New Cover Art

A good friend of mine, who is also a very talented artist stated that he could draw a new front cover for the Awesome book. I wasnt happy with the original that was provided for the book by the publisher, as a temporary solution, and so I jumped at the chance for him to create it.

Well its fantastic and will give the book a much more professional feel to it. The cover for my Power Users Guide book, was not bad because it showed applications, the cover for Make Amazing Games, I wasnt really too happy with, but I didnt have many artist contacts, so again the publisher provided it.

So i'm awaiting the publisher to send me a PDF cover of the new graphic on the page, so Im hoping it looks as nice as his test image on the cover shown above :)

Time for me to get writing, Im currently on 366 pages of 600. If i can get to 400 pages today, that will be something. I will let you know later :)

Take Care

Jason

Ah Pants

So the completed date for the book was yesterday and I'm still 233 pages away from the magical 600 pages that i need :(.

Things are looking pretty bad, and ive told them im about two weeks behind, but im not sure im going to get that done in two weeks.

So things are looking great, especially as i have no holiday left for the rest of the year, well i have the 3 days saved for Xmas but I dont think i can use them.

Im starting to upload completed chapters tomorrow and then they can start editing it, at least that buys me some time.

The next few weeks are going to be hell for me, but once its done, its done, and thats what I have to keep telling myself and motivating myself to get it done. Thats all thats important, that i do a good job and do it as fast as possible. This will be the last book Im going to do for a while, so much other things to do. I might write a script or a fiction book, but there is no way Im writing anything substantial until next yet or even longer.

Oh well, im off to bed now at 01.49 in the morning, going to get up at about 8am and start all over again. If possible it would be great to get to at least 400 pages by the end of play Sunday, but even thats nothing to celebrate.

Looks like im going to have to work late for the next two weeks, and its never fun doing that... oh well see you again soon, looks like ive got a good couple of weeks ahead of me.

Thanks

Jason

Time to Work?

So two weeks left to the deadline and out of the 600 pages to do ive done.... wait for it... drum roll please... 300. Yes thats about half the book. ooops someone is going to be in big trouble.


Ive struggled yet again, perhaps as this is my third book I should have at least learnt some lessons.


Ive given up watching Lost, Battlestar Galactica, House and 24 in recent months to get through this project, but its not really helped. Oh well once its all done I will have lots of TV to watch.

Mind you I have to watch Heroes and Dr Who, theres no way I would wait for the DVD's of those before watching them. I love those shows and of course I will get the DVD's but I have to watch them when they are on. So next week I have a week off work, so that might help catch up alittle. Im hoping I will be able to get through alot of pages, but we shall see.

Ive uploaded some pictures of one of the games that will be used to go through for the GM program.






It will be interesting to see what happens next week. It took 5 months to write 450 pages, so to writing 300 in two weeks, is just cool :)

Anyway time to get on, Im currently about to start another chapter now my game is all done.

Will post again later on in the week.

Jason

Currently listening to Clint Mansell. Never heard of him before but heard a song in Sunshine which i tracked back to him on i-tunes. He does movie soundtracks and hes pretty good.

Getting Behind

Already Im really behind on this project and i hope i can start to get some work done. Its worse than the other two books i wrote because i was behind because of the work needed for my second book.

Ive done about 20 pages of the 600 pages needed. Ive got a few small bits being worked on, but really need to get moving on it.

I need to do 8 pages a day or about 55 pages a week. So its going to be fun, and probably a bit of a rollercoaster ride.

Oh well will let you know how im getting on next week.

Jason

Time to start!

Ok finally put to bed my Power Users Guide to Windows Book - http://www.powerusersguide.com, so now its time to concentrate on the third book.

The big difference in this book and the other two that ive written is that this one is an update of someone elses work.

So my first task (which has been started), is to converted the old notes/chapters.

My excellent graphic artist friend has started on some replacement games, the first which should be completed this week.

More information as i get it.

The front cover for the book has been created, this is a draft as they needed to get it into their brochures. I am expecting to change the image before its final release.

Jason

It begins

Before I had fininshed the last project writing Power Users Guide to Windows Development, my family thought i was a little crazy to sign another contract for another book. I just thought "Why not"... I need something to do, and also three sounds like a good number if I'm not going to write any more books, then it sounds a good number to stop at.

The book is called - Awesome Games Creation - No programming Required. It will be released by Charles River Media in around September 2007.

The book involves showing the reader how to make their own games, using a number of different software tools. Its around 600 pages, so a big book (my last was 450), and luckily for times sake, Im updating the content, this does mean new stuff, but also using content that is already available. So hopefully i can use a few hundred pages and just update it, as i dont think i will be able to write 600 pages by June.

At the moment I have all the permissions needed to include the software and that is a good start, as you dont want to be doing this at the last minute. I need to make a start soon, otherwise things will begin to look tight.

My first tasks are:

1. Converting the old text into the correct format. When writing you get given a template, the old book is in an old template format, so i will need to update that first.
2. Get some new game examples made.
3. Get the old example graphics updated.

Thats it for now, will post details of what i will need to do in the next couple of weeks.

Jason