Raithe Posted February 2, 2018 Author Posted February 2, 2018 One of the regular Baen authors who has gone through periods of prolific writing did an interesting blog post awhile back. He basically said that over the last year or two he's been engaging with fans, attending various conventions, his marriage is in a stable place and he just hasn't been writing because.. he's engaging socially and positively with people. And that in consideration, the times he's been actually writing and producing novel after novel... were the times he was unhappy with something, when he was withdrawn and didn't have friends and such around him and he realised where he used his writing process as an escape from those feelings. Which left him in a slight conundrum, because of his successs as a writer, he was in a positive place, which meant he wasn't able to get engaged with his muse and write like he used to. He was semi-joking about "If I want to be able to write properly again, I'm going to have to stop talking with fans, stop engaging with my friends, tell my wife to leave me alone for a few months and go and hide out in the basement with bare minimum tv food and lots of coffee and whiskey until I'm not really happy anymore." "Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum."
Sarex Posted February 2, 2018 Posted February 2, 2018 (edited) Fair enough, but don't be short tempered and asinine with your readers, show some self-consciousness by knowing that, a) you are taking a ****ing long time to write the book, b) you are continuously showing stuff on your blog that paints a picture of you doing everything but working on the book and c) your readers are not a hive mind, not everyone has seen the reply you previously gave on that same question. An example I encountered. Edited February 2, 2018 by Sarex "because they filled mommy with enough mythic power to become a demi-god" - KP
Guard Dog Posted February 2, 2018 Posted February 2, 2018 The blog post linked to that is funny! There is another difference between the two. Rothfuss has a regular job that isn't writing books. Martin has hobbies and other interests. That isn't to say Martin should be more productive. My life won't change one iota if either never writes another word. If they finish it I'll buy it, if they don't oh well. One thing about Rothfuss, given his interest in games, including two Obsidian titles he mentioned by name, it would not surprise me to learn he is a member on this board that we talk to all the time! 3 "While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before" Thomas Sowell
Malcador Posted February 2, 2018 Posted February 2, 2018 We now know who Volo is. 3 Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra
Guard Dog Posted February 2, 2018 Posted February 2, 2018 Wow. Rothfuss is much snarkier in real life then! "While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before" Thomas Sowell
Hurlshort Posted February 2, 2018 Posted February 2, 2018 I was on track to be the next great American novelist until I met my wife in college and became happy and boring.
the_dog_days Posted February 2, 2018 Posted February 2, 2018 I was on track to be the next great American novelist until I met my wife in college and became happy and boring. My condolence on your happiness. 2
Fiach Posted February 2, 2018 Posted February 2, 2018 Just got this https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Program-Extraterrestrial-Alliance-Programs-ebook/dp/B01NAS4M58/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517594172&sr=8-1&keywords=michael+salla Here is a video about it, basically, Nazi bases in Antarctica and Wunder Waffen etc. 1 Thanks for shopping Pawn-O-Matic!
majestic Posted February 2, 2018 Posted February 2, 2018 Nonsense, the Nazis are on the moon: 5 No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry suffering.
the_dog_days Posted February 2, 2018 Posted February 2, 2018 Fact: Nazis have co-opted my moon base. 1
Fiach Posted February 2, 2018 Posted February 2, 2018 Nonsense, the Nazis are on the moon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py_IndUbcxc Loved that movie, couldn't get into the game though, but iirc it uses cutscenes from the movie. Thanks for shopping Pawn-O-Matic!
Guard Dog Posted February 3, 2018 Posted February 3, 2018 If I had to name the greatest invention of the 21st Century (so far) I'd have a heck of a time not saying it's the e-book in general and the Amazon Kindle specifically. This book has been out of print for years and is hard to find. I've been looking on e-bay, flea markets and other places like that. It's now on Kindle. Huzzah! "While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before" Thomas Sowell
Hurlshort Posted February 4, 2018 Posted February 4, 2018 Yep, the KIndle has basically tripled my reading. The fact that I can go looking for all sorts of strange genre books on any topic is pretty great. Still, I am bummed that there are a number of books that still haven't been released on the Kindle. Also I don't get how magazines are often more expensive on the KIndle than they are if you subscribe to the print edition.
Raithe Posted February 4, 2018 Author Posted February 4, 2018 When authors decide to put up sneaky little un-edited snippets... “I was just having the first good time I’ve had in a long time. What with the battle in Eridani and losing most of the people I knew and loved in the universe, the cleanup from that battle, ///. It’s been a rough few months. And I was just having the first downtime I’ve had in a long time. I also just got another tat and it hurts like ****. So, I’m going to give you one warning. Turn your little ****leshells around and leave. Now. Immediately. And I won’t turn your ships into modern art.” “You have no significant combat forces in system,” the Ogut Admiral replied. “Your vaunted SAPL has no systems to defend its mirrors. You have no way to defeat us. If you surrender now, the terms will be quite acceptable. We will retain all material and equipment in this system and allow all human personnel to leave. The terms become more onerous as time goes by. You are advised to surrender. The cost in capital if you fight will be more than you wish to pay.” “Not gonna happen,” Dana said, horking some more water and shaking her head. “One last chance. Leave.” “Last chance,” the Admiral replied. “Surrender.” Dana didn’t even reply, just commed a signal to Granny. The Ogut probably had enough missiles to take out all the UNG beam mirrors in range of their ships. What they did not have was enough to take out all the mirrors of every type. Most of the mirrors what shifted their angle to engage the Ogut fleet weren’t UNG beams. UNG beams would have cut through the relatively weak shielding of the Ogut ships like… a very powerful laser through a butter patty. The much less powerful BDA and VDA beams simply ran them up to overload. # “All shields are at maximum, Admiral!” the Flagship Tactical Officer reported. “We are completely blacked out.” “I thought you said you could take out their mirrors,” Admiral /// snapped over the sound of straining power systems. It was clear the ship was under enormous stress. “The mirrors act at light speed, sir,” Tactical said. “And they are not coming from their most powerful systems it appears. Just their general supply mirrors. There are thousands of those. Impossible to take them all out. And even if we could, right now we can’t even launch. This should not be possible! This is… beyond my experience, Admiral.” The sound of straining systems suddenly stopped. “We are no longer under attack, Admiral,” the tactical officer said. “But all the other ships still are.” “Why does that not make me happy?” Admiral /// said, very cautiously. “Fire full spread on all…” # The timing had been tricky but while the AIs in system were not optimized for combat, it wasn’t much different than some tricky mining and engineering they’d done in the past. Light does not reach a point instantaneously. It is very fast, but not instantaneous. And over spatial distance there was always a bit of lag. But the various AIs of the Wolf System were used to working with that. And there really weren’t that many UNG mirrors near the gate, which was where the Ogut task force still lay. Which was why, in near simultaneity, five UNG beams hit the Ogut ‘battleship’. While humans had mostly paid attention to Rangora, Glatun and Horvath ship engineering, they were well aware that anyone could become a foe at any time. So, there was, also, a complete database of Ogut ship engineering, with a notable focus on their warships. Thus, the AIs knew precisely where to strike. One UNG beam was targeted on the main engine power coupling. Two more were targeted on the two, redundant, weapons systems control centers. One was targeted on primary navigation and the fifth was targeted on primary systems cyber defense. Not all were perfectly aligned and, unfortunately, two Ogut junior spacemen and a petty officer were killed in the first strike. The AIs quickly adjusted the beams. Then they took over the ship’s controls. “Abandon ship! Abandon ship! This is not a drill! All hands abandon ship!” “I didn’t give that order!” Admiral /// snapped. “All hands are abandoning ship, Admiral,” the XO said. “We can’t stop them. Pods are ejecting as we speak.” The admiral didn’t need to be told that. He could feel the shudder of every pod on the ship punching out. Given that the ship was dead in space and under the enemy’s lasers it only made sense. “What are your orders, Admiral?” “Hello, again, Admiral.” The very under-ranked idiot was back. Although now that he thought about it he had to wonder which of them was the idiot. “I’d advise you to punch out with your crew, Admiral,” the junior officer said, hitting her head and shaking it again in that weird human gesture he now understood meant ‘emphatic’. “I’m about to turn your ship into modern art. You don’t want to be onboard when that happens. Oh, I apologize. You lost a few crew. We were trying to avoid that but… fortunes of war. I’d rather not kill everyone still onboard but I have an example to make. Please do depart. Now.” “Can you define ‘modern art’?” the Admiral asked, carefully. “I’m going for something post-modernist,” the human replied, waggling its fingers in a sculpting gesture. “Subtle, yet distinctive. Recognizable, yet ambiguous. Or, honestly, unambiguous in the moment. Which will start happening to your ship in fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, twelve…” “We are leaving!” the Admiral shouted, getting out of his couch and inch-worming for the nearest escape pod. “Senior boards first!” # The next bit required some Paw tugs which fortunately had been near the gate. The Ogut hadn’t fired on them recognizing them as a. commercial vessels not military and b. valuable prizes. As the secondary beams pounded the now evacuated the ship, the Paw tugs moved in and started working at it with powerful tractors. Various volatiles ejected from the ship as the energy from the sunbeams increased but the Paws were used to that and simply gathered them up for later use. There were minor explosions but those were common when working with comets especially. Slowly, the Ogut flagship deformed and melted under the power of the mining lasers and the tugs continued to work the now malleable remaining metals. Much of the ship was not metal and that material could not be used for this sculpture so the resulting piece of art was of significantly lower mass than the flagship but significantly more… emphatic. # “We are receiving a human Hypercom request,” the communications officer of the /// said. ///about the commander of the ship including full name/// “Receive,” Commander /// said. The image was human but he could not sort out more than that. They all looked the same to him. “I am the current system commander,” the human said, without proper preamble. “Your flagship has been turned into a piece of art. Your task force commander and most of the crew are alive. All I have to do to do the same thing to your ship is increase the power of my lasers. And you’re getting less than five percent of the power I have at my disposal. What I’m going to do next is lower the power so you can see what remains of your flagship. If you fire, I’m out of patience and I’ll simply increase power and fry you like aborigines fry caterpillars. Then I’ll try the next most senior commander and see if he can take a hint. Do you understand?” “I am…” /// said, beginning negotiations properly “I’m not going to spend all day listening to your God damned formal name,” the human said, gesturing with one hand. “Power levels on shields increasing!” engineering said. “Reaching overload!” “I understand,” /// said. “Very good,” the human replied. “Now, decreasing power so you can have a look. Fire, and you end up a crispy bug.” The straining power systems slowly wound down and the internal temperature started to fall. “We’re getting external visuals,” tactical said. “Main repeater,” the Commander replied. He wasn’t sure at first what he was looking at and didn’t have a human expert to interpret. But it appeared to be a metal human hand floating in space. The ‘fingers’ of the hand were clasped mostly into what he had been told was a ‘fist’ but one finger, the middle, was upright. He really didn’t know what to make of it. “Isotopic signatures from the metal indicate that is…” the tac officer said then paused. “Commander, that is what is left of the flagship. We are also receiving a number of pod distress beacons.” /// didn’t even have to think about that one. “Human commander, we accept a temporary cease fire,” the Ogut commander said. “But could you give me just a moment to access my databases?” “As long as you don’t open your missile ports and don’t approach closer to our stations I’ll give you all the time you need,” the human replied. “Unless it’s to tell me your full formal name in which case, stuff it. I don’t have the patience of a saint and I was off-duty when you **** arrived. But, sure, go for your life.” Commander /// picked up a pad and began accessing it. “Human manual gestures,” he commed then started flipping through images. There were so many. “Single finger upright…” Still many. “Possibly insulting?” Image, image, image… He held the pad up to the repeater and clicked on the link for more information. “Rude gesture… suggests human physiologically impossible reproductive act…” He read for a moment burbling in thought then set down the pad. "Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum."
Hawke64 Posted February 4, 2018 Posted February 4, 2018 Reading through my library on Humble Bundle. I enjoyed The Daedalus Incident (sci-fi/fantasy/time-travel) by Michael J. Martinez and Scourge of the Betrayer by Jeff Salyards.
Raithe Posted February 6, 2018 Author Posted February 6, 2018 Ah, the trials of an author putting up a book chapter each week online and having that pause awaiting that next one... Ilona Andrews latest Innkeeper. Karat strode into the quarters and saw Helen on the bed. “Cute kid.” Helen bounced off the mattress, flipping in the air, and landed on the pillows. “Are you going to kill Mommy?” “No,” Karat told her. “Good.” Helen went back to jumping. “Does she expect you to be killed by random strangers?” Karat asked. “That’s the way things were on Karhari.” Karat eyed Helen. Helen gave her a cherubic smile. “She would attack me if I tried, wouldn’t she? She’s building up enough bounce to jump across the room.” "Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum."
Raithe Posted February 17, 2018 Author Posted February 17, 2018 Barnes and Noble - A Statistical Analysis of A Wheel of Time 5 "Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum."
Raithe Posted February 17, 2018 Author Posted February 17, 2018 And surprise, surprise... WInter is NOT coming... George R R Martin says the Winds of Winter may be delayed even further I wonder if he's decided to just troll all the audience who keep nagging at him to finish.... "Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum."
injurai Posted February 17, 2018 Posted February 17, 2018 Is he just trying to write both the last two books at once now? If he isn't then it seems this series is doomed to go unfinished.
Fionavar Posted February 17, 2018 Posted February 17, 2018 Beginning the autobiography of Gregory Baum The universe is change; your life is what our thoughts make it - Marcus Aurelius (161)
kirottu Posted February 17, 2018 Posted February 17, 2018 Barnes and Noble - A Statistical Analysis of A Wheel of Time I have no idea why I enjoyed that. This post is not to be enjoyed, discussed, or referenced on company time.
the_dog_days Posted February 17, 2018 Posted February 17, 2018 Barnes and Noble - A Statistical Analysis of A Wheel of Time I have no idea why I enjoyed that. Feature creep is fascinating. :D
Guard Dog Posted February 17, 2018 Posted February 17, 2018 Now reading this: And this: 1 "While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before" Thomas Sowell
ShadySands Posted February 17, 2018 Posted February 17, 2018 And surprise, surprise... WInter is NOT coming... George R R Martin says the Winds of Winter may be delayed even further I wonder if he's decided to just troll all the audience who keep nagging at him to finish.... He's already written the rest of the series and is just trolling. A year after he dies the next book will come out and then five more years after that the last book will drop. Free games updated 3/4/21
Sarex Posted February 17, 2018 Posted February 17, 2018 Barnes and Noble - A Statistical Analysis of A Wheel of Time I think that when I start my next vacation I'm going to give the series another read through. "because they filled mommy with enough mythic power to become a demi-god" - KP
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