I’m considering changing the name of this blog to Behind the Serendipty. I’ve written about it before with the spooky intersection of John Updike, Reading, PA, The Writers’ Almanac, and Garrison Keillor.

Early this morning, about 1 a.m., in the middle of my insomnia, I tried to create a Word file using Scrivener’s compile feature. I’ve been blogging about reasons why Iove Scrivener (and telling you how to get a 20% discount) but I’m still learning it. Stuck on a function, I picked up Scrivener for Dummies by Gwen Hernandez. I did a great interview with her a couple weeks ago for an upcoming show. When I read the the third paragraph of Chapter 12 “Setting Up the Compile Options.” I chuckled.

She writes:  One key thing to understand about the compile process is that it doesn’t change the look of the original documents in the Scrivener project. It essentially makes a copy of the documents you select to include, applies the changes you desire, and collates them into a new file type (or prints them out).

Well, that wasn’t the funny part but I wanted to give you some context. In the next graph she says, “In an effort to avoid being your go-to cure for insomnia, this chapter doesn’t cover every possible setting available in Compile.”

Maybe it’s more Twilight Zone than funny. A little weirded out, I decided to Tweet about it. When I opened Twitter, I saw the founder of The Reject Pile,  Joel Miller, had mentioned Behind the Prose in a tweet.  Joel is featured in episode 22 of Behind the Prose that just came out. The feature guest is Canadian author Neil Smith.

Joel’s tweet revealed that he too was Canadian!

I wasn’t sure what to do next – write about Canada, write about Scrivener, or run from my apartment screaming, so I decided on the first two. I don’t know what it means for you, other than I think it’s a sign you should listen to episode 22 and get Scrivener – download a free trial of Scrivener or use the code PROSE at checkout for 20% off by 8/30.