Book discussion: Frankenstein 2

This entry was posted in Book discussion and tagged books science fiction on by

With this post, I’m aiming to start a series of book discussions. I didn’t say book reviews; I’ll include old classics, forgotten works, and new books, depending on what I’ve been reading lately. Some of them might not even be in English. My aim is to post one article a week. We’ll see. I’m not going to promise until I’ve turned out a few.

Some of the books I’m thinking of covering are obscure, but I should start a series strongly, so the first book I’m covering is one everyone has heard of: Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. It’s widely considered the first science fiction novel. Most people know the story from the movies rather than the book, but the movies tend to play up the sensational aspects. The heart of Shelley’s tale is responsibility, abandonment, and retribution.
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How to impress people with the word “algorithm” 1

This entry was posted in Satire Writing and tagged algorithms pretentiousness usage vocabulary on by

If you want to come across as a writer who really understands computers, the best way is to learn about them. Read technical books and blogs. Learn how HTML and HTTP work. Find out what the common security fallacies are.

But that’s a lot of work. A quicker way is to use the word “algorithm” a lot.

An algorithm is a precise but abstract description of a computational process. “Precise” means laying out each step mathematically, so that any implementation should produce the same results. “Abstract” means it’s independent of a particular programming language or operating system. You can implement an algorithm in C, PHP, Java, or any other language. Some algorithms work more easily in some languages than in others, but there’s no inherent requirement to use specific technology.
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A new Magic Battery story 1

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

“To Gain the Whole World,” a new story in the world of The Magic Battery, is now up and available to read free of charge.

Nikolas Fest was the character who gave me the most trouble in the story. I had to throw out a whole chapter about him after getting beta reader feedback. Most of the characters are well-grounded. They know what they’re after and what they live by. Nikolas is constantly striking out in different directions and has trouble putting his life together. It’s harder for me to understand that type of character, but they’re often the interesting ones. In this story, Nikolas meets with the Meistersinger Hans Sachs, and he faces a dilemma about how to treat his own past. Meanwhile, pushbutton magic is starting to become a part of everyday life.

It has some spoilers for The Magic Battery. If you haven’t read the novel and hate spoilers, I recommend buying and reading the novel first. :) If you can deal with a few spoilers, it could help you decide whether the hovel will interest you.

If you spot the allusion to an early TV show, let me know in the comments.

California governor signs bill exempting freelance writers from AB-5

This entry was posted in Writing Writing as business and tagged business California writing on by

Governor Gavin Newsom of California has signed a bill exempting freelance writers and some other businesses from the draconian restrictions which state bill AB-5 had placed on contract work. Previously, AB-5 had limited writers to 35 articles a year to the same customer. That made it impossible, for instance, to contract for a weekly column.

California may be an insane place, but sanity prevails now and then.

Is Constant Content stiffing its foreign writers?

This entry was posted in Writing Writing as business and tagged business Constant Content scams writing on by

The news for Constant Content’s foreign writers doesn’t look good. This Reddit discussion, as of the time I’m writing this post, suggests that no one is getting paid. (The company is based in Canada, but it doesn’t treat US writers as foreign, and at least some of them are getting paid.)

Constant Content is months behind in paying these writers. Its website still doesn’t acknowledge the existence of a payment problem. Its FAQ contains blatantly false information, still claiming “Payments are made through Paypal.” It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the company’s only guiding principle is what it can get away with.

Twitter notes

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged publicity social media Twitter on by

Since I’m promoting self-published work, I should work on my visibility on Twitter. That’s what everyone says. Don’t look for expert advice here, since I haven’t topped 500 followers. However, I’ve been making an extra effort lately, and I can offer some notes on how it’s worked.

Not that I like Twitter very much. It’s manipulative, giving publicity boosts to some tweets and accounts while leaving others in the shadows. Whether “shadowbanning” is real may be a matter of how you define it; certainly some users find themselves consigned to low visibility. Twitter is a game where the dealer hides the cards and doesn’t tell you the rules.

But if you play, you can improve your visibility. The first step is to link to your profile a lot. Probably I need to do more of that.
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The Faust legend 2

This entry was posted in History and tagged Faust history magic battery on by

In The Magic Battery, I play off the legend of Faust. There are many well-known versions of the story, including Marlowe’s play, Goethe’s play, and Gounod’s opera. Liszt was fascinated with the story and wrote a Faust Symphony as well as the Mephisto Waltzes. My treatment is a free one, but it starts from what’s known of the historical Faust. Or should I should say historical Fausts?

Sculpture in Auerbachs Keller

Sculpture above Auerbach’s Cellar in Leipzig, depicting a scene from Faust

Johann Faust was born in 1466, or maybe 1480. His name is sometimes given as Georg or Johann Georg. Several towns claim to be his birthplace. Could there have been two Fausts, both with a reputation for magic and born over a decade apart? This might explain the part of the story where he becomes young again.
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Update #2 on Constant Content

This entry was posted in Writing Writing as business and tagged Constant Content scams writing on by

The situation with Constant Content remains the same. Payments to writers are long past due, and I’ve seen no indication anyone has been paid recently. Some people have received an email instructing them to set up payments through Stripe. Others say they haven’t received it. They can’t find this information on the website. I used my old account to log in and couldn’t find any information indicating a change of ownership or payment method.

The writers’ FAQ says, “Payment is made the first week of the beginning of each month.” It doesn’t say the first full week, so I take that to mean writers should have been paid last week. Comments on Reddit and elsewhere indicate that’s been their past practice. I let the following Monday go by to be generous, but I’m still seeing no reports of people getting paid.
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Update on Constant Content

This entry was posted in Writing Writing as business and tagged Constant Content writing on by

There’s a tiny but important change to constant-content.com: The page footer now says it’s “A Division of Moresby Media Inc.” As I mentioned in my earlier post, the footer previously identified RevenueWire as the parent company. The FTC fined RevenueWire for helping shady “tech support” companies to scam people.

Writers are saying that Constant Content has sent out an email telling them they will soon be getting payment through Stripe. Others say they didn’t get the email. It’s plausible that the mail had trouble with spam filters; bulk email promising payment tends to be viewed as spam. Alternatively, CC may be sending the mail out in batches.

Setting up to receive payments by Stripe is straightforward; payments can go to a bank account or a debit card. However, it’s not available in all countries, and that could be an issue for some writers.
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The return of lily-white writing? 1

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing and tagged race writing on by

Boskone 58 pocket program coverBack in the “Golden Age of Science Fiction,” all the leading characters were light-skinned by implication. Well, all the human characters. The aliens were often green or blue. It wasn’t that the authors set out to portray white-only casts or mentioned every character’s appearance; it was just the default, and most writers (themselves light-skinned) rarely thought about it.

The situation slowly changed. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, published in 1959, presented a thoroughly international and multi-ethnic military. We’ve reached the point where characters of all physical types and ethnic origins appear in SF. It’s happened in nearly all kinds of fiction; I’m focusing on SF because it’s what I’m familiar with.

But now there’s a nasty push back. Some people want fiction re-segregated. At first I thought it was just a fringe movement with no significance, but it’s gaining in influence. I keep seeing would-be writers apologetically posting to Reddit, asking whether it’s OK for their stories to have characters whose skin color doesn’t match their own. The responses are overwhelmingly “yes,” so it’s still on the fringe, but it’s a toxic idea that needs firm rejection.
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