Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Middletown USA -- The Ghosts of Muncie's Manufacturing Past

Muncie, Indiana -- designated "Middletown USA" by a sociological study in the 1930s.  A blue collar city:  Ball Brothers,  Warner Gear (3 plants), Indiana Steel & Wire, Chevrolet, Delco Battery, Owens-Illinois, Indiana Bridge Company, Marhoefer Meatpacking -- and dozens of smaller foundries and manufacturing plants.  Now not a single major manufacturing facility remains.  All that is left is rust, abandoned buildings, cement pads & the broken American dream of a better life for your children.

Locks gate at abandoned mostly leveled manufacturing site

Long neglected sign of closed plant

Of all these photos, this is the one that struck me the most.  Of a once thriving factory, all that remains is a surviving smokestack rising from a heap of rubble, and a utility pole with no wires, the need for power to the site having long since vanished.




Railroad tracks leading to no where -- just to a gate of a long-closed factory.  Now the siding ends at the gate amidst weeds and abandonment




A certain fragmented beauty in the shattered glass and crumbling walls of deserted watchman's station




Sunday, December 25, 2011

Images of Decline: Abandoned RR Bridges- White River, Muncie, IN

Rivet detail and bridge over White River, Muncie, IN
Iron & wood skeleton of abandoned bridge

Rivet & rust  - detail

Rust - Detail
2-span bridge and iron along Cardinal Greenway

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Smashwords -- Guide Well Worth Reading

Any author considering epublishing would do well to spend some time with Smashwords Guide to Publication.

This Guide is as clear and well-written as any guide I have ever read -- in fact, better.  It is a step-by-step approach to taking your novel from a word processor to an e-published novel available on every major source for e-books, including Kindle, Nook & iBook.

It took me about four hours to convert my manuscript to one suitable for Smashword's  "meatgrinder", that converts your document into all of the popular email formats.  It takes patience.  But follow the step-by-step guide, add just a touch of patience, and suddenly you have an e-book.

Check it out at www.smashwords.com