June 14, 2015

World in Motion 1939, released

World in Motion 1939, which intends to be the first volume in a series detailing the year-to-year global automobile production, is finally available as an e-book.

Purchases can be arranged through Amazon at any of the following pages:

June 05, 2015

Automobile catalogue - Contacts

Work is completely done on World in Motion 1939. Started in September last year, it has finally lasted until 4.30 pm yesterday.

Further announcements will follow regarding the release of the ebook, but in the meantime here are some contacts:

To write to us: belvedere.publishing@gmail.com

To follow us: https://belvederepublishing.wordpress.com/

To like us:  http://www.facebook.com/belvedere.publishing
                   (Belvedere Books' World in Motion)

May 23, 2015

Automobile catalogue - Some news, and a first glance at it!

Only some finishing touches remain, then World in Motion 1939 will be complete.

The work on the last coachbuilders, which I mentioned here last week, is finished. I added four pages of information regarding Australian automobiles, which represented quite a lively industry, even years before Holden launched the very first national model on the market. Today I have a few things to write about Canada, then Latin America. Various corrections will follow and then, finally, my work will be over, almost nine months after I started. As the book virtually has its final shape, I uphold my previous estimation of about 300 pages.

Tentative date for the publication - first half of June, as a reminder - again remains unchanged as everything follows its course perfectly.

And as a bonus, you can have a look at the cover:

May 16, 2015

Automobile catalogue - Update

Work continues on World in Motion 1939. Initially planned to count approximately 230 pages, extra information has now pushed up the expected mark to around 300 pages. The book will not only include all manufacturers (they are all finished), but also coachbuiders - that is, for those of you less familiar with the automotive industry of the years past, companies building one-off bodies on a bare chassis at the request of the customer. For the latter, the major part is already written and included in the book, with the exception of Great Britain, which had many such firms at the time and that I barely started working on.

As of now, the book's scheduled release date remains unchanged.

May 09, 2015

Automobile catalogue - soon to be released

It has been an extremely long time since I last wrote in this blog - as for the motives, I already expressed them at length.

The excuse for this new post, which ends such an extended period of silence, is for an announcement. Not having posted here for years does not mean that I have been away from model cars collecting or, more generally, that my interest in vintage automobiles has waned.

Some of you may have visited my other blog Automobiles of the World, equally abandoned for the very same reasons, in which I had started to list automobiles in a brand-per-brand, year-per-year format. Based on a similar concept, I am glad to announce the imminent publication of World in Motion 1939, which details the world automobile production during the said year, country by country, from the mainstream manufacturers to the lesser known brands and prototypes that have emerged during that time.

This work will be available as an ebook. Tentative date for its release is the first half of June 2015. Further information will be provided as this date draws close.

April 21, 2012

I give up!

Well, I still cross my fingers that it won't be more than temporary, but...

For those of you who are themselves Blogger users, I don't know what your own opinion about their new interface is. "Introducing the completely new, streamlined blogging experience that makes it easier for you to find what you need and focus on writing great blog posts." What a promise. As of me - call me stupid if you fancy it - mastering it is beyond my capacities, so I simply prefer to give up.

That's months already since they introduced this crap. I never asked for it then, but I got it anyway, and out of curiosity I tried it. Unusable. You may think differently - good for you - but because of the design of my blogs (similar presentation for every post, multiple links between the said posts, etc.), I constantly need to open multiple "edit" pages and navigate between them to update them, copy links, etc. Not possible anymore: from the "posts" page, no more right click is possible, so basically, you write or edit one post at a time - unmanageable. Adding pictures? A mess. Positioning and resizing of these pictures? I still didn't find how to easily do it. And so on...

Let's be honest... Actually there was one improvement: the new interface uses Microsoft-like keyboard shortcuts, as Ctrl+I to have the selected text in italic, or Ctrl+B for bold. Let's all clap our hands to show how grateful we are to the geniuses who brought us such a revolution in blogging. That's this kind of stuff which makes you deserve to have your mug on a post stamp one day.

Fortunately, there was still an option allowing you to return to the old interface. What a relief! Alas, as what happens everytime a major site has decided to adopt a "new look" that's supposed to be SO much better than the old one, they always make the change gradual and voluntary in appearance, before letting no other choice than the one they've made for you in advance. So, starting today and either you like it or not, it's the new interface for every Blogger user, period.

Instead of this post, you were supposed to read the whole story of the Hudson Jet on Scale Model Fan's related blog, Automobiles of the World. The text is ready, the pictures are uploaded. Up to yesterday, it should have been a ten-minute affair to put all this online. After something as fifty minutes, and not able to get anything close from the result I wanted, I've thrown the towel. Frankly, I don't return from a day at work with any willingness to struggle with this thing, though it is presented by the great minds at Blogger as a sizeable step toward increased simplicity. So, it's bye-bye to all, and my warmest thanks for having visited this blog, or still visiting it in the future. We'll see each other again when Blogger will either recover from their momentary madness (yes, momentary, for ironically I used to praise its ease of use), or on another site than this one. In the meantime, I'll occasionally pay a visit to answer any possible comment, but that'll be all.