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.

I just got back from Reykjavik, Iceland, where I attended EVE Online Fanfest 2009 thanks to the gracious folk at CCP Games, whose game tie-in books Tor Books is publishing. They wanted their editor, Eric Raab, and I to check out their fanbase and their headquarters, so they flew us out for the weekend. What an experience.

First things first: these guys are amazing. They put out a top-notch product, are incredibly passionate about their work, and to a person are fans of the franchise. I didn’t meet one single CCP employee who didn’t give off the vibe of being part of a big, extended family, where everyone watches out for each other. It was pretty amazing. Also, the level of outreach to their fandom was remarkable. I mean, I suppose that’s part of the nature of running an MMPORG, but still, coming from a culture (publishing) where the fans/readers/customers are barely an afterthought, it was eye-opening.

Additionally, as a casual gamer, I found their plans for expanding the scope of their intellectual property very compelling. I won’t go into detail here, since I’m unclear as to how much is public knowledge and how much isn’t, but suffice to say that their plan of attack for the next 18 months is formidable. Their keynote presentation, which was conducted by Hilmar Veigar Petursson, the CEO of CCP (and one of the chillest fuckers I’ve met), was a pitch perfect combination of new information, showcases for new tech and demo videos, self-deprecating fun, and liberal Kool-Aid dispensing. Additionally, the panels I attended—from the lectures and QA sessions about the in-game economy, featuirng CCP’s in-house PhD in economics, Dr. Eyjolfur Gudmundsson; to the panels featuring prominent members of the alliances that for the core of the player associations in game—were fascinating.

Aside from the EVE-related events, we were, of course, in Iceland, and at a con, so there was much partying. I’ve learned a few key facts about Islanders: they like to drink heavily, and have a penchant for staying out all night—I never made it to my hotel room earlier than 6am. They apparently like to break drinking glasses—it wasn’t unusual for the dude standing next to me to drain his glass and not-quite-nonchalantly fling it against a wall. The streets are literally covered in broken glass by 4am. And they make the best goddamned hot dogs known to man. For reals.

On the food tip, Eric, Shane (one of the marketing people for CCP), and I decided to embark upon a night of morally ambiguous dining: we had whale (both as sashimi and cooked), puffin, and horse all in one night. All were delicious. But nowhere near as amazing as those hot dogs. Hm.

I also discovered Skyr, which is similar but not quite the same as yogurt. It’s a bit more sour, and I absolutely loved it. Mary Robinette Kowal, who lived in Iceland for a year, tells me that it’s available here in NYC at Whole Foods, so I’m going to have to check it out. I hope it’s the regular, untreated kind, and not the more commercial stuff, which is infused with fruits or vanilla, or caramel. That stuff is all right, but the raw stuff is better.

Unfortunately, what with the Fanfest, and the drinking, and the meeting the EVE developers, and the drinking, and the panels, and the drinking, we didn’t really get to leave Reykjavik at all. Eric and I tried to find a way to see the fabled northern lights (or Aurora Borealis), but unfortunately, circumstances conspired against us: according to locals, it’s hard to catch the lights in the light-saturated city; it wasn’t cold enough for the lights to be visible (although this sounds like misinformation; I don’t understand how temperature can affect a magnetic event); or it wasn’t the right time of year. In any case, an excuse to go back.

Another excuse to go back are the geothermal seawater baths, specifically the Blue Lagoon. Our contact person for CCP, Yohei Ishii, took us to this world-famous spot on Sunday, right before we got on the plane back home. Wow, what a relaxing experience, and what a great preamble to the hassle of international flying. I’ve never slept better on a plane in my life.

In all, an amazing trip. More crappy iPhone pictures here. Eric and I will be getting together to hash out the thousand-and-one ideas we both jotted down with regards to working with CCP over the next week, and I’m looking forward to going back to Iceland someday on a personal vacation, to get to know this beautiful country better.

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.

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.

Tor.com Offers New Sci-fi and Fantasy Webcomics

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”.

New York Comic Con (Feb. 6-8) has published its schedule of events on its site. Check out the full list of panels and talks here, and start planning your weekend. Tor.com is holding a panel (moderated by yours truly—yeah, somebody was clearly off their meds when they approved this), focusing on online fiction and the changing role of traditional print publishers on the internet. More or less. Your mileage may vary. We may just end up talking about medieval siege engines or something.

Regardless, if you’re in town for the con, do drop by and say “hi.”

Tor.com—NYCC programming schedule goes live, or: I’m in way over my head.