…bearing in mind that some people visit once a week….
If any of you are hesitating, go for it. It’s a little slow in this incarnation: a 4.5 meg file for the first download. In the actual site, we will have that down to 1.5 if you are after a MiniMe file (mobi, pdf, ePub only). If you are uncertain how to proceed, we will walk you through the process.
And if you have troubles downloading or extracting, let us know! That’s why we are running this trial. The mistakes are likely to be on our side of the interface, and we want to iron them out. We just spent several exchanges of e-mails getting one situation straightened out, but we are happy to do it—interfaces can be a little cranky at times, and everything we work out teaches US something about how to solve the problems. If you have any trouble whatsoever in the download, write to cj@cherryh.com and I will personally try to straighten it out.
BTW—I do hope those of you who have not actually read the prior journal are getting a chuckle or two out of it.
Thanks for the free download! I read the original journals as you wrote them, but the reread is fun. One little formatting glitch that has probably already been pointed out: Whenever a word has “date” in it, the program performs a hard return and tab indent, capitalizes the “D” and puts a colon after the “E.” For example, the sentence “Web page updates are happening.” comes out as “Web page up
Date:s are happening.”
It’s a teeny bit disconcerting. Also disconcerting is not knowing what page I am on or how many I have left to go. I imagine the first issue is pretty much exclusive to the journal and is a function of auto-format. I hope that the books will have page numbers so I know how far into it I am and how much is left to go. Otherwise, it’s fantastic and I can’t wait for the store to open!
Numbering depends on your reader, since a reader software reformats the entire file on the fly, according to the typeface you choose. Anything we would install would be meaningless. Version 1.8 of volume one is going to have that ‘date’ thing fixed, because I am going to do that this morning. You’ll notice if you use the Mobipocket Reader there’s a colored bar at the bottom of the reader screen that shows you how far you are in the text; and you can click on it to skip about the pages. The e-pub reader has some indication if you choose the ‘reader’ view instead of the wide-screen view (which to me is a real focus/tracking problem in fine print)—and you can change the print size, which of course changes the number of pages. But the typo glitches are something I can track and fix pretty well, often by global correction, once I figure what it’s doing.
I moved it from my out-of-date software to my shiny new MacBookPro with Snow Leopard. The PDF file looks great in Preview. I can see the signature page.I can hardly wait for the stuff I need to get that machine online to arrive, and the mouse (I hate trackpads) Calibre may be my first download there, and I hope one of my first shopping trips will be to Closed Circle. Next update – choosing a reader so I can carry books around.
Closed Circle is pushing me into 21st century technology; I’m usually reluctant to change something that works, but sometimes change is worth it.
My advice in picking a reader is: talk to people who have them, and choose the lightest and the most storage. With our books, of course, YOU store the backup on a dvd or someplace safe, and you can restore it if you have a glitch, but with some books you don’t get that option. I’m still content with my laptop as a reader, mostly since, as with most everybody, that 250.00 price tag is a big chunk of change and I can get by with the laptop screen, which I can use in a nice comfy chair. Note: Amazon is selling used original Kindles at 199.00.
Prices are getting competitive now with B&N & Sony giving Amazon a run for their money. I agree, a laptop is pretty and easy to read but I don’t take a computer with me when I fly. Just too much hassle; there are internet cafes everywhere and my sister’s retirement centre has free access for residents.
I have Vista but the Mobipocket installed really easily, which probably made me over-confident, so I had a minor hiccup reloading the ordinary screen after downloading Writer’s Journal. That generated more download links to my email, but once I realised what I was doing wrong I simply logged out and logged back in again to post this.
And I read it at the time, but I’m enjoying it again so thank you.
Thank you so much, and welcome in! There’s a learning curve involved, but there’s so much out there in the way of e-books…it’s going to be worth it.