StumbleUpon | JDHoliday's comments & reviews

Illustrators Workshop

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:13:44 -0700

Illustrators Workshop is a group for illustrators and artists to showcase their talents, share and promote their works while helping and teaching others. OUR `WORKS IN PROGRESS" are on going. Please stop by and see!
If you are an illustrator and would like to know more go to: http://illustratorsworkshopblog.blogspot.com/

ILLUSTRATOR'S WORKSHOP Members: Michelle Munger, Lisa Middleton Griffin, Cody E. Frusher, Charles Dickey, Sue Rundle-Hughes, Diana Evans, Dawn Stephens, Nata Romeo, Mj Gillot, Kim Reale Johnson, Diana Navarro, Christy Condoleo, Cecil Paplinskie, Amy C. Moreno, Aidana WillowRaven, Shevi Arnold, Tracy Shubin, and JD Holiday

Cecil - freelance illustrator

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:00:33 -0700

Illustrator's Workshop:
Cecil Paplinskie's series of illustrations of nature. The first is `Ainanani' meaning the beautiful land in Hawaii!

Illustrator's Workshop: Kim Reale Johnson | Dropjack

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:46:28 -0700

Illustrator's Workshop: Kim Reale Johnson's Halloween Treat,
illustrations in progress! http://mainelyclassicartbykim.blogspot.com/

Illustrator&s Workshop | Gather

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:36:04 -0700

GREAT!

http://JDHoliday.stumbleupon.com/review/36212205/

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:43:35 -0700

Having Your Own Private Chat Room: In A NutShell

Did you know you can have a chat room of your own on your site or blog for free? Most of us have had an IM (instant message) talk with a friend real time and if you have been to a chat room talking with many people at once then you might like a chat room of your own.

Though chat room talks are in real time like in IM that is where the similarity ends. With a chat room you can hold group chats with co-workers, group members, interviews with authors, webinars, discuss your genre or techniques, have authors chat with their readers. With some chat room applications you can hold large discussions with up to one hundred people, which might be a little crazy, but you get the idea.

Some of the chat rooms, also called chat rolls and chat boxes, are free and along with a blog posting board were you can add content for an event, such as a writing chat where a number of authors write a story together, you can have an hour or two or more of fun.

How can you do this you ask?
If you have a website that has more than one page you can add a private chat room to one of the pages and do not list that page on the navigation bar.
For the blog you would make another, separate blog to use as the chat room that you set for privacy!
For instance, on Blogger (Blogspot) under SETTINGS go to BASIC and then to ADD YOUR BLOG TO OUR LISTING and choice NO. Then at LET SEARCH ENGINES FIND YOUR BLOG select NO again and finally click SAVE SETTINGS!
If Blogger isn't your blog provider you will need to take a look at your blog providers privacy settings to see if it could be done there.

Some of the free chat room sites that I looked at are; xat, chat roll, chat-form, spin chat and parachat. To find out what else is out there you can Google and Bing search to see what other chat rooms services there are available.

Of course, like most site on the internet where you have to join the community, chat room or chat roll sites are no different. You sign up for an account at one of these sites and you place the HTML code they provide on your blog or site. If you don't know how to place HTML codes you will need to learn how or have someone do it for you. Then the only way someone can get to your chat room is if they have the url (Uniform Resource Locator) which you provide.
Also with some of the chat communities your guest will have to sign up at their site to participate in you chat room as well. You can even have more security by setting the blog settings so that your guest or members must sign in to your blog too.

To see what chat rooms are all about, one place you can visit is the writers and artists site Minds-Eye. http://minds-eye.ning.com/
That's Using A Private Chatroom: In A Nut Shell.
Happy Chatting!

JDHolidays blog - StumbleUpon

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:40:05 -0700

Hi Sanroe,
Sorry but I JUST saw this! Thank you very much!
Sincerely
Jan

http://JDHoliday.stumbleupon.com/review/25341773/

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:33:00 -0700

ANOTHER WAY TO SELL YOUR BOOK:
CREATING AN E-BOOK
By J.D. Holiday

With E-book reading devices on their way to being how many of us will be reading books in the future and how environmentally friendly e-books can be using no paper, I decided to add my children's picture to Amazon's Kindle. Kindle is a device or reader that is light-weight, wireless, and specifically for the purpose of reading e-books.
If you want to make your book, whether it's a novel, non-fiction or a children's picture book available as an e-book the following information could be helpful.
For the Kindle reader Amazon recommends that HTML file format works best and at Amazon's digital Text Platform (DTP), which is a guide to help you fill in the form that you should read, there is a name of a software program to make your own E-book (or HTML file) for free!
The company is Mobipocket located in Paris, France and the software is Mobipocket Creator Publisher Edition, the Do It Yourself version. You download this software to your computer.
http://mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/ProductDetailsCreator
IMPORTANT: If your book is in HTML, you don't need to convert your files. Just fill in the form at Amazon and upload you file for Kindle.
Once you download the Mobi Pocket Creator to you computer from their website, open the HELP content and move it to one side. Pick from it, HOW TO CREATE AN
E-BOOK STEP BY STEP. Read it and follow the step by step guide. It may take a little to understand how it works. I used the Blank Publication form which seems to be the best choice for my picture book. The software makes a folder called My Publications for you
and places it on your hard drive.
One other thing about Mobipocket.com is that you can list your e-book with them. They are a wholesale and distributing center for publishers of eBooks to this growing industry. Right now there are other E-book devices besides Amazon's Kindle which include iLiad by iRex, Sony Reader by Sony, BeBook eBook Reader by Endless Ideas and Hanlin eReader by Jinke to name a few. If you are the publisher or author of your book you pay Mobipocket around 10% of the eBook's retail price.
https://www.mobipocket.com/ebookbase/en/homepage/default.asp
Now go to Amazon. If you haven't done so already, create an account. Don't forget to fill in how to get paid. You'll need your Social Security number, what type of business you have, whether it is LLC or individual account. Adding your bank account seems to be a must to get paid.
http://forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/entry.jspa?externalID=19&categoryID=7
Then click on Amazon DTP and log in. Click on Add New Item.
Digital Text Platform comes up at: http://dtp.amazon.com/mn/dashboard
This form is in three parts.
Part one is New Title. Fill out the information on the book, title, ISBN number, description, author and publisher names and upload a cover image. Under Category, chose the best category for your book. A sub category opens and you can chose up to five categories that fit your book.
Part two is Upload & Preview Book. Browse your computer for the My Publication folder and open it. Pick the file and open it. Then Preview your book to make sure it looks right.
Part Three is set the price for your e-book. And lastly, click Publish.
You are done!
With novels and nonfiction books that have numerous pages, some variation will probably be needed in setting up your files using the Mobipocket and uploading your files on Amazon.
If you find you are having some difficulty uploading the file go back and re-read the Amazon how-to guide. Though not the most user friendly guide you will find most answers to your questions there.

J.D. Holiday has a Chapbook (1994) and several short stories published. She is also the author and illustrator of the children's picture book, Janoose the Goose. The book is available online at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Janoose-Goose-J-D-Holiday/dp/0981861407/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1
As well as available for Kindle at:
http://www.amazon.com/Janoose-the-Goose/dp/B001F0R5HU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220117656&sr=8-2
More information about Janoose the Goose can be found by visiting http://www.bookgardenpublishing.com

http://JDHoliday.stumbleupon.com/review/24910261/

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:51:12 -0700

FROM PICTURES TO PAGES
Is there a picture book designer in you?
by J.D. Holiday
I recently finished painting watercolor pictures for one of my children's picture books with the intent of designing the book myself. It was the goal that made me willing to conquer the challenge of learning the page layout software Indesign Creative Suite 3 or CS 3 by Adobe.
I was comfortable using Adobe's Photo Shop having made examples of pages for a previous picture book project. In fact, I designed most of the pages, which led to the realization that I could design my books if I had the right tool.
Listening to other authors and self publishers, they seem to fall into two groups. Those that hired someone to do the designing and those who do it themselves.
Indesign CS 3 cost about $750 US and came with a video workshop and once I registered the product I took the free offer for a one month trial to http://www.lynda.com to access Adobe's library. I also bought Adobe Indesign CS 3 ClassRoom in a Book, with lesson files on CD that take you through the layout exercises. The internet was where I got most answers to my questions by researching on Google and elsewhere. Also, there are websites by Indesign professionals and internet groups that have a wealth of information. To get answers to hard to find questions I went to the http://www.adobe.com. These are all key to understanding the Indesign CS 3 software.
Once I got the hang of it, and knew where things were, including what tools to use and how to use them, I could not believe how cool this software program was. For instance, to make a page in the book, I made a frame on a first layer, using File> Place, I added a picture, chose the text layer, made another frame and added the text. You can resize an object or picture right on the page, apply drop shadows, and ghost background images, and add gradients which is a gradual blending between colors. And there is another way to get pictures placed in a document and that is to open Adobe Bridge which is a separate tool that comes with Indesign. In Bridge you can look for files anywhere on your hard drive by opening Bridge right inside the Indesign workspace and view contents you need to bring into your document and then, just drag and drop the picture.
If you have basic knowledge of art software such as Photo Shop or Corel Painter, like to learn, and don't mind doing research you might be able to design your children's picture books yourself.
While you consider this as your option you should start by reading a few books on book design, especially picture book design. I found that looking at other children's books got my imagination going.
Before you start the design process you will need to decide where the book will be printed so you can get information from the printer on what their needs are.
You will need to know the template sizes for the interior and book cover. There are margins, bleeds and gutter sizes to know and what settings should be on or off just to name a few.
If this all sounds like it's too much then don't do it. Go another route to get your book designed and in print. There are plenty of good publishing services that have designing as part of their packages or you can hire a professional book designer.
J.D. Holiday is the author and illustrator of Janoose the Goose, children's picture book, ISBN#978-0-9818614-0-1. The book can be bought online at: at http://www.Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Janoose-Goose-J-D-Holiday/dp/0981861407/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1
for $10.00. For more information about the author visit http://www.bookgardenpublishing.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wksF9WIHhY

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 10:05:12 -0700

This is a book trailer for a children's picture book I wrote:
Janoose the Goose