Natasha Duncan-Drake's Blog, page 20
March 4, 2019
Disability and Disneyland Paris
Disability and Disneyland ParisAs you may have guessed I have just come back from the magical Disneyland Paris, and I thought I would share my experiences. We were there from Monday afternoon to Friday afternoon and did just about everything. In case you were wondering, it was a friend's 50th birthday and a whole group of us went to celebrate.
https://media.giphy.com/media/SRO0ZwmImic0/giphy.gifFor those who are unaware, I am disabled. I have severe bilateral talipes, aka club foot in both fee...
February 18, 2019
Nightflyers Review - Book to Big Screen to Small Screen
Nightflyers ReviewBook to Big Screen to Small Screen
Nightflyers has had a special place in my heart since I first saw the 1987 movie some time in the 90s. It has spaceships and telepaths and telekinetics, so it hits many, many of my buttons where content is concerned. It also has For many years I had no idea it was based on a novella, but when Game of Thrones came out and everyone was talking abo...
February 13, 2019
Fun fun fun! Re-Editing eBooks for 2019
Fun fun fun! Re-Editing eBooks for 2019It's time for some spring cleaning! As well as writing a new novel, adding to another novella to turn it into a novel, and writing my Open Novella Contest entry for 2019, I had a brainwave and decided it was time to go back and take a look at all my currently published eBooks.
First thing I did was create a spreadsheet and check when each of them had last been updated.
Some of them haven't been touched since 2011!
https://media.giphy.com/media/12Y3f7U3SF3Ak...
February 11, 2019
New Public Patreon Blog Post
New Public Patreon Blog PostI have a new blog post up at Patreon:
Creative Process #1 - Coming Up With the Idea
This is a public post for everyone to enjoy, patrons and casual surfers alike, and is all about the start of writing my new novel.
I'm having a lot of fun documenting how I am going about writing the new novel and will be sharing lots of juicy details and exciting previews on my Patreon. Some of it will be public, some patrons only, and there will be patrons only podcasts to go with ea...
February 1, 2019
My Patreon is live! & Free Fiction Friday
My Patreon is Finally Live!
So after all my posts about the trials and tribulations of setting up my Patreon, it is finally live. I have pushed the go button.
Tasha's Patreon
I have my about section, my tiers and my intro vid all done and they are now there for the world to see.
It was very nerve wracking hitting launch, but I managed to make myself do it.
https://media.giphy.com/media/3oEjI6hkw6nbYNQkz6/giphy.gifThis is worse than publishing my first book - I feel like my child has just gone on s...
January 29, 2019
The Dreaded Intro Video #JoysOfPatreon #4
The Dreaded Intro Video The Joys Of Patreon #4
Firstly, I must apologise - this should have been up last week, but my kitty Amber was not very well and having to take her to the vet and make sure she was okay put everything back a bit. I didn't get to trying out making my intro vid until this past weekend. She is right as rain now thank you, just in case you were wondering.
So the intro video for Patreon - ah the horror. Now, don't worry, if you don't have anything to make one, or other re...
January 16, 2019
Tiers - It Should be Tears! #JoysOfPatreon #3
Tiers - It Should be Tears!The Joys of Patreon #3The about section was bad, but, oh my, the tiers were more daunting. This is where we have to decide what we do and what our fans might actually like.
On Patreon we can reward our patrons at differing levels depending on how much they pledge to us - these are called tiers.
There are 2 business models:
per creation - patrons pay per product we produce - a bit like a kickstartersubscription - patrons pay monthlyI decided on the subscription model, s...
January 15, 2019
Recipe - Sous Vide Honey Sesame Duck Breast with Rice and Sesame Broccoli
Sous Vide Honey Sesame Duck Breast with Rice and Sesame BroccoliEver had the problem of your duck breast going tough when you cook it? Never again with the sous vide method - it comes out perfectly every time. The searing with duck is a little bit more complicated than with chicken, but it is still really easy.
Now, there are 2 ways to go about this:quick prep, but the skin isn't going to be as crispylonger prep, with perfect crispy skinBoth give fantastic duck breast meat, so if that's all yo...
January 9, 2019
Sous Vide Chicken, Pesto and Mozzarella Roulade + Buttery Potatoes
Sous Vide Chicken, Pesto and Mozzarella Roulade + Buttery PotatoesI made this recipe yesterday and it was delicious, so I am going to share. First let me say that I used these 2 recipes as a base, but had to do added things:Sous Vide Butter Poached PotatoesSous Vide Pesto and Mozzarella Chicken RouladeServes 2Buttery PotatoesNow I have no idea if the original recipe could actually work as is, but when I used it, the potatoes just weren't cooked, so I had to add a step. The reason I think it i...
January 8, 2019
The Patreon About Section #JoysOfPatreon 2
The Patreon About SectionThe Joys of Patreon #2So I spent all of Monday afternoon on this. Wow, it is hard.
The about section is where you sell yourself, and we all know how good at doing that we Brits are.
The first stop is Pateron's " How to Sell Your Page " in the learn more col on the edit page - which is actually titled "How to Sell Your Page in Your About Section" when you actually get there, which makes a lot more sense.
Main Ideas
The 3 main tips I took away from this page are:Make sure eve...
