F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Technology

Publishing Monopoly?

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Get The Right POV. (Image by By Taken by Shmuel Spiegelman using a Canon 10D [CC BY-SA 1.0, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0], via Wikimedia Commons)
Get The Right POV. (Image by By Taken by Shmuel Spiegelman using a Canon 10D [CC BY-SA 1.0, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0%5D, via Wikimedia Commons)
I’m not as “hooked” into the whole publishing angst like I used to be, and to be frank about it, I’m glad I’m not. I’m tired of the same old arguments…tired of the animosities…and how much of it what is being slung at Amazon seems to come from Traditional Publishing’s ilk (and I’m really not even all that “against” Traditional Publishing like I used to be).

It’s all about degree. Perspective. Point of view. Intent.

I’m just me…trying to make my own dent in the world of books and short stories. But I just read an article (once again) about the Evil Empire Amazon’s “monopoly” on the world of publishing. Good points were made to be sure.

But we seem to forget something here, or maybe I’m just too naive and not plugged in anymore, but we all railed on and on about TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING, too, remember that?

Yeah, how those “Gatekeepers” (we used to call them) were so Ivory Towered and incestuous and so looking for that Quick Buck that all this “crap” was getting published. Or the Same Old Thing. That “They” Talked-the-Talk-but-Didn’t-Walk-the-Walk.

Remember?

How they screwed over authors with crappy covers and even shittier terms.

Remember?

Well…comes along a New Gorilla and—whoa!—the guns are quickly swung over to them as the newly painted target.

Pourquoi?

Because they’re kicking the snot out of traditional publishing.

(my enemy’s enemy…)

And I’m not saying all their business practices are stellar—but neither is traditional publishing’s!

But, oh, how quickly we forget.

Sure, if Amazon’s doing something illegal, they need to be held accountable for it—just like Traditional Publishing should similarly be held accountable (and has been taken so to task). New York—you’re not exactly smelling like a rose bush, either. But I find it so fascinating how articles and the Loudest Shouters are making a new “fact”; how everyone’s dumping on Amazon—but they ARE selling books…oh, and yeah, like Traditional Publishing. But Amazon gives authors a little more for their blood, sweat, and tears and they seems far more innovative than the Traditional world. And even Amazon is adopting similar “traditional practices,” like not publishing everything they get and instituting their own “Gatekeepers.”

Big Businesses are big businesses. They’ll always be doing something illegal or not-quite-moral somewhere. It’s what those entities do and the people who run them do. They’re not authors, they’re not editors. They’re Money People. Period. Sometimes they get caught…especially when spotlights are swung their way. Then they lawyer-up and the best arguments win and they move on.

It’s a business expense.

So don’t blindly be dumping on Amazon while forgetting all that Traditional Publishing also hasn’t done for you.

Nobody’s perfect.

Media needs stories.

Conflict sells.

Related Articles

Amazon Monopoly

Amazon Sales Top $100 Billion

 

MileHiCon47, a Knot, and a Head

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MileHiCon47, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Denver, CO, October 23-25, 2015
MileHiCon47, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Denver, CO, October 23-25, 2015

Well, this past weekend was a blur!

I attended the 47th MileHiCon, in Denver, invited back for a second year—and hope I get the lifetime subscription! This is an absolutely incredible—flat-out fun—event that anyone with a halfway interest in fantasy, science fiction, and the bizarre should attend at least once!

My first time last year I was on a couple of panels, but this year not only was I on panels, but I also moderated:

  • Moderated Exploding Myths of the New World of Publishing
  • Panelist on Military SF Discussion and Readings
  • One of many at Autograph Alley
  • Movie discussion moderator for the 1973 movie, Soylent Green
  • One of several writers on The Reading Game (this was a blast!)
  • Panelist on Closer & Further Than You Think

Exploding Myths of the New World of Publishing

This was an informative panel to have been a part of! We had great discussions about the state of publishing and how it has so changed with the continued flourishing (yes, “flourishing“…) of Independent (Indie) Publishing. Also once known as the highly stigmatic “self publishing.” I Indie published my first novel, Sleepwalkers, in 2001. I caught a lot of grief about that from many writers and agents and editors in the traditional publishing world, if not in word in attitude. So much so that in one panel I had been part of at another conference I’d doubted that I’d ever self publish again.

But today?

Wow, it’s the thing.

People are making a living out of it like never before and no longer is it looked down upon by the masses. I just released my fifth novel, Voice this year.

On this panel were Kristi Helvig, Angie Hodapp, Gary Jonas, and the ubiquitous Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

Military SF Discussion and Readings

I’ve only written one military SF novel, and it’s my UFO conspiracy theory book, ERO (though Psychic could be considered a cousin to military SF, since it is also a part of that government conspiracy theory worldview, though no “uniformed services” are involved, like in ERO). Here, I was a panelist (not a moderator) and we discussed what we thought “made” military fiction military fiction, as well as various aspects of military fiction. We read from our works.

On this panel were Kevin Ikenberry (moderator) and Robert Williscroft—two gentlemen I kept running into over the course of the weekend—Sourdough Jackson, and Kal Spriggs. Kevin and I were later on the Closer & Further Than You Think panel. Kevin and Kal are Army and Bob’s Navy. I was Air Force. Sourdough was never military, though is an ardent student of the military, having studied naval history for some 50 years.

Autograph Alley

This is an en masse book signing for authors. As I discussed with my table mate, Angela Roquet, it is interesting to see who gets all the attention at this thing…and how it changes from year to year. This was only my second, so my observations were obviously limited. I didn’t sell any books (sold two later in the weekend as I meandered about the con) but had some fun conversation…especially about my mannequin head—which I’d carried with me all day Friday and Saturday…but more on that in a minute….

Interesting to note that my MileHiCon46 crush AaronMichaelRitchey (his name is to be uttered with great reverence and in one breath, one word…) was still (true to form) talking it up and drawing the crowds. I tried to emulate him this year with chocolate—but no one was having it. Everyone seemed to be on diets. How does AaronMichaelRitchey do it? The man is just magic. And tall. I swear he gained two inches since last year.

Damn, AaronMichaelRitchey.

Soylent Green Movie and Discussion

One of the fun things “they” (being “them”) do at MileHiCon is screen films, and I volunteered to moderate the Soylent Green movie discussion. So from 1 – 2:30 we watched the movie, then from 2:30 (or so) we discussed the film for about an hour. One really cool thing that came out of the discussion was that one lady had told us she had seen the original screening back in 1973 and ever since had wanted to be part of an actual discussion about that movie, because it so moved/scared her when she’d first seen it. So I’d felt quite honored that we had been part of her “bucket list,” so to speak, and had been able to fulfill her wish!

You just never know what you’re going to be a part of when you do things like this.

Point of order, however, but as I searched the Internet for “Soylent Green” for this post I found…it’s real!

Yes—Soylent Green is….

The Reading Game

This was such a cool idea! The premise of The Reading Game is like The Dating Game, but only with books.

It’s to help connect readers and writers! A reader sat on one side of a screen, while three writers sat on the other side. The reader then asked questions of the writers, and based on their answers the reader selected a writer they thought they might like to read. That author would give a book of theirs to the reader—and of course autograph it. I was one of the writers, and I was selected by a reader (most or all of the authors were selected by readers). My reader selected The Uninvited, my supernatural murder mystery and a “whydunnit” (versus a “whodunnit”). We all had a blast, on both sides of the screen. It didn’t have a huge audience, I think, because it was its first time offered and not well understood, so we hope next year it fills the room with roaring attendance! I feel this has huge entertainment potential on many levels! Afterward all readers were asked if they would post reviews of the books they read…and help publicize The Reading Game.

Closer & Further Than You Think

This was a discussion about what hard SF possibilities are actually right around the corner, despite being depicted as far out, and vice versa. Now, admittedly, I felt just a leettle out of my league, here, sitting on panel that sported Big Brain scientist types whose hands are still “in the pie,” as it were, so I went all conspiracy theory (I had to!)—and found a fellow conspiracy theorist in Dr. Tim Slater (knuckle bump!), of the University of Wyoming.

You see, whenever I talk about this kind of stuff it’s hard for me to not go all conspiracy theory! I don’t follow technology all that much anymore, but when I wrote ERO I had done a lot of conspiracy theory research and did try to keep somewhat up on technology…and what a lot of that “keyed” into me was that what we see and what might actually exist are three different things. And one of the books I’d read, whose author and exact title I couldn’t recall during the panel, but which I now present here for the Big Brains to pick apart, discussed about already existing hyperdimensional, anti-gravity (electrogravitics), faster-than-light travel. That book is Secrets of Antigravity Propulsion, by Paul A LaViolette, Ph.D. So, there you go, Kevin, Doug, Tim, and J. L., have at it! Love to hear you thoughts on the [anti]matter, if you’ll pardon the pun….

So, really, who can you trust when you talk about this stuff?

No one. Trust No One.

Other Sessions

I attended other sessions on which I was not a panelist:

Copyright for Authors and Artists

Trends in Publishing

Remember That Thing Called Privacy

The Year in Science (the tail end)

There is so much to say about these and the other panels, but this post is already long enough. All the sessions were quite informative. Except for MileHiCon, I’ve been out of the writer conference circuit for about two years, and I realized that I’ve missed it. There’s only so much an individual can do, and when you throw in trying to get your own writing done that really limits how “up” on things you can be. And of all the above sessions I attended, the Privacy session was perhaps the most unsettling…but I’d expected that…the so-called “eroding” of our personal privacies. There’s the “legal” definitions (a lawyer was on the panel, one who’d “argued” before the Supreme Court on just such issues) and what we think we understand to be our own human privacy rights. It’s a little unsettling. But the more we give away or “don’t care about,” the less we’ll have and the quicker it will all erode away. As long as there’s one guy or gal out there willing to create these kinds of technologies and actually use them…and gee, factor in the science and science fiction of technology, and well…

We’re all screwed.

Some arguments might well be made that it’s all only a matter of returning to where we all started…tribes and clans of everyone knew everyone’s business and there were no secrets so we’re really just coming full circle…but I could also use the argument that why don’t we just return to living in abject poverty and disease-ridden streets? Just “returning to a previous state” doesn’t make it “right.” No, I’m not of the mindset of “it’s just a return how it used to be.” Why are people so uncaring of all this? I enjoy my privacy. I know others who feel the same way. Call us Neo Luddites, we don’t care. I like having a little mystery about a person. I don’t want to know nor care to see how one wipes their ass or masturbates or picks their noses on a YouTube video, and, quite frankly, it disturbs me that others would want to know this about other people. Because—keep this in mind—what you’re seeing about other people…other people will also see about you.

When you continually enable Big Companies and the government by using things like Google (which I avoid—I’m told DuckDuckGo is as good at Google without the tracking) or smartphones without thinking about just what it is you’re doing…that bothers me. We all need our personal space. I don’t need to know your most-intimate of details. Yet we find all people continually posting all manner of minutiae on all manner of social media. I’ve talked to a few of those of other generations, and it is disturbing the “I don’t care” I get from some…”I don’t care if they track me going to the store.” Or “I don’t care if they track what I buy.”

Can’t you look beyond your desire for the latest smartphone to what you’re enabling? Can’t you look past your privacy nonchalance to the far larger picture? Are you really so self-involved you can’t see past your freaking iPhone?!

All kinds of arguments can be made for companies and governments having always been doing this, etc.—but does that make it right?

Think about your actions…their logical conclusions. Think.

Yet…I can also make the case that on a metaphysical level (yes, here I go…) such developments are also the physical manifestation of a kind of metaphysical and spiritual “singularity.” In this case, we are all approaching an “event” where we realize just how intricately connected we really are and how nothing is really hidden from another on an incorporeal level. So, our corporeal existence is more and more mirroring our incorporeal existence.

Transitions can really be a bitch.

Another conversation of note involved a panel I was on about the advancements in technology. In that discussion we touched upon the soul, the spiritual, and I was amused that science (well, one of our panelists) quickly went hands-off, and even went so far as to say that he wouldn’t touch that with a 10-foot pole (or words the effect)…yet “discussions” of physics and technology with an audience member who took issue with some of our panelists assertions were directly and most ardently faced head on.

I get it.

Certain things are more easily and apparently “proven” so “discussions” are considered useful.

But here’s the thing. And I said it in my own closing remarks on this particular panel: I worry about the advancements in technology without the corresponding advancements in ethics. Just because we can do something does not mean we should.

What is happening to our collective moral compass?

We do need to have more spiritual and metaphysical discussions bookending our advancing technologies…we should not shy away from them, ignore them, be unwilling to “touch them with a 10-foot pole”…yet continue to create more and more invasive and frightening advancements in technology that seem to stretch the limits of—hell, ignore—moral and ethical considerations.

MileHiCon48: panel for next year: the ethics of advancing technology.

We need to be more mindful of just what it is we’re allowing into our lives. Yes, the Government and Big Business is going to do what they do behind our backs, but let’s not make it any easier on them. A more aware public, or better informed and “ethically aware” (choose your term) public, is a stronger public that can actually push back on the nano-intrusions into our lives. At least make informed decisions. The unbridled advancements of “bombs and bullets and lasers” and all that involves. We create our reality…technology does not. I’m all for Human advancements…but to create advancing technology just because we can “finally get the numbers right” is not the answer. Is not a right. Let’s get the ethics right, too.

Let’s not destroy ourselves with our own hubris.

A Knot and a Head

Okay, to end on a lighter note!

Table For Two? Hyatt Regency Hotel Restaurant, MileHiCon47
Table For Two? Hyatt Regency Hotel Restaurant, MileHiCon47

Friday and Saturday, much like the Twin Peaks “Log Lady,” I wandered about MileHiCon47 with a mannequin head.

Oh, and this insane, Eldredge Knot.

I found it most curious that very few actually asked me about “my friend” (“the head” has a name, you know, had you asked: “Becka”). I’d even brought her into the hotel’s “Root 25 Taphouse and Kitchen” restaurant with me, and none of the server staff said a peep about her. And of all the panels I was on, I surely thought someone in the room—or at the very least on a particular panel itself–that of the Military SF Discussion and Readings—would have asked “Hey, dude—what the hell?”

But, nooo!

Becka In The Morning. MileHiCon47
Becka In The Morning. MileHiCon47

A few brave souls did inquire, however, one notable individual was author C. R. Asay. Christauna, which is her given name, came up to me as I hung out by a table in the hallway between Thunderpass and Bristlecone conference rooms, and asked straight out about what was the deal with the head? As we talked, she chuckled and told me she wasn’t sure what kind of response she was going to get from a guy carrying around a mannequin head! But she thought there must have been “something there” [mentally, we’re talking…] since I was dressed up kinda nice (bright, royal blue Kenneth Cole shirt and gold Jacob Alexander tie) and had this rather intricate tie knot (yea, verily, the mythical Eldredge Knot), and I wasn’t smelly, nor looking at all scraggy or disheveled!

This goes down as the coolest introduction EVER.

Sorry, AaronMichaelRitchey.

Well, here’s the deal: a character in my novel, Voice, sports a gold tie in an

A Girl And Her Coffee. MileHiCon47
A Girl And Her Coffee. MileHiCon47

Eldredge Knot, and another character in Voice  (let’s just say) “deals with” a mannequin head. That’s all I’m saying on the latter.

But, by the same token, it was so cool that I didn’t “freak out” anyone at MileHiCon (though a Facebook friend or two felt a little nervous about my sanity/apparent predilections…). Mainly because I wasn‘t the craziest looking thing out there that weekend!

And that was most amusing!

I mean, had I seen someone like me, I would have gone up and asked out of total curiosity! To me, that “presentation” would be a weird “look.” One not in line with a fantasy and science fiction convention (though I’d spotted a cross-dresser or two, here and there, not that there’s anything wrong with that). I’d be compelled to ask. So not being asked was both a pleasure and a curiosity, if you get my reasoning.

A Moment Of Reflection Before All The Crazy. MileHiCon47
A Moment Of Reflection Before All The Crazy. MileHiCon47

I’d actually fit in into the whole Weltanschauung that is MileHiCon!

And though I did get looks—just like every other costumed attendee—no one steered clear of me. And I did get quit a few smiles!

Originally I’d just intended to use the mannequin as a prop at Autograph Alley (not that that made any difference…), but when I thought about it, I thought, this be the perfect opportunity to well…play. And I so rarely do that. “Cut loose,” and do something weird like this—or even dress up on Hallowe’en anymore (I did it once at work in my entire adult life). I just don’t do that kinda thing. Yeah, go ahead, analyze. So, this was the most perfect place and time to do such a thing, and I decided to “let it all hang out”… and just “own it.” My story, that is. It was all for promotion of Voice, my newest release. I’m pretty sure someone will remember “that guy with the head” and Google/DuckDuckGo me to see what’s up w’dat.

So that, readers, was my Evil Plan. There you go, Robin and Kathleen.

I had a blast meeting up with my writer friends…making new ones. I had a great

Alas, Poor Becka.... MileHiCon47
Alas, Poor Becka…. MileHiCon47

conversation with Laura Deal and Leonore and David Dvorkin (and thanks, again, Leonore, for all of your support! You are so kind and gracious!). Her and David are also doing some book publishing efforts, and one of them sounds quite interesting is Red Eyes. I liked the look and feel of that book (she had a copy with her). A creepy feeling murder mystery. At this Con I met their son, Daniel, who’s been coming to this Con since he was a wee lad, but he’s “wee” no longer and now sat on some of his own panels. It was cool to meet them all.

How nice and sweet and kind were many I met and talked with! I know I’ve said it a lot already, but it really was pure fun!

There are so many to mention, so forgive me if I don’t specifically call you all out, but know I do value our conversations and friendships.

Angie Hodapp–you are so kind and gracious! Thank you for our conversation and for that “introduction” (be nice if it really pans out)! That was “funny” and well-timed, given our conversation only seconds prior!

C. R. Asay—again, I have to mention, yours was simply the coolest introduction EVER–“I wasn’t sure what kind of response I was going to get from a guy walking around carrying a mannequin head, but…!”

Ed Bryant and John Stith—so good to see and catch up with the both of you!

The Eldredge Knot et Moi. MileHiCon47, October 23-25, 2015
The Eldredge Knot et Moi. MileHiCon47, October 23-25, 2015

Bob Williscroft…wow, a fascinating life you’ve lived! Was a pleasure making your acquaintance, sitting on panels with you, and running into you multiple times this weekend!

Kevin Ikenberry—wish you well on your upcoming retirement! Also was a pleasure making your acquaintance, sitting on panels with you, and running into you multiple times this weekend! Wish you all the best on your  novel, next year!

Kristi Helvig—I’m sure we’ve met before at another writers conference—you are so familiar (could be a past-life thing…)—but in any case, it was fun talking with you (again)!

And to everyone else I haven’t specifically mentioned (Shannon, the other Aaron, J.T., Mario, Carol, Alicia, Matt, OMG, OMG, vapor lock! Vapor Lock!) thank you for taking time out of your weekend to chat and interact! I wish you all well with all of your efforts!

Thanks to Rose Beetem and ALL the volunteers! Awesome effort!

Man, I’m looking forward to MileHiCon48!

**************

Do try to make my first dedicated book signing for Voice, November 7, from 1 – 3 p.m., at The Bookman, on 3163 W. Colorado Avenue, Colorado Springs, CO 80904.

Voice is a sexy, emotional thriller about a guy who falls in love with a voice in his head (and there are mannequins…)…but is so much more. It’s about what defines “love”? What defines a “relationship”? How are we all connected? Yeah, I do get metaphysical on your asses, but I also get sexy, uncomfortable, and gritty. Come on, stop by…I can pretty much guarantee you haven’t read anything like this. But it’s not for the easily offended. Just sayin’.

“Keep up the great work. Your writing is unlike anything else I’ve read, and I mean that in a good way.” Joseph Reininger, former Book Seller.

Related Article

MileHiCon46…or This Blog is Really All About Aaron Michael Ritchey (fpdorchak.wordpress.com)

Bite The Hand That Feeds Ya

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Pardon My Bark! (By Don DeBold (Flickr: Chihuahua Guard Dog) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
Pardon My Bark! (By Don DeBold [Flickr: Chihuahua Guard Dog] [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
Do you really understand what you’re asking for when you force a market value of $0.99 or even $2.99 for ebooks?

I read something the other week that again brought up the whole ebook v. paperbook argument. As a reader, low-cost is great, but as a creator of product (a writer), I can’t stand they way ebooks are priced. It cheapens the artist’s and packager’s (publisher’s) efforts—which, in the Indie world, is usually the same entity.

At a writer’s conference several years ago, this was brought up. In fact, it used to get brought up a fair amount when I was still attending conferences.

“Well, you’re not really creating a book, you know…it’s all electronic—it should be cheaper!”

Do you know what goes into creating a book? I don’t mean writing it, I mean creating the “package” we call “a book”?

I’m an Indie author, have never been traditional, and just take a look at what I have to go through to release a book! Click here.

Now…translate that to a huge corporation with salaried employees. With other books to release…with hugely talented editors and cover artists and all the other bells and whistles that go with running huge corporations and operations, not to mention all the administrative support—these people have lives to support (well, I do too…), so they damned well wanna get paid and have health care and other “minor” considerations, like a safe and comfortable environment in which to work (which involves other overhead costs, like building/office space rental, HVAC maintenance, insurances, et cetera)!

One editor with whom I last heard this argument discussed had said (words to the effect that) the actual book creation (the physical pages and cover) is almost the least of the “their problems” when it comes to making a book. You still have to commission an artist to do the cover, review the cover, edit the content, edit the cover, create and organize the content and cover, copyedit the content, proofread the content, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, there’s still a shitload of effort that needs to be completed even before a book is “typeset”/digitized and put to actual paper and bound.

So, okay, there’s no massive distribution or warehousing of physical books with ebooks. I get that. So if not $15 a book. $12, fine. But not $3, not 99 cents.

Again, please review what it takes to put out a book. And note that whether I put out an ebook or a physical trade paperback it still costs me the same to format it. The cover is only slightly cheaper because I don’t need the wrap-around (spine and back) cover. Everything else (like my editor friend said) remains the same. I still have to commission a cover artist.

Oh, and let’s not forget a very important part—the years it took some of us to write the thing! Yes, years!

So, really, charging only $0.99 for a book (or anything less than the retail price for the physical version) that took maybe 2-4 or more years from first word to shelf (digital or otherwise) is in my humble opinion a frigging crime. I’m all for $15 an ebook. Marketplace, however, dictates otherwise.

It’s like people with “plastic.”

If money is just “plastic” we tend to not really think of it as “money.” We really only tend to think of money as “money” when we hold the actual dollar bills in our hands…and this is how I think many view the Internet and things that one gets over the Internet: that everything over it is somehow not “real”…that things we get from it should be free.

For some odd reason we feel an indignant sense of entitlement with All-things Internet.

Why is that?

Someone has to manage and oversee The Internet. Someone has to get paid for keeping that electronic highway up and running. Why do some/many feel that anything we get over it should be cheap or free? Why do some/many feel that ebooks should be so cheap…or altogether free (and not to mention: “Hey, I bought the full-price paperback—I should get the ebook free!”)?

Is that maybe because you think that ebooks aren’t real books?

That they’re just weightless little electrons (even electrons [protons and neutrons] have weight)? Like “plastic money”…ebooks aren’t…real.

Aren’t…tangible.

You’re iPhone and iPad are real. They’re tangible. You can certainly hold those toys in your hands. Nobody seems to have a problem shelling out all the cash that goes with owning a cell phone.

But an ebook?

Nawwww…it’s electronic. It ain’t real.

With a physical book or your iPhone you have to put it somewhere. You can’t just ignore it. It’s something.

You can’t drop an ebook.

If an ebook falls…does it make a sound?

No.

Therefore it’s not real.

If you drop your iPad or Nokia people have to peel you off the ceiling and call in a crash cart.

You’re not worried about the Internet breaking when you drop your toy. It’s ubiquitous. So much Internet content is free. But your handheld toy wasn’t.

So, next time you get indignant over the price of an ebook, keep this in mind: we sweat and toil over our “products” for years…then sweat and toil and spend all kinds of money and effort to create a really cool package—called “a book,” whether it’s an ebook or a “real” book—so you can enjoy something fun to read. Be moved. Informed. Whatever. Taken away from your real life. Writers write so we can realize this crazy, driving force within us into reality…only to have our efforts cheapened and dismissed by “The Internet.” And we writers know that not even the reader’s time is “free.” There are always trade-offs.

One way or the other…somebody always pays.

Mindfulness

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This past weekend I saw a 60 Minutes spot on the current movement of The Supremely Stressed to gain a more “mindful” approach to their lives. To forgo their electronic leashes and all the stress that accompanies today’s lives for their own thoughts and presence-of-mind. Peacefulness.

I find this interesting on many levels.

If you go to the above link, you’ll find you’ll be immediately pummeled by a loud and frigging obnoxious commercial for 30 annoying seconds. Then the 60 Minute spot starts and after mere seconds you are again redirected into the same fricking annoying soul-sucking commercial for another 30 seconds! At least my viewing of it was. I couldn’t X-out of that damned video fast enough.

For real, CBS? Did you not watch your own spot on “Mindfulness”?

My own stress level at the launching of that commercial shot through the roof.

A curious point brought up in the segment was that those creating, marketing, and promoting the very things that lead to elevated stress levels—the iPads, the cell phones, the very technology being eschewed in this retreat—are those being schooled in this new movement.

The condensed version of the 60 Minute segment is that one focuses on the present.

Does not multitask.

Learns meditation.

Becomes comfortable with their own thoughts.

There are various methods for doing all of the above (e.g., focusing on one’s own breathing), but what I wanted to get into was not the mechanics of it all, but that it is so cool that people are really “getting it” that we need to modify our behavior. That doing things like this makes one calmer, more open to listening, cooperating with each other, and that one becomes nicer.

I’m far from perfect, but for most of my life I’ve tried to live by these principles…but, admittedly, it’s not easy in today’s world. It’s like the proverbial Chinese Water Torture…when you constantly get pinged by anything—even the most calmest of us— eventually it’s easy to, well, snap. There are so many different directions I could go with breaking the whys and wherefores out…but, again, that’s not what I wanted to do, here. I just wanted to bring out the movement. To show that this retreat and other methods out there are showing us that there is a better way to live our lives and to hopefully plant a seed in those out there reading this to find your own way to a calmer path in your own lives.

You don’t need to have a bigger and better cell phone. That promotion at the expense of your happiness.

Try this…I dare you:

Sit down to eat any meal—at home—all by yourself. No distractions. No conversation. No music. Silence. Just you and your food. In a quiet location.

You might be surprised at how calming and enjoyable you find it.

Platform?

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Now, This Platform Has Legs! (By Tu Foto [originally posted to Flickr as Acrylic Heels] [CC BY 2.0 {http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0}], via Wikimedia Commons)
Now, This Platform Has Legs! (By Tu Foto [originally posted to Flickr as Acrylic Heels] [CC BY 2.0 {http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0}], via Wikimedia Commons)
Wow, how things can change!

You know, when I first heard “platform,” it meant “something you stood for,” like fighting school bullying. Even for fiction writers. Fiction writers were also told they needed “their platform.” And “social media” was nowhere in any of the definitions I’d heard. In fact, it was specifically called out as not being a “platform.”

Now I hear, “platform” is your social media stance.

Wow, seriously? How did things change so drastically? If you look at the two links, you’ll see Jane Friedman’s definitions are from 2012, and Jann Alexander’s are from June 2015 (with her definition coming from Karlyn Hixson, Marketing Manager at St. Martin’s).

So…as you can plainly see from Jane’s first sentence, everyone defines it differently.

But, whether or not the definition did change (it very well might have)…this new version of a fiction author’s platform actually makes far more sense to me…and in today’s Electronic Age, one I can’t really argue with…at least for fiction writers. If you have some other method to your madness in getting your words out there, more power to you!

And, feel free to be picky—you don’t have to do everything.

Pick what you feel comfortable with and focus on those. If you don’t want a Google profile because Google requires an electronic DNA sample, fine, skip Google. I mess around a lot in Twitter and post blogs (obviously), have an Author page on Faceplace, and frequent Pinterest. I also have a Goodreads and LinkedIn presence, but don’t spend too much time there (it’s primarily a matter of time). I really tried to put out a newsletter, but I just do not have the time not only to write the danged thing, but to format and mess around with layouts (yes, I’m sure once you get the layout, you just keep it, but still…). And I simply don’t have enough info to put into a newsletter. I put that info into my blogs.

So, if “platforms” now mean social media, hooray for fiction writers, cause if just made life a smidge easier—but don’t feel like you have to do everything or be everywhere at once. Create those accounts you want and focus on those aspects of social media you’re really good at. In other words, do as much or as little as you see fit.

This is a definition of “platform” that has some legs for fiction writers!

#Platform

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New Terminator Genisys Trailer

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Here is the new Terminator franchise movie trailer, released yesterday.

I dunno.

I loved the first Terminator, it’s one of my favorite movies, but the others haven’t really hit me like the first one (though T2 was okay). And when I look at the faces in this trailer…all I see are the original faces from the first movie. And hadn’t they already effected a different outcome for something before that something happened? Now, they’re gonna do it again? Where does it end?

Sigh.

But…I’m open-minded.

Sooo, I’ll probably go see it….