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Pseudonyms: Tasha D-Drake, Tasha Duncan
Bio
Natasha is a British author with Wittegen Press and has been publishing genre fiction since 2011. Her work includes everything from horror to young adult fantasy and she has never met a genre she didn’t like. A prolific producer of short stories and novels alike, Natasha currently has over twenty five titles in her back catalogue with further releases always imminent.
Natasha has been writing since she was a young girl ever since she read The Hobbit at Primary School. She is a big fan of science fiction, fantasy and horror in all their forms and is a big advocate of fanfiction as a great tool for writers to polish their skills in a welcoming and supportive community.
Before establishing Wittegen Press with her twin sister, Sophie Duncan, Natasha was a database and systems consultant. She combines these skills with her writing to create and manage her career in the bold new eBook market.
Press kit downloads: Bio and Contact Links| HiRes Photo | Details of All Tasha’s Books
Contact Information
twitter: @beren_writes | Facebook | G+ | Tumblr | Livejournal | Fanfic on AO3 | Goodreads | Amazon Author Profile | Wattpad
Scroll down to see the most recent posts from Tasha’s Personal Blog and she is also a contributor to the Wittegen Press Blog. Both have free fiction, information about books, reviews of books and films and lots more.
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Tasha’s Latest Personal Blog Posts
(to visit the whole blog click here)
Tasha's Thinkings
Welcome to my blog! Here you will find tips on writing/publishing, recipes, reviews, fiction and more.
Auto-Syncing Subtitles on YouTube
Subtitles are things that are often overlooked on YouTube vids, and as good as AI is getting at creating auto-generated subtitles for vids, there is nothing quite like having personally uploaded, accurate ones for quality control.
However, I have found they can be a little tricky, and doing them manually by hand takes forever!
One way of doing this is paying a company to create a subtitle file from your video and just uploading this. However, for those of us on a budget, this is often a cost we simply cannot afford.
Luckily, YouTube offers great tools to help us out.
The most useful of these for me, is the Auto-Sync option.
Below I'm going to share the most useful tip I have discovered on how to get this option to work quickly and exactly how I want every time.
What you will need to use this method:
- the script of your video
- YouTube Studio
Method for Flawless Auto-Sync Subtitles
- Open your script file in the word processor of your choice - as long as it has a search and replace option.
- Add a new paragraph at every point you definitely want a new subtitle - YouTube will auto break longer paragraphs, but it can be very random how it does it and sometimes with large scripts it fails.
- This is the important step - search and replace all single paragraph marks with two paragraph marks so paragraphs have a space between them. This will make auto-syncing work like a charm because it will take each paragraph as its own subtitle and has to do way less work.
- Open your uploaded video in YouTube Studio and click the subtitles option.
- Choose the Auto-Sync option.
- Copy and paste the double spaced script into the Auto-sync box and wait while the AI automatically syncs the subtitles to the sound in your video. It should only take a little while (this varies on what time of day it is and how busy the system is).
What to Do If the Auto-Sync Fails
- The video has not finished the checking process. In that case I close the subtitle window using the X and choose the "discard changes" option. This means we can start the process over again once the checking of the vid is done and the processes won't interfere with each other.
- It's a large script file and it just can't do it. I use the same method of leaving and discarding changes, then I check my file to make script file to make sure there's nothing in it that could be pasting in incorrectly and try again. It usually works the second time.
What to Do If There Are Existing Subtitles and Auto-Sync is Not There
Check Out My Fiction YouTube Channel
Each week we have a theme and so there will be something for all tastes.
- 🎤Micro stories and jokes for all the family as YouTube Shorts Monday - Sunday- for fun quick viewing
- 🕮A longer story every now and then for story time, over coffee or before going to bed
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Stuffed Potato & Parmesan Waffles
Gluten Free & Vegetarian
This is a partial repost, but also an updated recipe from back in 2020. The original recipe is for plain potato & parmesan waffles, but my lovely twin just gifted me and my hubby a stuffed waffle iron, so of course we had to try it out. These are so very delicious, I had to share.
As I mentioned, the original recipe is based off of Nigella's Garlic & Parmesan waffles from her book, "At My Table". This is just a different take on the recipe, with a stuffing of red peppers and mozzarella.
Makes 3x 5''(12.7cm) waffles
A serving for me was 1 waffle, but my husband ate 2 easily, so scale up to fit your needs
Ingredients
- 400g / 2 cups mashed potato (left over mash works well, or I used cooked frozen mash this time)
- 4 tbsp (60ml) butter
- 8 tbsp (120ml) milk
- 2 eggs
- 45g/ ~3/8cup finely grated Parmesan (or hard Italian cheese vegetarian equiv)
- 4 tbsp cornflour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp Dried Rosemary (I like the grind it in a pestle and mortar or spice grinder to make it distribute better and release its flavour)
- salt & pepper to taste
- half a ball of mozzarella (vegetarians check the packet to make sure you have a veggie version)
- half a large red pepper (capsicum) - I use jarred roasted peppers (I hate the skin on fresh ones), but if you are using fresh you will need to fry the peppers off before use, unless you want crunchy almost raw pepper in your waffle - which is an option for a texture change.
Instructions
- Melt the butter (I microwave it for 30s then stir until completely melted, but you can do it in a saucepan) and leave to stand to cool down.
- Preheat the waffle iron.
- Prepare the filling by chopping the mozzarella and pepper into small pieces.
- Microwave your mash if using frozen or allow to come to room temp if using leftovers, and, using a fork or something similar, break up the mash so that it is light pieces, not one lump.
- In a large bowl whisk together the cooled butter, eggs and milk.
- Add in the potato a little at a time, whisking it in each time. I used a flat manual whisk, but you could use an electric hand whisk, or a bowl mixer if you prefer.
- Add the Parmesan, cornflour, baking powder, rosemary, salt and pepper and beat until smooth(ish).
- Lightly oil the waffle iron.
- Place a few spoonfuls of batter in the bottom of the waffle iron - enough to just cover the raised areas. After a couple of second it will begin to puff up a little.
- Take 1/3rd of the filling and place in the centre of the waffle batter, leaving half a cm or so around the edge.
- Carefully spoon batter over the filling, sealing it in and filling the waffle iron to a little over 3/4 full.
- Close the waffle iron, invert it, and cook for about 7 mins total or until golden brown - different waffle makers will vary. After 7min check the cook and let it go a little longer if necessary.
- Tip out of the waffle from the maker onto a plate (I discovered tipping was way easier than trying to lever it out with a spatula - just be careful not to burn yourself).
- If making lots, pop the cooked ones in a low oven until ready to eat.
Depending what meal we are making these for, they go well with eggs or some suitable veg on the side (I imagine garlic roasted tender stem broccoli would be amazing). A piquant sauce on the side is also a nice flavour combo (Sauce Shop Honey Chipotle BBQ sauce is what I had with mine where as Rob ate his without anything on the side).
Check Out My Fiction YouTube Channel
Each week we have a theme and so there will be something for all tastes.
- 🎤Micro stories and/or silly jokes as YouTube Shorts Monday - Sunday- for fun quick viewing
- 🕮A longer story every now and then for story time, over coffee or before going to bed
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Free Horror Book for Halloween
Happy Halloween one and all.
As has become a tradition for me and Soph at Wittegen Press, we like to give away a free book for Halloween (link and instructions at the bottom). It started when we heard about Neil Gaiman's All Hallows Read way back in 2012, where the idea is to give books as a Halloween treat.
Soph and I created eBooks to give away from 2012 to 2021. We took a little break in 2022 for family reasons, but now I am back to continue the tradition!👻 (Soph's been too busy at work this year to join in, poor thing - hopefully she'll have more time next Halloween).
This year the book is called Mirror Mirror: A Haunting Tale of Horror, which is the first story, and it also contains The Crosses We Bear.
A chill runs down your spine as you enter your refurbished home in Mirror Mirror. Little do you know that glancing in a mirror will spell doom for you.
In The Crosses We Bear, meet Lyle and Susan, two ad executives who are about to discover that a remote Scottish hotel is only the beginning of their terrifying journey. Follow their story of facing terrible things in the dark as they confront the horror they find.
I also decided it would be fun to read Mirror Mirror over on my YouTube channel. I hope I come off as sufficiently spine tingling 😱 - although not too creepy or YouTube will bury my vid 😉.
The book is available from all the usual eBook sites, but to get it FREE you need to pop to Smashwords - and use this coupon code on checkout: HA85H
The offer is valid until 01 Dec 2023 - so grab your copy before it runs out.
🎃Please be aware the stories this year are not kid friendly - they are for older trick or treaters who enjoy a bit of horror.🎃
I do love writing a bit of dark horror from time to time. It balances out my usual desperate need for a happy ending I suppose 😉. Hope you enjoy the stories and have a fabulous Halloween.
If you are looking for more spooky horror, all the previous years books can be found here.
Check Out My Fiction YouTube Channel
Each week we have a theme and so there will be something for all tastes.
- 🎤Micro stories as YouTube Shorts Monday - Sunday- for fun quick viewing
- 🕮A longer story every now and then for story time, over coffee or before going to bed
Tasha's Social Media
📚Join My Newsletter📚