Monthly Archives: January 2022

The silence on the Chengdu Worldcon 2

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

The lack of pushback against the 2023 Worldcon in Chengdu is disturbing. Boycotting the 2022 China Olympics is one of the few things Democrats and Republicans agree on. It should be obvious that a science fiction con, which is supposed to be about open discussion and speculation, can’t function under a government that monitors and censors ideas as pervasively as China does. Fans should find it repugnant to give any support to a government that persecutes minorities and violates human rights on a massive scale. Yet we’ve seen hardly any protests.

I’ve been looking for videos addressing these points to add to my YouTube playlist for boycotting Chengdu. So far I haven’t found any from fannish sources. If you know of any that are good enough to add to the list, please let me know in a comment.
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Amazon KDP arbitrarily excluding authors?

This entry was posted in Writing Writing as business and tagged Amazon KDP Kindle on by

A File 770 article asserts that “several indie romance authors recently found themselves banned by Kindle Direct Publishing with no real explanation.” I have no independent confirmation of this, but the article is worth a look.

I use Smashwords as my primary self-publishing outlet. This locks me out of some nice features I could get by giving exclusive publication rights to KDP, but I don’t care to be locked in like that.

Non-compete clauses for freelancers

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

Recently I got into a Reddit discussion that included a question about a non-compete clause for a freelance writer. Such clauses have legitimate uses, but broadly written ones can be nasty. They can damage a writer’s ability to earn an income. I’m not an expert in this area, so I’ve gone looking for reliable material.

PublishLawyer.com has an informative article, primarily addressing fiction writers. It quotes a “typical provision”:

During the term of this Agreement, Author has not prepared or published, and shall not prepare or publish, or participate in the preparation or publication of any work that directly competes with the sales of the Work.

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Power and royalty in Lord of the Rings

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

J.R.R. Tolkien A major theme of Lord of the Rings is that power corrupts. It’s impossible to miss. The Ring represents the power to subjugate, conquer, and destroy. Sauron made it for that purpose. It has a magical aura that causes people who stay near it for long to want to possess and use it. It controls people more than they control it. Only Sauron can fully control the Ring.

Hobbits vs. authoritarianism

However, it doesn’t influence everyone equally. Hobbits are, with one major exception, less susceptible. Sam shows little interest in it, taking it only when he has to and returning it to Frodo with relative ease. It’s a huge burden on Frodo, but he doesn’t succumb to it until he reaches Mount Doom and faces the decision to destroy it. Merry and Pippin have no interest in acquiring it.
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Finding me on Goodreads and LibraryThing

This entry was posted in My writing and tagged Goodreads LibraryThing on by

You can find author pages for me on LibraryThing and Goodreads. If you’re inclined to follow me on either or both of those sites, please do.

Goodreads displays a popup demanding that you log in or get an account, but it’s a bluff. Click the close box and you can view my page. Of course, you’ll have to log in to follow me.

I’ve started copying some of my existing book reviews to Goodreads, and you’ll find links to them on my page.

This post will automatically be copied to my Goodreads blog, though it’s a bit redundant there.