The Internet Lets Us Learn From A Master

The Cute Way To Offend Delicate Sensibilities

Look how Goddamned weird this is.

What a post!

Genius master animator John Kricfalusi posts stills from a Bob Clampett Looney Tunes cartoon, pointing out nuances we civilians never would — and on top of it all, he’s also seeing things he never noticed before!

I don’t know if John K uses a Mac. I hope so. I sooooo want him to do a digital book as only he can. He’d blast publishing into somewhere else in one damned shot!

Previously here:

Respect The Artist!

Quote Of The Day: Writer Jay Stringer

Old Gold

I come from a country that chooses to forget itself, and it’s past, and to have everything of cultural significance stolen and transplanted to one city. The rest are provinces, each allowed to have a token “cool” for a certain period of time. But i think we need fiction, music and art that reflects the voices and the people; regions need to be allowed to matter again.

His blog has a very confusing interface (look for the floating navbar near the top — grrrr), but it’s worth going through too.

— via Twitter from @thesaturdayboy

All Writers Should Sign The Anti-Google Books Settlement Petition!

Petition Letter to the Judge of the Google Book Settlement

The following petition will be sent directly to Judge Chin by January 28th, 2010, and will also be attached as an exhibit to the brief to be submitted to the court by the NWU, ASJA, and SFWA. After that it may be used in publicity for our side of the issue.

Everyone who has joined my list of authors opposing the Settlement will be a signatory of the letter — except those who don’t want to be.

Signing the letter does not involve you in a legal action of any kind; we are simply submitting an opinion to the court. But if you don’t want your signature on the letter, just write me at googleputsch@bookviewcafe.com or at the Book View Cafe blog and say: Take my name off the letter, please.

You must do so by January 25th, 2010. After that the letter and signatures may be out of my hands.

The list is still open — people may continue signing on until January 25th. I invite you to join us in defense of authors’ rights!

And my heartfelt thanks to all of you who are speaking out with me this way.

— UKL

Writer Ursula K. Le Guin is not shutting up about this.

Add your name and help her give some back!

Previously at Mike Cane 2008:

The Google Book Robbery: I’m Not Alone
The Great Book Bank Robbery
Is Another Suit Against Google Book Search Coming?

Previously here:

The Authors Guild Leadership: 21st Century Chamberlains
Writer Ursula K. Le Guin Nails Authors Guild
And You Will Trust Google With All Of Our Books?
This Is Print Publishing’s Final Warning
Mark The Words Of Dave Winer
Sergey Brin: Also Absolutely Inexcusably Clueless
Google Thinks It Owns Our Books!
The First Step Towards A Google Book Search Solution
Google Always Had POD Planned
God Bless Marybeth Peters Of The Copyright Office!
Google Books Settlement Notes #2
Tomorrow: Google Books Settlement Deadline For Writers
Cooler Adds Google’s One Million ePubs Of Crap!
Google Books Settlement Notes #1
Google’s Great Writer Rip-Off
Google’s One Million eBooks Of Crap!
The Capitulation Of Print Publishing
Reject The Google Book Search Settlement!

Writer 3.0 For Book 3.0

Imagine’s “Transmedia Storytelling” Deal

“Studios gobbled up pre-branded properties like Asteroids and Battleship, but as an exec I would hear pitches from writers and see nobody coming with visuals, and there was nobody at the studio managing intellectual properties over all divisions,” Kadison said.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

I really hate the term “transmedia.” I hope we’re not stuck with that. I also hated “multimedia” too, by the way (and strange it was never applied to comic books first — or at all!). People think a new buzzterm is like a magic wand that can automagically create something.

Anyway.

In a prior blog I did a few posts about what I was calling “Writer 2.0.”

Well, the Axis of eCrap (formerly Axis of E) — eInk, ePub, eBook — is coming to its deserved end. And so is Writer 2.0.

In its place will be digital books. And Writer 3.0.

Writers: It’s The INVISIBLE Piracy That Will Kill You

Listen, having your book show up on filesharing sites or BitTorrent is really the very least of your worries. Truly. At least people know it’s your creation, that you did it, and they have to turn to you for more.

As more writers free themselves of the parasitic grip of traditional publishers, they will be vulnerable to the worst piracy of all: multilingual plagiarism.

Apple’s iSlate Gives Book Publishers False Hope

Disney bought Marvel for over four billion dollars.

Four billion dollars!

In my lifetime I have seen a comic book company aimed at children go from being printed on rotten paper with the worst four-color printing and a rotten distribution system to something that became worth four billion dollars.

Marvel. Comic books. Adults were ashamed to work in comic books!

Marvel! Home of Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, Thor, Hulk, Man-Thing, Ant-Man, X-Men.

Think about those characters.

Macintosh History: The Lost Art Of Trici Venola

The mid-1980s were a great time to be a Mac fanatic.

The machine was new, developers were coming out with neat stuff for it, and even though there wasn’t an Internet, we all felt connected through magazines, Bulletin-Board Systems (BBSes), CompuServe, user groups, newsletters, and the floppy disk service EduComp.

One of the stars of that period was a young woman artist named Trici Venola.

Her artwork was seemingly everywhere and it was easy to spot because of her very distinctive style.

One of the things she worked on was Foundation Software’s Comic Strip Factory. But I remember her most from her work for MacWeek, a weekly electronic magazine that was distributed via BBSes and those EduComp floppy disks. (This MacWeek was before there was a weekly tabloid on paper.)

Oh yes, kids, long before there was a Palm Pilot and Peanut Press and Fictionwise doing eBooks, there were electronic publications. And the Macintosh had the best. MacWeek was memorable due to the passion of Jerry Daniels, Mary Jane Mara, and the artwork of Trici Venola.

For an upcoming post about screen design for publishing, I tracked down Trici (she is currently enjoying life in Turkey). I asked for one thing, didn’t get it, but wound up with some delightful lost Macintosh history that I’m excited to show everyone.

It’s a comic strip done for the MacUnderground, an early online service for Macintosh users.

Trici doesn’t remember, but I met her briefly at Foundation Publishing’s booth at CES in Chicago way back when. Doug Clapp (where’d he go?) was manning the booth and Trici was there too. She showed me her mouse finger and how it was bent inward. She drew all of her work by mouse. Keep that in mind!

After the break, words from Trici herself and some sample panels.

Apple: Kill My Blog, Please!

I never intended this blog to be a just about every day thing.

But I got fed up with the crap I saw circulating about books, publishing, eBooks, etc.

And I had to go open my big mouth.

Because there was no one else countering any of it.

Especially after I woke up from the eInk nightmare that had been pimped by others.

Next week, Apple unveils its seekrit creation. Which, despite recent trademark filings, I still expect to be called the iSlate. Because, as I posted, iPad has ownership conflicts.

Anyway, I expect four things from Apple:

1) The iSlate — I still expect one with a seven-inch, not ten-inch, screen. But any damned size would do at this point.

2) Apple announcing digital books for it. (Hello, Disney?)

3) Digital books given a real marketplace — not just lumped together with free games and eejitastic fart apps as they have been in the App Store.

4) A new version of iWork — with digital book creation ability for all.

Do that, Apple, and this blog is dead.

You will be settling the crap I’ve had to argue about for months now. I’ll have nothing more I will have to say.

I’ll be able to shut this blog and I get back to reading books (Derek Raymond is waiting!) and my own damned writing.

If Apple does what I expect, this blog is d-e-d on January 31st.

Some people out there will rejoice. But they were morons to begin with and will remain so after I’m gone.

Note To Self: Sylvester Stallone

One of the absolute joys of reading Writer’s Digest were the interviews.

There was one with Sylvester Stallone — yes, the movie star, who also wrote a film called Rocky — back in the 1970s.

That interview was so striking it has forever stuck in my mind.

I’ve been begging Writer’s Digest to put it online — yes, for free! — because it would be instructive to everybody.

But apparently that’s not possible due to rights issues and lawyers and all of that kind of rotten stuff that drains the life out of us.

I forgot what issue it was and had been wailing about that on Twitter. Someone finally took pity on me and provided the info. Which I swear I saved but somehow managed to then lose.

Well, I got it again and I’m putting it here.

Thank you very much! I won’t lose it now.

And if any of you have that issue or can get access to it, do so! It’s really something.

After the break, an audio track embedded in YouTube that gives some of the background of the creation of Rocky. Yes, despite the fact it’s that prat Anthony Robbins doing it, it’s worth hearing.

Sacred Rite Defiled By Selfish Amusement-Seeking Asshats

Nevermore? Mystery visitor misses Poe’s birthday

A mysterious visitor who left roses and cognac at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe each year on the writer’s birthday failed to show early Tuesday, breaking with a ritual that began more than 60 years ago.

And this:

“I’m very disappointed, to the point where I want to cry,” said Cynthia Pelayo, 29, who had stood riveted to her prime viewing spot at the gate for about six hours. “I flew in from Chicago to see him. I’m just really sad. I hope that he’s OK.”

You and all of the other selfish nosy asshats ruined it. Now all of you go back to your worthless lives and take an overdose of something.