Products to use with Writer's Café

These products make great companions to Writer's Café. Please note that the Amazon links are for purchase in the UK.

StarOffice 7.0 StarOffice 7 Office Suite is the world's leading office productivity suite on Linux and the Solaris OS, and the leading alternative office suite on Windows.StarOffice software is affordable, easy to use, and based on open standards. It offers word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database capabilities. Its familiar interface enables quick productivity and results for the business user, and elegant output for the consumer. StarOffice 7 software adds functionality to enable export to PDF, and to the Macromedia Flash format. It also introduces the new StarOffice Configuration Manager, the StarOffice Software Development Kit, a macro recorder, and support for assistive technologies, as well as for complex text layouts. (Writer's Café comes with OpenOffice.org, the free version of StarOffice, but if you would like templates, database features and technical support, StarOffice is a bargain.)

Microsoft Office Standard 2003 Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003 is a bundle of the most essential desktop applications: Word 2003 for word processing, Excel 2003 for spreadsheets, PowerPoint 2003 for presentations and Outlook 2003 for e-mail and personal information. Office applications share a common look and feel, which means there's less to learn when switching between them. There are also shared components, such as the drawing tools, which let you create charts, diagrams and text effects. Another strong point is that Visual Basic for Applications is fully integrated, enabling anything from simple macros to custom solutions that automate one or more of the Office applications.

Operating Systems

Apple Mac OS 10.4 Tiger If you have Mac OS 10.2 or below, you will need to upgrade your operating system to run Writer's Café. Tiger keeps up Apples blazing pace of innovation with more than 200 breakthrough new features, including Spotlight, a revolutionary new way to find files and information on your personal computer; Safari RSS, a new version of Apples innovative Web browser that provides instant access to the most current RSS information on the Web; Dashboard, a dazzling new way to get in and out of a collection of new all-purpose "widgets" quickly; and iChat AV multi-way video and audio conferencing, the industrys first consumer solution with a stunning 3D interface.

Hardware

Kingston Data Traveler 256MB USB flash drive Store your Writer's Café files on a portable, tiny drive and take your work to whatever machine you're currently using. The DataTraveler from Kingston helps budget-conscious users break storage barriers, allowing them to easily store and move large files in a device no bigger than a pocketknife, replacing the need for floppies or the hassle of burning CDs.As easy as click and drag, the DataTraveler can hold just about any file you can think of: term papers, theses, digital images, spreadsheets or other important documents. It works with virtually any computer with a USB port - even cross-platform from Macintosh to PC and vice versa.

Russell Hobbs 10973 One Cup Coffee Maker The new Russell Hobbs One Cup Coffee Maker will make one cup of delicious filter coffee, quickly and easily, with no waste and no fuss. However, if you can't resist that extra cup, or someone else fancies a cup, one can be made in no time at all. Supplied with a double skinned stainless steel mug to keep your coffee hot for longer without burning your lips. It also includes a permanent filter, has a 160ml water capacity and a neon indicator which will let you know when the machine is switched on.

Books

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, by Natalie Goldberg This text offers encouragement and advice on many aspects of the writer's craft, from "first thoughts" to the use and misuse of adverbs, from where the best places are to write - both public and private - to developing your skills in the art of listening. Based on the premise that writing creatively helps us to comprehend and value our lives, the book should help readers to learn and value the art of writing in their lives. The chapters covers topics from writing practice and using loneliness, to beating self-doubt.

Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life, by Natalie Goldberg A guide designed for everyone who writes or wants to write. Goldberg teaches a Zen-like method that aims to take the reader to the source of creative power. Advice includes: finding time to write; discovering a personal style; making statements come alive; and how to overcome writer's block.

The Writer's Journey, by Christopher Vogler Presenting a study of film as storytelling, this book examines how the great works of cinema history have used the principles of myth to create stories which are dramatic, entertaining, and psychologically true. The author looks not only at how outstanding figures from Hitchcock to Lucas, Spielberg and Tarantino have used mythic structure to create powerful stories, but also offers step-by-step guidelines designed to help readers to incorporate effective plot structure and characterization in their own writing. This edition has been updated to include analysis of "Titanic", "The Lion King", "Pulp Fiction" and "The Full Monty".

The Art of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives, by Lajos Egri Lajos Egri examines a play from the inside out, starting with the heart of any drama: its characters. For it is people - their private natures and their inter-relationships - that move a story and give it life. All good dramatic writing depends upon an understanding of human motives. Why do people act as they do? What forces transform a coward into a hero, a hero into a coward? What is it that Romeo does early in Shakespeare's play that makes his later suicide seem inevitable? Why must Nora leave her husband at the end of A Doll's House? These are a few of the fascinating problems which Egri analyzes. He shows how it is essential for the author to have a basic premise - a thesis, demonstrated in terms of human behaviour - and to develop his dramatic conflict on the basis of that behaviour. Premise, character, conflict: this is Egri's ABC. His book is a direct, jargon-free approach to the problem of achieving truth in a literary creation.

Aspects of the Novel, by E.M. Forster A collection of literary lectures by E.M. Forster, published in 1927. For the purposes of his study, Forster defines the novel as "any fictitious prose work over 50,000 words." Forester's wit and lively, informed originality have made this study of the novel a classic. Avoiding the chronological approach of what he calls "pseudoscholarship," Forster freely examines elements that all English-language novels have in common: story, people, plot, fantasy, prophecy, pattern and rhythm.

Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting, by Robert McKee "Story" deciphers the guiding structural principles that animate every classical and award-winning film, ranging from "Citizen Kane" through to modern acclaimed works like "The English Patient".

Writing the Character-centered Screenplay, by Andrew Horton "We need good screenwriters who understand character." Everywhere Andrew Horton travelled in researching this book - from Hollywood to Hungary - he heard the same refrain. Yet many how-to books on screenwriting follow the film industry's earlier lead in focusing almost exclusively on plot and formulaic structures. With this book, Horton, a film scholar and screenwriter, attempts to provide a definitive work on the character-based screenplay. It covers American, international, mainstream, and "off-Hollywood" films, as well as television, and offers creative strategies and practical information. Horton begins by placing screenwriting in the context of the storytelling tradition, arguing through literary and cultural analysis that all great stories revolve around a strong central character. He then suggests specific techniques and concepts to help any writer - whether new or experienced - build more vivid characters and screenplays. Centring his discussion around four film examples - including "Thelma & Louise" nd "The Silence of the Lambs" and the television series, "Northern Exposure", he takes the reader step-by-step through the screenwriting process, starting with the development of multi-dimensional characters and continuing through to rewrite. Finally, he includes information about contests, fellowships, and film festivals. In this updated edition, Horton also surveys the New Hollywood, where "Fargo","Shakespeare in Love" and "The Truman Show" are able to succeed alongside the perennial special effects extravaganzas, and the American independent scene, which has seen the joyful emergence of such films as "Smoke Signals" and "Big Night".

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