Yeah, it’s cutesie, but it also makes what is far away and highly technical a little more human.
Mars rover to Mars satellite
Comet lander to Mars rover
(Dwarf-) Planet to planet
Internalized self-pub-o-phobia
I have noticed an unsettling trend with myself lately. I’ve been doing a lot of eBook searches, looking for reading material. What I’ve noticed is, if I get the impression that a book is self-published, I have a tendency to think, “The writing is probably crap,” and pass it by.
And I myself have a self-published novel.
I think we’re past the point where one can assume that books that have not been accepted by a publisher are a sign of a weak writer. And yet, that lingering assumption remains in my head.
You’d think, for $2.99, or 0.99, I could take a chance on a book. I’d want a reader to do the same for me.
Thinking on it, though, I believe my reaction does not arise from the simple fact that a particular book is self-published. I never actually check for a publishing house on say, an Amazon book page. What I do look at is the description of the book: how it’s written, if the author inserts him/herself into it somehow (the use of “me/I/mine” in regards to a book is a dead give-away); the cover illustration’s professionalism; and the price.
If I’m not immediately aware that, “Oh, this is self-published” and the description sounds interesting, I’ll download a sample, or read reviews. Then, it’s a matter of how well edited the book is, and if the layout appears professional.
I think for lazy book browsers like myself, if a self-published book gives the appearance of professionalism in its format, editing, and writing style, I’ll assume it’s published, and won’t have the impulse to reject it out of hand.
The interplanetary Bechdel Test
With apologies to the actual Bechdel Test, which is about gender in TV, film, and other fictional media.
I am reading Fluency by Jennifer Foehner Wells, which got 4.3 out of 5 stars on Amazon with 1,115 raters. Honestly, I am not sure how it got that rating. The story was pretty good up to the point where Aliens, aliens, always aliens
Oodles of Mars Comet links
Image credit: NASA JPL
This morning, I’m really flummoxed that I don’t have that telescope Santa keeps promising me for Christmas. I was out ogling the early morning sky, and it was possible to see comet Siding Spring near Mars then, hours before its closest fly-by (2:27 PM EDT, 11:27 PM PDT, 18:27 GMT). That’s day time in North America, and yet the real irony belongs to Australia, where the comet was originally discovered last year. The comet closest fly-by won’t even be in their sky at all. The Deep Space Network dishes in Europe, the US, and Puerto Rico can watch.
The comet will scrape by Mars at a distance of 82,000 miles. That’s a third of the distance between Earth and the Moon. Comet Siding Spring originates from the Oort Cloud, a cloud of comets that surrounds our sun at a distance almost quarter of the way to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri.
There are spacecraft in orbit of the planet Mars from the US, the European Space Agency, and India. They will all be ducked behind the far side of the planet during closest comet approach. But as they swing back around, they might still get a bit of comet dust on them. This has the potential to be very, very bad. A tiny spec of comet junk flying at enormous speed could punch holes right through an orbiting tin can like Earthling’s Mars satellites.
Hopefully, though, all they’ll catch are some cool photos.
The rovers on the surface of Mars will be safe due to the Martian atmosphere, but alas, the poor little guys will also experience closest fly-by during daylight hours.
Mars and Siding Spring will become visible again in North America after sunset this evening.
http://www.space.com/27403-mars-comet-fly-by-orbiters-to-duck-and-cover-behind-planet-video.html
http://earthsky.org/tonight/comet-siding-springs-near-collision-with-mars-on-october-19
http://mars.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspring/
http://www.livestream.com/eurospaceagency
http://live.slooh.com/stadium/live/comet-siding-spring-swings-by-on-a-close-approach-to-mars
http://www.livecometdata.com/comets/c2013-a1-siding-spring/
Space!
I have been a space cadet geek since I was old enough to understand what those Apollo missions on television were, Continue reading “Space!”
Moonwalk One
This is a fascinating documentary, covering every aspect of the Apollo 11 mission and the science and technology that supported it. Continue reading “Moonwalk One”
Once Upon A Time geeking, pt II: Gastown, Vancouver, BC
With bonus Highlander.
Anyone who’s watched OUAT, Highlander, X-Files, Continuum, or a dozen other made-in-Canada TV shows will recognize Gastown. It is the semi-gentrified “hip” neighborhood along the waterfront in downtown Vancouver. Like such neighborhoods in many cities, you can turn a corner and go from a trendy shopping area to a dodgy skid row. Most of the OUAT “Manhattan” scenes were filmed in the Alexander/Powell/Carrall street triangle.
On-screen and off-screen photos follow. Warning: Image heavy. All screencaps courtesy of screencapped.net.
Continue reading “Once Upon A Time geeking, pt II: Gastown, Vancouver, BC”
Once Upon A Time geeking, pt I: Steveston, BC
So on my most recent vacation, I went to Storybrooke. Er, Steveston and Ft Langley, BC.
Most of “Storybrooke” is located along Moncton and Bayview streets between Third Avenue and No 1 Road in Steveston. This quaint little Richmond area burg appears to have embraced its alternate identity (hey, tourist money!). Although filming had not yet started, some of the buildings retained their “Storybrooke” signage. Others were disconcertingly Steveston/Canadian.
Actually walking the street and seeing where everything is relative to everything else gives you a three-dimensional context when you go back to watch the show. In each new scene, you can orient yourself and say, “The characters are near X. Yep, there it is.” It also makes you notice how often the show uses shipping pallets stacked against walls to hide the Steveston signs.
Another thing you notice upon rewatch is when the same business is sometimes named one thing, sometimes named something else in different episodes. Perhaps the name changed in real life, or maybe they just didn’t bother covering up the real name in early episodes. On-screen and off-screen photos follow. Because I really am that geeky. Warning: Image heavy. All screencaps courtesy of screencapped.net.
Continue reading “Once Upon A Time geeking, pt I: Steveston, BC”
140 characters of character
I’ve figured out my writer’s platform “Twitter strategy”: follow who’s interesting, regardless of who they are and what they tweet about, and have fun. One thing I won’t be doing: tweeting every hour on the hour with Yet Another Promo of My Book. That is a one-way ticket to being boring and unfollowed. It seems a lot of writers on Twitter only follow you so you’ll follow them, and then it’s promo, promo, promo. Like a hall of mirrors, writers tweet “Read my book” at each other, instead of talking to people (some who, hey, you never know, might be readers) about things that make life (and themselves) interesting.
Talk about the writing process. Talk about cool space probes. Talk about a rock star that just died. Talk about your kids, your favorite TV shows, something funny you saw on the way to work, respond to what other people are talking about and make it All About Them.
But a steady beat of alternating one-liner book promos? Is internet navel-gazing.
https://twitter.com/masqthephlsphr, in case anyone’s interested.
Now, that’s just cheating
Spoiler warning: Skin Game (Jim Butcher), Inferno and The Lost Symbol (Dan Brown)
A while back, I posted an angst about point of view and the pacing of information reveals in my novel. My novel is, at its core, a mystery. The answers to the mystery gradually unfold for the reader as the protagonists investigate and make discoveries. In the first draft, I set a major “reveal” towards the end of the novel. The challenge was setting up that reveal without giving it away.
Author Nancy E. Shaffer 