Eagles Over the Kennebec

What article of clothing do you wear most often and automatically reach for in times of Wardrobe Crisis?

Mine is a brown leather biker vest with buffalo head nickles covering the snaps.

...or the man from Mars. Did Marvin have a lady friend?

Anyhow!

Who has a Wii? How does it work? I see people saying that they exercise with their Wii, how's that happen; does it need to go for a walk?

It's not raining. More, the sun is out, and there's a nice breeze playing in the trees outside my window. Too bad we have stuff to do inside.

I've been going through the story cards here at the Confusion Factory, mostly to see if I can figure out why the file manuscript of Agent is on nine-pin burst paper. I'm guessing the typescript came back trashed from Ace, where it was submitted first, and I retyped it into the (then lately acquired) computer before sending it out to DAW. There's no other reason that accounts for both the month-long gap in getting the manuscript back into the mail and the computer printout.

Anyhow, going through the cards, I'm struck by the various rejection notes gathered over the years. Mostly, it seems that "nothing happens" in our stories; indeed "Candlelight" was rejected numerous times with the note that "something needs to happen" in the narrative. Then of course there was Stephe Pagel's fond description of Local Custom "the book where nothing happens," and Shelly Shapiro's comments regarding Carpe Diem, which she objected to because (so it says in my notes from our phone conversation) "nothing happens." Since I suspect that "nothing" also happens in Mouse and Dragon, I'm now even more interested in seeing the inevitable revision notes.

So, here's a question for an unrainy Sunday: How much action, and what kind, do you as a reader require in a book to remain engaged? And, for extra credit: What's your favorite book in which "nothing happens"?

I have finished entering the back-logged orders for Fledgling and Saltation. As of this moment, we have 164 Saltation and 214 Fledgling available for adoption. These are for books-signed-by-the-authors. Which will, please note, probably arrive directly to your mailbox some time -- even some Very Long-Seeming Time -- after you could've picked it up in a store. This is because we will be signing and mailing each of those books ourselves. Auctorial fingerprints, no extra charge!

If you're interested in adopting, please drop me a note at rolanniATkorval.com (where The Usual replaces AT).

The rest of the bookkeeping can take a hike for the evening. Also? The chest of drawers did not get built, though the pieces of same have been decanted and counted. Perhaps tomorrow. Or, perhaps tomorrow we'll be grasshoppers and go see Up!

I wondered over on Facebook this morning whether I really needed to hang on to all of the hard-copy submission drafts for various novels. I mean, what's the point? And! If I shredded them and used them for mulch, then I could, like, get rid of a file cabinet! Believe me, there are fewer thrills so heady as getting rid of a file cabinet, especially when there's the possibility of replacing it with a bookshelf. Andy Funk suggested that we auction the drafts off, which I thought was kinda silly (sorry, Andy), because -- Hello? Piles of Old Paper that only have one side available to draw on.

However, in the course of my explorations today, I opened the bottom drawer of one of the file cabinets in my office, discovering the original 'scripts for Agent of Change, Conflict of Honors and Carpe Diem. Not only was this Very Scary (no wonder I don't have any room in the file drawers!), but -- now I can't get the drawer closed.

Which leads me to wonder anew if Andy's idea has merit after all -- would anybody pay for this paper? -- or if shredding is the way to go?

Your opinion counts!

[Poll #1419696]

First, thanks to everyone who came to the cross roads! You guys are schmott!

Progress on Mouse and Dragon

70020 / 120000

Reminder to the folks who don't have LJ accounts: I love your comments, but do remember to sign your posts! It unsettles me to not know who I'm talking to. Thanks!

Still soliciting suggestions for good, new SF over here, and being amused by the interesting ideas about What Is Science Fiction and What Is Fantasy.

Not that we're helping any, I know. Writers like to mashup genres.

We do have a question down in that thread that I'm throwing open to the Group Mind, since I have embarrassingly not read either Escapement,The Difference Engine or enough Steampunk literature to have formed an opinion. The question from Lauretta at Constellation Books:

Watching this thread and thinking about this, I must ask - What do you consider steampunk? Fantasy or Science Fiction?

PS Steampunk as defined as The Difference Engine, Larklight (YA - very good), most of Jay Lake's work, etc.


Progress on Mouse and Dragon

67590 / 120000

There's been a sort of movable discussion wandering through a couple writer communities I'm part of, brought on in part by writers who are trying to figure out how best to grow their audience, make a living, and maybe even get a bigger piece of the action.

Not surprisingly, many of these conversations come 'round to web serialization for fun and profit, what works, what doesn't. Some folks are of the opinion that giving one's work away "for free" is always a bad deal for the writer, some folks think that giving work away "for free" is the wave of the future, whereupon we're all gonna starve, some folks think that asking readers to kick in a buck for downloading a novel direct from the author is tacky, some think it's OK, but that no one will pay.

In other words, it's a complicated subject and lots of bright people are struggling to make sense of it, and to figure out how to work current realities to their benefit while simultaneously trying to figure out where current realities are going to take us in one, three, six years.

Now, Steve and I did well with our web serializations. I honestly don't know if that's because of a Paradigm Shift, or because we have Incredibly Cool Fans(TM), or because we were writing a Liaden story -- or a combination of all those factors and a bunch that I haven't thought of.

In the spirit of trying to figure some stuff out myself, I offer the following poll, going from the general to the specific.


[Poll #1381306]

Is it called the Dry Tortugas because the rum's gone?