This 'n That (And On Your Face... Or Not)

A laconic young male of my acquaintance, when asked by his father where he had been and what he had been doing, would reply evasively, "This 'n That."

This is not about him.

It's a heads up about author-related items of interest to writers, but there is no uniting theme.

A few years ago, as an indirect result of affordable medical care legislation, TEIGIT (an entertainment industry collective) found it unaffordable to offer group dental insurance to entertainment industry professionals.

Now, Authors Guild members are able to join the Book Industry Health Insurance Program (BIHIP) to buy health insurance with the Lighthouse Insurance Group (LIG).

https://www.authorsguild.org/industry-advocacy/authors-guild-partners-with-lig-solutions-to-provide-members-health-insurance-options/

Authors Guild dues are on a sliding scale according to the writing income of the member, but most members pay the minimum annual dues of  around $150 per annum.

Refer a friend link. (I have no idea whether or not this benefits this author. I doubt it, but disclose it.)
https://go.authorsguild.org/join?rc=57e0498b09194644

Additional disclaimer: Authors Guild is borderline political, but so far, not so much that dues are not tax deductible.

Authors and other creators who feel like they are being mugged every day by pirates might enjoy the Authors Guild ongoing advocacy against the allegedly lawless Internet Archive.
https://www.authorsguild.org/industry-advocacy/ia-national-emergency-library-update/

The law office of Littler Mendelson PC has a rather useful, State by State chart of where face mask wearing is recommended or required... or not at all.  You don't have to have anything sitting on your face in Oklahoma, Iowa, or Montana. Which is good to know.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/documents.lexology.com/57310a69-1d92-460f-a21f-72a9929052c7.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAVYILUYJ754JTDY6T&Expires=1592693204&Signature=JJNC%2FUj6pwS0%2BSne2uCIKWZp9J4%3D

Talking of good-to-know stuff, the law office of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein and Selz PC, has a need-to-know breakdown of the recent DMCA report.
https://ipandmedialaw.fkks.com/post/102g8rz/copyright-office-dmca-report-what-you-need-to-know

Kudos to Craig Whitney, Caren Decter, and Christina Campbell. It's actually a very comprehensive article, with hot topics such as the meaning of red flag knowledge, repeat offenders, safe harbors, and an OSP or ISP's ability to control.

For our United Kingdom readers comes a really great analysis of WIPO and poor man's copyright from Dr. Catherine Cotter of Slaughter and May, with kudos to the researcher Emily Costello (no link to Emily available at this time.) Any English-writing writer might like this. (Not "like" in the Facebook sense.) If you are beyond wanting to snail mail a sealed envelope to yourself and preserve it in its intact state, check this out... (and forgive my grammar.)

https://thelens.slaughterandmay.com/post/102g9cb/wipo-brings-poor-mans-copyright-into-digital-age

All the best,

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™ http://www.spacesnark.com/  http://www.rowenacherry.com

EPIC Award winner, Friend of ePublishing for Crazy Tuesday   

In Form

I'm not here to talk about pecs, abs, and hard bodies. I'm here in celebration of pen-pushers.

There's nothing like filling out forms to clarify the mind and build the character. I don't mean your tax returns, or those of your alien hunk, though that is an idea if I ever decide to write a high finance romance. This week --in the persona of my next alien romance hero, 'Rhett-- I'm filling out certain Ministry of Justice forms in the interests of research.

'Rhett is the "Dirty Harry" of his rogue Royal family. He's Dirty Harry with a sword... and a spade, it would seem. He knows where the bodies are buried, and he is the family trouble stabber. I'd say "trouble shooter" but he prefers to use a long, sharp weapon. Not that he fires blanks. He's as "alpha" as his cousins and half brothers.

He's the Great Djinn who likes to do the right thing.... Of course, it is debatable whether the "camisole plot" to disgrace and destroy Tarrant-Arragon (in FORCED MATE) was entirely ethical, but dirty tricks are an essential part of interstellar diplomacy.

'Rhett crossed swords, albeit verbally, with Tarrant-Arragon again in INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL. Now, he's being sent on a dangerous quest because everyone wants him out of the way. He has to extract something from Earth, and he'd prefer to do it legally.

Not salt. Not a Ring. Not a moon rock. Could be a crashed spaceship? (Or not.)

So, I have obtained lawful "extraction" forms from One Of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State in the Ministry Of Justice, and 'Rhett is endeavouring to fill them out truthfully.

Full name of applicant.

Already this is not easy. If one writes really small, one can fit seven Royal and Djinn names into the box, but should one? Selecting just three would be less startling, but if only three, which middle name should one choose?

Title.

Which one? Prince? That's bogus! Great Djinn and lesser god? True, but unwise to tell humans so. Leviathan, Saurian Knight? That would arouse suspicion. No doubt, Mr would be the stealthy choice. Sometimes an alien is obliged to lie for the protection of the person reading the form.

Full address.

One does not have a Post Code or a Zip code aboard a Gravity Class, interstellar war-star. Nor a telephone number. Perhaps 'Rhett is going to have to deliver his forms in person, wave a gentle hand like Obi-Wan Kenobi and murmur "This is plausible." However, even this humble, simple, everyday question forces an alien to decide where he will reside (officially) for the three months that it takes the British civil servants and Principal Secretaries Of State to process "extraction" paperwork.

Time to contact a builder and discover whether it is possible that the house in Cambridge that Tarrant-Arragon burned to the ground on the night of March 31st 1994 (upon the occasion of abducting Djinni-vera) could have been rebuilt. Alternatively, one would need an hotel, remembering that a three-month stay will mean that one --and one's entourage of aliens-- is exposed to the business of May Ball time.

Thereafter, the questionnaire becomes increasingly intrusive and baffling, particularly for an honest alien hunk. With a family tree as complicated as theirs. Should one list one's father's second wife's offspring as brothers, half-brothers, step-brothers, or cousins?

Would a human arrest warrant be issued for one's father, because he broke modern, Anglo-American taboos which did not apply to him, being an alien god-Prince?

And then, one comes to the requirements for the exportation of that which is to be extracted. I have to chortle as I imagine how officialdom might react if, for instance, one submitted a letter from Captain James T Kirk, attesting that the USS Enterprise had been engaged to transport the (mystery treasure) to (wherever).


As one wades through forms and questionnaires, an author --who thought she knew everything about her hero-- discovers details that might need to be filled in. I never thought I'd recommend form-filling as a profitable way to spend ones precious writing time. But I DO!

By the way, I googled "form filling". I recommend you do, too.

http://ha.ckers.org/blog/20060821/stealing-user-information-via-automatic-form-filling/
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com

Best wishes,

Rowena Cherry

Insufficient Mating Material is in the UK contest

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INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL is now in stock in the UK

The forbidden underbelly of alien romance

Twelve hours ago, at three in the morning, I "Twittered" about whether or not my alien romances blog today would be about aerodynamic snot.

When one's husband is a car guy, one's daughter is multi-allergic, Elm pollen is in the air, and juvenile coughing wakes the family so it is necessary to get out the nebulizer, then the pre-dawn conversations sometimes sink to a rather low --but terminologically precocious-- level.

I venture to say that being a mother is a brutalizing influence. Pre-motherhood, I doubt that I'd have laughed with malevolent glee at the thought of a burly dustman fainting over the whiff of someone else's thoroughly-used diaper (nappy) in the trash.

Snot. Allergies. Aliens.

There's a long literary tradition of aliens succumbing to Earthly ills. It's not surprising. In the olden days, missionaries and colonists unintentionally killed off isolated, "primitive" communities by exposing them to "civilization's" diseases.

If this happens on our own planet, imagine how an alien would suffer if he visited us and encountered airborne irritants and allergens which were new to his immune system.
I've read that allergies may be worse in the modern western world because we keep our homes too clean, and our toddlers no longer hunt, gather and consume worms fresh from the soil.

Contact suits would protect the alien from the dreadful spores, fibres, chemicals, dander, powders, and other bits and bobs that fill the air we breathe, but how many hunky aliens wear them?

How many hunks walk about sporting a surgical mask? In Japan, out of courtesy, people who have a cold wear surgical masks in public to help keep their germs to themselves. That would make Japan a very good beach-head for a stealthy alien invasion, wouldn't it?

Sneezing and coughing isn't romantic, so we alien romance authors are encouraged to gloss over it, just as Regency Romance authors are not pressed to talk about the logistics of chamber pots, the driveway hazards of collapsing cess pits, and the summer stench of the Thames.

I was looking at someone's wonderfully romantic MySpace site the other day. It showed image after image of tall (usually hirsute and unkempt) knights in armor, clutching swooning and flimsily clad females to their steel-breastplates... and (apparently) persisting in an attempt to inflict a french kiss --do you think the French call it that?-- on the insensible lady. I couldn't help wondering whether the ladies were fainting because the Knightly breath was devastating.

My own olfactory senses are quite acute, so are those of my aliens. The notion --mentioned on television last night-- of "smellyvision" appalls me. Life is quite enough of an intrusion without adding compulsory smells to the entertainment media! But, I'm giving further serious thought to a hayfevered alien heroine.

Best wishes,

Rowena Cherry

Insufficient Mating Material (release in the UK 5/25/2007)
Heroine with rash, alien berries.

Forced Mate
Heroine with smoke sensitivity, nicotine allergy