People read for different reasons. Some read for entertainment value, wanting a fun release to take them away from reality for a few hours. Others read to learn something more about themselves through the characters they come to know and love or the situations those characters find themselves in.
Seeds of Change is a new science fiction anthology that combines both!
NPR’s All Things Consdered ran a great segment the other day on The Bechdel Rule. 23 years ago, Alison Bechdel wrote a story called “The Rule” in her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. It’s pretty straightforward. One woman says to another that she only see a movie if it contains:
1. At least two female characters, who … 2. talk to each other about… 3. something besides a man.
Sadly, a lot of TV and film still doesn’t hold up to the rule, with NPR pointing out Sex and the City and Gray’s Anatomy as to exceptions. But some shows do hold up, and NPR points to The Middleman with a female character “who talks with her best friend and roommate about art and their careers as well as guys.”
It’s an interesting convergence of comics. You’ve got Alison Bechdel, author of the aforementioned Dykes to Watch Out For and also Fun Home, a graphic novel and Time’s best book of the year for 2007. And you’ve got The Middleman, a great ABC Family show based on the comic, which was originally published by our good friends at Viper Comics.
It may still not be a great time for women on TV, but it’s a great time to be reading and working in comics, that’s for sure.
I keep a collection of manuscript excerpts and cover letters that have come in over the years. They’re useful as demonstrations of what to do—or not to do—in the process of submitting a book for publication. I quote from them at writers’ conferences and SF/fantasy conventions in hopes that others will learn.
This week I received a submission from a writer who informed me that several other publishers had already turned the project down. Lack of vision and publishing guts had led to those decisions, the cover letter said, leaving the project ripe for the picking by another publisher intelligent enough to recognize its value.
The inference was that if I rejected the material, we’d be added to the list of visionless, timid publishers who’d had their chance and failed to act. This did not go over well with me; I don’t react well to the badmouthing of other editors even if they remain nameless. [more]
We’ve heard this all before: a new technology is on the rise that will revolutionize the way in which books are brought to the public. The most recent example being the ebook (though this is very much still a work in progress and shows some signs of finally catching on) and off-shoot experiments like Stephen King’s Chapter-at-a-time ebook, The Plant. And yet none of the above (except perhaps ebooks) have actually taken the world by storm the way in which so many people thought they would.
And once again, there appears to be a change in the air. Revolution, thy name just might be Podiobooks. If you haven’t heard of podiobooks yet, you might be in the minority. A podiobook is an audiobook that has been digitally distributed free of charge over the internet chapter by chapter (or podcast by podcast). Don’t laugh. Intrepid writers are gaining publishing contracts and fans as a result of online audio success.
More after the jump…
Alissa Torres, the author of American Widow, tells about why and how she wrote a graphic novel about her very personal loss on Sept 11, 2001.
AMERICAN WIDOW is an autobiographical graphic novel written by Alissa Torres, who, when she was nearly eight months pregnant, lost her husband in the World Trade Center attack. The story and art powerfully portray a woman’s very private crisis against a backdrop of events that have touched us all. Ultimately, the book offers a universal message of hope and redemption in the face of tragedy.
On sale September 9, 2008 everywhere books or comics are sold
For every writer who makes it onto the New York Times Best Sellers List, it is a joy.
Terry Brooks has done it countless times and each time it is special to him. It immediately correlates that people are reading his work and that makes him happy. After all, that’s why he still writes—to be read.
The Gypsy Morph, Book Three in the Genesis of Shannara series, will debut on the New York Times Book Review Best Sellers Fiction List at #2!! Only one book, Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs, sold more in hardcover last week in fiction.
Here is the New York Times page in PDF: Best Sellers Fiction - 9/14/08
Terry Brooks is also #1 on the Barnes & Noble Fiction Bestsellers display!
Terry Brooks is currently on the touring road right now. If you have the chance to see him, do so and tell him congratulations!
Brisingr, Book Three in Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle, will be published on September 20th.
Random House and Knopf Books have released several small excerpts or interesting spoiler tidbits from Brisingr over the last two months, driving Paolini fans wild with speculation and enthusiasm. Yesterday was the newest: Chapter Excerpt from Brisingr!
If you are fan of Eragon and Eldest, there you go—a new excerpt from the next book! Enjoy!
Richard Risch has posted a fantastic article about the differences between Science Fiction and Science Fantasy over on SSF World. At the heart of his argument is idea that the two are distinguishable by what happens to the story if the science element is removed. Science Fantasy, Risch argues, will continue chugging along as it isn’t relying on its science to form key elements of the story; Science Fiction, however, falls apart.
To expand on this, Risch compares several elements of a Science Fiction book, his own Beyond Mars - Crimson Fleet, to that of a work of Science Fantasy, namely, Star Wars. We’ll take a quick look at the various elements of Mr. Risch’s article. Appearing under Mr. Risch’s microscope are…
Fighter Space Crafts:
“Added to this, was the attack on the exhaust port (which was purportedly ray-shielded) with photon torpedoes (borrowed from Star Trek). Funny thing, a mass of photons is considered ray. (Photon energy is produced by an electron dropping from a higher orbit to a lower orbit as it travels around in an atom.) Therefore, how could photon torpedoes be realistically considered the weapon of choice for this attack?”
More after the Jump…
I have a fervent, unholy love for Wired Magazine. Over the years, the good people on the masthead have taught me about the long tail, electric cars, Linkin Park’s most persistent stalker, how to create my own fake identity, and how to make ginger beer (harder than it looks.)
The multimedia section has a wonderful selection of photographs of geek tattoos. My favorite comment from one of the inked marvels is this: “Since tattoos were illegal in Oklahoma until only a couple of years ago, my friends and I made a tradition out of annual road trips for tattoos. Every time I can’t think of something new, I add some more digits to pi. It’s up to 80 digits.”
“Every time I can’t think of something new, I add some more digits to pi.” Now there’s a mantra for you.
* Most of you are too young to remember that song. But I am old, and curmudgeonly, and it makes me happy.
