Author: Doyce

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Optimism, Action, and How To Be The Neighborhood Pulp Hero

What’s this? A pulp action author picks up Spirit of the Century and gets inspired.

To go back to the original pulps, the writers of Spirit of the Century got it right. In the 1930s, if you joined the Doc Savage fan club, you’d be sent a membership card, on the back of which was the “Doc Savage Code:”

1. Let me strive, every moment of my life, to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it.

2. Let me think of the right, and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice.

3. Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage.

4. Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do.

5. Let me do right to all, and wrong no man.

The author springboards from this example and a great Harry Chapin quote from the book itself, to talk about how you can make changes in your neighborhood and your life – how to ‘be a pulp hero.’

It’s a fine piece. I recommend checking it out.

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Penguin demonstrates it can be taught

Penguin Reaches out to Literary Bloggers.

Last week, literary bloggers around the country debated the SXSW Festival’s “New Think for Old Publishers” panel that included Penguin marketing director, John Fagan.

The result was a wake-up call to the publishers on the panel – a debate that was described by my lovely wife as “brutal”. Since then Penguin Group USA has invited bloggers to participate in an online forum to “establish clearer ground rules for how we can best work with the blogging community.”

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Updates for 2009-03-28

  • Exercise for the day: shoveling a metric assload of snow. First time the shovel’s been out this year for anything but threatening neighbors. #
  • Today, my hate-sporks are directed at the asshole across the street who never shares his snowblower. *sporkporkSPORK* #
  • RT @thecreativepenn #ideasfestival #ideabook “Look to gaming to see a space where people are not constrained by the old forms.” Word. #
  • RT @kate_eltham “The role of editor and publisher is to build and enrich the community that exists around the author, and that’s a huge job” #
  • More Great stuff from @kate_eltham “The hierarchy of print is becoming flatter as reader and writer take on more active and engaged roles.” #
  • RT @kate_eltham “Redefine content to include community. As the value of content approaches 0 due to piracy, the value of community increases #
  • RT @kate_eltham The social roles behind the book are being revealed through the communities around online publishing. #
  • RT @thecreativepenn #ideasfestival #ideabook the idea that a text is “finished” has a lot to do with the ‘objectness’ of a book #
  • This one’s for Artillery_MKV: RT @kate_eltham Libraries have already realized the importance of community over collections. #
  • More @glecharles : I agree in theory with @kate_eltham’s tweet, but in practice most Pubs/Editors/Agents REALLY need to skill-up to do it. #
  • Thought for tech-savvy authors already creating/managing your own web ‘self’ – you could get work as other, less-techy author’s ‘curators’. #
  • There’s a place in the coming changes for someone who knows what an author should do with new tech: if only in educating Luddite publishers. #
  • Must remember this quote from @UnclePilot: “I’m having a “Format C: ” kind of day.” #
  • Discard 99 of every 100 adverbs. This includes “with a” phrases, like “said, with a smile.” Ugh. #writeradv #
  • RT @trinamlee Write what you love, not just for the market. It is much more rewarding to love your creations than to just hope for a payout. #
  • You know what? Here’s some #writeradv : Read. Read read read read read. #
  • Am out of soda. And dog food. Might need to leave the house. /cower #
  • http://www.onesentence.org/ True stories, told in one sentence. Brilliant. #
  • Adrift: The old man is my translator and bodyguard – he’s originally from a colony world. The guide.. http://tinyurl.com/d6p6sx #
  • Man I hate the #BSG episodes with the Pegasus admiral in them. Which is suppose is the point. #
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Updates for 2009-03-28

  • Exercise for the day: shoveling a metric assload of snow. First time the shovel’s been out this year for anything but threatening neighbors. #
  • Today, my hate-sporks are directed at the asshole across the street who never shares his snowblower. *sporkporkSPORK* #
  • RT @thecreativepenn #ideasfestival #ideabook “Look to gaming to see a space where people are not constrained by the old forms.” Word. #
  • RT @kate_eltham “The role of editor and publisher is to build and enrich the community that exists around the author, and that’s a huge job” #
  • More Great stuff from @kate_eltham “The hierarchy of print is becoming flatter as reader and writer take on more active and engaged roles.” #
  • RT @kate_eltham “Redefine content to include community. As the value of content approaches 0 due to piracy, the value of community increases #
  • RT @kate_eltham The social roles behind the book are being revealed through the communities around online publishing. #
  • RT @thecreativepenn #ideasfestival #ideabook the idea that a text is “finished” has a lot to do with the ‘objectness’ of a book #
  • This one’s for Artillery_MKV: RT @kate_eltham Libraries have already realized the importance of community over collections. #
  • More @glecharles : I agree in theory with @kate_eltham’s tweet, but in practice most Pubs/Editors/Agents REALLY need to skill-up to do it. #
  • Thought for tech-savvy authors already creating/managing your own web ‘self’ – you could get work as other, less-techy author’s ‘curators’. #
  • There’s a place in the coming changes for someone who knows what an author should do with new tech: if only in educating Luddite publishers. #
  • Must remember this quote from @UnclePilot: “I’m having a “Format C: ” kind of day.” #
  • Discard 99 of every 100 adverbs. This includes “with a” phrases, like “said, with a smile.” Ugh. #writeradv #
  • RT @trinamlee Write what you love, not just for the market. It is much more rewarding to love your creations than to just hope for a payout. #
  • You know what? Here’s some #writeradv : Read. Read read read read read. #
  • Am out of soda. And dog food. Might need to leave the house. /cower #
  • http://www.onesentence.org/ True stories, told in one sentence. Brilliant. #
  • Adrift: The old man is my translator and bodyguard – he’s originally from a colony world. The guide.. http://tinyurl.com/d6p6sx #
  • Man I hate the #BSG episodes with the Pegasus admiral in them. Which is suppose is the point. #
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Simon & Schuster reducing e-book royalties

Simon & Schuster reducing e-book royalties | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home.

Doesn’t make any sense.

The main thing publishers do for writers today is handle the complexities of publishing.

The complexities of publishing are vanishing.

The complexities of e-publishing were never there to begin with. What the blue hell do publishers —

How can they justify something like that, based on services provided?

Edit to add: Further info in the comments.

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Victory!

I’ve have tweaked the single-post page layout so that the comments appears alongside the original post.  This (in my opinion) lends both the relative importance they deserve, and conveys a kind of “margin notes” design that appeals.

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The Un-fun Parts of a Blizzard

Me: You know what sucks? Shoveling snow sucks.

Brain: You know what’s going to suck a lot more than that?

Me: … not really.

Brain: That frozen waterfall on the side of your house.

Me: Wha…

Brain: Or rather, replacing the blown-out brass sprinkler valve that the frozen waterfall originates from.

Me: No, what sucks is you. You suck.

Brain: Me?

Me: Why didn’t you tell me to shut that valve off until almost midnight last night?

Brain: Why didn’t you listen to me two weeks ago, when I told you not to turn it on in the first place, because there’s always a blizzard near the end of March?

Me: … Touche.

Brain: It’s Touché.

Me: Whatever. Why the HELL do they put a valve like that on the outside of the house, anyway? That’s the second time it’s frozen and burst in seven years.

Brain: Because if they put it on the inside, it would flood the house when something like this happened.

Me: But something like this wouldn’t HAPPEN if they put it on the inside of the —

Brain: Shh. Don’t speak. You know what happens when you speak.

Me: But —

Brain: Shh. Look, someone updated on Twitter.

Me: Oooh…