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Monday, August 29, 2016

Shooting star (quickmakeawish)

Just a new poem for your Monday Morning Meditation: "Shooting star (quickmakeawish)"



Shooting star (quickmakeawish)

—Bacil Donovan Warren

And there it goes, a shooting star,
All bright and burning fast
A comet fragment, travelled far—
And relic from the past.

One more streaks by and you point out
The flicker we watch fade,
It disappears, and then you pout;
Your gentle heart, betrayed.

I know that look, the one you wear
The gleaming in your eye,
Your broken soul is lying bare
And exposed to the sky.

You and the comet are alike
In many ways, you see:
A billion mile starlight hike
Has brought you both to me.

I stare into that dark beyond
And contemplate the two—
Two beauties, which a breaking spawned—
A light show; and, a you.



Wednesday, August 24, 2016

New poem: Perfectly Broken

As regular readers of my Cogitations are well aware, I have my hands in many pies: Novels, Memoirs, videos, audiobooks, and CloudAge™ Author things. But first, and foremost, I am a poet, and I wanted to share my latest:



Perfectly Broken

— Bacil Donovan Warren


Sitting on the lawn, at the breaking dawn,
Happy in the company we keep;
I bathe in your soul on that grassy knoll
While breathing the breath of my own.

Two people apart, but sharing one heart,
Happy in the company we keep;
As lovers we talk, as friends we will walk—
And I breathe the breath of my soul.

Not perfect we are, but know from afar—
Happy in the company we keep—
That mistakes are made, and angers mislaid:
And still will I breathe on my own.

For even if we are so meant to be
Happy in the company we keep,
Each of us now must learn how to adjust
As I keep the breath of my soul.

It comes from within, leaks out with a grin,
Happy in the company we keep;
Leave it unspoken: “perfectly broken”
As I remain true to my soul.

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Independent Audiobook Creation Episode 4: Software Toolchain

Episode 4 of my Independent Audiobook Creation series is up, and it covers the basic toolchain that I use when I am mastering my audiobook narrations. It covers the recording, editing, and filtering steps that I use (at least, for the most part), and I offer some suggestions about things the independent author narrating her or his own audiobook can do for their own situation. I am also working on posting a Episode 5 (hopefully tomorrow) that will cover some of the multi-track things that can be done, layering audio, ducking audio, and applying specialty filters.

Here is the video:



As always, comment below or on the YouTube video directly with any comments or questions!

Episode 4 almost finished!

Just a heads-up, I am almost finished with Episode 4 of my Independent Audiobook Creation series, focusing on my software toolchain. It should be posted later tonight, and I'll post it here when it's uploaded and ready to view!

Monday, August 15, 2016

Next step in the Audiobook: I promise, I'm close!

Yes, I promise you, loyal reader, that I have been working on the video covering the steps I use in my toolchain. I have had to delay longer than I'd originally anticipated because I learned several things, and had to change back and forth with my setup for recording, which affected my workflow for the editing part as well.

I will have it available in the next day or so, I promise. :)

Monday, August 8, 2016

Scrivener for iOS: The CloudAge™ Author's best friend.

As I noted a few days ago, Literature & Latte was finally able to get their outstanding writing tool Scrivener on iOS devices. As soon as I could, I purchased and downloaded it, and today set about to both edit a novel I'm working on and test out Scrivener for iOS as a tool for the CloudAge™ Author.

Since I just started using it, let me mention that as a writing tool, this all by itself is amazing. If all you use it for is to write your Great American Novel, it will work just fine for you. At $19.99, it's a little bit more expensive than some other options in that category, so if literally, all you want is a tool for writing, there are less expensive options available.

(Note: while I may describe some operations in the app right now, I will do a much more in-depth & step-by-step guide to the various uses of Scrivener for iOS in a short series of posts).

If you are using Scrivener on your desktop computer at home, however, the additional 20 bucks for the iOS version is an easy purchase, I think. The sync feature uses Dropbox, and really couldn't be much simpler. From the desktop side, save your project inside a folder on Dropbox (L&L recommends using Dropbox:Apps:Scrivener as the location, but you can use any location you'd like). Open the iOS version, and step through the opening screens. In the main interface, there are two main panes; the one on the left starts as a project view and the right side is the main editor. In the project view, click the "Edit" button, and then the Settings gearwheel that appears in the lower left. From there you can link your Dropbox and tell Scrivener which folder to use. It will sync the items it finds in that folder, whether they are Scrivener projects or not, so it is best to choose a folder where only Scrivener projects will be stored.

Once that's set up on the iOS side, you should see your projects populate the left pane. Tapping a project reveals that project's various divisions (Manuscript, Research, etc.), and drilling down into these areas allows you to open your manuscript's documents & so forth. Create a new document by clicking the "+" icon in the left pane, and giving it a title & synopsis. Type in the document until you are done, the sync with the sync icon in the top toolbar (it looks like two curved arrows). Close the app, and go to your desktop machine, and open that same project. If it does not automatically sense the changes, click the "Mobile Sync" button in the upper left of the main toolbar, and watch as it populates your project with your new changes!

So that's just a short intro to the new Scrivener for iOS, and I will be doing a series on using it for your main mobile writing tool over the next couple of weeks, as I explore more and get more comfortable with it. So, hopefully, you'll join me for that, and I'll see you in the next episode!

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Episode 3 of audiobook creation videos is up

I was able to get the next episode, Episode 3: Hardware Setup done and uploaded to YouTube.



Let me know what you think!

The next episode, Editing & Filtering, will be up in a couple of days.

That video will walk you through each of the edits that I make, and the filters that I apply, and explain why I use each one and what it's for.

Monday, August 1, 2016

Upcoming hardware video

I had intended to get the video of my hardware setup done today, but I managed to put a severe hurting on my right thigh while trying to do my exercises (the ones I hope will help me get back into some semblance of fitness), and have been extremely hobbled the last few days (if you're curious, it is a grade II strain of the Right Rectus Femoris … I knew my paramedic training would come in handy someday).

So I am still working on it but it's been slow going since I can't move very well, and am in a fair amount of pain most of the time. I promise it will be up soon, hopefully by Wednesday.