Star Chart WIP, and Billions and Billions of other Fun Things

This week:

• Take a look at the work-in-progress version of the Patron Acknowledgement Star Chart
• Adventures in software
• I need your help: olde-timey chapter summaries: examples??
• Toddler camping
• Colouring has begun! Just barely!
• Pratchett Update

THE STAR CHART WORK-IN-PROGRESS

Please take a look at the WIP Star Chart images above! Try to find your own name! And, most importantly, please let me know if I've goofed anything up.

If you see a name like "Chloe, Her Majesty's Ninth Secondary," that is because 1) you didn't fill out this Patron Acknowledgement form, and 2) when I download the patron spreadsheets from Patreon, it tells me your name is simply "Chloe." No last name. So instead of trying to guess, you are listed by your first name, as well as a special title referencing one the many feathers that compose Her Great Celestial Majesty's Interstellar Wings. You are welcome to use this title in your day-to-day business.

ADVENTURES IN SOFTWARE

I laid out the text for the Star Chart using Affinity Publisher. This was my first real test of it after buying it on sale at the end of last year.

So far, I like it. By the time I finished laying out these two pages, I felt like I had a decent handle on its interface standards and quirks. It absolutely does everything I needed out of InDesign, back when I used to have a copy of that, and it even does a few things better. It certainly feels more modern (though admittedly my copy of InDesign was the decade-old CS5.5).

Notably: it requires no subscription. Huzzah!

Will it meet my needs if I want to do my own page layout and book design for PRACTICAL DEFENCE? Only time will tell, but after this brief adventure I'm feeling optimistic.

HELP PLEASE: WHAT IS THIS? I NEED MORE EXAMPLES.

In some of the 19th-century reference material I've encountered, beneath each chapter header there is this "summary" of what is contained within the chapter. Is there a word for this? 

Obviously, as I'm using it there, it's a pretty lengthy summary. Here's a simple example, though I swear I've seen them be more elaborate…

In line with the book's extended title, "PRACTICAL DEFENCE AGAINST PIRACY: A MISS NICHOLS GUIDE FOR YOUNG LADIES," I wanted to add more of that vintage guidebook flavour, so I've added this little "summary" to Chapter Two so that the elements of the summary DO sound like they'd belong in a "Practical Defence" guide, but they also actually represent the happenings within the chapter.

I'm planning to go back to Chapter One and add a "summary" in there, too.

If you happen to have any insights, please don't hesitate to let me know!

TODDLER CAMPING

I am back from four days away, car camping with F, plus some civilian friends. I missed camping—I haven't been for a long, long time.

I can't claim to be very good at it. I don't know the knots I should probably know, I always pack too much stuff, and if I were asked to improvise in the wilderness I would fare better than some but not well enough. And while I love making myself at home in new places, I hate travelling, I hate the getting-there part.

But the provincial camp sites in BC are worth it. They feel dark and old and forested-enough that it does feel like being in nature, as opposed to simply popping up a tent in a grass field. But they're also safe and convenient, with washrooms and nice flat campsites and perfectly lovely drinking water available nearby. They're a bit like my favourite place in Disneyland, Tom Sawyer's Island. There are mysterious pathways to explore and wild choruses of birdsong, but you're rarely alone and usually never too far from an ice cream. For me, it brings me close enough to a landscape I love without having to take on any hardships.

One day I would like to try to express my bone-deep love for the Pacific Northwest through some sort of project. I'm not sure what form it would take, but the feeling is there: the land and the nature is due some sort of ode. Sometimes it is sufficient to enjoy a thing quietly and personally. Sometimes it is not. Considering the increasing challenges that batter the natural world these days, I think maybe this is a case for the latter.

Along similar lines, let me recommend Ken Burns' NATIONAL PARKS documentary series. I thought it sounded like the dullest subject matter possible, but it turned out to be one of my favourite things. I try not to rewatch it because it stirs very strong emotions. Yes, I find the documentary about parks extremely emotional. Come for the beautiful photography, stay for the poetry and the repeated theme of rich white men choosing to protect the land from exploitation, setting it aside for the enjoyment of the public.

COLOURING HAS BEGUN!

Just barely. I got the first two pages under my belt yesterday. Next week will be the first update featuring finished pages from Chapter Two!

THE TERRY PRATCHETT UPDATE

I recently finished JINGO and GOING POSTAL. The first was better than I was expecting, and the second was as good as I had been told. JINGO has something to say about racism and war, and incidentally features a mysterious island emerging from the sea and subsequent political squabbling over it, just like in DD3. GOING POSTAL is about telecom monoplies and Trump-like figures. It's cathartic. It also features those start-of-chapter synopses, which is what reminded me to do that.

These books reinforced an experience I've had with Pratchett books: for the first chapter or two, I am just not on board. They don't necessarily start slow, but I find it takes a while for the pieces to click into place, say, "here's what's going on," and overcome how stupid I think all the names are. But then they do, and I have been having such a good time listening to them.

I'm excited to share next week's finished pages!

TC