Pawnstorm Digital Press

Books and Novellas

• Sauerkraut Station, by Ferret Steinmetz – Described as Prarie Home Companion in space, this story was a lot of fun. Plus, GigaNotoSaurus allows you to download epubs of their stories, which makes them much more readable.
• A Web of Air, by Phillip Reeve – After enjoying Fever Crumb, I thought that I would give the sequel a try. I was disappointed. First, the audiobook had a different narrator (the author did the first one, and was fantastic). Second, the simplistic view of spirituality that it portrayed (summed up as religion always hinders progress) annoyed me. Third, the most interesting part, birds with human intelligence that had decayed since their creation (but with the possibility of redemption) weren’t very well explored. Finally, the main character shoots someone by clamping a bullet in a vice and setting it off. Since the character is trained as an engineer, she should know that the bullet would need a barrel to achieve any sort of velocity. I won’t be reading the next one.
• A Planet of Viruses, by Carl Zimmer – An excellent introduction to the world of viruses. Informative without being dry.
• Palimpsest, by Charles Stross – This novella makes me look at every time travel story I’ve ever read and think that the authors lacked in ambition. I cannot overstate how much I enjoyed this book.

Articles

• Real Spending, Real Dollars – Our spending priorities are just scary.
• The $30 Billion Social Security Hack – I imagine that we will see a lot more of this in the future.
• The Inadmissible Assumptions – Like a tiny Jaron Lanier sitting on my shoulder.
• Not an April Fool – You know that saying about never attributing to evil what is more easily explained by stupidity? Well the corollary is that there is no functional difference between stupidity (or ignorance or incompetence) and evil.
• It’s the Economics, Stupid! - Interesting look an energy prices and politics, although I think that he doesn’t take into account the effect of staring at a pump for a minute or two as you pump your gas, rather than simply seeing one number one time each month when you get your natural gas bill.
• What Book Publishers Should Learn From Harry Potter – Namely that readers want to be your advocates, and that perhaps abject fear isn’t the correct response.

Comics

• Cadbury Eggs – XKCD
• Tumblr – EverythingIsTheSameSize “dot tumblr dot com”

Books and Novellas Sauerkraut Station, by Ferret Steinmetz – Described as Prarie Home Companion in space, this story was a lot of fun. Plus, GigaNotoSaurus allows you to download epubs...

This was supposed to be posted on the 20th of last month, but due to operator error, it wasn’t. Oops.

Books

Last Week: The Statues That Walked, Ship Breaker, The Quantum Thief, The Third Reich, and One Way Forward. Of these five, my favorites were definitely The Statues That Walked, which made a rather persuasive argument that rather than polluting themselves to death/killing each other, the people of Easter Island were both peaceful and remarkably good stewards of the environment, and One Way Forward, which was one of the most hope-inducing political book that I’ve read in a long time.

This Week: Ragamuffin, Fever Crumb, and Dark Life. All of them were good, but nothing really bit me.

Articles

• E-Books, Paperbacks, and Authors – A future of publishing.
• Can A Local Currency Improve Resilience – It looks like the short answer is yes.
• Alternative Currencies In Greece – More on alternative currencies, this time from Tobias Buckell.
• Drones That Operate For Years On Their Own -
• Why High Gas Prices Are Here To Stay – The title may say it all, but worth a read. Then again, I check oil-price.net every morning because it seems to be the best single indicator of what will happen in our society, so I may be a bit biased on this front.
• A Writing Experiment – Basically, using Apple’s Siri to capture dialogue and a keyboard to capture the rest of the story. I’m not sure how well this will work out, as real speech makes terrible dialogue. Of course, I am still planning on writing a story that involves a group of people sending frantic status updates via text message, which I plan to frantically type into my phone to capture some of the autocorrect hilarity.
• Locke Lamora Read-Along Bonus #4: YOU SUCK, LYNCH – Lynch provides some fascinating insight into what it means to not go back and fix the things that you wrote years ago, when you lacked the skills you currently possess.
• Using copyright to keep kids from reading – I realize that there is another side to this, but really? Way to shoot yourself in both feet, publishing industry.
• E-Books’ Uncertain Future at Local Libraries – I realize that this is a tough time for publishers, but I fail to see the rationale of not selling to libraries at all.

This was supposed to be posted on the 20th of last month, but due to operator error, it wasn’t. Oops. Books Last Week: The Statues That Walked, Ship Breaker, The Quantum Thief, The...

Books

This week, I finished reading Richard Matheson’s Other Kingdoms, Sherman Alexie’s Flight, Tobias Buckell’s Crystal Rain, Tamora Pierce’s Tortall and Other Lands, Jonathan Hickman’s Red Wing, and Oscar Guardiola-Rivera’s What If Latin America Ruled The World. Of these, Crystal Rain was by far my favorite, and you should read it.

Articles

• The Disappearing Virtual Library - An article examining the demise of library.nu. Particularly interesting because it deals with the phenomenon as a failure of publishers to meet demand.
• Publishers Oppose Bill on Scholarly Open Access – . . . because they feel that we have no right to research that we have collectively funded. If they can’t make enough money from work that was taxpayer funded, that sounds like a them problem.
• Siri’s big brother from Google – I don’t care how shiny it is, I don’t want to talk to my phone.
• States’ Rights? – I really wish the government would stop curtailing my right to curtail other people’s rights. An excellent analysis of how most of the people calling for states’ rights are doing so in the interest of discriminating on a local level.
• Locke Lamora: It came from Burger King! – Some cool meta about one of my favorite fantasy books, which you should read if you have not already.
• You Don’t Need a Cyber Attack to Take Down The North American Power Grid - Security Theater is the best kind of theater.
• US Attn General Eric Holder on The US Killer Drone Policy – More disturbing news from DC.
• Playing the Game in Afghanistan – A glimpse into the Afghani psyche as well as a suggestion for a strategy that actually has a chance of succeeding. My favorite bit was her talking about “buzkashi, in which mounted horsemen vie for possession of a dead goat or calf. . . . Journalists compared the game to polo, apparently never having seen a game of polo.  Take my word for it: it is not like polo.”

Books This week, I finished reading Richard Matheson’s Other Kingdoms, Sherman Alexie’s Flight, Tobias Buckell’s Crystal Rain, Tamora Pierce’s Tortall and Other Lands, Jonathan Hickman’s Red Wing, and Oscar Guardiola-Rivera’s...

OK, I promised a new book cover design article today. That may still happen. Other stuff has happened, however. First, I’ve gone through and done some more work on the Broken Shores site, so that now the stories page is the page that loads when you first head over there. In addition, I’ve created a logo and changed the intro text to hopefully make it more interesting (if you have suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments):

The world was once a place of plenty and wonders: famine and disease were largely unheard of, cities floated through the sky, everything appeared to be perfect. But it could not last. When the magic called Ve collapsed, society collapsed along with it: millions starved and the floating cities crashed to the ground. In the wreckage the byproducts of Ve use, magical beings called Amekt, went feral. This along with the ensuing wars rendered the mainland uninhabitable.

In the last days of the old empire, as things began to fall apart, a small group split off an island-sized piece of rock and seeded it with a plant that would allow it to float. For nearly 500 years, the island of Ansau has drifted in isolation on the ocean currents. Life is more difficult than it was, but the Island’s inhabitants have learned to use the trickle of Ve and stability has been the rule. But things are about to change again.

Second, I have finally posted my attempt at a Machine of Death story, Supervillain, which was rejected. I like it though, and you might, too. Keep in mind that it is in no way official. Here’s the first bit:

Silvia resented many things. She resented the job that made her feel like the Red Queen, running ever faster only to find herself stationary. She resented that her crippling student loan debt had paid for an education but not prospects of employment. She resented the economic necessity that forced her to share her too-small apartment with a roommate. But she loathed none of those things. Loathing was reserved for Adam. Her roommate.

Even worse, he was oblivious to her feelings towards him, and continued to do aggravating things. Like talking to her.

“Look at this,“ he said, handing her a slip of paper that could have come out of a fortune cookie save for the block lettering that was the hallmark of the Machine. It said SUPERVILLAIN. “What does it mean?“ That was the other hallmark of the Machine, it was annoyingly vague.

“It means that you‘re going to be killed, somehow, by a supervillain,“ she said. “I‘m thinking comic convention.“ After all, there were no super-powered people running around.

Adam didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t say anything else, which was good enough for her. She took one look at the common area, which appeared to have a nasty infestation of a fungus composed entirely of Adam’s things, and headed for her room, which was almost it’s own apartment within an apartment. If not for the bathroom and the exit being on the other side of No-Man’s-Land, she would never have to leave.

[read the rest]

In any case, a post about cover design might still show up this afternoon, time permitting, but if I were a betting man I would place my money on Friday.

OK, I promised a new book cover design article today. That may still happen. Other stuff has happened, however. First, I’ve gone through and done some more work on the...

. . . but should be back sometime tonight. What happened is that my old hosting provider went down and I had to switch, which takes some time. I did back up a few weeks ago, and have the missing stuff in hard digital copies. Even after I restore the site, it might not be until sometime next week that I get everything else back. Thanks for your patience.

Broken Shores is in a slightly more advanced state of repair, so you can read stuff over there, although things like images aren’t up yet.

. . . but should be back sometime tonight. What happened is that my old hosting provider went down and I had to switch, which takes some time. I did...

As you probably already know, it is November now. You may also have heard that November is National Novel Writing Month. If you are participating, good luck. As for me, I won’t be joining you. Nothing against it, it’s just not my thing. I will be doing something fun, however. This month I plan on finally finishing Caldera.

I know, I know, you’ve heard this before. I’ve been working on Caldera on and off since 2007. It was one of the first stories that I wanted to tell. I can still remember trying to fall asleep when I had the first kernel of an idea for it. I wrote a good chunk, only to realize that I was violating Rule #1 of writing: If it isn’t interesting, it had better be both important and damned short. I dropped the project (although it is still available in the archives, no promises about quality). I restarted the project after a while, keeping the first chapter and writing Those Who Stay Behind, which was an improvement. Somewhere around the same time I wrote and sold Betrayal at Waylan, which was incredibly fun. After that, I started working on Broken Shores, which is still active (indeed, I have a rough draft that needs some revision and will be published later this month).

Finally, I started working on what is hopefully the final incarnation of Caldera earlier this year. I changed a lot of things, and I think that I’m ready to just get to it and write this thing. So that is my goal for the month. I imagine that the final product will run somewhere from 15,000 to 30,000 words, but time and writing will tell. I’ll try to keep you appraised of my progress as the month wears on.

As you probably already know, it is November now. You may also have heard that November is National Novel Writing Month. If you are participating, good luck. As for me,...

This has been an extraordinarily productive month. First, I wrote a short story for ShoStoWriMo. Then, yesterday and today, I wrote a short story that I’m going to try and sell. Next week, maybe I will write the next Broken Shores story. I have pretty much finished this month’s story for Broken Shores and hope to post it later today. In any case, I should probably get some stuff done in the real world. Hope everyone else is have as good of a May as I am.

This has been an extraordinarily productive month. First, I wrote a short story for ShoStoWriMo. Then, yesterday and today, I wrote a short story that I’m going to try and...

After spending some quality time with Broken Shores, I have decided that it is time for me to move this website over to wordpress.  Not just the blog, the whole thing.  It will probably take some time, but I imagine that I should get it done within the month.  What does this mean for you?  Hopefully nothing except for some improvements in aesthetics and me being able to spend more time writing.  We’ll see.

After spending some quality time with Broken Shores, I have decided that it is time for me to move this website over to wordpress.  Not just the blog, the whole...

For me, the reason that Lord of the Rings deserves its place on the pantheon of fantasy literature is that Tolkien made the most powerful weapon in his world a ring.  Think about it, the ring was a weapon on the order of nuclear weapons and EMP pulses.

For me, the reason that Lord of the Rings deserves its place on the pantheon of fantasy literature is that Tolkien made the most powerful weapon in his world a...

So, after recommendations by a couple of my coworkers, I read The The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett this last weekend.  The book was good, but not great.  The concept is good, post-apocalyptic fantasy setting in which demons come out each night.  What this means is that the humans as a species are barely holding on, only able to be out during the day, and everything is scarce.  Good so far.

Then we come to the wards.  Apparently, there are wards that can be used to keep out demons (the old combat wards that would allow humans to fight demons on an even footing are lost).  I don’t have a problem with the wards themselves, but rather how they are implemented.  I was hoping for something like David Farland’s Runelords series (where runes are very powerful, but require scarce materials, knowledge, and a donor to work), but instead I get a book where all that is required to create wards is knowledge and time (Arlen, one of the central characters, can do it by instinct before his teens).

This leads to all sort of problems (such as why the wards aren’t tattooed on people at birth), but the problem that I’m interested in is that it is one-sided, there is no sacrifice.  If power can be had without sacrifice, you can rest assured that humans will have exploited it to within an inch of its life.  More importantly, when you have magic that requires sacrifice, it creates moral complexity, and that is one of the things that differentiates between a good story and a great one.

Ultimately, I believe that all storytelling is based on conflict, and that the conflict that we like is the conflict that we can relate to.  You may be asking what relatability has to do with Fantasy.  Well, in this case, I would say that one of the central aspects of every single person’s life is the concept of sacrifice and trade-offs, which we encounter virtually every time we make a choice.  Combined with speculative fiction’s ability to take issues and allow us to examine them without the baggage that we have in reality, you can tell a very powerful story.  In short, when you are creating a fantasy setting, magic needs to be balanced with sacrifice if it is to be at all relevant.

So, after recommendations by a couple of my coworkers, I read The The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett this last weekend.  The book was good, but not great.  The...