Archive for July, 2008
July 24th, 2008 by jdsawyer
Tor Books has joined the forward-thinking ranks of Baen Books and the two-steps-forward, one-step-backward stragglers like HarperCollins and started releasing its books on the internet.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a long-term strategy yet – it was a stopgap publicity stunt to people who registered at tor.com while the site was being overhauled. However, just for the hell of it, they’re releasing all of the previously members-only titles to the public, for free.
For a limited time, they are giving away pdf, Mobi, and html versions of select books, which you can find here. Hopefully the stunt will bering them more than they bargained for, and they’ll begin to adapt their business model to the new economic realities first articulated by Cory Doctorow, and then demonstrated by Doctorow, Scott Sigler, Tee Morris, J.C. Hutchins, Seth Harwood, Mur Lafferty, and all the other talented folks in the rising tide of podcast novelists (the ranks of whom I’m joining shortly with my Antithesis series).
If you buy science fiction, or are interested in the genre, hop over and download some ebooks, as well as some stunningly beautiful cover art, and then follow it up by purchasing one or two books you like. We’ve got to show these guys that this business model really works – in the long run, market activism is the only effective way to fight against the totalitarian lobbying of the entertainment industry.
July 23rd, 2008 by jdsawyer
My new podcast series, Antithesis, will start podcasting the first of five novels on July 31. The feed for that book, Predestination and Other Games of Chance, can be found here. Subscribe now!
July 18th, 2008 by jdsawyer
Welcome to all fans of Phillipa Ballantine’s Chasing the Bard! You’re doubtless moseying on over here because you heard me this week on The Story So Far and are wondering about those podcasts I mentioned.
Well, look no further. You can find my collection of fantasy, science fiction, and erotica stories here. It’s called Sculpting God and it’s chock full of adult-oriented bedtime stories, with a new two-parter coming next week.
The first volume of my podcast novel Antithesis – costarring the lovely Chasing The Bard author Phillipa Ballantine – will be posting shortly. There is a feed up right now, containing the promo, and episodes will start dropping before the end of the month. We’ve already got a couple of them produced – a couple more and we’ll have a comfortable buffer lined up so there won’t be any story interruptions once we get it started. In the meantime, you can read the back-of-the-book summary here, and watch the Sculpting God feed for more details.
Those of you who are of a vaguely intellectual bent might also enjoy my nonfiction podcasts, The Reprobates Hour (soon to enter its third season), and Apologia, a philosohpical roudtable discussion about matters of ethics, secularism, religion, and epistemology.
Feel free to poke around, read my older posts, and check out my photography work if you’re looking for some good desktop wallpapers.
Thanks for stopping by!
July 18th, 2008 by jdsawyer
When the days are long, and the heat is oppressive, and the construction site next door is pouring the smelliest damn asphalt you’ve ever smelt, and you’re starting to get cramps from the stress…well, you know it’s that time of the month. The time of the month when only one thing can save you: Sardonic witicisms from your favoite LinuxJournal author.
That’s right, boys and girls and intermediates, it’s time once again for that most pleasant of games, the “Find Dan Sawyer in LinuxJournal” contest. This month it’s easy – I’m in their twice. In my first article I show you how to fake a UFO landing that’ll make you the envy of YouTube using a little bit of Voodoo — I rather like the irony of using ancient Creole magic to hoax lovers of the paranormal, myself.
After that, we go out to coffee with the Cradlepoint PHS300 just to prove that we can get broadband anywhere we damn well please.
It’s a killer issue, with some other great home-brewing articles on it, including an excellent one about MythTV. Give it a gander!
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July 18th, 2008 by jdsawyer
Well, it’s official. I interviewed Cory Doctorow for a LinuxJournal earlier this week, and just got done transcribing the interview. He’s not the fastest mouth in the west, but man does he talk fast. At the end of the transcription I clocked his word-rate, subtracting out the gaps where I was asking questions and not counting his false-starts, umms, ahs, and other verbal stumbles that one doesn’t transcribe for a published interview.
The Official Cory Doctorow verbal word rate (on a day when he’s jet-lagged and taking things slow) is:
148wpm.
And I’ve met the guy in person when he’s at the top of his game, and I’ll bet you my left toe that he was running slow in our interview.
Hat’s off, Cory. Next target: The MicroMachine Man!
Check out Cory’s other blog, BoingBoing.
