Oolite Bulletins

Folks,

Woke up this morning with the idea of combining all my Oolite short stories into a single download for the convenience of readers and then also providing an epub (Ebook) version. I'm getting an increasing number of requests for Ereaders nowadays.

Then I thought, hang on, why not include all the current short stories into an Anthology, perhaps with a little bit of comment (like the sci-fi collections of old) and then publish that?

Rather like SQ and M we could have a cover competition for the collection, and I'll be more than happy to take on formatting duties so everything looks the same. We'd also be able to offer the resultant book as a hardcopy for those who would like it. It would all be covers by the usual Creative Commons licensing (not commercial, not for resale etc)

Reckon we could have that done for Christmas?

Any takers? If you're a writer with a story on here or on the wiki - let me know if you're up for this and I'll set the wheels in motion. Reply below with a link to your story.

All the best,

Cheers,

Drew.

I'm up for it.

Will I get my other two stories written in time to be included - that's the big question!

Nice idea though Drew!

drew wrote:

Reckon we could have that done for Christmas?

Oooh, a publisher’s deadline… that should concentrate a fictioneer’s mind, somewhat.

<throws his sombrero into the ring>

Happy to be included! Links are:

Calliope (assuming this isn't too long – I think it's about 15,000 words)

and

Local Midnight in the Vacuum Bar.

How are you planning to set them? PDF for download/print/hard copy and ePub for e-readers? I have InDesign so if you want a hand with the typesetting I'm happy to pitch in.

To get the finished article available by Christmas, you'll need to set a deadline somewhat before then to allow for setting and proofreading. Speaking with my publisher's hat on I'd suggest the end of October at the very latest as the deadline for finished (i.e. completed, over, done-and-dusted, edited, proofread and signed-off-on, no more changes, no, absolutely not, drop it, drop it I say ) submissions.

Yes - End of October deadline for submissions makes sense! All existing content can be linked in this thread and new stuff must be finished by end of October (looking at DaddyHoggy here!)

PDF / Epub sounds best for format. InDesign sounds intriguing. I was going to just use OpenOffice. What can InDesign do?

We'll kick off a coverpage comp in parallel. Any one volunteering to write a little intro to each story? (I would do it, but I'm submitting material)

Cheers,

Drew.

drew wrote:

PDF / Epub sounds best for format. InDesign sounds intriguing. I was going to just use OpenOffice. What can InDesign do?

InDesign is Adobe's typesetting software. It has a lot of refinements available in handling text: for example you can adjust the tracking and kerning, or rob lines from the bottom of pages, to avoid widows and orphans, stacking, unfortunate hyphenation (e.g. where a word like "legend" becomes "leg-end") and other typesetting problems. Things like running heads can be managed easily, too, which might be useful in a multi-author anthology!

I'm game, throwing Negotiations of failure into the mix.

Disembodied wrote:

drew wrote:

PDF / Epub sounds best for format. InDesign sounds intriguing. I was going to just use OpenOffice. What can InDesign do?

InDesign is Adobe's typesetting software. It has a lot of refinements available in handling text: for example you can adjust the tracking and kerning, or rob lines from the bottom of pages, to avoid widows and orphans, stacking, unfortunate hyphenation (e.g. where a word like "legend" becomes "leg-end") and other typesetting problems. Things like running heads can be managed easily, too, which might be useful in a multi-author anthology!

What about TeX? Does all these and more.

And it's free. And there are probably macro sets for short story compilations around as well.

Commander McLane wrote:

What about TeX? Does all these and more.

And it's free. And there are probably macro sets for short story compilations around as well.

Maybe, but I know how to use InDesign and I don't know how to use TeX ... it's a very powerful typesetting package (especially if you're producing a mathematical or scientific document), but – like all specialist software – it'll take a while to learn to use. A lot longer than InDesign, since there's the whole typing in markup commands, instead of good ol' idiot-friendly WYSIWYG. Anyway, InDesign is free too – if your work buys it and it comes with a free home license.

Ok, so far we've got:

Schism
Nine
Ascension
Replay
DaddyHoggy #1 (Working title - Bated Breath)
DaddyHoggy #2 (Working title - Why are we waiting?)
Calliope
Local Midnight in the Vacuum Bar
Negotiations of Failure

Other possibles?

Anyone in contact with Dylan Smith? - the Virtuous Misfortune was the first piece of Oolite Fanfic after all. Hardly seems right to ignore that.

How about Clym Angus and PA Groove, not forgetting Coyote and Rise of the Kirin...

Cheers,

Drew.

Snake Charming and, if it's not too long, Lazarus.

If c20,000 words is not too long, Coyote.pdf is here.

Another tale is nearly completed… maybe another couple of weeks or so… link to follow when done.

drew wrote:

Anyone in contact with Dylan Smith? - the Virtuous Misfortune was the first piece of Oolite Fanfic after all. Hardly seems right to ignore that.

Well, you can PM him. Although people who want Wiki accounts sometimes complain that it may take a little while for him to answer.

You can include ROTK if you want, though it's a stand on it's own novella and too massive to be called a short.

hey, it bulks things out some what. I would think of something but I'm a touch busy at the moment with R.L. That said now I've been paid I do hope to fix the horrendous 404 problems with my site fix the minor map errors and get back on top of the armour issue. Don't worry I'll stop being crap and get my ass in gear.

Love the new avatar by the way Mr W