Pixel Scroll 5/26/17 Hey Mr. Tatooine Man, Use The Force For Me

Posted on by

(1) PHOENIX COMICON SUSPECT NAMED. Phoenix’s 12News, in “Phoenix Comicon suspect said things would get bloody, according to court papers”, reports the suspect’s name is Mathew Sterling.

The man Phoenix police arrested Thursday for carrying four loaded guns inside the Phoenix Convention Center during Phoenix Comicon has been booked for attempted murder and several more charges. A judge set his bond at $1 million on Friday.

Police said 31-year-old Mathew Sterling made threats to harm a performer at the event. Police also believe he intended to attack officers as well.

According to court documents, Phoenix police received a call from the Hawthorne Police Department in California. Hawthorne police said a witness reported reading Facebook messages from Sterling who was posting pictures of Phoenix officers and threatening to shoot them.

Sterling resisted when approached by police at Phoenix Comicon and even ripped off an officer’s police patch on his uniform, according to court paperwork. He was eventually overpowered and taken into custody.

Police say Sterling was armed with a shotgun and three handguns that were all fully loaded. He was also carrying a combat knife, pepper spray and throwing stars. Police said he was wearing body armor.

Signs posted throughout the Phoenix Convention Center prohibit these kind of items at the event. Sterling avoided the stations where prop weapons are secured and marked, according to court records.

He later told police in an interview that he believed the signs and law prohibiting weapons at the venue did not apply to him, according to court paperwork.

Court documents show Sterling admitted to carrying the weapons into the venue and told police he was the Punisher — a popular Marvel comic book character. Sterling said if he deemed the officers to be what he called “Aphrodite officers” or “bad” officers, he would shoot them. He said these types of officers can hide behind kind faces and police badges.

According to court documents, Sterling purchased a four-day pass to the event and told police he believed with the person dead, the person’s wife and child would be happy.

Sterling appeared in court for his initial appearance Friday. He did not say a word and is being held on a $1 million bond.

Sterling was also booked for three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, wearing body armor during the commission of a felony, resisting arrest and carrying a weapon in a prohibited place.

After yesterday’s incident, Phoenix Comicon Director Matthew Solberg announced radical changes to attendee screening at the entrances to the event.

In light of recent events, Phoenix Comicon, in cooperation with the Phoenix Convention Center and the Phoenix Police Department, will be implementing enhanced screening to ensure the safety of all our attendees. This screening includes three dedicated access points, no longer allowing costume props within our convention or the Convention Center, and other methods as determined in conjunction with the Convention Center and Phoenix Police Department. We anticipate some delays as you are entering the building and we encourage you to carry as little as possible to make the process easier. …Costume props will no longer be allowed on-site. All costume props should be left at home, in your car, or in your hotel room. This includes costume props for staff, crew, costuming groups, panelists, and participants in the masquerade ball…. Convention staff is also trying to bring some relief to those stuck in line.

(2) CHEESECAKE UPDATE. The crowdfunding appeal to raise $500K for charity as an inducement for Neil Gaiman to do a reading of the Cheesecake Factory menu, reported in May 22’s Scroll, has raised $59,017 in the first four days.

(3) ENOUGH ABOUT YOU. Felicity Harley is catching heat for her narcissistic “interview” with N.K. Jemisin, “Science Fiction Author Felicity Harley talks to Hugo Award Winning Author NK Jemisin” (links to Internet Archive), where Harley spends half the time talking about herself.

…Jemisin says that she writes not to educate or convey her political views but to entertain. I questioned her on her social and political views, and since her books are speculative, I wouldn’t say she deliberately addresses these head on. Rather I think she tends to use allegory and metaphor to introduce them into her stories.

I’m a different kind of writer — I come out of a strong background of political and social activism. For instance, my current book deals specifically with corporate plutocrats and how they are exacerbating climate change, and also some of the moral and ethical dilemmas that we face as we develop highly intelligent, human forms of artificial intelligence. I’m also more of a hard core science writer — I have a three or four page glossary of scientific terms at the back of my book. I’m like an Andy Weir if you like, who I’ll be chatting with later on in this series.

I would say however, after reading her work, that Jemisin is by far the superior artist of the two of us. She writes from her colorful imagination and her Jungian dreams, weaving her political ideas like subtle silver threads throughout her narrative….

Jemisin let loose a hail of tweets about the interview and how it will reshape her policy for dealing with interview requests henceforth. (Her complete comments are available at Storify.)

https://twitter.com/nkjemisin/status/867909934343749632

https://twitter.com/nkjemisin/status/867910082004099072

https://twitter.com/nkjemisin/status/867910317514346496

https://twitter.com/nkjemisin/status/867913318714949632

(4) NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME POSTER. Tommy Lee Edwards tells The Verge: “What went wrong with the Spider-Man Homecoming poster: a veteran film artist explains”.

Not long after a pair of excellent new trailers for Spider-Man: Homecoming landed online, Sony and Marvel unveiled a poster for the film, showcasing nearly everyone in the principal cast. It is, to say the least, crowded. Peter Parker, Tony Stark, and the Vulture appear twice; poor Marisa Tomei is a tiny floating head at the bottom right; and the background features fireworks, lasers, the Manhattan skyline and the Washington Monument.

It didn’t take long for fans and critics to roast the poster on Twitter…

(5) A SHORE THING. Scott Edelman invites everyone to gobble glass noodles with the legendary William F. Nolan in Episode 38 of the Eating the Fantastic podcast.

Welcome to the permanently moored Queen Mary, which sailed the seas from 1936 to 1967, but which is now a retired ocean liner turned hotel in Long Beach, California — and last month the home of the second annual StokerCon. My guest for this episode snuck away with me from the con for some peace and quiet in my room — and to share take-out food delivered from nearby Thai Silk….

 

William F. Nolan. Photo by Scott Edelman.

We discussed how Ray Bradbury helped him sell his first short story in 1954, the way a slush pile sale to Playboy convinced him to abandon a successful career as a commercial artist, why his Twilight Zone episode was never filmed, the difference between the real truth and Charles Beaumont’s “greater truth,” why he only acted in only one movie (and got punched by William Shatner), how Stan Freberg pranked diners aboard the Queen Mary and made them think the ship was sinking, which novel he thinks is his best (and it’s not Logan’s Run), and more.

(6) OXYGEN. On behalf of writers everywhere, Dawn Witzke pleads for your Amazon reviews: “Review the KISS Way”.

Imagine walking blindfolded into a room. You tell a story and at the end there is silence.

Feeling a bit worried? Well, that is what it’s like for authors.

We know you have our books. We know some of you have even read them. But, without reviews, it’s like that silent room.

Don’t write reviews because:

“I would, but I don’t know what to say.”

“I don’t like doing reviews, it takes so much time.”

“I didn’t like the book. I don’t want to be mean.”

I’ll admit it, I have said those things before.

However, writers depend on reviews. Reviews not only lets the author know how they’re doing their job, it helps others decide whether to buy the book or move along to another book….

(7) SUSTAINABLE SPACE. Authors argue a new vision for economically-viable space stations: “Towards an Economically Viable roadmap to large scale space colonization”.

Al Globus and Joe Strout have an analysis that space settlements in low (~500 km) Earth equatorial orbits may not require any radiation shielding at all. This is based on a careful analysis of requirements and extensive simulation of radiation effects. This radically reduces system mass and has profound implications for space settlement, as extraterrestrial mining and manufacturing are no longer on the critical path to the first settlements, although they will be essential in later stages. It also means the first settlements can evolve from space stations, hotels, and retirement communities in relatively small steps.

(8) TEMPORARY GRAFITTI. Last night stfnal creatures were illuminated on the outside of the Sydney Opera House. Here are two examples — more on Twitter.

(9) SPIT TAKE. Another unexpected consequence of tech (or maybe it was to be expected, given lawyers): Ancestry.com‘s license-in-perpetuity. The BBC has the story: “The company’s terms and conditions have stated that users grant the company a “perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide, sublicensable, transferable license’ to their DNA data, for purposes including ‘personalised products and services'”

A leading genealogy service, Ancestry.com, has denied exploiting users’ DNA following criticism of its terms and conditions.

The US company’s DNA testing service has included a right to grant Ancestry a “perpetual” licence to use customers’ genetic material.

A New York data protection lawyer spotted the clause and published a blog warning about privacy implications.

Ancestry told BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours its terms were being changed.

Headquartered in Utah, Ancestry is among the world’s largest for-profit genealogy firms, with a DNA testing service available in more than 30 countries.

The company, which uses customers’ saliva samples to predict their genetic ethnicity and find new family connections, claims to have more than 4 million DNA profiles in its database.

Ancestry also stores the profiles forever, unless users ask for them to be destroyed.

The company’s terms and conditions have stated that users grant the company a “perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide, sublicensable, transferable license” to their DNA data, for purposes including “personalised products and services”.

In a statement to You and Yours, an Ancestry spokesperson said the company “never takes ownership of a customer’s data” and would “remove the perpetuity clause”.

(10) STACEY BERG PROFILE. Here is Carl Slaughter’s overview of Stacey Berg.

ECHO HUNTER 367 SERIES
by Stacey Berg
Harper Voyager Impulse

DISSENSION

For four hundred years, the Church has led the remnants of humanity as they struggle for survival in the last inhabited city. Echo Hunter 367 is exactly what the Church created her to be: loyal, obedient, lethal. A clone who shouldn’t care about anything but her duty. Who shouldn’t be able to.

When rebellious citizens challenge the Church’s authority, it is Echo’s duty to hunt them down before civil war can tumble the city back into the dark. But Echo hides a deadly secret: doubt. And when Echo’s mission leads her to Lia, a rebel leader who has a secret of her own, Echo is forced to face that doubt. For Lia holds the key to the city’s survival, and Echo must choose between the woman she loves and the purpose she was born to fulfill.

REGENERATION

Protected by the Church for four hundred years, the people of the City are the last of humanity — or so they thought. Echo Hunter 367, made to be faithful to the Church and its Saint at all costs, embarks on what she’s sure is a suicide mission into the harsh desert beyond the City. Then, at the end of all hope, she stumbles on a miracle: another enclave of survivors, a lush, peaceful sanctuary completely opposite of anything Echo has ever known.

But the Preserve has dark secrets of its own, and uncovering them may cost Echo more than just her life. She fears her discoveries will trigger a final, disastrous war. But if Echo can stop the Church and Preservers from destroying each other, she might have a chance to achieve her most impossible dream — saving the woman she loves.

PRAISE FOR REGENERATION

  • “Echo Hunter 367 may be a clone and callous killer, but she’s one with true heart and soul. Regeneration is a thrilling conclusion to Berg’s dystopia duology.” — Beth Cato, author of The Clockwork Dagger series
  • “Regeneration by Stacey Berg is a paean to resistance, hope, and love, a Canticle for Leibowitz that passes the Bechdel Test and then some. This post-apocalyptic clash of values and technology demonstrates beautifully that physical bravery can only take you so far; real change only happens when we have the courage to listen.” – Nicola Griffith, author of Hild

STACEY BERG BIO

Stacey Berg is a medical researcher who writes speculative fiction. Her work as a physician-scientist provides the inspiration for many of her stories. She lives in Houston and is a member of the Writers’ League of Texas. When she’s not writing, she practices kung fu and runs half marathons.

(11) FOLLOW THE MONEY. Lela E. Buis ponders “Why Are Literary Awards so Popular?”

A recent article by Deborah Cohen cites James English The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value. According to English, the number of literary awards has more than doubled in the UK since 1988 and tripled in the US since 1976. Not all these are for SFF, of course. Some of them are big competitions for national recognition and some are only small prizes for local authors. Still, there’s been that explosion. So why are awards so popular?

The answer appears to be economics, which is the answer to a lot of questions about human behavior, i.e. there’s money tied up in the awards process. First of all, many of the prizes charge an entry fee, which means it’s a money-making proposition for the organization offering the award. The Newbery is free. The Pulitzer charges $50. But other smaller contests often have higher fees. The Florida Authors and Publishers Association, for example, charges $75 for members and $85 for non-members to enter their contest. These small organizations tend to cater to independent publishers and authors who hope to gain some of the advantages a literary award can offer, meaning you can add “prize-winning author” to your bio.

(12) DIETARY LAWS OF THE AMAZONS. Speaking of following the money, here’s another entry in the Wonder Woman nutrition sweepstakes.

(13) GREATCOATS. At Fantasy Literature, Bill Capossere does a mock dialog involving Sebastien De Castell and his characters as a salute to “Tyrant’s Throne: A near-perfect close to a great series”.

De Castell turned to Kest. “How would you rate our chances?”

Kest rifled through the manuscript. “We’ll get four and five-star reviews and show up on a dozen Best of the Year lists, after which you’ll get one, no two, major nominations. People will be very sad it’s over and will repeatedly beg you for more. Falcio will appear on five or six €˜Best Characters in a Series’ lists, which won’t do much for his humility, I hate to say.”

“I’ll have you know I have the best humility of anyone.”

“My point exactly. I’ll get a Top 10 mention on a list of Best Swordsperson in a fantasy work, but poor Brasti will almost certainly be forgotten, unless someone makes a list of €˜Characters Who You Only Remember as €˜That Other Guy.’”

Brasti glanced up from polishing his bow.

Falcio raised a finger before Brasti could speak. “Please tell me that isn’t a euphemism. I really€”“

De Castell interrupted. “Don’t break perspective, Falcio. And yes, we all hope it isn’t a euphemism.” …

(14) HISTORY OF FINLAND. Here’s an artistic byproduct of DNA-community research: “Genomes tell their story in a stamp celebrating the 100th anniversary of Finland”.

This year, in Finland, we are celebrating the first one hundred years as an independent country. Our history books tell many details of the past decades that have shaped the present day Finland. With modern technology we can complement the written history by another readable source that has literally travelled with our ancestors throughout millenia. This readable source is, of course, the human genome that we are studying at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) of University of Helsinki. A figure of our population genetic analysis based on the FINRISK study of the National Institute for Health and Welfare ended up in a special stamp designed by Pekka Piippo to celebrate Finland’s 100th anniversary. It is a bit fancy stamp with a price tag of 10 euros and you can see our contribution in it only in UV-light!

(15) HONORING THOSE WHO DIED IN WW2. Robert Kennedy suggests that as we begin Memorial Day Weekend in the U.S. we increase our appreciation of the cost of war by viewing The Fallen.

[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, JJ, Robert Kennedy, Mark-kitteh, John King Tarpinian, Carl Slaughter, and Chip Hitchcock for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Bill.]

Discover more from File 770

Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.

106 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 5/26/17 Hey Mr. Tatooine Man, Use The Force For Me”

  1. (4) NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME POSTER.

    It’s totally worth clicking through to the article; it includes someone’s “improved” version of the poster which is absolutely hilarious.

  2. I wouldn’t want to be standing in the heat in Phoenix this time of year.

    15) Thanks for posting The Fallen.

  4. It’s fascinating how a heavily-armed white guy who makes actual threats* and resists arrest is subdued and arrested alive, while police officers fear for their lives from unarmed black men and wind up shooting unacceptably large numbers of them.

    *or who takes over government land, or whatever.

  5. 4) NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME POSTER.

    I’m going to strongly disagree with the designer in that article. There’s lots of well designed posters out there including such genre ones as Arrival. There’s an independent cinema downtown (the landlord being the city who gives them a really good lease) and I generally pass there quite often. They’ve nine spaces for posters up on the exterior walls and I’m always amazed how many are eye catching in a good way. And they show a lot of genre films, most of which have ones that are reasonably well designed.

    Is there badly designed posters out there? No because that suggests an objective reality in which we all agree on what’s good and what’s bad for movie art. Like that’s ever, ever going to happen…

  6. (1) A number of people in my Facebook friends list who help run conventions are more than a little worried about the precedent set by this incident. The difficulty is in telling people in a way they will comprehend why they can’t bring a prop gun to a show any more. Some of them think “because we don’t want overworked and excitable cops to shoot you by mistake” is a little too blunt.

    Another problem is that sometimes the prop weapon is really a key piece of the costume design. Taking away that option really limits cosplayers. No one is entirely sure how it will play out, but everyone is watching closely since decisions will have to be made at other conventions sooner rather than later.

  7. Short story recommendation: Weialalaleia by Amal el-Mohtar. It’s a reprint from a 2016 anthology so it can’t go on my 2017 Hugo longlist, but if it weren’t, it would.

  8. “Eat Wonder Woman’s pinkberry” certainly is an eye-catching marketing slogan.

  9. Ticky’s not working for me these days, but here I am anyway, feeling the need to post something. Anything.

    What I need is a little spray can like the Cat on Red Dwarf. “This’s mine! This’s mine! This is… that ain’t mine. That’s some weird stuff there. This is mine, and this is mine, and all this stuff’s mine!”

    Five Million Pages to Earth

  11. @7: it would be interesting to see whether some non-promoter finds this analysis plausible.

    @Kurt Busiek: there have been a lot of cases pointing this out. However, AFAIK there have been no cases of a black man being shot in the middle of an indoor crowd; even in Arizona (home of Arpaio), the police apparently have enough sense not to draw weapons in a dense crowd when nobody else is shooting.

  12. even in Arizona (home of Arpaio), the police apparently have enough sense not to draw weapons in a dense crowd when nobody else is shooting.

    Oh, I’m not complaining that Punisher boy didn’t get killed, I’m more looking at it the other way. It would be nice if they could show that kind of sense in more situations.

  13. #7) Doesn’t matter if habitats in 500km orbits need significant radiation shielding or not, that’s too low for true long-term construction. That’s roughly the orbit of the ISS and is low enough that even the wispy remnants of the atmosphere produce significant drag. They have to re-boost the ISS on a regular basis to prevent the orbit from degrading.

    Anything much larger than the ISS wouldn’t be tenable in the long term. The bigger you go the more drag is produced and the additional mass means boosting requires even more fuel. That’s a nasty curve to follow.

  14. Just left Baycon for the night. So far so good. Everyone is having a swell time. Good to see some new faces on panels; co-chairs are both young.

    Last I saw, “The Expanse” writers were in the Belter party (Show returns in Feb. Begins shooting in July. They are writing 2nd episode).

    Went to panel of Heather Rose Jones; no other Filers spotted yet, although I did see Charon D’s bookmarks on freebie table.

    Back tomorrow for even more fun.

  15. Sorry, I didn’t make Baycon this year.

    In other news, is a possible collaboration between Chuck Tingle and Patrick Rothfuss in the works? Both authors seem excited about the possibility!

    (And when I say “excited”, I mean enthusiastic, not, er, aroused. Though I suppose that would be fine too.) 😀

    (Neil Gaiman factors in there somewhere too…I’m a little fuzzy on the details.)

  16. Ticking. Day 2 of an icky stomach bug, also it’s raining like it never intends to stop so there is no shame in curling up with tea, Cipro and kindle dragons.

    Glad to hear that many people are having better weekends than I!

  17. Yay, I’m caught up!

    (1) PHOENIX COMICON SUSPECT NAMED. Woah, the first time I looked at this Pixel Scroll, there was no picture.

    (3) ENOUGH ABOUT YOU. Gaaaaaah. ::headdesk::

    (8) TEMPORARY GRAFITTI. Very cool looking, and I scrolled down their Twitter feed quite a ways to see the other ones they posted here and there – really, seriously cool!

    (12) DIETARY LAWS OF THE AMAZONS. I don’t take food advice from marketing partners of a fictional character’s corporate owners, which is a good thing, as I’m not a fan of frozen yogurt.

    – – – – –

    In other news, Barnes & Noble has a list of 55 Essential Space Operas from the Last 70 Years. There are a lot of comments with other suggestions, and, thankfully, only a few seem to be of the tedious “how could you forget my personal favorite blah blah blah” variety. The list & recs reminded me of a couple of things I should read (e.g., Pohl’s Gateway), plus Brackett’s The Big Jump sounds interesting.

    ETA: @Xtifr: LOL at the Tingle tweet, thanks.

    ETA: Of course, the SFBC version of Gateway is on my shelf! 😉

    ETA: @Arifel – get well soon!

  18. Gateway is great. The sequels not so much. (They aren’t bad or anything–just a bit of a disappointment after the promising start.)

  19. @Ryan H
    Anything much larger than the ISS wouldn’t be tenable in the long term. The bigger you go the more drag is produced and the additional mass means boosting requires even more fuel.

    I see it the other way. If you increase the size, the drag goes up by the cross-sectional area (~x^2), but the drag’s effect goes down by the mass (~x^3). So a larger space station would “punch through” the wispy air better than a smaller one. And yes, it would take more fuel for station keeping, but you get more station in return, so that’s a wash.

  20. (3) ENOUGH ABOUT YOU

    An ego-terview?

    (4) NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME POSTER

    My totally untrained eye suggests that the problem with that poster isn’t so much that it’s busy, but that it’s busy and lacks a focus. There’s no single point that you look at and get the basic idea of what the poster is telling you. I think Peter Parker was supposed to be the focus, but they’ve got a bigger Tony Stark towering over him and action shots of Spiderman and Iron Man dragging the eye away…it’s just a bit messy. Compare it to this Guardians of the Galaxy poster, which is also very busy but with a good (if simplistic) focus.
    Incidentally, while googling for that poster I also found this one I’d never seen before for the Imax release, which I thought was very clever.

  21. 8)
    I wonder if these will still be doing this in a couple of weeks when I am in Sydney.

    Yes, File 770 friends, today is the day. I leave on my DUFF adventures in a couple of hours!

    3) I’d comment at length here about that article, but I’d first like to talk to you about my commenting journey here at File 770 and how it connects to my commenting on that article. It was several years ago that I ventured here to first comment on an item at File 770. I remember the thrill of making my first comment…

  22. And because I don’t do it often, and I AM going to be not on the blog much for the next few weeks: Godstalk!

  24. @Kendall

    I’ll second Xtifer that Gateway is great. Just bear in mind the lead character is a self absorbed tool, trigger warning for physical abuse, and a generally dystopian world. All that said, it’s still a personal favorite.

    Totally off topic: sometime in the last couple years someone posted a story link (I think to a fanfic site) telling Take It Easy by The Eagles from the women’s point of view. My Google-fu is totally failing to find it. Does anyone have the link?

  25. Spending this weekend sorting my mass market paperbacks, culling them, and returning most that I plan to keep to the storage unit. Definitely keeping anything out of print, signed, or that I know I will re-read. This will be tough!

    Once it is done, I’ll probably do the same thing with the hardcovers and trades.

    My sibling thinks I should create a database, which would be great but I think the sorting and culling will take enough time. I don’t want to add data entry as well, because then I will never ever do it. If I have time at the end of the sorting and culling, I may, but I won’t plan on it.

    Anyone have preferred database systems, or would a simple Excel sheet do? That is, if I do get to that point.

  26. Beth in MA, for recent books, inventorying can be a matter of pointing a barcode scanner at it as it flies past. We have a CueCat that’s been repurposed—veddy economical (came with our WIRED sub years ago), and phones do it now as well.

  27. I’ve got KITTEH and KITTEH is a lunatic! No idea what he’s on about, but seems to be something about running back and forth and flipping around in strange directions. And cuddlefighting.

  28. @Beth in MA — I’ve used LibraryThing as my primary catalog for, oh, many years now. Yes, the initial data entry was a bit of a bear …

  29. @Beth in MA

    Seconding Library Thing–they have an app you can download (it also needs a barcode scanner, but the app will take you to the Google store, or I’m assuming the iTunes store, to snag one) and you can do all your cataloging with your smartphone.

    @Hampus: Congratulations! I imagine he’s all excited by coming into the new place.

  31. “Apropos of a discussion from a while ago, Kinder Eggs are coming to the US…”

    THIS IS IMPORTANT!!

  32. @Hampus

    Yay for kitty! Kitten crazies are a thing. All that boundless energy, and hormones, and curiosity! Just sleep under thick blankets until nighttime preying on wiggling feet loses most of its attraction…

  33. Paul Weimer: Yes, File 770 friends, today is the day. I leave on my DUFF adventures in a couple of hours!

    Toodles! Have a great time!

  34. Congratulations Hampus! KITTY!!!!!

    Back from storage unit. 15 boxes of mass markets. Out to car, up 3 flights of stairs (short flights! but still!) and to living room. 13 bankers boxes, 1 paper box, 1 box slightly smaller than bankers boxes. Thank goodness for my very patient sibling!

    Now I’m waiting for someone to say “15 boxes–that’s all?” 🙂

    Breaking for lunch, and then onward to the Alphabetizing!

  35. @Beth in MA

    15 boxes – that’s all?!? 😛

    Book purges are hard. I wish you the best of it.

  36. 15 boxes?
    I think I have at least that many boxes in storage. In the corner farthest from the door, because they were the first ones in. I have several in my apt.
    (When we moved, when I was in high school, we had 36 boxes, of the fruit-box size, about 1.5 cubic feet.)

  37. I have to say that the B&N notion of “space opera” is so shaggy and inclusive that it renders the term pretty much useless. Subgenre categories tend not to be hard-edged and leakproof, but some of the items on the list are more usefully seen as belonging elsewhere. Starship Troopers, The Forever War, Bill, the Galactic Hero, and Old Man’s War, for example, contain more ingredients of “military SF” than of sure-enough space opera. And stories that focus on the exploration or exploitation of exotic planets, environments, or Big Dumb Objects (Ringworld, Rendezvous with Rama, Gateway, Dune) might be cousins to space opera but there are significant distinctions. And the Foundation series as space opera? Really?

    Oddly enough, the 21st-century section has fewer odd choices, perhaps because we’ve been seeing a space opera revival over the last decade or so–or maybe because more of the books are in print and thus worth promoting by a bookseller. And if the list sells some books, that’s a good thing. After all, marketing isn’t the same thing as taxonomy.

  38. @ Hampus
    Congrats to you and your kitty. When I got my current pair, I was amazed to discover that kitten crazies included 360-degree helicopter turns in the front hall.

    @ several who recommended LibraryThing
    Thanks! I want to catalogue the collection, partly so I stop buying new copies of things I already have and partly to record cherished goodies like early a Lord Dunsany hardbacks …

  39. @Hampus pics or it didn’t happen

    I am at Baycon but spent most of yesterday moaning in my room with a headache although I did make it to one of Heather’s panels.

    I’m wandering around today with a pocketful of PR and wearing my lucky unicorn vs narwhal socks, doing my very best impression of an extrovert so if you see me, don’t blow my cover. I have some giveaway copies of my books — the rare “oops forgot page numbers” editions which may be collectors items some day, so if you’d like to collect some for yourself, just ask. I am down for a filer meetup later on if more of us appear.

  41. @Hampus – SO cute!!!

    I’m at Balticon right now but I haven’t been to any panels yet. Blame it on the dealer’s room(s)….

  43. (6) is a good excuse for some Ramblings…
    First: I reviewed every book on Amazon Ive read for about five years now. Its quite handy to look back, what I have read and what I thought about it, especially when things get fuzzy.

    Second: The main difference between writing and designing board games (shameless plug: the lost expedition comes out in a few weeks) is that with boardgames you cannot work without having feedback at almost every step on the way. When writing however you more or less finish that thing without any (or much) input – youre on your own. It drives me insane, because I have no idea, how well I write, while I know pretty soon how good a prototype for a game is. As a result I publish games, but havent finished much writing and what i have written I havent shown anyone… but I guess its the opposite for a lot of writers who probably wouldnt like to constantly show their work while they are writing it? At least thats what Im telling myself…

  44. @Hampus

    Pretty, pretty baby!

    I don’t remember if you ever told us his name?

  45. “I don’t remember if you ever told us his name?”

    Vladimir Arkady Vasechkin. Or Vlad for short.

Comments are closed.