Thursday July 27th 2006, 8:16 am
Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.
And on a lighter note…
Wednesday July 26th 2006, 1:11 pm
If you’re a fan of Mike Mignola, you’ve probably already seen The Amazing Screw-on Head. It’s stuff like this that makes me wish I still blew large parts of my paycheck on comics. Make sure to take the survey and tell the SciFi Network to make this show a regular series. After all, if those idiots can clutter their schedule with “Scare Tactics” and (I wish I were kidding) pro wrestling, they can throw Screw-on Head a couple of seasons.
Oh, Barbara…
Wednesday July 26th 2006, 12:51 pm
So, some time back in 2004, I went to a fundraising party for Barbara Boxer. I bought two shirts, and the host was nice enough to give me a giant doggie bag of Hawaiian food. It was a pretty good evening, and I came away thinking that Boxer had her shit together.
And then I saw this.
(more…)
A note to the audience at tonight’s performance of “The God of Hell” at the Geffen
Saturday July 22nd 2006, 9:42 pm
If, after the cast had taken its bows and the house lights came up, you heard some uncouth swine from the box seats say, “What the hell was that?”, that was me, and I’m sorry if I offended you.
I’m not sorry I said it, though, because that was a crap play with a stellar cast that deserved much better material. I think it would have been much more subtle if Sam Shepard himself had come out on stage, naked save for a George W. Bush mask and an American flag wrapped around his erect penis, and proceeded to dickslap the entire front row while “The Star-Spangled Banner” played over the PA and Mr. Shepard yelled, “See? See?”
Ah, well. The Geffen’s a beautiful theater, and the tickets were free, and we had good Thai for dinner. Three out of four ain’t bad.
Money, Mouth, Putting
Thursday July 20th 2006, 9:27 pm
Jason, Rina, George and I have been talking about what’s next for people who write text. And one of the things I’ve been saying is that the dearth of markets for genre fiction (especially the longer stuff that windy sods like me keep writing) makes it pretty damn tough for new people to break in. This is not a complaint about knowing the secret handshake of the Cabal of Published Authors; text on paper is having a hell of a time competing with games and the internet, especially when both of them offer interaction with other people. The power of the imagination is mighty, but it’s gonna have a hell of a time going up against arguing over politics or fragging newbs.
It’s also a matter of entertainment hour per dollar. You spend forty bucks on a game you’re going to play for eighty hours, I think you’ll be hesitant to buy an eBook for six, especially when you can go slurp down free text anywhere else online. We writers have to think like publishers: we’re selling eyeballs to advertisers.
Which is why I’m doing this insane thing: I’m putting my fiction online, and I’m doing it for free. There will be ads at the beginning and end of each chapter/section/story, but they should be unobtrusive (and, ad servers willing, relevant). I’ll still have to promote the bejeezus out of this site, but with Worldcon coming up, there’s plenty of opportunity to spread the word and bring in new readers.
This could be a huge mistake. I might be shooting myself in the foot with magazines and websites and publishers. I’m still going to submit fiction like every other writer, but I’m not going to keep flogging stuff around. Genre fiction can have a pretty short shelf life, especially now with the future rising up and slapping us in the face every day. There are waves to catch, and I want to be as far in front as possible.
Brief Notes
Thursday July 20th 2006, 9:16 am
1) You may notice a link in the upper left corner that seems to be gibberish. It may also be Korean, depending on your browser’s encoding. This is a special link for my fan base in Korea so they know that, no, this really isn’t a giro site, and that you’ll have to find another way to pay your bills.
2) I have decided I need to grow a beard like Samuel R. Delaney’s. The boys and I are already doing a beard-growing contest later this year, but I think it’s about time I had some serious long-term facial hair goals, right?
Feeding Back
Tuesday July 18th 2006, 8:52 am
I read BoingBoing. I don’t care what the haters say, there’s wonderful things in them thar hills.
Granted, I liked it a whole lot more when they had rockin’ guest bloggers. And I really liked it when you could comment. I never did, but if I could go back in time, I’d say this:
USE THE GODDAMN THERE’S MORE TAGS, PLEASE. Thank you.