I will have to look into that "sample Novel Interface", but i think i know what you mean. The way i was thinking was a configuration menu that appeared when you pressed Esc, for example, and in that menu the player could save the game. This would make the life easier for the users making the games because they wouldn't have to worry about placing save buttons in their games, it would be already built-in.
For conditions, like in branch, you can use the name of the variable without the "$" behind it (e.g. loveinterest > 3). If this may confuse you (because in a dialogue you need the "$") you can use the $ aswell in the condition statement. For comparing you'll have to use the mathematic symbols (>, <, >=, <=), "==" for equal and "!=" for not equal. To join conditions together you can use the symbols "&&" and "||" or, in a more natural language, "and" and "or" (e.g. $loveinterest > 3 and $loveinterest < 6). Additionally you can double-click the textbox for the condition and a dialog for making conditions will pop-up.
