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#HistFicThursday - Gothic Horror - The Clockmaker

One of the shortest stories included in my upcoming anthology was written for an Edgar Allan Poe competition in 2021, in which my work came Runner-Up, and is titled The Clockmaker . Edgar Allan Poe is most famous for his works of Gothic Horror, but it is easy to forget that he also dabbled in Science Fiction, as did many of his Gothic contemporaries. Indeed, a quick Google search has informed me that there are anthologies which solely contain his Science Fiction. The Clockmaker was designed to marry these Horror and SciFi elements to create the sort of story which Poe himself might have written. I won’t deny it: I was pleased with the outcome.  At only 500 words, it tells the story of a man who pays a visit to an old schoolfriend (you will realise, if you read much of my Gothic Horror, that old school/university friends play vital roles!) who is an inventor, and spends some time admiring a clock which he has made. I won’t spoil by telling you the ending, but I will say that he does...

NaNoWriMo Day 27 - Formatting

Wednesday 27th November - Formatting

We're getting to the end of NaNoWriMo now. I'm just about on track to complete the 50 000 words by the end of Saturday, but it's been a real trial.

I start so many things that I give up on, so I am thrilled that I have stuck with NaNoWriMo in my very first year of doing it. I think part of the reason is my sister who completed her word count earlier on in the month. She's been very supportive, but also...I just don't want her to beat me!

So, when you've actually finished your book...in fact, when you've finished editing and redrafting, and then editing, and proofreading, and then editing your book, you have to start thinking about putting it out there in book form.

For the sake of this blog, I have concentrated on formatting ebooks.

Now, there's no reason to reinvent the wheel. There are programmes out there which help you format your ebook manuscript, and the best one I've found is Calibre.

Available here, this free programme allows you to change your word file into epub, mobi, or whatever other ebook format you can think of. It's really very simple:

Step 1: Download and open Calibre on your computer


Step 2: Click on "add books" in the top left hand corner.


Step 3: Choose a story from your computer to convert into ebook format


Your file should appear at the top of the list.


Step 4: Click on "Edit Metadata" in the top toolbar.


Step 5: Fill in the appropriate boxes, and choose a cover file from your computer, if you like. The more metadata you fill in, the better.


Step 6: Click on "Convert Books" in the top toolbar.



Step 7: Choose the output format (what format you want your book to be) in the top corner, and then press "OK" in the bottom corner.



The new file format should appear in the right hand side of the programme.



Step 8: If you'd like to save your epub file onto your computer (eg. if you want to upload it to a website later on) then right click on where it says "EPUB" and click on "Save the Epub format to disc"

If you want another format (eg. Mobi) instead of Epub, just choose the correct output format on Step 7.

So, you'll be left with a formatted ebook. You should go through the entire of the ebook checking the formatting before you put it out there. I know it's annoying, but it'll be a lot better in the long run!

Happy Writing!

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