Updates On A Few Things I’m Working On!

Lately I have been busily working on a number of book projects.  A few of these have bumped into obstacles, and a few of these have had some  exciting break-throughs!

Here’s the latest…

Bagpipe Sheet Music & Tune History Book

As many of you know I am producing a bagpipe sheet music book. This will serve as a fundraiser item for a veteran’s organization I am a member of along with being the music collection for our small pipe band.  The project features military and patriotic Highland bagpipe sheet music and the history behind the tunes.  The work is going well and I am optimistic about publishing this June.

2 New Things About This Book…

To increase the page count I am planning to include some Scottish and Irish recipes.  While I’m already familiar with a few of these, others have required some experimenting. Getting to try new things in the kitchen has been a culinary joy for me!  As for the book … the inclusion of Celtic recipes is great because it furthers the cultural education element of the organization!

One section of this book draws on the music played Bill Millin during the WWII D-Day Invasion.  Private Millin played a unique role in D-Day history; I am writing both further his story and to express the significance of this section in the book.  Over the past few days I have connected with his son and grandson online.  Both gentlemen are accomplished bagpipers and they are generously willing to check the accuracy of my writing*. As a Highland bagpiper it is an absolute honor to be writing about the famous D-Day piper — getting to connect with his son and grandson makes it just that much more real.
(*the facts — not the grammar, spelling, etc)

My Recipe E-Book on Smashwords & Etc

I’ve been working to get my e-book — already published on Amazon — additionally published on Smashwords.  Smashwords is interesting in-that they will publish an author’s e-book not only on their site but on that of other e-book companies — Barns & Nobel, Kobo, etc.

For this to take place, Smashwords is quite particular as to how an e-manuscript is formatted. Frankly, I prefer to learn how to do things and do them myself, however right now I have Way Too Much To Do … so I’m looking for the services offered by one of the folks on Fiverr.  My preference at this time is to move this project along and do-so at a price my little baking-biz can afford.

A few nights ago I looked at the Smashword instructions anyway.  I quickly sorted out how to re-format the pictures in my e-book.  That alone shrunk the size of my manuscript file down to half of the Smashword’s maximum! I’m checking with a number of Fiverr folks and waiting for them to get back to me about taking this on.  With all the font characteristics in a recipe book, they tend to take more work than novels … so fingers-crossed that I’ll gain their support.

THE ADDITIONAL GOOD NEWS ABOUT THIS IS …

Once I have my manuscript back from whomever re-formats it for me I should be able to post that on Smashwords — obviously — and also copy that MSWord doc and re-work it into the free little recipe e-book I nearly had completed and published lately.  So, while I’ve had to restart this little free e-book project having already completed it …

… Things Are Moving Right Along!

Gotta go ~ Keep an eye here along with my Facebook and Twitter profiles for announcements ~ Don