Pixel Scroll 9/20 Scroll My Tears, The Would-Be Contributing Editor Said

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(1) Ernie Hudson has filmed a cameo for the new Ghostbusters. All was forgiven sometime after gave this interview (quoted on The Mary Sue)….

Back in October of last year, Hudson told The Telegraph, “If it has nothing to do with the other two movies, and it’s all female, then why are you calling it Ghostbusters? I love females. I hope that if they go that way at least they’ll be funny, and if they’re not funny at least hopefully it’ll be sexy. I love the idea of including women, I think that’s great. But all-female I think would be a bad idea. I don’t think the fans want to see that.”.

 

(2) Mashable has the story – Astronauts on the International Space Station got an advance screening of The Martian.

Duncan Long asked, “Isn’t this a little like showing The Poseidon Adventure on a cruise ship?”

(3) Lincoln Michel in “Is It Time for Literary Magazines to Rethink the Slush” on Electric Literature.

Last month, I got entangled in a long twitter conversation about submission fees. The author Nick Mamatas took issue with The Offing magazine—an exciting new offshoot of the LA Review of Books focusing on promoting marginalized writers—deciding to charge a $3 fee for submissions. You can read Mamatas’s storify plus this follow-up blog post to see his side of things. Here’s a defense of fees from Nathaniel Tower for the other side. In general, the literary world is far too shy about talking about money, and publishing can be quite closed to marginalized voices who can’t afford unpaid internships, reading fees, and other entry barriers. This is a conversation we need to have.

Overall, I agree with Mamatas that there’s an ethical issue in charging submission fees. We never instituted them at Electric Literature for Recommended Reading, Gigantic, or any other magazine I’ve worked on. Plenty of journals barely take any work from the slush, but even a magazine that only publishes slush is likely only taking 1-2% of submissions. So the majority of unpublished writers are funding the minority of published, which isn’t a great foundation. Imagine if every worker had to pay to get a job interview? (Or, since most magazines don’t pay, maybe the analogy is paying to get an unpaid internship.) The defense of submission fees is that the fee is pretty small, perhaps only as costly as snail mail postage. But $3 adds up quickly. I’ve often heard the average story gets rejected twenty times before an acceptance. 21 x 3 = $63. The Offing pays $20-50, meaning you’d expect to lose between 13 and 43 bucks per story. Literary writers can’t expect to make much money from quiet short stories about cancer and obscure poems about birds, but surely we don’t need to actively lose money to get published!

I’d like to note here that The Offing is hardly the only magazine to charge a fee. Missouri Review, Sonora Review, Crazyhorse and so many others charge that when I asked about this on Twitter, I was told it would be easier to make a list of those who don’t. And the fact that The Offing pays $20-50 already puts them ahead of the vast majority of lit mags who pay nothing at all…

Could it be that The Singularity is not engaged in some kind of literary war crime but, in comparison to other magazines that don’t pay contributors, deserves to be commended for not charging a submission fee? (Rocks incoming in 5…4…3…)

(4) Yoon Ha Lee in “Outlining a Novel” —

[First 3 of 8 points.]

  1. I use parts of Randy Ingermanson’s snowflake method for writing a novel. If you haven’t looked at this (I’ve mentioned it several times in the past), it’s worth a look–it probably takes only a few hours to figure out whether or not it’s something that’ll work for you.

The parts I use are the first few steps:

– The one-sentence summary of the novel. I want to nail the core conflict and the protagonist. Ingermanson suggests fewer than 15 words. I use that as a rough guideline–sometimes I have to go a little over because the plot needs some sf/f setting setup. But not much over.

– One-paragraph summary. You can use three-act structure or similar if you like that. Ingermanson suggests “three disasters plus an ending.” It’s not a bad starting place.

– One-page summary. At this point I’m just expanding things out. I sometimes skip this step.

  1. I write down an unsorted list of elements and events that I want to make sure to include. Key scenes, particular relationships, cool tech toys, whatever.
  2. Determination of POVs. Mostly I base this on:

– Characters who are going to have growth arcs.

– Coverage of plot events.

– Information control. For example, some characters can’t be POVs because they spoil the entire damn book to the reader.

There are other considerations that come into play sometimes but they tend to be edge cases.

(5) Michael Cavna of the Comic Riffs blog on the Washington Post reports women swept the Small Press Expo’s Ignatz Awards given for outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning.

I JUST want to know, cartoonist C. Spike Trotman joked, how she’s going to get those three bricks through airport security.

Trotman, as emcee of the Small Press Expo’s Ignatz Awards ceremony Saturday night, was quickly finding the funny as Sophia Foster-Dimino hit the brick trifecta, picking up three trophies — which are an inspired nod to George Herriman’s “Krazy Kat” — and leading the field for the esteemed indie award.

The night felt like a coronation for Foster-Dimino, who dazzled voters with her “Sex Fantasy” comic and was selected best Promising New Talent. At the lectern, the cartoonist looked genuinely moved by the moment. And how better to build a young career than brick by brick?

Sophie Goldstein also picked up multiple awards; her work “The Oven” was voted Outstanding Comic and Outstanding Graphic Novel. When Goldstein kept her remarks brief upon her second win, she warmly joked that she was following Foster-Dimino’s humbled lead.

And just two years after every presenter at the Ignatz ceremony was a woman, now, at this year’s event, every winner was a woman.

(6) Don’t miss out on the current membership rate for the Helsinki Worldcon!

(7) On Startalk Radio Neil deGrasse Tyson holds A Conversation with Edward Snowden (Part 1)

In this week’s episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson chats with whistleblower Edward Snowden via robotic telepresence from Moscow. The two card-carrying members of the geek community discuss Isaac Newton, the difference between education and learning, and even how knowledge is created. They also dive into the Periodic Table and chemistry, before moving on to the more expected subjects of data compression, encryption and privacy. You’ll learn about the relationship between private contractors, the CIA, and the NSA, for whom Edward began working at only 16 years old. Edward explains why metadata tells the government much more about individuals than they claim, and why there’s a distinction between the voluntary disclosure of information and the involuntary subversion of individual intent. Part 1 ends with a conversation about Ben Franklin, the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the CIA’s oath of service, and government Standard Form 312, which is the agreement Snowden violated.

(8) David Gerrold wrote on Facebook

I’ve had the name “Noah Ward” registered as an official pseudonym with the Writers’ Guild since the late 70s. (I’ve actually used it twice.)

In the planning for the Hugo award ceremony, one of the gags in the script was that if No Award won, I would accept the trophy as “Noah Ward.” Tananarive would protest, and I would whip out the letter from the Writers’ Guild to demonstrate the official-ness of my pen name. Tananarive would then explain the difference between No and Noah and I would grumpily give up the trophy.

If a second category came in as No Award, I was prepared to do “You like me, you really like me.”

But …

As it became clear that we might be looking at as many as 5 categories with No Award and that the voters seemed to be heading toward a massive smackdown of the slates, that joke had to be jettisoned.

In retrospect, that was the right choice. No Award in any category is an uncomfortable moment, even if that’s the result you voted for. So any attempt to add a joke to the moment would have been in very bad taste. And as much as I love a tasteless joke, this wasn’t the place for it.

It was fun to think about, it was the kind of gallows humor that people indulge in to release energy and frustration, but when it came down to the final moments, it was obvious that it wouldn’t play.

Even when explained by somebody who thought the asterisks were a good idea, it’s impossible to see why it was a hard choice to cut this gag….

[Thanks to Michael J. Walsh, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 would-be contributing editor of the day Nigel.]

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447 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 9/20 Scroll My Tears, The Would-Be Contributing Editor Said”

  2. Incidentally, in case it’s not obvious, everything in brackets above is my interpretation of audience responses.

  3. (And why am I not surprised that the guy who hadn’t read Lock In or Ancillary Justice but KNEW they were all about gender hadn’t seen the asterisk segment of the Hugo presentations but KNEW that it was about Vonnegut?)

  4. @ Kevin Standlee: Destruction and outrage are so much easier than building things, after all.

    Indeed. There is always a big difference between (a) people who do the work and (b) people who complain about how others are doing the work and /or yammer about about much better they themselves would do the work if only they were at all prone to, um, working.

  5. Harold Osler on September 21, 2015 at 4:12 pm said:

    @Cat–‘I don’t think I have the right mindset to find her writing informative‘

    I tried but I think you need to be a multiple personality just to try to sort through it.

    There is something of a house style for the Mad Genius writers. Dave Freer does the same thing:
    * Open with a chatty set of paragraphs about current going-ons with the writer.
    * Move to a anecdote of a personal experience.
    * Shift to some digs about leftists.
    * Get to the point about writing/awards/indie publishing/SF aesthetics
    * Wrap up.
    The structure suggests that parts 1,2 & 3 build a case for part 4 but actually it is using a Simpson’s episode structure – the opening premise is actually not related to the main plot point.

    See for example Dave F’s Photographic Dolphins.
    1. Dave has been taking pictures of dolphins
    2. A paragraph about how he once took a picture that looks a bit like Nessie and how he is an author.
    3. Introduces an article from the Guardian. Off a tangent on how bad The Guardian is.
    4. Onto the point about earnings for writers
    5. Wrap up with a couple of links.

  6. Round three of the current bracket about to be posted. With only sixteen options yet remaining, some of the pairings are bound to be … interesting …

  7. 21ST CENTURY FANTASY, ROUND THREE

    1. SETTING THINGS RIGHT
    Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal
    Coraline, Neil Gaiman

    2. PHANTASMAGORIC CITY
    Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
    Three Parts Dead, Max Gladstone

    3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS
    The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin
    Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison
    Declare, Tim Powers

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
    The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    A Storm of Swords, George R. R. Martin
    Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner
    His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
    The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross

  8. I can be MadGenius writer to! example of how to do it so that you can also be MadGenius for fun, profit and confusionification!

    So I am sitting at home today. I have a bit of a chest infection from my recent journey (I hope it isn’t anything too exotic!). I have taken lots of medicine but do wonder if I should visit the doctor and get antibiotics. The good news is that I will be at home for when the boiler men come. Our hotwater system has been acting very strange recently and the release valve seems to be leaking. Finding a time for the repair men to come and fix it is really hard and so being ill today may make my life easier!

    The hotwater is partially solar powered and as you know I am originally from England. Living in a hot country these days means plenty of sun to heat the water. Can you imagine the same in England! England is perpetually cloudy and the rain can seem relentless! Yet, stupid green-leftists think that solar-power is the solution to everything. That is just absurd in a country like England where it is cloudy on most days. Of course the leftists don’t care about that or poor people in India who they would rather have to burn dung to heat their homes because somehow it is ‘natural’ when you pollute the air you breath that way. Yes, solar power can work great – if you are in Australia! But one size does not fit all – despite what the Marxist academics at your local ‘university’ say!

    So when it comes to your writing be very careful to avoid the ‘one size fits all’ mistake. Use different techniques for different genres and for different characters. Writing a romance? Then do not worry too much about the details of your world-building, instead concentrate on what your heroine is feeling for her beau! Writing science-fiction? Make sure you do the exact opposite!

    Remember one size does not fit all!

  9. Camestros…. yet another instance in this Puppy mess where I am confused about what’s satire and what’s real. Having read MGC posts, i actually have to ask: Did you make that up as parody, or did you cut-and-paste from an MGC post? Serious question.

  10. 5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
    The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch

    I’m just going to vote on this one. The Gentlemen Bastards series overall has a lot going for it and like many a good ongoing series gains depth and scope as it grows. However, Clarke’s novel accomplishes greater breadth and depth in a single (big) novel.

    So I vote: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke

  11. 21ST CENTURY FANTASY, ROUND THREE

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison
    Declare, Tim Powers

    A vote for Goblin Emperor, which had my Hugo top spot too.

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
    The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross

    The Battle of the Brits goes to, um, Pratchett. Now, where’s that forehead cloth?

  12. Laura Resnick on September 21, 2015 at 5:01 pm said:

    Camestros…. yet another instance in this Puppy mess where I am confused about what’s satire and what’s real. Having read MGC posts, i actually have to ask: Did you make that up as parody, or did you cut-and-paste from an MGC post? Serious question.

    Parody 🙂 – the factual elements are true. I do have some sort of chest infection and the hotwater system is leaking from its release valve and I’m waiting for the repairmen.
    Also it does rain in England.
    But I quite like rain.

  13. 1. SETTING THINGS RIGHT
    Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal
    Coraline, Neil Gaiman

    2. PHANTASMAGORIC CITY
    Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
    Three Parts Dead, Max Gladstone

    3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS
    The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin
    Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold

    Aaaargh! Gah. [expletives /] Bujold.

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison
    Declare, Tim Powers

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
    The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    A Storm of Swords, George R. R. Martin
    Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner
    His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
    The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross

  14. Meredith: Hugo administrators don’t typically make decisions on things unless they end up in the top 5 nominated works/people.

    Dave Weinstein: Weir was paid by Amazon for the copies sold on Amazon. The total amount per copy was low (he put the book up at $0.99, if memory serves), but the total amount paid was not.

    Forgot that, Meredith. Dave, you could well be correct. I guess we’ll see what happens if Weir winds up in the top five.

  15. Camestros–okay. I thought it was parody… but I cannot count how many times since February I have thought something was parody, satire, or a joke… only to find out, nope, it was a sincere Puppy commentary. So when it comes to Puppy stuff, I don’t really trust my instincts anymore. In that arena, it’s so often the case something that I find hilariously absurd… is intended to be deadly serious, and something I think is a joke or exaggeration is actually a direct quote.

    (Most recently, I thought the Maynard article proposing an award was a parody. I had never heard of Maynard and was therefore unaware of his sympathies; and the sections about voter eligibility, trust levels, and a panel of jurors who can disqualify anything seemed hilarious.)

  16. 1. SETTING THINGS RIGHT
    Coraline, Neil Gaiman

    3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS
    Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner

  17. 21ST CENTURY FANTASY, ROUND THREE

    1. SETTING THINGS RIGHT
    Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal
    Coraline, Neil Gaiman

    2. PHANTASMAGORIC CITY
    Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
    Three Parts Dead, Max Gladstone
    Abstain

    3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS
    The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin
    Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison
    Declare, Tim Powers
    And I Declare Kyra to be unspeakably CRUEL!

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
    The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    A Storm of Swords, George R. R. Martin
    Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner
    His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
    The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross
    Another act of cruelty, Kyra, but I soldier on.

  18. My feeling is that as the basic requirement for the Campbell is ‘professional work’, and ‘sold for a nominal amount’ (this seems to be a very weird sense of ‘nominal’) is offered in explication of that, it should mean ‘sold to a publisher’. I don’t think Amazon counts as a publisher for this purpose.

  19. @Mary Frances

    It depends whether the self-pub sales or the audio book sales counted as a professional market – which isn’t quite the same as just getting paid. No-one can quite agree whether it does or doesn’t, or whether the Hugo administrators would or wouldn’t. Since I’m not overflowing with Campbell possibilities at the moment I’m happy to take a chance on him being eligible. 🙂

  20. Laura Resnick on September 21, 2015 at 4:22 pm said:

    Oh, yes they did! They complained that SFWA had taken money out of the Hugo fund to pay for the Asterisk Awards.

    Oho! That’s one I hadn’t heard. But then again, many of them have had a great deal of difficulty distinguishing between WSFS and SFWA. I guess having three letters in common (not all in the same order) makes them the same thing as far as some of them are concerned. I mean, after all, there are letters! And SF! and W! They must be the same! It’s a conspiracy! Don’t confuse me with facts! I know the Revealed Truth!

  21. Kevin

    Thank you!

    One of the things which really pisses me off about the Puppidum’s approach to Hugos and Worldcon is that they have no shame. They tell lie after lie, and then they lie some more, unhampered by any form of honesty, or moral compass, since, after all, honesty is for suckers, at least as far as the puppies are concerned.

    One of the enduring beliefs amongst this mindset is that they think that they are being clever in behaving disgracefully, since they are convinced that anyone who declines to play hardball does so because they are afraid, whereas they are not afraid, but have morals which lead them to make judgements about who would take too much damage if we really did start playing hardball.

    I must confess, in the interests of full disclosure, that my years in the City have enhanced my willingness to play hardball, since the City doesn’t really understand not playing hardball, but my earlier years I still dealt with numbers with lots of OOOs on the end, so there wasn’t really that much that needed enhancement.

    But I still retain the moral structure which makes me consider and judge whether taking someone apart at the seams is justified; puppidum doesn’t. I am immensely grateful for the vast amounts of time, energy, and sometimes money, not to mention the not much blood, vast amounts of sweat, and quite a few tears, which goes into fan based cons in general, and Worldcon in particular, and thus I regard the caterwauling of predictable Puppidum’s responses as medals of honour for those who have navigated the good ship Worldcon and got her, against the odds, to a safe haven.

  22. 21ST CENTURY FANTASY, ROUND THREE

    1. SETTING THINGS RIGHT
    Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal

    2. PHANTASMAGORIC CITY
    Three Parts Dead, Max Gladstone

    3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS
    Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    A Storm of Swords, George R. R. Martin

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross

  23. Kyra

    Oh, bollocks!

    I completely forgot to vote but Nightwatch must win. Please, pretty please, Kyra

  24. I can actually vote!

    2. PHANTASMAGORIC CITY
    Perdido Street Station, China Mieville

    I enjoyed Three Parts Dead but I wasn’t knocked out by it. Having said that, I preferred The Scar to Perdido Street Station.

    3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS

    Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN

    Declare, Tim Powers

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME

    The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch

    I was a little disappointed with Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and I hadn’t heard as much hype for the Locke Lamora books. I think Lynch actually does a better job with the later books, though.

  25. @Cally

    Thank you for that transcription of the asterisk section of the Hugo ceremony. I thought I remembered it being friendly, positive and upbeat and it’s nice to have this confirmed.

    Regarding the booing, I heard a little booing at one point on the feed, assumed, as I expect David Gerrold assumed, that it was Hugo voters booing the Puppies, and thought it was a good thing that Gerrold shut it down quickly.

    @ Camestros Felapton

    By jing, I think you’ve got it! That is why I have so much trouble making heads or tails of their writing! I thought there was some sort of overarching point to each piece–a point that had actual contact with reality and went beyond disdain for the sake of disdain.

    Obviously to properly appreciate the posts I need to take each bit separately, and probably skip everything after the personal anecdote. Next time I try to read a Mad Genius piece I will bear your analysis in mind. Thanks!

  26. 21ST CENTURY FANTASY, ROUND THREE

    1. SETTING THINGS RIGHT
    Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal
    Coraline, Neil Gaiman

    2. PHANTASMAGORIC CITY
    Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
    Three Parts Dead, Max Gladstone

    3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS
    The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin
    Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison
    Declare, Tim Powers

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
    The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    A Storm of Swords, George R. R. Martin
    Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner
    His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
    The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross

    Oh, aarg! I love them both. But I had to go with the Pratchett.

  28. 1. SETTING THINGS RIGHT
    Coraline, Neil Gaiman

    2. PHANTASMAGORIC CITY
    Three Parts Dead, Max Gladstone

    3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS
    The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    Declare, Tim Powers

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    A Storm of Swords, George R. R. Martin

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

  29. This was not supposed to happen! It’s really very hurtful when I set up a horrendous pun and no-one even notices! Maybe it was too hard; I’ll have to find a ‘Compendium of puns for young adults’ and email it to Our Great Leader, for onward transition, in the hope that things will improve…

  30. 1. SETTING THINGS RIGHT
    Coraline, Neil Gaiman

    2. PHANTASMAGORIC CITY
    Perdido Street Station, China Mieville

    3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS
    Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    Declare, Tim Powers

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    A Storm of Swords, George R. R. Martin

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross

  31. 1. SETTING THINGS RIGHT
    Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal

    2. PHANTASMAGORIC CITY
    Perdido Street Station, China Mieville

    3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS

    Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
    The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch
    abstain

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner
    His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik
    TIE

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

  34. 21ST CENTURY FANTASY, ROUND THREE
    The brackets are coming from inside the house!

    1. SETTING THINGS RIGHT
    Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal
    Coraline, Neil Gaiman
    I can do this

    2. PHANTASMAGORIC CITY
    Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
    Three Parts Dead, Max Gladstone
    Nope, still no Max

    3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS
    The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin
    Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold
    I can’t even
    Jemisin, by a whisker

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison
    Declare, Tim Powers
    Haven’t read the Powers

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
    The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    A Storm of Swords, George R. R. Martin
    Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton
    The Walton is on my Kindle now, but that doesn’t help

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner
    His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik
    oh no you didn’t
    um, um GOD STALK?
    I can’t
    I guess, when in doubt, a dragon? but the Kushner?
    FLAILS
    His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
    The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross
    Haven’t read the Stross
    But must have Night Watch
    For reasons, okay?

  35. 21ST CENTURY FANTASY, ROUND THREE

    1. SETTING THINGS RIGHT
    Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal
    Coraline, Neil Gaiman

    2. PHANTASMAGORIC CITY
    Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
    Three Parts Dead, Max Gladstone
    abstain

    3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS
    The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin
    Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold
    ARGH!!

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison
    Declare, Tim Powers

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
    The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    A Storm of Swords, George R. R. Martin
    Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner
    His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik
    TIE DAMMIT Because both are awesome in different ways.

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
    The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross

  36. 1. Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal

    2. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville

    3. Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold

    4. The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison

    5. abstain

    6. Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton

    7. abstain

    8. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

    Got through with only one head cloth.

  37. 21ST CENTURY FANTASY, ROUND THREE

    1. SETTING THINGS RIGHT
    Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal
    Coraline, Neil Gaiman

    2. PHANTASMAGORIC CITY
    Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
    Three Parts Dead, Max Gladstone

    3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS
    The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin
    Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison
    Declare, Tim Powers

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
    The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    A Storm of Swords, George R. R. Martin
    Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner
    His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
    The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross

  38. GASP! I’ve read both books in some brackets!

    21ST CENTURY FANTASY, ROUND THREE

    3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS
    The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin
    Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
    The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    A Storm of Swords, George R. R. Martin
    Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
    The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross

  39. Yeah, completely unsurprised that it was Puppies booing and thinking of attacking the stage. Bad behavior in public is their thing.

    Brackets!

    1. Shades of Milk and Honey
    2. Three Parts Dead
    3. Paladin of Souls
    4. The Goblin Emperor
    5. abstain
    6. abstain
    7. His Majesty’s Dragon
    8. Night Watch

    Yep, this round was much easier. No forehead cloths needed.

  40. Voterie:

    1. Coraline, Neil Gaiman

    2. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville

    3. Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold

    4. The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison

    5. The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch

    6. A Storm of Swords, George R. R. Martin

    7. His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik

    8. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

  41. @Nick Mamatas

    Having said all that, the plain fact is that the overwhelming majority of literary journals are read only by their pool of submitters/contributors, and the occasional member of a tenure committee. They already have no real readership.

    As (1) some who has been a tenured academic (which I gave up to work at my current non-tenure-granting university) and (2) edited a literary journal, I can add a few minor Nutty Nuggets. First, don’t overlook the “Friends-and-Relations” readership, even for a literary journal! (“See, Mom, I AM a Real Writer!”) Second, as your post suggests, the reason that many literary journals can get away with charging a fee and can get some contributors to, well, contribute, is that there is Something To Be Gained from it–improved CV, theoretically increasing the chances of getting a full-time job (preferably tenure-track) and (once on that track) getting tenure. As an investment, it beats buying a lottery ticket. Unfortunately, the value gained from the publication is not as significant as the comparable model on which it seems to be based, publication in a refereed journal, where the submission fees serve to pay honoraria to the referees, who are actual professionals who give you actual responses to your articles. Most literary journals don’t do this (but exceptions exist in order to prove the rule).

    DISCLAIMER: None of the journals I worked on charged submission fees (for the reasons stated), nor did we pay in anything but copies–however, we did charge the public $3-4 in the print days, reduced to $0 once we could publish online.

  42. Funny, the copy of Interstellar which I requested in late June, just arrived at my local library branch. Seems right to get it now, though I’m not going to be able to watch it until later this week.

  43. 21ST CENTURY FANTASY, ROUND THREE

    1. SETTING THINGS RIGHT
    Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal
    Coraline, Neil Gaiman

    2. PHANTASMAGORIC CITY
    Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
    Three Parts Dead, Max Gladstone

    3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS
    The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin
    Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison
    Declare, Tim Powers

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
    The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    A Storm of Swords, George R. R. Martin
    Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner
    His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
    The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross

  44. 3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS
    The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin
    Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold

    Um, tie???????????

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME

    The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!

    Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

    (ties cloth around head and retires to fainting couch)

  45. Kyra, I’d *like* to blame your dice, but when it’s down to sixteen books, almost all of which I’ve read… well, it’s just what it is. And what it is, is HARD.

    1. SETTING THINGS RIGHT
    Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal
    Coraline, Neil Gaiman

    So very, very hard. Kowal.

    2. PHANTASMAGORIC CITY
    Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
    Three Parts Dead, Max Gladstone

    Gladstone.

    3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS
    The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin
    Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold

    Bujold. (I’ll take a forehead cloth…)

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison
    Declare, Tim Powers

    Addison.

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
    The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch

    Abstain, still haven’t read Lynch. Still don’t like Clarke.

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    A Storm of Swords, George R. R. Martin
    Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton

    Walton

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner
    His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik

    Gah. Kushner.

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
    The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross

    Damn. Damn. Damn. Pratchett.

  46. 1. SETTING THINGS RIGHT
    Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal

    2. PHANTASMAGORIC CITY
    Perdido Street Station, China Mieville

    3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS
    Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

  47. 1. SETTING THINGS RIGHT
    Coraline, Neil Gaiman

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    Declare, Tim Powers

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
    The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross
    I hope we are still allowed a tie.

  48. 21ST CENTURY FANTASY, ROUND THREE

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner
    (I didn’t care for His Majesty’s Dragon unough to read the sequels but read and enjoyed Novik’s Uprooted after recommendations here.)

    I’ve read one of the two books in each of the other six pairs.

  49. 21ST CENTURY FANTASY, ROUND THREE

    1. SETTING THINGS RIGHT
    Coraline, Neil Gaiman

    2. PHANTASMAGORIC CITY
    Abstain

    3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS
    The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison

    5. THEY ALMOST RHYME
    Abstain

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    Abstain

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner

    8. WHEN CONSTABULARY DUTY’S TO BE DONE
    Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

  50. 3. MANIPULATED BY THE GODS
    The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin
    Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold

    (I resolved eventually to give my vote to the underdog.)

    4. ELENA TERESA CENIZA-BENDIGA, MEET DACH’OSMIN CSETHIRO CEREDIN
    The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison
    Declare, Tim Powers

    6. TERRIBLY! VIOLENT! TITLES!
    A Storm of Swords, George R. R. Martin
    Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton

    7. MORE THAN JUST A WEAPON
    The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner
    His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik

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