We live in a world of abundance, a fact which scares silly anyone whose business relies on scarcity. Predictably, we now frequently see attempts to recreate scarcity, many of which are absurd (cf. most newspaper efforts) and some of which are smart.

The use of limited editions to create a desirable object available for only a short period is, in my opinion, a smart move. When it comes to content, we are swamped by choice. Something needs to make objects like books, CDs and movies special enough for us to take a punt and buy them. It ceases to be simply about the story or the music or the film, but also about its form. So I’m totally up for limited editions. It is, in effect, what I’m doing with Argleton.

But limiting editions does not mean you have to limit access to the source material. Indeed, limiting access to the content, rather than just the object, is counterproductive as it prevents new fans from experiencing your work and reduces the number of people who eagerly await your next release.

UPDATE: What was going to be my case in point, Ted Chiang’s The Lifecycle of Software, has now instead become proof that if your shop design sucks, people will think things are sold out when they aren’t. The limited edition is sold out, the trade edition isn’t. *headdesk* So, er, slightly truncated blog post due to inability to comprehend Subterranean Press’s UX. Sorry about that.

I’m going up to Sheffield in November to speak at Interesting North, a day-long conference where people talk about their passions (rather than their work). I, for one, will be going way off piste:

Suw is a writer, collaboration strategist and lapsed geologist.

Earlier this year she followed, in considerable detail, the exploits of Eyjafjallajökull, The Little Volcano Who Could (Close Airports Around Europe On A Whim). Part of a community of vulcanologists and lay enthusiasts, she watched for earthquake swarms, monitored live webcams, and attempted to interpret interesting yellow blobs on the volcano’s infrared cam.

For your delight and delectation, Suw will be attempting to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull live on stage, as well as pointing out some of the more interesting aspects of the eruption.

Sound like fun? Then get your tickets before they sell out!

Sean Cregan (aka John Rickards, Mr Nameless Horror) and I had a chat on Friday afternoon on Skype about his book, The Levels, which came out yesterday in paperback.

Sean describes The Levels as ”Cyberpunk without the cyber”, and it’s somewhere roughly in the thriller genre. It’s not the sort of book I think I would have picked up by myself but Sean sent me a copy, so I read it and I loved it. (Particularly a bit at the end which I shan’t go into detail about because I don’t want to ruin it for you!)

In our chat, we talked about the world of The Levels, underground tunnel networks, over-researched books, Dan Simmon’s The Terror, the film Split Second, how important it is to give a shit about characters, the sequel to The Levels which is called The Razor Gate, the final scene in The Levels (a masterstroke, I must say), Sean/John’s earlier books written for Penguin, how The Levels is more the sort of thing that Sean wants to read himself, Sean’s last ‘real’ job, Creative Commons, comparisons to the [free] music industry, VAST,  Nine Inch Nails, Kickstarter, micropatronage, distribution, economies and diseconomies of scale, status of The Razor Gate, side projects, where the name Sean Cregan came from (great story!), serial bigamists and ‘marriers’ and Larry King.

Please excuse the slightly squiffy audio quality, the rattle of typing and what sounds like seagulls (but which could, I suppose, simply be very loud kittens) in the background. I’ve tried to cut out the worst of the Skype-induced silences, but there are still times Sean sounds like a Dalek broadcasting over AM. Sorry!

Great piece by Craig Mod about using Kickstarter as seed capital to not only ?fund a book, ?Art Space Tokyo, but also start a publishing think tank, PRE/POST. The essay is most comprehensive – with graphs! – and anyone interested in using Kickstarter to raise money should read it. I hope to be able to write something equally as detailed when my project is over!

At midnight on Wednesday, my Argleton Kickstarter project closed, funded to a level of 173%. I’m very happy and excited, and not a little bit scared! But now I am able to spend half my time working on Argleton (the rest working on client stuff).

The project’s success was largely due to the fact that Kickstarter featured it in their first weekly newsletter, which lead to a flood of new supporters. All this happened whilst I was away in the US on holiday. I would log on whenever I had both time and internet access to see how things were going and was gobsmacked one day to find half a page of Kickstarter pledge emails. Within just a few hours (during which, I confess, I was sitting in a hot tub in the Rocky Mountains with a glass of wine), we hit 100%.

I now have 150 people eagerly awaiting the arrival of a package from me, which is both exciting and terrifying. I didn’t get to write much (at all!) on holiday despite having taken my laptop so that I could do exactly that. But I did get to think through a few things about the story and I’m in the process of redrafting it now. I will continue to work on it until it’s the best I can make it. After that, all I can do is hope people like it!

I have a lot of work to do still on the design, printing and manufacture of the book, not to mention completion of the geolocation puzzle that goes with it. Looking back, I wonder if that last wasn’t overegging the pudding somewhat. I suppose it speaks to my insecurity about how attractive the rest of the package sounded. Still, we only learn by doing, and I’ve certainly learnt that what I thought was a small project is actually an awful lot to chew on!

Finally, before I went away on holiday, Thursday Bram kindly asked me a few questions about the Argleton project, which I answered on her blog, Constructively Productive. Enjoy!

?Just a quick note to let you know that my Kickstarter project, Argleton, is going to close in 12 hours so if you want to be a part of it, join up now! We’ve already reached 100% so the project is definitely going ahead, but the more people get involved, the merrier!

It’s very exciting to say that, due to being included in Kickstarter’s first newsletter, my Argleton project is now fully funded! Yay! There are seven days to go, however, so if you’d like to be involved and receive a copy of the finished book, you can still pre-order any of the different packages.

If you’d like to read more about the project then the previous post here has the first scene, there’s an article I wrote for Un:Bound about it, and questions I answered for Thursday Bram over at Constructively Productive.

If you join up now, don’t forget to look through the Kickstarter updates, especially the ones for backers only – there’s some important information there for you!

This is the first-ish draft of the first scene of my upcoming novelette, Argleton. I think it’s fair to say that everything is subject to change between here and the final draft, but I hope that this gives you a taste for what the rest will be like. If you fancy the look of it, please do pop over to my Kickstarter project and support me!

“Do you know where we’re going?” asked Charlie, peering over the neatly trimmed hawthorne hedge into the field beyond. Huge white ‘sight screens’ on rollers stood to one side. Beyond them was a small cricket pavilion, its weatherboards and railings painted fresh white, its beams and pillars in crisp black. The roof sagged a little, but every decorative ridge tile was in place. Figures painted in the small gable above the main door proclaimed its build date of 1887.

“Of course!” said Matt, brandishing his phone.

Thwack! came the unmistakable sound of cricket. The pitch was in play, men in cricket whites standing around in various states of relaxation. The bowler approached the wicket in a loping run, rolled his arm over and let go of the ball. Despite looking slightly harried, the batsman hit a four and a gentle cheer drifted through the air along with the scent of newly mown grass.

“Ah, there’s nothing like cricket to prove that summer finally has come,” Matt said as they passed through the gap in the hedge and started to skirt the pitch. “You know anything about it?”

“A bit,” said Charlie.

“Never really figured it out, myself” said Matt. “Other than that the team with the score most like a telephone number wins.”

“Well, that does rather depend,” said Charlie, glancing at the outfield where a portly gentleman stumbled backwards, trying to make a catch. “If they don’t finish play, say because of bad light or rain, then the second team doesn’t get a fair chance to even up so the result has to be calculated.”

“And why does the ref where a lab coat?”

“Umpire. The guy in the white coat is an umpire.”

“OK, so why does the umpire wear a lab coat? He’s not going to break off play for a sudden dissection half way through, is he?”

Their path lead them northwards towards the pavilion. A small group of spectators lounged in folding chairs or on picnic blankets enjoying their postprandial lull. Another lazy cheer went up. Matt left the path and headed over to the nearest onlooker, a pensioner with a cooler full of Pimms.

“Matt!” Charlie hissed, hanging back and blushing in sympathetic embarrassment, although Matt himself felt none.

“Who’s winning?” asked Matt, standing by the man’s side as if they were old mates.

“Aughton, my boy, Aughton.”

“Good to see the home side doing well,” said Matt, remembering the sign they had passed as they closed in on their goal. “Who are you playing?”

“Haydock. Although injury has them at a disadvantage, our lads are doing a fine job today.”

Another thwack, another cheer. From the distance came the drone of a small plane carving great aerobatic slices out of the sky. Matt could feel the sunshine on his exposed skin, a welcome change after all the recent rain.

“Well, good luck! I’m sure you’ll prevail.”

“Why, thank you! That’s very kind.”

Matt rejoined Charlie on the path and they continued northwards. The match continued behind them, with cheers and boos in seemingly equal proportion drifting on the haze. As they neared the top of the field, the wild grass through which the path travelled opened out, small trees dotted throughout like a tiny orchard.

“We have to either get into this next field on the left,” Matt said, staring at the map on his phone, “or to the north and then go left.”

“You mean west?”

“West. Left. Same thing.”

“What about that gap in the hedge up there?” Charlie pointed towards a fingerpost that in turn pointed towards a distinctly empty space.

“That might do it!”

At fingerpost they saw a narrow bridge just two board wide with high handrails on either side leading through the hedgerow, over a narrow stream that had been hidden from view. They hopped over the stile and in a few strides were over both the bridge and the stile on the other side, and wondering through the well cropped grass.

“Now that is one impressive cow,” said Matt, pausing in awe at a mountain of black and white, grazing in the middle of the field. He sniffed. “And impressively aromatic with it, I might add!”

“Erm,” said Charlie. “I’m not sure that’s…”

“Cows are docile, right? Just great big lumbering stomachs on legs.”

“Well, mostly, but that’s not a cow, Matt.”

“Of course it’s a cow! It’s not a little fluffy sheep, is it now?”

“No, I mean, it’s not a cow. It’s a bull.”

“It can’t be a bull. It doesn’t have any horns! I’m sure it doesn’t mean us any harm.” Matt started off towards the beast, which looked up at the sound of his approach.

“Doesn’t mean us any harm?” said Charlie, hesitating. “Look at the size of it. It’s a good foot taller than us!”

“Nah, it’s just a big old softie.”

“I really don’t think that this is a good idea, Matt. You don’t just barrel on up to a Friesian bull and get in its personal space.”

“Bulls don’t have ‘personal space’, Charlie.”

“I think you’ll find this one does.” Charlie scanned the hedge, looking for a way into the next field over, where they wanted to be. Slowly she started to edge along the field border, picking her way carefully through the wild grasses, keeping one eye on the bull, the other searching for cowpats.

The bœuf en hoof approached.

“Matt, let’s just leave it.”

“It’s just curious. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s a herbivore. It doesn’t eat human.”

The bull stopped. Its tail swished aimlessly as it stared at the pair. Matt couldn’t help staring back, although he also couldn’t help wondering if that wasn’t a very bad idea. Staring can be, after all, a sign of aggression, he thought. The stare did not appear to be born of friendly curiosity that Matt specialised in.

“I think we ought to run,” Charlie said.

“I think you’re right,” Matt finally admitted.

“On the count of three, head for that gate, right? OK. Three?”

“TwoOneGo!”

The pair lurched forward from their standing start and dashed towards the gate. The bull watched for a second, then broke into a headlong run. They ran faster and adjusted course, trying to give the bull a wider birth.

Dear lord, this bull runs fast, Matt wanted to say, but his laboured breathing left no room for witticisms. His focus shifted to his escape route. There was a chance that they were going to make it, he thought, putting on an extra spurt. The thundering bull behind him, he vaulted over the bars of the gate, surprising himself in the process. He hit the ground awkwardly on the other side, stumbling forward. Momentum rolled him over, but not entirely out of the way of an equally clumsy landing by Charlie. She tumbled headlong towards Matt, landing mainly on his chest. A red flush raced up her neck and she rolled herself over on to her back.

The two lay panting, staring back at the Friesian monster that had pulled up short just in front of the gate. It snorted, breathing hard, although not as hard as the puny humans that lay sprawled before it. One last grunt and it turned, lumbering away, now disinterested in the creatures that it had successfully chased off its land.

“Oh crikey,” Matt gasped. “That was close.”

“You really are an idiot sometimes!” Charlie gasped, catching her breath and watching the mountain of meat disappearing behind the hedge. Matt sat up and fished in his pocket for his phone. He groaned. “What’s up?”

“My phone. I must have dropped it when we ran.”

“Oh no! You’re not saying we have to go back in there, are you?”

Matt looked at her and grimaced. They hauled themselves to their feet and crept slowly towards the gate, bending low so as not to draw the attention of the Friesian.

“You climb over, I’ll keep look,” whispered Charlie. Matt shot her a dark look, but given that it was his phone that was lost, didn’t comment further. Instead he slowly climbed over the gate, keeping his body close to the top bar and trying to be quiet. Charlie peered into the field from behind the hedge, searching for any sign that the bull was on the return.

Matt, crouching, scanned the grass in front of him, searching for the telltale glint of shiny black. Slowly he progressed back the way they had run, head down, trusting Charlie to be his lookout. With a rush of relief he spotted the phone, end up in the grass. He grabbed it and dashed back to the gate, gracelessly scrambling over in case trouble was coming up behind him.

“You got it?” asked Charlie.

“Thankfully,” said Matt. He stood up, happy to be on the safe side of the hedge again. “Right, let’s find this damn place!” He surveyed the view.

“We’ve found the damn place, and it’s a field,” Charlie said, hints of post-adrenaline grumpiness shading her tone.

There was no denying it. Lush grass tickled their ankles, long and verdant. Ahead they saw one of Lancashire’s finest pastures, enclosed by hedges on all sides and, this time, delightfully empty of livestock.

“It’s not just a field, Charlie,” Matt smiled, his equanimity restored. “It’s the field.”

“It is just a field. There’s nothing here.”

“No! This is Argleton! The town that defies explanation!” Matt moved off northwards. “Besides, we’re not quite there yet!”

Charlie trailed behind, muttering. Matt led the way, holding his phone out in front of him, casting it slowly back and forth before getting a fix and moving forward again, this time more slowly.

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“No, I’m being precise. Argleton is located at precisely… 53.54404, -2.912807. I have the latitude and longitude plugged into my map. We will be standing exactly on the pin in three…” He took a step. “Two….” He took another. “One!” He beamed, phone held proudly ahead for a moment before staring down at his feet.

“It’s not a Roman town, you know. You’re not going to find a series of small walls,” said Charlie. “In fact, you knew what it was going to look like because we saw it it on the TV news last night. Grass. Maybe a cow pat if we’re lucky. Turns out we weren’t, although I’m happier that way.”

Matt aimed his phone at the ground and took a photo of his feet.

“You’re right,” he said. “It’s not a Roman town, it’s a phantom town. A town that is listed on GeeMaps but which doesn’t actually exist. GeeMaps have no idea how it got there. The company that originally supplied the data doesn’t know. They even said as much: ‘I really can’t explain why these anomalies get into our database,’ they said. Right now, you and I are standing slap bang on an anomaly.”

“Yes, I saw the news too,” Charlie said. She looked around. There was really nothing much to see. On the far northern side they could see the roof of the village hall peeping up above the hedge. The hall belonged to Aughton, the nearby non-fantastical town. She could hear the grumble of the A59 to the northwest and, very faintly indeed, the cricket match that continued on the village pitch.

“You know, there are even businesses listed as being here in Argleton,” Matt continued. “And that’s the weird thing. This isn’t just a single anomaly. It permeates GeeMaps. Must drive locals mad, having their shops and offices located in a field in a town that doesn’t…,” he paused, staring at his phone. “Good grief! There’s wifi!”

“What?” Charlie came up behind him and peered over his shoulder at the phone screen. “Maybe it’s from the village hall.” They both peered into the distance at the grey roof.

“They wouldn’t have a wifi signal this strong,” Matt disagreed. “Ha! The wags! The SSID is ‘notrealG’!” He laughed. The letters of ‘Argleton’ could be rearranged to say ‘not real G’, where G was widely interpreted to refer to the G of GeeMaps.

“Can you connect?”

“It’s asking for a password. I wonder…”

Matt started to key in the alternative anagrams for Argleton that had been listed in one of the news stories he’d read.

“Not large. No. Great Lon. No. Give me a hand here, Charlie. I’m rubbish at anagrams.”

“I’ll say. ‘Great lon’ doesn’t even mean anything.” Charlie drew out her own phone and connected to the web, searching for an anagram site. She soon started reading out options. “Great on L.”

“And that means something? Anyway, no.”

“Let no arg.”

“No.”

“Not le arg.”

“Are you turning into a pirate, or what? Still, no.”

“We’re running out now. How about, Get on l’ar?”

“Bingo!” The pair of them burst out laughing again as Matt’s phone connected to the hotspot.

“This is cool,” said Matt. “No one on Trill is going to believe that we are actually at Argleton, uploading a picture of the very spot via wifi called ‘Not real G’ with a password of ‘Get on l’AR’. What do you think that means, anyway?”

He was writing his message and uploading the image as he spoke.

“God knows,” replied Charlie. She shifted closer to Matt, pretending to peer at his screen. They waited. The ‘send’ progress bar made no move. Charlie wondered how long she could stand this close to him before it would be noticed, and sharply stepped away. “Er,” she said nervously, “look! A red kite! They’re really rare!” She pointed upwards into the blue sky.

“Where?”

“Over there,” she said, pointing. She felt awkward and hoped no one had noticed.

Matt peered into the sky, slow mobile web connection momentarily forgotten. A small dialogue box bounced into view on his phone screen:

> Download Argleton App?

“I can’t see it.”

“It’s kinda flown in front of the sun now. Oh, no, there it is!” She said, nudging him in the ribs and pointing again. Matt re-adjusting his grip on his phone. His thumb brushed the touch sensitive screen. It flashed up a new message:

> Downloading.

“Oh yeah! I see it!”

> Download complete.

> Gathering user data.

> User data collected.

> Hibernating.

“Wow! We are really lucky to see a red kite round here. Anyway, your upload done yet?” Matt glanced at his phone, wondering if it had crashed. Just as he was about to restart it, it gave a sudden spurt.

“Yup! There we go!” He said.

“Excellent! Now, the question is, how do we get back to the car without crossing paths with our new friend, Mr Bull?”

“No,” said Matt. “The question is, is there another Argleton?”

I had a really great conversation with Syd the other day about conflict in storytelling. She brought up a very important point: Where does the conflict in your story come from? We were watching, sort of, Short Circuit 2, and getting very annoyed at the bad guys and their petty bickering.? Shallow conflict based on minor disagreements isn’t satisfying conflict. ?

More interesting conflict comes from a clash of values. If you think about Stardust, the conflict between Yvaine and Tristram comes from the fact that he thinks that she’s chattel to be given as a gift to his ‘true love’ Victoria, whereas Yvaine is more of a mind that she’s a free and independent person. They bicker, yes, but their disagreements are really about slavery and freedom. You don’t get much more fundamental than that.

Figuring out where the conflict is in a story, and what sort of conflict it is?, is key. Shallow conflict leads to shallow stories. Conflict based on a character’s adherence to a deeply held belief is, on the other hand, about the very definition of their personality. Addressing someone’s essence, is, by its nature, compelling.

My frequent co-conspirator, Vince, recently invited me to write a post for Un:Bound, a blog he contributes to, on the Argleton project. I couldn’t possibly say no, so I said yes! And here is it: Guest Post | Crowdfunding… I go into a bit more detail as to my motivations, my emotional journey, and chew over whether crowdfunding might be a viable way for some authors to begin their career. Do pop over and take a look!

“Show, don’t tell” is one of the most common axioms in writing these days. Whilst it’s useful to question whether you are engaging in ‘telling’ when you could more effectively ’show’, it’s also important not to end up tying yourself into knots trying to show what would be better told.

Rather than elaborate on the point myself, I just want to share a few great links from people who have thought it through much more deeply than I have:

• When To Tell Instead of Show?, Mary Kole?
• A Few Things Writers Can Learn from Harry Potter?, Cheryl Klein ?(relevant bit is about halfway down)
• Show Don’t Tell, And Other Myths?, Mark Charan Newton?
• A tale of Psychopathic Chocolate Bunnies™?, Vincent Holland-Keen

There, that should keep you busy for a moment or two.

Thanks to Vince for the links!

If you’re interested in digital rights, copyright and digital activism, you really need to grab a ticket to ORGCon on Saturday July 24 at City University. The schedule is really starting to shape up, with keynotes and panels from Jamie Boyle, Cory Doctorow, and Tom Watson.

Tickets prices are:

• Free if you join the Open Rights Group on the day
• £5 for existing supporters
• £10 for the general public

More details:

We’ll have training sessions about how to lobby your MP and more volunteer workshops. There’ll also be discussions on the state of UK politics after #GE2010 and why this is a key moment to push harder for reform on digital issues from surveillance to copyright to DRM. The keynote speaker will be James Boyle, a founder of the modern movement to recognize, protect, and grow the intellectual commons.

Sessions will include

* James Boyle on the future of copyright, in London especially for this talk
* Thriving in the Real Digital Economy: Cory Doctorow talks and then chairs a panel of artists.
* Digital Economy Act: What’s Next? (Tom Watson, Eric Joyce, Julian Huppert)
* What is the ‘Right to Data’? (Heather Brooke, Rufus Pollock)
* Opening up the Data Protection Directive: Can of Worms or Opportunity (Privacy International)
* Dismantling the Database State (NO2ID, ARCH, Big Brother Watch)
* Theft! A History of Music (Jennifer Jenkins)
* ACTA: A Shady Business (La Quadrature du Net, Becky Hogge)

My Argleton Kickstarter project is now 52% funded, which is very exciting indeed! If you’re interested in supporting it financially, that would be wonderful, but if you’re feeling a bit skint right now, you can still help by spreading the word for me.

If you had over to the Kickstarter page, you will see a range of buttons under the video for sharing the link on social tools. The first button is for Facebook and when you click it, it will take you to Facebook where it will pre-populate link information for a status update which you can then fill in. (Click to see full sized version on Skitch.)

There is also a Twitter button which works roughly the same way, opening Twitter and pre-populating the text field with this:

Kickstarter – Argleton: A story of maps, maths and motorways: http://kck.st/b4MruP

You can, of course, edit your Tweet before you post it. Personally, I think the standard Tweet is a bit bland, so I’d suggest putting a bit more personality into it. Perhaps something along the lines of:

I’m supporting @suw’s Kickstarter project: Argleton: A story of maps, maths and motorways: http://kck.st/b4MruP You should too!

The Tumblr button does pretty much the same as the Twitter button.

The email button opens a fields for you to add your friend’s email address before sending a pre-written message to them. If you want to sent a more personal email, which I would recommend, then you can write whatever you like and use either the full link:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1895824384/argleton-a-story-of-maps-maths-and-motorways

or the shortened link:

http://kck.st/b4MruP

which is also available from the Kickstarter page.

If you have a bit of space in your blog sidebar, you can go a step further and add an Argleton widget, which looks like this:

You can get the code from the Kickstarter page by clicking “Grab the widget” or you can just copy it from here:

<a href='http://kck.st/b4MruP'><img border='0' src='http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1895824384/argleton-a-story-of-maps-maths-and-motorways/widget/card.jpg' /></a>

Simply talking to people you know who you think might be interested, and pointing them in the direction of Kickstarter, is probably one of the most powerful ways to spread the word. Whether in person or by IM, email or whatever, people like to feel personally invited. It’s on my list of things to do, but it’s a lot easier to pimp someone else’s project than one’s own!

If you do find a moment to help promote Argleton, thank you very much indeed!

The other week when I was preparing the book blocks for my most recent set of notebooks, I realised how hard it is to neatly trim thick blocks. These notebooks are about the same size as I think my Argleton book will be, but they were very difficult to trim to size by hand.

I tried all of my cutting implements, with varying results. My scalpel was by far the worst offender. The blade is not very stiff, so it tended to bend as I cut, leaving me with very wobbly results! My big craft knife was the best, although that tended to wander off piste a little resulting in what might best be described as ‘terraces’ in the cut.

Worst of all was that it took me nearly an hour and a half to trim four book blocks. Oh dear. That’s not very time efficient! If I have to make about 80 books for my Argleton project, it’s going to take me a solid week just to trim the book blocks. And that’s not even counting how long it takes to cut the book boards, the ‘hard’ bit of a hardback cover.

So, if the Argleton project is successful, the first thing I’m going to do is buy this:

It’s a TrimFast ream cutter and it can trim 110 sheets, or up to 1.5cm of paper, at once. It has ‘laser light paper positioning’ to make it precision cuts easier, which is great as I am nothing if not a perfectionist. I will be able to cut not just more quickly, but also more accurately and with sharper right angles. Honestly, trying to get everything square is a nightmare at times! Especially as three of the four implements I have bought for marking square angles weren’t themselves actually square. Harumph.

So this is what some of the money raised via Kickstarter will go to. The rest will be spent on materials for the books and to subsidise my time – I’ll have to take a few weeks away from my normal work to get everything finished up and as a freelance that’s actually quite a big deal, so having enough money to cover that will be a godsend. Well, to be more accurate, it will be a generous-person-like-you-send!

This hand-made tome is the kind of book I can only aspire to make!

Created by Ross MacDonald as a prop for The House at the End of the Lane, a film by Steve Smith, this is a gloriously OTT book.

The interior is filled with collages of images and text from period books. Most of the text is German, taken from 15th century books. Many of the images are from the same period, for the sake of authenticity. But for the sake of what looks cool, there are images from other periods as well. The ones on this spread include two diagrams from Georg von Welling’s 1735 Opus Mago-Cabbalisticum et Theosophicum, a number puzzle designed by Ben Franklin, a Celtic knot, a diagram of a microbe and a heraldic device. One other pages, there are bits of electronic schematics, some diagrams and handwriting from George Washington’s school notebook, and diagrams of crystals and fungi from a 19th century dictionary.

Tor.com have a bunch of fabulous pictures, so it’s well worth heading over there to read the rest.

I do hope that one day I’ll have the skill required to make a book like this. It truly is gorgeous and would be a joy to own. Somehow, I imagine Neil Gaiman already has a whole library of books like this.

It also reminds me a little of The Book in The Books of Hay, although instead of human skin, The Book is bound in leather so black that it sucks all light in. Indeed, your eyes would struggle to see it, unless it wanted you to. But that’s another story…

Hat tip: Kevin Marks

Over on Kickstarter, they say that projects with an introductory video end up raising “way more money” than those without. Well, it has taken me a while but I’ve finally managed to get this all important video together for Argleton.

I have no real experience with making videos, but luckily I had my lovely husband on hand to help. Even though he left the BBC three years ago, some video editing mojo clearly rubbed off on him!

But even with Kevin’s help, I had to have two stabs at recording the original footage. The first lot was just too ponderous and rambling to really work and wasn’t even amenable to cutting. Second time round, I had a better idea of what I wanted to say, but even then I had to do take after take after take to get something useable.

If you’re doing to do a Kickstarter project video yourself, then I recommend you read Robin Sloan’s guide first. I found it very helpful, but would add a few more points.

Plan your video in small chunks
Think about three or four main points you want to cover and then plan what to say for each point separately. Make notes for each section and even write out what you want to say. Practice reading it out aloud a few times to make sure that it flows and change anything that makes you stumble.

Record each chunk separately
It’s almost impossible to do a long piece to camera without screwing up, so record in sections that are 45 to 90 second long. Because you’ve practiced what you are going to say before you started recording, you should find it relatively easy to get a good take.

Pause before and after
It makes it much easier to cut footage together and add effects like cross fades if you have some leeway, so when you hit record, pause for a while, say your stuff, then pause again before hitting stop.

Pace yourself
Don’t talk too fast, but don’t talk too slowly either. Unless you’re speaking slowly for effect, a ponderous delivery will make you sound like you don’t know what you want to say. (My video suffers a little bit from this.) If you talk too fast, you make it harder for people to understand you.

Listen out for background noise
Sadly, there’s nowhere in our flat that’s as well lit as our lounge, and nowhere noisier either. The human brain is great at filtering out background noise, but mics will pick it all up, especially bass rumbles from passing buses or lorries. If you don’t have somewhere quite, try to time your takes for in between the buses.

What’s behind you?
When you are setting up your shot, think about what is behind you. You should never be surprised by something in the background, and there should be nothing there that looks distracting. No lampshades growing out the top of your head, for example.

Keep it short
A video that goes on too long is likely to be boring. I’d say three to four minutes is a maximum.

Think about cutaways
A four minute headshot is both hard to do and boring to watch, so think about other images that you can add on top of your narration. Screenshots of blog posts about your project? Footage from your work so far? Even a shot of your hands (watch for this in TV interviews!) breaks things up enough to make your video more watchable.

I learnt a huge amount from doing this video and i know that there’s even more to learn. I have no doubt I’ll be making another video before the project completes, so hopefully the next one will be much better! And I also hope that the lovely chaps at Kickstarter are right and that this video helps me to meet my target of $2700. I’m already 27% there, so please do lend your support and get me to 100%!

It’s a wee bit nerve-wrecking, but I have finally set up and launched my first Kickstarter project, Argleton: A story of maps, maths and motorways.

Argleton: A story of maps, maths and motorways
Matt is fascinated by the story of Argleton, the unreal town that appeared on GeeMaps but which doesn’t actually exist. No one knows how the mistake made its way into the most widely used map in the world. Accusations that it was a ‘copyright trap’ intended to catch out businesses using the map data without paying for a licence are vigorously denied. GeeMaps promises to remove the anomaly but yet, it persists.

Finally, Matt can resist no longer. He persuades his friend and flatmate Charlie to drive them both down to to find the non-existent town. And when they are standing on the very spot, at the exact longitude and latitude that defines Argleton, Matt sets in motion a train of events that will take him places he didn’t know existed… and which perhaps don’t.

The Book
I estimate that the story is going to come out at 8000 – 10000 words (give or take a few thousand!), which means it’s too short to put together on Lulu, as it would be well below their minimum page count. Instead, I’m going to give you three options:

1. The printed pamphlet
This is likely to be a single sheaf of paper, folded, stapled, with a nice card cover. It’ll probably be A6 in size. This plan could evolve as I talk with different printers, but I’ll make it as delightful as I possibly can.

2. The handmade booklet
I’ve been learning how to bind books recently, and I love it! If you buy a handmade book, then you’ll get a lovingly created hardback, each numbered, covered in the best paper/fabric I can lay my hands on. Again, it will be A6 in size with professionally printed innards, thickness TBC.

3. The handwritten, handmade booklet
It’s a bit insane, this one. If you buy this option, not only will I hand-bind the book, I will also hand-write it. Its handmade presentation box will ensure that it stays lovely. It’ll be a challenge, but I’m up for it if you are!

Whatever you choose, you’ll get a lovely, limited edition booklet that will look fab on your bookshelf.

Note: There will obviously be a bit of a delay between the conclusion of the Kickstarter drive and the delivery of your booklet as I won’t be able to place the print order until I know how many I need. And, of course, I’ll have to actually make the books, which might take me a moment or two.

The story itself still a work in progress, but if this project doesn’t complete, I shall finish it up, look at it lovingly and then put it in a drawer. So it’s now or never if you want to know what happens to Matt.

The Puzzle
Books don’t just have to be books. They can be other things too. Like paper weights, monitor stands or cat toys. This book is not just a book, it’s a puzzle too. What kind of puzzle? Well, that would be telling.

What I can say is that I need your help to make this puzzle truly puzzling. If you like geolocation, maths and photography, then this should be right up your alley.

If you support this project, you will be sent an URL to which you can upload a photo of a landmark local to you, along with its exact location as a longitude and latitude. You can photograph whatever you like, wherever you like, so long as it’s a place rather than a person.

I will then do stuff with that stuff and the resulting stuff will, via the magic of technology, be sent back to you as an important, intrinsic piece of the puzzle.

The first person to successfully solve the puzzle will get a non-trivial prize that I’ll decide on soon. (After all, I don’t want to give away all the secrets up front!)

So, who’s with me?

It’s an exciting step, but also just a little bit terrifying! I already have five backers and am %11 funded, but there’s a long way to go yet to meet my target. If you’d like to join in this project, please do pop over to Kickstarter and take a look! (If you have issues with Amazon’s payment system, try some of these fixes.)

I haven’t had much time to spend playing with all the new bookbinding-related toys I got for my birthday, but I have managed to get a couple of new booklets made. Here’s a look at how I’m progressing. I really do need to get on to a one-day course soon to make sure I’m not learning any bad habits.

Via new Twitter friend Robert McIntosh, Kevin and I find ourselves taking part in The Big Tasting 2010, an online/live tasting event from Waitrose and Vini Portugal (on Twitter as @VPwine). The big day itself is Monday 12th April, with live streaming of the tasting from Lords Cricket Ground at 7pm. Oz Clarke will be doing the honours so it’s sure to be entertaining. Sadly Kevin and I are going to be in Tblisi at the time, so won’t be able to join in live. Bah.

We did, however, get the six bottles last week and have so far managed to taste three of them. Well, I say “taste”, but what I really mean is “slurp down”. They were all rather nice!

The six wines are:

• Tagus Creek Cabernet Sauvignon / Aragónez 2008 Ribatejo, £5.69
• Tinto da Ânfora 2006 Alentejo, £6.64
• Sogrape Quinta de Azevedo 2008/09 Vinho Verde, £6.16
• Vida Nova Syrah / Aragónez 2007 Algarve, £7.59
• Arco de Esporão 2008 Alentejo, £9.49
• Waitrose Douro Valley Reserva Quinta de la Rosa 2007, £9.49

We got all ours in a box, so didn’t have any idea about how they were priced individually and I have to say that I’m surprised they weren’t more expensive.

We have so far guzzled, sorry, I mean, tasted the Quinta de Azevedo (white), the Douro Valley Reserva Quinta de la Rosa (red), and the Tinto da Ânfora (red). I must say, they named The Big Tasting well, as the de Azevedo is the only white in the collection and the rest are big reds. Some of them are more accurately described as biiiiig big reds.

Now, I’m not a wine-tasting expert, so don’t expect proper tasting notes as I can barely tell my cabernet sauvignon from my gin and tonic. Nevertheless, I know what I like and I really liked all three. The Douro Valley I “paired” with some leftover ginger chicken Chinese and it stood up to the abuse very well indeed. It’s a soft, dry red, quite easy going down, but we did split the bottle over two nights because it was a little bit too big for one sitting.

The Quinta de Azevedo we had with garlic prawns and penne. It’s a very young wine, with a taste of green apples – happily more Granny Smith than sour apple, though. Quite a grassy wine with a hint of acid, but again very drinkable.

The third bottle we had last night with various Italian dishes. We couldn’t decide which of the four remaining bottles we wanted to try, so we let Grabbity pick for us:

And I have to say that she made a very good choice. The Tinto da Anfora was a great wine, a bit easier going than the Douro – fruitier, I thought. Went down very quickly!

We’ll have to taste the other wines when we return from our travels, but if our experience so far is anything to go by, it’ll be a pleasure. I’m not very good at remembering which wines I like, but these I will make an effort to remember. Kev and I don’t drink Portuguese very often, mainly because we are more experienced with New World, and especially American, wines, so it’s been great to have this introduction. It’s no surprise that the reds are so big, though, given that Portugal is the homeland of port and other fortified wines.
So yeah, I’d highly recommend you give these wines a try if you’ve a mind to. For around six quid, it’s gotta be worth a shot!