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Author’s Big Mistake (or is it?)

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Way back in the misty dawn of 2010, the denizens of the Absolute Write fora (which is still an ongoing concern, but without me, because busy) folks used to talk about the ABM: the Author’s Big Mistake. What was it?

Responding to reviews.

Supposedly, arguing with readers who left reviews was one of the worst things an author could do, because no one ever changed their minds, no one was ever impressed, and it made the author look like a slow-motion train wreck. So much drama over one unhappy opinion!

Also:

Also, this guy and this guy.

Which leads to this review on the MilSF novella by [asshole author who self-Googles], called Big Boys Don’t Cry. Dude gets a negative review, dares the reader to lower it to one-star (which, if you have a bunch of five-stars, is better than the “meh” of a three-star review) and later goes all troll apoplectic on the reviewer.

Normally, I’d think the guy was being a fool, but in this case? Nope. [Asshole author who self-Googles] is busy marketing himself as an anti-feminist culture warrior; what better way to rally the troops than to have a public argument with someone on the other side? What better way to bring attention to his work than with a big, public stink?

(And yes, I know I’m “helping” him get more attention, but whatever. the author himself seems like a real creep, but maybe there are readers out there who would like it? Who knows.)

With books, you don’t need a huge readership to be a success. Even if badmouthing lefties drives away some potential readers, it will probably bring in even more on his side (plus, the ones he brings in are likely to be in his target audience). “So-and-so is being an asshole… for our side!”

Controversy! It’s not always a bad thing.

How to recognize when someone is drowning 2015

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Summer is about to start, so it’s time to repost my annual warning for 2015:

How to recognize when someone is drowning.

It’s not what you think. Before you take your kids or loved ones into the water, read this article.

Dudes Writing Rape Scenes

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I’ve been reading the Game of Thrones novels ever since I picked up the first one from a remainders table at the Jersey shore, and liking them pretty well. There are too many characters and the glossary doesn’t do a very good job helping me remember who’s who from one book to another (especially with years between the end of one book and the start of another) but I’m invested.

I don’t watch the show. Continue reading

Lendable library wifi hotspots

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File this under “Things that are cool”: thanks to a grant from Google, the Seattle Public Library is going to be lending people wifi hotspots that they can take home for three weeks, just like books. You can also renew them if no one else has a hold, just like books. Did you know that some 15% of the households in the Seattle area don’t have internet service? I didn’t.

Later this summer, they expect to have lendable laptops, too.

It makes me feel like an old fogey to say it, but I remember looking at the earliest laptops and thinking WTF is the point of THAT? Now I write all my fiction on one.

Anyway, this isn’t the first program in the country, but it’s a welcome addition. For people who are looking for a job or a place to live, the internet is vital. In fact, it’s so important for the public to be able to utilize it, it ought to be a public utility.

I hope it goes well.

Randomness for 5/17

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1) 16-Year-Old Invents $5 Cell Phone Bike Charger And Shares The Instructions For Free.

2) Seven legendary artists drawing The Hobbit, imagined.

3) Sweden employs the “gay sailor” defense against Russian subs that encroach on their waters.

4) Chinese audiences stymied by Age of Ultron translated subtitles.

5) Animators use Grand Theft Auto: V animations to create a tribute to BREAKING BAD. Video. Pretty amazing.

6) Special gloves that you can’t take off… because the inside is covered with thorns.

7) What would a four-year-old girl like to see Wonder Woman do? This made me laugh with delight.

An interview with Aidan Moher about his new book, Tide of Shadows and Other Stories

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For a change of pace, today I’m interviewing Aidan Moher, the Hugo Award-winning editor of A Dribble of Ink, about his new book, Tide of Shadows and Other Stories. Let’s get right to it:

HC. Let’s make the first question an easy one: What’s the pitch for your new book?

AM. Tide of Shadows and Other Stories is my first short fiction collection. There are five stories in the collection—from a military SF set on board a galaxy-faring starship, to a whimsical romp through the Kingdom of Copperkettle Valley—and accompanying story notes. The stories are all vastly different from one another, and I think there’s something to please every type of genre reader.

HC. I see you’re self-publishing this book, a choice many of us have made for a wide variety of reasons. What made you decide to publish yourself?

AM. I took the long way around to self-publishing. Like a lot of readers and writers, I used to have a fairly negative opinion of self-publishing—I thought of it as a literary dumping ground, a place where the rejected and down-trodden ended up after trying valiantly to get someone to publish their work. I didn’t see that changing. I was wrong. Continue reading

Randomness for 5/4

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1) An Analysis of the Shift in Color Palettes Used in More Than 50 Years of ‘Avengers’ Comic Book Covers.

2) Pancakebot will print your pancakes in any shape you can draw.

3) Norway is planning to ditch FM radio.

4) Why are board game boxes so big? I assume the transport issue is the difference in weight between 10 games and 16; the fewer games stacked on a palette, the less likely the ones at the bottom will be crushed.

5) The website for the “landscape hotel” where they shot most of the movie EX MACHINA is gorgeous design porn.

6) “My daughter spent this whole week preparing to GM her first D&D game.

7) Every question in every Q&A session ever.

You might know them, but they don’t know you.

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So, apparently Anne Wheaton started to receive harassment because she offered cash support to Feminist Frequency, and once the inevitable creepy tweets started, she decided to donate extra for every jerk she had to mute.

Then, inevitably:

Apparently, this ridiculous threat is a copypasta meme, and that supposedly means that it’s not supposed to be taken seriously. Wheaton was supposed to recognize it, then dismiss it as a non-issue.

But really, even if she’d recognized it (I’d never heard of it before), why should she write it off? It’s coming from a (now-suspended) user account that she knows nothing about. Why’s the burden on her to make assumptions about strangers?

Yeah, a big part of the answer to that last question is “Sexism,” but other more knowledgeable people can address that better than I can. I’d rather talk about illusory internet friendships.

I’ve seen people on social media shit-mouth writers, artists, and actors as though they were old college pals who talked trash all the time. I’ve seen fans of a TV show criticize the creators in the most outrageous ways. And I’ve seen authors and other non-celebrities asking people not to glom onto them in public spaces.

Yes, the anonymity of the internet contributes to these problems, but too often I’ve seen people insisting they were not trolling, not trying to be awful. They’re just being friendly with someone they know, and were treating the person the way they treat their friends: with good-natured ribbing and straight talk. Sometimes the harassers act like casual acquaintances; not friends, but people who know you and feel they have the social capital to set you straight.

And that’s the problem: because they have someone in their social media, they think they have them in their social circle.

The thing is, it’s only friendly trash-talk if the recipient thinks it is. And while the trash-talker might have donated to cover a vet bill, or have closely followed months of complaints about a contractor, or a child’s learning disability, or a new job, the recipient might not know that person at all.

Now, to be clear, it’s unlikely that Wheaton’s harasser was simply misguided, treating her like a pal. It seems pretty obvious that he’s a straight up shit eater. The people I’m talking about are the hangers-on, who slide into her mentions telling her how she’s supposed to feel about a threat against her life. I’m also talking about the times John Scalzi has posted pictures out his hotel room windows while on book tours, then had to ask people not to track him down and stalk him in the lobby. I’m talking about the people who drove Damon Lindelof off Twitter because they didn’t like the last episode of LOST; in fact, if Lindelof’s harassers had faced, in real life, the sort of contempt they showed, over something as minor as their shoes or their haircut, they’d have been griping about it to their friends for a week. But they felt perfectly comfortable lashing out at him over a project he spent years of his life creating, which they got to watch for free.

This isn’t to say that people should never try to interact with others online–or that they should be obsequious about it–just that it’s important to understand that it’s the recipient who decides how “jokes” and criticisms will be interpreted.

Actually, that’s a useful writing tip in general, but never mind.

Randomness for 4/23

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1) The day Hank Aaron’s bodyguard didn’t shoot.

2) Onlookers mistake fallen construction crane at Dallas Museum of Art as an art installation.

3) Yelp reviews of new-born babies.

4) A person is creating 3d printing templates for every creature in the Monster Manual.

5) The simple brilliance of David Aja. This dude is half of the reason that the Hawkeye comic has been so amazing. I really love the design sense that artists bring to comics now. They’re so much more interesting than they used to be.

6) Why don’t our brains explode when we see movie cuts? (What a sensible way to phrase that question.)

7) Pictures of food that very little kids “can’t eat” and why.

Randomness for 4/9

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1) A map of all the places mentioned in Tom Waits songs.

2) An autobiographical webcomic imagining Conan the Barbarian as a spirit guide.

3) Reader, I LOL-ed. Reaction Table: High Level Cleric of Law Asked to Raise Dead Associate(s).

4) Every Frame a Painting on film editing, video essays, and creating narrative. Video.

5) When Nerf Modding goes too far.

6) Understanding Art: The Death of Socrates. Video. Interesting to see a tool as simple as masking in Photoshop used to such good effect.

7) Risky Date: a lesson in a webcomic.