I had a great idea for a blog post last night, but of course I spaced it, and so I’m going to write about impossible things, like organizing writers, squaring the circle, training cats.
BTW if this post is criminally late, it’s because I’m waiting for washer repairman to replace washer motor, which means I’m trying to get the kids out of bed on a day when they don’t have classes till the afternoon (speaking of impossible things.)
The first paragraph is only half a joke, as of course I’m not going to talk of squaring the circle or training cats (Mostly because my cats would kill me in my sleep, if they had to do it by cutting across my throat with a sharpened whisker.)
However, I’d like to talk about organizing writers. Part of this because the main writer organizations right now are running around like chickens with their heads cutoff, even RWA of whom I used have a higher opinion, partly because it touches on what organized labor is good for, what it is not good for, what it is detrimental for, and what it can do in the circumstances we’re going towards. Because in the future we’re all ducks… er… I mean, we’re all contractors (must not talk to younger son. It’s a thing for poultry that boy has) or at least a significant portion of us are, the bind that writers are in today is something that’s likely to come to your living room in the next five years, for either your job, your spouse’s job or your children’s job. So taking a look at the situation writers are in and why it resembles where (more or less) the entire labor market is headed (unless civilization collapses to an unimaginably low level) is important. As is taking a look at what organizing can do, what it can do, and “the best we can hope for.”
To begin with, I started on this wild hare because of Rex Stout. (It occurs to me, btw, Rex Stout would have loved the present anno domini. Well, not really, since even mega bestsellers sell fewer copies than he did, but what I mean is he’d have loved ebooks. Indie is made for the type of thing he wrote: novellas, mostly, often sold as packets.) I’ve been reading him a lot because I’m very busy, which means I read only short pieces that I have read before (meaning I can set them down and not worry.) At one point, Archie is extolling unions, and Rex Stout, of course, like Heinlein, was a great supporter of unions. (I doubt of public employee unions, but that’s something else.) Only Heinlein saw the end game quite clearly, in Starman Jones, where the world is so tied up by unions that true genius can’t get in to where it would be best.
That sort of started me thinking. Unionism is based on the belief that your co-workers want to screw you for their benefit less than your boss wants to screw you for his benefit.
There are circumstances in which this is absolutely true. I’m thinking of an homogeneous and relatively powerless workforce, say the immigrant-clogged NYC of the early twentieth century. I understand that entire blocks in NYC were, in all, entire villages from Sicily or, depending on the decade, Ireland. I grew up in a village. You track cousinship to the sixth generation, and when it gets too far for that, you’re “connected.” That chain of blood relations is a chain of loyalty and there’s nothing worse than being shunned by your group, your family, your peers.
In that type of naturally collectivist environment, you can trust your peers (to an extent. If you read biographies from back then, you still read of slick union operators screwing people up – but that’s human. Unless you deal with angels, you’re going to see that.) And when you’re working in a low skill level position, for a boss who thinks you’re a widget (man, do I feel their pain. On the second, at least, though I gather a lot of publishers think “anyone can write” and considering what they’ve pushed down the throats of the reading public the last twenty years, they might still think it.) it’s pretty hard for your co-workers to screw you over worse than your boss will do given the chance.
So, unions became a logical way to deal with this. You had group loyalty against the tendency of grasping management to take more.
The problem is for unions to work you need to be able to do SOMETHING to the owner/manager to stop the abuses. Again, the situation in which the unions worked best, you could surround the factory (or farm, though there’s problems with that one, and Gionvanni Guareschi illustrated it beautifully in one of the Don Camilo short stories. I think in The Little World Of Don Camilo. I.e. farm labor can’t be stopped and then picked up again, and you’re doing active and permanent damage each day the strike goes on.) and stop scabs from going in to do your work. That meant that the boss had something to lose (also) by not coming to the table. And in those days also the union people were actual works (not operatives who don’t care if the company dies – see, twinkie.) so people could agree on a mutually agreeable compromise. Or at least mutually workable.
When the wheels come off… well, we see that all over the country these days, from public sector unions, where the “negotiating” is in fact a branch of government telling the other that really they need mo’e government cheese – which amounts to self-dealing – to the auto unions where they’ve lost track of the fact that a) there must be a product people want to buy and b) they are competing with non unionized workers, and some of those are doing better than the unionized ones because… it’s not a low skill industry anymore.
Next comes the fact that the basic premise, that your co-workers want what’s best for you too more than your boss does is pretty dang faulty. The reason that unions devolved into bullying, tug tactics (against CO WORKERS) and worse is that since WWII our country has become less and less that “small village” where there’s bonds of blood and culture and shunning works. (Though that had the bad effect of living anyone not in the clan out. But you could at least trust the clan.)
And of course, as we go more and more remote, the “shop’s” ability to be shut off or controlled physically has gone away too. Yes, a lot of the battle of unions and other labor advocates right now is to try to prevent outsourcing and telecommuting, precisely because those tactics make it easier for workers to come in from elsewhere and undercut organized labor.
I tell you, it won’t work. When you’re trying to create by law artificial conditions that replicate those of a hundred years ago (Which btw, compared to now weren’t good for ANYONE) you’ve already lost. The best you can do is make the area covered by your laws unappealing to those who would provide work. At which point, you either clamp down like North Korea and nobody has jobs or your people start telecommuting for companies in other countries. And then all your laws are moot, unless you’re willing to go to war. And they’re still moot because, after the war, your people will still need jobs.
Our politicians haven’t realized this yet, because they are exceedingly well educated people, taught in the best labor theory which doesn’t take in account that we’re not all factory workers in the Bronx circa 1920.
I first realized this when we tried to go on strike as students (for good and sufficient reason) and the teachers laughed and would have failed us if we’d continued. Then I realized the reason that US student “strikes” worked was because they were willing to use and threaten violence. (Something a small group of mostly female students of German weren’t willing to do.)
There needs to be some sort of power balance and counter-strike ability for organized labor to work.
And that’s always been the problem with writing. Perhaps when SFWA was started, and most of the magazines were in one place and a lot of the writers too, we could have acted as a union. I don’t know. Perhaps enough wild-eyed sf writers in front of Amazing would have caught the attention of newspapers. Who knows?
But even then there were writers elsewhere, and even then, publishers could always bring in new talent to replace the striking ones. There was no way to stop scabs, unless you were willing to stop the US mail.
By the time I came in writers needed a union more than ever. In one respect we were like that transplanted community in the Bronx in the early 20th century: there was only one employer, or such a small number of them as to make no difference, they all talked to each other and had a level of collusion that would be illegal anywhere else. (Heck, I’m fairly sure it’s illegal in publishing too. It’s just no one dared say anything, because if you were blacklisted by one, you were blacklisted by all.) And we couldn’t have one. Why? Because even our organization leaders, working writers, had to stay on the good side of the employers who could replace them or blacklist them at the snap of a finger (more so since they had control of what went on shelves. Complete control.) Worse, if the leaders dared upset the publishing houses, the members would complain, because, well, it was their career on the line, too. And houses were known to black list all members of an organization who challenged them.
At the same time – see where publishers had total shelf control – there was nothing that writers organizations could threaten publishers with. Nothing material, at least. Yeah, we could trash-talk them. This did not hurt them, because most of the country never even heard about them.
So, what did our organizations do? They ran with the other function of professional organizations: certification.
When I came in very few magazines required SFWA membership to buy you and those kept it a secret. (It was a slush pile culling strategy.) And none of the book publishers did. Because there was no point. And the strategy they moved to, for culling slush, was agents, which is different from organization membership (and possibly stupider.) I’m not talking about MWA and RWA here, simply because I don’t know as much. I came to those organizations late. I will mention later how RWA is/was different (but not enough.)
So, most people joined SFWA for two reasons: a directory of other working professionals and validation of status. (More and more needed as “professional” rates hadn’t changed since the fifties, and making 5k a book wouldn’t allow anyone to live from this.) Which meant that most people in SFWA were in it to be exclusionary. “We’re real writers, and they aren’t.” MWA was the same when I joined. RWA was different in that they let you join a cadet branch and learn from the pros. This was a valuable service, when everyone had to go through the narrow gate to get in.
The problem RWA is having now, is the problem all the other writers’ organizations have: “Who is a pro?” Having lowered the rates (or rather not raised them) to the level that allowed most of their members to stay in (the average working writer makes somewhat less than 5k a year from writing) they just keep insisting that people who make that much from indie can’t get in. Because they’re not “really” published. (Though it’s possible RWA has slightly saner rules on that. I’m not sure. I quit when they went after Amazon – which relates to: )
And because they’ve become status organizations ONLY, it is very important for them to roll the clock back and have things be as they were “you have to go through this narrow gate to publish.” Which means that they’re going after Amazon on behalf of tiny distributors for tiny presses, because that’s where the status is.
The rest of us out here, trying to make a living, roll our eyes and decide the directory of our peers is not worth it – particularly when we’re trying to learn about self publishing and network with indie and people bringing out their backlist, and let’s face it, half of the people doing really well at that have never heard of writers’ organizations, or are actively giving them the bird, even if the organizations should want them.
Which is a pity because… if writers’ organizations had realized they’re not and cannot be unions, and that being a club of the “in kids” is just stupid and, in an increasingly more distributed world might give you a warm glow but won’t give you anything else, they could have done some good.
You see, there is a great need for a fraternal order of writers. One of the mailing lists I belong to – one of those things that circulates in place of the organizations that don’t work – was discussing long term disability, and how difficult it is to replace your writing income if you can’t write for a year or two or… the last ten or twenty years of your life. (Which we’ve all heard about, from authors of the golden age.)
The backlist publishing in indie might keep you in a trickle of income, for a while, but…
This is something we’re looking at very closely as we look at – hopefully, hopefully ten or so years from now, and in a better position – we look at having to live from my writing and maybe free lance work (programming and writing) by Dan. What do you do if you’re living from that, have a pretty good lifestyle, and one of you is in an accident, has a stroke, or gets cancer? In my case, having been a freelancer most of my life, and trying to avoid paying both sides of social security (sometimes it’s inevitable, in case you wondered where that 8k bill from the IRS comes from. That’s taxes, plus all the stuff that an employer normally contributes half to. It runs to about half a writers’ income, more or less depending on the state. It’s the reason so many of us get in tax trouble the first time we get decent income.) I wouldn’t even get that. Not this year. Inevitably I will, but because of the years of ramp-up probably at very low level. How do you maintain your lifestyle when you can no longer work? Colleagues in that position are telling me that most states take “disability” in the physical sense. So, if you’re out of your mind on chemo… well, you can still type, right?
The insurance issue is the same, though every organization that tried to offer that ran up against the “not between states” and how distributed we are. That might need some legal lobbying. But right now, we’re looking at – should Dan become unemployed – paying the penalty and going without.
This is made worse by the fact that as a group we are aging (at least those considered “professional” under the old rules. This will change, probably) and therefore are more prone to the maladies of age.
We desperately need a fraternal order. With people coming in from every walk of life and through every possible gateway, trying to control the employers is a forlorn hope. Yeah, a fraternal order would still need some form of entry thing, possibly “For x years has derived 30% of income from writing.” But it wouldn’t need to concern itself with status or with publishers or with vendors of writing. Just with making writers’ lives saner and safer. Contributions, sure, and possibly charity anthologies.
Will it happen? I hope so. I don’t have the ability to start it (time. Money. Time IS money) and I bet that’s the issue for most working writers.
But I hope someone somewhere does this for writers or free lance programmers or most of the other professions going free lance – almost all of them – because in the future we’re heading towards trying to control who hires whom is a forlorn hope. Trying to control employers is too.
The best we can do is look after our own, pick up our fallen comrades and move on. It’s not fair, but it is what it is and moreso what it will be.
Trying to set the clock back will only make the future even more painful (and possibly lethal for everyone.) One of the things we might need to get rid of is this notion of “fair” — it works great in kindergarten, but in the real world it tends to crumble. And the shards can cut things that work — fair or not.
And so, you see, organizing writers remains impossible. All the same, it might be imperative.
(And now I’m going to have breakfast. Repairman has been. I tried to have tea and poured it down my front, which means I need more caffeine before lower lip works. I’m going to drink tea over the sink.)
According To Hoyt 
“… which means I’m trying to get the kids out of bed on a day when they don’t have classes till the afternoon (speaking of impossible things.”
Tasers. Every mother should have at least one.
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My Dad in the Navy had a little thing he called a “trash-can reveille.” Now that trash can lids are made of plastic, it’s less effective, but “sauce-pot reveille” appears to be every bit as effective, as is “kitten under your blanket.”
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Snakes under the blanket work better than kittens.
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Nuh-uh. You put a snake under my blanket, I am staying STILL.
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What if it’s a kitten-snake, that instinctively ATTACKS feet-monsters? With sharp little kitten-fangs?
(Wanders off to Mad Scientist genetic engineering lab…)
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Sabrina, Welcome to my secret lair on Skullcrusher Mountain!! :)
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(song reference)
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I really like what you did with the lava flows, it looks so natural!
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I made this half-pony half-monkey monster to please you
But I get the feeling that you don’t like it
What’s with all the screaming?
You like monkeys, you like ponies
Maybe you don’t like monsters so much
Maybe I used too many monkeys
Isn’t it enough to know that I ruined a pony making a gift for you?
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Sabrina,
OT — which sound booth did you get an why? I mean, what were the pros/cons. We’re going to try a home-made solution, but if it doesn’t work, a friend said he’d go halves on one of those (he wants it for thingy, talk into microphone, do blog posts that wa… PODCASTING! I knew the word word was somewhere.) Which might make it worth it considering tax thingies. Or not. But I know nothing about these and neither does friend, so…
I’d only be doing my short stories, but husband (in copious spare time can/should do musketeer mysteries. So…)
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Hokay. I got the Zoom H2n Handy Recorder and AKG Acoustics K-240 headphones. Both were recommended by someone who does audio recordings (I forget where I read it, but it was an author). My “booth” is a closet in the middle of my house with a wood floor. I built a little sound isolation cocoon around the microphone using scraps from a memory foam mattress that my sister’s dog mangled ;-) Because it was free, and it seems to work as well as the expensive box-shaped things with the eggcrate foam linings. The Zoom H2n has directional microphone settings too, so I could set it to focus only forward, tuck it in the little foam cave, and set the whole thing on a shelf.
From what I understand, keeping ambient noise out is critical. No computer fans. I’ve used my Kindle to read from, and the H2n can run on battery power (or I can run an extension cord under the door.) Using the closet in my office also allows the double-buffer door to keep out two kitties who firmly believe they should be a part of any conversation I’m involved with. I was a little worried about street noise–the road I live on is fairly busy–but with a little tweaking of the microphone settings I don’t hear it in the recording.
Any other questions, feel free to ask ;-)
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oooh. We have microphones and pop filters AND I have a memory foam mattress the cats… er… desecrated. I don’t have a closet, but I can probably build/buy something at ARC thrift store for under thirty bucks. Um…
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Exists. He’s called Havey. No, he doesn’t look like a snake, but…
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Mom had a story about how Granpa had come in one day to get her out of bed the second time and flipped the bed on her – and how mad she had been, and how she did get out of bed.
Granted, Granpa had been the principal at the high school mom was at so it wasn’t like he could ignore the truancy.
Oh, and Granpa and Mom were very much alike in temperment – I’m pretty sure they had monumental fights.
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Me and younger son. People who see us together don’t know, because they don’t know what I was like at his age. BUT we’re exactly the same, and we’re both… well… When the fighting starts clear the decks and protect small children.
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Big insect dropped on your face. Happened to me once (old house, critters living in the walls), a big beetle. Never gotten out of bed that fast, before or after.
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Yeah, I was in a crap apartment once and had a roach run across my foot. That did it, too.
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Nah. Gekos, giant cockroaches, flying beetles sounding like B-17s taking off, you can get used to that with practice.
I have trouble ssleeping through my black tom walking on me when he thinks I should get up
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I could handle them in the room. I could even handle them in the bed, as long as they stayed somewhere on the further reaches, preferably like under the bed. Face, that was too much for me. :)
Funny about what we can and cannot deal with. I have no problem handling non-poisonous snakes, actually I rather like them (even the poisonous varieties as long as they at a distance). And I don’t have any problems with local spiders (well, we have nothing really poisonous or really big). Beetles, and a few other insects though, I’m okay as long as they stay at least a bit of a distance away from me, but put them on bare skin and I freak.
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Snakes are OK, and I used to patrol for spiders for a friend. Scorpions are boring. What gets me is MILLIPEDES. Agh. Urk.
I found one in my shoe I had left in the garage, the usual way. I almost learned to break-dance while holding on to a lawn-mower.
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Bob, when I was in Vietnam, we had those HUGE sirens. One was only about 30 yards from the hooch I bunked in. I slept through one of those things going off. Mama-san had to shake me awake. By the time she managed, the rocket attack was over (they hit the golf course and a parking lot – those rockets weren’t very reliable.). My wife has been mad at me since 1966, because I slept through a tornado picking up the back end of our mobile home and shaking it. It almost destroyed the mobile home directly behind us. Luckily, it was not occupied at the time. At the same time, I’ve been awakened by the cats knocking a single ornament off the Christmas tree. Go figure!
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I slept through an earthquake. TWICE. BUT first time, I was three, my brother had me in his arms and was running. I still slept.
At the same time? I wake with the kid’s foot on the top stairs. barefoot, and tiptoeing. (These days? Usually? They were sick and are looking for sheets to change bed. Younger son announces impending illness by throwing up. And it comes so fast, he can’t prepare) Why? Both kids sleepwalked. And for a while we lived on Colorado Avenue.
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Normally,I sleep like that. Although I wasn’t able to sleep through someone scraping paint off the old house I grew up in (I assume it’s because it wasn’t a noise with a regular pattern)
However, last spring, older son opens the door to my bedroom, completely out of breath and panting, and says, “Dad, I need you to get up!”, sounding like it’s really urgent. In approximately 2 seconds I was standing in front of him, asking what the problem was. By this time, his eyes were as big as saucers, as he began explaining that no, it wasn’t a giant emergency, and he didn’t need me that fast (He had decided to transplant one of the Sumac trees and needed help holding it up while he filled in around it), but he felt a lot better now, knowing that I could get up quickly when i needed to.
Thanks a lot, Chris. Now, I just need to let my heart rate fall from about 250 down to something that won’t threaten to make blood spurt out my eyeballs. :-P
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marbles stored in the freezer always roll to the lowest point in the mattress.
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sauce-pot reveille
In Philadelphia this is traditionally done to ‘ring’ in the New Year. It can make a truly awful racket.
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also highly effective are marbles from the freezer under the blanket. The offending person who refuses to wake looks like they were ejected from the bed.
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Ooooo. Sarah, an alternate use for wisky stones?
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LOL. We’ve used marbles. Whiskey stones get used for whiskey. Like G-d intended.
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Besides, you end up with breakage, and whisky stones are more expensive to replace than marbles. The formerly bed-bound person tends to eject marbles with great force (as well as their own selves), and some inevitably crack.
Or so i hear.
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Younger son just sat up and said PFUI and glared at us… he cut his teeth on Nero Wolfe. Reading I mean. He cut his literal teeth on The Rise And Fall of The Roman Empire, same as his brother, of course.
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For all your sleeper wakening needs: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_fb_0_9?url=search-alias%3Dsporting&field-keywords=air%20horns&sprefix=air+horns%2Cpets%2C191&rh=i%3Asporting%2Ck%3Aair%20horns
They come in a variety of sizes, including some suitable for waking elder gods.
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Good thing I haven’t convinced the hubby to come here because– he would be going crazy over that link RES…
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The first image in my mind was that of a nice young couple shopping at a farm store. when he wandered down the aisle with the cattle prods and she followed, the inevitable twin sounds of **bzzzt** and *SLAP!* sounded. Soon after, he came out behind his wife (she was moving at a clip of high annoyance) with a bright red and white handprint on his face.
Ah, young love.
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ROFL yep, young love
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I grew up on a ranch and got shocked several times by “funny” siblings.
I’m kind of surprised it wasn’t shoved down his throat. Sideways.
Pain is one of those things I really have no sense of humor about…..
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Foxfier, I may have been doing my best to keep a straight face. The clerk leaning over and whispering “Happens about twice a week” didn’t help.
I suspect he’s just lucky said farm store doesn’t stock the cast iron cookware next to the cattle prods…
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*growls something about boy humor*
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I think they should at least stock the cast-iron lids next the to cattle prods /walks away whistling
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Personally I suspect these are even more effective:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_gnr_aps?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Acattle+prod&keywords=cattle+prod&ie=UTF8&qid=1365132850
Although I will admit to never having used one on a sleeping person.
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I think you must be younger than I. When I think of using cattle prods on people it brings to mind Sheriff Jim Clark and Selma, Alabama — and this is in no way a comfortable image.
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Not pleasant– my mother used to grab our toes until she got kicked in the face. ;-)
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I believe I am younger than you, but the more important factor is completely different areas of the country. The race riots and civil rights movement was just news about some place far away to most people out here. When I think of cattle prods on people I either think of bull riders getting shocked with them (I had several friends that were bull riders) or of the reaction of a friend of mine (studying to be a journeyman electrician) when I got him with one, one day while he was bragging about not getting shocked at work all day. (yes I have a low sense of humor, but it was still funny).
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I grew up in the Philadelphia area, first in the rail line suburbs, then moving into center city. Was sent to a Quaker school in the eastern Tennessee mountains to finish High School and never returned other than to visit.
Still, because of my family’s history and politics I was rather precocious when it came to political awareness and activism. I was so angry at my parents for not going down to help in Selma that I arranged a one child protest march threw my neighborhood. After Momma had passed I found that she had kept the sign I had made and carried that day.
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threw
It should not be the past tense of the verb to throw, rather it should be the preposition through.
DANG! I have had two large mugs of coffee this morning, so I have no excuse. Hangs head. Sorry.
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I had a next-door neighbor that hauled cattle (semi-trailers full). He ALWAYS had several cattle prods. I know both his older sons got in trouble for running the batteries down on them. You don’t want to have a useless metal wand when there’s 1600 pounds of angry beef headed toward you.
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I got to get some marbles to try that for getting Mom up. [Evil Grin]
Seriously, it’s tempting but I won’t do it.
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Middle child was struggling with wife about getting up. Because of this, I had to get up to get him up. At the time I was working second shift and was not a happy camper about getting up at 6 a.m. to get him out of bed to go to school.
First day I went to yank the blankets off him so he held on to them. I drug him on to the floor and used my foot to shake him until he got up.
Second day I warned him I would dump ice water on him if he didn’t get up. He refused, I used a 5 gallon bucket of ice water and then he got to spend the next 20 minutes with a shop vac cleaning it up.
Third day (did I mention the boy has a streak of stubborn) was the frozen marbles. I shot out of bed like there was an ejection seat.
There was no fourth day as I came home from work that night with a hotshot and woke him up to show it to him. He concluded getting up was the better option.
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Got ME out of bed…
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Time was when one wedding celebration was to go to the newly weds’ house in the early night and have such a reveille until the couple came down and gave you all cider.
Shivaree they called it. I suspect it helped popularize honeymoons — to be sure, it survives in vestigal form of tying cans to their car.
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In my parent’s day Shivaree was actually a kidnapping of the bride and groom so that they wouldn’t spend that first night together. My parents have a whole story of how they escaped their Shivaree (southern Idaho).
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Brother and SIL — their first night (their first two years) married was in a borrowed apartment. Conditions were sort of like here, now, and they had just enough money to marry if they didn’t have to pay rent. They didn’t want to live with mom and dad, but friends had just been placed (doctor and teacher, therefore government employees) across the country, and wanted someone to apartment sit. They’d come back on weekends, when my Brother and SIL relocated to family for two days. Anyway – BEFORE they got the apartment for their first night, the friends, HELPFULLY locked alarm clocks set to go off every hour on the hour through the night, all through the apartment and hid the keys. My brother ALMOST broke their furniture…
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Oh boy– not to helpful, eh?
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friends thought it was hilarious.
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PFUI I think that is one of the reasons the hubby and I went quietly to a JP and told our friends and family a few days later. ;-)
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A “practical joker” deserves applause for his wit according to its quality.
Bastinado is about right. For exceptional wit one might grant keelhauling.
But staking him out on an anthill should be reserved for the very wittiest.
— Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s, “Time Enough For Love”
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It was still practiced thirty-two years ago, when my folks were married. (Either Basq or Scottish inspiration, probably, given the valley– possibly Italian. I can’t see our few English groups going for that much rudeness without committing seppuku.)
It mutated into more like “vandalize the house”– the folks who got married before my mom had several thousand dollars in damage, including paper towels rolled up and shoved up the kitchen sink. (Yes, during THAT economy. People often are pricks given any sort of social cover.)
My mom informed everyone that they were of course welcome to continue the time-honored tradition– but the first car up the driveway would have its headlights shot out. Swears it took six months for anyone to come visit them, in the daytime, and he was drunk as a skunk……
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My inlaws. Outside our window. Demanding to be given coffee. It’s been almost thirty years. Someday I’ll forgive them.
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We told everyone we were going to be spending our honeymoon in a cabin one of my cousins owned. Instead, we snuck back into Denver and spent the time in an apartment Jean had rented beforehand, one none of her friends knew about. We had people looking for us all over Colorado. 8^)
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I’m having pretty good luck with the cat’s spray bottle. (Actually, use to to keep Youngest Acrobat from climbing OUT of her crib, but with ice water it’ll work on big kids….)
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Sigh. Robert had the same reaction to it that did our first cat, Petronius the Arbiter, Cat From Hades, they both squinched eyes and ENJOYED the spray. Miserable brats. No wonder they adored each other. (Robert slept with his head ON Pete for the first three years of his life. And Pete once came through one of the old fashioned, metal window screens ready to attack me because Robert screamed — his bath water was a little cold, but the cat was threatening to disembowel me.)
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…I am dying of cute, even though neither would be good to live through!
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The Daughter and Imp. The Daughter would curl up in one corner of her crib, Imp would curl up catty corner. We have a photo somewhere of her at nine months walking along with her hand on his shoulder.
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Overly energetic yellow lab coming after a biscuit that happens to be on your forehead.
I mean, I was never the kid who slept in…..
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German Shepherd-Collie mix that jumped on the bed to “protect” while mom was slapping my feet, and put his hind feet in my tender bits.
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The insurance issue is the same, though every organization that tried to offer that ran up against the “not between states” and how distributed we are.
Dang. Here the reason the social clubs have so faded was staring me in the face the whole time and I couldn’t see it. THIS is why the Elks and Moose and such are such shells of their former selves. They USED to provide, perhaps not formal insurance, but mutual support.
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An interesting point, Rob, I was discussing the decline of social clubs the other day and hadn’t considered that point.
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The thing is, I don’t know HOW to do that, short of lawfare, but there will be a HUGE need for such support as more professions go free lance and contractor, a process accelerated by mentally handicapped legislators penalizing companies that hire more than 50 emplolyees who work over thirty hours a week.
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Maybe you could set up a betting pool ala TMIAHM?
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I’d heard SFWA looked into providing insurance, but that the different-rules-for-different-states was the problem. But other organizations are able to do it (or at least WERE able to do it, gawd knows what the new rules are going to mean). Isn’t the Writers Guild able to provide? I know the TSCPA has insurance – so many CPAs are small firms or single proprietors.
(And gawd knows what the new rules are going to mean for a lot of writers who work part time jobs, enough hours for the benefits? But that’s another problem.)
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Nope. Joined the writers’ guild for the insurance in… 2002. Husband was unemployed. They had insurance… in CA and NYC. (I swear.)
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If they can get insurance in New York, they can get insurance anywhere (NY is a royal pain, I understand). Oh, but that would mean providing it for people in all those flyover states, wouldn’t it …
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It had to do with where most members were congregated… I THINK.
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Perhaps at one time, but I doubt that’s been the case for years.
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And gawd knows what the new rules are going to mean for a lot of writers who work part time jobs, enough hours for the benefits?
49/29 is going to hurt loads of people. Mandating extensive benefits adds to the employers costs. The employers have two choices, cut people and hours or raise prices. Meanwhile, most of us have less to spend on discretionary items for, in spite of what the government says, our grocery bill and fuel/energy bills are taking ever larger parts of our budgets. So how do the egg heads in Washington want to address this, they are talking about raising the minimum wage again.
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Thereby rendering more people unemployed… It’s a brilliant plan. It involves a turnip.
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And a hammer? >:)
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And it’s so cunning you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel!
Which, given the lawmakers that spawned it, explains a lot….
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Local guilds? Some training for the members, some assurance of job well done for employers and some support for fellow members?
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Squaring circles? If the circle is maleable – not a problem. [3.14 (pi) x d] / 4 gives you the length of each side. Rearrange the circle into the appropriate length of the sides and you’ve wquared the circle.
Training cats? Also not really a problem for me. You just have to be smarter and meaner than the cat – which may be a problem for some… ;-D
Organizing writers… what kind of organizing?
So it’s all doable… Whether each is worth the effort or not depends on your personal priorities… :-)
Smart Azz? Is someone addressing me? :-o
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Don’t know about any of the others, but cats can at least be trained to take walks on a leash. I have had one who learned, and right now there is one in my neighborhood, see them (owner + cat) around at least once a week. Those walks tend to be a bit slower than with dogs since cats have this tendency to stop, crouch and start staring at something, but still, works.
I did have a couple of instances with mine when I had to spend a longish time standing under a tree with one hand up, trying to coach kitty back down.
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since cats have this tendency to stop, crouch and start staring at something
So cats and a certain toddler I knew share this trait. We would walk a bit. Then she would come to a dead stop. It might be to examine a plant or observe an insect. Sometimes I was not sure what it was that kept her attention. I just knew that until she was good and done she was most reluctant to move on again. At least she didn’t climb trees and refuse to come down. ;-)
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Marshall. Pixel was an outdoor cat and would accompany the kids and I on our walks. Well, Robert stopped to pet every cat and dog on the route, including the ones I thought were dangerous (rolls eyes.) Marshall — is there something as a vocation from birth? His second interest after aerospace is civil engineering, and at three he’d stop to inspect people pouring cement, stoop to see how manholes fitted, and occasionally point out interesting features in constructions, in a fast, voluble, unintelligible “language” (like the kid from Monster’s Inc.) This was at one, (he started walking at eight months) before he decided selective mutism was the way to go… though frankly, at the time it was just me and his brother on these walks, so he might have talked anyway. If he knew how.
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Arghhh! That is not what “squaring the circle” means. The object is to find a finite number of operations which will yield a square with the same area as a given circle. Which is mathematically identical to finding pi is a rational number.
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If you cannot recognize a joke when it thwacks you in the face with a great fishy scent, you probably want to visit blogs other than this one.
Besides, all know that squaring the circle entails convincing said circle to get a crew cut, horn-rim glasses and wear only white button-down oxford shirts and a bow tie.
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Pointlessly bad jokes don’t deserve recognition.
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And yet, all the same, you accorded it recognition.
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RES, I swear, if you bat this one behind the fridge to rot where I can’t reach it, I’ll cover you in catnip sardines.
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This one has a stale and sanctimonious scent to it. I am trying to kick sand over it but suspect it will not suffice.
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cover you in catnip sardines?
Ewww. I would not appreciate that.
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A very nice fan who got to meet my kitties when she and husband came through town, sent me these http://www.amazon.com/Yeowww-Tin-Stinkies-Sardine/dp/B00198RKEG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365130729&sr=8-1&keywords=catnip+sardines they’ve been a source of amusement, and just looking at the tin makes me smile. I have the NICEST fans.
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And here I always thought the easiest way to square a circle was with a froe. Split off the four rounded sides evenly and you are left with a nice square.
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If it’s a large and heavy circle, you might want to use an adze.
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Dear me. As a knitter I know how to handle this one. Dampen your circle. Take it and run for lace blocking pins through an equal number of stitches along the edge of your circle. Now tug and pin down the four corners using your t-square to achieve precise angles. Let dry and enjoy your square.
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…four lace blocking pins…
time to go to bed…
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Good night Gracie! (hugs.)
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when I first started to read that I wondered why you didn’t get the pins before wetting it down, then you wouldn’t have to run for them.
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Well, that would indicate you had the pins closer to hand when inspiration struck than the spray bottle of Leave That Alone!
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Professor Meat at Via Meadia has a GREAT series of essays about people changing the clock back, and one of the interesting things about it is that left and right aside, the newer technologies appear to strongly favor us TANSTAAFL folks, with the removal of all kinds of gatekeepers.
Of course, removing a gatekeeper, for labor or otherwise, doesn’t mean instant success (or even delayed success), but it sure does mean more freedom to try!
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Oh, yes, there was this NINNY at the Atlantic yesterday, linked by insty, complaining that you know, his one mystery hadn’t had instant success. (Rolls eyes.)
It takes WORK whether to break into traditional or to make it in indie. And it stakes STUDYING how to do it. (And apparently volume.)
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Oy! I thought to myself, I should write my Congressman . . . you know how Google always has those generic “We can find the best price for” ads up at the top of the list? They can give a really Bad Impression, depending what you’re looking for! Good Lord, three places offering the best price for Congressman Pete Olson?
Right. My humor for the day. Now I’m going to go bring the problem of multi-state organizations and group insurance to the attention of his staff.
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An honest politician is one who stays bought…
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If all you need is a collective organization to sponsor group insurance rates, plenty of those exist and you can join them. They don’t need to be career-specific. Examples: NRA, NASE (Nat’l Assoc Self-Employed), etc.
On the other hand, the first time that I (newbie writer) realized I could look for and join an SF org and discovered SFWA, and then saw their rules for joining, I had to laugh out loud.
You see, back in the late 90’s, when I was a web-related consultant, I once had a prospect, a potential customer. They were a travel agency in Chicago. They wanted us to build them a website. The subject of email came up in an early conversation, and the owner turned and looked at me earnestly, “I don’t use email. My corporate customers are all accustomed to sending us faxes.” When we tried to reason with her, as experts, nothing penetrated. I waited until I left the building before I cracked up. As clearly as if I had a crystal ball, I could see that little travel agency was not going to be in business in 3 or 4 years.
Same laugh. That a crowd of (theoretically) futurists could navel-gaze to that extent, in the classic way, (“I’m on board, captain, pull up the ladder.”) about an obvious technical and business trend had exactly the same effect on me. I may have had some doubt I could write, but I had no doubt that the rise of indie would become overwhelming, and sooner rather than later.
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If my online sales were 30% of my income, I’d lose half of it! 8^). It would also have to total more than $2000/month. At the rate I’m selling, it would take having 200 novels and 500 short stories out there. I can write fairly fast, but not THAT fast! Maybe by the time I turn 75 or 80. That’s not that far ahead of me, and I have to stay around that long for Timmy. We’ll see…
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Ummmm…. have you considered SFWA as a place to begin? I’m an “associate” member. I pay dues. If I have a legal problem with a publisher, like they sell my stuff but decide they should get to keep all the royalties, IIRC SFWA investigates and maybe takes their butt to court for you (and the other writers who are affected) if necessary. Some large Cons have members only SFWA “suites” with free food, etc. (Kinda like a private club). Might either be what you’re looking for, or something that could be “improved” to be what will be needed in the future. NO sense reinvventing the whell if you dojhn’t have to.
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Michael, uh, I really don’t want to pop your bubble, but do you really think the SFWA does any of that?
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Yep. Seen it happen.
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Ah, Michael, I have bad news for you. I am not here to bag on SFWA but their interest in confronting publishers is far far weaker than you think.
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Oh, they confront ALL the little guys and go after them hammer and tongs. The big guys? Not a peep.
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I’ll just stand back … way back … out of the crossfire. ;-)
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Thus it has always been. The purpose of guilds and unions is not to hammer the consumer but to hammer the competition.
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Sort of depends on who the publisher is. They might also tell you that you’re crazy… i.e. if it’s one of the big six who routinely sell stuff they no longer have rights to, and who no longer send statements.
No, I don’t think SFWA is a place to start. last … fifteen? years I’ve been a member, they didn’t even TRY to do any of the NEEDED things.
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Michael, go do a google search on what SFWA has said authors ought to do with response to the announcement earlier this week that a small publisher wants them to sign off on a sale of assets to another publisher. SFWA has basically endorsed authors accepting a new contract that 1) signs away their rights for the life of copyright, 2) cuts their royalties in half for both print and e books, 3) gives the new owner — if approved — subsidiary rights without recompense, even if those same subsidiary rights were not part of the original contract, 4) allows the new owner to sell their rights to an author’s work to another publisher, without the author’s approval. There’s more. Check out Michael Stackpole’s post on it. Believe me, SFWA is not who I’d want to rep me on anything right now.
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Felgercarb. That’s even worse than I’d originally heard. Add the Harlequin decision and there are going to be a lot of writers reaching for beer tonight.
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Has Harlequin done something new?
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No, just that the judge handed down the initial decision on the validity of the suit over e-book royalties today. Basically, yes, the contracts generated ebtween 1990 – 2004 could be read to cover e-book rights, so the authors don’t have grounds for a class action suit.
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Gah. This is yet another example of why you have an IP attorney vet all contracts.
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It is also where the services of a good professional organization should come into play. There is no reason (strike that — no good reason) for an industry to not have a basic contract, with terms widely recognized by the courts and participants, with the meanings of those terms transparent to aspiring writers. There is every reason for a group ostensibly representing writers to have such a standard contract established and available as a template for those aspiring writers.
Of course, such an industry standard contract would diminish opportunities for publishers to exploit writers (note, however, that few writers induced into signing such a contract are likely expected by publishers to produce anything of sufficient merit to justify such exploitation — this truly is abusing power just because you can.) It would also diminish the opportunities for editors, agents and lawyers to suck a little extra blood from the host. Some people prefer stealing pennies from dead men’s eyes o more challenging crimes.
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Most of the organizations have what they call sample contracts. The problem is these contracts don’t really address most of the issues we face today. Remember, these are the same organizations that generally still look down on e-books and don’t grant you pro sales status for most e-books.
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It is the proper function of such organizations to anticipate and negotiate such industry changes so as to avoid unnecessary conflicts. It isn’t as if the movie studios and television industries haven’t provided ample lessons in the festering nature of such problems.
Why, it is almost as if such arrghanizations do not actually have the interests of their members at heart! Next you will probably try to tell me that agents, like realtors, represent the publishers/sellers rather than the writer/homebuyer.
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Shhhh, you aren’t supposed to say things like that — the truth — in public (VBEG)
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Going off a bit on Harlequin– what kind of complete and utter moron do they have managing their “Luna” line, that did the utter lack of editing on Mercedes Lackey’s The Snow Queen? It’s like they slapped two or three different versions of the story together– a bunch of dead bandits are looted and drug away twice (one in the evening, one in the morning), a character goes from not a local shaman to another village’s shaman to a big time shaman, an inch of ice is melted by a bear’s breath in sub-zero temps, etc.
Come on, it’s a crazy popular fantasy writer doing an homage to Terry Pratchett via a romance series; it should be making money hand over fist, and they can’t bother to do basic “is the story coherent” editing?
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Er… the people who thought logical fantasy Romance was lesbian (one of their early books.) And my character with dead fiance uf was “insufficiently female centered” because she “Was in love with a man.”
Think on it.
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This just made me nauseated—
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I discovered new ways to curse when I got that rejection. Mind you, they later dialed it back (this was their first year. They ASKED me to submit.) BUT
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Yea– I know what you mean– I wouldn’t be able to either.
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….Lesbian?
Pretty-boy slash, I could see, but… LESBIAN?
Who do they think reads this stuff?
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” And my character with dead fiance uf was “insufficiently female centered” because she “Was in love with a man.””
Er… did they ever happen to notice what sold best in their OTHER romance imprints?
Best winning business model, first identify your target audience, then eliminate the ability of 90+% of them to identify with your characters, then…wait, what?
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Gives whole new meaning to “Stackpoling”….
[ http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/MichaelStackpole?from=Main.MichaelStackpole , last paragraph :) ]
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As a completely separate issue – taxes.
When I was active in the tax and acctg bidness, I advised my self-employed people (YOU!) to bank at least (a minimum) 40% of EVERY DOLLAR THAT COMES IN during the year and DO NOT TOUCH IT until after the returns are done and ready to mail. Use a separate account for it so you don’t co-mingle funds and get in the hole. If you can talk to whoever prepares your taxes (you?) figure out exactly how much you need to set aside (as a percentage) for SS/Medicare, Fed Taxes (use your marginal rate), and State taxes (if you have any.)
And if you have to pay your own health insurance premiums, find out what those arewill be, divide that amount by 12 and set aside that much each month also.
You’ll fnd that a huge chunk of your revenue will be going to the set-aside, but at tax and insurance premium time you’ll be happy because you already have the money. And if you can put the set-aside in a credit union and draw interest on it all year… well… you’re just going to be better off and happier.
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Since I’ve got a day job… At what point do I need to treat my writing income like this (prior to 100% of income)? That is, right now it’s just a Schedule C business.
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I’d suggest that you start setting aside with the first dollar you make at writing.
Not sure about the margins these days, but if they haven’t changed, after $400 in Self Employed (SE) income you have to pay FICA (aka SS/Medicare). That would be about 14% +/-. But once you pass the $400 in SE income, you have to pay for all of it – ie from the first dollar. So just set aside 14% from the first dollar and you’re covered.
Your income tax will be at your MARGINAL rate. ie if you make $30,000 at your “other” job, you’ll have to pay income tax on your first dollar of SE income at the rate you have to pay for that last dollar of other-job-income… (If your top Fed tax rate is 25%, then you should put aside 25%. If you are in a lower bracket, you’ll have to figure out where the break between the rates hits you and save at that higher rate after you hit the break.) And don’t forget to set aside for State taxes if your State has them.
I used to set aside 50% of my SE income from the first dollar, no matter what I made at a job, and that way no matter how it comes out at tax time it’s covered. At the end of the year when you do your taxes, if you’ve set aside more than you have to pay… it’s good cause you can get that set of lime green place mats you’ve always wanted with the “surplus.” ;-D
Understand too that with Obummer Nocare, no one knows what you’ll have to pay or not because they haven’t got it all worked out yet. Hummm…. if you want to make sure your Obummer Nocare is paid for, just set aside 138% of every dollar you make and you MIGHT be okay… maybe…
BTW – I LOVE Schedule C businesses!!! Oh my goodness the dedcutions you can have there!!! And the really nice thing about them is it’s all “above the line” – ie if you lose money in your business, then it reduces your taxable income from your day job!!!
Love it!
(Let’s eee… you can count your printer, your paper, your computer, relevent software expense, and if you are marketing yourself at them by being on panels and such, Con’s can be deductable… etc etc etc!!! But BEWARE OF THE DREADED HOBBY TRAP!!! – ie if it’s a business, you have to TREAT it like a business… like keep a regular set of books, issue receipts for income, keep receipts for expenses, etc.)
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Hummmm…. tax consulting on a blog. wonder how much I can charge for that…. ;-D
DERAIL – (Sorry, Ms Hoyt!)
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No complaints here, of course I did my taxes yesterday, so it doesn’t help me. I really need to become incorporated or have some sort of business license, taxes are a real nightmare otherwise, when the biggest portion of my income comes in on Schedule C type work.
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As far as medical/disability goes, I’m not a published writer, but I am a member of one of the old fraternal organizations. We don’t have a doctor anymore, but we have members who remember when we did, and we do still have our benevolent fund.
Perhaps instead of reinventing the wheel, and trying to do it across state lines, participating in the still existing and local organizations would be a logical starting point. It’s often easier to change state laws than national. I know my chapter paid the medical bills a sister without health insurance couldn’t this last winter.
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(I’ve always wanted a duck! (I could see myself settling for a house chicken, but right now, the parrot, cockatiels and parakeet would be jealous.))
Our politicians haven’t realized this yet, because they are exceedingly well educated people, taught in the best labor theory which doesn’t take in account that we’re not all factory workers in the Bronx circa 1920.
*grin* You know, one of the most abused labor forces out there are grad students, but I bet the education community would have a conniption if the grad students unionized.
You’ve nailed the difference between unions and professional organizations and the problems with each. I’ve always said the union’s goal is to keep the current union members employed (the real goal, of course, is to keep the current union leadership in power). (And the need for a union in the first place means the free market has shut down, because the best solution to a bad job is to quit and find a better one.)
A professional organization’s goal is supposed to be about maintaining standards for the profession (and yeah, a problem when barriers to entry are set too high). Maintaining standards makes sense with doctors, engineers and plumbers, but writing? Sorry, not so much – whose standards are we talking about? I could see a minimum dollars in sales, with an associate membership for beginners, that might make sense (and it would bring in more members), but that would affect that *cough* status thing *cough*, wouldn’t it …
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EXACTLY. How do you tell “what is good writing” — I can’t. I have my prejudices, but other people’s are different.
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My wife knows “good writing” – its anything that I won’t read as evidenced by her rejections of my suggestions …
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Simple, if I like it, it is good writing, if I don’t like it, it is not. Anything I haven’t read is unrated, any of those who would like their writing rated can send their writing to me; I accept cash, money orders, cashiers checks, and personal checks, sorry no credit or debit cards accepted. Ratings will be held on those manuscripts sent with personal checks until after the check has cleared. Larger donations increase the likelihood of higher ratings, and blank checks increase it exponentially :)
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If a dozen different readers, with widely varying taste, would ALL throw it against the wall, it’s bad writing. If at least one of them would enjoy it, it’s probably good writing, or at least good enough.
So while it may not be possible to tell what is good and bad writing on one’s own, get enough people to express an opinion and you can start to get some idea. Also, it’s remarkable how closely this approaches the definition of “good writing is what sells” that Sarah gave when we had this discussion a few months ago.
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And having said that, I should qualify my statement about enjoying the book: some people enjoy reading REALLY BAD writing in order to laugh at how bad it is. Examples include the writings of Amanda McKittrick Ros, whose books used to be a favorite of the Inklings, who would hold competitions to see who could read her stuff the longest without laughing. (A tradition later continued at SF cons with The Eye of Argon.) So while enjoying a book doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s good writing, most readers are quite clear on whether they’re enjoying it because it’s good, or because it’s horribly bad.
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There are people who’ve read Atlanta Nights straight through. And even found it helpful for their writing.
“The world is full of bad books written by amateurs. But why settle for the merely regrettable? Atlanta Nights is a bad book written by experts.”[
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Grad students have tried to organize. 1) Can’t get everyone in the same boat because even within the same university, different departments have vastly different benefits/pay/work schedules. 2) Private vs. Public universities. 3) Faculty won’t support it. BTDT and watched it founder ont eh shoals of pay differential. The Female EE PhD candidates making $45,000 plus benefits had nothing in common with history TAs at $8000 without benefits.
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They are also rearranging deck chairs on a sinking ship. Institutions of higher education, partially in response to Obamacare mandates, are already busy cutting the hours of adjunct professors and serving up fewer tenured positions; grad students are in the position of those arriving at a banquet as the buffet is being struck.
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> Grad students have tried to organize. 1) Can’t get everyone in the same boat because even within the same university, different departments have vastly different benefits/pay/work schedules
Grad students can’t organize because 20 times more people want cushy academic jobs than there are jobs out there. Thus the competition is cut-throat. The first grad student who demands his weekends off will glady be clambered over by all the other grad students who see a potential advantage. Sort of like the scene at the end of the World War Z trailer. ;-)
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Not necessarily within the same university, TJIC. The cases I’m most familiar with were the grad students in a single university trying to organize, and the differences between departments were enough to cause problems. I don’t see a PhD in botany fighting with an EE or history or human ecology (aka home ec) PhD for the same slot.
And it’s about 100 times. For the humanities, it is running an average of 100 applications before you get a job, with a few notable exceptions. Most of what grad students want are benefits. We/ they know the pay is going to stink, unless you are a woman in a STEM field or have some other highly marketable quality or skill.
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Talk to Eric Flint. This isn’t a trade union, but it has enough of the same features for his experience to be useful.
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I was in the National Writers’ Union back when it started up in the ’90s. And they actually helped a bunch of freelancers when ZD put out a CD containing articles to which ZD’s predecessors had only bought first NA serial rights. But most of us got, like 1/4 of what we would have gotten for the articles in the first place in settlement. I let my membership lapse after that.
Not sure that a union is the answer, although some form of organization (association) might serve some purposes. I suspect that, for the most part, the economics are stacked against a true union.
M
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I think so too. I think what we need is a “fraternal order” to take care of what nothing else takes care of.
Also, we could make a duck hat a requirement for meetings… :-P
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Intergalactic Order of Fuzzies. Instead of a hat, you’d have to wear beer goggles made to look like big, golden, anime eyes. Oh, and booze would be called “drinko” and eats would be “fusso” with bacon being “hoksu fusso.”
M
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Bacon is totally hoksu fusso. And we could have little symbolic trashcans to dump to signal a “nay” vote. I like this idea…
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And each meeting could start with all reciting my poem “Fuzzy Lumps”!!!
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In honor of Sarah’s son– we could be the order of the Heffalumps. (think Winnie the Pooh)
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Robert’s first short story EVER — at three — was Winnie the Pooh fanfic…
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Cool– ;-)
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As long as it wasn’t Eeyore/Rabbit. Once was enough!
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Giggle. He was three. It was all about magic pebbles.
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Do not forget the ritual denunciation of John Scalzi.
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Fooie! Fooie! Fooie! Hoy!
M
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I never thought I’d want to join a union, but you’ve found my one button and pushed it.
Writers of the world, unite! You’ve nothing to lose, and denunciation of the Gamma Rabbit to gain! ;-)
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I really didn’t mind John Scalzi’s quirks. I’ve enjoyed the Old Man’s War stuff … but I’ve not forgiven him for screwing with H.Beam Piper.
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OMG! a room of Meganekko-moe guys?
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Organizing is an interesting term. It can be very dangerous. Just a few months ago I mentioned something things about my job to my cousin, the United Auto Workers member and son of a UAW member…
A few days later I heard a couple of co-workers mention organizing…
And a month or so later we got word that our company was opening a new call center… in Costa Rica. The two may not have been related, but you never know…
I just know that it’s almost exactly what I predicted would happen if we tried any such thing. (Almost because I had figured on India and not Costa Rica)
Granted, I still have a job, but we’ll see how long that lasts.
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It’s easy to lead cats – open a can a tuna.
Organizing writers? Best find out what their tuna of choice is.
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Salmon, blueberries, and chocolate ;-)
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Oh, leading writers is like leading cats. All you need is food. But that only works at close quarters.
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I have it on good authority that alcohol works better than food.
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One notes that most union violence was directed against the scabs because what it was was a means to keep the outsiders from getting jobs, which is to say, maintain a monopoly with all consequences results.
When the New Deal was passing pro-union laws, the Senators and Representatives on the floor openly described the reason for it: because otherwise blacks would come and take jobs. They can’t do that. Whites are entitled to those jobs and the wages they had come to expect from them.
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N.B. – although it is not explicitly stated, union members are legally permitted to beat up scabs.
I wish I were joking.
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Question – I remember hearing about an Association of Independent Authors group a year or so ago, supposed to be supporting self-publishing authors, does anyone know anything about it?
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Hollywood script writers had a successful strike in 2007:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Writers_Guild_of_America_strike
So, what’s different between script writers and SF writers? Is it the vast amounts of money in Hollywood, maybe? TV writers on strike for a couple of weeks loses $hundreds of millions. SF is a pimple on the ass on the ass of publishing. Who is going to care if a few writers, sales around maybe 5000 copies disappear for a while? Anyone even notice? No leverage, no point in organizing. (And, a certain publisher whose name rhymes with “pain” will always have a vast stable of barely-literate wannabe fanboy “authors” to exploit)
Starman Jones was published in 1953, while Heinlein was still a nominal socialist. I’m wondering if that is an early indication of his eventual morph into a free-market libertarian? Door into Summer was 1956, already a detonation of Keynsianism, and he seems to have completed the change after his trip to the Soviet Union in 1958.
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If you are speaking of Baen, not only don’t they exploit their authors — I KNOW, I WORKED FOR OTHER HOUSES — but you’re on the blog of one of those barely literate — a year short of a phd in literature is barely literate, right guys? — authors.
Smile. You’re on candid camera!
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Well, those of us with three college degrees certainly sneer at that level of literacy … ;-)
‘Course, I’ve been reading nearly every Baen author since Jim Baen started his imprint in the early ’80’s and thereafter led every new publishing innovation in SF/F until his death. I never met Jim but I miss him.
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You know, I was running through my head the Baen authors without advanced degrees. I think — THINK — there are two but I’ve never asked them, so I might be wrong. We might lead the field in doctorates… (And eventually I’ll finish mine. er… when the kids leave the house.)
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Well, you know, there is one thing common to a lot of other Baen authors that should bring shame to Jim, were he still alive. In fact, I doubt anyone would be of the courage to say it out loud near his grave.
A lot of them are/were lawyers. Embarrassing really.
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I think Jim, blessed be his memory, would view saving intelligent persons from the shame of a life of lawyerdom with the same zeal as that with which most missionaries approach the salvation of the souls of prostitutes.
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They don’t even make them wear scarlet “L”s or anything, right?
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Usually a bit late for our souls …quite shopworn you know.
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You don’t have a PhD? I’m SHOCKED!!! SHOCKED, I say… why, I never KNEW!!! (show-off! :-b)
I have a BS – in Acctg. NOTHING in writing except a fine appreciation of poorly written headlines, signs, and want ads…
“Families Youngest Wins Calf Contest”
“Loading Zone – Parking fifteen minutes only with flashers”
“Wanted – Concrete Laborers”
And of course a REALLY GREAT novella called “Hamster Dan” – BUT it! You’ll LIKE it! (Dan is a FINE fellow!!!) :-D
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OR alternatively BUY it!!!
(Sheesh… See? Can’t even do a promo right. :-( )
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Michael, I am not Sarah and she can tell me to blow it out my ear, but speaking for myself, I am really getting tired of the constant self-promotion you are doing on her blog. Many of us who comment here are authors but we don’t promote our work here without her permission. Even then, we only do it once in awhile. So, please, stop.
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When you only know one song, you sing it wherever you go. At the bank. At the grocery store. While the car’s getting serviced. I’m not nasty – really. I’m just clueless.
Message recieved.
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I had BS, but I had to wipe it off my shoe. (Runs)
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I DON’T mean you. They do manage to find a few good ones. But, there is a lot of unmitigated crap about exploding space ships. Bad dialog, hackneyed plots, strange punctuation. Photoshopped cover art of people in uniforms. Awful sf used to be confined to second and third tier pulps. These days it comes out in hard cover.
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Oh, you read Spoor? You poor thing.
Honestly every house has a collection of unmitigated crap. There’s the “world would be wonderful if women ran it” crap, the “all men are evil exploitative bastards” crap (rather an overlapping set here), the “today’s PC standards will be the future’s assumed morality” crap, and that’s just a fraction of the crap the others produce.
Of course, this assumes that you actually read Baen books and don’t just assume the rather… ahem… distinctive cover art means the contents must be shit.
At least Baen is still HIRING artists, not just photoshopping open source materials the way certain other publishers with deeper pockets have been doing.
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Spoor has his moments. As do we all.
And that was the thing. The “photoshopped covers” made me go “WHAT?”
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I guess he does. I just haven’t seen any of the good ones in a long time. Hopefully I manage to keep most of my bad ones safely hidden.
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In other words, you just don’t like it.
Fair enough, move along, plenty of other imprints out there. Head over to Tor. Lots of …
Oh wait, exploding spaceships, hackneyd plots, bad dialog.
And that’s just their Web site…
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Not in any universe I have inhabited. I’ve been reading SF for over forty years, including a significant portion of that which was published since Gernsback invented the genre, and have seen no evidence that Sturgeon’s Law hasn’t always applied.
When you grow up you will learn that “I do not like” and “Is bad writing” are not synonymous terms. You may even learn that gratuitous insulting of third parties enhances neither gravitas nor credibility.
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Why is he dissing pulp SF? I remember the fun of reading E. E. “doc” Smith–
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Any recommendations? I just started Triplanetary and I’m loving it.
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Keep in mind that Triplanetary andFirst Lensman were written after the main body of the series, of which Galactic Patrol was the first written. Vortex Blaster was a sidebar novel, not in the main stream of the series and should probably be read after the rest of the series. Posthumous collaborations and series extensions are a read at your own risk matter.
The Skylark series should delight you equally with the Lensmen.
Heinlein wrote a moving salute to Smith, published, IIRC, in Expanded Universe — I am confident of correction if in error.
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And if anyone is not reading Cordwainer Smith, he’s missing a treat.
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It’s the only treat I can appreciate when I’m not cranching.
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I’m still trying to figure out the proper pronunciation of C’Mell.
I got the really nice hardcover collection of his shorts (The Rediscovery of Man) and Norstrilia. There’s nothing like it.
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K-mell. It’s short for Cat. (Yes, I realize this violates All Rules About Apostrophes in Proper Name For Fantastic Literature. Nevertheless, Smith actually stuck it in to indicate a shortening.)
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I really like the Lensman and Skylark series, but yes, do keep in mind the caveats RES pointed out. After reading First Lensman, you will have a little bit of a shock reading Galactic Patrol. Spacehounds of IPC is somewhat loosely related to that series, set before the actual “Triplanetary” novella in the book (You do have the one that is, like, 6 stories in one book, right?).
Some people don’t like one of the series he started, with collaboration, the Family D’Alembert series, but I enjoyed them. I DO NOT recommend the books written in the Lensman universe by a guy named David Kyle. They kind of throw out some of the basic fundamentals of the Lensman series.
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Oh, one other thing – the typesetters were apparently drunk while setting up some of Doc Smith’s books. There are (just a few, but enough to remember) places where you are reading along and go, “WTH??!?, then, if you look carefully, you will find that sentences were swapped in their order, but you can figure out what the real sequence was supposed to be if you try.
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I liked the D’Alembert stories, too. I wish there were more of them.
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are they out of copyright? ;)
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Probably not. Some of them were published after he died, if I remember correctly.
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The D’Alembert stories were really Stephen Goldin’s work “based” on Doc Smith. And published in ’70’s and ’80’s.
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Ah well. One sighs.
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Interestingly, Stephen Goldin redid the series under his name alone. He did a major rewrite of the first book to remove the elements from the Smith story that he expanded into the book. In the following books, he sticks closely to the D’Alembert stories he wrote. This new series is called the Tsar Wars series. I think it is only available in e-format. Oh, some of the D’Alembert books have been released in eformat.
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That’s what I thought…
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Thanks for all the recommendations. My Kindle’s now overflowing.
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If you haven’t already discovered Jack Williamson, his Legion of Space books are classic space opera, The Humanoids* is, along with Heinlein’s The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress essential libertarian reading, and his SeeTee books are the earliest extended discussion of ContraTerrene matter (antimatter) and asteroid mining of which I know.
First published in 1928 and still winning Hugos in 2001, Williamson’s career in many ways epitomized the growth of SF as a genre. In 1976 he was selected as the Science Fiction Writers of America’s second Grand Master of Science Fiction, after Robert Heinlein.
*Built upon his novella, With Folded Hands…
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Murray (Leincaster? spelling may be wrong) His MedShip stories are fun.
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Murray Leinster. And I second the recommendation.
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Murray Leinster is classic! On the medical SF, I also like James White’s Sector General hospital stories.
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Endorsed.
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In the molehill’s defense, ALL SF used to be confined to second and third tier pulps. That is one reason all professional SF writers ought make obeisance to RAH’s legacy, whether they approve of him or not.
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And Clifford Simak! And A.E. Van Vogt. And… but my dea’ they weren’t litewawy.
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UGH– had my fill of litewawy when working on my BA in English Lit.
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Now, now, don’t dis the BA in English — why, after grinding through papers about books I either didn’t care about or actively loathed, it made it much easier to sit down and write a book I did enjoy! One of those “what does not kill me makes me stronger” kinds of things.
Mind, and then there was the Writing Bad Flannery O’Connor Immitations class. In that case, what does not kill me inspires me to tiny acts of revenge. See also GURPS IOU. >:)
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Well I did like Flannery O’conner (some of her grotesque stories), but it might have been because she had lupus and I have a Vasculitis disease. I can see the disease in her stories. ;-) Other than that– except for Shakespeare, I had fun in those, the rest were not so fun.
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IIRC, F. O’Conner was a devout Catholic and thus NOT inclined to serve grey goo to her guests. Having a moral compass that point True North helps keep you from wandering the stygian primeval gloom of the Forest of Despair*.
*Write your own #@&*! description; I only stopped in for a quick one before paying call on my parents. Probably best to go for Lovecraft or perhaps Bloch.
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I like Flannery O’Connor — I wrote my master thesis on her. “BAD Flannery O’Connor” is the operative, I think. Professors don’t get the symbolism (mine was flabbergasted till I explained) and so to them it’s dark twisted and gray gooey. Pfui.
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YES– with chronic diseases you can easily wander into the forests of despair. I think there was some hope there– I have to admit that the shock of the lady pulling off her leg was great. (in one of her stories). ;-) It would be something I would do.
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YES. You’re right. Took me a while to DARE write the books I wanted, but when I dared, it was all there — just do the opposite of what my professors wanted.
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The first novel I started (I might resurrect and rewrite) started out with the 19th century style of literary loneliness– I would take out the literary and turn it to story (the story might be good actually)… It has a Willa Carther (sp) feel to it.
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Willa Cather is considered literary? Oh dear, I am glad that no one told me this sooner. I enjoyed both Shadows On The Rock and Death Comes for the Archbishop. ;-)
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YEP– although she is pretty good–
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Ours was “writing bad Jorge Luis Borges’ imitations.” Local color, I guess.
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I’ll have to give Simak another chance, I suppose. I read “The World Inside”, and it nearly went against the wall. Haven’t read anything from him since.
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Good heavens — try City and Way Station and Out Of Their Minds and They Walked like Men
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I second “Way Station”! One of the best Sci-fi/Alternate world books on the market — if you can find it. I have a copy I re-read from time to time.
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So I guess you’re talking about Weber and Drake, huh? Or covers by artists like Mattingly. Yeah, I’m sure he photoshops his covers. I think Pat’s right. You haven’t learned the difference between you “don’t like” and “it’s not good”. Now I’m going to go get the popcorn and wait for the show. There are Baen fans who are much more vocal in their defense of the company, their books and their authors than am I.
And, btw, that strange punctuation you’re complaining about, that happens because Baen does copy edit and proof their books and they do have a style guide they go by. They don’t waffle with punctuation every time some educator decides it’s time to change a rule just because it hasn’t been done for awhile.
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They use the WRONG bloody style book in my opinion. AP STYLE UBER ALLES!! But at least they HAVE one, which is more than can be said of MOST publishers.
*The Kilted Coon heads off in search of Oxford commas to kill*
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Actually, I prefer the one they use. I’ve been burned too many times by folks who change their guides every time the Chicago Manual of Style reissues with some minor change that doesn’t really matter.
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“But, there is a lot of unmitigated crap about exploding space ships. Bad dialog, hackneyed plots, strange punctuation. ”
But enough about Ace …
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Ah, I always love it when trolls who don’t have the cajones to use their own names come onto a blog to diss not only the blog author, but that author’s “employer” and fans. Add that the “source” used to support one of your so-called arguments is the oh so reliable Wikipedia and your credibility just goes up and up. Go back to wherever you came from. Read a book from the publisher you are dissing and then compare the quality of editing, etc., in it to that you can find from your darling Big Six publishers — and I assure you the quality from the one you mock will be much better, especially if you look at mid-list authors who are seen as throw-aways by the Big Six — and then stop believing everything you read on Wiki and everything that comes out of Hollywood.
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Hey, they’re not left wing, so they must be illiterate. Mind you, they publish ALL political beliefs, including Eric Flint who IS a card-carrying communist, but they don’t publish ONLY left wing, so, of course, they and their authors must be ignorant rednecks who are ALSO fiendish, wealthy capitalists who manipulate everything in society AND live in mobile home mansions and listen to country (true, I just discovered a new gay country band!) and go to the symphony and…
Anyway, anyone got my evil villain mustache? The glue unstuck and it came off, and I don’t have anything to twirl while being a fiendish evil conservative who wants to upend current social order!
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Hummmm…. I keep thinking I was on a “Military SF” panel once with Mr Flint… IF it was him, he didn’t say much.
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Just because your a communist doesn’t mean you can’t write mil-sf, after all look around, the communist countries tend to get a lot more militaristic than the capitalist ones.
That being said to the best of my knowledge ALL the military scifi that Flint has written has been coauthored with another mil-sf author; with the exception of Weber always one who has served in a war.
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IIRC, Eric has said that he’s not interested in writing Mil-SF. By the way, that’s one of the reasons that he wasn’t interested in writing a sequel to _Mother Of Demons_. Basically, as of the end of it, the next logical step was a “War Story”.
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Beliasurius (to lazy to look up the proper spelling right now) and the Crown of Slaves books aren’t mil-SF? Admittedly he doesn’t do STRAIGHT mil-SF like Kratman and sometimes Drake do, but I would classify those above as, ‘close enough for the girls I go with.’ and some of the 1632 books and those he has written with Dave Freer while not mil-SF kind of skirt the edges.
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They were having too much fun with Belisaurius, so it didn’t really feel like mil-sf to me. Which reminds me, it’s time to pull out An Oblique Approach again.
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“(And, a certain publisher whose name rhymes with “pain” will always have a vast stable of barely-literate wannabe fanboy “authors” to exploit)”
That’s very odd because “pain” does not rhyme with “Random House” at all in English … nor “Simon & Shuster” really.
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Or Berkley. Berkley particularly. It FITS, it just doesn’t rhyme. Perhaps he speaks an arcane dialect?
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What is it with things named Berkley? Does the name carry a curse of insanity?
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It’s a road to pain.
It really is– that’s the route to Madigan Medical hospital!
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Nor McMillan, Penguin or any of the others I can name ;-)
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I still prefer the name “Random Penguin” as the new name for that merger. It fits their “audience” to a Tee. I’ll admit that I don’t have a degree. That alone isn’t grounds for referring to me as “illiterate”. I’ve done technical work, software testing (smiling at Kate), and “soft-science” stuff. I will also admit that there is a large body of total cr*p that has been published, by just about every publisher that’s ever existed. Even Homer had his off-days.
That’s not only irrelevant, it’s asinine. The only purpose of writing books is for them to be read. There is a vast audience for English-language books, one that reaches far beyond the United States, or even the former English colonies. The tastes of that audience varies tremendously — what some like is far different from what others might enjoy. ANYTHING WRITTEN can probably find a niche, and satisfy someone’s literary need, even if it’s poorly written, has a barely-recognizable plotline, and cardboard characters. It would be better, and probably attract more readers, if it were well-written, had a tight plot, had believable characters and understandable behavior. You can see this happen in Robert Heinlein’s career — his early stories aren’t as good as his later ones. It’s happened to other writers, as well — I could list a hundred names.
The big-name publishers used to understand this, and would take on a writer and work with him, mentor him, and help him develop his craft. The only one that even comes CLOSE to doing that now is Baen, and even they aren’t as open to it as they once were. I personally am thankful for Sarah’s website, and for what she writes at Mad Genius Club in helping all of us fledglings she’s taken under her wings, and for what she’s done to enhance the craft.
BTW, mr molehill, I spent a delightful three hours in the presence of Mr. Heinlein and his wife as we shared a flight from Colorado Springs to Dallas in 1964. He was an extremely nice man, and a joy to listen to.
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I will point out that neither Mark Twain nor Louis L’amour held a degree, but of course they were second or third tier pulp writers also. One of my all time favorite nonfiction books was written by a man who was illiterate and could barely write his own name. This was written before modern dictation software and he ‘wrote’ by talking to a tape recorder and then having someone else type it out. He wrote numerous magazine articles as well as a book by this method, he would simply record the article, and then send the tape to the magazine. Being literate or illiterate has ZERO effect on a persons storytelling capabilities.
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Twain said that William Dean Howells was the better writer. Which one is most remembered today?
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Ah, well, if I wanted literacy, I guess I should have stuck with Little, Brown as a source of lit-a-chur.
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NOR does it rhyme with Antebellum Mansion!!! Wow! Who knew???
:-D
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Doesn’t rhyme with TOR either. What’s yer point?
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Maybe that Hydra, which was recently condemned by the SFWA for exploiting writers in the contractual terms, isn’t a Baen imprint, but Random House? Or that the entire industry treats writers as an interchangeable product that’s easily replaceable because there’s more newbies willing to sign away their rights for the validation of traditional publishing and getting poor value on the exchange?
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And that Baen gave me a chance when “by the numbers” they shouldn’t have, and when the first — terrible, but Jim WAS literally dying of a stroke — cover sank the book, they said “Our bad. Ignore those terrible numbers”
I LITERALLY can’t imagine another house doing that.
In fact, I was dropped by a house because my book got punted from their list — I mean it wasn’t even in their catalog that month — came out a month after nine eleven, had nothing on the spine, not even “fiction” and yet, inexplicably… failed to sell. And this was my fault.
I was dropped from another house because three paperbacks dropped two months apart with no publicity supposedly didn’t sell — which of course must be my fault. (Fact said paperbacks were STILL on shelves last year, years after coming out? Ignore that.)
Etc.
BUT Baen said “our bad” and kept buying. Also, Baen sent me a check (Jim actually, bless him) when I LITERALLY would have missed mortgage for two months otherwise and said “Don’t worry about it. You’ll write something for us worth that, sometime.”
Yeah, horribly exploitative house. THAT is why after epic fight and getting away from other houses I’m still working for them and WILL as long as they want me. I MUST be a masochist, right?
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I had to walk away before excluding Baen from my last sentence, or I think I would have started ranting. As it was, I think I came too close to being an ungracious guest. My apologies, Sarah.
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You did not. I understood you were excluding Baen. I just wanted to make it VERY clear how different Baen is, and how far from exploitative.
That house which is right now our biggest remaining investment/savings depository and which I’m afraid of losing if Dan loses his job? I’d have lost it nine years ago, if Jim Baen hadn’t sent a check at us, allowing us to pay the double mortgages till buyers closed on last house. This is the type of debt you don’t pay. You don’t pay EVER. And the type of thing I can’t imagine anyone else in the field doing for a midlist author with ONE unspectacularly selling book with them.
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What I should have answered to the molehill’s first post, but you guys wouldn’t get till now, that you have context is this:
“You come here on my blog. Disrespecting my family.”Sorry about sounding so hoarse. Something in my throat (grin.)
Now in context, you guys will get it.
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I would like to extend my personal invitation to molehole to attend any Southeastern con where Toni does her Baen artwork pitch. He could expound at length on the inadequacies of Baen cover art…briefly.
I would also offer my services to help move the body.
Note to self: bring the wet/dry shop vac and many large ziplocks.
As for the snarky comments about quality, has Sturgeon’s Law truly been lost in the mists of time? Or for that matter, that Willie the Shake’s output was intended to slake the lust for sex and violence of the unwashed masses.
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Thank you.
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The Madrinha stands looking out the window. “This Molehill concern…” she pauses, then turns to look at Amanda. “Give this to, uh, Kitteh-Dragon. Tell her I want her to use reliable people, people who aren’t going to be carried away. After all, we’re not savage photoshopping illiterates, in spite of what this Molehill thinks.” Dona Hoyt turns back to the window. “And for heaven’s sake keep SPQR and RES out of this. Who knows what those maniacs would end up doing.”
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Hahahahahahahahaha. Silly FlyingMike, I make SPQR and RES look tame. The only one of the group who scares me is Kate. Put the two of us together to deal with a “problem” and you don’t even need the shopvac. There is nothing left the problem. Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
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LOL. YES!!! Exactly.
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Maniac? Maniac? I will have you know that I commit violence in only the most controlled of circumstances. And unattributable ones.
Maniac … sheesh. Oops, didn’t mean to flash the .45.
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Maniac? Moi? You say that like it is a bad thing, rather than the only sane response to a world gone mad.
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Rumors that I resemble Elisha Cook Jr are a vile calumny.
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Rumors that when I smile I resemble Charles Manson are unfounded. Nobody has seen me smile.
Well, nobody living …
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I believe the bench mark may well be Richard Widmark pushing granny’s wheel chair. I suspect that you have not reached that one.
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And the uh … little scar there on your forehead, RES? An explanation?
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Childhood incident, when I was two. There is no evidence supporting allegations I head-butted a pit bull. No witnesses. At least, none living …
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And that explains its … unique … shape how?
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As is implicit in earlier comments, nobody knows.
Nobody living …
Anything my brother Mortimer asserts is unprovable and unverifiable. As you can see, he is quite … unreliable.
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Sarah, the molehill would miss the point if you impaled him on it….
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After 9/11, they also organized to make sure that EVERY SINGLE AMERICAN SHIP had a library, even if it consisted of a box of books in the room that the chaplain used once a month when he could visit the ship.
They gave new books, and paid to ship donated ones, and did so generously.
It seems that folks remember– I got the second-to-last copy of “A Few Good Men” at the BX today.
But, hey, that’s just because military iz stooopud, right? Clearly a group with 100% literacy can’t be trusted to choose good books. It’s obvious, they’ve got a huge selection of Baen.
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This. At least Nathan got my point.
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If publishers had exclusivity contracts with an author’s union and all their other union employees walked in sympathy, fiction writers’ strikes might carry some weight. Don’t hold your breath.
Odd that you bring up the subject of “pimple on the ass” while denigrating not only an entire genre of fiction, but the one publisher, in particular, which has always managed to treat its authors decently. You, however, aren’t even up to ‘pimple’. You are a classic representation of genital warts mutating into something resembling a hominid. Beneath contempt, and utterly devoid of intelligence, you still impress yourself with your imagined wit. Begone. You are making the area around you unclean by your being.
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Ouch, kitteh got claws.
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And really should post a spew warning prior to unloading like that…
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*bows towards the Kitteh-Dragon* I’m not worthy, I’m not worthy.
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I’ve known drill instructors who would be honored to take lessons from the Kitteh …
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Have you noticed the trend toward “unscripted” television, aka “reality” shows? Add in the increase in American Idol-type shows (So you think you can dance/sing/dive/cook) and you see the industry’s response to uppity scriptwriters.
I lack sufficient interest to do the math, but if you graph the weekly #hours of scripted network programs over the last decade I have no doubt which way the line slopes, and scriptwriters, it slopes for you. Add another element factoring in the viewer eyeballs and I expect the slope gets even worse.
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Exactly, the whole reality show craze can be ascribed to Hollywood TV production putting script writers in their place. And viewers lap that dreck up sadly.
Except “Top Shot” of course, which is brilliant TV.
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I neglected to acknowledge the CW programs targeted at the bird-watcher community, America’s Got Tits, Wrens and Finches. Some mighty fine writing there, boyo.
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OK, wallabies should not have that much fun making me spit up my afternoon coffee.
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Someone stole my “LIKE” button!!! Dangit!
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In fairness, the CW oeurvre seems to rely more on the presentation of abs, male and female. I would not be surprised to learn their budget line item for personal trainers exceeded the one for writers (heck, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn they budgeted more for eye shadow than for writers.)
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It’s my understanding the whole “unscripted” thing really was actually triggered by the 2007 writers strike – “successful” as it may have been from the POV of the writers union in terms of the settlement contract changes, the producers need to develop and deliver content during the strike while avoiding any prohibited-by-strike “writer” work directly drove the greenlighting of the first big hit of the “unscripted” reality TV genre – there is a reason “Survivor” was greenlighted (i.e. funded) in 2007.
And yes, “Cops” was around already, but not in network prime time.
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Um, Survivor has been around since 2000. Hell, Doctor Who did a terrible episode sending up ‘reality TV’ in 2005. (The one thing that saved it from utter awfulosity – just barely – was the ‘Anne-Droid’, voiced by Anne Robinson, which disintegrated contestants on the far-future version of Weakest Link.)
Not that the Pyrrhic victory of 2007 didn’t accelerate the trend, mind you. But the trend was well in evidence years before that.
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Actually Hollywood writers were on strike when I was at the workshop in Oregon which I THINK was in 98.
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Oops, that is right, I was incorrect in my timing – it was a previous writers strike that got the ball rolling. I was scratching my head when what I found only partially lined up with what I remembered, and decided to go with what I could document.
I do know that one of the writers strikes is what drove the first greenlights on reality TV – I’ve talked to folks who were in those meetings.
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But who watches that crap? Hummm… come to think if it, who watches the scripted crap? eh… back to my zen-like contemplation of the tax folders that should be open and the numbers should be jumping into the software…. but aren’t. (Maybe the program needs an update?)
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I wonder if that’s one of the reasons that people are flocking to netflix and hulu and similar – that they’re just displaying the same “leaving the market” that publishing’s seen since they started shoving unwanted message down the distribution channel?
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A lot of it. Dan and I spent a delightful month watching all the free Columbo we could find. Then we ran out.
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That and they are cheaper than paying for premium channels on cable/satellite.
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It’s nice to see that a new chew-toy has been dropped in our play-pen. I think one of you tossed the last one behind the credenza.
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I know. RES hid the remains of the last one behind the fridge and I can’t move the fridge.
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Don’t worry; just toss a catnip sardine back there and one of the cats will drag it out!
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Catnip sardines… Miranda was playing with one today. Made me smile :)
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Dorothy, there are some things not even a CAT will touch… 8^) Any chew-toy that’s been behind the fridge for more than three days can be filed in that folder.
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They don’t touch spoiled meat. Just try to bury it.
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What makes you think there’s meat on that one after we finished? All that’s left is boneheaded stupidity (denser than rock, that), and shreds of mindlessly mouthed platitudes and worldview.
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Well, old bones don’t seem to interest them either. That’s a dog thing. So you would just see them sniffing disdainfully and perhaps take a few attempts to bury the disgusting thing, but you probably would not be able to trick them to dragging anything anywhere, catnip sardines or no catnip sardines. They leave that job to us. So Sarah is probably stuck with the one behind the fridge until she gets some non-cat help.
I’m a bit far, but I did run across this interesting book about how to create magical entities and slaves, er, helpers, a while ago…? (Seriously, there really are books about that, as well as how to raise demons and so on. I have a few. For story research purposes. I’m not accomplished enough a mage to dare try any of that sh*t myself :))
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Magical entities– now that is something I would want to know for my stories. ;-) No, I wouldn’t raise one myself.. I am a little smarter than that lol
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Well, I can give you a Cliffsnotes version if you get in touch by email.
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Sure– you can contact me at cynbagley (at) hotmail dot com — Thanks– it will be very interesting ;-)
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It’s going to show in a story somewhere, isn’t it?
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Wasn’t that the litawawy cwitic that came in here and tried to put down Sarah? I think the last we heard from her, she was heading East to become a nun.
In Afghanistan.
It was safer.
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So… what hole do they did barely literate trolling shills out of, to send forth and insult the folks that actually publish stuff folks want to buy– and pay their authors?
Or do you pay them for the chance to be an idiot?
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“Hollywood script writers had a successful strike in 2007:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Writers_Guild_of_America_strike “.
Why am I hearing people singing “Canada On Strike”? [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_on_Strike ] >;)
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I close my eyes
Only for a moment and the moment’s gone
All my dreams
Pass before my eyes a curiosity
Dust in the wind
All they are is dust in the wind
Kansas
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I’m still trying to process Mur Lafferty nominated for the Campbell as a “new” writer. The woman’s been a pro for at least ten years, as I recall, besides running a podcast about writing.
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You and several others have mentioned that the problem is that there isn’t a lot of perceived need for yet another group, but I think the talking about it kind of shows what a community could offer:
Moral support
writing advice (like capitalize your bullet points)
editing resources (style sheets, volunteer readers, editors)
indie and e-book publishing information and support
promotion help (either advice or combine to promote)
cover and art resources
acting as a a base to negotiate with the big publishers when they want to buy a book or series
Pod-casting and books-on-tape advice, techniques and suggestions for voice talent
Tax and business advice
and then there is the thing with suggesting attorneys and such.
and like any professional org, you can offer webinars, online courses and limited time- and subject-chat rooms.
I don’t know about the medical other than putting out a plea to members for donations, but it is better than being out there alone.
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I would add one thing to that — distributed research. NO ONE has all the research books, but between us we have most of them, and quite a bit of historical knowledge. I needed something for a novel I’m writing, and could NOT remember for the life of me. A quick email to Tom Kratmann gave me what I needed (Thank you, sir!).
Actually, we have the kind of community suggested among most of the commenters on this site — at least the regulars. There are links on Sarah’s sidebar to quite a few other places where the struggling author can go for even more (there’s no link to Mad Genius Club, however!). I don’t think it would take much to create an informal group. Anything formal might be difficult — it’s so darned hard to organize cats and odds.
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Btw, my translation of the first chunk of Beatus’ Commentary on the Apocalypse went live on Amazon last night. So if you want to learn naughty Scriptural jokes about the Church, complaints about lazy bishops, dragon and horse colors, the seven kinds of Christian and why you should respect medieval rednecks, strange rumors about St. John, and why the Church is like Noah’s Ark, you should read the book!
Commentary on the Apocalypse: Part 1 – From Christ with Love by St. Beatus of Liebana. Translated by M.S. O’Brien (so as not to be confused with the Doctor Who actress/mystery writer Maureen O’Brien).
Alas, there are no illustrations, but my suburbanbanshee.wordpress.com site links to the fully digitized Silos Apocalypse and Facundus Codex versions of the book, which have enough illos for anybody.
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Um, I forgot to close my link.
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well, and this will be my treat when I’m done with the three times stupid internet redesign stuff.
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Hmmm, It seems that the publishing business is almost as bad as the music business. :D
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I do have to wonder what the publishing equivalent to the “Gig From Hell” is…
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Find me at a bar, sometimes, and I’ll tell you and name names. But not on public record ;)
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I’ve got a story from an acquaintance who ghosted a book by a Very Well Known bestselling author that qualified.
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In the comic strip biz the ultimate “Gig from Hell” may have been working for Ham Fisher, “the only man ever convicted of ‘conduct unbecoming a cartoonist’ ” — at least according to Al Capp:
There is a famous story about a comic strip creator who was found to be employing, unbeknownst to one another, ghosts to do the writing, backgrounds and characters while doing nothing on the strip himself except cash the checks. That may have been Ham Fisher, although I will continue to look into it.
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Actually, that describes the bulk of syndicated cartoonists for the last half century really.
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The story I am trying to find was of a cartoonist abusing the practice so egregiously as to merit condemnation within the field. Each assistant was given the impression that he was the only assistant. IIRC, it was supposedly the basis for a story in one of the Warren horror mags back when Archie Goodwin (no, Sarah, not that one*) and Frank Frazetta were working for Jim Warren.
*According to Wikipedia,
Just wanted to confirm you are on the money about trying to write while taking meds for cancer treatment. Some treatment is for shorter terms than others, but there is still other meds for pain and such that have these wonderful side effects and can go on longer than a six week chemo cycle. I’m not able to work right now, and some would think this would be a great opportunity to pursue my writing career. My chemo is daily pills that are long term treatment, along with pain killers I’ve been on some sort of chemo pill for the last 2.5 years. Writing? Sorry, I don’t have the consistant concentration that would allow me to write well. (Heck, I reread my comments usually three times before I post to blogs or facebook to make sure I am coherent.) I’m impressed by people like Jay Lake who manage to keep writing brilliant stories while fighting cancer.
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I remember Ken during treatment…
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I write during chemo, but my chemo is oral and not the heavy dosage that someone gets when they are on cancer. Still, I get tired and sometimes my mind does not finish what it should. I get infections too– and other things. ;-) Apologies around to everyone– who is waiting for on of my novels.
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Hi Sarah,
There is an organisation for freelancers in the UK called the Professional Contractors Group. It was started as a tax pressure group when the government tried to tax freelancers as if they were employees, and it has developed into an organisation which provides a range of services to people who don’t have an employer. This includes reasonably-priced insurance of various types, access to tax and legal expertise, lobbying of government and major companies, and lots of mutual support amongst the membership. Check out its website http://www.pcg.org.uk Most of the members are in IT or engineering, but that’s just because those are the industries with lots of freelancers.
PCG can go to the UK’s oil industry centre (Aberdeen) and talk to the major companies, and say “The way you deal with your freelancers is not doing you any good and not doing them any good either. Here’s how to do it better…” Maybe it makes a difference, maybe not, but no-one gets blacklisted, and if nothing changes it can be rinse and repeat in 12 months time. Would that be useful for authors versus publishers ?
I am sure if you want to get something similar to PCG going in the US they will give you all the advice you can handle. If not email me, I know them personally.
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nd in those days also the union people were actual works (not operatives who don’t care if the company dies – see, twinkie.) so people could agree on a mutually agreeable compromise.
…OH.
Excuse me, must clean up after the epiphany.
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