Natasha Duncan-Drake's Blog, page 16

How to Format an eBook - 2019 Edition

How to Format an eBook - 2019 EditionTechnology is always changing and things have progressed since I last wrote a blog post on how to format eBooks. I have just written myself a new checklist for creating eBooks in what I consider to be the most efficient way, so I thought I'd share. Now don't take this as me saying, this is the only way to do it, but this is how I do it, and it works for me. No doubt by the time I hit publish the tech will have changed again!

(https://media.giphy.com/media/C...

All the new covers!

First of all the Eros covers:



And now the other covers I have updated for Wittegen Press:


With some of them I've just rearranged a few things and changed fonts, and with others I have completely redesigned them. It was mostly fun, but a couple of them really gave me the run-around!

Wittegen Press' New Look

Wittegen Press' New Look
I've finally done it - I gave the Wittegen Press website a new look. Now technically this should have just involved picking a new theme for WordPress, but things are never that simple, are they? 

Recipe Recommendation - Lentils and Goat's Cheese from BBC Food

Recipe RecommendationLentils and Goat's Cheese from BBC Food
So I made this recipe of Lentils and Goat's Cheese last night for our dinner. Really simple, only 6 main ingredients + seasoning, most of which require little to no preparation.

It was delicious!
The flavour of the garlic, basil, lemon and olive oil against the earthly lentils and creamy goat's cheese are wonderful, and the perfect balance. Only 2 provisos:

It has to be a creamy goats cheese, not an acidic one - I think this is crucial,...

New Imprint, New Podcast and Free Fiction Friday

New Imprint, New Podcast and Free Fiction FridayFirstly, apologies - this should have been out yesterday, but our power flipped out several times and meant I was racing to get the eBook for Free Fiction Friday formatted properly because I kept losing work. Everything else had to go on a back burner. Rob is going to connect my PC to the UPS we have for the server, in case it happens again.

So, on to the exciting news!

Soph and I are setting up a new imprint of Wittegen Press called Wittegen Eros...

Sex Sells - The Old Adage #WriterlyWednesdays

Sex Sells - The Old Adage There has long been the adage that sex sells. This has been used in the advertising industry a great deal and usually ends up sexist in some way or other, which is very frustrating. It is also used in fiction, be it written or other media and, in some cases, seems to have been crow-bared in just because.

We only have to look at 70s and 80s horror films for examples of this. How often does a young woman suddenly have her boobs on show for no apparent reason? Even Frigh...

What Do You See in Your Head? #ThinkyThursdays

What Do You See in Your Head?It has come to my attention recently that not everyone visualises things in their head in the same way. I actually read an article about a woman who does not see images in her head at all, which got me thinking. So I talked to my husband about it.
Turns out we both have very different visualisations when we see things in our heads. (https://media.giphy.com/media/JqCrXaE5V29McNfzzk/giphy.gif)
I have always been utterly crap at drawing from memory or drawing from somet...

Recipe: Baked Pizza Mushrooms - #GlutenFree

Baked Pizza Mushrooms - #GlutenFreeToday I bring you a recipe I adapted from one I saw on Youtube! This is an awesome way to take mushrooms to another level and is easy to adapt to any palate, be it carnivore, veggie or vegan.

Prep - 5mins, cooking 30-40mins

Ingredientslarge flat mushrooms - 2 per personpassata - couple of spoonfuls per mushroom - I use the one that comes with basil already in itcheesey product - I use cheddar, but a mixture of cheddar and mozzarella would be good, or vegan che...

Interview - The Wonderful Ronel Janse van Vuuren

Interview - The Wonderful Ronel van VuurenToday I have the great honour of having Ronel Janse van Vuuren on my blog, and she has been kind enough to answer some of my questions.

1. Hello and welcome back! For those who are new here, would you like to introduce yourself and tell everyone what it is you love to do?

Thanks, Tasha. I’m award-winning, dark fantasy author Ronel Janse van Vuuren. Though I mainly write for children and teens, I have short stories in various anthologies meant for older...

Monsters! #FreeFictionFriday Exclusive Free Short Story

Monsters! #FreeFictionFriday Exclusive Free Short StoryIt's Friday and we're not in July, which means it's Free Fiction Friday.
This month's story is a short about vampires and secret agents.
Monsters by Natasha Duncan-Drake Marc, codename Redhawk, is a hardened agent for I2, a global intelligence agency. Even in his weird world vampires don't exist, that's just a fact, until he wakes up dying in the arms of one.
It's easy to get a copy even if you're not already a subscriber - just join th...