KatTales

This is my house. Right now. We are having the weird linseed oil wash removed from the fir beams using an environmentally-friendly glass-blasting process.

This ranks right up there among the “what the hell have we done?” life experiences.

Yes, those are blossoms, and I kid you not, I took these pictures an hour and a half ago outside my office.

I suppose if all the snow melts, we can always have the beach Olympics.

If you’d like to buy any of these books, please consider not purchasing from that online outfit in Seattle (for reasons why, see here, and here). There are plenty of independents out there. Online, for Canada, the big-box alternative is, of course, Chapters. I’m hearing good things about The Book Depository as well (among them, free international shipping). At least one of the books below is a Macmillan (Tor) title. See my previous post for context.

Storm Front, by Jim Butcher

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski

This book was beautifully written and contained many lovely passages. For the most part, I found it captivating. The ending wasn’t quite for me, but this is simply a matter of the kind of reader I am.

Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

One man’s admirable quest to educate the world’s poorest children. While not a perfect book, a must-read.

Wizard’s First Rule, by Terry Goodkind

I’m never certain if I want to start a really long fantasy series, but I decided to check this one out. I was quite enjoying myself, although my gore-meter occasionally ticked a bit high. An interesting premise, strong world-building, plenty of adventure. About two thirds of the way through, I was intending to keep moving on with the series, and then the main character was put through 60+ pages of physical and mental torture. This, unfortunately, left me deflated. I know as writers we’re supposed to make our characters suffer, and I understand what the writer was trying to do here. But for some strange reason, this pushed one of my personal reader buttons – again, purely a matter of taste. Other readers will feel differently.

On Friday night, Amazon pulled all Macmillan-published authors’ books from the Amazon.com site. You can still see the books listed, but you can’t buy them from Amazon.com, only from third-parties. The dispute was over e-book pricing, but as a bargaining chip, Amazon decided to pull print books as well. This is like using a bazooka to swat a fly.

I’m not published. I’m not an industry insider. I’m a reader, and as a hope-to-eventually-be-published writer, an interested party.

I don’t dispute Amazon’s right to not sell certain product. I don’t have a strong opinion either way about the value of Macmillan’s proposal, because I don’t know enough about the industry. I do know that a lot of authors I know and respect are now having their income streams slammed by a dispute in which they have no voice at the table.

I disagree with readers who say “Amazon is protecting the consumer by demanding a $9.99 price point”. As a reader, I did not understand the costs associated with a) writing a book b) publishing a book. But if one takes the Macmillan statement below at face value, Amazon is actually turning down potentially lower pricing. This is not consumer protection. From this consumer’s perspective it smells of oligopoly price-fixing. At what point does it veer into anti-trust?

This is not a case of authors being greedy. Most authors don’t even control the sale price of their books – once their contract is signed with a publisher, that control is out of their hands. If your sales numbers are in the four figures (not uncommon), you’re not making much as an author. Especially if the book took you more than a year to write.

In my opinion, this is a case of a near-monopoly distributor putting the smackdown on someone they are negotiating with, and in the process hurting a lot of authors who have absolutely nothing to do with the dispute.

In a free market, Amazon is perfectly within their rights. I also have the right not to purchase products from a company whose negotiating tactics I find distasteful. I will never buy a Kindle. I will be placing book orders elsewhere. In support of the many hard-working authors I know whose livelihoods have been impacted by Amazon’s heavy-handedness, I will be taking my business elsewhere.

Link roundup:

Macmillan statement

John Scalzi

Tobias Buckell

Charles Stross

Jay Lake

Robert J. Sawyer

A legal take by C.E. Petit (via Charles Stross)

Andrew Wheeler (also via Charles Stross), points out this isn’t the first time.

Updates:

[1:45 PM] Edward Champion with more links to monopoly & price discrimination resources

[4:35 PM] An update from Amazon.

[8:30 PM] Scott Westerfeld

[10:15 PM] John Scalzi’s highly entertaining evisceration of Amazon’s PR failures.

I’ve been tweeting for half the week about “Sooper-sekrit Saturday”. This event was secret because it wasn’t strictly legal.

I was only sent the location 4 hours ahead of time.

Why the hush-hush? What den of iniquity did I step into? Should I be locked up as a danger to myself & others?

We’re talking underground dining here. Underground dining is like a gourmet dinner party at someone’s home. The food is cooked for you by strangers, you may also be dining with strangers, but it’s not a restaurant. The reason it’s not strictly legal is that it violates city by-laws regarding restaurant permits and health codes.

I went with a group of 6 friends. We were joined by a jazz singer and an artist, so the conversation was really interesting.

Here’s the menu:

Thai beef salad

Scallop with picked fennel & spicy aioli, scallop ceviche, scallop with miso dressing, leek & apple

Slow cooked fennel pork belly, endive with vinaigrette, mashed potatos

Pink grapefruit sorbet with sliced candied ginger & Campari

Sake sablefish with pickled vegetable & coconut yam cake

Dark chocolate mousse with raspberry coulis

Bring your own wine

It was a really interesting experience. I think I freaked chef Steve out a bit by showing up 10 minutes early – I badly misjudged my taxi (on a positive note, Vancouver waiting time for cabs is down from 20 minutes to 5 minutes). So he put me to work lighting candles. The rest of the guests arrived, so did a sous-chef/helper, and the meal was on. The advantages to this arrangement are great food and a private space where you can actually hear the conversation around you. Plus no markup on the wine. The cons are that if you’re really enjoying yourself, the building’s noise rules mean no more partying after 11 PM, so sayonara everyone.

Overall, a positive experience.

[Update: 4 PM] Pictures, upon request.

[View with PicLens]

It’s no secret I have a weakness for plush toys. I was never a Barbie girl. The only reason I don’t own more is 16 years of living on a boat.

Which is why last night’s impulse buy should come as no surprise: Mukmuk – the littlest mascot of that immense juggernaut rolling into town in two weeks.

He’s an endangered Vancouver Island marmot. He’s a foodie. And he’s the ultimate underdog: initially designed as only a virtual mascot to guide kids around the website. He was supposed to only ever be a cyber-sidekick to the marquee mascots, and not have a physical presence.

Now, the cynic in me might say, “what a masterful marketing & merchandising campaign to get Mukmuk voted into physicality”.

But you know what? I don’t care. He’s cute. Getting unexpectedly yanked from one plane of existence to another also resonates incredibly well with my current WIP. I like his story. And I’m a sucker for an underdog.

So meet Mukmuk. Maybe we’ll be seeing you around town over the next few weeks.

A commenter just mentioned they were looking for advice on writing a cover letter for a Viable Paradise application. So I thought, why the heck not: here’s the cover letter that went along with my successful application.

Above all, I believe applications are primarily chosen based on the quality of the writing sample you submit. So I wouldn’t fret overly much about the cover letter. I wouldn’t be surprised or offended to discover my cover letter had been tossed aside or skimmed at best, depending on the size of the workshop’s slush pile.

The key notes to hit in my opinion are: be polite, briefly describe your writing sample, the type of writing you do, any past workshop experience, and why you are interested in VP (or whatever workshop you are applying for) in particular. If there are any other instructions on required information to include on the workshop’s website, follow the instructions.

The first bits are me being polite. Note that the title of my WIP is not “Title”, but I’m still feeling a little shy about it, so I took it out of this post, along with certain resume details. :-)

Dear MVSFA,

Please find enclosed my submission for Viable Paradise 2008.

Below is the description of the work. I chose not to do a hook-summary as I would for an agent or editor query. Mine was a novel excerpt, but others submitted short stories.

The submission consists of two chapters from my fantasy novel, Title. I am now working on its second draft, and probably the third by the time the week of Viable Paradise arrives. Title is my second novel. My first was a young adult fantasy, currently making the rounds of agents and editors.

This next paragraph’s all about my prior workshop experience and why to please-oh-please let me in to VP.

I am interested in attending Viable Paradise because I value the in-person feedback and focused, immersed experience that it promises to provide. Also, my novel is at just the right stage to benefit from outside feedback. My workshop experience consists of an online mentorship at the University of British Columbia’s Booming Ground Creative Writing Program, and half-day master classes at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference. I am a member of Marsha Skrypuch’s KidCrit writing group on the CompuServe Books & Writers community. I have been workshopping chapters of Title with KidCrit because I found their feedback on my first novel very valuable, and it has been for this one as well. But as the group’s focus is not SF/F, and Title seems to be skewing towards the older end of YA or even adult fiction, I feel the instructors at Viable Paradise will give me feedback from different perspectives that may be just as valuable to my education as a writer.

Very brief paragraph about me.

When I’m not writing I work three days a week as a software engineer for Local Large Game Studio, a video game maker. In the past, I’ve worked for Renowned Animation Studio, where the most important thing I learned was that the story means everything. I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada, on my sailboat.

Me being polite again.

Thank you very much for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Katrina Archer

I suppose it’s safe to admit now that I had not actually read any of the instructors’ work prior to submitting my application (to my knowledge – I don’t know which authors I’d read prior might have been edited by the editors on the list). I was worried about this, but for me, the workshop was all about getting feedback and criticism on my WIP, and learning something, not about rubbing shoulders with big-name authors (although I did get to do the shoulder-rubbing, and it was really fun! Ahem. Shoulder-rubbing in the metaphorical sense, I mean. Not that the other kind isn’t fun either…). After getting accepted, I promptly went out and tried to buy at least one work by each of the instructors, although here in Canada that wasn’t possible in all cases. This was also so I could be polite at the workshop. Us Canadians. You know. Polite. :-)

I’ve never done this before: here are the blog stats for KatTales over the last few years.

Obviously I’m not going to hit the big-time anytime soon, but that wasn’t the reason I started this blog. I am happy with how the numbers are trending, and I just wanted to say thank you for coming by and taking the time to read and hang out here.

Thanks!

Looking for a good SFF writing workshop? Viable Paradise has just opened their application process.

I learned tons from VP XII, and made lots of writing friends to boot. Well worth the price of admission if you can afford it. And who can resist Martha’s Vineyard? Mmm. Deep-fried scallops. Deep-fried macaroni. Deep-fried writing brain.

The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman

Seminal SF classic.

The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga

The Gargoyle, by Andrew Davidson

World War Z, by Max Brooks

I’m usually the last person to go in for zombie entertainment of any kind, which is why I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I could not put it down.

The Android’s Dream, by John Scalzi

It’s hard not to like any book that dares to start with a fart. Although my Canadian paperback edition suffered from an overabundance of typos, for some reason. A great read regardless.