Major changes to the makeup of the grid set the tone for a promising 2015 Formula One season. Two World Champions have opted to switch teams in order to reinvigorate their careers following lacklustre results last year. Fernando Alonso returns to a team he almost destroyed back in 2007, while Sebastian Vettel makes a clean break from the team and personnel that have been responsible for his F1 success to date.
If you’re not a fan of Kindle-shaped reading products, never fear! The iBooks edition of the Pocket F1 Handbook: Guide to the 2014 Grand Prix Season has arrived. The book contains all the driver and team profiles, rules and regulations updates, and circuit information that you’re going to need for the upcoming Formula One season, and has the iBooks bonus of easier navigation and better-looking tables.
So, if you own an Apple device, be it phone, tablet or desktop, there’s no excuse not to get your hands on a copy of the Pocket F1 Handbook. You can download a handy sample to preview the book before you buy, but snap it up soon. There are only nine days left to the start of the 2014 season, so you can swot up on all you need to know before the action gets underway in Australia next week.
To celebrate the release of the latest Guide to the 2014 Grand Prix Season, the previous two editions have been reduced in price, allowing you to complete your Pocket F1 Handbook collection.
The Pocket guides have been previewing the last three seasons of Formula One, featuring all the information you need to know about drivers, teams, rules and regulations, plus bonus extra content in each edition of the book.
The 2014 F1 season promises to be a dramatic one, a time of regeneration and modernisation that more than anything else guarantees to be unpredictable. With an overhaul in the regulations, a raft of driver and personnel movements, plus a handful of new races to challenge all, it is set to be an eventful year in motor sport.
Defending champions Red Bull field a revised driver line-up, but they are far from alone. All teams bar Marussia and Mercedes have at least one new face behind the wheel. The regulations too create their own special kind of chaos, with new turbo engines, fuel limits, plus a raft of aerodynamic tweaks to challenge the most experienced of engineers.
Every Formula One season tells a story. A continuing saga, a sporting soap opera, it dates back to the inauguration of the World Championship in 1950 and even before that. At the same time, each and every year, the slate is wiped clean and both drivers and teams are given the chance to impress all over again.
This book will guide you through the 2013 season, visiting each event in turn to see how the year unfolded, and how events wound their way towards the season-closing race in Brazil. From the early anticipation of brand new rookie drivers, to the closing stages with familiar faces on the podium, you’ll revisit the highs and lows of another page added to F1’s illustrious and often controversial history.
I love it when a plan comes together. This time last year, getting an update through onto the Pocket F1 Handbook owned by loyal and marvellous customers was not an easy feat. Fast forward twelve months, and a significant period of chopping and changing within Formula One, and we now have two sections significantly updated and ready for you to read!
No matter which version of the book you bought, iBookstore or Amazon Kindle, you should be able to get your hands on an updated copy - with a little less Razia and a little more Sutil. Just a couple of days after the season got going too!
This year, the Pocket F1 Handbook is spreading its wings and launching on more than just Amazon reading apps and devices. The Guide to the 2013 F1 Season is now available on the Apple iBookstore, making it available to an iDevice near you. If you prefer your books to have a more standard viewing experience, and the ability to update faster, the iBookstore option may be the one for you.
Formula One begins a brand new season, with a lot to live up to. The action in 2012 surprised, delighted and thrilled fans with a host of different winners, a successful return to the United States and a championship fight that went right down to the wire.
With Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel securing their third driver and constructor championships in a row, the challenge of trying to beat them is ever-present. Lewis Hamilton’s high-profile move to Mercedes will be a key factor in that team’s fortunes, as they attempt to move forward and join the intense battle at the front. Look out also for Ferrari and McLaren who will both be keen to halt Red Bull’s run of success.
One of the appeals of writing books exclusively in a digital format is that if you need to update your book, it should be simple. Whether it be for a mistake, or additional information, or simply a bigger and better second edition, ebooks are perfect for updating. Rather than printing a huge batch of paperback or hard copy books then realising you’ve made an error, it should be easy to fix and avoid that heart-sinking moment of discovery.
When the Kindle Fire initially came out, we saw ebooks the way they should be - nice layouts, gorgeous pictures, crisper graphics. The fact-filled and informative Pocket F1 book made use of the new table designs and looked all the better for it.
Sadly, the Kindle desktop apps and the original devices were left behind with less snazzy tables, but that has all changed thanks to Amazon’s latest Kindle update. The new version (4.1.0) should be rolling out to customers gradually, or you can head to that link and update manually if you’re tricksy like that.
Last time I checked, the new Formula One season was still something like 80+ days away. The beautiful off-season stretched luxuriously ahead of us and there was all the time in the world to knuckle down to some projects.
Then I blinked.
Now there are 20 days left.
That’s like, three weeks.
The off season is all but over and what do I have to show for it?
Well, actually, I have a book. I wrote a new book all about the upcoming season. We’ve publicised it all over the place, but if you haven’t heard about it yet, do check it out - Pocket F1 Handbook: Guide to the 2012 Grand Prix Season
Formula One enters its 63rd year in 2012, with a packed grid of 24 drivers, 12 passionate teams, and a calendar bursting at the seams with 20 races across the globe. Pitting brand new drivers against returning faces and defending champions against title hunters, the sport will cross five continents in nine gruelling months to discover who is the best of the best. By year’s end we will see a driver and constructor champion crowned, and learn who can handle the pressure and who needs to return to the drawing board.
My Life List is now something like two years old, and rather than the whole New Year’s Resolution thing, I like to have a quick look back at the things achieved this year, and then a quick look forward at what I hope the year ahead will bring. It’s fair to say that this year has not been as full of Life List success as I would have hoped, mostly because it was full of months of soul-searching, making life-changing decisions, and forging ahead with book-writing.
A few days ago, Amazon announced two brand new stores for Kindle, bringing the total up to six individual destinations now. The two new countries added are Italy and Spain, via Amazon.it and Amazon.es. All three of my books are currently available in both, with any searches bringing up the results with Euro currency.
Christine Blachford on the Italian store Christine Blachford on the Spanish store The two news stores join the recently introduced French site, along with the already existing US, UK and German stores.
This week, Jeffrey Tschiltsch posted a fabulous update on Google+ that pondered the concept of stories within racing games, particularly the new Formula 1 epic from Codemasters. Here’s a sample of Jeffrey’s thoughts:
So after finishing +Christine Blachford’s Between the Lines (Formula Primo Confidential) last night I suddenly realized what Codemasters’ F1 2011 is missing in its career mode: a compelling story line. The generic emails, state-the-obvious “headlines” and contract offers you get throughout your season are a feeble attempt at narrative, and the responses given during the “interviews” really don’t seem to do all that much.
365 F1 Stories chronicles a tale from Formula One’s vast history for every single day of the year, with a variety of different topics on offer. From driver birthdays, to important races, to those little moments you might have missed, there’s plenty on offer in the books.
If you’re not completely convinced, or have bought the books but haven’t read through them all, there’s a quick way of getting a teaser for what’s happening on the day in question. The 365 F1 Stories Twitter account has a daily teaser update for you, posing a question related to the relevant story in the book itself. For example, a couple of days ago, this was the update:
For those who prefer their eBooks on the iPod/iPhone/iPad, Formula Primo Confidential has now made its debut on the iBookstore.
The first in the series, Between the Lines, is now available in six countries, with more than twenty coming shortly.
The iBookstore version offers full colour graphics, table of contents, and advanced formatting.
Visit Between the Lines on the iBookstore and get your free sample now!
In the wee hours of the morning, I launched my latest book - Between the Lines. The book is the first in the new Formula Primo series - which you may know better as Life in the Fast Lane.
It began as a simple ten part story, in which the readers could vote in which direction the next chapter would go. Now it has been expanded and improved to become Between the Lines.
Between the Lines is the first book in the Formula Primo Confidential series - a fictional motorsport category populated by intriguing and passionate drivers. Following the highs and lows of a rookie racer as he joins the series, this first book will transport you into a motorsport universe of exciting drama.
If you ever followed my Life in the Fast Lane series, you will recognise the characters and the fundamental story behind Formula Primo. From a ten part reader-voted story, I’ve expanded on the details to create Between the Lines.
Since writing my two-part F1 book and releasing it on Amazon as a Kindle ebook, many people have noted with disappointment that they don’t own a Kindle device. Yet one of Amazon’s best kept secrets is the many, many Kindle apps they have created offering the ability to read their ebook content on a variety of different devices. Even if you don’t possess a Kindle, you should still be able to read an ebook.
As if I wasn’t already taking over the internet enough, I’ve set up another domain and site. If you head over to christineblachford.com you will find a quite sparse, but in progress website. That is the place where I’ll be specifically posting updates about books and writing and that kind of thing. Don’t think I won’t talk about that stuff here too, but it felt sensible to nab the domain while it was free.
The second book of the 365 F1 Stories series was published over the weekend, and you can find more about it on the books page. It’s been quite the process getting these two books into being, and it’s not over yet. There are more things to do with those two, and more ideas in my head for further exploration. I hope to blog more about the process when I am able to think straight again.
Recently, I have talked a lot about writing. I talked about the process of doing it:
I’m quite lucky in that what I’m doing has specific sections so I know how far I am through it. Seeing the percentage creep up each day is really motivating, although the days when it stays the same is less so. It’s also good to say, when I get to this percentage then I can have a reward. I haven’t decided what my reward should be for finishing the whole thing. Maybe cake.
