Gary McGath

About Gary McGath

I am a freelance technical writer in Plaistow, NH.

Read an Ebook Week Sale: The Magic Battery

This entry was posted in My writing and tagged books fantasy fiction magic battery on by

Magic Battery coverThis week I’m participating in Smashwords’ Read an Ebook Week Sale, with 50% off the price of The Magic Battery. Many Smashwords authors are participating in this sale, so you’ll be able to stock up on other interesting books while you’re they’re. The sale runs from March 6 through 12, ending at 11:59 PM Pacific time. The discount applies only if you buy through Smashwords. While Smashwords isn’t as well-known as Kindle, it treats its authors and customers well, and it’s been my preferred publishing gateway for years.

You don’t need any coupons. You should be able to go there and get the $1.49 price. If you run into any problems, please let me know in the comments.

Writing about Ukraine

This entry was posted in Writer ethics Writing and tagged Russia Ukraine writing on by

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has us all very concerned, and anyone who writes about it for publication needs to write responsibly. Here are a few thoughts on the subject. I’m addressing writers in the USA; most of it applies everywhere, but I’m writing with Americans in mind.

Beyond assuming that you agree the invasion is outrageous, I’m not saying what position you should take. (If you don’t think it’s outrageous, you aren’t in my target audience.) These are general points regardless of what you think people should do.
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Kyiv or Kiev?

This entry was posted in Writing and tagged language usage on by

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine (not “the Ukraine”) dominating the news, many of us have noticed for the first time that most reports now call its capital Kyiv rather than Kiev. I wondered when this shift happened and why, and exactly how the name should be pronounced.

Ukraine flagKiev comes from the Russian name for the city, Kyiv from its Ukrainian name. Both Russian and Ukrainian use the Cyrillic alphabet, so any version of the name in the Roman alphabet is a transliteration. With the current situation, using “Kyiv” is especially satisfying, since it rejects Russia’s claim to the nation. (So far, thankfully, I haven’t seen any claims that criticizing Russia is “red scare racist.”) We can safely say it’s the new standard spelling. For similar reasons, we now talk about “Ukraine” rather than “the Ukraine.” The latter suggests a region rather than a nation. A few other countries have a definite article in front of their names, but they’re ones where the name is a phrase (e.g., “the Netherlands,” “the United States”).
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Writers: Know the tools of your trade

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged grammar writing on by

No one would try to be a carpenter without knowing how to use a hammer and saw. No one would claim to be a software developer without the ability to write syntactically correct code that (usually) does what it’s supposed to. But it’s astonishing how many people on writers’ forums show a basic lack of ability to use their language.

As a writer, you should understand spelling, verb tenses, sentence structure, agreement, and so on. You should have a good vocabulary and know what the right word is. You can break the rules when it’s appropriate, but you should know when you’re breaking them and why. You should know the difference between “rein” and “reign,” between “lose” and “loose.”

Grammar checkers won’t save a bad writer. The best of them are excessively nitpicking, ridiculously permissive, or both in turns. They’re valuable for catching mistakes, but you have to know which of their recommendations are valid.
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Emerson College: Criticizing China’s totalitarian regime is “hate”

This entry was posted in Commentary News and tagged China science fiction on by

This is a writing blog, not a blog on the China Worldcon, but I’ve been getting a bump in readership from the Worldcon articles, I’ve been talking about intimidation of China critics with vague claims of “racism,” and I just came upon a new outrage. Emerson College is apparently in the pocket of the Chinese government. It derecognized a chapter of Turning Point USA, a student organization. The organization had distributed stickers with the text “China kinda … sus.” That’s gamer slang for “suspicious.”

Emerson president William Gilligan, who seems like a typical academic tinpot dictator, has smeared the Turning Point chapter with a claim of “anti-China hate.” “Hate” is a wonderfully flexible word; in this case, it means criticism of an authoritarian state. If Gilligan is consistent (which I don’t expect he is), then he ought to regard kneeling during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” as “anti-America hate.” Or maybe he just likes concentration camps.
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Prescriptivism vs. descriptivism

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged usage writing on by

Attitudes toward changes in a language range between two poles. The prescriptivist says words have fixed definitions, and using them in ways that aren’t in the dictionary is misuse. The descriptivist says that words mean whatever people choose them to mean. Few people take a pure position at one end or the other. Prescriptivists face the fact that dictionaries change. Descriptivists can’t treat every neologism they hear as part of the language if they expect people to understand each other. The debate is over how much legitimacy a word needs before it’s considered standard. Words pass through the stage of slang or jargon before they reach full citizenship. Some words don’t go beyond that status, and they don’t have to. Professions need their jargon and subcultures need their slang, and they don’t have to impose it on the whole linguistic community.

Linguistic change isn’t something that a mysterious Sprachgeist causes. It’s the product of the users’ choices. Prescriptivists exert a drag on changes, and that can be good. If the language changes too fast, it becomes less precise. No one’s sure whether a word means what it always meant or it’s become something else. New words are necessary to convey new concepts, but they should prove their worth before getting wide adoption. Some words, like “nice,” have changed so many times that no one’s sure what they mean, except by context and tone of voice.
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The China Olympics as a preview of the Chengdu Worldcon

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged China science fiction on by

As I’m writing this, the disaster of the Winter Olympics in China is unfolding. Nancy Pelosi has warned American athletes, “Do not risk incurring the anger of the Chinese government because they are ruthless.” In effect, she told them to shut up for their own safety. (I wish she’d thought to say that before they got on their flights.) The Chinese government has warned of “grave consequences” for criticizing its human rights abuses. Yang Shu, the deputy director of the event’s International Relations Department, has warned that “any behavior or speeches that are against the Olympic spirit, especially against Chinese laws and regulations, are also subject to certain punishment.”

Athletes in COVID quarantine have reported miserable conditions. Valeria Vasnetsova posted on Instagram, “I want all this to end. I cry every day.” NPR reports, “Her account has since gone private.” Athletes are, on the FBI’s advice, using burner phones to avoid having their every conversation identified by the thought police.

What does this suggest about the World Science Fiction Convention scheduled for 2023 in Chengdu? There are differences, but they could make it even worse for the Worldcon.
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Chinese writers get it from both sides

This entry was posted in Censorship Commentary and tagged censorship China on by

Chinese writers have to reckon not only with their own government but with the US government. This post deals with events from 2020, but they relate to the issues of the upcoming Chengdu Worldcon and its guest of honor.

In 2020, Netflix announced plans for a series based on Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem and its sequels. As far as I can tell (my Netflix subscription is currently inactive), it’s still in the works. Earlier, five U.S. senators pressured Netflix to drop it. Their reason was some remarks which the author had made in a New Yorker interview. When asked about the Chinese government’s treatment of the Uyghurs, he said, “If anything, the government is helping their economy and trying to lift them out of poverty. If you were to loosen up the country a bit, the consequences would be terrifying.”Cover, The Three-Body Problem

The notion of “lifting people out of poverty” by putting them into brutal concentration camps is, of course, outrageous. We have to consider Cixin’s position, though. If he had spoken against the Chinese government’s treatment of the Uyghurs, his writing career would have promptly ended, and he might have suffered worse consequences. The Chinese government’s recent threats against anyone who criticizes it at the Olympics have reminded us of that. Also, he’s doubtless been fed steady misinformation by the censored Chinese media.
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