Okay, so everyone knows I've been doing family history stuff for the last few months . . . to the exclusion of just about everything else. Trust me on that one.
Well, last week I ordered the FamilyTree Maker software from Ancestry. Best $$ spent in a long time. The software is nifty beyond nifty and lets me create all sorts of reports - descendant reports, places reports (showing all the places my ancestors have lived - NEAT-O!), and, best of all, the Timeline Report.
The Timeline Report, for an individual, will show all the events that happened in the span of a person's lifetime.
Take my Great Grandmother Maggie Morris Sweat . . .
When I ran the report on her, I learned the following information . . .
1800 - 1900: US History - Western Expansion
1830 - 1930: World History - Mass immigration to US, Europe, and Canada
1869 - Birth of my great grandmother
1893 - World History: Women's Suffrage in New Zealand
1898 - Spanish American War
1901 - William McKinley Assassination - September 6, 1901, Buffalo, New York
1903 - Wright Brothers First Flight - September 17, 1903, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
1903 - Ford Model T Manufactured
1912 - RMS Titanic Disaster
1920 - death of great grandmother
Here's the neat thing for writers: with a click of a few buttons, I'm able to get a sense of what was going on in America, and the World, for a specific time frame, and have it right at my fingertips as, say, I work on an historical mystery loosely based on a real life event, i.e., the disappearance of my great-grandfather.
So, as I write out the chapters, I can include some of these things in the book. Woo-hoo!
So, for anyone doing historical novels, you might want this software, perhaps solely for the timeline aspect, but perhaps more so to do your own family history research.
S
Friday, June 3, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Stink, Stank, Stunk
No, I'm not channeling the Grinch. Then again, maybe I am, because . . .
. . . my synopsis can best be described as . . .
. . . STINK!
. . . STANK!
. . .STUNK!
And . . . I wouldn't touch it with a thirty foot pole!! Ha!
Okay, it's not that bad.
Okay, I think it is that bad, though it has some promise . . .
. . . with a heck of a lot of tweaking.
Where in the heck is Cindy Lou Who when you need her?
Because, let me tell ya, my synopsis needs her . . . and a bunch of other stuff.
The problem: when I first worked on the synopsis for my cozy, I thought it was pretty dang good.
Yeah, I know, there I go thinking again. Never a good thing. It always gets me in trouble, like the time . . .
Well, no need to go there! Ha!
Suffice it to say, it needs work. I did some crossing out and red penning last night, and will do more work tonight to get this lovely stinky, stanky, stunky synopsis in tip-top shape!
S
. . . my synopsis can best be described as . . .
. . . STINK!
. . . STANK!
. . .STUNK!
And . . . I wouldn't touch it with a thirty foot pole!! Ha!
Okay, it's not that bad.
Okay, I think it is that bad, though it has some promise . . .
. . . with a heck of a lot of tweaking.
Where in the heck is Cindy Lou Who when you need her?
Because, let me tell ya, my synopsis needs her . . . and a bunch of other stuff.
The problem: when I first worked on the synopsis for my cozy, I thought it was pretty dang good.
Yeah, I know, there I go thinking again. Never a good thing. It always gets me in trouble, like the time . . .
Well, no need to go there! Ha!
Suffice it to say, it needs work. I did some crossing out and red penning last night, and will do more work tonight to get this lovely stinky, stanky, stunky synopsis in tip-top shape!
S
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