Posts Tagged ‘books’

One thing about the Internet: the shelf space is endless. And authors are starting to take note. The e-book site Fictionwise has long been bringing out older and out-of-print works by popular authors and releasing them as ebooks, and now Book View Cafe is expanding that idea into an entire Web site.

Book View Cafe is a consortium of over twenty professional authors with extensive publishing credits in the print world. The Internet is giving us an opportunity to make our out-of-print, experimental, or otherwise unavailable work available to you. Every day, new content available nowhere else will be served up on Book View Cafe: short stories, flash fiction, poetry, episodes of serialized novels, and maybe even a podcast now and then. The content will be archived and available after the posting date by visiting the author's bookshelf.

Authors so far include: Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, Brenda Clough, Kate Daniel, Laura Anne Gilman, Christie Golden, Anne Harris, Sylvia Kelso, Katharine Eliska Kimbriel, Sue Lange, Ursula K. Le Guin, Rebecca Lickiss, Vonda N. McIntyre, Nancy Jane Moore, Pati Nagle, Darcy Pattison, Irene Radford, Madeleine Robins, Amy Sterling, Jennifer Stevenson, Susan Wright and Sarah Zettel.

It's not my preferred way to read a book, granted. Each chapter has its own page so you have to keep scrolling and clicking, a method usually performed to increase page and advertising views but as there is no advertising on the site (yet?) it seems needlessly annoying. Still, it's a great way to get more material from favorite authors or browse through the works of authors you've always wanted to try. Most everything there is free, although there will be expanded or limited edition works available shortly for a fee.

Ever read movie scripts? I love 'em. Whether you've seen the movie or not, the scripts give you a glimpse into the movie-making process by letting you see what was on the paper before the director and actors got hold of it. It can be fascinating to see how much of a character's personality came from the script and how much came from the actor. Sometimes you can even get "deleted scenes" by finding passages in the script that were never used, or earlier versions than the ones that were filmed that might provide some extra plot or backstory.

There are plenty of places to find scripts online, although the legality of downloading them may be somewhat questionable (Google "movie scripts" to find bunches of them if that doesn't bother you). But many screenwriters post copies on their own Web sites  — try John August ("The Nines," "Go," "Big Fish") for example, or Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott ("Godzilla," "The Mask of Zorro," the Pirates of the Caribbean movies) — and the studios themselves post scripts of movies they wish to have considered for Academy Awards, starting right about… now.

Head to Disney for "Wall-E," Warner Brothers for "The Dark Knight," Universal for "Changeling" and "Frost/Nixon," and Paramount for "The Duchess" and "Defiance." More to come as we get closer to awards time.

Do you read movie scripts? Let us know!

I try to write, I really do. And most times I succeed. But I spend plenty of time "researching," wandering aimlessly around the Web, rearranging the papers on my desk, or just staring aimlessly out my window as my deadlines loom over me like the last scenes of a monster movie. For people like me, now our browsers can use the principles of operant conditioning and jolt us out of our laziness.

"Write or Die" from Dr. Wicked's Writing Lab is a text window you open up in your Web browser that pays attention to see if you're typing. You enter your word goal, a time goal, or both, and select a mode of punishment. Once you begin typing the dire consequences are activated. If you stop typing – say, to go hit Wikipedia for a fact or AintItCool because you're bored – each mode delivers increasingly horrible punishments. Gentle mode blinks a reasonably polite reminder at you to get back to work already. Normal mode plays horrible songs (yes, goofing off may get you repeatedly RickRolled). And Kamikaze, the worst, actually begins deleting what you've already written, word by word, until you begin writing again.

Write or Die is not a word processor in any way; it exists only to force you to get words on the screen. You still have to copy what you've written and paste it somewhere else to save it (the newest version of Write and Die automatically copies your text to your clipboard if you close that browser window or tab, as a precautionary measure). But for people who need constant nudging (ahem), Write or Die can be an effective goad. Especially once he gets the "Electric Shock Mode" up and running…

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Michael Crichton, author of the "Jurassic Park" books as well as many others such as "Congo," "Timeline," and "The Andromeda Strain," died of cancer at age 66, according to a press release from his family.

No real details yet, but this was another one of those "What? Who? Really? How old was he?" kind of deaths that catches you completely unaware. Our thoughts are with his family.

Tor recently launched their brand new website, and it was worth the wait. Not only does it have regular updates on science fiction as an industry, funky science-y things in the news, and posts from writers such as John Scalzi, Steven Gould,  and Emma Bull, they also give away free ebooks every month with no DRM or copy protection  at all. They even provide a variety of formats: HTML, PDF, Mobipocket, and Sony.

This month's offering is "Spaceman Blues" by Brian Francis Slattery. You'll need to register at Tor.com but that's free and quick and doesn't commit you to anything.

If you like reading science fiction, Tor.com is a great place to visit, browse through, or lose entire hours of your life.

This year marks the 10th annual National Novel Writing Month, meaning that somewhere out there are people who have written at least one book every year for a decade.

This event, started by writer Chris Baty, encourages would-be novelists to get over their stalling ways and finally take the
plunge by whipping out a 175-page novel (50,000 words) in 30 days.
Quality is largely optional and, frankly, beside the point.

The secret to success in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) lies in a single motivation: an insanely tight deadline. The event begins at 12:01 a.m. on Nov. 1 and stops at the stroke of midnight Nov. 30. No time for editing or polishing, and writer's block is a luxury you can no longer afford. Their motto: "No Plot? No Problem!"

"When you sort of look at this you think this is really a stupid idea, you know. Everybody's out there just trying to write a bad novel," NaNoWriMo creator and freelance writer Chris Baty said. "Really when you write for quantity instead of quality on the first draft I think you end up getting both. A first draft is where you want to be taking risks and making mistakes."

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That was Rob Simpson's question after reports last year of the price tag for the Iraq War hitting $1,000,000,000,000. And how much is a trillion dollars, anyway? How can you even comprehend that number?

Simpson, 51, decided to figure it out in "an unusual but intriguing research project" and put the dollars and cents of the war into perspective. He and his staff spent a year crunching the numbers, and his new book, "What We Could Have Done With the Money: 50 Ways to Spend the Trillion Dollars We've Spent on Iraq," lists just that.

We could buy everyone on Earth an iPod. We could pave the entire U.S. interstate highway system with 23.5-karat gold leaf. College educations for all, paid-off credit cards, or a Buick for every senior citizen still driving in the United States. "As I started exploring, I was really taken aback by some of the things that can be done, both the absurd and the practical," Simpson said in an AP article.

We could buy 16.6 million Habitat for Humanity houses or pay for double the amount of beat cops or hire 1.9 million additional teachers or even fix Social Security.

Don't look for incisive political commentary or financial analysis here. "What We Could Have Done With the Money" is a quick, light read with lots of bizarre possibilities. Whether you agree with the implied criticism of the war or not, it's still fun to visit his website and use his fake shopping cart to try and spend a trillion dollars. I loaded up the New York Yankees, nabbed a Lear jet, bought Dracula's castle, snapped up every NFL franchise, paid for 10 Hollywood movies, and even bought the world a Coke and barely put a dent in the total.

128 pages, paperback, from Hyperion.

ComicMix talked to Joss at Comic-Con – did anyone not talk to Joss at Comic-Con? Did the man ever sleep? – and he revealed a bit more about the upcoming Serenity comic:

COMICMIX: With The Shepherd's Tale, why is Shepherd Book the first character from Firefly to get a solo story?

JOSS WHEDON: I've done a breakdown of the story. I think Jim Krueger is going to write the actual script. The biggest mystery of what we never got to tell is Shepherd's backstory. Everybody knew there was something more than just being Shepherd in there. And poor Ron [Glass] came to me during the strike and said, "I'm going to another convention. You've got to give me something." It's been a number of years and they always ask [about Shepherd]. I said, "You know what, it has been long enough and this isn't something I'm going to save for the sequel that may never happen, so we'll make a comic book out of it."

Because it's an interesting story, really. It's the single most-asked question: "What's up with Book?" And now we're going to answer that.

The interview has more about the current best-selling Buffy and Angel comics, so go check it out.

Sorry for the delay in mentioning this, but I just noticed it. "Faith and Choice in the Works of Joss Whedon," by K. Dale Koontz. Also, I don't have a copy, as it runs thirty-something bucks. But here's what the publisher said about it:

Joss Whedon once identified himself as an “angry, hard-line atheist” who is nevertheless “fascinated by the concept of devotion.” While organized religion seems to hold no satisfactory answers for Whedon, his dedication to exploring the meanings of faith and belief can be seen in many of the characters he has created for such works as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Serenity, and Fray. This work examines a variety of Whedon’s characters and discusses what can be learned from their struggles and discoveries regarding religion and belief.

Part One focuses on the characters’ search for purpose, revealing how Dawn, Spike, and Angel attempt to define the meaning of their lives in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off, Angel. Part Two focuses on family, examining the unconventional family dynamic in Whedon’s comic book miniseries Fray and television series Firefly. Part Three centers around the concept of redemption, using Angel’s Doyle, Firefly’s Malcolm Reynolds and Shepherd Book, and Buffy’s Faith Lehane to examine the characters’ search for salvation and their own acceptance of their past actions. Finally, Part Four focuses on the harmful potential of religious zealotry, revealing the negative aspects of absolute belief through Firefly’s River and Buffy’s Caleb. A primary source guide follows the main text, providing the writer, director, and air date of each television episode, along with publication data for Whedon’s print works, including the in-publication “Season 8” comic books for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.