Day: September 24, 2009

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How to Get a Book Blurb

Vonda McIntyre has a great lil howto for new writers on “Hunting the Wily Cover Blurb.” In comments is where you’ll find some of her best stuff, though, like this one on someone trying to shine her on about being a “big fan”–

If somebody says, “I liked your story ‘Moon Women of Titan’s Caves,’” the proper response is

(a) Oh, well, jeez, it wasn’t my best work;
(b) That piece of tripe? You’re a moron for liking that;
(c) I always hate everything I’ve written after it’s pubished;
(d) You BOUGHT that? In HARDCOVER? Why didn’t you wait for the paperback?*
(e) Thank you.

The correct choice is left as an exercise for the reader…

*heh*

BTW, she adds as a postscript to that comment, “You may guess that my idea of the proper response to someone who buys your work in hardcover is ‘Thank you.'” 🙂

I’m adding this to my collection of advice from authors (not that I expect to publish a book; I’d have to write one first ;-)) that includes, “How to Write Suckitudinous Fiction” from Holly Lisle, an author who tells a tale very well (the single most important criterion for a fiction writer, IMO).

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Political Insight of the Ages?

*heh* Sure, Left and Right didn’t appear on the scene as descriptions of political positions until 18th Century France and its Revolt of the Masses. 😉 But still, it’s nice to know that beside his storied wisdom was Solomon’s ability to prophesy politics:

“A wise man’s heart directs him toward the right, but the foolish man’s heart directs him toward the left.” –Ecclesiastes 10:2

*heh*

Better than the broken-down “Left-Right” paradigm, though, is something like The Pournelle Political Axes which more accurately describes political models:

axes

If examined according to the Pournelle Political Axes, The 0!’s policies so far are difficult to categorize. Are they to be found in the far upper right corner of the axes or the far lower right corner? There doesn’t seem to be any moderation toward the center whatsoever, and all of his actions to date lean toward “State Worship” but rationality or irrationality? Which dominates? Or does he vacillate between rational and irrational behaviors?

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ISP Get’s Its S*** Together?

Warning: Geeky-gripey stuff. Page down or go elsewhere for other content. 🙂

The ongoing saga of my ISP deciding to take customer connection complaints seriously… perhaps. For two whole days now (TWO WHOLE DAYS!!!), I’ve had decent to very good connectivity. Wow. That’s a surprising change for the better. I even have a mid-level “customer care rep” calling me every few days asking if things are getting better and fluffing my appreciation (such as it had become) for the ISP’s services. This a.m., no email timeouts (so far) and no endless page reloads needed. Yet. And good upload/download speeds. For now. We’ll see.

speedtestnet-07