I Should Be Writing #133

In your opinion, how is Tor.com leveraging New Media and the genre? What are the things that you’re doing right?

One of the things we’re doing the best, I think, is engaging with our audience, and listening. Publishing is a very insular industry, where insiders are constantly talking to each other, but very rarely do they actually talk to or listen to the actual end customer: the reader. There have traditionally been some very valid arguments as for why this is the case, but as digital media democratizes the world more and more, those arguments become much less convincing or even relevant.

Tor.com is one way in which we’re talking directly with readers, listening to what they have to say, and we’re finding out a lot about them. And I do mean a whole hell of a lot—some of the very dearly-held assumptions of the publishing industry really don’t hold much water with the reading public, and it’s very sobering to compare and contrast what I see and read every day on Tor.com in particular and the internet in general with what I see and hear from within the walls of the Flatiron building.

Read the whole thing over on Bibliophile Stalker.

The big highlight of the evening (at least for me) was a totally rockin’ rendition of Journey’s Any Way You Want It, with yours truly on guitar, Annalee Newitz of io9 on bass, and John motherfucking Scalzi blasting out his falsetto on the mic. It was epic. Just plain epic.

The party ran until around 4:30 in the am, and, as happens at cons, I ducked into my hotel room at that ungodly hour to get some sleep, only to have to wake up in time to make a 10am panel I was ostensibly moderating: a printmaking workshop for kids.

What sounds great on paper turned out to be a bit on the underwhelming side–one child cutting out foam shapes, gluing them to the bottoms of plastic cups, and ‘inking’ them with magic markers. I was a bit dissappointed, since I was actually kind of looking forward to getting all nice and inky with some kids, but I suppose I can’t complain about being able to just sit there and look engaged while incredibly sleep-deprived.

Next up: I’m on a panel entitled “Author Reading: The Bloggers”. I’m not sure exactly how that’s gonna work out, since I can’t really see too many people being interested in a reading of blog posts, but the upshot is that I’m sharing the panel with, among others, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, who is an Awesome Person of Note, and a fantastic conversationalist. If nothing else, I can totally see this evolving into some sort of fascinating discussion or another. We’ll see…

UPDATE: It actually worked out great! The highlight of the panel for me was Teresa reading her Slushkiller post; and there was also a great post-reading discussion among the audience. You know, like the comments section on a post. Or something… ;)

After that, I’m actually going to be able to attend some panels! There are quite a few things I want to check out, so I’ll hopefully be able to write up some panel reports for Tor.com.

I travelled up by train on Wednesday; a 12 hour trip through the beautiful Adirondacks, punctuated by a spectacular vista of Lake Champlain as we approached the Canadian border (where we waited for about an hour while the train was processed). I think I’m in love with travel by train.

I arrived in Montréal at night, and proceeded to check into my room. Hotel drama ensued, and I was fortunate enough to be in a position to help someone out. An upshot was waking up this morning and discovering the much celebrated Campbell Tiara sitting on the room table, awaiting its day at the con. Unexpected and cool.

I’ve spent much of the time here catching up on some work which absolutely could not wait, cavorting around with people I don’t get to see often enough in NYC (like John Joseph Adams and Eric Raab), connecting with friends I haven’t seen since a few cons ago (like Toby Buckell), and meeting some of my internet acquaintances for the first time in real life (like Mur Lafferty and Lou Anders), so I’ve yet to go to too many panels (one exception: the phenomenally fascinating conversation between Nobel Laureate economist and SF fan Paul Krugman and Charlie Stross, one of my favourite SF authors). As luck would have it, the bar in the lobby of my hotel has become the “official bar” of the con, so convenience is on my side.

Today I had a great breakfast with some Tor.com-related peeps: Cory Doctorow, Mur Lafferty, Jo Walton and her son Sasha, Toby Buckell and his wife Emily (along with their newly-born twins!), John Picacio, and Mary Robinette Kowal. We had a fine and leisurely breakfast; I’m glad they could all make it. The rest of the day will be full of prep. I’m on a panel on Graphic Design at 2PM, along with John Picacio, Lou Anders, and others. After that I need to go check into the hotel where we’ve taken out a room for tonight’s Tor.com party, for which I brought my Xbox and my Rock Band setup—tonight, we rock! Also, must buy booze.

Hopefully I’ll get to enjoy ore of the con once all this has died down, and I’m able to just go to panels and write about them for Tor.com and conreporter.com.

I usually go on and on about ebooks, and I do most of my reading on my iPhone these days, but I also love me some finely-crafted codices.

I learned of this British deluxe edition of Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother by accident, almost—Voyager Books advertises on Tor.com, and I was mangling some newsletter copy related to a giveaway they’re having, which happened to mention the publication of this edition. Anyway, long story short: it looks beautiful, with a simple and elegant slipcase—I love the ‘security-cam-as-gun-to-the-head’ stamp—it features illustrations by Richard Wilkinson, and I want it very badly. Wilkinson’s modern linework combined with older-looking colours and textures echo the essence of the book: a modern take on Orwell.

Additionally—and I say this as a creative professional who generally pans the idea of the “creative genius” stereotype that is commonly ascribed to creative types—creativity is not a spigot that can be turned on or off at will. Some are better than others at channeling their thoughts into a cohesive work on a regular basis, others truly struggle with it (I’m very much in this last group, fwiw). Again, it’s the height of arrogance to sit there as a consumer and pass judgement on someone else’s inner world.

Go check out the rest of it at “Fed Up? So Are They“ on Tor.com.

I see nothing but ‘train wreck’ written all over this. Emmerich is a competent filmmaker, churning out big-budget genre spectacles of debatable quality like Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow. But both of these movies are nothing more than shallow, star-and/or-effects-driven affairs, and The Foundation Trilogy is anything but. The only slightly intellectually engaging movie of Ememrich’s that comes to mind is Stargate, but even then Emmerich struggled to convey the intricacies of that movie’s relatively complex plot.

Read the rest on Tor.com

Battlestar Galactica Round Table: “Sometimes a Great Notion”.

The Pirate’s Dilemma has a spot-on analysis, as usual. Of particular interest to me is Mason’s likening of vinyl records (whose sales apparently doubled this past year) to books: “Records are like books – they are souvenirs of ideas.” Indeed. But that still means a smaller, more selective audience, looking for a high-quality product produced in smaller numbers with collectors in mind, versus the cheap, mass market (no pun intended) alternative.

Mason continues by calling attention to the plight of the college yearbook: “The yearbook business, for example, has evaporated thanks to social networks”. I hadn’t really thought about that, but it makes perfect sense, and not necessarily only for the reason that The Economist states. Aside from the archival capacity of sites like Facebook and MySpace to keep the same mementos previously housed between the covers of a yearbook (pictures, etc.), the fact that social networks keep people connected despite the separation that comes after graduation makes the need for a commemorative tome practically nil. I don’t need memories of Susie Jenkins; Susie’s still in my life—I see her status updates every day, for better or for worse.

Cover to Cover #333A: Tor.com