“What a pity the people of Africa do not have the guts of the people of Egypt.”
— A caller to BBC World, comparing the demonstrations in Egypt to the rule of Laurent Gbagbo in Cote d’Ivoire.
Dinosaur, me
StandardThe Chairman and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers puts the brakes on expectations for ebook growth. Not to say that ebooks aren’t a growing segment of the market–that’s obvious on its face. But the audiences are so large (even for something as supposedly marginal as books) that each percentage point of change represents a whole lot of people, all of whom seem to rush to the internet to proclaim their love/disdain for their new readers.
But the people still reading in print still make up the bulk of the book buyers and they will be for years yet. As Nelson mentions above, more than 50% of music buyers still buy their music on CD.
I’m one of those people. I don’t buy very much music, but when I do it’s not through iTunes or other download sites, and I don’t put it on an iPod or other mp3 player. My wife has an iPod, but she uses it to listen to TED Talks, Planet Money podcasts and other NPR shows, when she uses it at all. There’s no music on it at all.
But I’m a dinosaur. I admit it. I don’t even have a cell phone. I don’t have anything against Kindles, et al; in fact I love them, because they allow my sister, the person who turned me into a sf/f lover, to read my novels. Her stroke had left her unable to hold a paper book open, but that’s not a problem with her new Kindle.
Paper and electronic books will eventually reach a balance, and no one posting to the internet right now knows when we’ll reach it. They’re only able to guess (and claim prescience if they hit the target) and the final figures will be determined by factors that no one can predict.
UHC
StandardI didn’t know Melissa Mia Hall, but I do know this: she didn’t have to die. She shouldn’t have died, in fact, because the U.S. should have already instituted a universal health care system that would have ensured she was covered and could control costs. She shouldn’t have had to call her doctor and beg for meds because she couldn’t afford an office visit.
And now a Georgia judge has ordered the ACA completely dismantled. The ACA isn’t my favorite way to get to a decent health care system, but it’s what’s possible right now. If the Supreme Court strikes it down… well, let’s just hope that it prompts Americans to support Medicare Part E (for Everyone)–just expand the Medicare program to cover everyone and empower it to actually negotiate for drug prices as well as instituting sensible controls on the costs.
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In other news, yesterday was a crazy-ass day. More details later, if appropriate.
Auctorial Constructs
StandardA while back on Twitter I told this joke: “How is Google Analytics like a pair of tight jeans? Both make me feel inadequate.”
Both Elizabeth Bear and John Scalzi spent part of their weekends talking about “auctorial constructs” or, as they put it, the tendency that people have to create an image of the author based on their books and blog posts– a fictional character, in other words, with the author’s name and face–and how difficult that can be to deal with.
Luckily, I don’t have to deal with it. Most (all?) of my interactions take place online and I have a very low profile. Daily hits on this blog? About 32 people per day. LiveJournal gets about five times that. I have twice that many followers on Twitter but many of them are marketbots.
In other words, my online footprint is vanishingly small and that’s okay. Pretty much the only people treating me as if I’m the pretend person in their head are my wife and son.
For me, this is the problem with going out and meeting people in person. I’ve avoided readings and only do one signing (at the local shop) when each of my books comes out. And I’ve been putting off things like conventions. This is because I know myself well enough to know that I do not do well in large groups of strangers. I struggle to figure out people’s body language, I get overwhelmed by too much input, I can’t think what to say and end up staring at people instead of answering their questions.
But that’s not the real me, either. I’m not like that with people I know (or when I have a very close RL friend nearby). I can also psyche myself up to deal with strangers pretty well, but this is iffy.
That’s why I’m seriously tempted to be one of those hermit writers. Not to be, you know, weird about it, but to basically stay at home and write, hang with friends (must start hanging with friends again), and avoid going out to do those promotional things that so many writers do.
More pix from the Twenty Palaces trailer shoot
StandardThis is the last weekend for pickups for the trailer for the Twenty Palaces trailer. I think so, at least. Production is going on down in L.A. and I’m not sure whether they’re planning to get every last shot. I think so, though.
Here are some pics:
You know what always improves a movie? Trains and train tracks.
Not what you want to find on the floor of your garage.
The TV remake game
StandardI’m copying this game from lwe’s newsgroup.
Let us suppose a network decided that you, yes YOU, are a marketing
genius, and they hired you, at extravagant rates, to create three
series for them.The first is to be a continuation of an existing series that was
cancelled too soon — tell them which series should have been kept
alive, and what direction it would take to prevent a second
cancellation.The second is to be a remake/re-imagining of a canceled series, and
you have all of TV’s history to play with, from the 1940s to last
week.And finally, give them a spin-off — doesn’t matter whether the
original series is still thriving or long dead.
Here are mine.
Revival: “Thundarr the Barbarian” (I’d change it to have one or two long-term enemies for him to face over a season)
Remake: “CBS Mystery Movies” (Lifetime tried to revive this idea–a weekly two-hour tv movie mystery with a rotating cast of regulars–but they weren’t fun and didn’t have the budget.
Spin-off: “Mace!” Pre-trade rebellion exploits of Jedi Knight Mace Windu as he patrols the mean streets of Coruscant, the city planet.
It was pretty damn tempting to call for The Dresden Files to be revived or remade, but in the end I went with these instead. And yeah, that’s two cartoons. I used to watch a lot of cartoons.
What about you?
Reviews, part 24
Standard1) Chris at the King of Elfland’s Second Cousin liked Child of Fire and Game of Cages enough to write a three-part series on his blog to examine the various characteristics of episodic novel series. Part one is on characters. Part two is on plots. Part three is on the hero’s emotional journey. Pretty cool.
2) K. Bird Lincoln at St. Helen’s Bookshop give Game of Cages four stars out of five; she liked it even though it’s not her usual favorite. “This Book’s Food Designation Rating: Chips and salsa, for the way that you start eating them, and then look up a moment later and realize you’ve eaten the whole bag and your mouth is smarting from the spicy salsa.” I love chips and salsa.
3) DJ Weaver likes Game of Cages enough to award it four “spiders”: “Ray Lilly is an unlikely protagonist in this all-out battle to control or kill the strange predator and he does it with all the finesse of a ne’er-do-well James Bond.”
4) On Twitter, @karmamule liked both books very much: “Look forward to more!
5) Vicki Brown, also on Twitter, said “Intense. I enjoy reading about that world, but wouldn’t want to live in it!”
6) Three stars from Rich Braselle, who calls Game of Cages “Pretty decent stuff.”
7) Ronronia Adramelek at Science-Fantasiction didn’t care for the books one bit: “No character development, no plot, no background, no rithm.[sic] Boring.“
Randomness for 1/29
Standard1) Best Worst ad placement ever.
2) Marketing ebooks in brick-and-mortar stores. This is pretty damn cool. Too bad I don’t have any of this tech.
3) To respond to a previous Randomness: The United States of Awesome. Fucking Delaware.
4) Wall decorations that prove you’re a total grownup. “I simply haven’t met a boy yet who interests me! And until I do, I’d rather walk alone than date just anyone!”
5) “Hand monster!!!” Video.
6) Why I’ll never eat at a Chick-Fil-A.
7) Axe Cop… The Movie!
What worked in Tunisia might not work in Egypt
StandardBut we can hope.
Good luck.
And it goes without saying that the Obama administration should be pressuring Mubarek to hold elections, right? And that he should be pressuring the Saudis royal family, too? Of course if does. It also goes without saying that he won’t do it in any substantial way.
Date night
StandardLast night was “date night”, the biweekly ritual in which my wife and I suddenly realize, at about three in the afternoon, that our regularly scheduled baby sitter will be there in an hour and a half and what the hell are we doing to do together all on our own?
My wife wasn’t keen on yet another restaurant trip and I couldn’t blame her. Instead we went to the Henry Art Museum in the U District: The PanOptos exhibit was pretty damn cool. This is one of the photos I took. I’m not sure why, except that I like the imperfections.
And James Turrell’s Skyscape sculpture, Light Reign, was wonderful (and I immediately tried to think of a way to build it in Minecraft, which only shows you what a saddo I am). I would have spent much longer in there if it hadn’t been so chilly (it’s installed in the courtyard).
Dinner came immediately after (and, since we had it in the U. District, the less said about it the better) and then we hopped over to the UW Bookstore to catch Cherie Priest’s reading of Bloodshot. I’m dubious about vampires, but her excerpt sounded pretty good, and when she talked about the book afterward she tempted me even more. Still, vampires. Hmm.
From there we took the crosstown bus to Ballard for dessert in a nice Italian place we found. My wife’s cannoli (she loves cannoli) had a chocolate coating on the shell, unfortunately, but my tiramasu was pretty dang good. Then it was home to watch the Lego animation my son had worked on.
In short, fun. And of course we spent a good deal of time talking about Important Things. For instance, we have a trip to Lisbon that we’ve been wanting to take forever, but when I bring it up it turns into a flight to Amsterdam, then a train trip to London, followed by a tour through Barcelona and Madrid and finally…
Me, I just want to go to Lisbon and check it out (we have family there). My wife thinks she’s being restrained because she’s ready to put off Paris and Rome until the next go ’round.
On top of that, I’ll be going to Readercon this summer (Hello, convention-going people. I’ll be at Readercon this July. If you’ll be there too, please introduce yourself. It’ll be my first sf convention and I’m not entirely sure how I’ll do). For my wife, this is a chance for all three of us to fly out early and check out historical sites. While I’m at the con, she and the boy would tour around the city, learning about the American Revolution and so on.
Nevermind that I’d miss out on those tours. Nevermind also that she’d like to immediately fly from Boston to Amsterdam, etc. Jeez, give that woman a transcontinental flight and she takes a month-long international jaunt.