Book Trailers, a phenomenon explained.

I was blown away by this. A book trailer. The idea is wonderful. We all know how a movie trailer works. You get to see some bits and parts of the movie, and the trailer itself tries to lure you to the cinema. With book trailers, you make a video, for a book. It is brilliant, and as always, I learned of this when everybody else have already moved on to the newest thing. Like Rubik's cube.

There are literally thousands of these things on Youtube. Some of them are ugly, some of them mediocre. There are great ones too. The one that got me on this newest hit was this one: 

The trailer is for the 'Book of Doom', a children's book by Barry Hutchison. He has and excellent website and blog. I find it a good trailer, and has absolutely sold me this book. 

Pie.

That was really it for today. I just wanted to share this picture of a pie I recently baked. It was an awesome pie. I can taste it still. The crust was perfect, all be it a little broken. I had that pie. You didn't. Get over it. Move along folks!

Camp Nano

This april I took part in the spring version of Nanowrimo, which is called Camp Nano. The rules are somewhat different; you can set your own word count  and take part writing other genres than a novel. I signed up for 20.000 words, and I succeeded.

What I did was restructure and flesh out my book on becoming a father. Thanks to my awesome cabin and their support, not to mention the support from my family, I pulled through. It was an awesome experience, and pretty much somewhat more enjoyable than Nanowrimo, because of the cabin structure (a cabin means a digital meeting place for 6 writers to talk and cheer each other on) and the fact you can decide on your own word count.

Something interesting has happened. I wrote a couple of books, all of which I never took further than what I have done for this book. The first version. I dabbled in editing and rewriting, but not really invested in it. This time I will, despite the fact that I don't really know what I am doing :-)

Have a lovely sunday!

My Ebook on LeanPub

Everything keeps moving forward! I've just set up my book page on LeanPub, a company I found via Nanowrimo. They give you the opportunity to have people read your book, without it being finished! The idea is that if you release early, get feedback, release again, get new feedback, and release again, one can work with the readers to make it the best book possible. Also, the sooner you get it out there, the better it is.

You can find the page >>here<< Please take a look, tell me what you think of the new cover, and sign up for updates! From the moment I upload some chapters, you can read the book in PDF on your computer, or on your Ereader. I expect to have some chapters up soon!

Cover art for my Book

So, for the book I'm currently working on, I've decided to try and do some cover art myself. I'm fully aware that it's a job that should be left to professionals, and so I will in due course, but for now I had a go, and finished something reasonably ok. Ish. In my mind anyway. What do you think? Is it too much? Or too little?

I was going for a 1960 feel, hence the guy in the smart suit and the lady in a dress. That was attempt one. I did some photoshopping things. And then decided that I wanted it to have more color, and attempt two was born. Neat or nay? Drop a line in the comments!

Attempt 1

Attempt 2

Dress up your ramen noodle soup!

Here's how to make yourself a quick healthy ramen noodle soup. The idea is to show you that you can dress up your lame ramen noodle to something lovely with stuff that's in your fridge. This is what I had laying around so I used it, but you can use pretty much anything. The reason why that works is because if you use a chili and garlic, pretty much any vegetable will taste like it could be in an asian dish. Well, maybe not beetroot.

Ingredients:
-1 packet of ramen noodle soup (I used 'duck' flavored)
-1 leek
-2 spring onions
-1 clove of garlic
-1/2 chili
-1 teaspoon lemon zest
-1 teaspoon of salt
-1 teaspoon of sugar
-1 portion of leftover meat
olive oil to bake in.

1) Panfry whatever meat you've found. It should be meat that will crunch up. Chicken, hamburger, you name it.

2) Finely slice the leek, put it in a pan on a gentle heat. Chop up the garlic, chili, lemon zest and add the sugar & salt. Mix it with the leek, and you should have something that resembles the picture below.

3) Boil some water in a cooker, put your leek mixture in your bowl, and dress it up with the ramen noodles and the herbs and flavor packet that comes with it. Add the water, chop up your spring onion and sprinkle it over the ramen. Finish with thin slices of your meat. It will be delicious. Trust me. 

Ps: I've done this many a time, and found a picture of a different version. Beef ramen noodle soup, with carrots and a poached egg. 't Was excellent! 

Couch to 5K

To reach one of my (sub) goals on my life's to do list - being able to run 5 kilometers - I've started with the 'Couch to 5K' program. Or regime, depending on whether your glass is usually half full or half empty. The website boasts that this is the definitive way for couch potatoes or other forms of lazy couch dwellers to learn how to jog, and not give up within the first 30 minutes. 

I am not entirely new to the concept of running, or on how to run 5 kilometers. In a not too distant past, I was able to run 5 or 6 k with relative ease, and perform 50 jump up burpees as an afterthought. I guess that what I'm trying to say is that I was fit. For reasons entirely my own, that fitness has waned away and is now waiting for me, slouching under the couch, to be kicked into action again. Well I have.

As of last week I have started running, using the 'Couch to 5k' program, and so far I feel excellent. I'm doing a couple of burpees during my warm up, and I think I will get to 50 again. I'm feeling really good about it!