Occupy Wall Street

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And other cities, too.

This is not the political post I promised. This is something I dropped in comments on Chuck Wendig’s G+ and thought should be reposted here, regarding the protestors who kicked off the formerly much-ignored Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.

“Here are my thoughts: Hippies protest something. The rest of the country responds in this order:

Sneers at them.
Punches them.
Lectures them about how they should dress and behave so their fellow citizens will take them seriously.
Accuse them of being unrealistic.
Accuse them of being insincere.
Declare them “the fringe” and exclude their ideas.
Finally, years later, silently admit that they were right.”

At some point, the mainstream is going to stop attacking them and will start paying attention.

Apparently, I’m a “special snowflake”

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I just returned from NW Bookfest where, on a panel, author Mark Teppo referred to urban fantasy authors who make up their own monsters as “special snowflakes.”

Well guess what? I am special, because I think UF has to open itself beyond the same stock supernatural characters if it’s going to survive long term.

I’m also a snowflake, in that I melt when you touch me with your tongue.

I hope that’s clear.

NW Bookfest

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I’m going. At least, as soon as I pack up my computer, refill my coffee and drop off these two library books down the street, I’ll be starting the long bus trip over there.

If anyone reading this plans to be there, I intend to attend the UF panel at noon. Come look for me in the audience. I promise to be the most socially-awkward author you’ll ever meet.

Okay, okay, you guys, jeeze

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Since folks are pestering me about it*, here’s a list of the old games I bought at Half-Price Books:

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Dragon Lair
Legendary
Elven Legacy Collection

My general rule is that I don’t buy games based on other media because they suck so often, but I made an exception for Harry Potter since my boy is a fan.

In truth, I have no idea if these are good games or not. I played Dragon Lair way back in the day when you had to put coins into a machine for it, but the others are completely unknown to me.

We’ll see how lucky I am.

* Note: This is not true. I just wanted to post this list.

Some stuff about today

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Went to the U-District early this morning (as my son reckons things, at least) to attend the live broadcast of local NPR-affiliate show “Weekday.” The first hour was an interview with actor and storyteller Stephen Tobolowski, of The Tobolowski Files. He talked a little about playing a pedophile principal on GLEE, being naked on CALIFORNICATION, and about his play “Two Idiots in Hollywood.” Great show.

The music was provided by “Awesome”. I suspect we’ll have one of their CDs on order by the time I return home, although their music wasn’t really to my tastes. Fun, but not for me.

After the show, my wife and son went home and I visited pals at their theater. They run Wing-It Productions, and if you’re in the Seattle area, you should go to one or two of their shows. They’re great.

Neither of my buddies could duck out for impromptu lunch, so I swung by Half-Price Books and picked up a bunch of old computer games I shouldn’t have bought, then ate lunch, then… Jesus, is it really so late?

I pretty much blew off the whole day, and I have NW Bookfest to attend tomorrow.

Crap. I’m supposed to be a writer, aren’t I? Writing things? Double crap.

Well, maybe I can accomplish something right now…

Friday quick notes

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1) I’m taking the family to see Steven Tobolowski live on our local NPR affiliate this morning. Exciting! My son loves his show (my son loves oral storytelling) and we can’t wait to see how it goes. And I don’t think I have to say that I’m also a big fan of Steve Scher, the interviewer.

2) I get a lot of people asking me about the status of the Twenty Palaces books, so I’m going to say: Please stop. I’m waiting to hear something official from my editor at Del Rey, but I’m not going to announce anything until I get the final word from them.

Believe me, when I finally hear, the first person I share the news with will be my wife. The second person will be the whole rest of the world. But it’s a stressful time right now, so please don’t keep prodding me. When I know, you’ll know, believe me.

3) After years of hearing about other writers receiving anthology invitations, I’ve started getting some of my own. The only one I’m sure I’m allowed to talk about is a book related to Evil Hat’s Don’t Rest Your Head rpg, which is being edited by Chuck Wendig. And I have a nasty little story idea in mind…

4) I sent a revised copy of A Key, An Egg, An Unfortunate Remark to my agent. New book! Hopefully soon.

5) I’ve been planning a large politics post for quite a while, and hearing that the U.S. government just killed a U.S. citizen without due process is prodding me to get around to it. Watch (or avoid) this space.

WTF, MSN?

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I get my internet through Qwest MSN, which is reasonably affordable and doesn’t make me want to stab people to death.

Usually.

The big problem with MSN is that their webmail is a complete fucking disaster. For ex: A friend posted to a mailing list I’m on about adapting scripts to prose, and my webmail response turned five or six paragraphs into ONE 225-WORD BLOCK OF TEXT!

Microsoft! HOW CAN YOU BE GETTING THIS SO WRONG! When I hit the enter key, it’s because I want to put in a line break! If I do it twice, it’s because I want there to be a blank line between two small blocks of text!

THIS IS THE CUSTOM OF MY PEOPLE! We call them “paragraphs.”

Seriously, how fucking useless can you be? How can this be a big challenge to you? Just leave my fucking line breaks in place so I can email people without looking like a dumbshit. Do I really need to change my email address/ISP/email client because of your incompetence?

No! No, I do not. I’m not going to change anything. YOU ARE GOING TO FIX THIS PROBLEM!

Randomness for 9/29

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1) The Dead Sea Scrolls are available online.

2) A flowchart guide to NPR’s top 100 sf/f books. “Enjoy stories about orphaned farm boys?” “No.” “Tough.”

3) M&Ms viewed through water drops.

4) How not to impress a publisher. And it’s all true, which won’t surprise anyone.

5) How to peel a whole head of garlic in ten seconds.

6) Photos of supers in their off moments. Of course Wonder Woman is the only one in a sexual activity and, um, considering the history of the character… Never mind. Love the Spider-man, though. Via Bill Martell.

7) Edible super-hero logos. Hellboy in chili is perfect, but I doubt the Punisher has ever gone near soy yogurt in his life.

The news is public: My editor is retiring.

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Betsy Mitchell, editor-in-chief at Del Rey and my editor, is accepting early retirement from Random House. She’ll be leaving at the end of the year, at which point I’ll have a new editor. It’ll be David Pomerico, who did such a great job on “A Glimpse of Darkness.”

For her, this means she can stop riding the subway every day and won’t have to attend a whole bunch of meetings. I understand she’ll be opening an editorial services company sometime in the future and, considering what an amazing editor she is, I’m sure she’ll have a long line of clients waiting for her help.

For me, well, I learned a helluva lot from her and I’ll be sorry not to work with her anymore. She was always responsive, fair, and most importantly, she laughed at my jokes. (Some of them, anyway.)

Oh, yeah, and she helped make the Twenty Palaces books way better than I could make them on my own.

Anyway, all things are transitory and I’m glad to have had the chance to work with her. As for the future of Ray Lilly et al, there’s nothing to announce yet.

A thoroughly unscientific survey of ebook buyers

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How do ebook readers choose which books to buy?

The results, while not necessarily reliable, fall pretty much in line with what we know about print books: “Others said it was great” and “I’ve enjoyed this author’s work before.” That’s why reviews are so important for writers when they’re just starting out.