What shall I blog about today? Let's run through the hot topics of the moment:
1. Authors Behaving Badly! I won't bash rookies, and I haven't seen much in the way of established writer bad behavior lately. Would some of you old pros please go out and plagiarize someone, have a screeching tantrum about the biz, or at least pour a coke on David Brin's head, and then e-mail me some details? Thanks.
2. Hate Mail! All of my readers have been remarkably upbeat and positive; they write to me and say nice things about my books. I have no idea what's the matter with them. Where's the hostility, people?
3. ARC-selling reviewers! Tempting, but I think Mary Janice Davidson has dibs. I also did something similar last year, and I'm trying not to repeat myself.
4. Sex is porn! If all romance novels with sex in them are porn, then sex is porn, and any book with sex in it is porn. Which would mean the Bible is porn. Maybe we should rethink this logic. Anyway, Alison and company do a better job than I can of taking on the lock-kneed.
5. Vampire fiction sucks! Euuuww. Nasty stuff, loving the cursed undead. And having sex with them? Necrophilia, that's all it is. Definitely not romance. Hang on, I forgot, I write it. Never mind.
6. What's wrong with SF today! Oh, please.
7. Agonized lit-heads suffering! Stephen Leigh (who is not me, btw) already elegantly nailed them.
8. Publishing Dirt! Alas, I know too much stuff that I have promised to keep to myself. Besides, we'll all just end up being an item in PW Daily.
9. Pathetic self-promotion! Been there, (yawn) parodied that.
10. PBW's weblog! I'm posting too many cute animal stories lately, aren't I? Harry must be in agony. What else? I haven't done any promo for Dark Need other than giving away books. I abandoned you guys last weekend. And I just suggested that the Bible is porn. Someone should be burning me in effigy within the hour.
I guess there is nothing in WriterLand that is really worth blogging about at the moment, except maybe a certain Scot who is sitting on his backside doing nothing. The disgust. The horror. The homemade sausages. We should notify the Friends of Rodents Society about this menace, post-haste. Or go see what Mr. Rickards is up to; he's always good for a decent outrage.
I know, I know. Get back to work.
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Oh, I'm with Steven Leigh. Writing is not a chore for me either, nor is it angst-ridden and woe-is-me-ful.
ReplyDeleteAnd the PW Daily link? The old hatchet job on the ex-spouse has ricocheted back rather nicely.
I thought effigy burning was a Pagan ritual? Aren't the Faithful going to pray for your dark, tainted, evil and twisted soul, instead? Can we get a sinister 'mwahaha' from you?
That bit on David Brin, such a disappointment. No word from the author why he deserved the cola-shower, nor do we see any reaction shot from Brin. I want motivation! I want denouement!
ReplyDeleteLoved your hate mail list & I left a comment.
Calling any consensual sex act porn degrades the word 'pornography,' which I think should be reserved for hyperviolent slasher/torture flicks.
Thanks! That was fun.
ReplyDeleteOkay Veihl, you asked for it!
ReplyDeleteYour vampires suck - um, well . . .
I don't like your books. I don't like your pictures of cute fuzzy frogs, I don't like your, your . . . er,
Ah, screw it. Too hard trying to fake hate email at you (because you appear to be so damn nice).
I'll just go pull the arm off my daughter's Barbie and pretend it's you instead, if you like . . .
And nothing is wrong with Sci-Fi today. Brin probably deserved it. And anybody who doesn't like vampire romances must truly hate Buffy the Vampire Slayer . . .
Porn writer de-lurks:
ReplyDeleteDoug - I'm a porn writer and proud of it.
It's not porn if the story's not about sex. An adventure story with explicit sex is still an adventure story.
Bill wrote: What's your take on Nancy Martin's deadline race to finish her novel?
ReplyDeleteI think she's trying to be funny, but it reads like the chick-lit version of the Woes of the Agonized, Struggling Writer. I'm not a fan of either.
Do you think most writers have this problem?
Full-time working writers? No. We wouldn't be employed for very long if we did.
Jaye Patrick wrote: I thought effigy burning was a Pagan ritual?
ReplyDeleteAll organized modern religions have their roots in pagan belief systems. :)
Aren't the Faithful going to pray for your dark, tainted, evil and twisted soul, instead?
After I called the Bible possible porn? I rather doubt it.
Can we get a sinister 'mwahaha' from you?
(switching to sinister mode) Mwaaaaaaaaahaaaaaahaaaaaa.
Doug wrote: That bit on David Brin, such a disappointment. No word from the author why he deserved the cola-shower, nor do we see any reaction shot from Brin. I want motivation! I want denouement!
ReplyDeleteYou missed it back when it happened? Aw, it's a classic. A bit of advice: never tell Jo Walton she's beautiful. Especially when she's holding a beverage.
Calling any consensual sex act porn degrades the word 'pornography,' which I think should be reserved for hyperviolent slasher/torture flicks.
I feel the same about inspirational chick-lit.
Mary wrote: Thanks! That was fun.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, ma'am. :)
Paul wrote: Your vampires suck - um, well . . .
ReplyDeleteOccupational hazard.
I don't like your books. I don't like your pictures of cute fuzzy frogs, I don't like your, your . . . er,
Existence pretty much covers it.
Ah, screw it. Too hard trying to fake hate email at you (because you appear to be so damn nice).
I'm mailing this comment to my mother. :)
I'll just go pull the arm off my daughter's Barbie and pretend it's you instead, if you like . . .
Me as Barbie. Let me enjoy that fantasy for a minute.
Giles wrote: It's not porn if the story's not about sex. An adventure story with explicit sex is still an adventure story.
ReplyDeleteThere you go. Thanks for de-lurking, Giles. :)
Thank you, thank you for the link to Steven Leigh.
ReplyDeleteExactly.
Hi. Love the animal photos. Cute! Sorry to ask this off topic question here but I've been unable to access the Darkyn website. Is there a problem? Also, do you have an email addy I can write you directly? I wanted to get information regarding the next Stardoc novel, publication date, any news you can give me. If you don't mind posting it here I'd be greatly appreciative. Thanks a lot. Cathy G
ReplyDeleteBernita wrote: Thank you, thank you for the link to Steven Leigh.
ReplyDeleteExactly.
He's very smart, for someone who isn't me. Lol.
Cathy wrote: Sorry to ask this off topic question here but I've been unable to access the Darkyn website. Is there a problem?
ReplyDeleteI'm checking on that as I type this.
Also, do you have an email addy I can write you directly? I wanted to get information regarding the next Stardoc novel, publication date, any news you can give me.
The next StarDoc novel is Plague of Memory, which is scheduled for release in January 2007. The mass market reprint of Afterburn is due out in August 2006. That's all the news I have. If you have any other questions, you can send them to LynnViehl@aol.com.
PBW said: ARC-selling reviewers!
ReplyDeleteYou know, I usually give away the ARCs I don't care to hang on to, and someone who got one sold it. And then I heard it from the author who thought it was me. -.- For a while I stopped giving them away. Any tips on ARC giveaways?
Sometimes it's nice when it is quiet....
ReplyDeletePixel Faerie wrote: Any tips on ARC giveaways?
ReplyDeleteI don't much like to see ARCs of my books on sale anywhere; it particularly drives me nuts if it's an ARC that I signed for someone and sent them at my cost.
Also, an ARC is an uncorrected proof, not the finished product, and sometimes have a huge amount of errors in them. ARCs of my first romance novel were missing the last ten pages of the book; another ARC for one of my SF novels had over 600 typesetter errors in it. Finally, I think it's ridiculous that someone would pay $50.00 for a book that they can wait a month or two and buy in the final edition for $7.99. You're being ripped off if you do that.
That said, there's nothing I can do to stop the practice, and sometimes there are folks who are desperate for money and need to sell things to get by. I mostly ignore it.
Passing a book along to another reader is always a good thing, though. If you were to give one of my ARCs to another reader, and that reader sold it, I wouldn't consider you responsible. I can't speak for other authors, though, and someone of them get very upset about ARC selling.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that, like everything else in publishing, there are no easy answers to the problem. :)
I think the problem in the ARC situation that you describe is that the publisher plays a part. They may not realize it, but I bet someone has pointed it out. :/
ReplyDeleteOn the ARC-selling reviewer, I vote "A." Unless proven otherwise, I'd presume the editor wasn't aware of the reviewer's actions.
ReplyDeleteI'll be crawling back to bed soon in hopes I'll wake up and this Crud will be gone.
Reviewers who sell ARCS give the rest of us a bad name. And that really chops my hide.
ReplyDeleteIf an author sends me an ARC I keep it. What's one more book to the couple hundred I already have?
For anyone who wants more on Brin and Walton, googling "brin" and "coke" together works quite well. If you want to skip the commentary and just see how Brin reacted, see http://papersky.livejournal.com/49836.html.
ReplyDelete-Jennifer, amused by this story
"I suppose if you can't find a Scientologist to hand, the next best thing is David Brin."
ReplyDelete:D
Thanks. I love so much of Dave Langford's writing, but I hadn't come across this particular article before. So I'm just going to randomly link here in response.
(BTW: Jo Walton's original description of what happened is here).