cstross

NickEast , 3 months ago to writers

I didn't realise this was a thing, do people really think Mary Shelly wasn't the first SciFi author? 🤔

@sciencefiction @writers @writingcommunity @writing

#MaryShelly #Frankenstein #Monster #SciFi #Author #Writerdons #Writers #Writer #Writing #WritingCommunity #Writinglife #WritersOfMastodon
#BoostingIsSharing

cstross , 3 months ago

@alexf24 @NickEast @sciencefiction @writers @writingcommunity @writing Also on that same miserable wet vacation camp-out, their mate Byron's doctor—who had tagged along because whatevs—absent-mindedly invented the vampire novel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_William_Polidori

weirdwriter , 6 months ago to bookstodon

I cannot believe that this is already a proposal, advertisements in e-books! I was making an offhand prediction from a college essay I did years ago, but then, someone actually replied with this. This is a literal nightmare come true! US20120084150A1 - Ebook advertising and related techniques - Google Patents https://patents.google.com/patent/US20120084150A1/en #Publishing #EBooks #Books @bookstodon

cstross , 6 months ago

@weirdwriter @bookstodon Sticking ads inside ebooks would result in action for breach of contract—this battle was fought and won (against ads in mass-market paperbacks) decades ago, and the legal boilerplate is part of every book publishing contract I've ever signed. As it is, Amazon are sailing about as close to the wind as they can by advertising on the Kindle lock screen ... but not inside the actual text: that won't fly.

ChrisMayLA6 , 9 months ago to bookstodon

This week I've been mainly reading, No. 94.
I've been rather disappointed by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling's The Difference Engine (1990/2011), which while presenting an immersive depiction of a world in which Babbage's 'computer' had become an equivalent of later computing (both influenced by early #SteamPunk fiction & going on to influence later books), sacrifices plot for atmosphere; the plot such as it is really not much & offers no real pay-off. Sadly, style over substance!

@bookstodon

cstross , 9 months ago

@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon It's an interesting intermediate waypoint in the steampunk evolution, midway between the early Dick fanboys (Blaylock/Powers/Jeter, early 80s) and the late-90s-onwards broader and more fantastical steampunk church.

It was also an example of a superstar collaboration of a type SF publishers love to organize, eg. Dick/Zelazny's "Dies Irae", Stross/Doctorow "The Rapture of the Nerds". They don't always work out …

cstross , 10 months ago

@valhalla @clacksee @JetlagJen @AuthorHelp What makes you think they don't ALREADY hang out on AO3 and other fanfic/webnovel sites? (I know that my agent, for one—who used to be a trad pub editor—is a big fan of Worm by Wildbow … just can't figure out how she'd be able to make him any money (as an agent, she's on a percentage commission).)

scalzi , 10 months ago to random

Today is the 20th anniversary of my attending my very first science fiction convention: Torcon 3 in Toronto. Some memories of that convention, and thoughts on how the world of conventions has changed since then, are up on Whatever today:

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2023/08/28/20-years-of-science-fiction-conventions/

cstross , 10 months ago

@CherylMorgan @scalzi My first convention was a Yorkon in Leeds in '83 or '84. Other folks I bumped into there: Roz Kaveney, @neilhimself , and PTerry—all of us young and incredibly obscure!

cstross , 10 months ago

@KevinStandlee @neilhimself @scalzi @CherylMorgan Glasgow in 2024 membership sales are trending to overtakes London in 2014, if not the Anaheim high water mark.

BBC_News_Labs , 11 months ago to random

Hi, we are BBC News Labs #introduction

We’re charged with driving innovation for BBC News. Our team of technologists and journalists explore how new tools and formats affect how news is found and reported.

You can find out more at https://bbcnewslabs.co.uk/ and we’ll be posting here about our work

This account is part of an experiment from BBC R&D in establishing a BBC presence in the Fediverse.

cstross , 11 months ago

@BBC_News_Labs Welcome to the fediverse! Please note that most instances have policies against transphobia (which BBC News has a bad history of) and trends politically left/anarchist (The Guardian, editorially, would be on the hard right and angling for a block by the standards of most Mastodon instances).