Starsong Blog

A New Review of “Song of the Stars”

anniecrystal — Mon, 03 May 2010 10:05:46 +0000

After quite a few years of following our own pathways, I recently sent a copy of Song of the Stars to Jackie, my fellow traveller on the journey recounted within the book. Her reaction was “Well, what a blast from the past! ……I just felt so excited when it arrived. Can’t wait to refresh all those lovely memories.” 4 days later I heard from her again when she had finished reading the book “It was great to have an overview of all our antics at long, long last. …I loved the story. Incidentally, do you realize it landed on my doormat when Jupiter was virtually exactly in the same place as it had been on the day we set out? A complete Jupiter cycle – growth, expansion of consciousness, philosophy, world view etc. Nice one!” It feels so good to be back in contact with her again as though the circle has been completed. I asked her whether she would be willing to write a review of the book both as a fellow traveller and as a reader of the book and here’s what she has written:

“Song of the Stars is a ground-breaking book which follows the metaphysical exploits of two unlikely candidates for a spiritual adventure on their hilarious romp through the mountains and canyons of North America.

Annie Goodwin is a brave and gifted new author, who has a rare ability to explain complex matters with a lightness of touch and rambunctious sense of humour.

This well-crafted and very readable book details the inner experiences of two middle-aged women as they follow where their guidance leads them. It offers insight into a deeply connected and deeply metaphysical world in which the cosmic picture underpins the evolution of consciousness occurring during the early part of the 21^st century.

Through the very personal experiences of Annie and Jackie, Song of the Stars expands our understanding and describes an alternative view of our Earth and her position within the greater scheme of things. It allows us to glimpse the galaxies and stars, the forces beyond our solar system, that drive not only our global evolution but also impact us as individuals, affecting our cellular patterning and our ability to step into our destiny as world citizens of the Aquarian Age.”

Thank you jackie and I look forward to actually meeting up again.

Another first for my book website!

anniecrystal — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:15:33 +0000

I’ve managed another first for my book website as I’ve just added audio [which isn't new] with a menu [which is new]. On the menu is the Introduction and Chapters 1,2 and 3 of my book which I’ve spent hours recording [these are new as well] http://www.song-of-the-stars.com/Page8BookAudio.html They are also available to download so you don’t have to sit on the internet while you listen!!

Also on the menu is the audio pitch I recorded for my first round submission in the Next Top Spiritual Author competition [direct link - http://www.NextTopAuthor.com/?aid=68]

It’s been quite a journey recording the chapters as each is quite long. Many glasses of water later and some extremely good free freeware audio editing software – Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ allowed me to finish the task today. The audio editing software is highly recommended.

What a cracker of a day – I found an audio hat on mio-planet!

anniecrystal — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:24:24 +0000

I didn’t mean to do any work on my website today and then next thing I knew I was looking for advice on how to embed an mp3 player. I know, I know, I hear the question flying around – when is she going to get a life? However, I am so proud of myself as I now have Windows Media Player embedded inb my website and can play all sorts of things. Perhaps I should say I have the potential to play all sorts of things as I only have one thing uploaded and thats the pitch I did for the first round of the Next Top Spiritual Author competition.

Back to Google again, the fount of all knowledge, and the nexct thing I knew I was flying off to mio-planet. I don’t think its in the solar system although it didn’t take long to get there! There was the answer to my prayers a page entitled – How to embed Windows Media Player in HTML document. Eureka! Within a few minutes I had downloaded the html code required and had popped it into my website. It cvuldn;t have been easier. The journey back from mio-planet was even quicker – must have been downhill! Here’s the link inm caqse it might be of help http://www.mioplanet.com/rsc/embed_mediaplayer.htm

I have square eyes!

anniecrystal — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 10:49:42 +0000

I have just written somewhere in excess of 200 e-mails in the past 3 days, each with a personal greeting at the beginning. I sat in front of my computer until 03:00 this morning and my eyes have now turned square. Every single person on my contacts list has been included in my efforts to get as many votes as possible for the Next Top Author competition. If you are reading this and have voted for me then a very big thank you to you. If you have voted and haven’t contacted me than I urge you to do so at www.song-of-the-stars.com/Page5Contact.html as participants in the competition aren’t told who has voted for them!

Now to finish the Press Release but first some exercise and fresh air!

Happy Easter to all.

More hats acquired in my quest to win Next Top Spiritual Author competition

anniecrystal — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 13:25:17 +0000

I added a couple more hats today.

Researcher hat – searching out not only local media contacts but also national and international ones. After all if I’m going to win an international competition I really need to get international support. Keep looking at the big picture I tell myself every day.

Press release hat – thankfully it seems possible to Google anything these days and find sixty million answers. Finding an outline for a press release was child’s play compared to some of the things I’ve looked for in the past; such as when I Googled “characteristics of a galactic season”. For once Google was silent on the subject!

One thing entering the Next Top Spiritual Author competition has given me is a boot up the backside to get done all the things I had planned to do but in a much shorter timescale as 1^st round voting finishes on 3 May. When I’ve done the press releases in the UK I’ll do the same in the States. Thank goodness for the internet as I can just sit here at my desk and reach the rest of the world!

The past 2 days have been spent writing and sending e-mails asking for votes. My plan is to step through everybody in my contacts list and e-mail them personally asking for their help. This could take quite a time! As I was writing my nn..th e-mail yesterday I had one of those rare AHA moments. It suddenly dawned on me that this was the first time in my life I had EVER used the words I NEED YOUR HELP so many times. In fact they are not words I have ever used much at all. Interesting what a competition will do for you!

Prior to entering the competition I added yet another hat to my collection Audio Presentation Creator and it had to be in mp3 format. Hmmmmm, yes, I had a laptop which could play mp3 and I searched high and low through my software to see if I had anything I could record with – nothing! Yes, I had a small recorder which I could attach to the laptop and upload the recording. Yuk!! Terrible quality which made me sound as though I had a huge lisp. Back to my favourite place, Google, and within the blink of a sparrow’s eye I had thousands of possibilities presented to me. It had to be free as it was the end of the month and funds had run out!

Audacity was the name of the program I downloaded. At this point I wish to take ALL my hats off and give thanks to the many, many people round the world who spend their time willingly to create Open Source software and especially to those who collaborated in the creation of Audacity. It is an awesome product and within a very short space of time I had created an audio presentation. They even provide an app that will convert the output of their program into other formats [also free]. Hip hip hooray!! [as all my hats are thrown into the air!}

In the blink of another sparrow’s eye I had my created my audio pitch in mp3 format which uploaded to the competition site like a dream. Now people would be able to listen to my smooth silky soft voice with absolutely no hint of a tint of lisp and absolutely no back ground noises or hisses.

Well folks, time to put on my e-mailing hat again. Back to my contact list. I’ll check in again soon.

I need Your Vote!

anniecrystal — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:23:51 +0000

I’ve entered a writing competition called Next Top Spiritual Author and have just posted my first round pitch online. I need as many votes as possible to get me into the next round and would be eternally grateful for yours as the winner gets a publishing contract with Hampton Roads. So, if you feel so inclined go to:

http://www.NextTopAuthor.com/?aid=68

Thanks in advance

I’ve gone OJO soft!

anniecrystal — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:54:31 +0000

Yes folks, cracked at last! Some say what’s new!!

In my search for tools to create a video for YouTube I came across a wonderful product called OJOsoft Total Video Converter. Its an all-in-one video conversion software that, according to the website, “converts video files easily and quickly between almost any formats, including AVI(DivX, Xvid, etc), MPEG-1/2/4, MPG, WMV, ASF, MOV(QuickTime), MP4, DAT, VOB, MKV, FLV, 3GP, 3G2 etc. Also, It allows you to extract audio tracks from video files.”

I downloaded the free trial and set to work on some video clips I had taken on my Kodak Z740 camera back in 2005 when I was strolling round the world. Although I have Windows Movie Maker on my laptop I hadn’t been able to use it to make a video as my clips were in the wrong format.

I opened up OJO soft and in the twink of an eye they were all reformatted and ready for the Movie Maker experience. In another twink of an eye I had a joined up video! Wow, after all these years I could see the whole sequence. What a blast! After these first couple of twinks of an eye I decided this software was worth purchasing and at about £26.00 was worth every penny. Next stop YouTube.

I hadn’t thought to see if I could reformat the whole video into an HD format so the first trial run on YouTube was somewhat grainy. Back to OJO Soft again and having looked at all the formats available decided to try out the highest quality HD. Although it changed the file size from about 32MB to almost 1GB and took about an hour to process, the end result was worth it and in the twink of about 4 eyes the HD version was uploaded to YouTube. If you’d like to see the end result follow this link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_uI-bMi8mM

Create a Video Hat

anniecrystal — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:36:11 +0000

Yes I did take some time off – well half a day!

I’ve now found my next hat to wear which is to learn how to create a video presentation about my book and embed it in my website. Back to the drawing board once again with lots of questions to answer! The main ones being what do I want to tell/show people and most importantly how do I do that. So, I may be away for a time while I go through the creation process. See you at the other end.

I will be taking a short time away from wearing my video hat while I put on my create a talk hat as I shall be giving a talk entitiled Pathway from the Stars on 25th March at 7.30pm at Lupton House near Brixham in Devon. Hopefully this will be the first of many!

Another day, another hat to put on!

anniecrystal — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:06:24 +0000

Today was to be my first day of rest for quite some time. After completing the update of both my websites and construction of their associated photo galleries, today was to be a day spent dreaming of all those people who were going to log onto the sites and start buying my creations, especially my book. You’re right, you can tell from my tone it didn’t happen!

Today turned into a day of exploration into things like RSS feeds, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking sites. What was RSS? Up until today it was just a button I had seen on many websites and had no idea how it worked or whether I needed one of them. Thank goodness for Google. I was soon deep into a flood of websites telling me all I needed to know and a lot more. I crumbled in the end and now have a shiny orange logo proudly sitting on both websites linking to my very first feeds, one for each. Whether anybody anywhere in the world will ever read them I have no idea. I hope so after all the effort it took to get them there.

Will I get a rest tomorrow? Probably not as I really need to put my nose to the grindstone and start to create the outline for the talk I will be giving on 25th March. Hopefully this is the first of many relating to my book. I’ve had the title for ever and a day, its called Pathway from the Stars. This vied with the other title option, The New Dawn, for a long time. For now Pathway from the Stars has won out but watch this space.

Once the talk is done and dusted there’s still things like Press Releases to create and decide who to send them to; venues and dates for talks to plan and set up and on and on and on………. How many hats I have worn so far in this self publishing process I really don’t know. I’ve lost count. How many more there will be to put on and take off who knows! All I can say is there’s never a dull moment and its not for the faint hearted. Thankfully I’m not a technophobe or I would proabably have fallen flat on my face by now in a screaming fit! Even so I’ve been close to it from time to time and have on at least one occasion just restrained myself from throwing my laptop out of my pram!

Let’s just see what tomorrow brings and I’ll keep you up to date with my hats.

Time flies!!

anniecrystal — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:44:16 +0000

Wow, doesn’t time fly when you’re not looking!

So much to do when you self-publish and so many different hats to wear. I’ve been busy with all manner of things such as press releases, creating a new website and updating one I already had. This entailed setting up e-commerce in one and the creation of a large photo gallery. I’ve also posted some of the book on Authonomy a site set up by Harper Collins which is a social networking site for writers. Then there’s been the creation of talks and potential workshops to use as a marketing tool. So much preparation. Still its nearly complete and I am due to give my first talk in less than 2 weeks time. When that’s over I thoink I might take a day or two of R&R!!