not because I knew ahead of time that it was a promotional gambit by a vanity press to boost their Google ranking and rope in unsuspecting writers. I just figured it was a waste of time.
If you’ve posted an “I Write Like” banner in your blog or LiveJournal, you might want to go back and strip out any links to vanity publishers (or redirect them to Making Light post above).
I’m posting this here so I can find it later and follow some of the links. I’m leaving it public in case you guys are interested, too.
He needed to respond to the NAACP’s request that Tea Partiers “to repudiate those in their ranks who use racist language in their signs and speeches.” Hey, the guy is the national spokesman, right? I’m sure he handled this with dignity and tact.
“You’re dealing with people who are professional race-baiters, who make a very good living off this kind of thing. They make more money off of race than any slave trader ever. It’s time groups like the NAACP went to the trash heap of history where they belong with all the other vile racist groups that emerged in our history.”
Emphasis added by me.
I wonder how much longer people in the mainstream media will criticize the NAACP?
1) Letters written to fictional characters by actual people. I like this one, this one, this one and this one. And now I can’t help but wonder what letter I would write.
2) Proving there’s a niche blog for everything (until someone creates a niche blog you never even thought of before): Handsome Men Who Are Now Dead.
3) Prank rollercoaster photos. Maybe not entirely safe for work, but not too bad.
4) via Steve Barr: Ferris Beuller is Tyler Durdin!. And now in video form (which I can’t watch at work.)
5) If movie titles were honest. The funny ones make up for the dumb ones.
1) Every _____ Comic in three panels, by Marvel editor Nathan Crosby.
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2) Mainstream journalism throws more pop-science against the shoals of cultural prejudice.
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3) “Have you read all these books? When do you watch TV?” A husband works in his wife’s bookstore while she’s sick, and records the conversations he has with customers.
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4) How “non-lethal” weapons are too often used by police.
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5) The history of the term “slush pile.”
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6) The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Intelligent Design. Twelve of the Worst Book Titles Ever (NSFW) according to some dude at Huffpo.
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7) Bookscan: how accurate is it?
I swear to God, I have never sweated over anything as much as I just sweated over the “script” (really a shot list w/ dialog) for the book trailer for Man Bites World. Never. And believe me, I sweat. I’m a sweaty, sweaty man.
Remember when I realized that I had the same thirty people leave a building and then magically leave it again 20 pages later? That I was a third of the way into MBW without having introduced a vital subplot? When I was sweating my query/synopsis for Child of Fire?
Kid’s play.
The weird thing about trailers is that it’s so damn easy for a film (Okay, not easy but whatever) because the footage has already been shot. You look at what you have, what works, what tells the truth about the story but isn’t one-two-three in the film.
For a book, though, you have to decide what you’re going to film. Books aren’t designed to hand over the premise in a line of dialog. They’re more digressive and indirect (if they’re any good, IMO). Characters may kiss or punch or embrace or shoot, but that visual is not how the story is being told.
So I’m writing this trailer, knowing that some of these shots will be half a second long, and that it’s heavy on fx (too heavy. I know it’s too heavy. I did that deliberately–and at the request of the filmmakers–so the trailer can be dialed back to what’s possible rather than dialed up to what’s awesome).
And some of what I’m writing doesn’t match what’s in the books. The ghost knife is a piece of paper that can slice a steel girder in two. It’s also laminated. Is that going to come across in a book trailer? Is it going to be obvious what the Ray is using to, say, cut a padlock?
I suspect not. What’s in the trailer won’t match what’s in the books, exactly. I’ve been mulling over what needs to change and what absolutely can’t change, what portrays the essence of the story and what gives the wrong idea.
What’s more, the traditional script format that I’m used to doesn’t really work for this. I experimented with a bunch of ideas and kept it clear and under two pages. But Jesus, what a pain.
I finished it last night and sent it off. I expect to revise it thoroughly but it’s good to have a starting point, at least.
Immediately after, I sat down and wrote a selling synopsis for The Buried King. It’s good, too, if unpolished. Then this morning I fell right back into the text and made goal even with a shortened work time. The story is moving now and has momentum. I don’t know if others feel this way, but for me a book has momentum when the characters are pursuing their goals and Things Need To Happen. The text I write sometimes feels like a snowmobiler trying to outrun an avalanche.
And I’m there with this book, and it’s exciting. (Which of course means it’s time for my copy edit to show up.)
I knew what this test was about and I still failed it.
It’s only a minute long. Test your awareness.
Courtesy of my previous post, let’s play fill in the blank with this quote:
“There’s an unfortunate inward-looking, comfort-zone loving… aspect to some in the [genre] community that is preventing the imaginative genres becoming the literature of now…”
The ellipse hides a descriptor that would give the game away.
What genre do you think the poster is talking about? Would you change your answer if I told you the poster was a science fiction author? Would you change your answer if I told you the poster was a fantasy author?
(lol)
… Non-sequitur?
::scratches head::
I don’t want to talk about the dividing line between sf and f. I don’t care about it, don’t want to see the genres split apart on the book shelves and consider it a dull topic. I’m especially embarrassed by the contempt some people show for genres they don’t read and by the resentment other people show when their genre is disparaged.
But to go from “We should split the genres!” to “They’re complementary and will save the world!” in one conversation? Come on. It’s bad enough that Borders is hosting the Same Old Conversations, but waving one SOC around to distract from the holes in the other makes me feel like I’ve had popcorn for dinner.
1) Ever wonder why the left protests G8 and G20 meetings? It’s because of this sort of thing.
2) Rick Riordan goes from adult midlist mystery writer to bestselling kids author. How sad is it that I didn’t even *know* the dude wrote mysteries for adults?
3) Furniture designed for small spaces. These designs are fantastic.
4) Lady Gaga in everyday situations.
5) And you thought authors got a small cut: How much do musicians really make?
6) This randomness collection is more political than most: Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom in comic book form, which first appeared in 1945. BTW, did you know that Hayek thought we should have universal health care?
7) Quote of the day: “…it’s an easy, quick read, suitable for wallowing in decadence for a day on the beach and then entirely forgetting about afterward. Alternatively, one can forget about it ahead of time — and that’s what I recommend.” Andrew Wheeler, reviewing Bret Easton Ellis’s Imperial Bedrooms.