The old blog, active from 2006 through 2012.
20 Lines That Could Have Dramatically Changed “The Lord of the Rings”
Gandalf: “Before you decide whether we should go through the Mines of Moria, Frodo, I should warn you that there’s a 30-foot-tall flame-spewing demon servant of the ancient god Morgoth hanging out down there. Just thought you’d want to know that.” Pippin: “You want a song, Denethor? All right, stand back everybody — here’s a little number from NWA called ‘Fuck Tha Police.’” Sauron: “I know it’s preposterous, Witch-King. But we’ve got more than enough orcs here to... Continue reading→
Why Did You Buy That Book?
I'm going to try a little experiment here. I want to hear from science fiction and fantasy readers and consumers. Pick three recent SF/F titles that you've purchased, and add a comment telling the world how you heard about them, and what inspired you to buy them. Continue reading→
Contemplating My Next Laptop
As a nice, juicy little carrot to inspire me to finish writing "MultiReal," I've decided that I'm going to finally buy a new laptop once I'm done. So the question is: which one? Continue reading→
How I Promoted My Book, Part 2
Since so many people seem to be interested in my blog entry on How I Promoted My Book, I thought I’d post a few more random thoughts and suggestions about book promotion here. Keep in mind that there’s no one set way of marketing anything, or we’d all be swilling down New Coke. This is especially true with the book publishing business, which certainly must rank as one of the most bizarre businesses in existence.... Continue reading→
A Change of Hobbit
Last week, fan site TheOneRing.net posted a letter from film director Peter Jackson stating that he’d been dumped by New Line Cinema. The studio, he claimed, was now seeking another director to film the cinematic adaptation of The Hobbit and an “unnamed prequel” to The Lord of the Rings. To say the LOTR fan community has gone ape shit over this turn of events is to drastically understate things. They’ve gone orc shit. No, Uruk-Hai... Continue reading→
How I Promoted My Book
(Update 12/1: Read How I Promoted My Book, Part 2.) It’s now been about five months since Pyr published my first novel Infoquake. It seems as good a time as any to sit back and take stock of my promotional efforts. What worked, what didn’t work, what should I have done more of, what should I have done less of? When I started to make a list of all the promotional efforts I’ve made in... Continue reading→
Was Abraham Lincoln Such a Great President?
Historians routinely rank Abraham Lincoln as one of our greatest presidents, even though he took many more gross liberties with the Constitution than George W. Bush. Rush Limbaugh's conclusion: Bush is a great president too. My conclusion: maybe Abraham Lincoln wasn't such a great president either. Continue reading→
PhilCon 2006 Wrapup
I’ve mentioned before that I’m new to science fiction conventions. ReaderCon 2006 was the first con I ever attended (if you don’t count an experience at Balticon in 1990 that’s better left unexplained). That makes this weekend’s PhilCon 2006 only my fourth con ever. So don’t take my word for it when I say that PhilCon was a tad disorganized. Take the word of other veteran congoers I talked to who said they wouldn’t be... Continue reading→
Whose Books Do You Buy in Hardcover?
I happened to look at the listing for Infoquake on Amazon the other day and see that there are 57 (update: actually only 19) used copies for sale there, going as low as $7.50 per. People sometimes ask if I “mind” them purchasing used copies of my book at a discount rather than paying the full $15 cover price for a brand-spanking-new copy. And my answer is always “no, buy the book anywhere you can... Continue reading→
One Year in the Blogosphere
I’m about to hit a nice little landmark that I think is worth sharing: as of tomorrow, I’ve been blogging for exactly one year. Before I jumped onto the blogwagon, I was really quite skeptical about the entire concept. I had no idea what a trackback was, little clue about Technorati, and unsure why RSS feeds were so darned special. Even worse, I wasn’t quite sure I’d have enough to say to fill a blog... Continue reading→