author – Page 6 – Dan Passaro

So what is a humadrone?

Our Chairman brings the concept to life. With Michelle’s programming providing the impetus the humadrone serves the Chairman and Michelle and also anticipates their needs.

Everything from doing the laundry to providing Base Security, the basic drone has a humanoid appearance. This helps it interact with the human world around it. Like negotiating stairs or flipping a light switch. Such seemingly simple and straightforward maneuvers for people.

They all share the same internals; nuclear battery, rad hard circuitry, titanium alloy skeletal systems, electric musculature, full spectrum vision, full spectrum audio, speech center and more.

The EVA humadrone is designed with armoring to protect against micrometeoroid strikes. Such orbital debris travels at double digit Mach numbers and the armor is set up accordingly.

The Base Security humadrone adds multiple layers of the same armor plating. Mobility suffers, but only slightly. They are still far more maneuverable than any human could hope to be.

These humadrones carry 12gauge magazine fed semiautomatic shotguns. Using ammunition designed in-house the Base Security drones can defend against land and air attacks from a variety of aggressors.

The Chairman does not sell or share the design with anyone. Strictly company assets.

Ever wonder how to format a manuscript? Ever wonder why even format it?

It’s called a baseline, a standard if you will.

My initial reason for looking into the matter involved my iPad. I’ve written half a book on just my iPad Mini using Pages for iOS. No external keyboard, just the soft keyboard.

And it wasn’t bad!

But back to formatting. Everywhere I searched I found the same answer, one inch in from the margin. My one glaring question though was ‘one inch in from where?’.

I kept looking. Did that grand committee of ‘they’ want the margin in from a 6×9 piece of paper such as the typical hardcover novel? 8.5×11? 8.5×14?

It seemed like the simplest question …. but no answer anywhere.

Well here is the answer: One inch margins in reference to an 8.5×11 page.

I suppose everyone just assumed that everyone else knew!

But why format at all? My layout is majestic, a treasure trove of literary beauty, a feast for the eyes and even the soulllllllll!!

Well your soul will end up in the circular file or the electronic Recycle Bin if you neglect the format standard.

The standard makes it easy for the agent, the editor, the publisher …. everyone to read. And to make notes on it.

If you make it difficult … well, the next manuscript is right underneath it.

So make it easy!

William Shunn’s straightforward 7 page treatise is the best single source I’ve found concerning the whys and details of how to format your manuscript.

PDF download: manuscript format

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