james said:
>   Bowerbird has been suggesting using light markup in text files
>   so we can derive other formats automatically and reliably. 
>   He will doubtless have something to say on the subject.

thanks, but no thanks; i've stepped off that merry-go-round.

if hunter wants to know how he could get better results from
marcello's converters, hunter should discuss it with marcello.

i'm more interested in having discussions with people who
want to get better results from _my_ conversion routines...

so, james, what do you think of this .html file of your book?

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/bhaga/bhaga-preview1.html

i left the pagebreaks in for your convenience.  you'll notice
i've colorized the tables, family trees, and some other stuff.
all the styling is inline, but it's a tightly-constricted subset.

take a look at that formatting, comparing it to the p-book,
and let me know where i've gotten any wrong, so i can fix it.

once that's right, we can take a look at the .mobi and .epub.

(those formats are based on the .html, of course, but i also
generate different x/html files for the two different targets.
i'll also break the targets down to even more specific levels,
such as .epubs specialized for the nook, adobe, or ibooks...
there's also a slew of customization options for end-users,
including stuff like paragraph indentation, curlyquotes, etc.)

once you approve, the book is ready to be turned back to you.
thank you for being so patient while it was under my control...

-bowerbird