates via her website. It shows the locations of novels set in and around Birmingham and Heide has kindly added Bedsit Three (set in a fictional part of north Birmingham) to the map.
If you’d like to see what other literary gems are set in the West Midlands, use the ‘+’ sign to enlarge the map below and have a hunt around. If you know of any other book that should be on the map, contact Heide and let her know.
Satan’s Shorts, a collection of short stories co-written by Heide and her writing partner, Iain Grant is FREE on Amazon. The book description is intriguing, “Curious about the day that Saint Christopher found out he’d been declared non-existent by the pope? What exactly is a cat in Hell’s chance? How would an annual Christmas present exchange between Heaven and Hell work out? Find out the answers to these and other pressing questions in this collection of short stories from the world of Clovenhoof.”
712 More Things To Write About
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Resources, Writing on December 4, 2016
I’m not good at Christmas shopping. The more I walk around looking for things to buy for other people, the more things I find to buy for myself. 
The latest was a book I found in Waterstones (and it’s also available on Amazon).
712 More Things to Write About is full of ideas to help when that well of inspiration is empty. It’s put together by the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto and is in a large paperback journal format with room to write beneath each prompt. There are things like, ‘You look out the window and discover a body floating face down in your pool’ and ‘Write a haiku about your underwear’. The prompts in this book will keep any writer going well past the end of 2017. And prompts are often just what I need!
So, I bought the book and gave it to my husband to wrap up for me. Roll on Christmas when I can get it back in my greedy mitts again!
BT Email versus Gmail
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Computers & Technical, Non-writing on November 25, 2016
Over the last few months my btinternet email account has become flooded with spam – up to 70 emails a day offering me Russian beauties, gambling facilities and endless opportunities to get a ‘free’ store gift card. The BT spam filter catches virtually none of these (but does catch stuff that isn’t spam!).
So I asked BT for help in stopping this deluge and they recommended setting up ‘rules’ to indicate what should be filtered out as spam. That was an impossible task given the ever changing email addresses, subject lines etc. used by the spammers. And it involved opening the emails which indicates an active email address and then you get sent even more!
Enough was enough and I decided to try Gmail which I’d heard had a stronger spam filter. I set it up so that all the mail from my btinternet account was automatically forwarded into Gmail.
Using Gmail over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been impressed by the following:
- The spam filter is much stronger and catches virtually all the spam forwarded on from btinternet
- The automatic separation of social media related emails and retailer promotions from the main inbox makes it easier to see at a glance if there’s anything important
- Emails related to the same conversation are kept together
I am not so impressed by Gmail’s use of ‘labels’ instead of ‘folders’. When I ‘label’ an email it remains visible with everything else in my Inbox – the BT folders completely separated such emails. Plus there appears to be no easy way of importing my BT folders into Gmail (unless anyone out there can help me?).
Conclusion? Overall, Gmail makes dealing with my Inbox easier so I’ll stick with it and keep forwarding from the old address until everyone’s been informed (and is using!) the new one.
50 Word Story Competition
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Resources, Short Story on November 12, 2016
If the 50,000 word marathon of NaNoWriMo is too much for you, have a go at this 50 word story competition organised by Just Write.
It’s free to enter and an open theme but the story must be exactly 50 words – not as easy as it sounds!
There are prizes of books and ‘literary goodies’ plus the winner will be published on tyjustwrite.com.
Closing date is 30th November 2016 and entry is by email or post.
This competition could be a useful exercise in focusing the mind and creating an elevator pitch for your NaNoWriMo work-in-progress.
Also, there was a wordpress glitch when I published my last post and I don’t think notification emails were sent out. In case you missed it, it was 200 Powerful Words to Use Instead of Good .
200 Powerful Words to Use Instead of Good
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Resources on November 3, 2016
A couple of weeks ago I re-blogged a post from Kobo Writing Life giving 128 alternatives for the word ‘very’. Today, I have 200 alternatives for the word ‘good’ – so dip in and add some zing to your writing.
The infographic below is reproduced with the kind permission of http://custom-writing.org/blog.
![200 Powerful Words to Use Instead of “Good” [Infographic]](https://i0.wp.com/custom-writing.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/custom-writing.org/2016/10/words-instead-of-good.png)
Branding a Book Series
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Authors, Books, Promotion, Self-publishing on October 27, 2016
I recently came across Anne Allen‘s wonderful Guernsey series of novels, in the form of the fifth book, Echoes of Time. It was a great read with alternating chapters set in WWII and 2010.
What particularly struck me about this series of books was the cohesive, professional branding across all the book covers.
I wondered whether Anne had started off with this brand in mind or whether it developed as she went along. This is what she told me:
Authors are often encouraged to create a ‘brand’. To be distinctive. To stand out in the crowd; never more important than now when thousands of books are added to Amazon on a daily basis. I knew nothing of this when I published my first book, ‘Dangerous Waters’, a romantic mystery/family drama set in Guernsey. Then came book two, ‘Finding Mother’, also set on the island, but there was little cohesion visually between them, although they shared characters and setting. By the time I wrote the third, ‘Guernsey Retreat’, I had realised (somewhat belatedly some might say!) that I was writing a series. The covers of the books bore little resemblance to each other, except for my name, although I had chosen a strong image of Guernsey as the background for book 3.
These are the original three covers:
Then came the enlightenment, in the form of a successful American author I met at an Indie event as part of The London Book Fair. She told me I had no brand and the genre of the books wasn’t clear. But she did like the covers, particularly the third. Sooo, it was back to the drawing board.
I decided I needed a fresh approach and engaged a cover designer who came highly recommended, Jane Dixon-Smith, who also writes books. Together we worked on producing four covers, three replacing the old ones and one for my nearly finished fourth novel, ‘The Family Divided’. I knew the backgrounds had to be of Guernsey as I now had The Guernsey Novels series. The new branding was launched in 2015 to coincide with the latest book and, boy, were they well received! Even Amazon liked them, creating a little series motif on my books page, so anyone buying one of the books could see it was part of a series, even though each book is a standalone story.
If an author isn’t writing a true series, I think it’s still important to have a cohesive look for their books, unless they write in multi genres. I’ve often noticed how the books of top-selling authors frequently receive new covers to emphasise their ‘brand’ in line with current fashion. Speaking to insiders of the Big Five publishers, I learnt huge sums are spent on cover design and redesign to keep the brands fresh; something independent authors would be unable to afford.
To find out more about the Guernsey novels, visit Anne’s website. The first book in the series, Dangerous Waters, is currently only 99p on Kindle – why not give it a try?
Smashwords Coupons
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Promotion, Self-publishing on October 18, 2016
Self-publishers who have opted out of Amazon’s KDP Select are free to distribute their e-books via other platforms, as well as Amazon.
As I’ve mentioned previously on this blog, Smashwords offers an easy way to make your e-book available through many retailers such as Apple, Barnes & Noble and the library supplier, OverDrive.
Individuals can also purchase e-books directly from Smashwords, from where they can choose to receive the e-book in a variety of formats, for example .mobi for Kindle and epub for Kobo, Nook and tablets.
In order to encourage these individual purchases, Smashwords lets authors create money-off coupons to distribute directly to selected readers (such as book reviewers, competition winners etc.) or more generally via social media. The author selects the discount percentage (up to 100%, thus making the book free), the expiry date and the number of redemptions (for example only the first 100 customers using the coupon will get the discount). Smashwords then generates a discount code for the author to distribute as he chooses.
I’ve been playing around with the Smashwords Coupon Manager and have created a 50% off coupon code VZ95D for Bedsit Three. It’s valid until 31/10/2016 or for the first 50 people – whichever comes soonest.
So, if you’re fed up of Amazon’s supremacy, try buying your Kindle e-book from Smashwords and save some money too!
Sally Jenkins 