Hellbound Snowballs - The First Page

Thursday 31 July 2008 at 01:25 am When Raised All Wrong and I put this project together, one thing upon which we decided was waiting on a free electronic edition. When Damaged Goods came out at the tail end of 2006 things were different and I was able to release a free (well, kind of ad supported) adobe e-book along with the paper version. You can still get that book, by the way. But with Snowballs, we're giving the print edition a six month run before we release its e-counterpart into the ad supported wild. So I can't go round giving out free copies of that right now, but I can probably give you the first page or so, just to give you a feel for the book. So... (more)

This is where the party ends.

Wednesday 30 July 2008 at 9:52 pm This is William Sanders, senior editor of Helixsf.com. Lately he's been, as far as anyone can tell, a total dick. Don't get me wrong here. I understand total dickery, because after seven or eight free White Russians who among us hasn't gone off and been at least a little offensive?

But enough is enough. Stop trying to be the poor man's Harlan Ellison. I knew Harlan Ellison, and you, sir, are no Harlan Ellison... Seriously, Bill, own it. Admit you were a dick, and knock it off already. Apologize for being one. Promise to work on it. Be less of one in the future. That's all you need to do.

Would the real writer please stand up?

Wednesday 30 July 2008 at 06:35 am About five years ago, I found myself shying away from what you might call professional authors because I was tired of the attitudes. To me, the website was a place to distribute your creative work at next to no cost and to a global fanbase in an instant. (Here it should be noted that my fanbase five years ago, while possibly global, probably only numbered about 11, but still...) To them, the website was a ghetto where no-talent hacks and wanna-bes dressed up their fanfic and passed it off as real writing. So I stayed away from those guys and just did my thing, and over the years a bunch of other determined people did their things. Cory Doctorow did his, as did Scot Sigler. Cherie Priest blogged her story while Scott McCloud and R Stevens hammered a nail or two into the funnies page's coffin, and so on we all went... (more)

Jawthritis

Monday 28 July 2008 at 8:58 pm Today I learned that the brokenness so prevalent throughout the rest of my body exists in my jaw as well. Well damn. They don't make a cane for that, and they won't give me a big steel mandible with pointed teeth. If I open my mouth wide enough, you can hear the bones grind together as I close it, but I'm not supposed to do that. Every time I use my jawbone grinding powers, a little more of my jawbone will deteriorate. My jawbone is like Spawn.

The Reports of My Death...

Monday 28 July 2008 at 09:00 am Those of you wondering why I sometimes seem both cutting-edgy and ages-behind-the-times all at once should be reminded that I've spent the last 20 months working at a job where the hours were longer and harder than a man ten years younger than me and on speed could safely have handled. Sadly, I had to focus most of my existence on working and taking naps. As of today my schedule shifts back toward that of a person who only works forty hours per week so I'm suddenly catching up on all that I've missed. Please forgive me in advance if I respond to old news as if I were breaking it myself. It'll pass in time.

Stardom in the Mini Apple

Monday 28 July 2008 at 06:57 am I've finally gotten round to playing The Hold Steady's new album start to finish and I'm finding it wonderful. I've always liked these guys. Their tongue-in-cheek in jokes about life during the slow atrophy of the Minneapolis music scene post-Replacements, and their biting tales of the tragic paths beaten and paved by aging fans and scenesters bring me back to the days when Dave, Mike, Mark, Gretchen and I once dreamed of garage band infamy. I watched helplessly as that life frayed for all involved and, perhaps fortunately, moved out to the sticks for an extended run at college before the whole thing finally unraveled. (more)

Welcome me to the Future

Sunday 27 July 2008 at 8:58 pm I've finally got a CMS that is palm-compatible. I can blog from my smart phone, and I mean actually blog, not send a text to some crappy relay and have it translated into binarygrish by the time it hits the page. This, by the way, is a test post.

Also on the list of things I'll never understand...

Sunday 27 July 2008 at 09:00 am ...is the way WYSIWYG editors take the layouts developed by otherwise normal and logical people, then turn them into the sort of code you have to deal with when working with a CMS the likes of Wordpress or, in my case, Pivot. (more)