Dawno's Travels in Cyberspace

Last night I went for an interesting (to me, at least) voyage around cyberspace. Since the voyage meandered a bit my comments about that voyage will take a few turns, twists and roundabouts. I will spare the sedentary the need to travel along with me by posting under the cut.

Prologue

I began the evening (after Glenn went up to bed) by reading Neil Gaiman's blog. He had an couple of interesting links on his latest post and I was planning to go peruse them after I'd done my 'regular rounds'. I wandered over to teh'box's Books forum and clicked again on the post about the Science Fiction Writers of America 'sting' against a publisher called PublishAmerica. I had found the story fascinating and was going to get into it in more depth. Esseilte posted a link on teh'box to a page by the author of Atlanta Night's Chapter 11, Arthur Burt which led me to a link where I was able to order the book from a press called Lulu and it should be here soon. I believe you can forgo the pleasure of buying a trade paperback copy by just downloading the 284 page manuscript in PDF.I won't go into too many details (yet - you've been warned) but a number of SFWA authors collaborated on a book called Atlanta Nights and submitted it to PublishAmerica. (you may have noted that I have not linked to PublishAmerica...that will come later).

So, back to Neil's blog. He mentions, in this post, that a guy named Scaryduck is going to publish a book derived from his blog (sound familiar?). Neil says, "Scaryduck is going to be self-publishing some of the highlights of the Scaryduck blog and more. http://scaryduck.blogspot.com/2005/01/tales-of-mirth-and-woe.html. (Scaryduck is the kind of blog that you must not read while drinking liquids or they'll be nasally ejected and all over the screen and keyboard in no time.) (This is good self-publishing, and not the PublishAmerica kind.)" So I see a couple of "keywords" here..."self-publishing highlights of (his) blog" and "not the PublishAmerica kind". I've just read about the PublishAmerica thing on teh'box so this story is getting legs all over teh'web, and the idea of self-publishing, successfully, from one's own blog -- well let's just say I own a copy of Dancing Barefoot.

I open first the sting link and then the Scaryduck link, leaving open multiple tabs in my Firefox browser as more links collect and go jumping back and forth beween tabs...*whew*

I will try to sort out this journey in a more linear fashion, but trust me, it was very much a stream of consciousness type experience when it was happening.

Journey, Part the First

Scaryduck, huh? I have read posts on teh'box as well as back on the now defunct WWdN Soapbox, may it rest in peace, by someone who's SN is Scaryduck. I go to the blog. This guy is very funny. He has written a post about an adventure on a farm that made me laugh loud enough to wake the SO. "Could this be the same Scaryduck we have at teh'box?" I think to myself. I might have said it outloud, I talk to myself sometimes. So far nobody is answering so I guess I'm not ready for the funny farm yet...maybe.

Brief Detour:There's a voice in my head that is the voice of a fictional detective. Somedays it's Stephanie Plum, somedays it's Miss Marple; occasionally I get Kinsey Millhone or VI Warshawski (although VI has gotten linked to Kathleen Turner who hasn't aged too well and kinda creeps me out). I've had Sherlock Holmes too but that voice can't decide if it's Brent Spiner's Data version of Holmes or Basil Rathbone's. I usually tell Sherlock to shut up and let one of the ladies speak. ahem - back to the main road

The voice of my inner detective says, "Go to teh'box. Do a search for Scaryduck, find one of his posts and click on the link to his blog" I do that and voila, its the same link that Gaiman posted...I'm thinking that unless teh'box Scaryduck is an imposter just linking to the "real" Scaryduck's blog, (and why???) then they're the same. Kinda cool. He was also winner of Guardian Unlimited's Best British blog competition Sept 2002.

You start to see the way the links are just pulling me in all different directions, don't you. And I bet that's never happened to you now, has it? hmmmm?

Journey, Part the Second

I spend a good hour or so in Scaryduck's blog. Then I decide to follow some of his links. I read a biographical bit, and then go on to one that really catches my eye diamond geezer, I mean, how can I not go look at anything with the word geezer in it? From there I follow a link to what the geezer calls his homepage which is really another 2 choices (read the miscellany, it's fun - although if you're not from England some of the references will make no sense). Whew, I'm getting exhausted. Speaking of exhausted adding all the tags for these links is really a chore. I do it all for you, so you better appreciate it or nobody gets frosted sugar cookies for a week.

Journey, Part the Third

I decide that I want to read more about the SFWA thing. I go back to Neil's blog and follow the link he put under the words "PublishAmerica" back up in that same bit about Scaryduck (see how this worked?). I end up at a place called Making Light. This link has lots of info about the PA sting. Before I go deep into the links provided I wander to the homepage of "Making Light's" blogger Neilson Hayden to find out more about her. Turns out Neilson wrote a chapter in the book (have to read well into this post to find that out).

I go out to one of her links on the "authoritative version of the project and it's origins" (quoting what Neilson said in her blog) and find myself in a forum kinda like teh'box, but by and for writers. I get a bit excited. I immediately register and post a "hi, I'm new here" post on the newbie board. I spend about an hour lurking about, reading all I can find about how the SFWA sting came to fruition. I also go thru some of the other forums about writing, writers, publishers, frustrations and writers block. These are all real people. I'm thinking this could be helpful if I ever want to get my ass in gear and actually do something about my writing. I think I could write. My problem is that I can't think of anything to write! I also think that I may not be cut out for fiction, I can't seem to get my imagination in gear but I enjoy writing about things I've researched.

Journey, Part the Fourth

I go back to the Making Light blog to follow another link and yet more hours are spent reading posts. I see that there is a fellow who had his first book Sock Monkey Blues published by PublishAmerica. It's listed on Amazon, a trade paperback priced at approx $22. He has a second novel,Until the Last Dog Dies also in trade paperback that he sold through another publisher and it's only aprox $11.

I read more (the thread is 16 pages and I'm only half through it by this time). I learn that PublishAmerica won't give Amazon their discount so it impacts PA published sales, that PA authors have a forum and they constantly go out to each others' books on Amazon and post reviews. It's all so fascinating since it's an inside glimpse into a completely new world. Yet another link sends me to another place where writers (and maybe some published authors) are posting called "Mindsight Forum". I'm practically in heaven, there are at least 2 boards I can go to to read stuff by writers (I almost said 'other' writers there, see I'm beginning to get warm to this idea).

Journey, Part the Fifth, end of the road...for now

It's getting late, around midnight, but I want to make sure I don't miss out on anything and so I go back to Esseilte's post. I follow the link that leads to the infamus PublishAmerica slur on Science Fiction and Fantasy writers that got the whole ball rolling. They put this in a website called Author's Market. Careful surfing leads to to find that this site belongs to PublishAmerica, so I click on over to their website. The old saying "If it seems to good to be true, it probably isn't" comes to mind. I am so glad I took this journey. I've learned a lot and enjoyed the trip. If I ever do write something I think might be publishable I now have several places I can get help and advice and maybe even an agent!

Afterward

I got up around 10 and started this around 11. It's 5:00. Not only have I been writing but I've been going back to check links and making sure I remembered things correctly, I've done several re-reads and been editing. I've not sat straight through at the computer, I've had some lunch, a couple cigarrettes and had to stretch a couple times, but I've really had fun doing this. Makes me wish I could figure out how to make a decent living writing because I really enjoy it.

Thanks for travelling to the end of the line, hope you liked the journey.

Late breaking news the PublishAmerica sting has been posted to Slashdot.