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#HistFicThursdays - The Weave of the Norns - Free Poem

 Continuing from last week's post which explored Artwork as Inspiration (the starting point for Proof of the Old Faith ) I'm sticking with Norse culture. Here is The Weave of the Norns , a poem I wrote a few years ago about these three frightening women. Enjoy! The Norns by Arthur Rackham Weave of the Norns Beneath the threat of utter doom he sought them at their fabled loom. The king searched on until he found them on the morrow’s battleground. The tallest worked the wheel alone; the next, a shuttle made of bone; the shortest bore a silver sword with which she severed each loose cord. What pattern spun these women three, dictating mankind’s victory! “I come to beg you demonstrate a gentle weaving of our fate.” “Then know you this, oh man of peace, we weave the thread and cannot cease.” “Weave us an ending to this war and grant us threads of peace once more.” “What cost would such a wise man pay for us to change our weave this way?” And now he saw the bloody thread, time’s fabr
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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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