(1) ARM-WRESTLING WITH A PUBLISHER. Kristine Kathryn Rusch sees writers as too prone to follow rules, and too prone to think themselves as powerless in the face of contractual language: “Business Musings: Thus, Lawyers, and Writers (Contracts/Dealbreakers)”.
Lawyers aren’t afraid of thugs and goons and cartoon characters that go bump in the night. They’re not afraid of someone who plays the Big Dog and says, You’ll never work in this town again. Lawyers generally say, Well, let’s see.
Lawyers know there’s usually a solution—and it’s often as simple as standing up and saying to the person on the other side of the contract, I’m not playing your silly game. No. I’m not doing it. Now, what are you going to do?
…. Here’s the bottom line, people. I know a bunch of you are stuck in contracts you don’t like. Publishers are reinterpreting contracts in whole new ways, ways that they never looked at in the past.
The big shift is that publishers no longer see themselves as manufacturers and distributers of books. They’re running a rights management business, which means taking advantage of the full copyright on a property, instead of licensing a tiny part of that copyright. (If you don’t understand that sentence, get a copy of the Copyright Handbook. If you’re too damn lazy or cheap to do that, at least see this blog post of mine.)
(2) ATWOOD. “Margaret Atwood awarded 2016 PEN Pinter Prize”.
Canadian poet, novelist and environmental activist Margaret Atwood has been awarded the 2016 PEN Pinter Prize. She will receive her award at a public event at the British Library on the evening of Thursday 13 October, where she will deliver an address.
Margaret Atwood was chosen by this year’s judges Vicky Featherstone, Zia Haider Rahman, Peter Stothard, Antonia Fraser and President of English PEN and Chair of Judges, Maureen Freely.
The judges praised Atwood as a ‘consistent supporter of political causes’, adding ‘her work championing environmental concerns comes well within the scope of human rights … she is a very important figure in terms of the principles of PEN and of Harold Pinter’.
Atwood said:
I am humbled to be the recipient of the 2016 PEN Pinter Prize. I knew Harold Pinter and worked with him – he wrote the scenario for the film version of The Handmaid’s Tale, back in 1989 – and his burning sense of injustice at human rights abuses and the repression of artists was impressive even then. Any winner of such an award is a stand-in for the thousands of people around the world who speak and act against such abuses. I am honoured to be this year’s stand-in.
(3) GUY WITH A GUN. Bruce Arthurs wrote about this army experience in 2012 after the Aurora theater shooting, and it’s relevant again this week: “Shots In The Dark, or, How I Became A Sharpshooter”.
Several ammo clips later, I and the other trainees have finished the Night Firing exercise and gather around to get our scores. I get a high score. I get a surprisingly high score. I get an astonishingly high score, far above the type of scores I’d gotten during daytime firing exercises. I get a score so high that suddenly I’ve moved up into Sharpshooter-level numbers. That Holy Shit guy? He skunked it. Didn’t hit a single target. Well, let’s revise that statement, because it doesn’t take much time or brains to figure out what happened. In the dark, with everyone firing around him, with multiple targets and multiple dim flashes, he’d gotten his orientation just slightly off and had been shooting at the wrong target. The target of the guy next to him. At my target.
(4) HOWARD TAYLER’S TAKE ON GUN OWNERSHIP.
I own seven guns. They're all in a gun safe, and there's no ammo for them anywhere in the house.
For self defense I have a cell phone.
— Howard Tayler (@howardtayler) June 13, 2016
If the government were to require they be confiscated and/or destroyed I would be a little sad, but I know how to find a new hobby.
— Howard Tayler (@howardtayler) June 13, 2016
(5) FIRST FIFTH. Joe Sherry continues his series at Nerds of a Feather with “Reading the Hugos: Novel”. Number five on his ballot is: The Aeronaut’s Windlass:
Butcher’s novel is the only finalist not on my nomination ballot. Prior to last year, I was completely unfamiliar with Butcher’s work. I knew that it existed, but until Skin Game‘s nomination, I had never read anything Butcher wrote. Happily, Skin Game was a solid read and one that I vastly preferred over the eventual winner, The Three-Body Problem. The Aeronaut’s Windlass is the first volume in a steampunk epic fantasy series from Butcher. I like it more than Skin Game, and I’m happy to be getting in on the ground floor of the series rather than jumping in at Book 15 like I did with the Dresden Files. The setting was fantastic (airships and insanely tall towers), but what drew me in was the characters. Gwen, Benedict, Brother Vincent, Bridget Tagwynn, Rowl, Captain Grimm, and pretty much everyone across the board are what sold me on this book. These are characters I would love to spent more time with.
This is one of those spots on my ballot that I could realistically swap positions with the next one up. I think Seveneves is an overall a better book, but I enjoyed The Aeronaut’s Windlass just about as much as I did Seveneves, just in different ways. They are two very different sorts of novels, and I’m down for more of Butcher’s Cinder Spires series, but Seveneves gets the nod today.
Sherry’s first installment was – “Watching the Hugos: Dramatic Presentation Long Form”.
(6) CONCLUSION OF FROZEN SKY. “Jeff Carlson has finished his Frozen Sky trilogy and the third book is by far the biggest and most ambitious of the 3 books,” reports Carl Slaughter. Frozen Sky 3: Blindsided was released June 11.
Carl interviewed Jeff in 2014 for Diabolical Plots. He was nominated for the John Campbell and Philip Dick awards and has been published in Asimov’s.
The aliens in The Frozen Sky are intelligent, but they look a bit like squids, they don’t speak and they don’t have sight. Why not bipedal aliens like Vulcans or Klingons or Romulans with vocal cords and eyes?
Because I’m not constrained by a production budget! Ha. “Let’s glue some ears on him. We’ll glue some forehead thingies on them. Okay, we’re done.”
Star Trek is good fun but limited in presentation. That’s the beauty of being a novelist. The medium requires the reader’s imagination. Yes, I direct the action, but hard sf readers are smart readers. They want to be strangers in a strange land. So I can say, well, I have this claustrophobic three-dimensional low-gravity environment like the mazes of an ant farm inside Europa’s icy crust. What would kind of creatures would evolve here? Six-foot-tall bipedal creatures like people? Heck no.
Jeff’s other series is the Plague series.
(7) GREAT GHOSTBUSTERS POSTER.
Totally digging our new #Ghostbusters international posters. This one's from Taiwan. This is so going on my wall. pic.twitter.com/RsLycqoo0N
— Paul Feig (@paulfeig) June 16, 2016
(8) EARLY WRITING. Jami Gray gets a great interview — “Hugo award winner, Seanan McGuire visits with latest InCryptid novel!”
Many writers have that first novel which will never see the light of day. Out of curiosity, do you have one stashed somewhere? Inquiring minds want to know: what was your first attempt at writing and how old were you?
My first serious attempt at writing was a fourteen-page essay when I was nine, explaining to my mother why she had to let me read Stephen King. It had footnotes and a bibliography. I finished my first book when I was twelve. It was called Dracula’s Castle, and if I knew where it was, I’d probably put it online.
(9) MORE STORIES. Editor Glenn Hauman’s Indiegogo appeal to fund the Altered States of the Union anthology has an update – “We’re annexing new territory!”
The response to the concept behind Altered States has inspired a lot of authors to join in the fun, so we’re proud to announce we’re expanding the book by almost 60%, adding new stories by:
- Russ Colchamiro
- Peter David
- Keith R.A. DeCandido
- Robert Greenberger
- Meredith Peruzzi
- Aaron Rosenberg
- David Silverman & Hildy Silverman
- Anne Toole
(10) A BOOKSTORE NEAR YOU. Dutch writer Thomas Olde Heuvelt will be on a book tour in the US in June and July, courtesy of TOR. The trip includes three appearances in California, including an LA-vicinity stop at Dark Delicacies Bookstore in Burbank on the evening of Tuesday, July 19.
(11) MEDIA STRATEGY. Vox Day’s tells followers at Vox Popoli that his new philosophy is “Don’t talk to the media!”
In light of my ridiculous experience with Wired and after seeing how multiple media outlets turned to George RR Martin and John Scalzi to ask them to interpret my actions, I now turn down most media requests. I do so literally every week; I just turned down two yesterday alone. The media is not in the business of reporting the news, they are in the business of selling their masters’ Narrative.
(12) A MAD GENIUS ON THE HUGOS. Kate Paulk devotes half of “Hugo Awards – The Nominee Highlights – Best Fanzine” to criticizing Gregory Benford’s intention to vote for Steve Stiles in the Best Fan Artist category. Yet his reasons for supporting Stiles — Steve’s years of accomplishment as a cartoonist — parallel my reasons for voting for Toni Weisskopf as Best Pro Editor in 2015.
(13) PRINCE OF TIDES, THE GREAT SANTINI. George R.R. Martin urges readers to donate:
Pat [Conroy] passed away in March… but his books will live on, and so will his memory. In his memory, his family has now establishing a Pat Conroy Literary Center in his beloved home town of Beaufort, South Carolina. You can read about it here: http://patconroyliterarycenter.org/ A worthy project, I think. I’ll be donating. I urge all of you who love good writing to do the same.
(14) LOOKING FOR LAUGHS? The B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog is enthusiastic about Joe Zieja’s humorous Mechanical Failure.
Comedy is a tricky beast, especially in science fiction. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is unquestionably a towering achievements of the form, but after than, opinions vary wildly (we’d wager John Scalzi has equal numbers of fans who either want him to stop trying to be funny, or to stop writing books that are so serious). It’s rare in genre to find a book that can do satire without being preachy, comedy without being entirely silly (not that a little silliness is a bad thing), and still manage toss a little “science fiction” into the mix. Joe Zieja’s debut novel, Mechanical Failure (the first part of the Epic Fail trilogy, which gives you a hint as to what you’re in for) makes as good a bid as we’ve seen in quite some time, diving headfirst into full-on military SF parody and making it look easy.
(15) UPJOHN OUTPACED BY REALITY? Alexandra Erin’s facing a challenge that reminds me of the one Garry Trudeau faced while producing Doonesbury during the Watergate era — it’s hard to be more absurd than real life.
Mr. Upjohn’s post-con report from WisCon is still forthcoming; it’s evolved and grown a few times since the con actually ended as I took reality onboard , which once again has made parody seem tame. When actual flesh and blood con attendants are decrying the “dystopian” tape lines designating travel lanes on the crowded party floor, I clearly need to step up the game.
Meanwhile, Erin writes, “I’d really love to close out my WorldCon fundraiser” – still needs $375.
(16) CHANGE OF ADDRESS. Juliette Wade has ported her TalkToYoUniverse content to her Dive Into Worldbuilding site.
Introducing the Dive into Worldbuilding Workshop at Patreon!
Dive into Worldbuilding started in 2011 – five years ago – when Google+ introduced their hangouts feature and I decided it would be fun to hang out with fellow writers and talk about worldbuilding. Since then, it has grown and changed, from just a bunch of friends meeting online with no record except my written summaries, to a meeting that got recorded and sent to YouTube, to a show featuring a wide variety of guest authors as well as regular topic discussions. With each change, my goal has been to reach a wider variety of interesting people, listen to more interesting views on worldbuilding, and share insights with as many people as possible.
Today, I’m taking it a step further with the Dive into Worldbuilding Patreon – which is also the Dive into Worldbuilding Workshop.
This Patreon will do more than just support my research into panel topics. It will help me to pay my guest authors for their time and expertise – but it will also let me help more of you.
(17) TODAY IN HISTORY
- June 16, 1816 — At the Villa Diodati, Lord Byron reads Fantasmagoriana to his four house guests—Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori—and challenges each guest to write a ghost story, which culminates in Mary Shelley writing the novel Frankenstein, Polidori writing the short story The Vampyre, and Byron writing the poem Darkness.
[Thanks to Petréa Mitchell, Vincent Docherty, Michael J. Walsh, Carl Slaughter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]
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Firfth!
ETA:
(12) A MAD GENIUS ON THE HUGOS. – Yeah nope.
(14) LOOKING FOR LAUGHS? – Welp. That’s going on Mount 770
Schrodinger (pointing to kzin-shaped box): Open this, please.
Lab Assistant: Excuse me for a second. (turns around and runs)
::clicky::
There is also this:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1949966329/a-permanent-home-for-kurt-vonneguts-legacy
They have a museum with swell stuff.
I ran into them at the Bay Area Book Fair
Nice People.
Pre-Fifth
A.K.A. Sacrificial Fourth.
There Will Be Fifth, Vol 5?
Vox Day’s tells followers at Vox Popoli that his new philosophy is “Don’t talk to the media!”
I love this news. Less of him in the media is a cause we can all get behind.
A fifth.
One fifth.
Of thirty.
-five.
Fifth plus N.
(3) Good story, Bruce.
(4) Tayler is a fundamentally decent person.
(9) Oooh, boughten. Only $5!
(11) Hallelujah! Can his ego keep to it?
(12) Nope. Nuh-uh.
(14) On Mount TBR teeters
(15) Worth the wait, I’m sure. The Tweets were funny.
(16) Again, highly recommended.
That was the night my father bought the tiger.
(5) These are characters I would love to spent more time with.
He’s got to be kidding. I’m on page 265 of this doorstop right now, and none of these characters are people I want to spend time with. I don’t even like the cat. The only reason I’m sticking with it is the setting and wordbuilding.
*worldbuilding. The “wordbuilding” is nothing special.
“The Night the Brute Fell on Father”
11) Well, that’s good news. But I also wonder how long it will last, because like any other con-man, he needs the media exposure to keep the money machine ticking along.
11) I guess you can’t just make stuff up and expect reporters to swallow it.
Maybe he could stop posting on the internetz, too?
14) I am reading Mechanical Failure now myself and am enjoying it. I wanted something light and funny and its fitting the bill.
Wait a minute. I thought Vox Day was the tough-guy genius of all Christendom. The media pushes back and he folds up like a cheap suit? Is that possible?
@Bonnie Mcdaniels
I kind of want to hear how they handle their population pressures, which the world would seem to guarantee. Colonization? Warfare and genocide? Exile to the dreaded surface via some Shirley Jackson-esque lottery? The vat-meat is Soylent Green? I’m definitely curious.
(12) A MAD GENIUS ON THE HUGOS.
* facepalm *
Paulk once again provides a stunning display of cluelessness by 1) assuming that someone is going to e-mail the Hugo Finalists’ packet to her, and 2) failing to understand that the File770 website is a fanzine (which happens to have an accompanying annual publication).
BTW, JJ, I haven’t forgotten your picture request. We’re having Hell Month right now, but I hope that in July I’ll have time to go hunting for it.
Clicky.
And, I believe, just shy of fourth fifth.
Lee: BTW, JJ, I haven’t forgotten your picture request. We’re having Hell Month right now, but I hope that in July I’ll have time to go hunting for it.
No worries, it’s a long-term project and there are numerous other holes as well. Any effort you make is much appreciated, but only on an “as convenient” basis — please do not use time and energy which you need to apply to important things in your life.
@Bonnie McDaniel @TYP Aeronaut’s Windlass: After one last attempt to get engaged, I surrendered yesterday and took it out of my “currently reading” folder. I thought the characters and setting were intriguing to start out with but after 300 pages of watching these elements interact with each other with effectively no development or growth or elaboration whatsoever I lost hope. I’m not against long reads or slow reads but this was just… empty.
Besides, the likely overpopulation problems get even weirder when you consider what Cat society must have to do to keep their numbers stable… they’re protective of their kittens you say? Sure.
7) I’m not expecting the new Ghostbusters movie to be My Thing but I’m still amazed and excited that it’s being made. Look at those stances! And faces! And costumes with not a cleavage in sight! Not a thing about this is intended for the male gaze and it’s immensely refreshing. Of course, now I’m terrified that if it’s an unsuccessful movie, we’ll never get anything like this ever again and it will be butts and boobs until the universe collapses.
12) … has someone told Kate the packet’s been out for a while? I can completely understand not realising if you’re not following the process closely and/or stalking File 770 every day (a notification e-mail would defs have been nice!) but you’d think that as a current organiser of a Hugo-oriented fan movement she’d have swung by the website at least once in the last month to check.
(11) Let some Hamiltunes drop some knowledge.
“You have no control. Who lives, who dies, who tells your story.”
“Talk less…
smile more…
don’t let them know
what you’re against
or what you’re for…”
@TYP: How about “Renewal!” (And then the vat-meat)(Cats too) Maybe some sort of uber Hunger Games. (And then the vat-meat)
(12) Good question. Has anyone told her the packet’s out and we’ve all been reading it because we don’t expect everything to be handed to us?
And how’s the Puppy Safe Space coming along? I know they’re too few to come up with a park (much less two!), but she did say they were going to have The Fun Zone party.
Arifel: has someone told Kate the packet’s been out for a while? I can completely understand not realising if you’re not following the process closely and/or stalking File 770 every day (a notification e-mail would defs have been nice!) but you’d think that as a current organiser of a Hugo-oriented fan movement she’d have swung by the website at least once in the last month to check.
There were notifications made in numerous ways, including by e-mail. There’s a whole lot of whingeing in the comments on Paulk’s post about how bad *cough* the promotion of the packet availability was. Except that the packet promotion was quite good.
People who don’t spend a lot of time on social media might not have seen most of this — but if they don’t read their e-mail, that’s on them. And yes, it’s quite bizarre that Paulk, as the erstwhile coordinator for SP4, can’t be bothered to keep herself informed.
May 15 – e-mail: Hugo Voting is Now Open! + link to download
May 28 – website: Notice on Home Page + link to download
May 28 – website: Download page added
May 28 – tweet: The 2016 Hugo Packet is ready! + link to download (59 retweets)
May 28 – Facebook: The 2016 Hugo Packet is ready for download
June 12 – tweet: The 1941 Retro Hugo Packet is live! + link to download (20 retweets)
June 12 – Facebook: The 1941 Retro Hugo Packet is now live! + link to download
June 15 – Facebook: Progress Report 3 and Hugo Packets available
And on other sites:
May 16 – Hugo Awards Blog: Voting Open for 2016 Hugo Awards + link to download
May 16 – Locus Online: Hugo Awards Voting Open + link to download
May 28 – File770: 2016 Hugo Voter Packet Released by MidAmeriCon II
May 29 – Amazing Stories: Hugo Packet Release Day + link to download
June 2 – File770: Additions to 2016 Hugo Voter Packet
June 13 – File770: 1941 Retro Hugo Voter Packet Available + link to download
June 13 – Hugo Awards tweet: Hugo Voter Packets Available
June 14 – Hugo Awards Blog: Hugo Voter Packets Available + link to download
… plus countless other post by individuals on blogs, Facebook, Google+, and Twitter that the packet was available for download.
Followup from a few scrolls ago…
I finally received my copy of the extended edition of The Martian and compared its extras to those on my original “3D/2D” purchase. (It was unclear from the available info whether all of the 2D extras made it onto the new set.) After going through both versions, here’s the scoop: unless you want the 3D version of the movie or a digital copy code for the theatrical cut, there’s no reason to buy the original instead of the new release.
More specifically, the gag reel and production art gallery are preserved intact. The single trailer has company on the new set. The “Long Way Home” feature in the new set takes the two “Making of” featurettes from the first release and adds four more to make it a more comprehensive documentary. The remaining six original extras are in-world shorts and have been gathered under the new “Mission Videos” menu. There’s other new content in the new set as well – giving the extras their own disc leaves plenty of room for that – but that’s everything from the first release.
So, yes – the 2D disc from the original package is now completely superfluous. I might use it as a loaner.
JJ: So you’re saying they weren’t keeping it a secret? 😉
That’s right, those damn dirty SJWs were hiding the Hugo packet from the Righteous Puppies!
JJ: That’s a tragedy, because I know how much Kate wants to read the copy of File 770 in the packet.
Mike Glyer: JJ: That’s a tragedy, because I know how much Kate wants to read the copy of File 770 in the packet.
*snort*
I would love to be a fly on the wall when she gets to the Chicago pastiche.
Of course, that’s assuming that she actually bothers to read all of the packet entries. Given her repeated past incidents of presuming to “review” things she hasn’t actually read, I’m doubtful that will happen.
@JJ @Mike they were clearly so inspired by the effort she put into promoting the SPIV list that they decided to adopt a similar strategy…
And yeah point taken on the amount of publicity the packet had! After the amount of automated traffic to my inbox which nominating and voting has produced, I was personally expecting to get an e-mail specifically on the release as well, and as a first time Hugo-er I hadn’t thought through how big the packet was going to be and therefore figured out that it would be a download rather than an attachment. But I certainly don’t mean to suggest that just because my personal assumptions were incorrect, there was something objectively wrong with the process.
(Which is a shame, because if I was conspiracy-minded this moment could be the founding of an incredible campaign…)
Color me a little confused… Is Teddy citing the Wired article from August 2015 as his reason to now stop giving interviews?
That sees like it took a _really_ long to sink in, even for him.
Arifel: Which is a shame, because if I was conspiracy-minded this moment could be the founding of an incredible campaign…
So tell me, which animal is going to be the mascot for the Sad Arifels? 😉
@JJ So tell me, which animal is going to be the mascot for the Sad Arifels? ?
Behold, the magnificent nudibranch! Taking back the Hugos for things that make absolutely no sense but are aesthetically pleasing nonetheless.
All suggestions welcome! Further nudi pics also accepted but should NOT be confused with nudey pics, of which I already have plenty, thanks for checking. A recommended reading list of the top 30 items in each category will be released on my private blog, in ROT13, 4 days before the close of nominations in 2017.
*wafts fronds gently*
(11) Finally a cause to unite Puppy and SJW alike!
Arifel: Behold, the magnificent nudibranch! Taking back the Hugos for things that make absolutely no sense but are aesthetically pleasing nonetheless.
Oh, good choice! I love nudibranchs. Think of the cosplay possibilities…
I don’t think I received an email (certainly can’t find one now) telling me that the packet was available, but saw mention here and through the twitters.
So yes, MAC could have been a bit more belt and braces in their communications.
I visited a Nudibranch Colony once, but i kept my bathing suit on…
NickPheas: I don’t think I received an email (certainly can’t find one now)
It was dated May 15, and the Subject line was “Hugo Voting is Now Open!”
JJ:
That one I found.
MidAmeriCon II will be making available a Hugo Voters Packet.”
And from what I remember, they didn’t release the packet on their planned schedule, for reasons I think we all know. I don’t see any emails saying “The packet is now available, follow this link.”
Paulk schooling Benford on how to vote for the Hugos.
The first image that popped into my head was Foghorn Leghorn lecturing Henery Hawk on how to take down the dog. Unnecessary, ill-informed and ultimately detrimental (to himself) advice. Of course, Leghorn is a fictional cartoon character who was designed as a know-it-all busy-body….
I would like to note, for the record, that SPIV did a good job of convincing some folks that it wasn’t a slate during the nominating process, but seems determined to campaign both for and against finalists based on a very narrow political view during the voting process. Lets all please remember this next year.
PS: I voted Steve Stiles into the number 1 slot for Best Fan Artist this year because his fan art THIS year is fantastic AND, his fan art was fantastic last year, and the year before that, and the year before that and…., most of which can be readily viewed on sites like EFanzines. Stile’s legacy is a FEATURE this year, not a downcheck.
I generally haven’t voted in the art categories – I certainly don’t have the bredth of knowledge to nominate, and haven’t previously studied the packets hard enough to make an assessment. Knowing that voting a particular way will annoy the Impala though…
I have seen several comments on this site argue that the Hugo should only be for this year’s work; eg when rejecting the idea of a best novel nod for Pratchett this year. Personally I think it’s fine to consider past work as long as this year’s work is also reasonably good.
This year/all year.
Fanzine and Fancast seem to hint at being for all the contribution with things along the lines of (paraphrase from memory) “at least 4 published things, one of which must come from the year in question”.
There is really only one rule for HOW to vote for the Hugos, and that is, fill out the ballot with numbers in order of preference.
Making those preferences is entirely personal and subjective.
The community strongly suggests that voters be familiar with the work they are voting on, that they consider the work in question and that they “vote their conscience”, but – come on:
Butcher: I’ve read things like “I really liked his…” in almost every comment on voting for this year’s offering. Leckie: numerous comments comparing books in the series. The whole SP argument is centered on some perceived “used to be” version of SF and how they want to promote works that are the same as what used to be.
Their railing against PC and SJW “nonsense” is nothing but code speak for wanting to eliminate works based on their perception of the motives of certain writers. Where’s the consideration of the only the work in question in that equation?
No one can escape external influences when voting for the Hugos; the author may be a friend, or someone whose work has heavily influenced over the years; the cover art may be atrocious; the particular subject matter may push buttons external to the quality; it may be their first time on the ballot following a life-time of exemplary work; your perception of the quality may be influenced by the crappy day you are having.
It’s MY fucking vote and no one – NO ONE – is in a position to question how I choose to exercise it.
I have a soft spot for Greg Benford: he bought me cocktails in an expensive hotel bar in Laguna Beach once. We then had a fascinating conversation about life extension and fruit flies and genetics.
I’m not madly impressed by Midamericon II’s communications, but even so, if a clueless muppet like me knew the Hugo packet was available for download, I can’t see a sensible reason why it should have slipped past Kate Paulk.
:: hangs head in shame :: – I hadn’t checked the Retro Hugos page for a few days, though, so when it comes to the availability of the 1941 packet… well, I heard it first here. Oops.
Well, the retro packet is nothing to get too excited over — literally the only entry in the Novel folder is a document telling you where to buy an electronic copy of Slan. Heinlein is well-represented in the shorter fiction categories, but nothing has all five nominees. And the Fan & Artist categories only have one entry each, although the Fan categories at least also include a document directing you to Fanac.org.
Edited to add: Which isn’t to blame Midamericon — I know they’re just providing what they were given, and given that the nominated works are 75 years old, it’s not surprising that there are gaps in the packet.
The formatting is the thing that bugs me. Presume that Heinlien’s estate doesn’t want people reading things on Kindles etc, hence the particularly locked down nature of the pdfs.
Don’t really get why. Surely these things are available on teh torrentz already? (Not looked.) Making it hard to read surely won’t drive significant sales. Can understand not giving whole novels away, but surely a bunch of short stories are more likely to drive sales of the collected works than hinder them.
OT? NPR reports that SJW training of Puppy types on oil rigs dropped casualties by 84%: http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/06/17/482203447/invisibilia-how-learning-to-be-vulnerable-can-make-life-safer
Thank you, Howard Taylor, I now have a perfect name to call individuals obsessed with owning guns, gun control, and the recent Supreme Court ruling on the Second Amendment to justify their arsenals: gun hobbyists. Descriptive but not as insulting as gun nut and ammosexuals, but still with a pinch of snark to annoy them.