Steven Saus

Links

A few Saturday morning links:

Samurai vs. Shadows, via burger_eater.  I almost skimmed past this, as I don’t generally watch a lot of YouTube videos in people’s blogs.  I’m glad I clicked this one.  It is both beautiful and awesome.

Judgmental Ostrich Bookseller, via otterdance.  In which the LOLstrich gets its intellectual snark on.  I was amused.

So You Want to Make an eBook, by Steven Saus.  Steven converted Goldfish Dreams to an e-book for me, and did a nice job.  He’s working on a how-to guide for writers who want to create/convert their own work and publish electronically, and is posting that guide online one piece at a time.  This is the introduction.

Friend Promo

I’m very fortunate. I’ve got a lot of very nifty friends and acquaintances, both the real-world and the online variety, and sometimes I’ve just got to show them off.

To that end, I’m declaring this an open “Promote Your Friends” thread.  Please feel free to post whatever cool projects or accomplishments your own friends have been up to lately.  (If you’re on my jimchines.com blog and your comment doesn’t show up, let me know and I’ll rescue it from moderation.)

Let the promo begin!

  • My daughter Clara was promoted from purple belt to third brown in Sanchin-Ryu on Monday.
  • Seanan McGuireis currently in Australia at Worldcon, where she’s a finalist for the Campbell Award for best new writer.  Between her Toby Daye books and the success of her zombie thriller Feed, I think she’s got a good shot at bringing home the tiara.
  • Lynne Thomas, editor of Chicks Dig Time Lords (and my archivist!), has a new project: Whedonistas: A celebration of the worlds of Joss Whedon by the women who love them.
  • My friend Steven Saus has a story online called The Burning Servant, part of a chain story project founded by Mike Stackpole.  (Stackpole sounds like he’s doing a lot of interesting stuff … I need to check that out!)
  • Elizabeth Moon is a well-known SF writer, but she’s also a very good blogger.  She wrote a great post about gender bias in publishing last week.
  • John Kovalic provides a very nice, pointed comment on race and gaming in this Dork Tower strip.  (Check out the follow-up strip, too.)[1. I’ve never met Kovalic or talked to him much online, but we swapped a few e-mails and he provided a great blurb for Goblin Quest, and I figure that’s good enough to include him here!]

Finally, my author friends have some new books out.

Your turn.  What nifty things have your friends been doing?

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Almost there! Stay on target…

I’m so close to wrapping up the second draft of The Snow Queen’s Shadow … meaning my brain has little room for anything except getting through these final few scenes.  It took a supreme act of willpower to not call in sick today so I could finish.

There’s still a lot of work left to do on this thing.  Basically, I need to splice in another full plotline and do a lot more worldbuilding.  I’m also trying to make sure I include closure for plot threads from the entire series, not just from this book.

This is the second series I’ve finished.  I’m proud of how I wrapped things up with Goblin War, but the the princess series is a little more complex.  Not to mention having three times the protagonists.  But I’m feeling fairly confident.  The book isn’t there yet, but I have an idea what I need to do to get it there.

So while I obsess over trying to write the perfect ending, enjoy this functional LEGO sniper rifle, built by Jack Streat.  I’d probably want to double the rubber bands to get better range, but still — this thing has a working clip, tripod, and scope, and appears to be pretty darn accurate for a LEGO rifle.  (Thanks to Steven Saus for the link.)

Friday Updates

Sunday (3/28) at 2:00, I’ll be speaking at the Portage District Library.  There will be a public interview with John Wenger of Kazoo Books, some reading, some open Q&A, and some book selling/signing.  So a little bit of everything.  Stop by and say hi if you’re in the neighborhood.

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The full results from my novel survey are now posted at my web site.  This write-up includes a link to the raw data (third paragraph), for those who wanted to check it out.  I’m delighted with the number of people who participated, and with the results of the study … but I’m also glad to be done with it for now.

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Author Steven Saus, my roommate at Millennicon, took my data and ran it through some heavy-duty stats software and has started posting his own results (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), including this nifty graph showing the changing trend over time from submitting-to-the-publisher to submitting-to-the-agent.

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Thanks to everyone who offered their thoughts on the raffle vs. auction discussion.  Those who raised the legal issues were right to do so.  Michigan requires a permit to run a raffle, and as an individual I’m not allowed to apply for that permit.  However, it doesn’t sound like what I want to do actually qualifies as a raffle, though I’m not 100% sure — I’ve received different answers depending on who I talk to.

I think I know how I’m going to do this, and I’m hopeful it will work out well.  Will post the details next week.

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And because it’s Friday, have a LEGO shot.  This is the entrance to a dwarven mine, built by Tom Snellen.  Click the pic for the full gallery and close-ups, including a shot of that wizard and what looks like a goblin helper.  (Okay, it’s an orc, but only because LEGO hasn’t gotten around to making goblin minifigs yet.  A real goblin would already be back in his lair enjoying a bowl of wizard stew.)