I have a vague memory of seeing something about another one being revived after some years in hiatus, but I need to track down the details, and they don't like being talked about in public anyway. (Ah -- they're on in July this year, in Leicester. Email me for the link.)
Redemption isn't a slash con, but it is slash-friendly and usually has some slash-orientated panels and workshops in the programme (including the ever popular "realism in slash" panel). Next one's 20-22 Feb 2009, in Coventry: http://www.conventions.org.uk/redemption/index.html
25 February: Thank god for Gregorian Chant...
Over the last couple of months, I've been noticing low frequency hum on and off, mostly at night but occasionally in the day. At first it was so quiet I thought it might be tinnitus. But for the last few days it's been 24/7 and loud enough to be noticeable even when I open the window to let in traffic noise to mask it. I'm pretty sure it's a major factor in my poor sleep the last few nights, and I now understand why at least one person was driven to suicide by the Bristol Hum.
I can't work with this going on; it's too distracting. And so I have resorted to a technique from my student days, when I was living in a building with people who thought that it was perfectly reasonable to have the top 40 on very loudly at all hours that it wasn't explicitly banned by the college, because the beautiful people never bothered to study, only spods did that. I have got out my CD of Gregorian chant which I bought years ago specifically as white noise to mask other people's taste in music, and put it in the laptop's CD drive.
The volume is even, the emotional tone is too, and I don't speak Latin so I don't listen to the words. It doesn't distract me, to the point where I have owned this CD for two decades and have no conscious idea what most of the tracks actually sound like because I tune them out. Bliss...
ETA: There's a hell of a lot of pseudoscience about LFN, but there's also a solid study on measuring LFN from the University of Salford done for Defra in 2005:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/noise/research/lowfrequency/pdf/nanr45-criteria.pdf
2003 literature survey for Defra: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/noise/research/lowfrequency/pdf/lowfreqnoise.pdf
24 February: Torchwood lolcats
I have a new waste of time, in the form of the ihazastopwatch community. It managed to have me cackling insanely this evening, with the following set: http://community.livejournal.com/ihazastopwatch/45282.html
I'm particularly fond of the 5/6a/6b sequence (as should be a certain segment of my flist), but they are all full of win. And yes, that would be me in 4 given the opportunity... Oh, and there is alt-text, if you hover your cursor over the pictures.
(Spoilers for all series 2 Torchwood episodes up to Reset.)
22 February: Got myself a review copy off LibraryThing
LibraryThing has an Early Reviewers scheme, whereby members can sign up to ask for ARCs for review. What the publishers get out of it is a reasonable number of reviews from people who aren't paid reviewers but are deeply into reading, and who are likely to appreciate a particular book -- LibraryThing can pull up good matches between an ARC and people's existing book collections. I put in for a couple this month, and was allocated Gents
This one's actually a reprint of a book which was originally published in 1997. When I read the blurb for the book, it sounded vaguely familiar, and when I looked it up I realised I'd probably seen reviews of it back when it was first released. I'm fairly sure it was one that I thought at the time sounded interesting, but never got around to chasing down in the bookshop or library. It obviously got my interest then if it rang a bell even ten years on. So I'm looking forward to reading it when it arrives.
There were 30 review copies available, and 573 members requesting it. See if you can guess why The Mighty Algorithm thought I was a good match for the book...
Ezekiel Murphy has been out of work for some time so starts up his new job as a toilet attendant with great optimism and enthusiasm. When his fellow workers have to explain to him why he will sometimes see two men leaving the same cubicle he is both shocked and bemused. And when the council clamp down on cottaging in the area they all support the campaign with gusto. However, one month later, with takings down alarmingly the three attendants find their jobs on the line, forcing a radical and quite surprising rethink.
Gents is a genuinely life-affirming novel which addresses the serious issues of race, sexuality and tolerance with skill and humour. Originally published in 1997, it deserves to be viewed as a modern classic.
About the Author: Warwick Collins is the author of 8 novels, all of which have been published to great acclaim across Europe but some of which have yet to be published in the UK. Gents has been a Top 3 bestseller in France and remains hugely popular over there as well as enjoying significant success in Germany, Italy, Spain and Scandinavia. Collins is viewed by our European colleagues as a major British writer but is criminally ignored in his own country. Until now. In 2008, Collins and The Friday Project will embark upon one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken by any author by publishing 12 novels in 12 months.
19 February: Loose Id March Madness short story competition
Full details of the Loose Id short story competition are now up at their website: http://www.loose-id.com/marchmadness.aspx
5000-7,000 words erotic romance, all genres and orientations (including poly), closing date 1 March.Prizes are publishing contracts for the top two entries, VIP club membership or gift certificates for the semi-finalists, and smaller gift certificates for the quarter-finalists. Now, I don't go for slushpiles dressed up as contests, but in this case the contest really does give you something you won't get simply by submitting over the transom, which is the chance to cold-submit a short story -- Loose Id does not normally accept short stories except from authors it already publishes in novella/novel length, and not many of those.
13 February: Navel-gazing on the Evil Ex in romance
There's an interesting discussion at Smart Bitches Trashy Books about the way in which romance novels almost always show the hero's ex as an evil and/or crazy bitch. As Cat Marsters said, if she's that horrible, why did he get involved with her in the first place? Which set me to navel-gazing, because that's precisely why the Evil Ex in one of my books got a serious makeover.
Dolphin Dreams opens with Ye Hero badly traumatised by the recent bad break-up with his boyfriend. Bad as in discovering that Boyfriend is a married man and he's the bit on the side. Bad as in being told that as a submissive he shouldn't be worried about discovering he's lower in the pecking order. As I started writing the story, Evil Ex was a complete bastard. But three or four chapters in, I didn't find this convincing. My hero's a smart guy, solvent, good self-esteem. He doesn't have trouble finding boyfriends. He's a submissive in the bedroom, but that's because he likes to be submissive in the bedroom. He doesn't take any nonsense off people when he's running his business. Why would he have got involved with this dickhead in the first place?
There are a couple of potential answers to that. One is that the Evil Ex really is a self-centred bastard, but gives a good first impression. By the time his true qualities surface, Stockholm Syndrome has set in, and it takes the shock of discovering that he's married to break Hero loose.
The other is that Evil Ex really does have good qualities, but is behaving badly because of the circumstances he finds himself in. And that's the one I went with. The Hero has good reason to be angry and hurt, but that also means that at the start of the book he's seeing the ex in the worst possible light. As he starts to recover, partly because he's forming a new relationship, he's able to get some perspective. He stops blaming himself for getting involved with the ex in the first place. When the ex finally shows up in person, it isn't to provide the threat to the new relationship.
Obviously I'm biased. But I think that the book is better for it, that there is more depth to the storyline because I asked myself "Why the hell did he get involved with this guy in the first place?" Evil Ex is no longer a stock character, an excuse to get the ball rolling, but someone with a story of his own. Evil Exes can be very useful plot devices, but they need to be convincing as a potential partner, or the reader is going to start thinking the Hero(ine) is Too Stupid To Live for getting involved with them in the first place. And TSTL leads to the Eight Deadly Words -- "I don't _care_ *what* happens to these people!"
11 February: It burns us...
Time to buy the Torchwood DVD set. After having felt no urge to fanfic for five years, Jack/Ianto has stirred things in the depths of my subconscious. And two minutes ago, "each man kills the thing he loves" floated to the surface. We shall see if anything else follows, but I think this recent phase of writing nothing but sweetness and light may be drawing to a close.
11 February: Scalzi's financial advice for writers
Scalzi offers Unasked-For Advice to New Writers About Money. It may be entertainingly worded, but it's truth. Read and assimilate.
9 February: DVD goodness
Part of my fit of DVD buying earlier this week was Bob And Rose
The DVD has just turned up in today's post. Alas, I am still sans tv, so I will just have to take it round to
8 February: straight boys on a gay photoshoot
I'm sure this is going to be all over certain segments of LiveJournal, but *I* got it from
5 February: Samhain re-opens to submissions
Samhain has re-opened the slushpile. Note new guidelines. More info at Angela's blog:
http://nicemommy-evileditor.com/blog/?p=1235
5 February: Weddings and funerals
Still unpacking after the move. Just found my photos of lonemagpie and sweetheartwhale's wedding at Redemption 01. The pictures brought back memories of a wonderful wedding (and sweetheartwhale looked utterly stunning in her bridal outfit), but a little sadness as well. Best man Michael Sheard is no longer with us, alas. But it's good to have the memories.
5 February: For the Camberwick Green fans...
I've just ordered the Trumptonshire trilogy boxed set of Camberwick Green/Trumpton/Chigley, on the grounds that it's not in stock at the moment but it's a good price at 13 quid, and should be back in stock soon. However, the three individual series DVDs *are* in stock at Amazon, and this week are four pounds each, as are the first Clangers DVD, and Ivor the Engine. (The price goes up and down between four and ten, I know not why, check before you buy.)
Trumptonshire : Trumpton / Chigley / Camberwick Green (Complete Collection Box Set)
Camberwick Green - The Complete Collection
Trumpton - The Complete Collection
Chigley - The Complete Collection
For the bewildered non-Brits reading this -- classic children's animation from the 60s and 70s, much loved by the age group that is the target demographic for Life On Mars. Which is why there is a Camberwick Green pastiche in one episode of LoM. :-)
4 February: Torchwood fic rec
I was avoiding Torchwood fic until recently, given my somewhat erratic exposure to the Whoniverse while I was exiled in a foreign land. But now I can read it, and this showed up on my flist tonight:
http://smokeringhalos.livejournal.com/20786.html
Short, bittersweet and beautiful Jack/Ianto piece. Worth your attention.
January 2008
31 January: Loose Id's short story competition
I don't know anything more than the press release copied below, but Loose Id is holding a short story competition:
College hoops aren't for everyone.
Which is why Loose Id's hosting its very own March Madness.
* Unleash your imagination with the hottest short stories you can dream up: completed stories of 5000-7500 words of scorching erotic fiction that meets Loose Id's general submissions guidelines.
* Stories will be due by March 1, 2008. You may enter as many stories as you like. Employees and family and roommates of Loose Id employees are not eligible.
* Entries will initially be judged by the Loose Id Staff and a Sweet Sixteen chosen.
* Excerpts will be made available to Loose Id readers for voting with the top entry in each bracket moving on to the next round.
* Winner to be announced April 16, 2008.
Watch www.loose-id.com for details of the submission process, voting and prizes to be announced on or before February 20, 2008.
Bored with the hoopla?
Stimulate your spring with March Madness from Loose Id.
www.loose-id.com
30 January: wordage
1600 words today, so the story's starting to move again. [is relieved]
30 January: Torchwood -- To the Last Man (2.3)
Just got back from Torchwood viewing at kalypso_v's. I liked it. Nice to see Tosh get some time. Predictable in places, but not something that hurt this episode.
This week's fanservice was good. I may just have to wear that bit of the disc out when I get the DVD set.
29 January: 300 words a day...
I don't like writing a story out of order, but needs must. I've been *stuck* on the last segment of the Lord and Master sequel set for the last month. I know what the plot is, but I can't quite get a handle on writing it, partly because the villain is still cardboard. He's a jerk, but right now he's an unbelievable jerk, to me at least. So I've given in, and started writing the scene where Steven has removed himself from the temptation to take a swing at Brother-in-law-from-hell, but is still Not Dealing Well with being trapped at a family New Year's Eve party. 350 words last night, 300 before lunch today, so I think I'm just going to have keep writing this chunk and see if that gets me into the flow enough that I can go back and fill in the rest.
I could submit just the two finished stories if I really had to, because together they're over the minimum word count for Loose Id novellas. But I'm going to keep wrestling with this one for a while, because I planned the trio as a story arc, and there are hooks for the third in the first two; plus an overall resolution for the arc in the third, even though the first two work as standalones.
Meh. I'll get over it in a few days, but there are times when I wonder why I bother, and this is one of them. I should go and read one of those books I bought yesterday.
28 January: whoops, there goes the last open space on the new bookshelf
Went into Oxfam to pick up some dried bananas and chocolate, and had a shopping accident in the books section. The Persian Boy, Maurice and The Trials of Rumpole.
I already have a TBR mountain for the month, after failing to resist the hardback of the new Culture novel in Waterstones on Saturday, and this has not helped.
25 January: the Boulder Pledge
I took the Boulder Pledge many years ago:
Under no circumstances will I ever purchase anything offered to me as the result of an unsolicited e-mail message. Nor will I forward chain letters, petitions, mass mailings, or virus warnings to large numbers of others. This is my contribution to the survival of the online community.
That means that if an author or publisher sends me unsolicited commercial email in an attempt to sell me a book, I will not buy that book, and I may well not buy any other books by that author. Yes, there is a reason I'm posting about this right now. Too many authors and publishers of erotic romance ebooks feel entitled to assume that anyone else involved in erotic romance will of course be only too delighted to be added to yet another promotional mailing list on the subject. No, I don't care if you think it's a wonderful book that everyone should know about, whether or not they asked to be on your mailing list. You're getting reported as the spammer you are.
I recommend that anyone else who feels that spamming should not be encouraged sign up for an account at http://spamcop.net -- the basic account is free, and generally not difficult to use.
24 January: Eastercon
Have just formally upgraded my membership from Supporting to Attending, so I am now Officially Going. Current plan for kalypso_v, predatrix and self is Fri/Sat/Sun nights. We'll probably get there sometime Friday afternoon.
24 January: RSI's bad again
Done something to set the RSI off -- had to take codeine about 3:30 this morning, because my arm was aching enough to keep me awake after something else woke me up. It's my left arm, which is the one that's usually okay. Not good, given I use a left-handed mouse for ergonomic reasons.
Might have to keep an eye out for a cheap copy of Dragon, in case this happens again. It was a nuisance to use the last time I had occasion to, several years ago, but it's improved a lot in the time since.
23 January: Pity the unwary Googler
I just went Googling for a word I had hitherto known primarily as a technical term in the day job. This was a mistake.
Apparently it is now also commonly used as the name of a particular sexual act.
I really, really didn't want to know that. I'm now going to have a visit from Mr Mental Image Fairy every time I see that term in what to me is its proper context, aren't I?
23 January: And a second is like it...
I'm not giving a certain bunch of meatspace trolls the attention they crave by naming them. But it would appear that once again I have reason to post a link to my "stand up and be counted" rant about I'm a Christian, and I believe Christ's words about the Two Great Commandments are a good deal more important than cherry-picking Leviticus for excuses for hatred.
23 January: Conversation with the genre -- plagiarism, allusion, and intertextuality
22 January: RIP Heath Ledger
Heard it on irc, but it's already on my flist and I imagine will be all over it tomorrow. Heath Ledger, dead at 28 of a suspected overdose, in circumstances suggesting that it wasn't drug abuse gone wrong. No, I didn't know him, and on the scale of things it is, after all, one small tragedy magnified only by the number of people who'd seen him on screen, but it still hurts.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7203797.stm
21 January: Call for submissions: Samhain Publishing 2008 Fall Ménage and More anthology
Call for submissions: Samhain Publishing 2008 Fall Ménage and More anthology
Two men focused on her pleasure. One night of indulgence with her best friend and her man. Three men…one love. What’s your fantasy? More than any other, we hear from our readers that the ménage and more is the fantasy they most love reading in erotic romance. In Fall 2008, Samhain Publishing will present three red hot ménage and more stories to our readers…your book could be one of them.
This anthology will consist of three novellas to be released individually as eBooks in September 2008 and combined into one print title for 2009 release.
I am open to any romance genre (historical, paranormal, contemporary, etc.) but the stories must involve a ménage (or more). Though the ménage does not need to be the central relationship in the story or end in a HEA for all three, I am looking for romances so there must be a happily ever after for at least two of the characters.
Submissions are open to all authors previously published with Samhain as well as authors aspiring to publish with Samhain. Submissions must be new material—previously published material will not be considered.
Additionally, we will not consider manuscripts previously submitted whether individually or for past anthologies. Please be aware that manuscripts submitted to this anthology cannot be resubmitted at a later date unless by invitation from an editor.
To submit, please include the full manuscript of 24,000–30,000 words with a 2–5 page synopsis. Also include a letter of introduction/query letter if you are an author not previously contracted with Samhain.
Submissions are open until May 15, 2008, and the final decision will be made by June 1, 2008. Submissions should be sent to editor@samhainpublishing.com . Please put *Ménage Anthology Submission* in the subject line. If you receive an auto response, your submission has been received. Anthologies are special projects exempt to the general closing of submissions.
I’m happy to answer questions about this anthology either on the Samhain Author loop, Samhain Café , on the Romance Divas forum or by private email.
*permission to forward granted
From Angela James' blog: http://nicemommy-evileditor.com/blog/?p=1224
20 January: RWA contests -- Passionate Plume and Prism
I don't normally do writing contests, especially ones with entry fees. But I'm debating whether to enter the annual contests for two of RWA's genre-based chapters, for a specific reason -- to support them, because they have supported epublished writers by making it easy to enter books that have only been published in ebook format. (Unlike the parent organisation, which has effectively banned the entry of a book that doesn't have an official dead tree edition.)
The Passionate Ink chapter for erotic romance writers has two contests, and explicitly mentions welcoming alternative sexualities:
Passionate Plume, for books published in 2007
deadline 4 Feb, will take either publisher's pdf or print, entry fee $15/$25
Stroke of Midnight, for manuscripts from unpublished authors, and published authors in a new-to-them genre.
deadline 4 Feb, will take either pdf or word 2003, entry fee $15/$25
The Futuristic, Fantasy and Paranormal chapter has the Prism, for books published in 2007 deadline 17 March, will take either publisher's print edition, or publisher's ebook file and three print copies, which should be presented as faux-galleys, along with a signed statement that the printouts have not been altered from the published version. (In other words, the author can provide a print-out, in a specified form, rather than it having to be the publisher's print edition), entry fee $25/$30.
***
Finalling or even winning the Passionate Plume won't win me anything substantial. But entering Dolphin Dreams would be a way of expressing support for a chapter that has fought hard for acceptance of erotic romance, glbt romance, and epublishing. I think I might be willing to spend $25 on that.
20 January: Anthology Builder -- fiction and art
Interesting item picked up from the Broad Universe list, that will be of interest to readers, writers and artists: Anthology Builder. This is a specialist POD publisher which uses POD technology to allow readers to put together their own choice of short stories and novellas from those on offer, and get a printed anthology. They only offer reprints from paying markets, so like Fictionwise they're using reprint status as a way of ensuring quality control on short stories.
They're offering a reader up to 350 pages per volume, at $14.95 plus shipping per book, so this is pitched at the higher end of the real price range for small press trade paperback, rather than being the inflated cover prices you see on stealth vanity presses. From the author's perspective, they're offering a pro-rata share in a royalty of $1.50 minimum per book in return for non-exclusive print rights. Cover artists get $0.15 per copy used. Main drawback is that they hold payment until you've accumulated at least $20.
Whether this will come to anything, I don't know. But on a quick skim I saw nothing obviously bad save for that minimum payout, and they're offering a niche service that could actually be useful to readers, at a price that reflects the market. There are reprints from respectable markets in the catalogue (mostly speculative fiction). Oh, and
It's very new, so not a huge selection yet, and heavily slanted to speculative fiction at the moment. They have a system for uploading public domain as well,which might be handy for those who'd like a nicely bound dead tree version of their favourite Project Gutenberg material.
One point for some of you -- the guidelines say "We regret that we do not accept erotica, nor stories with excessive violence or sexuality." Not sure where they draw the line there, given some of the stories you can get in specfic magazines, and that they've got one story which was first published in 1000delights. However, there's an LJ post addressing that, where about half way down it's explained that there will be another imprint opening up later which will be completely unrestricted. In other words, no quality control, no content restrictions. Pretty much like Lulu, only with the Anthology Builder tools to allow readers to assemble their choice of content, including non-fiction. I can see potential problems with that, but so long as it *is* like Lulu and not the pay-to-play places, I can see that being a useful service.
Their LiveJournal is here: http://community.livejournal.com/anthobuilder/
19 January: And if you can't do anything with a straight line like this...
Still unpacking. Just got my Chinese iron balls out, and have been rolling them gently in my hand. They seem to have got rather sticky in transit, which worries me slightly. I need to find a soft cloth to polish them with, as I gather that even the colourfully coated ones don't get on well with being washed.
watervole, we need to go shopping at Uptown Girl next time I'm down your way. I want another set of balls and some silk scarves.
18 January: Gaylactic Spectrum Awards
Since it seems to be the season for trolling for award nominations, I will point out the one that is probably the most relevant to my stuff -- the Gaylactic Spectrum Award. Nominations are currently open for GLBT-positive science fiction and fantasy first published in calendar year 2007. Nominations are open until 31 January, and my eligible publications are:
Novel category:
Dolphin Dreams
(Not that I think anyone who's read it is going to forget it in a hurry, but details here.)
Short fiction category:
And if I offered thee a bargain
(currently available as a free story at Forbidden Fruit.)
(ETA warning for the romance readers: romantic, but *not* genre romance.)
I'm not the only one publishing glbt-positive sf&f romance, so even if you don't want to nominate one of mine, if you read in the genre you can undoubtedly find something worthy of nomination. You can find more details about the awards and the nomination form here: http://www.spectrumawards.org/
(This isn't *just* trolling for nominations -- in the past someone has nominated something of mine which as far as I could see wasn't actually eligible, so I'm putting up a list this year.)
17 January: My book was a number 1 bestseller on Amazon! (and why it doesn't mean anything real)
My book was a number 1 bestseller on Amazon earlier this week. Yes, really, it was. But before you rush to congratulate me, I'm not posting this to fish for compliments. This is a lesson in how an author could honestly tell you that they're an Amazon bestseller, on sales numbers that wouldn't pay enough royalties to buy a cup of tea on British Rail.
As it happens, this particular book has done reasonably but not outstandingly well by small press standards, and has sold nearly 1300 copies if you look at the combined ebook and print figures. But it's been out for some years, and is now well down the long tail when it comes to copies shifted each month. In fact, it hadn't sold any copies at all on Amazon UK for over a month before this particular sales bonanza. Want to guess how many copies it had to sell to push it to #1 on a bestseller list?
Two.
That's right, two copies sold put my book at #1 on an Amazon bestseller list. On two such lists, in fact, and #4 on another. And that's the key to how this works. Amazon doesn't just have one bestseller list. It has lots of them. It has the books bestseller list, but it also has a bestseller list for each of the many, many categories it puts books into. So the book was #1 on
Any Category > Books > Fiction > Gay > Lesbian > Erotica > Gay
and #1 on
Any Category > Books > Fiction > Gay & Lesbian > Fiction General > Gay
and #4 on
Any Category > Books > Gay & Lesbian > Literature
Amazon's ranking is based in part on both how many copies the book has sold recently, and how fast it sold them. So if a book sells two copies within an hour, that can push it well up the rankings on the chart for a sub-category where even the top sellers don't sell that many copies a day. It may even get to #1. It won't stay there for very long, of course (mine stayed there for about ten hours, helped by a third copy selling a couple of hours later), unless it keeps on selling copies. But the author or publisher will be able to say that it was a #1 seller on Amazon.
The other thing feeding into this is that there are multiple Amazons, and some of them have very slow sales compared with the US one. The UK one sells books briskly enough, but nowhere near the volume of Amazon US, so it takes fewer sales to achieve chart-topping status on Amazon UK.
I didn't game this at all. What happened was that I was talking to friends on irc, and one of them said that it was time they read something of mine. I gave the url to the page on my website with the blurb and links to free sample chapters, and someone else said, "I like the look of that, I'm buying it." I checked the book's page on Amazon a little later, and in fact two of them had bought it. I know this because the book happens to be low on stock at the moment, so the page had the thing with "only X copies in stock, more on order". I have a morbid fascination with how Amazon rankings fluctuate with time, so I checked later to see when the sales fed through into the ranking (it usually takes about an hour), and was surprised to find that book's page now reporting that it was on three of the bestseller charts, as detailed above.
Now, this was pure accident -- I didn't encourage anyone to buy the book, and the only deliberate aspect of this was that I knew that someone had just bought a book, so I looked at the chart at the right time to catch a very short-term blip in ranking. Imagine how easy it is for someone to deliberately manipulate the system. In fact, people do. There are groups dedicated to helping to push each others' books to #1 on some Amazon chart for publicity purposes. A lot of the time it's possible for the dedicated to do this on even the "all books" chart. If they time it for a day when overall sales on Amazon are slow, and are well co-ordinated, it may not cost an awful lot in terms of money spent on books.
Remember this the next time you see someone pushing a vanity publishing scheme with the proud boast that they had a #1 bestseller on Amazon. Ask the questions, "Which Amazon chart, and how long was it there for?" Because the answers may reveal the sad truth that "Amazon bestseller" isn't always equivalent to "big sales". If someone can say that the book has consistently stayed in the top 25 books out of hundreds for weeks on end, that's a *lot* more indicative of true interest in the book than a brief dash to #1 from the bottom depths of the chart.
15 January: #1 bestseller (sort of)
It won't last very long, but right now The Syndicate is #1 on Amazon UK's bestseller lists for gay fiction and gay erotica...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/bestsellers/books/275854/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_b_1_5_last
I need to learn how to make a jpeg of that so I can post the evidence for after it's dropped out (which will probably take all of two hours).
ETA: the_magician has done me one in the comments. :-)
15 January: Childhood's End on CD
Just noticed on Amazon UK that BBC Audiobooks is publishing a CD series titled Classic Radio Sci-Fi, and one of the recently released title is Radio 4's dramatisation of Childhood's End. It was previously released on cassette in 1998, but as I've no idea where my copy is, I think I shall be getting the CD version...
Childhood's End (Classic Radio Sci-Fi)
A note for the Blake's 7 fans, especially the Tarrant Nostra: this is the one starring Steven Pacey.
13 January: Cassie Edwards plagiarism latest
This has been rumbling on all week, but until now it's been chunks lifted from non-fiction sources. It's just possible to believe that an author could believe that this was acceptable behaviour (clue: it's not, and it's still plagiarism). But the latest news tonight is that the eerie similarities include ones to a 1930 Pulitzer Prize winning *novel*.The academic romance blog Teach Me Tonight has two posts (so far) on the nature of plagiarism:
http://teachmetonight.blogspot.com/2008/01/publish-and-be-damned-incorrect-use-of.html
http://teachmetonight.blogspot.com/2008/01/words-words-words-1.html
I'd comment there, but I've just used up my typing ability for the day. I'm off to bed with a hot water bottle. :-(
13 January: So this is middle age
Spent a couple of days assembling Ikeaware, moving boxes out of the way to have room to put the Ikeaware somewhere, emptying some of the boxes onto the Ikeaware, and then rearranging the remaining not-empty boxes into a tasteful pattern that allows us to reclaim our living space instead of climbing over boxes.
The Good: the flat looks like a flat again instead of a self-storage unit, and I have my ergonomic workstation set up again after some months of the laptop keyboard and screen.
The Bad: I'm going to *need* the ergonomics. I buggered my wrists while wielding the screwdriver. That's starting to feel a little better already, now that I've stopped the screwdriver abuse. *But*, and this is a very big but, in the last couple of hours I've done something or other which was the last straw as far as my shoulder's concerned. And past experience suggests that it's going to be sore for at least a few days.
The Ugly: I've got a presentation to prepare on the Day Job side. With Powerpoint, which I have no experience of, neither that nor its OpenOffice clone. Much mousing. Much clicking. Not happy...
Add to this the joy that is discovering that my arms are suddenly getting shorter at an alarming rate (or in other words, my very intermittent need for reading glasses is suddenly no longer that intermittent). I am *not* enjoying this introduction to the joys of middle age.
I might get back to writing the Lord and Master sequel at the end of the week. Or I might not. It depends on how many other bits of my body go on strike this week...
(ObPlagiarismReference: this post alludes to a film title. I'll let you work out which one.)
10 January: Sir Edmund Hillary dies aged 88
The trouble with getting older is seeing too many of my childhood heroes shuffle off this mortal coil. Goodbye, Sir Edmund, and may there be challenges worthy of you past that final frontier.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7182376.stm
9 January: Samhain is hiring editors
Mentioned on EREC: Samhain is currently hiring content editors and final line editors. Anyone accepting a position will not be able to submit to Samhain as an author. Content editors are paid a flat fee plus monthly residuals, copy editors on a per word basis. More details at the Executive Editor's blog:
http://nicemommy-evileditor.com/blog/?p=1212
8 January: Safe sex
On having a bit of a catch-up on LJ after the enforced break, I find that someone on my flist has a good post about dangerous sex misinformation in fanfic. It applies to profic as well. (ETA: I didn't notice that the post was locked. My apologies to the poster for linking to a locked post [embarrassed], and the rest of you for mentioning something you can't see.)
Yes, it's fantasy, but it's still something a responsible author should think about. Of late I've been seeing a bit of the "but condoms just aren't sexy" excuse. To which I say, "try a bit harder". Yes, it's not always appropriate to the story. It may be set in a time period when no condom is realistic, or the characters may be the type not to use condoms even when it's a good idea. But if you think that it's just not sexy to mention condoms, remember that some of us are of an age and cultural background to find unprotected sex very unsexy indeed. Which can be part of the characterisation in itself, something I used in Lord and Master:
7 January: Another plagiarism case
The Smart Bitches have been posting evidence of repeated and extensive plagiarism by a well-known romance author. Cassie Edwards appears to have been copying passages verbatim from her reference sources, without bothering either to paraphrase or to acknowledge the source material. So far the series of posts is:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
part 4
Please note what plagiarism is -- it's the unacknowledged use of someone else's work, in effect passing it off as your own and thus claiming the credit for it. Exactly what constitutes "unacknowledged use" depends on context, but at the very least the passages cited by the Smart Bitches should have resulted in an acknowledgements page or bibliography. Copying word for word, as seems to have been done here, would require the passages to be explicitly marked within the text in many contexts.
This is something that gets me where I live in two different ways. One is that as a fiction writer, I'd be disgusted by someone who deliberately lifted my words and passed them off as her own, and mortified if I unconsciously did the same to someone else. It's something that many authors worry about from time to time, because we're magpies, and genuinely can retrieve something from the depths of memory without realising that it is a memory. But it's hard to believe that this was subconscious, given the extent of it.
The other is that in my day job I'm a scientist. As the English teachers and lecturers have been pointing out all over the comment threads, plagiarism is a serious offence in academia; and that goes for the science faculty as well. It is part of the basic ethics of the field that you do not steal the credit for someone else's work. Doesn't stop it happening, of course, and there are some appalling examples and quite outrageous self-justifications, but that's the ideal.
This really is unethical behaviour. More, it's bad writing, because simply copying a reference verbatim in this way generally leads to obvious swings in tone and writing style. That is in fact how this example was picked up. How did this get through the editing process at the publisher without anyone noticing? Either they didn't notice, which says one bad thing, or they noticed and didn't care, which says another.
And yet there's already a rabid fangirl in the comment threads, attacking the Bitches for daring to criticise her favourite author. It appears to be genuine rather than a troll (although one can never tell). It would seem that theft of another's writing is perfectly reasonable when it's an author she admires doing the thieving. I wonder if she'd feel the same way were the copyright dates on the books to be reversed.
7 January: Useful reference site
This is a medical wiki run by doctors, which may be a useful reference source for the writers amongst you:
There's not a huge amount there at the moment, but what there is has a lot of links to other sites. Some of the entries are about being a doctor, rather than about medicine as such.
7 January: Blake's Junction 7 DVD on pre-order
Amazon UK informs me that the DVD with Blake's Junction 7 and two other short pastiche films from the same gang is now available to pre-order at a special price of 10.98, release day being 21 January:
Blake's Junction 7 / 'Ant Muzak' / World of Wrestling
5 January: Home again
Just got home, to my lovely, lovely broadband. [cuddles DSL router]
3 January: want broadband...
Still on metered dialup, until Sunday by the looks of it... I *miss* broadband. :-(
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