Month: June 2015

How to Build a Book Cover II: Paperback

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After self-publishing my novella complete with its cover art, I was desperate to get my hands on a physical copy of The Witching Hours.  I’m a supporter of ebooks and e-readers, but there’s something to be said for holding a book in your hands; feeling its shape and taking in the tactility of it.  I published my ebook though Amazon and CreateSpace, an Amazon company, offer a print-on-demand service for self-published authors.  I’d already done the hard work – writing the book – and I couldn’t wait to have a printed copy of it too. This how to design a book cover, and its interior too.

I found CreateSpace a little less user-friendly than Kindle Direct Publishing.   Nonetheless, it’s a fairly logical process and, like KDP, it begins with the trickiest bits – confirming your tax location and account details.  Once this is complete, you can start the fun stuff.

Getting started: dashboard and setting up your title

Createspace Member Dashboard

The member dashboard is your default page, and it is here that you can add a new title. This is first step of getting your book to the printing press.  Clicking ‘Add New Title’ first prompts you to enter the basic information about your book: title, author, series…  The bits you know like the back of your hand.  I found this really exciting. It really felt like I was placing my work out there into the world of printed books.

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del Toro’s Labyrinth

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I watched Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro’s masterpiece, a couple of times when I was a teenager. I thought it was brilliant then.  But just now I watched it for the first time as proper adult, and I’ve gone from merely thinking it was great to considering it one of the best films ever.  Here’s my…  Well, less of a Pan’s Labyrinth review, more of a Pan’s Labyrinth reflection. Why I think it deserves to go down in history as one of the most important films ever made.

It treats fantasy and drama as equals

Ofelia explores a spooky shrine as the armed convoy approaches

Pan’s Labyrinth is, of course, a fantasy film. What’s more, it’s told through the eyes of a child protagonist: the imaginative Ofelia (Ivana Baquero).  But del Toro knows that the true purpose of a fairy tale is to provide a coping mechanism for the horrors and dangers of the real world. It’s not just an excuse to include unlikely creatures and CGI-heavy locations in a story.  Accordingly, he doesn’t labour over matching the fantasy and drama turn for turn. He lets both breathe as gripping stories in their own right and lets the viewer reflect on them relative to one another.

The multiple narratives constantly wrap around one another – there are no hard cuts between plot strands.  One scene shifts by panning to a tree, which pans directly onto the next scene. It’s as if both battle scene and fantasy confrontation are part of the same world.  It’s these poetic touches that soften the transition between what could have been incongruous elements.

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Bruges Amour: A Bruges Travel Guide

Liam Smith 1 Comment

Wake up.

But it’s four in the morning.

We’ve got a train to catch.

…Bruges!

Bruges is a beautiful city and one which I loved visiting. Let me take you on a tour of the city in this autobiographical Bruges Travel Guide.

All aboard the Eurostar

It’s even light on our way down to the station, despite the hour.  Spirits are high.  There’s a bit of a cock-up when we arrive in London; the underground trains are delayed and diverted.  But, having arrived on the first train of the morning, we’ve got plenty of time to get to the Eurostar at St Pancras International, and to admire the fantastic architecture of the Grand Midland Hotel. 

Not sure what to expect from the Eurostar?  It’s like catching a train at an airport.  Take your reference number and feed to the machine that spits out your ticket, and then join the queue.  Head through two sets of passport control and a metal detector then wait in the boarding lounge for your gate, I mean platform, to flash up on the monitor.  The Eurostar is like a normal train but it has a bit more leg room and you don’t have to fight for a seat.  By the time you’re leaving London’s most beautiful rail station behind you’re already hitting the kind of speeds that can cross three countries in two hours.

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