L.M. Schukraft's Blog, page 9
July 2, 2017
Book Blog Tour – Coming to you July 4th to August 4th!
Mark your calendars, folks, and sign up or follow Even Halos Can Be Crooked on a month long Book Blog Tour set up by Silver Dagger Blog Tour!
This tour comes with an Amazon gift card giveaway!
How can you join in on this fun tour? Just check out the link below. Silver Daggers provides all the promotional media you could need to host the tour.
Silver Daggers Book Tours Sign up for Even Halos Can Be Crooked
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Be sure to check out the tour each day and please check out the other Giveaway promotion running right now for an Amazon Kindle! ~☆~~KINDLE FIRE GIVEAWAY~~☆~
June 29, 2017
How to keep your Word 2010 background image or gradient when you save it as a PDF
How to keep your Word 2010 background image or gradient when you save it as a PDF –
Have you ever created an awesome looking document in Word 2010 using a shaded gradient background and when you went to save it as a PDF, the background colors are gone? Even when the print preview showed it because after that first attempt you Googled why your background wasn’t showing up?
Well, I just went through this process while trying to create fancy Character Sheets for my new book. I Googled why my background disappeared and followed the directions to go to File, Options, Display, and when that window box pops up, go to Print Options and check the box in front of Print Background colors and images.
It didn’t work. Not the save as a PDF, not printing it from Word, not printing it as a PDF. Nothing worked even with that little boxed checked.
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So began my next Google search for a work around because I really wanted to keep the pages I created looking as nice as I had originally designed.
I eventually found a work around but how people described to do it, made it sound much more difficult than it actually is. That’s not to say that it didn’t definitely require a few extra steps. It most certainly did.
I’m here to break down those steps. This How To teaches as least 13 or more different things for using Word, Paint and Adobe Acrobat. I go step-by-step so there might be things you already know how to do in this post but I wanted to cover the steps for those that didn’t know each one. If you already know how to do a step, just move on to the next one.
The first thing you need to do is open both the document you created in Word 2010 and a new blank Word document.
Keep the original Word document open and save it as a new file with a slightly different name. This way, if something goes wrong while you are trying to do this, you won’t lose all that original work you did and you can reference the original file.
Once you save the created document as a newly named file, open up the new file in Word as well.
You should now have 3 Word documents open – the original (for this post I’m working with my Stefano Moriarti character sheet), the blank document, and the saved as a new titled original (for this post I saved the Stefano Moriarti Character sheet as Stefano Moriati Character sheet 2). Make sure to verify which document you are working in before you follow the next steps.
Now would also be a great time to open up the Windows Paint program or any art program you have installed on your computer. For the purpose of this post, I’m going to work in Word Paint.
Okay, now the fun stuff begins.
In the saved as Document, follow these instructions.
Verify that you are in the renamed document. This is a full screen shot of my character sheet 2. I’m in the correct document as you can see by the file name at the top of the screen.
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2. Once you open that file, go to the Page layout tab. You can see the tab in the image above. Click on the Page layout table and your editing options will change.
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3. Click on Page Colors. This should be how you created the gradient to begin with but I’ll walk you through the steps to be sure we’re on the same page.
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4. Now click on the box that says no colors. What? You’re probably like why would I delete all that time I spent selecting the right gradient colors and clear my work? Because you have to in order to get the colors to save to PDF or Print to PDF. Remember this is the saved as document so you still have that work saved in the original document. Once you click the no colors box, your background should be back to blank page white.
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5. Now that the document is back to background blank page white, we go to our new blank document and start working in that.
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6. Now go back to the Page Layout Tab, select Page Colors and create your background gradient by clicking on the Fill Effects box.
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7. Once you click on the Fill Effects box, a new window will open up. For the purpose of this post, click on the Two Colors circle:
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8. A new box will appear giving you choices. Select the arrow button next to the white box under Color 1. From there select the color you want to use. I selected mine.
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9. I went to the More Colors option to select my Color 1 choice. After you pick your first color, you will see your color in the white box under Color 1. And now you can select your Color 2 like you did in step 8.
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10. Here is what it looks like when you select More Colors and pick a color choice:
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11. Once you select both colors, you can choose how they show on the page with the Shading styles options below. I selected Horizontal for the purpose of this post. I also selected the top left corner Variances square. My image below has arrows so you can see what I’m talking about. Once you make your selection, click the OK button to see how it looks.
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12. My background for this post turned out something like below:
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13. Now go to the View Tab and select Full Screen Reading view:
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14. Once you select the Full Screen Reading button, your screen should immediately look like this:
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15. Now is where it gets more technical. On most keyboards there is a button that has PrtScr and a little tower symbol with (( )) around it. Go back to your Word document – the one with the blank page with the pretty background colors we just created in Full Screen Reading view still – and click on the PrtScrn button. Did you click it? And nothing visibly happened, right? Don’t worry. If you clicked the button while on the Full Screen Reading view, the next steps will show you how that button is going to be our best friend for this project.
(Picture of my laptop keyboard PrtScr button)
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16. Your Paint program should have been opened and waiting for this next step. If its not open, please open it now. Click on the white little screen, and while holding the Ctrl button, press the letter V button on your keyboard. If you did it correctly, the Full Screen Reading image will have been screen grabbed and pasted into the Paint program and you should see something like this:
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17. This next part is a little tricky. I’m going to walk you through cropping out just the Word document with the background colors. This is tricky because part of the Word document is not visible on my screen so when I go to crop out just the Word document with the background colors, I’m going to have to do some adjustments. Okay, in the Paint program, there is the crop option. Click the Select button in the tool bar. Then select crop. When you select crop, the mouse arrow will turn into a star like circle. I can’t screen grab the image for you to see it but that’s your new mouse arrow for the next few seconds.
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18. Now carefully select the top corner of the Word document by clicking the left mouse button. Keep a solid hold on the left mouse button as you drag your mouse diagonally down to the opposite corner. Don’t worry if you don’t make it all the way down to the bottom corner since you can adjust so that the selection covers JUST the complete page. If you didn’t make to the bottom corner, carefully hover the mouse over the lower right corner of the dotted box your created, until you see an arrow appear and click the left mouse button again. While holding the button, move the dotted box until it fully covers only the Word document. If you mess up and the image gets shifted or messed up, the undo left arrow button is your friend. I use it a couple of times while I try to select the Word document. You may need to use the slide roller on the mouse to shift the image up and down so you can select the whole page. This helps to make sure you get the full Word page. I’ve provided a few images of the process:
Image: Initial Page Crop Selection. You can see I didn’t make it to the edge of the Word Doc or the bottom.
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Image: I’ve hovered over that little lower corner square, seeing the double arrow, left clicked my mouse button and dragged the dotted box to the edge of the page. Then I scrolled down until I could see the bottom of the Word doc. I hovered over the middle square box, saw the double arrow and dragged the dotted line down to the bottom of the Word Doc.
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19. Now, once you have the page selected, don’t scroll, don’t touch anything except the crop button and should see something like this:
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20. Save the image as a JPEG in the same folder that both the Word documents are saved in. Title it whatever you want. I saved my as Stefano Moriati Background color.
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21. Next, go back to the saved as Word document that you changed to a blank white background. Make sure you are in the saved as document and not the original one. In the saved as document, select Insert tab, select picture, then a box will open up. Your saved background image should be in the same folder as your Word documents.
This image is the Insert tab and picture steps.
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This image is the window that pops up in which you have to go to the folder where you saved your image and Word docs and select the background image to insert:
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Be prepared. When you click insert, some of your text may shift about but the next step will fix that.
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22. Now as you can see in the above image, my text has shifted all over the place and I have the background image there but it’s not filling the page. If you haven’t clicked on anything else, there should be a Pictures Format tab now opened up. Select the Wrap Text button so a box appears. If you did select a different tab and need to get to the Wrap Text button, go to the Page Layout tab and select the Wrap Text button so that a box appears. Select the BEHIND TEXT option as shown in the picture below. You can already see how I have my image and text back.
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23. Now, select the background gradient image and expand it to fit the entire page. The next few images will show the process of doing that.
First expansion to the left corner and side:
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Second expansion over the right side of the page:
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Third expansion to the bottom of the page:
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Full page once the image has been expanded to cover it:
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24. So now you’re probably wondering why you just went through all these steps just to make the exact same background you had originally made with the Fill Effects options. Well, remember, that gradient wouldn’t print. Not to PDF, not via a printer. This method will print!! I wanted to save it as a PDF and then in Acrobat save my image as a JPEG. Using this method, I can do all that and keep my background gradient!
Next save your document in Word. Then click Save as when you go to save it again. A window will pop up. From there, you need to select the arrow button by the Save as type selection box and select PDF. Like this:
Select Save as:
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Here’s the window that popped up. You can see the Save as type and drop down menu where you select PDF:
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25. You can opt to change the title of your PDF but I usually keep my PDF file name the same as my Word doc. Once you click PDF, it will give you a save button to select. Click that and You should have a PDF file waiting for you to open. Another method to save as a PDF is to Print to PDF. You would select the Print option, select the Acrobat Printer. Make sure it’s set to print background images and click Print. A window will pop up asking you to save the file. Make sure its set to save in the same place as the Word Doc and click Save. It will take a few seconds for the file to print.
26. Next we go to Adobe Acrobat and open up the file to see if we successfully saved it and can now see the background colors. I have Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro. Here I am finding my Character Sheet 2 file to open:
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27. Once I select open, we get to see if we have achieved are goal. SUCCESS!!
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28. Now if your goal was only to get the background gradient to print to PDF, then you’re all done! Enjoy! But if you wanted to save that PDF to a picture you can share, follow this step. Click on File, Click on Save as and a window will pop up again. Click on the Save as type box arrow down button and select JPEG from the window that comes up. You can see this step below:
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29. Select Save and you will now have the Word Doc saved as both a PDF and JPEG with a visible and printable JPEG.
Here is an image of the saved documents accessed through File Explorer in Windows 10:
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And here is the final Word document saved as a JPEG. I hope this How To has helped you. I know it helped me a lot while prepping my next book to be released. I inserted Clip Art into my book and had to use a version of this How To for it to print correctly to PDF. That’s another How To blog post to come!
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June 28, 2017
New Series and a New Book
It’s been pretty busy the last couple of months. Aside from my son being sick most of March and April, I’ve been battling mutant allergy attacks that make forming simple thoughts difficult.
I’m stopping in today and sharing a quick update because I have news! Great things are going on creatively and I’m pretty excited.
Years ago I crafted a poetry book filled with different poems that go from typical to dark and twisty. I’ve spent the last week or so doing some major technical feats (I’m pretty impressed with what I’ve done and swear I need to share about 3 different tech how to blog posts to make people’s lives easier soon) to create a few things.
I’m juggling creating the following:
1) Beautiful Character Sheets of my Crooked Halo characters so I can have them to reference while I write and keep Halos, scents, hair colors, and names straight. This project involved some creative work arounds to keep the sheets looking pretty which I will share one day soon in a How To blog post.
2) I resurrected a novel I started too long ago to share but I’m excited to bring this story back to life. It will be a new series called Rebuild. It’s a cozy mystery and I can’t wait to finish it! The characters and settings are so different from Crooked Halo yet draw me in just as strongly. I am eager to get this novel out there for you to read.
3) The second book in The Crooked Halo Series. It’s started. It’s funny and quirky and I’m only 3 chapters in to writing it. I anticipate a late 2017 release date.
4) I’m finishing up prepping the poetry book I mentioned aboved for publishing. There are 3 sections of poems, each one carrying a theme of Nature, Dark and Twisty, and the last one is a mix of the first two with a little action adventure. I’ve added a short story to each section, which even if poetry isn’t your thing, makes getting this novel more than worth it.
5) I’m creating the cover for the short story novel and am looking forward to seeing how it turns out. I anticipate releasing the book late July 2017.
So, while I’ve been a bit lax in posting here, I’ve definitely been busy!
Plus, I’ve just shared a great giveaway you should check out!!
~☆~~KINDLE FIRE GIVEAWAY~~☆~
~☆~~ Kindle Giveaway Promo ~~☆~
I just saw a great promotion idea based on giving back to the fans rather than investing in advertising.
I’d like to do a promo where if I sell 400 books – either ebook or print – by August 30th, 2017, I will give away ONE Amazon Kindle (an $89 value). If I sell 200 books by August 30th 2017, I will give away ONE $25 Amazon.com gift card.
In order to be entered in this giveaway, you will need to:
Like The Crooked Halos Facebook page
Like this post and comment “enter me”
SHARE THIS POST – the more you share it, the more chances of reaching our goal!
BUY Even Halos Can Be Crooked (*if you haven’t already done so) Click HERE to order a copy of Even Halos Can Be Crooked .
Sharing this post and encouraging others to get a copy of Even Halos Can Be Crooked is crucial for this giveaway to succeed!
Truthfully, it’s more about gaining fans and getting people to read the story so they can enjoy the fun adventure!
*(Facebook is not associated with this promotion in any way. Commenting ‘enter me’ does not guarantee a win or winner. Winners are dependent on meeting book sales goals. Winners will be announced September 14th, 2017 only if sales goals of 200 ($25 gift card) or 400 (Kindle valued at $89) have been reached by August 30th, 2017. This contest is open internationally. No purchase is required to be entered but it does help meet the sales goals. Winners have 3 days to respond once selected and agree to provide a ship to address for the Kindle or email address for the gift card. If no one responds by the 3rd day, another winner will be selected. Please message The Crooked Halos Series with any questions regarding this giveaway. Void where prohibited.)
March 22, 2017
Guest Author Article Link Below – read me!
Sometimes the hardest thing for someone to do is talk about themselves. It’s a lot easier to talk about a book or blog they write then it is to get personal. What’s even more difficult is being vulnerable. I feel exposed when I put my original writing or artwork out there for someone to see […]
via Meet Guest Author Lori M. Schukraft… — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog
March 20, 2017
Erica Robyn Reads Review for Even Halos Can be Crooked
Customer Review
If you’re looking for a hysterical paranormal romance, you need to check this one out!, March 9, 2017By
E.Robyn
Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: Even Halos Can Be Crooked (Kindle Edition)
Even Halos Can Be Crooked is a paranormal romance about a woman named Autumn who suddenly finds herself in Limbo. As if that wasn’t upsetting enough, she also discovers that her halo is crooked. This means that she hadn’t built up enough good karma during her lifetime. Luckily, she gets a chance to return to earth. She thinks it’s going to be a piece of cake, but she has no idea what she is getting herself into.
When she wakes up in the hospital, she sees people with glowing eyes, halos and wings, and a stuffed giraffe is talking to her. She thinks that this is the result of her morphine drip at first, then a serious head trauma later when her drugs are taken away. But this is her new “normal.” She is immediately learns that she is not safe, and the action takes off at a run from there.
I thought the storyline of this book was really interesting! I enjoyed the angels and the demon creatures and seeing how they all interacted.
The characters, whether good or bad, were all so neat. I loved them all because each and every one of them was so extreme with their personality traits. For example, Autumn was extremely boy crazy. At first I could not stop laughing at her narrative, because she reminds me of one of my friends. I mean, she uses words like “Yummilicious” and “Hubba bubba, yum” when thinking about the men! Then there was Castle, her guardian angel who took the tough-guy/love interest to the extreme.
Desmin, the Devils Spawn Minion, was hysterical; by far my favorite character in the book! He was so inappropriate, but so freaking funny! I loved that when he overate, he had trouble standing up and moving around. Example: “Desmin struggled to gain his feet, cursing his full belly and repeating whoa over and over again.”
I also loved how the three main characters (Autumn, Desmin, and Castle) all interacted when they were together. For example, their banter around the breakfast table was adorable.
There were so many features of the story that I really enjoyed. Like the “modern” references to things like the Van Helsing movie with Hugh Jackman. I also loved the idea of halos turning colors depending on the angels moods. And the Catchel was so cool! I loved that the main character thought of it a Marry Poppins bag before she knew what it was.
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Sassy Southern Book Blog Review
Customer Review
and an oddly adorable Devil’s Spawn minion named Desmin, March 6, 2017By
Sassy Southern Book Blog
This review is from: Even Halos Can Be Crooked (Kindle Edition)
The premise of “Halos” fits right in with a traditional paranormal plotline. After a near-death accident (attempted murder), Autumn is returned to Earth from Limbo to help balance the scales in her soul, by finding and protecting the soul who was the actual target of the murder attempt. In the process she stumbles into a battle with sirens, demons, and devils for all the souls on Earth. With the help of some hot as heck angels, and an oddly adorable Devil’s Spawn minion named Desmin, she navigates her new reality while trying to follow the rules and yet still have a little fun.
Typically books of this nature, are serious and intense. This book tried to infuse a tremendous amount of humor, and tongue-in-cheek phrasing. The intent appears to be to take a deep and intense topic, and have a little fun with it. Unfortunately, I found it to be a little juvenile in the approach. Autumn is in her late 20’s to early 30’s, but when you read her words, she sounds more like a high school girl with all the naivety and hyper-exuberance a teenage girl might have. It made her character’s ability to succeed in this endeavor much less believable. Add in our adorable Desminn with his wit and teenage boy sounding humor, and it was just difficult to take them seriously. The saving grace here was the character of her guardian angel Castle. He tended to be the more serious of the group, allowing you to believe they COULD actually succeed.
Even though the blurb for this book said it was the first in a series, I wasn’t expecting the cliffhanger to be as big as it was. So much was left unresolved and unanswered. I would have expected some resolution to pieces of the story, while setting up for the next book in the series. You weren’t just left hanging, it was as if you were pushed off that proverbial cliff.
If you like your paranormal mysteries on the lighthearted side, then “Halos” is a good fit for you. If you prefer a more serious approach, then probably not.
REVIEWS: Find Out What Others Are Saying About Even Halos Can Be Crooked!
Trying to self promote your first novel is difficult. One method I heard that is really important is getting people to read and review your novel. Whether the reviews are good or not so good, it gets your novel visibility and hopefully people’s interest in checking out the story for themselves.
After waiting a few weeks, I’ve finally gotten my first couple of reviews which can be found at all the links listed below. I’m going to share the links by the Blog Page for easy reference. Please check out what others are saying about Even Halos Can be Crooked!
ERICA ROBYN READS:
Erica said:
“I have to say right away, I had SO much fun reading this!!”
Here’s the links for Erica Robyn Reads blog and her review:
Erica Robyn Reads Blog Review Link
Link for same review posted on GoodReads
Instagram (also shared on my personal FB)
Litsy: (mobile access only, but I shared the image of chapter 13 and a link to the blog post). Also marked the book as “Pick,” which is the highest rating level on this app; the other descending options are So-So, Pan, and Bail
Sassy Southern Book Blog:
Amazon review by Sassy Southern Book Blog
March 10, 2017
Congrats to the Goodreads Giveaway Contest Winner!!!
One lucky winner has been selected and their copy of Even Halos Can Be Crooked has been ordered for them.
I'll announce the lucky winners first name and last initial as soon as their book ships.
Please take a second and like The Crooked Halo Series Facebook page so you can receive updates and be the first to enter other promotional giveaways.
I hope that everyone that entered still grabs a copy of Even Halos Can Be Crooked for themselves. Please check out our first couple reviews to see what people are saying about it!
Once again, thank you everyone for entering the contest!
(Per Goodreads rules, authors are not allowed to message winners or people who entered the contest directly, so I'm posting this group thank you on my blog. If you would like be added to a mailing list, feel free to add me as a friend and/or send a message via The Crooked Halo Series Facebook page! )
March 1, 2017
March Madness 2017 eBook Giveaway
♧♧♧ ~☆In the spirit of March Madness this month, The Crooked Halo Series is doing a special promotional giveaway!!!~☆ ♧♧♧
Three lucky winners will be selected at random to receive an eBook copy of Even Halos Can Be Crooked!!! Contest runs from March 1st, 2017 to March 7th, 2017!! Winners will be announced March 10th, 2017 (to give the winners time to respond with an email address)!
In order to be entered in the contest, you must:
1) Like this post and like The Crooked Halos Facebook page
2) enter “Pick me!” In the comments
3) Share the post on your Facebook page!!
Click here to Like the Facebook post and The Crooked Halo Series page on Facebook
(One entry per share!)
Happy Halos Everyone and good luck!!
***An email address will need to be provided by the lucky winners who will be contacted via private message once they have been selected. Winners have 24 hrs to respond with a valid email address before another winner will be selected***
