Dating: it’s not hard to shine
A friend of mine recently embarked on a potential relationship journey. She has been single for eight years (as long as me!) and has carefully thought through the type of man she wants to be with, and the circumstances in which a potential relationship may blossom. She is a woman in her early thirties—fit, healthy
India is calling…
The Diane Lee Project will be quiet for a couple of weeks because I will be in India. As always though, I’ll blogging over on my travel blog, the Travelling Homebody if you’d like to follow my escapades*. I’ll probably be posting pics to Instagram and tweeting too. Keep an eye out for a post on
Love & Other Stuff has been born!
After a short incubation and a long labor*, I am pleased to announce the birth of the Love & Other Stuff series. Lauded by pundits** as being potentially one of the great non-fiction classics of our time, Part 1 – Broken Heart Stuff documents the unravelling of my relationship with the Italian, and the ensuing struggle to salvage
I wish…
This post was inspired by me saying ‘I wish…’ many times about certain things over the last week. I expanded the reach of my wish list somewhat to include other things, because, who knows? sometimes the universe genie may grant more than three wishes… I wish my daughter and I could live peacefully under the same roof… I
Pacts I’ve made with myself
Hands up all of you who have made New Year resolutions? I have in the past, but I usually don’t because I find it an exercise in futility. I mean, why wait all year to change a behaviour that needs changing, or improve your life if it needs improving? Surely if things needs to be addressed,
Life’s disappointments (Part 2)
I wrote the first part of this post back in March 2014. Thought it was about time I finished it off! My career has been an endless succession of ultimately unsatisfying jobs In the late 1980s, I left a series of bank jobs and temporary employment, and got myself university edumacated at the ripe old
Change in blogging schedule
This is just a quick note to let you know that I will still be blogging weekly, but I will be posting on Thursdays in 2015, not Wednesdays. Keep your eyes peeled for a new post tomorrow!
2014: I’m still a work in progress…
Along with sharing my WordPress stats, I have a quaint tradition (self-imposed) of doing a wrap-up of the year. You know, what I’ve learned or discovered about myself, what worked well, what I’d do differently… that sort of thing. I do this primarily to document my progress and growth, and to clarify my thinking and
2014 in review – blog stats
The lovely WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for my blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 17,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that
On Christmas memories
I used to love Christmas as a child. I loved the excitement of it all, the anticipation, the fulfillment of wishes. It was the one day of the year I felt loved and wanted and happy. Santa made sure of that, even if my mother couldn’t. Dear, kind, surrogate parent Santa. Kindness on this one
Time: not long enough…
I was at my work’s social club Christmas drinks on Friday evening just gone. It’s a fun occasion, and one that I had been looking forward to for some time, not least because of the free flow of alcohol and food: for a nominal cost, of course. It’s also an occasion to catch up with
Love & Other Stuff – an update
I wanted to give you all an update of where I’m up to with Love & Other Stuff. It’s been a fascinating project to work on and I’m glad I made the decision to go ahead with the book. I will be more or less able to stick to my revised publication time frame of February 2015, barring unforeseen circumstances, of course. It’s been relatively straightforward to convert this blog to a book, and I would urge anyone who has been blogging for a while to consider publication. It’s also been enjoyable rereading old posts (the book spans the years 2006 up to the end of 2014).
I also wanted to share with you some of my learnings, because I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t, and it might help other would-be authorpreneurs* in their quest for independent publishing status.
Scrivener
I was only a couple of weeks into the compilation when I realised Word wouldn’t cut it as writing tool. I had too much content to organise for cutting and pasting to be effective. I couldn’t easily navigate around my manuscript. I knew about Scrivener, and I had heard that other authors loved it, so I downloaded a trial copy and imported Love & Other Stuff into Scrivener. I enjoyed using it so much I ended up buying a full license.
One of the really cool things about Scrivener is that you can export a complete manuscript, fully formatted for either print or for ebooks, in a wide variety of file types. But while it’s cool, it’s also tricky, and I am working hard to master the compile function (I’ve spent lots of time on YouTube lately). I’m nearly there, and just need to fiddle around with the output a little more. Other than that, it’s an intuitive program to use and makes life as a writer much easier.