in the realm of the fictionman

Yes, and it helped the Internet, too?

There's an article on cnn.com about how More authors turn to Web and print-on-demand publishing.

The basic idea is if you can't get a traditional publisher to publish your book, pay a company that will publish anything for a fee. These were origially called vanity presses, but now more and more of them are moving away from that name as they get digital presses. Now they're Print-On-Demand. There isn't an upfront investment, unless you want extra services, like layouts, or covers, or maybe some editing/proofreading. This is self-publishing.

It's easy to see that as a way to get published. Famous authors have self-published. In many cases because the traditional publishers didn't exist yet. Most poetry is self-published. If you want to publish a poetry book, you might have to do it yourself. That's different.

But here's why self-publishing is bad, from a novelist's perspective. Anyone can self-publish. Anyone can pay a vanity press to put out a book. It doesn't matter if the book is any good. It doesn't matter if it uses sentences or not. It might be unreadable tripe. The vanity publishers don't care. They get their money from the authors. They don't risk a dime of their own. They aren't invested in the book. They don't lose anything if the book is a dismal flop that readers hurl against the wall screaming.

The traditional publishers, on the other hand, invest fairly big money up front. They have to take a risk with every new title they put out. They aren't going to do that unless they think the book has a decent chance of success. They get huge piles of submissions. They rule out many of them just from the query letter that introduces the book. If you can't get a few paragraphs with proper grammar and spelling, they aren't going to invest time reading even a few sample pages. Some of the ideas will sound interesting. Some of them will be old ideas that have been done to death. Eventually, the publisher will find a few that they'll want to read a few sample chapters of. For the most part, they'll know in a few pages if the author can handle the language or not. Then they'll see if he can tell a story.

It's hard to get published this way. You might have to go through a dozen publishers, or a score. Some of them will tell you why they won't buy your book. Then you know what to work on. But these publishers are professionals. They've got some ideas what the readers they market to will and won't buy. They're looking for the books that will leave readers wanting more books from the same author. I'm sure Ms Rowling had to send her manuscript to quite a few publishers.

"When everyone is special, no one is."--Dash, The Incredibles.

In the academic world, you aren't published unless its a peer-reviewed work. Your peers review it to make sure you've got your facts straight, that what your saying can be backed up. To make sure it's reliable. Anyone can put their article up on a web page. Not the same.

When you buy something published by one of the traditional publishers, you can know that it has been screened, at least to some degree. It has been through some editing. (Some established authors bully their way through that process. You may have read books where the quality goes down as a series goes on. That's why...)

Anyone can put up a web site, or a blog. That isn't publishing. Publishers pay authors. Authors make a product and then sell it. With vanity publishing, you make a product and then pay to distribute it. Would you do that with any other product you make?

When I was in college ('89-93) there weren't a whole lot of people on the internet. It took some figuring out how to do anything there. So the ones that were there were having some pretty intellectual discussions. Logical debates. Thought out posts attempting to make a case or explain things. Then the Web came out, AOL got big. Spewing ideas was easy. Anyone could do it. And they did. The signal-to-noise ratio changed.

Now, I'm not going to say that all self-published books are crap, and that no traditionally published book is crap. There are gems and piles in both categories. Similarly, there are the occasional intelligently written MySpace page.

But then, these days anybody can type up a rant and click "publish" without even going back to re-read it...

The Ants Go Marching One by One, Hurrah, Hurrah

Here's a very amusing post about one pagan's battle with ants. He starts off refusing to use chemical solutions. Read about his attempts to stick loyal to his values.

There's a similar news story out about a buddhist monestary having problems with ants. Biting ants. Fire ants. Enough to send someone to the hospital. Of course, the monks clearly can't kill them.

We had our own problem with ants in the motorhome whilst in Vegas. They were after our moisture. Go figure. I've never told it as well as that first link, though...

Shoulda Seen It Coming

A couple of years ago I had searched online for a 3D modeling program. All I could find were limited demos of hard-to-figure-out programs.

Recently I again found myself really wishing I had something, so I decided to try again. "Good luck!" Amy said.

It took me longer to download than to find, but even that under five minutes. As it was downloading, I thought to myself, I should have seen this coming.

It's by Google and lets you build 3D objects and import them into Google Earth. I like Google. Good folk over there, I think.

...Pain in the ... --Oh, and Tagged.

So Monday I sanded the floor in Kayla's room. Took it down good. Now it's all smooth and ready for the filler stuff Amy has for filling in the cracks and gaps between floor boards.

In the process, I messed up my back a bit. Actually I aggravated a muscle along my spine. It's swollen up and squishing the nerve for my right leg where the nerve comes out the spine. The result is extremely painful. And spasmatic, which is always fun.

So for Tuesday and most of Wednesday I was incapable of sitting at all. I could stand, and there were one or two laying down positions. Those were my only choices. Fortunately, I know a very good chiropractor who makes housecalls for me... :-) Thank you, Dr. Matt!

But I'm still recovering. Getting up or down out of a chair hurts. I can only barely get my shoes on by myself. Sitting in the car hurts. Wrong moves hurt.

But it doesn't hurt my back. Oh, no, my back feels just fine. I feel it in my hip and leg, which is irritating as all hell. I do something wrong and don't have any good way to know what I did.

Perfect example: Last night I woke up at about 3:30. I couldn't find a position I could put my leg in that it didn't hurt. It wasn't a matter of figuring out where to put my leg. It was about figuring out the tiniest change in hip position. I never did get it figured out.

So I got up, took more aspirin, and played a computer game while it kicked in enough to finally fall back asleep for another hour. It was just incredibly frustrating, and I'm not sure if I just want to go crash, or if I'm dreading going through it all over again.

Ah, but a couple more weeks and I should be fine... Heh.

--In other news...
Amy tagged me for one of her meme things:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
6. Tag three people.

So, here goes:
The book is Japanese Swordsmanship: Technique And Practice
by Donn F. Draeger.

The photographic sequence beginning below shows the necessary steps followed by swordsmen for the care and maintenance of the sword in connection with use (training) and viewing (inspection) by self or other. This method is also a good one regadless of whether or not you have used the sword for training, especially in localities where the humidity is high or rain is frequent, in which case the method should be used on a weekly basis. The five phases of procedure are listed below.

Now, given that I can't come up with three bloggers to tag back, I'm skipping that part.

Now it's time to tuck in a little boy. G'night!

Quote of the Day

I saw this quote on a Cauldron post:

“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.” --Gustav Mahler

That Silly Google Again...

Another of those posts about a search phrase that led here:

"am i pregnant i have to go to the bathroom alot"

Is commentary really needed?

Nah, didn't think so.

Inside-Out Woman

Stumbled across this video art piece. Very cool.

Today's Borrowed Quote

Quoted on a Cauldron discussion, as something one of the poster's professors said:

The world is divided into two kinds of people, those that divide the world into two kinds of people and those that don't

Abort, Retry, Fail

I was going to blog. I had a topic I wanted to blog about. I'd even titled the post and pasted in the link.

But I guess not today. Sometimes me being home just makes things harder. Jareth behaves worse differently when I'm home. I end up doing things that disrupt the morning routines. It all adds to Amy's frustrations.

This morning I had a hard time staying out of bed. I went in to get Amy up about on time, and then all but fell asleep myself. That happens on a too-often basis. And Jareth behaving less differently means more distractions for everyone and everything taking longer.

I did wrap Lindsay's birthday present. Of course, I suck at wrapping, but everyone's polite enough not to say so. But everyone can tell when Amy's done the wrapping.

I had a more elaborate post in mind when I started the 'Abort, Retry, Fail' post half an hour ago. Now I just don't feel like taking it farther. I don't know that I should afford the time, and probably nobody wants to read it anyway, so whatever.

Today's Quote

Today's quote comes courtesy of Raleigh Roule as posted on the Cauldon:

Humility, like grace, is something you achieve while trying to do something else.

Today's Quote

I like this one:

"Community is not what groups you're a member of. It's what you do."

Another Take on Comment Spam

I recently got what looked like another comment spam. Usually it's a comment with a very short statement (like "Cool site.") with a link to whatever they're trying to market. The more sites link to theirs, the higher they end up listed in search engines, and, theoretically, the more traffic money they end up getting.

Usually it's online poker sites.

This last one was to MyNiceMailAt.com.

By the content I figured it was probably spam, but the link didn't provide any suggestion as to what it was.

So I copied the address and went to it.

It leads to another blog.

It seems the spammer hadn't registered MyNiceMailAt.com yet, so this blogger did and directed it to his blog instead. Usurping the link means no money for the spammer.

I'm still going to delete the spam comment out of principle, but this other guy's tactic is amusing. I can appreciate fighting back.

Okay, Now THAT's Cool

15 Million recycled popsicle sticks to make one 15 meter Viking Longship.

And it sails. It was launched two days ago and is now on exhibit in The Netherlands.

Read about it here.

Tweak This, Tweak That

Okay, I've made some sidebar adjustments. Moved the links up and the archives down. I've also added a link to the Fox Valley Drum Circle, now that Lissa has the web page up for it. It's still in progress, but the group was originally set up through meetup.com, and we're not going to pay to keep the group there.

We still need a venue, as the 25-30 people that would like to show up won't all fit in any of our living rooms. A campground or park would be very cool, but not a lot of public venues are going to want us making that much noise... [shrug]

Speechless, Indeed

Saw this linked on another blog. Go read it. The post is short, but it's the comments that make it.

http://www.sarahweinman.com/confessions/2005/05/now_i_know_how_.html

I just don't get mail or comments like that...

Two Traveling Angels

From an email:

Two traveling angels stopped to spend the night in the home of a wealthy family.The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the mansion's guest room. Instead the angels were given a small space in the cold basement. As they made their bed on the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it.

When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied, "Things aren't always what they seem. "The next night the pair came to rest at the house of a very poor, but very hospitable farmer and is wife. After sharing what little food they had the couple let the angels sleep in their bed where they could have a good night's rest. When the sun came up the next morning the angels found the farmer and his wife in tears. Their only cow, whose milk had been their sole income, lay dead in the field.

The younger angel was infuriated and asked the older angel how could you have let this happen? The first man had everything, yet you helped him, she accused. The second family had little but was willing to share everything, and you let the cow die. "Things aren't always what they seem," the older angel replied. "When we stayed in the basement of the mansion, I noticed there was gold stored in that hole in the Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune, I sealed the wall so he wouldn't find it." "Then last night as we slept in the farmers bed, the angel of death came for his wife. I gave him the cow instead. Things aren't always what they seem."

How's that again?

Here's part of the job listing for a CareerBuilder.com job listing:

In this position, you will work in a single specialized functional area: events, collaboration, agency, supplier development, creative development, campaigns, direct mail/circulation, merchandising, technology products, Touchpoint integration, peak performance, etc. You will complete research projects as well as analyze data, study customer market/sales segments and gather competitive intelligence data.

Seems so simple, doesn't it?

I didn't think so either. I'll pass, thanks.

In other news, yesterday's picnic ended up not happening. We did the relaxing/playing inside/lazy bit instead. In other other news, my web server was screwed up this morning, but it's fixed now. 'Twas the same problem Amy was having, which also got inflicted on Quick Shtick Writing.

Today's Sig Quote

From a signature line posted at the Cauldron:

The big ocean does not care which way the little fishes swim.

That Other Blog

It took about a month. Readers of that other blog I was doing (the guy who didn't exist--see Letting Go) are starting to post comments asking him where he went.

It wasn't uncommon for him to drop out of sight for a couple weeks. But then he'd come back with something juicy. And his visitor traffic hasn't gone down at all in the month or so since he vanished (still more traffic than I get...). I think people keep checking back thinking, Oooh, this is gonna be good...

I don't know if I should come forward as the author or not. I'm still not sure how his readers are going to react to that.

Which reminds me, I should get more up about my writing. We'll see when I can get something done for that. Maybe some teasers for the current book. Maybe part of one of the others. I don't know.

I have to make lunch, and feed my iguana, and do the whole working stiff thing...

TMCM

I finally remembered to add a link to Too Much Coffee Man.

The comic is the best part...

I've had things I've been meaning to blog. I even ended up having tonight to myself. Amy and a friend are doing a Girls' Night Out for their birthdays four days apart.

Oh, there were so many things I could have done tonight.

• Entering recepits into the checkbook
• Job hunting
• Filing
• ...Okay, there are other things. Trust me, there are lots of other things. But I'm tired and they're not coming to mind. Deal.

(But back to the point here...) But what did I do tonight? Funny you asked. It's a short list. I played with Jareth, and I played some computer games (C&C Generals, for the computer wargame geeks out there).

And now I'm going to bed. I warned Amy I wasn't going to wait up for her. I meant it.

G'night...

Letting Go

For more than a year I've had another blog. It was an anonymous one, where a fictitious alter-ego could issue social commentary in a freer way than I normally would.

He had his own personality, and my chosen challenge as a writer was to make him so real that readers would connect with him until anyone they saw could be this guy. He even got to have opinions very different from mine, and had his own story line as I flushed him out as a character.

It was a great writing exercise, but I didn't necessarily intend it as any kind of "aspiring writer publicity thing." But as I saw more and more sites that seemed to be just that, I started asking myself if I should stop.

It was entertaining people, which was part of the original hope. Hey, he gets more reader traffic than I do. And people felt for his everyman troubles. One reader commented that what they liked about it was that he was so genuine. I even made one reader cry. I wasn't sure how to feel about that.

But there have been some recent news stories that he really should have given daily commentaries on. I just didn't have the time. And that's why I've decided to stop, actually. I don't have the time to commit to doing it right. I started feeling that the readers deserved more. I realized, dammit, it's become an Artistic Integrity thing.

Then I wasn't sure how to end it. Have some big thing happen? But in the end he's an enigmatic figure. So I'm letting him vanish. Let him leave with that air of mystery. Now he can just be any guy on the street.

I do miss him, though. It's a bit like saying goodbye to an old friend--one who's lived with us for more than a year. So, Goodbye, dude who never even existed. Maybe I'll see you on the street now and then...

Today's Quote

There's a discussion over at The Cauldron about pagans having problems with their parents not approving of how they're raising children. So for something for everyone to ponder is today's quote, courtesy of a Cauldron poster:

I'll be honest, for every person that acquires wisdom with age, I see plenty that just acquire birthdays. I wouldn't place much weight in the whole "older = wiser" thing.

And So It Resumes...?

Story III has begun on Quick Shtick Writing!

Amy worked rather hard on the new design, which I think turned out very well. Check it out.

Also, the archives are in proper order for easier reading. If you didn't follow the fitrst two stories, you can read them now without them being in reverse date order.

This time it's a space setting, although I suspect that space won't really be integral to the story, just where it takes place. This time it's all going to be from one perspective.

So go read it...or I'll keep typing... :-)

Some stuff on other sites

There's a very amusing and well-written story over at Daily Cud (one of our Quick Stick readers). I've got her blogrolled, but for some reason the blogroll refuses to list her. Gotta scratch my head on that one.

In other news, yesterday we finished our story at Quick Shtick Writing. Amy posted about it there, but we're looking for feedback. Opinions, suggestions...anything more thoughtful than the one email Amy got, which really amounted to nothing more than childish provocation. We didn't let it work, although it did really piss her off for an evening.

We're even getting daring and offering our reader(s) the chance to submit the opening paragraph/page of the next story... We'll see what happens (if anyone actually says anything, that is).

Freecycle

I just read this entry over at DawnTreader about Freecycling.

Very cool post about a very cool organization/site. Please check out both. My aunt Barb would probably appreciate the spirit of Freecycle if she hasn't already come across it. I think I'll be emailing her and Dad about it next. Freecycling also works with their share the bananas ideas. I could also see it used as a network for bartering, which I think both of them would support as well.

...Okay, I just emailed them...

Well, got stuff in the works for the weekend, so that's it for just now.

New Links

There's two new links in a new section on my side bar. Worthy Causes. These are places I'll be donating to when I've got the money. Actually, one of them I already do.

But they're all good causes, in my opinion. My blog, my opinions. That's fair.

So check them out, huh? They all at least warrant looking over. Maybe I can't send them money today, so free advertising is the best I can offer them right now.

Maybe later I'll post a bit about each one. Work hasn't been all that blog-worthy lately, which is really just fine with me. Samhain/Halloween is coming, so if I finish deciding exactly what it means to me I can share that, too.

There's a lot of Wiccan material out there for Samhain, and some acedemically historical information, and then there's the common information. But my own slant on life doesn't quite mesh up with the Wiccans, and even other pagan sources haven't quite had my slant on it. We'll see.

Behold!

There are little icons on the left, now. No big deal, I know, but something I'd been planning on doing for some time now.

The pentacle image comes from this site. Check them out, they have some very cool images.

Quick Shtick Writing

Well, I've got the new story at Quick Shtick Writing started. We'll see how it goes…

Try doing THAT blindfolded

Okay, I just blogrolled BlindfoldBlog. Go read it, it's cool. She's learning to become a trainer for guide dogs, and part of that involves spending ten days blindfolded at a school for the blind.

So, like any responsible citizen of the electronic world, she's bloggin it. Very cool.

Which Princess Bride Character are You?

Amy will be pleased to note I am:

Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti

Answer me these questions three...

Questions from Amy:

What, do you think, has been the most uncharacteristic moment in your life?

At first thought I would say how I treated my friends at collete, but that's who I was then, so not uncharacteristic at all. Joining the Army, on the other hand, was a major and unexpected shift.

English major, History minor. English would be good for me as a writer, and History is just something interesting enough.

Blue. Or, the actual color name: Jareth's Eyes Blue.

The Questions Thing 

Okay, so there's this thing that Amy picked up from some other blogs.

The idea is that a blogger asks their readers to ask them exactly three questions, no-holds-barred, on the condition that they in turn post on their blog asking their own readers to ask three questions, and so on. Questions go in comments, answers get separate posts.

I've given her three to answer, so now it's time to open the floor to anyone with questions for me.

So go for it.

Linkage

Thanks to Amy for pointing out Chicagobloggers.com. I'm listed there now, too. I'm not above shameless self promotion. I do work in Marketing, after all.

I'll also be answering the questions on To Our Children's Children along with Amy. Answers will probably start in the morning. I'm not looking to spend a lot of time online tonight.

USB Swiss Army Knife?

Thanks to Davezilla for this one (he got it from someone else):

CeBIT to premiere USB Swiss Army Knife

It's a Swiss Army knife with 64 or 128mb USB flash memory!

In the geek community, that rocks! Argh. Now I have to set up a wishlist to put it on. Bookmark. Later.

Candidate Chooser

'Twas a strangle path of links that led me to it, but here is a quiz to tell you which candidate best fits your views on a wide range of topics.

Amy's gonna like this one, I think. I've been hoping for something like this for the last two elections. Finally someone did it for me. Thanks!

linked here

Are You Hot For Jesus?

I've tried a few different ways to approach this one, but each time it seems just not enough.

Some ideas are just too big for words. Just like I couldn't necessarilly post a really good definition of infinity, and be assured that a reader would grasp it 100%, I also can't seem to put into words just how offensive some people can be. Hurtfully offensive, horrifyingly offensive. And they teach their hate speech to their children, encouraging those children to spread judgement, misinformation, and outright lies.

I offer up into evidence this web site.

Dinosaurs still walk the earth, because they were on the Ark with Noah.

T-Rex was an herbivore. Those sharp teeth were for shredding the leaves that Adam and Eve fed them (illustration available).

Halloween is evil, Pagans are evil, Consumerism is evil (okay, one point we can agree on :-).

They have a character named Lambuel. They offer printable bible tracts featuring Lambuel telling bible stories. Children can color them, or in their own words:

Lambuel Coloring Tracts will teach children reading skills and Bible skills, all while imparting the valuable moral lesson that we should not color outside of God's lines.

But their kangaroo story is today's gem.

First, kangaroos once lived in the Middle East. They know this because:

The Bible is perfectly true.
All animals that breathe were on the Ark, and therefor saved.
Kangaroos breath, and therefor must have been on the Ark.
The Ark landed on Mount Ararat, somewhere in the Middle East.

So they hopped off the boat, and hopped through Pangaea to the far tip before it broke into the continents. But we're not done yet!

The aborigines, having forgotten their Biblical heritage, didn't know the animal's proper name (given it by Adam and Eve), so they had to make up their own name for it. So that's why "kangaroo" isn't mentioned anywhere in the bible.

But, they offer up proof that there were such animals in the Middle East:

However, evidence of the kangaroo's migration through Europe can be found in the reports of satyrs. Satyrs, which many believe to have been strictly demonic in origin due to their goat like features, were actually a conflation of demons and kangaroos by the ignorant Pagan natives of Greece. The features of satyrs — two-legged, upright stance with elongated metatarsi; hirsuteness; a tail; long, pointed ears or horns; long or bearded face — closely coincide with the general kangaroo body form. The more goat-like features — such as cloven feet — attributed to satyrs were no doubt due to confusion in the wine-addled minds of Dionysian cultists between kangaroos and the demons that the cultists consorted with, which manifested in goatish forms.

"Um, no" and other stuff

8:45 a.m. and the phone rings.

I scamble to answer it before it wakes up Amy, who isn't scheduled to wake up until I go in with French Toast at 10:00.

Me: Hello?

Loud music in the background.

Me: Hello?? (louder this time)

Her: Hello, is Kim there?

Me: I'm sorry, you have a wrong number.

her: Oh, I'm sorry. (pause) I'm verifying references. You don't know a Kimberly Howard?

Me: Um, no.

• Observation one: If you're a professional type making phone calls, you should keep the music low. If you're hard to hear over your music, you're not conveying an image of professionalism.
• Observation two: Okay, I'm not sure what observation two is yet. It may have something to do with making up references. Maybe it was someone who looked up Kimberly Howard in the phone book and wrote down a number above or below it.
• Observation three: It's not 9:00 yet, never mind the preferred 10:00. Only friends and family should get away with calling between ten (ampm) and ten (pmam). (Ed. - Brian's having difficulties today.) Can't that be a simple common courtesy?

—-

In completely other news, thanks to Barb for this BBC News link about RSS feeds.

—-

Now available on the blogroll is The Diary of Samuel Pepys. This is the online publication of the diaries of a 17th centutry London diarist named Samuel Pepys. The site is loaded with background information to help set the scene. Each day another entry is posted.

Quick Shtick Writing

Amy has mentioned it on her blog, just thought I'd do the same.

Quick Shtick Writing is a little writing project she started for us. We're taking turns writing one story. We each do about a paragraph or so, and then it's the other's turn. There is no pre-planning, no preconceptions. The rule is that each paragraph builds on what comes before.

We each end up having our own ideas about where it might be going, but usually we have to toss that out when we read the next paragraph anyway.

The particular method of doing it has some amusing side effects. For one, I think it's going to end up a bit of a soap opera. Each of us tends to make the paragraphs all important to the story. So with each posting there's a new plot twist or development. What started us out thinking, "Hurm, what will he/she do with this?" is turning into, "Hah, let's see what she does with this..."

I'm posting one each morning, she posts either during the afternoon or before she goes to bed.

In other news, the blogroll on the right isn't working entirely right. It's supposed to put an asterisk behind the link to any blog that has been updated in the past 24 hours. Most of them have been updated, but aren't showing that way. I'm not sure why. There are other sites that will be added over the next few days.