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May 17th, 2008
andrewmacrae
 | 03:23 pm - banksy
‘The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it.’
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orderofthestick
[herufeanor]
 | 10:02 pm - OOTS #557
Truly, Banjo giveth with one hand, and taketh away with the other.
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0557.html
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orderofthestick
[oregongirl1969]
 | 10:03 pm - The Puppet Mistress
New OOTS!
#557
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planeterry
| 01:59 pm
The food shortage appears to have hit Honiara in the form of replacing rice in normal meals with chips.
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skzbrust
 | 09:52 pm - Kit & Reesa presenting at Arse Elektronika 2008
Reesa and I will be presenting at Arse Elektronika 2008, a conference on sexuality and technology that takes place in San Francisco this September. This year’s theme is “Do Androids Sleep with Electric Sheep?” and deals with the influence of science fiction (and “social fiction”) on technology and the future. Our paper, “What is the 21st century novel?” will be part of the conference’s Narration track. Not only will we be talking about the history of and (our ideas about) the future of storytelling, but we hope to reveal details of an upcoming Dream Café collaborative project as well.
I attended last year’s Arse Elektronika and had a great time; you can read my notes here.
In other news, Reesa & I will also be attending the upcoming Burning Flipside 2008. We’re returning with our chill camp, Eposia’s Crosstime Saloon. Our address this year is 8 Naughty Avenue. If you happen to be a reader who attends, be sure and stop by to say hi.
(Originally posted at Words Words Words by kit. Please leave any comments there.)
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homonculus
 | 11:22 am - Wot I read
37) The Monk (Matthew Lewis) - classic gothic (441 pages). A late 18th century piece about characters in and around a Madrid convent at some time before the enlightenment. An odd book. Dark supernatural elements rub uncomfortably against comedic stretches. Quite tame to modern audiences, but understandably shocking to its contemporaries (watch out for the "beauteous orb"). Not bad overall, but if you are going to read a late 18th century piece with supernatural elements I'd recommend "The Manuscript Found in Saragossa" in preference to this. 3/5
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benpayne
 | 10:47 am - Electronic Publishing 2 - Novels
I'm still at the stage where I would baulk at the notion of reading a novel online. However, I kinda think that in ten or twenty years that will be the way things go. I could be wrong.
People like Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross have publicised the notion of giving novels away free on the web, and have done so quite successfully. However, their model seems to be based on the fact that people don't like reading online; that they will trial the novel, see if they like it, and if they do, buy the hard copy. This is probably a viable argument, currently, but I wonder what will happen if audiences become more accustomed to reading online, and grow to accept the notion of reading an entire novel that way. It seems to me that Doctorow's premise is that this is unlikely to happen (based on his writings on online reading in Locus etc, where he argues that reading online is a fundamentally different experience). But it's possible that we're simply in a transition period. That once people grow to accept and get used to the notion, they will adjust to it.
In which case Doctorow may well find giving novels away for free is less viable. *Or*, as I think he has argued, novelists will be forced to find alternatives, akin to the stuff discussed in my last post on cds, so that their income derives chiefly from other sources; appearances, teaching etc, rather than writing itself.
As with music, I can see this being a viable mode of income for established writers. I'm less certain of its viability for up-and-comers.
I think one of the big steps in electronic novel publishing will be finding a format that allows for easy reading and bookmarking etc. I don't really believe a dedicated platform is the answer, unless it can be produced cheaply. I also think publishers wishing to embrace the format need to charge *less* than they do for hard copy novels, just the way itunes etc undercut cd prices.
I'm not sure too many publishers are gonna support electronic publishing until it becomes obvious that it's the wave of the future (in other words, they'll get on the bandwagon once it's mostly past). The reason is this; the transition period will be difficult for them. Whereas publishers could quite reasonably survive by publishing electronically, the middle period of any such change, during which they need to produce works electronically *and* in print, will look unattractive to many publishers, for the reason that publishing relies on printing and selling large numbers of copies, in order to get a good deal from printers and to sell individual copies cheaply and profitably. The more readers who pick up a book electronically, the more the margin of profit is going to shrink as publishers are forced to cut back on print runs. For that reason, I don't think the big publishers will find it in their interests to promote electronic publishing until it becomes inevitable.
Anyway, this is all off-the-cuff rambling. I haven't done any research into the field at all, so I could be talking complete bollocks. It's just my feeling, based on what I've heard and read so far...
Current Music: Maya Jupiter
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benpayne
| 09:51 am - 2012 review
Speaking of reviews, 2012 has picked up another nice review, this time from Rich Horton at Locus.
Here's what he has to say:
2012 is an Australian anthology of near future SF, focused on the problems plaguing us now - or in 2012. Environmental concerns dominate, not surprisingly. The editors called for engaged fiction, which is a two-edged sword - some of the stories here are greatly weakened by their polemics. But others manage to stay urgent and involving without being too shrill. My favorites were "Apocalypse Rules, OK?" by Lucy Sussex, very amusing stuff about the real movers behind the various idiocies humans get up to; and "The Last Word" by Dirk Flinthart, in which a scientist and her ex-lover who is now a wheeler-dealer negotiate the development of a genetic treatment with effects that could be wonderful - like a cure for melanoma; trivial, like an easy suntan; or scarier yet.
Buy it here.
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benpayne
| 09:46 am - Aurealis review
Nice review of the latest Aurealis over at SF Site by Rich Horton.
Some positive comments on stories by Guerin, Sparks, Rayner Roberts, Plank, Blackmore and Maloney.
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benpayne
| 09:44 am - Not selling CDs
As an interesting tangent to the discussion on electronic publishing, Rolling Stone have a short piece about bands moving away from CDs as their source of income. I know Pearl Jam made comments several years back about their income deriving from live shows more than cds, and recently Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead have released Cds for free.
I can see the argument that at some point cds may become obsolete. At the moment, the above arguments work quite well for bands who are big enough to make a living from music without needing cd-sales as part of that income. I'd be interested in some more quantitative data on how it affects smaller bands, though.
Current Music: Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You
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skzbrust
| 05:24 pm - Leaving Las Vegas
On Wednesday, May 28th, I’ll be packing up boxes and such. On Thursday, May 29th, I’ll be loading a truck and getting ready to leave Vegas. If anyone feels like helping me load the truck on Thursday, there will be pizza and such provided.
Come to think of it, if anyone feels like helping me pack on Wednesday, I won’t turn you down. :-)
(Originally posted at Words Words Words by skzb. Please leave any comments there.)
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hawkeye7
 | 08:09 am - Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult was in town so I went to see her at a book signing at the Dendy Cinemas.
- There was about 600 or so people there, filling the cinema.
- Although Jodi claims that 48% of her fan mail is from male readers, women outnumbered men by 20 to 1. This was an unusual experience for me, as the reverse is far more common in daily life.
- At 42, Jodi could easily pass for one of her fans.
- She read from her latest book Change of Heart. It is complete nonsense.
- She told the audience a lot of interesting things, almost all of which I was already aware of. I was uncertain as to whether or not her knowledge of the Gospel of Thomas extends beyond the article in TIME magazine a couple of years back. She may have simplified things for her audience.
- I was the only person there with comic books to be signed. (I know, I'm a snob.) Some of the women around me were surprised that Jodi had written Wonder Woman, although they were told in her introduction. Jodi was proud of her comics.
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May 16th, 2008
dorktowerfeed
| 09:22 pm - Dork Tower for 16 May 2008
http://archive.gamespy.com/comics/dorktower/images/comics/dorktower646.gif Dork Tower by John Kovalic
Current Comic
Please support John by buying his stuff at your favorite game or comic shop. Alternatively you can shop online at Warehouse 23.
DT syndication services provided by John 'FuzzFace' McMahon
fuzzface00@livejournal.com
http://fuzzface00.livejournal.com/
http://www.io.com/~fuzzface/dt/dt.xml
Last Build Date: Fri, 16 May 2008 16:00:00 UTC-0500
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girliejones
 | 11:35 pm - RSVP laughs
My friend cracks me up at work - our discussion at lunch today:
Me: for some reason all the guys list *camping*
Her: well, they're WA boys
Me: yeah ...
Her: well, there's so much to do that's outdoorsy here. I would imagine if you lived somewhere where they had to make more of an effort to get outside...
Me: So, you're saying I should live in New York, so they would list "Broadway musicals" and "the opera"?
yet more reasons to move to my favourite city :-) 
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girliejones
| 11:03 pm - People crack me up
It seems that I grasp obvious concepts about 17 years ahead of the average person. When I was 15, I awakened to my passion and raison d'etre - conservation and protection of the environment. One of the things that seemed utterly ridiculous was the absolute waste we generate for no real purpose. Like, I used to buy video tapes (to record Buffy mostly) and you'd buy packs of 3 wrapped in plastic. But when you unwrapped the pack, each video was wrapped in plastic individually. Why? What was the purpose? Seemed a ridiculous waste considering that plastic would take centuries to degrade in the landfill to where I was banishing it.
These days, you see News items like the one I just saw of a local council (somewhere in Australia, was the national news) where some guy is hooking up the bikes in his gym to collect the energy burned by people working out to generate the electricity to power the gym. Then it switches to the local pool which is collecting rainwater for their swimming pools and the local politician interviewed said: the main reason we are doing it is for the environment, but there is a bottom line benefit.
*boggles mind*
Like, um, when you stop wasting things, you don't have to pay for them in the first place and yeah, there is this resource that we haven't been using.
It's like my Dad who says to me the other day: banks try to sell you the idea of switching to electronic bank statements cause it's good for the environment but it saves them money. And I was like ... well yeah, but it's *both*.
See it turns out, if you realise you don't have to *waste* money in the first place creating useless waste, it's both good for the environment when you stop AND good for your bottom line cause you cut some fat.
I think I have a problem getting my head round the idea that people think the environment is unrelated to everything else. Like you can do something *for* the environment and then suddenly discover being "green" has all these other (economic/health/social) benefits. And then they explain them back to *me* as though I didn't know this and only chose this philosophy *for* the environment and not just cause it MAKES GOOD SENSE!
We are so wasteful. It's only a matter of time till people figure out, if you don't waste stuff you save money (space/resources/society).
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girliejones
| 10:38 pm - Really?
Just watching The View - Patrick Stewart was on it.
But did they really just say that in the USA 1 in 3 teens get pregnant? Surely that's ridiculously too high to be true?
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andrewmacrae
| 11:29 pm - Tweets for Today
because too much andy macrae is never enough
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girliejones
| 07:31 pm - ASif! Announcement
We are desperately seeking a fan of Sara Douglass for reviewing of her books. Email me at girlie dot jones @ gmail dot com if you are interested.
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girliejones
| 07:17 pm - Not that I watch it
Am sitting here frigging crying cause they pulled Corey out of the house before they got to say goodbye to him.
And he wasn't such a bad kid after all.
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benpayne
| 06:06 pm - Electronic publishing
I've been meaning to blog for a while on e-publishing and my thoughts on the future of publishing.
One of the reasons I closed Potato Monkey and started Dog Versus Sandwich was because I believe the future of short story publishing will move to the electronic world within the next decade.
I used to be a kind of "oh no I hate reading off screen" person, but when we decided to do last short story we were forced to read online. There was simply no way we could do it and expect that enough publications were going to send us hard copy material. As a new kid on the block, one of the few cards we had to play when begging for review copies was the "oh we'll read electronic copies, sure" offer. So I had little choice but to learn to read online, and you know what? I did. And it was much less painful and difficult than I thought it would be. I'm still unconvinced that long works work electronically, particularly material that needs to be read in more than one sitting, but I may well change my view on that too in time.
I don't believe other non-LSS readers, who don't subject themselves willingly to such a process, will change their habits as quickly, but I believe they will. Look at the reputation places like Strange Horizons and Fantasy and Clarkesworld are developing. As an author, my opinion was shaped by the story I had published at Ticonderoga Online. A lot more people I knew read that story than other stuff I'd had published, for one simple reason: I could link to it and they could click on it.
One argument often wheeled out against online publishing is that because "anyone can publish on the web" we'll be flooded with average material. My response is twofold: First, being able to print a book doesn't bequeath you with good taste. Money and taste are not synonymous. Second, while anyone may be able to put a story up on their website, it doesn't mean that it will be read. Publications will still develop reputations; publications which consistently publish good stuff will get good reputations and attract better authors. Other publications will die off, but it won't be so much from lack of money as lack of interest. The scene will still be competitive. In my opinion removing the financial burden of print will simply be removing a red herring, not a vital factor.
I'm inclined to think that a couple of the top notch print mags will continue, at least for a while. And I think there'll still be a market for the best anthologies to print material, especially if they can pay professional rates. But I think the majority of small press material will migrate to the web. And I think it will find a good fit. I think the majority of publications will be free; I think pay-rates will suck but I think emerging authors will find it's in their interest to prioritise readership over payment. And it makes good sense, for new authors. It's a lot easier to convince readers who've never heard of you to click a link than it is to convince them to locate and pay for an obscure print publication they've never heard of. And short fiction, for new authors at least, is already more about building a reputation than it is about renumeration.
And how will editors and publications make money? There will be lots of ideas floated, but if you want my honest prediction it's this: They won't. Some will try subscription services, sites you have to pay to visit, but unless they're attracting the very best stuff they're not gonna be able to compete with free sites. Publications will try advertising, donation drives, no doubt a myriad of other options, but my prediction is that eventually the majority of publications will come to the conclusion that they are going to lose money and exist as labours of love. Much as the small press has always done.
If that sounds dystopian I don't mean it to. I don't think the web will become a great money-spinner for short fiction, at least non in the immediate future. But I believe it offers authors and reader great opportunities, opportunities for readers to find stuff they would previously have found hard to find; stuff that's obscure, edgy, stuff that appeals to non-mainstream audiences, stuff that takes risks, stuff that appeals to *them*. And for authors it offers a great opportunity to find readers, to explore niches and audiences, to engage with other authors and with readers, to make art that is vibrant and alive, to create a communal sense of interest and excitement and to communicate.
So that's my vision of the electronic publishing future, at least in terms of short fiction. Bring it on I say.
Current Music: VHS or Beta
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