Michael wrote his first book at age 12. A 24-page masterpiece hand typed onto letter paper folded in half with a construction paper cover—hand illustrated, of course—the tome was nonetheless a bestseller in the family. By age 16 he had a taken several thousand photographs, and that collection has only grown over time. Today, being a writer, photographer, and artist are important creative outlets and the cornerstones of his marriage to his equally gifted wife.
For readers and publishers both, the EPUB format has everything one could want in a 21st century digital publication — except for one thing: Uniformity of presentation as described by the IDPF Standard. This post looks at some of the more common failings to be found in the EPUB reader ecosystem, and proposes changes that the IDPF could make to the EPUB Standard that would help it live up to its goal of being "the industry standard" for digital publications.
Today, we live in air conditioned houses or flats in concrete jungles, and travel in air conditioned cars and buses and planes. Natural disasters not withstanding, weather is usually little more than a minor irritation or point of idle conversation. It didn't use to be that way. When it was cold, it was hard to keep warm. When it was hot, there were few ways to cool down. To travel, you had to be out in the weather. Weather was a fact of life - for everybody!
Anyone can learn to be an effective writer. Colleges are full of creative writing courses turning out effective writers. A better question would be, can one learn to be an affective writer.
You know the list. You've seen it a thousand times. There's fantasy fiction, science fiction, historical fiction, crime, mystery, thriller… The list […]