A Tiny Computer!

My friend gave me a Tiny Computer. Yes, that’s the whole computer in the first picture (it’s upside-down). It is running Ubuntu Studio, which includes audio, video, graphics, and publishing software. There is a very good chance this could replace my Adobe suite. I will have to experiment. The video is me scanning a drawing into The GIMP, a raster image editor.

The Tiny Computer!

And this post is being made from Linux! Getting images out of my Mac onto Linux required some setup… accessing my Dropbox account from both machines turned out to be easiest. (I kept wanting to cut and paste…)

This Linux distribution is Ubuntu Studio. It includes The Gimp (like Photoshop), Inkscape (like Illustrator), Blender (a 3-D animation app, like the control panel of a 747), Scribus (maybe like InDesign, but we’ll see), Calibre (for ebooks, but annoying because it wants to manage your files), and lots more. There are audio and video editing apps; I’ll have to see what corresponds to After Effects for editing limited animation. Alas, Scrivener is not available on Linux. If I can make and publish a book on this platform…

The trickiest part so far was configuring my scanner. The Epson scanner requires a driver, which Epson provides, but that driver requires further software. I had to go into the command line to install it (fortunately this is the kind of thing I used to do at my old job). And I had the help of my friend Mike, who is a born troubleshooter.

I will be presenting at JAMBARK 2025!

JAMBARK 2025 is an online summit of writers presenting topics to help writers. It is organized by the fine folks at What’s Your Story Author Services.

We will be presenting about things like worldbuilding, how to write a book if you have no time to write a book, social media for authors, and much much more!

My topic is: “Turning Personal Experiences into Fiction”. I’ll be presenting on Sunday the 26th of January 2025.

Our participants:

The Eventbrite link to sign up:

Another writing challenge!

So now the Write Now Club is starting another challenge! This time, it’s Sixty Thousand Words* in Sixty Days!

But I put an asterisk beside the word “word”… because it’s not just words this time. There are many tasks involved in creating a book beyond just putting words down. What about doing research? Marketing? Illustration? One of our members is an incredibly-talented cartoonist. His stuff just doesn’t have many words. Should he be penalized even though he is doing as much work?

So another member came up with a list of tasks and word equivalents. You can get points for how much time you spend on a task, instead of for how many words you create during that time. Of course, if you’re mostly creating words, that is fine too.

This is great, because I’m doing a lot of illustration and drawing research in support of my story. It helps me figure things out.

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A book trailer, shirts, and Fifty Thousand Words

I have been working on an animatic, a kind of limited animation, to make a book trailer to promote The Rabbit Trap. I hope to have it done in a few weeks.

To express my gratitude for the help I have gotten with it, I have ordered shirts! They will include the new logo I have developed for the story.

As far as the story itself is concerned, Akosua and the Write-Now Club are proposing another writing challenge: another Fifty Thousand Words in Fifty Days challenge! This will take us to the end of summer, conveniently when I had planned to have a first draft done. I’ve pulled out Scrivener and started organizing things already.

Welcome to SRD Books!

Featured

If you’re looking for information about The Rabbit Trap, The Lonely Little Fridge, or the compilations that contain my other works, this is the place!

The Lonely Little Fridge is distributed through Ingram Content Group and is available on Amazon and other retailers. The compilations are available through Kipekee Press and Amazon.

My Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/author/komiksulo

The Rabbit Trap

A family escapes a totalitarian nightmare, but what happens when one of them wants to go back?

This full-length novel is a sequel to the story “The Rabbit Hole” published in a compilation by Kipekee Press.

The Lonely Little Fridge

A fridge is thrown out. Will it find a new and better home?

This children’s book is available in multiple languages. Find out more.

A Workaround for a Toki Pona Font-Display Issue

I think I’ve found a workaround to my font issues in the ebook version of the Toki Pona translation of The Lonely Little Fridge! I’ll be able to put out an ebook after all!

The book is put together with Toki Pona text, with both latin letters and a Toki Pona script called sitelen pona (“good drawing”), in parallel. The sitelen pona text is actually regular latin text with a special font applied, which changes its appearance drastically.

The sitelen pona text was not appearing properly in the ebook version. And only in the ebook version. Text in PDFs for print appeared properly, even though both ebook and PDF were exported from the same InDesign file!

The text with the problem. The letter o is still visible in the sitelen pona text (top line) in this screenshot taken from the ebook version.
The text without the problem, in this screenshot taken from the PDF version.

Figuring what was actually going on is a tale of exploration into strange new places…

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Toki Pona translation off to be checked!

A page from the Toki Pona translation.

I just sent the interior of the Toki Pona translation, complete with text and pictures, off to the translator to be checked!

Once that it okayed, I will assemble the book files, create the ebook, and make them ready for uploading to IngramSpark! Then we only await the printer’s e-proof.

Meet Our Translators!

I am very grateful to the people who have offered to translate my texts or check my translations.

Esperanto: Detlef Karthaus

Detlef Karthaus diplomiĝis pri tradukado ĉe Laurentian University. Li esperantigis kelkajn romanojn: nome “Demian” kaj “Sidarto” de Hermann Hesse; kaj “Dudek kvar horoj el la vivo de virino” de Stefan Zweig, ĉiuj tradukitaj el la germana. El la angla, li tradukis “Telenio” de Oscar Wilde. Dum multaj jaroj Detlef estas korektanto de la 10 leciona “Free Esperanto Course” por anglalingvanoj.

Detlef Karthaus has a degree in translation from Laurentian University. He has translated several novels into Esperanto: “Demian” and “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse, and “Twenty-four hours in the Life of a Woman” by Stefan Zweig, all translated from the German. From English, he has translated “Teleny” by Oscar Wilde. For many years Detlef has been a moderator of the Ten-Lesson Free Course for English-speakers.

Portuguese: Joe Bazilio Costa

Joe Bazilio é artista multimídia e mora na pequena cidade de Formiga, no interior de Minas Gerais, Brasil. É autodidata em artes, além de músico profissional, poeta, desenhista gráfico, fotógrafo e cineasta. Foi o realizador dos filmes na língua Esperanto, Gerda Malaperis e La Patro.

Joe Bazilio is a multimedia artist and lives in the small town of Formiga, in the interior of Minas Gerais, Brazil. He is self-taught in the arts, as well as being a professional musician, poet, graphic designer, photographer and filmmaker. He was the director of the Esperanto-language films Gerda Malaperis and La Patro.

Klingon: Michael Lubetsky

Toronto Dabbogh chut qeSwI’ ghaH may’Iq’e’. pIj bo’DIj qaDDaq ‘ap DIlwI’pu’ ‘oS ‘ej chut Ho’DoSmey pIm HaD ‘e’ tIv. bo’DIjDaq qum qaDbe’DI’, bridgeQuj, Holmey HaD, ‘ej HatlhDaq yIt ‘e’ tIv. tlhIngan Hol yejHaD vInDa’ ghaH ‘ej Hoch patlhmoHmeH qaDmeyDaj’e’ Qapta’mo’, po’wI’ patlh bajta’. ghItlhvam DI’ta’mo’ tlhIngan Hol po’wI”a’ DeSDu’, tlho’qu’.

Michael H. Lubetsky (may’Iq) is a lawyer living in Toronto whose practice focuses on tax litigation and who has a particular interest in comparative law. When not in litigation against the government, he likes to play bridge, study languages, and go hiking. He is a member of the Klingon Language Institute and has passed all their certification examinations, earning the rank of po’wI’. He thanks master Klingonist Jackson M. Bradley (DeSDu’) for checking thie translation of The Lonely Little Fridge.

Toki Pona: Abigail L.

mi jan Apikela · lili la mi awen lon lipu lon lawa · mi kama lukin e ni · ma lon la pona pi wawa kin li lon · mi wile sama jan lili · mi wile tawa e nasin mi lon pilin pona wawa pi monsuta ala

tenpo ali mi la· nimi en toki ante li pona tawa mi · lawa mi la toki Inli en toki Epanja en toki Kanse en toki Italija en toki pona li lon tenpo sama a

tenpo la · mi tawa sewi e kiwen· li lukin insa e nasin sama lon ijo ali lon jan ali · li toki wawa e sona musi · li tawa pona e pipi linja tan nasin seli suno

o lukin e nasa pona mi lon ilo Yutu (YouTube: Abigail Sarah) · sina wile pana e pali esun· e sona nasa · e sona pi tawa kiwen · e sitelen pipi suwi · la o toki a tawa mi lon ilo Siko (Discord: #9031)

After a childhood isolated in books and the recesses of her own mind, jan Apikela (Abigail) discovered that this world is even richer in beauty and love. She wants to live as fearlessly delighted as a kid (which isn’t everybody, in the grand scheme of things).

She’s always been drawn to poetry & languages, and these days thinks with some kind of hybrid of English, Spanish, French, Italian, and toki pona. She can be found rock climbing, pondering the fractal patterns of the cosmos, gesturing enthusiastically about the liturgical cycle of Chipotle, and saving worms from the sidewalk.

You can participate in the beautiful chaos of her life on YouTube (Abigail Sarah) — or reach out on Discord (#9031) with any freelance projects, random philosophical thoughts, climbing tips, or pictures of snails.

ISBNs and Versions

The Lonely Little Fridge is available as a hardcover, a paperback, and an ebook. Translations are ongoing. So far, here are the different versions (as of 2022-07-24):

English (released)

ISBN 978-0-9689795-7-0 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-9689795-8-7 (ebook)
ISBN 978-1-7778198-1-1 (paperback)

Esperanto (released)

ISBN 978-0-9689795-9-4 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-7778198-0-4 (ebook)
ISBN 978-1-7778198-2-8 (paperback)

Portuguese (released)

ISBN 978-1-7778198-3-5 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-7778198-5-9 (ebook)
ISBN 978-1-7778198-4-2 (paperback)

Klingon (hardcover and ebook released; paperback to come)

ISBN 978-1-7778198-6-6 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-7778198-8-0 (ebook)
ISBN 978-1-7778198-7-3 (paperback)

French (to come)

ISBN 978-1-7778198-9-7 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-7781804-1-5 (ebook)
ISBN 978-1-7781804-0-8 (paperback)

Toki Pona (hardcover released; ebook and paperback to come)

ISBN 978-1-7781804-2-2 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-7781804-4-6 (ebook)
ISBN 978-1-7781804-3-9 (paperback)