LA, not so confidential

This week we are enjoying the sun and fun in Los Angeles exhibiting at the
Screenwriting Expo. Screenwriters of every ilk are visiting the Convention Center to
improve their creative writing skills and, of course, to network. While we have been out
here, we also have been showing early beta versions of Contour, our script
development application set to be released next month, and Montage 2.0. The feedback
and reaction has been fabulous. Screenwriters working on a Mac will soon have the total
screenwriting solution at their fingertips. Exciting times in screenwriting land.

Mike

Whew, that took a while...

Today we released Mariner Calc for iPhone Beta 1 to our Ad Hoc Beta Team.
While it's missing some key features that will come in later builds, our intention
with this build was just to get 100 more people giving feedback on it. With any luck,
we will be able to get through the beta stage quickly and finally get this app to market.
It's been a long journey but were finally seeing some daylight at the end of the tunnel.

Mike

Contour nearing beta!

As we are closing in on the beta stage of our next product, Contour,
we are getting the obvious question, "what does it do?" Well, unlike
most apps, this one is a little different. To a degree, it's half software,
half step-by-step tutorial which walks through a proven screenwriting
system. Here's our marketing fodder...

"Contour is a proven story development system that streamlines the
process of turning your movie ideas from first glimmer to full outline.
Using the Contour story development system you’ll learn how to use
the same character-based structure that all blockbuster movies use
to create solid stories that hold together from Fade In to Fade Out.
With its intuitive, fill-in-the-blanks approach, Contour shows you
exactly what elements need to be in your script, never again leaving
you to wonder, “what comes next?” A must-have for every screenwriter."

One of the other key points is the fact that Contour will integrate directly
with Montage. So the reality is that you will be able to not only write your
masterpiece in the world's easiest (and best) screenwriting software, but
now, you'll be able to follow the steps it takes to get the story to the best
it can be.

We will be showing Contour out at the Screenwriting Expo
next month. If you live in or are visiting the Los Angeles area, please do
stop on by.

Mike

The Multi-functional MacJournal

For all you GTD'ers (Getting Things Done), a customer, Dragos Roua, from Romania put this excellent step-by-step review of MJ on his blog. He really goes into elaborate detail on how he uses MacJournal for both journaling and blogging. A great read.

Best,
Mike

A new site is coming.

Since first focusing our business toward the writing and creativity vertical market,
we have had this little itch that's finally getting close to being scratched. It's called
writerspub.com and it will be the first site of its kind (to our knowledge)
that really emphasizes the user experience as a writer. It's a totally free community
where writers of every ilk can join and not only critique other writers' work, but also have
their own stories critiqued. Screenwriters, novelists, short story writers, non-fiction writers,
poets...you're all invited! Our ultimate goal is to provide a site where you'll feel comfortable
to come to and not only make friends and network your work, but actually get ideas to improve
your writing.

Stay tuned. We hope to be running it through public beta testing soon.

Mike

A slightly belated announcement...

Hi All-
Last week we announced the acquisition of TotallyWrite from LTW Productions Canada, Inc. For more info see the following press releases on our site or on Jeff's site.

TotallyWrite, for those that aren't aware, is the creation of Emmy-award winning screenwriter, Jeffrey Schechter. TotallyWrite is script outlining software which literally walks writers through the proper way of writing a script. For the past 7 years, Jeff has built up a large and passionate customer base but, for the last year, was struggling with finding enough hours in the day to promote and market it. Fast forward through numerous conversation and meetings and it quickly became clear that forming some sort of partnership with Jeff would be a win-win. Moving forward we have renamed the product Contour and have started rewriting the app from scratch (we actually started this process a few months ago) and, of course, integrating it with Montage. Today we are approaching the beta stage for Contour and hope to have it shipping in November, just in time for the Screenwriting Expo in Los Angeles. As a matter of fact, we are going to have Jeff out at the show giving presentations on Contour and this phenominal way
to structure screenplays. As we get closer to the show I'll blog more on what fabulous things we have planned there.

More to come on Contour!

Mike

It's one of our favorite days!

Avast, me hearties! It's International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Other than St. Patrick's Day, it has to be our favorite day of the year here at Mariner!

Aaaargh.

Mike