CommanderBond.net

Heaven Isn't Too Far Away

CommanderBond.net is proud to present, Heaven Isn't Too Far Away in a new exciting version.

Revised, re-edited, expanded, and presented to you in PDF book format, this definitive version of the book will carry its readers, new and old, fully in to the literary world shared by masterspy James Bond and Barbara’s own exciting creation, Amanda Hightower. The file requires the free program Adobe Acrobat Reader version 5.0 or better to view. Download Acrobat Reader.

Well, I read the new-improved first chapter (which is as far as I got last time) and it is much improved. You actually have a few character insights in there which makes the whole thing work a lot better. It still needs work, though- why do all the characters talk without contractions? I don't think I've ever said "It is a" in my life! Why would ordering a G+T be such a surprise to a member of bar staff? How is it the bar is on the 'ground level' and yet requires a gymnatic leap to the ground? Why is there a 'Laundromat' in central London? Do you mean Laundrette? There is a staggering lack of detail at some points- surely you can tell us what Bond is driving at least? Or what happened in the 'Laundromat'?

Its not without merit, but needs serious work I would say.

For some reason I could not open this on my computer....I was impressed by the original version -- still slogging my way through my own fan fiction I appreciate the dedication it takes.

So people know: in this PDF there are translations of much of the French and Italian dialog available. Simply click on a bit of dialog and the type will change to English, framed by guillemets ( « ... » ) rather than double quotes to indicate it is a translation. Clicking on the closing guillemet ( » ) will close the translation and revert it back to the original French or Italian. A semi-experimental technique was used to accomplish this so it is not perfect. If you the dialog does not open try moving to a different bit of the dialog and clicking there.

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Originally posted by DLibrasnow (edited) For some reason I could not open this on my computer...

DLib, which version of Acrobat reader do you have installed? This file requires version 5 or better, where some of the other novels we have in the fan fiction section only require version 4. Whether you have version 5 or not let me know. I want to make sure you (and everyone else for that matter) can read this book.

Hang in there Mark...the Contractions are coming. They are in there...somewhere....

-- Xen

Good-o, look forward to 'em.

I mean, the title has ISN'T in it!

I think it's cool to omit contractions as long as you do it for the entire novel. Going back and forth between having them and not having them seems a little awkward...

Mr Asterix, can I ask how you make these lovely pdfs? I had to make some recently and the vectors came out all furry when I tried in Illustrator. I made them in photoshop in the end, but there seemed to be little advantage over a jpeg, then.
Any tips?

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Originally posted by marktmurphy Mr Asterix, can I ask how you make these lovely pdfs? I had to make some recently and the vectors came out all furry when I tried in Illustrator. I made them in photoshop in the end, but there seemed to be little advantage over a jpeg, then. Any tips?

Actually, the vector images that I used I created as a font and then embedded the font. This keeps them very crisp and clean. For the covers, I use a PDF made directly from Photoshop. Everything else is just loads of careful typesetting.

So - and treat me as a complete idiot as I know nothing of pdf's- do you actually create these in Acrobat?

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Originally posted by marktmurphy So - and treat me as a complete idiot as I know nothing of pdf's- do you actually create these in Acrobat?

Barbara’s book (much like the other ones I did) the original files were typeset in QuarkXPress. The vector images, which I created in Macromedia Fontographer, are placed as type in Quark. From Quark, I printed to a PDF. This process uses Acrobat Distiller, but since it is all automated these days I never actually touch Distiller in the process. I end up with a PDF with everything except the front cover.

I make the front cover by downsizing my original Photoshop artwork to a size that is just a little to big to use on the web. (Usually around 125 to 150 dpi.) That give a semi-decent printout (though not really to the standards I want), but it keeps the file size in a range that is just not quite too big.

I then merge the two PDFs in Acrobat and get to work adding articles and links in to all of the pages. I like to have lots of tricks and gizmos in my PDF, but never ever at the expence of having it not look exactly like a real paper book. That is why there is never a hint of a link except with the cursor changing. However I try to keep the links in the obvious places. (Table of Contents et cetera.)

Did I leave out anything?

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Originally posted by marktmurphy So - and treat me as a complete idiot as I know nothing of pdf's- do you actually create these in Acrobat?

In layman's terms (I've only just gotten into this PDF stuff), Adobe provides Acrobat Reader free so that everyone can view PDF files.

To create a FPD file though, you need Acrobat Distiller (which comes with the Acrobat software package) and is of course not free.

Now, once you have Distiller, you can create a Word document in Windows say, and when you go to "save it as...." you'll have the option to save it as a PDF file.

Once saving it as a DPF file everything is automaticly converted to a PDF file.

Within a few seconds your Word document opens as a PDF file.

As I said I've only just gotten into this PDF caper, so I hope I got all that right.

Err...PS: AS for Barbara's magnificent fanfic, you only need Acrobat Reader 5.0 or later, and this is free to download.

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Originally posted by Xenobia Hang in there Mark...the Contractions are coming.  They are in there...somewhere....

When's the blessed event due to happen? Where's the cigars?