----------------------------------------------------------------------------- File: firefur.txt Rev.: 1.1 Date: 19 September 1995 Note: For update, check OmniMedia's archive ("How to Contact the Publisher") ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- 1. Electronic Book Title ------------------------- FIRE AND FUR: THE LAST SORCERER DRAGON by Roger C. Schlobin (C) Copyright 1994, 1995 by Roger C. Schlobin ***** An Electronic Book Produced and Published By OmniMedia ***** This Electronic Book is protected by SoftLock. It can be freely distributed over all electronic networks provided it is not altered in any manner and all the files are included. See the section "Copyright Notice and Other Terms" for more specific information. CAUTION TO THE READER: Some portions of this electronic book may be unsuitable for younger or more sensitive readers. --------------------- 2. Table of Contents --------------------- This information file is divided into the following sections: 1. Electronic Book Title (presented above) 2. Table of Contents (this section) 3. Introduction 4. Book Abstract 5. About the Author 6. If You Are a Book Reviewer 7. System Requirements 8. Files That Must Be Included in the Distribution Package 9. How to Obtain This Electronic Book (if some of the files are missing) 10. Viewing/Installation Instructions 11. How to Use This Electronic Book and Some Useful Features 12. Copyright Notice and Other Terms (which you should read carefully) 13. How to Contact the Publisher 14. Refund/Warranty Policy ---------------- 3. Introduction ---------------- All Windows 3.1 systems can read this electronic book without any need for special software other than what is already included with this electronic book. Although this electronic book is readable at VGA resolution, using a higher resolution (e.g., 800x600 or 1024x768) is *highly* encouraged. ================================================================= NOTE TO WINDOWS 95 USERS: It has been reported by several users that this book is fully functional under the recently released Windows 95. However, since OmniMedia has not yet tested this book under Windows 95, we cannot guarantee that it will work under Windows 95 as intended. ================================================================= In addition, this electronic book incorporates SoftLock technology. Using SoftLock, a portion of this book has been read-locked, requiring the entry of a password (unique to your computer) to be able to read the locked portion. However, we have kept a significant portion of this electronic book unlocked so you can determine whether you want to purchase a password for it. Sort of a "try before you buy." Since this electronic book is NOT Shareware, you may freely read and use, without any obligation, the unlocked portions of this book. SoftLock makes the purchase of the password very convenient and easy. They provide three ways to obtain a password: 1) World Wide Web (WWW), 2) Automated 24-hour toll-free number (in the U.S. and Canada), or 3) Fax. Payment is by VISA or MasterCard. The password for "Fire and Fur: The Last Sorcerer Dragon" sells for $7.95. For more complete information about SoftLock technology as used in this electronic book, and for the specifics of obtaining a password, read the registration window that will pop up if you select it from the "nag" window that appears whenever you attempt to read a locked topic. Whether or not you decide to purchase a password, do upload this book to your favorite BBS or public Internet site (read the section "Copyright Notice and Other Terms" for more specific information on uploading requirements.) Do give this book a try! What have you got to lose other than maybe a little download time? ----------------- 4. Book Abstract ----------------- OmniMedia is pleased to announce the first publication anywhere of Roger C. Schlobin's major epic fantasy and love story, "Fire and Fur: The Last Sorcerer Dragon." Set in the pre-human Gobi Desert and drawing on Chinese mythology, "Fire and Fur's..." dragons and cats feel and explore deeply human emotions and problems in their struggle to survive. The cats do speak, often caustically, to a few dragons (cats can still speak but no one interests them enough to bother anymore.) The dragons' dark desire for power and their excessive pride lead them to terraform their home from sea to land. Tragically, their fell magic releases their ancient enemy and bane, the Azghun Demons. Once the dragons had a cadre of sorcerers to protect and defend them. Now they have grown lazy and dumb and there is only one strong enough to stand against the Demons. The last sorcerer dragon, Ao Rue, is a social misfit -- immature and idealistic -- and his efforts for dragonkind are either very generous or very foolish. He is aided in his troubles and challenges by the blunt and clear-headed silver-mackerel tabby, Mei-chou. Interwoven throughout their epic battles is the star-crossed and poignant story of Ao Rue's great love for the stunning Nu-kua. READERS' PRAISE FOR "FIRE AND FUR..." ". . . best dragons I've ever seen. . . cinematic descriptions. . . finally some real love, emotion and humor in a fantasy novel. . . painfully beautiful. . . passionate, sensual. . . loved the sarcastic cat. . . bittersweet. . . full of action. . . awesome love scene in the thunderstorm. . . heartbreaking. . . best adolescent hero since Catcher in the Rye." -------------------- 5. About the Author -------------------- Roger C. Schlobin is a professor of English at the North Central Campus of Purdue University. He holds a Ph.D. in Medieval Literature and Languages from Ohio State University. He has authored six scholarly books and edited over fifty. His various other publications include over one-hundred essays, various poems, short stories, reviews, and bibliographies that range over such varied topics as fantasy literature, pedagogy, science fiction, medieval and Arthurian literature, feminism, shamanism, linguistics, and microcomputer hardware and software. He is one of the founders of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts and its conference and of the "Year's Scholarship in Science Fiction and Fantasy." Currently, he is the editor of The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. When not writing or teaching, he dreams of a female dragon; tinkers with "Baby" (his souped-up 1977 Datsun 280Z); chases great food, drink, and riverwalks; takes occasional photographs; collects dragons and t-shirts; plays computer games; hangs out in a Northern Indiana hamlet; and still mourns the passing of his own silver-mackerel tabby, the great Joshua Thunderpussy. "Fire and Fur..." is his first novel -- a sequel is in the works -- the characters won't leave Schlobin alone, especially the mouthy cats. You can contact Roger C. Schlobin via Internet e-mail at dragon@niia.net His postal address is 1915 David Drive Chesterton, IN 46304-3011 ------------------------------ 6. If You Are a Book Reviewer ------------------------------ The author can acquire voucher numbers which allow SoftLock to give out a password at no charge to the voucher user. The author will make these vouchers available to book reviewers. For more information, contact the author (see the section "About the Author.") Please do include your credentials. ----------------------- 7. System Requirements ----------------------- To view this electronic book, you must have an IBM-compatible PC (386 or higher is recommended), with color VGA (or better) video resolution. It must have Microsoft Windows 3.1 installed (see the note about the recently released Windows 95 in the section above entitled "Introduction"). This electronic book has been tested using the common color video resolutions of VGA, 640x480x256, 800x600x256, and 1024x768x256. For maximum clarity and readability, it is recommended that you use as high of a video resolution as your system allows, up to 1024x768x256, or even higher (however, resolutions higher than 1024x768x256 have not been tested.) For the very high video resolutions, you should consider using large size fonts if that option is available to you. Consult your Windows documentation for how to increase your resolution if that is possible for your particular video card and monitor combination. (If you feel the font size is too large, read the discussion about window/font size in the section "How to Use This Electronic Book and Some Useful Features.") No guarantee is given that this electronic book, especially the SoftLock program, will work properly on succeeding versions of Windows (e.g., Windows 95, aka 'Chicago' and 'Windows 4.0'), or with Windows 3.1 emulators (such as Windows NT or OS/2). Contact OmniMedia for more information about upgrades for new versions of Windows and possibly other platforms. All further technical details mentioned in this file are specific to Windows 3.1 installations. Three final and important notes: First, this electronic book is written using the Arial TrueType font, which is part of the normal installation for all Windows 3.1 systems. If you have removed this font from your system, for whatever reason, the file will not appear as it was authored (though it may look similar or at least readable.) It is recommended that you reinstall the Arial TrueType font if you have removed it from your system (refer to your Windows documentation.) Second, a very small number of Windows users have experienced some difficulties in properly reading all of the special text characters for reasons that are not completely understood, though evidence points to bugs in a very early release of Windows 3.1 (most Windows users don't have this early release, if you do, consider upgrading to version 3.11.) The most common difficulties encountered have been left and right single and double quotes not being reproduced properly, as well as other characters not being reproduced properly such as the copyright and trademark symbols, bullets and em/en-dashes. Do contact OmniMedia if you observe any anomalies regarding characters and/or fonts that you believe are not due to running an early release of Windows 3.1. Third, the background, foreground (text), and hypertext colors have been hard-coded in this WinHelp format file. If you have color vision disabilities which make it difficult to read all or part of this electronic book, contact OmniMedia and special instructions to bypass this color hard-coding will be sent to you. ----------------------------------------------------------- 8. Files That Must Be Included in the Distribution Package ----------------------------------------------------------- To properly use this electronic book, the following files must be included in the distribution package. Omitting one or more of these files may make it impossible to do one or more of the following actions: 1) register a password, or 2) read the locked portions of the book even with a valid password installed. firefur.hlp -- The WinHelp file of "Fire and Fur: The Last Sorcerer Dragon" firefur.txt -- This file -- also may be named 'read1st.txt' or 'readme.1st' read1st.txt -- How to get started book.ico -- A book icon that can be used for permanent installation slpw-win.exe -- The SoftLock executable softlock.exe -- An important SoftLock DOS executable "in case of trouble" slpwinfo.seq -- The information text file for the SoftLock executable softlock.dll -- A required SoftLock Dynamic Link Library vbrun300.dll -- (same, version dated 05-12-93) (Note on file 'vbrun300.dll': You may already have this file on your system. Check in your windows and windows\system directories for it. If you do have it, check to see if it is the latest version, dated 05-12-93. If it is an earlier version, you can replace it with the one provided with this electronic book, though it is wise to backup the previous version "just in case.") -------------------------------------- 9. How to Obtain This Electronic Book -------------------------------------- This section will outline five ways by which you can obtain this electronic book if some or all of the required files are missing or corrupted. The electronic book will be packaged as a single archive file, most likely a ZIP file ('firefur.zip' or something similar), which requires a dearchiver to extract the required files, such as PKUNZIP. It is probable that other ways to obtain this and other electronic books from OmniMedia will be implemented in the future. Contact OmniMedia for more updated information. (Note: If you will obtain this electronic book in ZIP format (the most likely archive format), you will need to use an "unzipper." If you don't have one already, we recommend that you use the authentic DOS shareware utility called PKZIP (version 2.04g), by PKWARE, Inc. There also exist several other "clone" unzip utilities (shareware and freeware) for both DOS and Windows, obtainable from many BBS and Internet sites. Here are the five ways you can presently obtain this electronic book: 1) Via the World Wide Web http://www.awa.com/library/omnimedia 2) Via Mail Server from OmniMedia's Archive. It is possible to access OmniMedia's archive via e-mail. This is a good method for those who have e-mail access to the Internet but don't have FTP or WWW (Web) access (see number 4 below for information about OmniMedia's anonymous FTP archive.) In order to use the mail server, you must have a uudecoder, since the binary ZIP file will be uuencoded into an ASCII format suitable for e-mail. Most Unix sites have a built-in uudecode utility, but nearly all other operating systems do not. Obviously, you cannot obtain a uudecoder for your platform via this e-mail server (since it is a binary executable), so you have to find one elsewhere, probably by downloading it from a local BBS (uudecoders for DOS/Windows do exist, but are not found at all BBS sites.) For more information on this option, send e-mail to omnimedia@netcom.com and request the file describing how to access Netcom's FTP mail server. 3) From the Author on Diskette. The author will mail this electronic book to you on a 3.5" HD diskette. The files on the diskette will come dearchived and are thus "ready-to-go." The electronic book will still be SoftLocked. To obtain the diskette, send $1.50 and your mailing address to the author (and NOT to OmniMedia) to cover materials and postage (see the section "About the Author" for his address.) This $1.50 will be in addition to the $7.95 needed to obtain a password from SoftLock, if you decide to do so. This $1.50 is non-refundable (but you do get to keep the reusable diskette and the recyclable mailer.) 4) From the Internet Via Anonymous FTP. OmniMedia maintains an anonymous FTP archive at ftp.awa.com /pub/softlock/pc/products/OmniMedia In order to directly download the files from this archive, you need to have access to an Internet site with FTP capability. If you don't know how to use anonymous FTP, consult with someone who does or study the helpfile or manual at your site. Be sure to type "binary" before issuing the "get" or "mget" command. In addition, OmniMedia will attempt to upload this electronic book to other anonymous FTP archives on the Internet, for example, the CICA archive (ftp.cica.indiana.edu). 5) From Your Local BBS. There is no doubt that, over time, this electronic book will be distributed to many BBS and online services around the world. And once you obtain this electronic book, feel free to upload it to your favorite BBS (be sure to include all the files listed in the section "Files That Must be Included in the Distribution Package.") -------------------------------------- 10. Viewing/Installation Instructions -------------------------------------- There are several ways to view, and if desired, install this WinHelp formatted electronic book on your Windows 3.1 system (see the note on Windows 95 in the section entitled "Introduction"). Two will be given below. If you are not very familiar with Windows, it is recommended that you print out this section for step-by-step instructions. Of course, it is also recommended that you consult your Windows manual should any questions arise or these instructions don't work for you. No matter what approach you use to view this electronic book, you must NOT change the name of the WinHelp file ('firefur.hlp'.) If you do inadvertently change the filename, you won't be able to unlock the SoftLocked topics, even with a valid password. Now, to view this electronic book, following are two ways to do it (it is assumed that you've already extracted the necessary files from the distributed archive file, if that's how you obtained this electronic book -- see the section "How to Obtain This Electronic Book"): ***************************************************************************** 1) The Quick and Easy Way -- If you just want to view this electronic book without permanent installation (e.g., for evaluation purposes), place ALL the files (the list of necessary files is in the section "Files That Must Be Included in the Distribution Package"), into one directory anywhere on your hard disk (you should also be able to read it directly from a diskette but it will be noticeably slower.) Then, from File Manager within Windows, locate the WinHelp file ('firefur.hlp') and click on it. The Windows Help file viewer, 'winhelp.exe', will automatically be executed and the electronic book will be displayed. Enjoy! ***************************************************************************** 2) For a more permanent installation with a convenient icon, it is advisable to first create a special directory on your hard disk and copy all the files into that directory. If you acquire more books from OmniMedia in the future and copy their files into the same special directory, you will save on disk space since several files are shared in common by all of OmniMedia's electronic books (for example, the DLL files, among others.) As an example, which will be used for the explanation below, this directory path could be named C:\WINDOWS\BOOKS . (Special note: As mentioned in the section "Files That Must Be Included in the Distribution Package," you may already have 'vbrun300.dll' on your system. If so, then you need not duplicate it in your special electronic book directory as it does use an appreciable amount of disk space. The current version of 'vbrun300.dll' provided with this electronic book is dated 05-12-93. If you happen to have an older version of 'vbrun300.dll', you can safely replace it with the one provided with this electronic book.) The next step is to either select or create the program group into which you will place the title FIRE AND FUR (or whatever you want to call it -- it need not be in caps.) If you don't already have a special program group for electronic books, you need to create one. To create a new program group which could be called, for example, OMNIMEDIA BOOKS (it need not be all in caps), simply go to the FILE menu of your Program Manager, select NEW , PROGRAM GROUP , OK , and then in the box labeled DESCRIPTION, enter the string OMNIMEDIA BOOKS (or whatever else you want to call the program group), then press OK (leave the GROUP FILE box empty.) Once the program group, whether old or new, is selected, then from Program Manager select FILE , NEW , PROGRAM ITEM , OK . At this point, you have three text boxes to fill. For the DESCRIPTION box enter FIRE AND FUR (or whatever else you want the application icon to be called -- it need not be in caps); for the COMMAND LINE box enter C:\WINDOWS\WINHELP.EXE FIREFUR.HLP ; for the WORKING DIRECTORY box enter C:\WINDOWS\BOOKS . Then to select the icon, click on CHANGE ICON and attach the file BOOK.ICO from the directory C:\WINDOWS\BOOKS to this application using BROWSE to locate it. Then, click OK twice to finish. Now, your selected program group should contain an icon of a book with the name FIRE AND FUR underneath it. Just click on the book icon whenever you want to read it! Enjoy! ------------------------------------------------------------- 11. How to Use This Electronic Book and Some Useful Features ------------------------------------------------------------- Using the WinHelp viewer is intuitive and very easy. Once you are viewing this electronic book on your computer, you can learn much of what you need to know by simply experimenting with the toolbar buttons, menu commands, etc. If you do need more help in reading and using this electronic book, refer to "How to Use Help" which can be selected from the "Help" menu item found near the top of the window when viewing this electronic book. Some useful features of this electronic book include 1) Bookmark -- You can place one or more bookmarks at any location so you can later return to that location, even after exiting this book. The Bookmark feature is found in the menu. 2) Annotate -- You can add notes and comments to any topic displayed in a window (excepting temporary pop-up windows.) The Annotate feature is found in the menu under 'Edit'. 3) Hypertext -- Hypertext is nothing mystical. It is simply text which has been linked to text elsewhere in the electronic book. Clicking on hypertext will move you to the text the hypertext is linked with. In this electronic book, much effort has been made to make it clear which text is hypertext. To verify if a word or phrase is hypertext, the mouse pointer will switch from an arrow to a small hand with a pointing finger when placed on top of hypertext. One note about scrolling should be mentioned for those newcomers who are totally unfamiliar with the purpose and use of scroll bars. You may notice in this electronic book that for most windows (i.e., topics), there is a scrollbar at the right-hand-side (and sometimes at the bottom) of the viewing window. The scroll bar is there because the text of the topic is too long or too big to fit completely within the visible window. By clicking your mouse on various parts of the scroll bar, you can move ("scroll") either up or down in the text. Specifically, clicking on either the up or down arrows (which are found at the top and bottom respectively of the scroll bar), will move you either one line up or one line down in the text. You can also scroll a full window or page if you click anywhere in the scroll bar between the up or down arrows and the slider (the slider is the plain rectangular "button" that slides in the scroll bar, and indicates where the viewing window is positioned with respect to the topic text.) Another note concerns the aspect of font size. If you are using VGA (640x480) resolution, you may find the font size to be quite large, especially on bigger monitors. One solution is to maximize the window size, done by clicking on the upper right-hand button, and read the window from further away -- maximizing the window size (to fill the whole screen) will also make the electronic book look better at the 640x480 resolution with respect to the number of characters per line being similar to a typical book. (One of the reasons why this larger font was selected was to insure that this electronic book would be easily readable on laptop/notebook-sized screens -- WinHelp unfortunately does not yet allow variable font sizes depending on the video parameters, though OmniMedia is working hard with programmers to be able to do this.) If you still feel the characters are too large for your taste, consider going to a higher screen resolution if you can (since that will tend to decrease the font size.) You might even want to consider testing the large/small font options for the higher resolutions if available to you for your particular video card. ------------------------------------- 12. Copyright Notice and Other Terms ------------------------------------- (The following notice also appears within this electronic book.) This electronic book, "Fire and Fur: The Last Sorcerer Dragon" (the "TITLE") is (C) Copyright 1994, 1995 by Roger C. Schlobin (the "Author"), and is fully protected by United States Copyright laws and international treaty provisions. This TITLE was produced/published by OmniMedia (the "Publisher".) Because this electronic book is protected by SoftLock (TM) software, the Author hereby gives all others permission to electronically duplicate and redistribute this TITLE provided that none of the files associated with the TITLE are omitted and/or altered in any manner (for a complete list of files, see the section "Files That Must Be Included in the Distribution Package.") Some examples of forbidden alterations to this TITLE include the disabling of the SoftLock feature via any means, the distribution of an electronic file produced by capturing or extracting any portion of the text, and distributing to others a printed copy of any portion of the text. The Author and the Publisher encourage you to distribute this electronic book far and wide (as outlined in the previous paragraph) so that many others can enjoy it. This TITLE, including all files, installation programs, and documentation, is provided "AS IS", that is, you use this title at your own risk, without warranty of any kind. This includes, but is not limited to, defects/errors with the format of this TITLE as well as defects/errors in the media used to distribute this TITLE to the supplier and/or purchaser. The Author and the Publisher further disclaims all implied warranties including, but not limited to, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall the Author, the Publisher, SoftLock Services, Inc., or any suppliers of this TITLE be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for lost profits, business interruptions, loss of business information, or any other pecuniary loss) arising from the use of or inability to use the TITLE, even if the Author, the Publisher, SoftLock, and/or the suppliers of this TITLE have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Because some jurisdictions do not allow exclusions or limitations of liability for consequential or incidental damages, this limitation may not apply to you. --------------------------------- 13. How to Contact the Publisher --------------------------------- OmniMedia is devoted to producing only the highest quality electronic books. For more information or advice about this electronic book or other offerings from OmniMedia, contact OmniMedia c/o Jon E. Noring 9671 South 1600 West Street South Jordan, UT 84095 (801) 253-4037 (801) 253-4036 (fax -- not always online) Internet: omnimedia@netcom.com OmniMedia's electronic books are available both via the Web and by anonymous FTP: WEB: http://www.awa.com/library/omnimedia FTP: ftp.awa.com /pub/softlock/pc/products/OmniMedia --------------------------- 14. Refund/Warranty Policy --------------------------- Sorry, all sales are final. The "try before you buy" feature of SoftLock should help you decide whether or not to purchase the password necessary to read all portions of this electronic book. Contact OmniMedia if you have any difficulties either before or after purchasing a password. We want you to be satisfied! And lastly...ENJOY! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Windows and Windows NT are registered trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation OS/2 is a registered trademark of IBM SoftLock is a trademark of SoftLock Services, Inc. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------