Watching Star Wars When it First Came Out

I want to talk to you about Star Wars, and not just any Star Wars. The very first Star Wars that ever got made and played in the Theaters. When I was a kid I was able to watch the movie when the excitement level was unbelievable, and before any of the other movies came out. Here is my remembered experience of watching it:

Yes, this channel only has the one video and my book advertisement. My hope is to find the time to produce more and better material. Its a work in progress and experiment. Introducing My Sci-Fi Self found HERE

My literary Channel NDM English

New Youtube Video for the Novel

It has been about 8 years since the "Icarus Falling" book was first independently published. I made a small Youtube video to advertise it, and I put in a lot of work. Even from the time it was put up there was a dated feel. Recently I spent a day gathering video clips for a brand new one. Some of the clips I got from generic videos and others from the Pixabay public domain site.

Here is the NEW video advertisement I did just to have fun:

Compare that to the original (a little too long at the end):

A slight SPOILER ALERT:
This is the first of an intended video for converting my science fiction blogging into vlogging.
For more info and to keep up with what is going on, click here: https://tinyurl.com/yyayq478

First Man Flag Controversy in Context

A movie “First Man” about Niel Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the Moon, has created controversy on how the planting of the United States flag is kept out. When Apollo 11 landed on the Moon on July 16, 1969, the American astronauts stuck a flag next to where they had landed. Five other U.S. flags representing Apollo missions 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 were also erected. The Apollo mission 13 famously failed to land because of malfunctions. For some not adding the flag planting seems to be an anti-American pass. Regardless how a person feels about Hollywood, love them or hate them, the history is more nuanced than patriotism.

That is not to say that patriotism doesn’t play a role. Landing on the Moon was considered the ultimate prize in what is called the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Both considered it bragging rights on their way to winning the world’s respect. Two ideologies had fought for influence over twenty years before the landing and would do the same over twenty years after. The race started in 1945 soon after WWII and the defeat of Germany. The Americans and the Russians wanted Nazi cooperating scientists as prizes to contribute to their own scientific advances.

Among the German Nazi specialties was rocket science with the deadly V2 ballistic missile near the end of the war causing havoc in England. At the end of the war the United States and the Soviet Union raced to find rocket plans and experts to capture for further development. The Americans won the prize of capturing leading scientist Wernher von Braun who it is said specifically sought them out. The Russians didn’t leave empty handed, although capturing lesser named individuals. The Russians had their own fellow Soviet patriot Sergei Korolev, knowing covertly as “The Chief Designer,” to lead the race to space. From the beginning going to space could be considered a German-American and German-Russian (after the scientists rejected the Nazi party affiliation) collaboration.

It must be noted that the Soviet Union had no intention of proclaiming they went into space or would be going to the Moon as a “all mankind” achievement. They did it for the ideals of Communism and on behalf of the Soviet Union. The American’s themselves, to also be fair, at first did it for the ideals of Capitalism on behalf of the United States. Causing Americans great concern, the Soviet Union launched the first successful satellite to orbit the Earth Oct. 4, 1957 with Sputnik 1 and the first man to orbit Earth April 12, 1961 with Yuri Gagarin. In response after each Soviet success the United States did the same, with Allan Shepard the first American in Space.

What "Twin Peaks" Did and Didn't Do

Twin Peaks: Collection [Blu-ray]
Describing the classic television series "Twin Peaks" is a challenge. There is no one way to explain what it was about, sometimes because it didn't know itself. Half way through the series there was a dramatic reveal that many consider a disastrous decision. The network pushed the show's writers and creators to disclose a major plot. By resolving a major plot point, the purpose for the series' existence was destroyed.  Loyal fans continued to watch by grasping hold of other underlying elements. The remaining viewers jumped ship and it couldn't recover enough. Even if the show gave into the network demands, the opportunities for a creative reinvention existed; but were squandered. What worked kept it forever in pop-culture consciousness. What they missed developing could have saved it from ignoble failure.

The show starts out with the discovery of a murdered girl. The whole town grieves because she was well known and loved. An eccentric FBI agent named Cooper arrives to try and solve the case.  He discovers, along with the audience, the peculiarities of residence in this sleepy Washington lumber town. Each character has quirks and flaws that set them apart from the normal cast of television programming. To put it another way, the whole town is a psychological mess even without the discovery of Laura Palmer's body. And it works brilliantly to create both tragic and comic moments at the same time. The viewer is left to decide if they want to laugh or cry. And it only got better from there until it didn't.

Mulder's Many Fathers

In anticipation of the upcoming revival of The X-Files starting soon, an article I wrote years ago will be reprinted here. During the height of the show, when the Internet was still mostly a work in progress, I participated on an early message board,   One of my lengthy comments garnered some interest from an amateur fan magazine. They asked if they could publish my thoughts and I gave them permission. The only pay was receiving a copy of the magazine, where I was happy to just see my words in print. The Canadian  fan magazine Jigsaw stopped publishing many years ago. Here is the first of two articles of mine they published. A few clarifying  and updated changes have been made.

From the beginning, Fox Mulder has had an informant helping him. Deep Throat was first introduced in the second episode (which is named after him). The role of informant has been filled by someone ever since.  All of them have one thing in common; They seem to represent a commanding force that shapes who Mulder becomes as an investigator. Other informants are shades of what Deep Throat started out as.  At least one of these characters actually transforms into Fox's real father. It is because of this role of influence that I consider them fathers to Mulder.

Deep Throat was a reasonably friendly gentleman to Mulder who directed him to follow on information quests. He was a favorite informant among many X-Files fans. His approach to Mulder was not rushed like most of the other informants. When he was rushed, it was only to keep the truth from disappearing, and not for his own safety. His clues to Mulder -- and the viewer --  became an incentive for him to continue on his investigations. When Mulder was on the  brink of giving up on a case, Deep Throat showed up to usher him to continue.

My Obsession with X-Files Described

The X-Files: Complete Series Collector's Set + The Event Bundle [Blu-ray]
Next year is an exciting time for X-Files fans, because a short special season will be broadcast. Believe it or not the last movie, much less episode, was released seven years ago. The series ended six years before that with a successful theatrical movie stuck in the middle of the long running phenomenon. You might think that someone who is as obsessed by the show as myself was hooked by the premier of the first episode, but that would be a wrong impression. It was a long and eventful set of roads I traveled before becoming fully emerged in the strange, exciting, and sometimes gruesome spectacle. The first few episodes I did see weren't even enough to make me more than curious. I will set out to describe the formation of my passion in anticipation of the upcoming mini-series. This blog post will be context for my interest and a way to perhaps get to know a little more about me.

Like I said, when the first episode of the X-Files premiered it didn't drag me into the series. As a matter of fact I didn't even see the show when it first aired. What I did see were two advertisements for new Fox Television productions that included a western comedy The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. staring Bruce Campbell. That one I did watch the first episode and was slightly amused. I remember it as getting billed as the next big thing. That little paranormal show was a curious filler. One of the reasons for not turning on the tube was because my college days had just started and other things were much more important. Unlike my teenage years, television was not a priority with all the new experiences and responsibilities. My major television obsession at the time was Star Trek in all its versions, even though that was not a constant.

Before I became a huge fan, I caught three episodes late at night in syndication on other channels. The first was Excelsis Dei about an old folks home haunted by a mysterious ghost attacker. For some reason I was all alone at my home when I saw it at midnight. By the end I had made sure that the doors were locked and windows extra tightly covered. The next one at another time was The Host about a monster in the sewers that I thought was silly and perhaps turned me off a bit from wanting more. Yet another night was the Anasazi, the first of a three part episode that finally piqued my interests, but made me confused enough not to pursue any others.

Godzilla and Other Monsters

Modern giant monster movies are difficult to make because they have to be both believable and show a spectacle. They are expensive to produce and therefore require blockbuster status at the theaters. It isn't like the golden age where special effects were not expected to look real to enjoy. Some masters of the art didn't need more than clay, lots of time, and patience.

Even when the golden age of monsters in the 50s and 60s was long over, television for a short time gave new life to old celluloid. Late at night or noon after cartoons the giant terrors once again lived. The best of them included insects like a giant tarantula, a flying mantis, and them ants. Forget that no exoskeletal creatures could physically exist. There they were in the theater or on television larger than life and haunting a young kid's imagination. Two of the biggest stars were King Kong and Godzilla. Only once were they together, and that was a disastrous Japanese B movie with more laughs than wonder; no matter what age the viewer.

In later years the giant monsters fell out of favor to be replaced by dinosaurs. The same problems of production values and unbelievability hung on them, but without the supportive audience. It was fine that giant monsters or even insects didn't look real on the screen because they never did exist. Dinosaurs, on the other hand, had proof of their reality. It didn't matter how extinct, they were not lizards with plastered on prosthetics or actors in suites. A few movies with them were made and then died out just as quick.

Late 70s and mid 80s tried to bring back the Great King Kong with limited success. The stories were updated, but movie magic remained questionable. Actors in monster suites had become a joke and stop motion picture animatronics didn't change much either. It seemed that the giant monsters had finally died off in Hollywood.

Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World, etc.

During the time when Leonard Nimoy's series telecast, Arthur C. Clarke started another show that investigated the unknown and paranormal. The first of three seasons was called Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World, debuting in 1980 and hosted by the famous author. A sizable portion of the narration was done by Gordon Honeycombe, with Yorkshire Television and ITV network producing. The Mysterious World 13 episodes ran through the year from September to November, covering a wide range of strange topics.

"Mysteries from the files of Arthur C. Clarke, scientist writer and visionary. The scientist who invented the communications satellite and the writer of 2010, and now in retreat in Sri Lanka; the visionary who ponders riddles of this and other worlds." Each week a similar introduction was attached to a title sequence that included the mysterious iconic glass skull. The author then pontificated about what the episode will discuss, and again ended with him pondering solutions to the mysteries presented.

Best of Paranormal TV: In Search Of . . .

One of the longest running paranormal  based series, In Search Of . . . explores both the unexplained and the mysterious. Unlike the previous television show from the previous post, this one researches history, science, and much more. It started out as hour long specials narrated by Rod Sterling. When it switched to a series format, Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek fame took over after Sterling's death. The show was cut back to a half hour time slot. Despite the shortening of the time, it lasted six long seasons from 1976 to 1982. There was a very short revival in 2002 with Mitch Pileggi of The X-Files fame that covered some of the same territory. All later paranormal investigation shows owe a debt to the original In Search Of . . . because a lot of the same format continued in other investigative broadcasts.

The beginning credits were the same on each episode, warning, "This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily the only ones, to the mysteries we will examine." In this way the presentation wouldn't be seen as absolute and scientific fact. Viewers could make up their own minds how truthful and accurate each mystery might be to reality.

Best of Paranormal TV: One Step Beyond

I will be doing a short  history on  a sort of reality television, if you can call it that, featuring the best paranormal shows. Narratives are included, but not exclusively fiction. They claim based on true accounts and exploring the unknown or strange.

Unless pointed out differently, the first major television show that explored the paranormal was "One Step Beyond," featuring a half hour docudrama. Each of them had an introduction by John Newland who told the back story similar to "The Twilight Zone" fictional series. A few eventually famous actors such as Elizabeth Montgomery, Charles Bronson, Robert Blake, Christopher Lee, and Warren Beatty appeared as people involved in the mysterious events.

Most of the topics are based off psychic events or ghost stories. The first episode, "The Bride Possessed," is about what the title hints at. The newlywed bride begins to recognize features of a place she has never been and then has a personality change, denying ever knowing the man she married. Another well known episode is the rather cool name of "The Dead Part of the House," where a young woman becomes friends with ghosts, possibly in connection with some dolls. These represent the bulk of the story lines, where someone isn't who they appear to be or have premonition of things they never before had contact with. There isn't really any investigations. The show mostly tells stories in a dramatic recreation.

More Things in Heaven and Earth

Before taking a trip down roads of the unexplained, I wanted to write about my beliefs when talking about the paranormal. Sure, religion can be put in this category, but I don't see them in the same light. One is more private and of a serious contemplation. The other that this blog deals with is fun flights of imagining the possible. If true they wouldn't completely change my world view, although make this world far more interesting.

It began at a very young age, although how early is hard to say. Science fiction from Star Trek to Star Wars is part of my family heritage. How that can tie into the more fantastical shouldn't be hard to connect the dots. Assuming that aliens, time warps, and parallel universes can exist, then certainly visitors from space, Bigfoot, and secret government conspiracies aren't out of the question. It is in the questions that the mundane takes on the mystical. Religion may answer the spiritual why, but why not holds its own fascination. As Hamlet said, "And therefore as a stranger give it welcome./ There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,/ Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Come with me to the very edge of reality.

A Few of My Friends

There are a few friends and family that I would like to introduce who are themselves creative people. One of them started a web site to bring us all together. Please visit The Creativs and see what each has to offer, or what they are doing. The Creativs are a group of young, talented individuals who care to share their talents with others. Among the group we have:

Kayce  who makes custom, hand stamped jewelry, some of which benefit charity.

Your truely N.D. Melander who likes to write and is currently working on some short stories. More about that later.

Holden Melander wanting to write and some day publish a top selling fantasy novel.

Nolan Melander, a person you'll just have to click on his link in the web site for more informaiton.

  

Theresa has been writing since the fourth grade. She published the horror novel Moon Lit Night that can be ordered on the web site link.

If you haven't done so yet, buy Icarus Falling for your reading pleasure. After that check out the other fine artists and authors.

Discovery Dinosaurs: Fiction more than Fact

Growing up I have always been fascinated by dinosaurs, the big lumbering creatures from Earth's past. They hold a mystery and excitement that enthralls young boy's imaginations. I have never given up my interest in them. Any chance to learn about or watch a show that contains them is almost never missed. Perhaps in a strange way they were my first foray into the world of science fiction since we know so little about them and yet so much has been said. What they were really like even after years of progress in studies of their remains is still mostly speculation. Because of the relatively blank slate, the Discovery Channel has taken speculation of dinosaurs to a whole new level. The line between science fiction and science fact in not blurred, but completely imbalanced with the fiction side taking most of the space.

This drift from presenting research and doing more dramatic presentations has been going on for years. It all started with the documentary Walking With Dinosaurs where scientists presented the latest discoveries, and artists and film makers imagined them visually. This inspired more shows of a similar style, but a smaller amount of science was presented to the audience. The most recent incarnation almost does away with any scientific evidence.

Science Fiction Music Videos

Came across a video from one of my favorite bands and noticed a science fiction theme. Decided to check out other music videos that I like that have some kind of space or alien theme. Here are the ones I picked to listen to and watch:

Order Icarus Falling Today! Official Copy.

Finally, the wait is over for "Icarus Falling" to purchase. Click on the book cover link on the right to order at Lulu the Parking Orbit Publishing product. Get it now and tell your family and friends who would be interested in some adventure reading. Don't forget to request a copy for your local library.

It can also be ordered as an e-book in a PDF format to be downloaded to your computer. This can be read in Adobe Acrobat, or transferred to an e-book reader that supports PDF files like the Kindle DX. Changes have made it more reader friendly.

After ordering, drop on by again to share your thoughts on the book or subjects relating to it's story. Maybe there are questions you have that you would like answered in a sequel. Perhaps your into the unknown and paranormal and have some stories or theories to share. Whatever your reason, come back for good conversation.

Good reading to you!

Icarus Falling Editing update

We have finished the final edit (fingers crossed) of Icarus Falling. The final proof arrived from the printer today and it looks good. The Kindle version of the book is finalized. Once the Kindle version is released by Amazon, we will provide the links to buy either the print or Kindle version. Stay tuned, it won't be much longer!

I'll write up a tutorial on how to prep your book for the Kindle using open source software as soon as I get the chance.

Editing update

We are now about half through our editing and preparation to release the Kindle version. We hope to release both the print and kindle version simultaneously. Thank you to the Ubuntu community for recommending some LaTex (text processing) software. I've downloaded Lyx Document Processor and will probably pull the book into that once we have finished reading the book for the millionth time. I'm hoping we can get a nicely formated Kindle version ready for testing in a few more weeks. Stay tuned.

Preview of First Chapter

I want to thank those who made comments on the blog about the production process. As a thank you I present part of the first chapter in anticipation of Icarus Falling release. Enjoy, and don't forget to get the book when it comes out to read the whole story:

Chapter One:
Long Journey From Orbit

A burst of light raced past the jet as the pilot watched with amazement. He had never seen anything like it in his life. Over the radio he said, “I have the bogey at my one o-clock. Following in pursuit.”

"Stay at a distance and do not engage,” said the officer in charge at the ground command center, Colonel MacKay who lived for moments like this, chasing after the unknown in hopes of advancing military technology. Colleagues thought he was strange, but he quickly advanced in rank and position. Black operations saw potential and hired him for more restricted missions. Today the mission included chasing unidentified flying objects detected nearby an airbase.

“Man, that bogey is fast,” the pilot reported back. “I’ll do my best to keep up and continue tracking.”

Colonel MacKay checked in with his ground radar operator, “Where is the bogey located at this moment?”

“Twenty miles from our staging position.”

“Good, this might just work. Keep me posted on the tracking updates. We don’t want to lose this one.”

“Yes sir,” the radar operator said, keeping close attention to the blips on his screen.

The relatively small alien craft looked like a bright star or airborne searchlight. It was slightly larger than a jet pilot’s cockpit and continually changed illumination patterns of blinking white, red, blue, and green. Other similar lights were seen earlier in the sky, but had long since raced away. Fully armed jets targeted for attention this single craft like a pack of carnivorous hunters picking out prey.

Within ten minutes time the small craft had already changed course three times. It became difficult to continue keeping up with the twists and speed increases. Air Force pilots had a hard time staying in position. Surprisingly, the craft didn’t leave them alone in the sky to contemplate what they witnessed. It was waiting for something.

“Sir,” the radio operator said to Colonel MacKay, “I’m getting another bogey from outside the target area. This one looks much larger.”

“How large?”

“Perhaps, a quarter of a mile long,” the radar operator couldn’t believe what he picked up. “This is huge.”

“I don’t care about the larger contact,” Colonel MacKay said, leaning in to get a closer look at the radar signature. “It is too big to take down.”

The radar operator warned, “The smaller one is closing in on it. Could be a docking ship.”

Colonel MacKay picked up the radio, “All pilots, keep the bogey in target zone. Do not let it escape.”

A flurry of acknowledgments sounded back. Two strings of jets roared over the skies to head off the small craft. They set up a virtual wall between it and the larger craft, keeping it from escaping. Despite all advantages the smaller craft had, it didn’t reach beyond the staging area.

Seeming to recognize the trap that was set, the smaller craft completely turned around. It darted toward a higher elevation to get out of the way of oncoming F-22 Raptors. In the process of turning and climbing, the small craft hit a jet that flew above trajectory.

The pilot of the craft exclaimed in distress, “Mayday, mayday. The bogey hit my plane. Repeat, the bogey hit my plane.” Warning sirens erupted inside the cockpit, making it hard to hear any response to his cry for help. “It clipped my left wing. There is a loss of maneuverability. Going down. Going down.” Reaching forward, he grabbed onto the ejection handle and pulled hard, “Ejecting!” The cockpit window blew out and his seat shot high into the night air. A parachute tripped opened with a violent thrust, letting the pilot slowly drift to the ground.

The jet was less fortunate. It plummeted to the ground in a huge fireball that brightened the general area of its crash. Smoke billowed up and marked its last position. Rescue personnel immediately scrambled to retrieve the pilot and clean up the broken mess.

Noticing the commotion from the downed jet, Colonel MacKay asked over the radio, “Do we still have the bogey?”

A pilot still in pursuit responded, “Command, we still have the bogey in sight. Climbing elevation to match its location.”

Colonel MacKay gave out a sigh of relief having felt certain the small craft escaped the trap. He looked at the radar for any confirmation it was still within the strike zone. The radar operator pointed out the green blip showing where it was in relation to Air Force formations. They were closing in and keeping it from meeting up with the larger craft.

On the ground were air-to-air missile teams ready for their part in the operation. Col. MacKay checked with them, “Strike Zone One, Bogey is nearing your position. Watch for it and set guidance systems to lock-on. ETA in less than five minutes. Air Group is setting priorities.”

“This is Strike Zone One,” said a crackling voice over the radio, “Our radar confirms target. Initiating triangulation coordinates.”

“Launch with positive lock on bogey.”

“Positive lock ranges inconsistent. Can’t let loose with negative.”

Colonel MacKay wasn’t worried about getting a direct hit. It had to be close enough to cause damage. Complete destruction negated the purpose of the mission. “Permission for launch set at best guess.”

“Permission for best guess lock-launch noted Sir,” a switch soldier said. “Do we have at will?”

There was no answer at first. Colonel MacKay checked information on his own radar. The small alien craft represented by a green tint moved swiftly across the screen. Other blips representing Air Force craft looked comparatively sluggish. The unidentified craft made rings around them.

“Strike Zone One ground launch asking again for attack permission.”

Colonel MacKay hesitated to answer back, but the small craft eventually entered the intended parameters. “Launch at will and best guess.”

“At will acknowledged, Command.” The small craft continued to make elaborate changes in direction, elevation, and speed. Launch control wasn’t sure if they could get any useful lock on the target. Still, they had a mission to perform. The minimum accessible lock was found and the missiles engaged. Grey trails of smoke lifted up behind tiny yellow fireballs. At first it looked like the missiles might actually hit the erratic object, but at the last second it veered too quickly off course. Explosions could be seen and heard for miles as missiles detonated.

“Did we get it?” Colonel MacKay asked with excitement.

“Negative,” answered ground and air attendant.

Colonel MacKay checked the radar to reorient where the small craft might have gone. He saw the blips indicating Air Force positions, but there seemed to be no sign of the pursuit subject. It was as if the craft had gone invisible.

The radar operator noticed the concerned look on Colonel MacKay’s face. He searched the radar frantically for any sign of the small craft, but didn’t see it. “Sorry Colonel. Nothing on radar. It seems to have left our range of influence.”

“The larger craft? Has that left as well?”

“Sorry,” the radar operator said, continuing to scan the screen, “both of them . . . vanished.” He couldn’t think of a better word to use.

“They must have been toying with us. Maybe they were testing our resolve and capabilities. No matter, we were doing the same.” Colonel MacKay took one last look at the radar screen for any hope. There wasn’t any forthcoming, “Carry on and keep me informed of any new contacts.” He left for his office to write up a report. The immediate mission failed, although valuable information was acquired.

Writing in an open source world

The story of how Icarus Falling is being written and published is almost as interesting as the book itself - that is if you are nerdy kind of writing geek. The book was originally written in MS Word 97. Over the last several years, our computers have been upgraded a few times and my wife migrated permanently to Linux, Ubuntu specifically.

Most self-publishing books describe the process of publishing by utilizing various commercial software packages - MS Office and Adobe InDesign. You may also need Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. And don't forget Adobe Acrobat Pro for PDF creation. These are the packages that print house and publishing firms work with and they want your manuscript done exactly the same way.

BUT, those software packages are very expensive and big, far too much for most of what we needed. And thus we entered the world of open source software. Many software packages have matured and are competitive with their proprietary counterparts. Icarus Falling was prepared almost entirely with open source software.

Open Office
The manuscript had to migrate to a more up-to-date word processor and Open Office was it. When we tried to copy and paste or import from Word 97, funny things happened during the transition. We also keep the books with the spreadsheet Calc.

Scribus
This package is similar to Adobe InDesign, QuarkXpress or PageMaker (of yesteryear). This program let us create the layout and look of the interior pages and the cover. We used the stable release which still has some bugs, but worked pretty well. The development releases look pretty spiffy and my wife can't wait for them to be released as stable.

One word of warning about Scribus. It will choke on large files, some kind of memory problem. IOW, we couldn't lay out the whole book in one file. We had to break up each chapter into it's own file. Each chapter was then exported as a PDF. Printers require that your book exist as one large PDF. For that you will need a different utility.

Gimp
This is the open source version of Photoshop. It does nearly everything that Photoshop does except for one important thing. Gimp doesn't have the ability to save your image with a CMYK color profile (I think the developers are working on it). Printers require CMYK in order to print color images. We managed a workaround for one printer. We did the image editing and tweaking in Gimp then pulled the image into Scribus, which was later exported as a PDF. This seemed to work pretty well. The second printer we tried didn't like it. Another possible work around is to custom make the colors in Scribus to compensate, but we still need to play around with this.

Inkscape
We used Inkscape to design and draw the logo of our publishing company and imprint, Parking Orbit Publishing.

PDF Shuffler
This is a smart, little utility that allowed us to pull all of our separate PDF's into one PDF file. If we go back and edit one chapter, we can open this up and replace just the pages we need.

We still have the book trailer to produce and the e-book. Again e-book tutorials show how to prepare your book using proprietary sources. We are working through the process now with open source and perhaps we will create a tutorial when we're done. In any event Amazon makes the process look very simple and it isn't really. At least if you want something that looks good and is easy to read.

And all of this was done on an Ubuntu desktop.

Temporary Delay For Improvements

Some changes are coming for the novel from when it was first put up for purchase. Because of unforeseen circumstances the release date has been temporarily postponed. This is to give a chance to improve on the customer satisfaction in the ordering processes. Changes will include how the product can be obtained, an easier check out process, and improvement to the text for an even better reading experience. An online book trailer and added online content is also in the works.

Many thanks are given to those who have shown interest in the project. Don't worry, you will still have the opportunity to get the book before the rush of the holiday season. please post any questions you might have or if you still want to order a pre-release copy.

Thank you for your patience. It will be well worth the wait.