(0) I HAVE NO ISP AND I MUST SCREAM. File 770’s ISP, Bluehost, was down over 12 hours yesterday, affecting this site and thousands of other clients. But now that we’re back online – let the good times Scroll!
(1) MANY A TRUTH. At sashayed’s Tumblr, an excerpt from a story draft is followed by this humorous but heartfelt plea:
…. We cannot keep spending our energy being mad at mediocre men for writing mediocre books that inexplicably win awards and that people tell us to read, for some fucking godawful who knows reason.
So men. My guys. My dudes. My bros. My writers. I am begging you to help me here. When you have this man in your workshop, you must turn to him. You must take his clammy hands in yours. You must look deep into his eyes, his man eyes, with your man eyes, and you must say to him, “Peter, I am a man, and you are a man, so let us talk to each other like men. Peter, look at the way you have written about the only four women in this book.” And Peter will say, trying to free his hands, “What? These are sexy, dynamic, interesting women.” And you must grip his hands even tighter and you must say to him, “ARE THEY, PETER? Why are they interesting? What are their hobbies? What are their private habits? What are their strange dreams? What choices are they making, Peter? They are not making choices. They are not interesting. What they are is sexy, and you have those things confused, and not in the good way where someone’s interestingness makes them become sexy, like Steve Buscemi or Pauline Viardot. Why must women be sexy to be interesting to you? The women you don’t find sexy are where, Peter? They are invisible? They are all dead?” He is trying to escape! Tighten your grasp. “Peter, look at this. I mean, where to begin. ‘She could have been any age between eighteen and thirty-five?’ There are no other ages, I guess? Do you know what eighteen-year-olds really look like, in life? Do you know what forty-year-olds look like? And not that this is even the point, but why are these sexy, dynamic, interesting women BOTHERING with your boring garbage ‘on the skinny side of average’ protagonist? Why did you write it like this, Peter?”
(2) PODS AGAINST HUMANITY. Authors Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Wesley Chu and Mary Anne Mohanraj were at the Cards Against Humanity offices yesterday, using their sound studio to record 2017’s Writing Excuses podcasts.
(3) ACTOR IN THE HIGH CASTLE. Rupert Evans, who plays Frank Frink, promises “Man In The High Castle Season 2 ‘is going to shock people’” in an interview at SciFiNow.
Where is Frank when we first see him at the start of Season 2? Rupert Evans: He’s kind of weirdly back where he was at the beginning of Season 1. He finds himself in the hands of Inspector Kido (Joel de la Fuente) and the Kempeitai, having given himself up in the hope that he will be able to save his friend Ed, so having tried to hide from the Kempeitai throughout the whole season, he has to then make a huge life decision towards the end of Season 1, and walks into a police station and gives himself up.
So at the beginning of Season 2, we see the repurcussions of that, and there’s a big meeting with him and Kido.
Frank goes from someone from someone who basically wants to keep his head down to effectively becoming radicalised. How has that been to play? It’s been great, because it’s so lovely to see a change in a person, do you know what I mean, genuinely a change. In Season 2 he becomes very different – it’s like a completely different show for him really. He joins a group of people who really want to effect change in a very different way to how he thought he would himself, and he does, he becomes radicalised and joins a resistance cell, as it were, and that’s really the arc for Season 2 for Frank: his journey with them.
(4) FREQUENT BUYER. In 2017, Prime Books will be publishing Clarkesworld Magazine: A 10th Anniversary Anthology. Neil Clarke shared Julie Dillon’s cover art in a public post on Facebook and commented, “So glad to have her on-board for this project. Her art has been on 18 of our covers since 2010.”
(5) ANTISOCIAL MEDIA. Fantasy-Faction asks, not entirely seriously, “Does Patrick Rothfuss hate his fans?” Apparently the story is that (1) some internet users are jerks, and (2) some, in particular, are being jerks about Rothfuss getting his next book finished.
Not too long ago, Patrick Rothfuss wrote this:
Just when I was growing fairly certain my readers were clever people who actually have the ability to read and comprehend text, a brave contingent of souls rush boldly forward with comments, eager to prove me wrong….
The vast majority of you: Thanks for being a delightfully non-representative sample of what the internet has to offer. I love you with great love.
The others: I understand if the above sentences were too long for you to make it to the end. It must be hard to read an entire 70 words in a row, with that painful repetitive stress injury caused by your knees endlessly jerking in response to half-glimpsed imaginary insults.
I am sympathetic to your condition. So here’s the tl;dr…
I am disappoint.
Is that short enough, or do I have to slather it across a kitten picture for you?
The post includes long quotes from Brandon Sanderson explaining what he thinks is happening here.
(6) THE MEMORABLE ASTRONAUT. Homer Hickam, author of Rocket Boys, pays tribute to “The Otherworldly Spirit of John Glenn” in the Washington Post.
Ironically, John Glenn, the Mercury astronaut most Americans can still name, was the quiet one. He was strong and steady and never in any manner outlandish. He touched us in a different way. There was something about that balding, red-headed Marine with his lopsided smile that just made people love him. It seemed to those of us following the space race back then that everything Glenn did, his Midwestern, “aw shucks” manner of speech, his obvious love for and dedication to his wife, Annie, even his daily jogs along the Cape Canaveral beach, was pure and wholesomely American. The Kennedy administration instantly picked up on his popularity and made him and Annie regulars at the White House and Hyannis Port, where Jack and Jackie treated them like old friends.
(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOY
- Born December 9, 1916 – Kirk Douglas, best known as Spartacus, has featured in genre films 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Saturn 3. He was also the last recipient of the Ray Bradbury Creativity Award, which was presented to him by Bo Derek. More trivia: Once upon a time, Kirk and Ray did a Japanese coffee commercial together.
(8) HINES BENEFIT AUCTION #13. The thirteenth of Jim C. Hines’ 24 Transgender Michigan Fundraiser auctions is for an autographed book by John Scalzi.
Today’s auction comes from Hugo award-winner and New York Times bestseller John Scalzi, who’s offering an autographed hardcover copy of his novel LOCK IN.
About the Book:
Not too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever and headaches. But for the unlucky one percent – and nearly five million souls in the United States alone – the disease causes “Lock In”: Victims fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. The disease affects young, old, rich, poor, people of every color and creed. The world changes to meet the challenge.
A quarter of a century later, in a world shaped by what’s now known as “Haden’s syndrome,” rookie FBI agent Chris Shane is paired with veteran agent Leslie Vann. The two of them are assigned what appears to be a Haden-related murder at the Watergate Hotel, with a suspect who is an “integrator” – someone who can let the locked in borrow their bodies for a time. If the Integrator was carrying a Haden client, then naming the suspect for the murder becomes that much more complicated.
But “complicated” doesn’t begin to describe it. As Shane and Vann began to unravel the threads of the murder, it becomes clear that the real mystery – and the real crime – is bigger than anyone could have imagined. The world of the locked in is changing, and with the change comes opportunities that the ambitious will seize at any cost. The investigation that began as a murder case takes Shane and Vann from the halls of corporate power to the virtual spaces of the locked in, and to the very heart of an emerging, surprising new human culture. It’s nothing you could have expected
(9) DON’T GO COMMANDO. Hot Toys has an 18-photo gallery of its Star Wars Rogue One Jyn Erso action figure. Out of all the toys in all the world, why are we featuring this one?
JJ explains, “One of the things that impressed me is how much this actually looks like Felicity Jones. My biggest beef with action figures is how they almost never really look like the person they’re supposed to represent.”
Get the deluxe version for the low, low price of $249.99…
Sideshow and Hot Toys are very excited to officially introduce a Deluxe Version of the widely anticipated sixth scale Jyn Erso collectible figure! Meticulously crafted based on the appearance of Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso in the film, the highly life-like collectible figure features a newly developed head sculpt, sophisticatedly tailored costume with multiple layers, detailed weapons and accessories including a blaster pistol, fighting baton, E-11 blaster rifle, and figure stand.
This Deluxe Version will exclusively feature an additional costume including a poncho with bandolier, a breathing mask, hat with goggles, quadnoculars, and additional blaster parts for Jyn’s unique blaster that can be combined into multiple modes.
(10) THIRSTY MARTIANS. Fantasies of Possibility has a good retrospective on H. G. Wells’ novel War of the Worlds.
Wells creates a vivid and disturbing picture of millions of refugees fleeing in panic from London and other towns, turning on each other as they desperately seek some kind of safety. This is not a picture of heroic resistance, but of a society breaking down.
The narrator is trapped in a ruined house by the fifth cylinder crashing to earth. Hidden a few feet from the invaders, he discovers a dreadful secret, that the Martians are collecting humans in order to drink their blood for food. He sees this happen, but fortunately Wells spares us the details. Escaping from the house, the narrator makes his way to London, a city now almost empty of people.
(11) PERSISTENCE OF VISION. Uncanny’s Michi Trota is interviewed in the Chicago Reader.
All of the work that I do is somehow connected to fostering inclusive communities. It’s important to understand what makes them welcoming and what can be barriers to participation. Things that have spurred me to do the work I do include being pissed off and wanting to succeed out of sheer stubborn spite. You want me to go away because “Women don’t do x”? Or “A Filipina person doesn’t do x”? Don’t get me wrong, I’m also motivated by joy. Part of the reason I got into geek culture, part of the reason I fire spin, is that there’s nothing that makes me happier than bringing people together
(12) ASSOCIATIONAL ITEM. A novel for sale on eBay from the inventory of Mystery and Imagination Bookshop has the director’s autograph on a bookplate created by John King Tarpinian — “Guillermo Del Toro DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK First Edition SIGNED Bookplate”.
(13) HOW BIZARRE. SuperMansion “War On Christmas”:
Original | Not Rated | 23 min | Released: 12/08/2016 Audio: English | CC/Subtitles: English
Why It Crackles: Wanna see Santa lose his $#@!? Jim Parsons joins Keegan-Michael Key and Bryan Cranston for a very SuperMansion Christmas.
Episode Description: The League of Freedom must band together to save Christmas when an interstellar imp, Mr. Skibumpers (Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory), unleashes a real-life Santa Claus (Gary Anthony Williams, The Boondocks), who experiences an existential crisis and runs amok.
(14) AND HAVE A SPRIG OF HOLLY DRIVEN THROUGH THEIR HEART. Buzzfeed’s Adam Ellis lists “14 Christmas Horror Movies To Watch This Holiday Season”.
- Sint
What it’s about: A Dutch reimagining of Sinterklaas as a ghost who murders people whenever the holiday coincides with a full moon.
Why it’s a perfect holiday movie: Since the film is from the Netherlands, it has subtitles, which means you get to feel cultured and sophisticated while watching people die.
Moment that will fill you with holiday cheer: Any time Sinterklaas uses his razor-edged pastoral staff as a deadly weapon.
(15) HOLIDAY PSA.
[Thanks to Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, Mark-kitteh, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributor of the day John King Tarpinian.]
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I’ve been dubious about unfinished series since Farmer’s Riverworld.
He published two books, then waited several years. OK. Volume 3, when it came along, ended with a serious cliffhanger (middle of a battle).
Volume 4, some years later, picked up elsewhere, and there is no mention of that battle anywhere within it, not even in the offhand way that someone in 2016 might refer to the Battle of Gettysburg.
Several books about the same characters, with long gaps and/or story arcs stopping at the end of a book, fine. But when someone stops in mid-story like that, they ought to at least try to pick it up again. By “try” I mean that writer’s block happens; a publisher refusing to buy the next volume happens; and novelists are mortal. But there’s a difference between “I can’t/don’t want to write this specific narrative” (or can’t sell it) and what feels like thumbing one’s nose at everyone who is looking for something like a continuing story.
Well, writing a series instead of standalone books (even if connected) also have consequences. If people don’t buy them, it is the author who made a mistake. The author should own that mistake. And authors like Jordan and GRRM who goes on forever have destroyed my trust in series.
I have tens of thousands of books to pick from, many of them in completed series. I can survive on that for the rest of my lifetime without any problems. So own my decision? Absolutely. If others are desperate for series, they can pay for them as soon as they come out. Not my job.
De gustibus non est disputandum and all that, but personally, I’d rather read something really good than something which merely…has an ending. The former is important to me. The latter, not so much. Especially considering that a lot of good writers are bad at endings. (Early Bill Gibson, I’m looking at you!) Cliffhangers can be mildly annoying, but as long as I’m enjoying the ride, the annoyance remains very mild.
Speaking of Riverworld, there’s an example where the (original) ending was crap even if you waited for it! Which is why Gods of Riverworld was published later. The story was supposed to be finished after The Magic Labyrinth, but then Farmer realized he had a much better ending, so he had to add a whole extra book just to fit the newer, improved ending onto the series. Unfortunately, Gods was kinda meh overall, until you got to the new ending.
Anyway, maybe it’s because I’m too picky about what I read, and maybe it’s because I read too fast (I probably read a minimum of a dozen books a month, and when I’m really in the zone, I’ve been known to polish off three in a day), or maybe both, but if I didn’t read series before they were complete, I’d find myself desperately scrounging for something new that I actually want to read far more often than I do. Which is already something that happens more often than I’d like.
As far as Riverworld is concerned (and with the disclaimer that I’ve not read the books since high school), my problem wasn’t the gap between Labyrinth & Gods (if I even noticed it); my problem was that pretty much everything in Gods of Riverworld seemed predicated on the notion that everything Farmer had said in previous volumes about the how & why of things working on Riverworld was, in fact, completely wrong and should be entirely disregarded in favor of the new information in Gods of Riverworld.
//ticky
Riverworld’s retconning reminds me of a personally unliked series of retcons: Ringworld. Althouigh the Ringworld is unstable, and there are a few interesting ideas and things seem in Engineers, the longer the series goes, IMO, the worse the retconning and changes got.
Farmer and retconning reminds me of a shared world series of novels I read back in the 80’s and 90’s that he had created called Dungeon. Different authors wrote the books, and each book seemed to be arguing with the previous in terms of changing things about the setup and characters over and over and over…
Currently reading Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis after reading an interesting spoiler article at IO9. (Had to read Prince Lestat before that to become caught up on the series.) Having gone from a stand-alone book to a series with a different protagonist to Finding Religion to Losing Religion Again to deciding the rules for being vampires needed to change, to changing character motives, Rice has been retconning the retcons of her retcons.
I remember when I posted the Anne Rice title to my facebook feed when it came out. People thought I was trolling them with a fake book…
@Paul Weimar
Right now I’m having the same reaction…
Yeah, I wasn’t happy with any of the Ringworld books after Engineers — mostly because it felt like Niven kept trying to retrofit current SF tropes (nanotech, e.g.) into the series, and said tropes were an increasingly bad fit for the 60s-70s-based Known Space universe.
@Joe I remember he and Barnes tried that in one of the later Dream Park novels, going from the earlier novels’ holography to a virtual reality setup in one ungainly jump. It did not work for me at all.
Here is the IO9 post that I mentioned.
The Ringworld sequels were crap, but I love the recent co-written/ghost-written Prequel novels.
As for Anne Rice, I only read the first four(?) of her vampire books, but one of the things that turned me off was the constant retconning in pretty much every single book.