"Stifling Creativity" AKA The Profitable Ingenuity Of The Lawless

Applying bricks-and-mortar laws to the internet would "stifle creativity" and prevent "the sharing" of "information" and generally "end the internet as we know and love it". Such is the gist of the so-far-successful opponents of the controversial copyright law that was just rejected by the EU Parliament.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44712475

"Critics said the laws would stifle creativity..."

Allow this author to translate. The "creativity" that would be stifled" by a reform of European copyright laws is not the genius of authorship, musicianship, cinematic film making, or the artistry of a photographer or painter. No, it is the profitable ingenuity of thieves.

"Sharing"..."information", is usually a matter of monetizing stolen creations of others. Pirate sites don't publish and distribute helpful advice or uncommon knowledge. Their "information" is more likely to be illegal copies of movies, games, works of fiction, music. And, they don't "share" like one neighbor does to another over the garden fence. They broadcast (like tossing seeds in a wide arc over a ploughed --or plowed-- field), usually for the purpose of payment from advertisers.

Legal blogger Gill Grassie for the law firm Brodies LLP  examines what is legally or logistically unacceptable about the draconian Article 13 of the EU proposal.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=06f30201-e4c4-4756-8035-a7c35b486bf2

To wit, bigger platforms might have been obliged to prevent copyright infringing work from being uploaded by users.  Additionally, websites might have had to pay a license fee for displaying  snippets of text snagged
(my term) from published  articles.

By contrast, and from the sharp end, here's a fine video analysis of piracy by film maker Ellen Seidler of who profits from piracy, and how, and why. (It's from 2012, but still relevant.).
https://thetrichordist.com/2012/04/03/who-profits-from-piracy/

If lawmakers were to intellectually follow the money, they might do a better job of protecting creators. Perhaps the wrong Congressional and legislative bodies are looking at the problem... and of course, too many lawmakers are campaign-funded and lobbied by entities that find piracy profitable.

Aatif Sulleyman for the Trusted Reviews site examines the reasons produced in a 2018 survey on why Britons steal online.
https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/piracy-reasons-copyright-infringement-3501618

It seems to boil down to the love of a freebie. It's free, and it's convenient. Or at least, that is the popular perception.

(But, all this "free" stuff is ruining musicians' livelihoods. A musician debunks the idea of touring and T-shirts as an adequate substitute for record sales, and points out that concert performances provide zero income for songwriters:  https://thetrichordist.com/2018/07/11/a-timely-repost-the-economics-of-mid-tier-touring-from-someone-who-has-done-it-for-34-years/ )

Aatif Sulleyman wrote this, about watermarking.
https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/piracy-future-covert-watermarking-free-stream-3483149

This author never expected a search for "remove watermarks on copyrighted content" to produce any search results at all. Wrong!
https://www.google.com/search?q=remove+watermarks+on+copyrighted+content&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab

Colour me shocked.
On the other hand, the same socially responsible purveyors of useful information will also assist bricks-and-mortar perps.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-ab&ei=LmpLW8KjIOrCjwT41IDwAg&q=How+to+crack+a+safe&oq=How+to+crack+a+safe&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l10.213654.229082.0.238308.58.33.0.0.0.0.112.2566.31j1.32.0..2..0...1.1.64.psy-ab..38.20.1528...33i22i29i30k1j0i273k1j0i131k1j0i67k1.0.sypCEQvBLpE

I should probably now clear my cookies... and so, dear reader, should you.

The host of this blog (Blogspot) puts cookies on visitors' devices, and conveniently infers that visitors agree to deer-tick-like cookies piling on and burrowing in. Most sites to which this article has linked make the same inference.

Although "Cookie Consent" is the new panic according to legal blogger Eduardo Usteran, blogging for Hogan Lovells, blogs and websites have been obliged to let visitors know about their no-opt-out cookies
since an EU directive in 2009.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=9192c959-3e9f-4288-aef1-5e4c8740b0cd&utm_source=lexology+daily+newsfeed&utm_medium=html+email+-+body+-+general+section&utm_campaign=lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&utm_content=lexology+daily+newsfeed+2018-07-05&utm_term=

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

Sword and Sorceress

I'm thrilled to announce that I've had a story accepted for this fall's SWORD AND SORCERESS 33 anthology, published by the Marion Zimmer Bradley estate and edited by Elisabeth Waters and Deborah J. Ross. I submit a story most years but don't often make the final cut, so it's exciting to win a place in the book. As you may guess from the title even if you haven't read any of the previous volumes, the series comprises "sword and sorcery" fantasy with female protagonists. Here are the contents of the forthcoming anthology, which we're encouraged to share:

SWORD AND SORCERESS 33 TABLE OF CONTENTS

WRESTLING THE OCEAN by Pauline J. Alama

HAUNTED BOOK NOOK by Margaret L. Carter

THE HOOD AND THE WOOD by Lorie Calkins

SINGING TO STONE by Catherine Mintz

THE RIVER LADY’S PALE HANDS by M. P. Ericson

LIN’S HOARD by Deirdre M. Murphy

THE CITADEL IN THE ICE by Dave Smeds

ALL IN A NAME by Jessie D. Eaker

DEATH EVERLASTING by Jonathan Shipley

BALANCING ACT by Marella Sands

FIRST ACT OF SAINT BASTARD by T. R. North

THE FALLEN MAN by Deborah J. Ross

A FAMILIAR’S PREDICAMENT by Jane Lindskold

THE SECRET ARMY by Jennifer Linnea

COMING HOME TO ROOST by L. S. Patton

FROM THE MOUTHS OF SERPENTS by Evey Brett

MAGIC WORDS by Alisa Cohen

CHARMING by Melissa Mead

My tale features a ghost in the library of a magical university, with a bit of humor.

SWORD AND SORCERESS has had a complicated publishing history, perhaps symptomatic of the shifting tides of publishing in the past few decades. It began as a long-running series of mass market paperbacks from DAW Books. After DAW and SWORD AND SORCERESS parted ways following MZB's death, a lapse of a few years was followed by several volumes in trade paperback from a small press. Finally, up to the present, the annual trade paperbacks have been published by the Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust itself.

A few years ago, the Trust also resumed producing Darkover anthologies, a project that had been dormant for a long time. Now they're publishing a new one each May, in trade paperback rather than the former mass market format.

Most of the works released by the Trust are also available as e-books. Moreover, many stories from the anthologies, plus some other short pieces by anthology contributors, are sold on Amazon as stand-alone e-books. You can find them here. (If you scroll down far enough, you'll find a selection of my short stories.):

MZB Works in Kindle

Another anthology series from the Bradley estate, now on its fourth volume, is called LACE AND BLADE. It contains swashbuckling tales of adventure with touches of magic and romance. I would characterize the first volume as "perfectly targeted to Zorro fans," although subsequent anthologies have gradually widened their scope.

You can find out about the various books and series at the link below. Also, the Trust produces some audiobooks and CDs. In short, they offer a prime example of taking advantage of the full range of available media and formats to reach fans:

Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Reviews 36 by Jacqueline Lichtenberg Comparing Expository Techniques

Reviews 36

by

Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Comparing Expository Techniques

Reviews posts have not yet been collected into an Index post.  Some other blog series also discuss novels of Romance and/or Science Fiction and/or Fantasy/Paranormal all mixed or separately.

In general these Tuesday posts are about writing techniques, and though techniques are not (as course instructors will insist) the same in all genres, we float techniques across genre lines to blend genres seamlessly.

One of the techniques common to most kinds of fiction is taming the Expository Lump.

The lumping together sentences, paragraphs and whole pages of explanation of what the reader needs to know before they can understand the story, the plot, or the Characters' motivations and emotions, is a mistake beginning writers make because they have no other tools to convey the necessary information.

That information may be fascinating, and completely engrossing to the target readers, but unacceptable, unreadable, or just too much work for the readers at the edge of the target.

To broaden the swath of readers a story might reach, engage and stimulate, the writer has to find other ways to explain things -- entertaining ways.

This is necessary to establish a byline in the commercial marketplace.  The new byline has to earn the trust of readers who finish the book, and then finish the sequel, so the reader knows for a fact this writer will deliver on the promises of Page 1, and deliver big time.

The satisfaction readers experience at the end of a novel is what they pay for, it is the writer's product.  That emotional payoff is what the writer has to sell, but it first must be manufactured.

The final satisfaction has to be packaged to grab attention of readers browsing for something to read, and it has to stimulate the reader to mention it to friends (or Facebook Friends, people they don't know who don't know them, but share interests).

However, once a byline is established as one that delivers all it promises in the cover blurb, flap copy, and genre logo, and the writer is three long, complicated books into the Series, editors require Expository Lumps.

Of course, editors will declare unequivocally that there must be no expository lumps.

Then they ask the writer to make sure new readers who have not read the previous books can just pick up the series here, right in the middle.

Writers tend to go bald pulling their hair out over this one.  To keep the series in print you have to explain the previous books' adventures, but to engage a new reader you must SHOW DON'T TELL all that explanation.

WORSE!! Editors take the manuscript to committee, it gets accepted provided it is half the size that was turned in.

What goes?  The action?  The exposition? 

There comes a point in a long series where you just can not both explain what happened before, why it happened, and what this oddball universe uses for physical Laws, and still advance the plot a novel's worth of events.

So today let's look at the effect various solutions have on readers.

Here are two Series to compare. 

The 19th book in C. J. Cherryh's FOREIGNER series -- 6 trilogies and book 1 of another trilogy. 
https://www.amazon.com/Emergence-Foreigner-C-J-Cherryh-ebook/dp/B073PB22BS/

And Book 3 of Bradley P. Beaulieu's THE SONG OF THE SHATTERED SANDS series.
https://www.amazon.com/Veil-Spears-Song-Shattered-Sands-ebook/dp/B0738KC9NW/

FOREIGNER is set on a planet where a lost-colony ship from Earth left humans stranded to cope with the native Alien civilization.  It is all very tight point of view, though bits come from the point of view of an alien child being groomed to rule the world.  The story is about the human linguist interpreter, Bren Cameron , and most is from his point of view while he works through Human/Alien politics.

The "romance" angle is that he sleeps with one of his Alien Security Guards, though there aren't many sex or bedroom scenes and very little "relationship" -- still the warmth and firm bonding is vivid.

Book 19 in this series is shorter than some previous ones, and filled with Bren Cameron's long, intricate thinking about the Situation that has emerged from the previous trilogy's interactions with a third Alien species -- and doesn't mention the secret Bren carries (except obliquely) that he met a human who is a captive of these (formidable and menacing) Aliens.

The political situation is coming clear to "The Young Gentleman" (the Alien kid who will rule when his father dies).  He's only 9, but obviously more broadly mature than a human 9 year old.

Between Bren's adventures on one continent and "The Young Gentleman's" adventures on another, we understand why these new Aliens are a disaster waiting to happen -- they have left orbit, but their influence reshapes this world.

Bren "sold" the world as peaceful, but in truth it is a powder keg that will explode.

The specific threads of plot from the previous 18 novels that are going to mature in this trilogy (or the next) are all described in long expository lumps, couched in terms of Bren Cameron's new and changing understanding of the broader Situation.

Here's the challenge: If you have not yet read any FOREIGNER novels, or read only a couple and have forgotten, pick up EMERGENCE and see how hard it might be to slog through the exposition of Events past that you have not read.

Ask yourself as you struggle with names, places, and event sequences Bren is thinking about as he makes decisions, is this stuff interesting?  Do I write like this -- all about what has happened, not what is happening? 

Mark points where your eyes glaze over with a, "Who cares?" 

My secret is that I gobbled down every word of that exposition, loving the ride in Bren Cameron's head, whooping with joy at the Young Gentleman's maturation (when he takes over the House command position and orders servants to prepare a welcome for his mother and baby sister - he is perfect, so you know what is going to happen!)

I just love this series, and I have every confidence that C. J. Cherryh did not put a word in there which will prove unnecessary. 

Now, if you have not read THE SONG OF THE SHATTERED SANDS, try diving in with Book 3.

I have not read the previous books, do not know Beaulieu either personally or by previous writing.  I have no particular affinity for the oddball Fantasy world with a crazy-quilt of complicated "powers" that this story is set within.

I did not finish reading this thick novel. 

Why?  Expository Lumps - couched as narrative, and a wild and pointless floating point of view.  Bits and pieces in different locations involving different people whose actions are not clearly the result of, or connected to, what happened in the previous chapter from another point of view.

In other words, by page 118 of 582, I had no idea what this novel is ABOUT - who it is about, or why it might be interesting. 

Yes, the unique "powers" and the complex political revolution against entrenched and powerful "Kings" is fascinating.  The deep and odd bonding between two of the main characters is intriguing.  The basic material of this series is meat and potatoes to me.

But I bounced out 20% through.  Why?

Does it matter why? 

Yes, actually, it should matter to the author and maybe the editor. 

If the writer's skills were a "hit" with me, I would have gone searching for Book 1 and read from the beginning.  That would sell 2 books the publisher wants to move off the warehouse shelves -- maybe more if I tout the book on Facebook.

I would have been caught up in the series if there were any indication why these events are happening to these people -- or if there were fewer people so there is enough time to get to know them before the next group is introduced. 

I would have been caught up in the series if there was something about the main Character to show she deserves what is happening - that her efforts, and the backlash of responses from forces around her, will lead her to revising her innermost Character, make her grow stronger, understand where she's been wrong about "right and wrong and the difference between them."

In other words, the third book has to have a "hook" into the heart and soul of the character indicating why this is her Karma.  

In my real life, life and the world make sense -- if only you can get the right camera angle on yourself (see yourself as others see you).

In C. J. Cherryh's novels (all of them) the Characters fit their lives, learn and grow stronger for the hammering they take.  There's a comprehensible logic underlying events, however odd.

You can find that underlying logic right at the beginning of each of her books, and even if you disagree personally, you can comprehend the Characters innermost Souls because it is clear why they live the life they do.

In A VEIL OF SPEARS (lovely title), as the Characters come on stage, there is no hint that their souls belong in the lives they are living, and no awareness that belonging in your life is possible or desirable or that the Characters are working to get to a life where they do belong. 

So as I read, I never was compelled to ask myself, "What would I do in that Situation?"  I barely understood the Situation and had no idea why this Character was in that pickle (pretty marvelous pickle, could have made a great book.)

Eventually, I did ask myself, "Why am I reading this?" 

You never want your readers to ask themselves that! 

I love the material Beaulieu has created, but after about a hundred pages I still have no confidence in the writer's ability to deliver on the material's promise because the skills we have discussed on this blog over the years are not evident.

For example, there is no plot-or-story reason why the point of view changes except a lazy writer who can't be bothered to tell the story.  There is nothing to follow from one chapter to the next, no story at all, so why turn the page? 

Of course, if in the previous book, you were engrossed in these other characters, you might be pleased to go visit them.  But the writer's job is to engross you in the Character whose story this is -- and there's no hint whose story is being told. 

Contrast with the flipping from Bren Cameron to The Young Gentleman -- Bren is striving mightily to keep the human friends of The Young Gentleman happy, healthy and safe, while The Young Gentleman is getting a grasp of the threats that are coming -- and will need those human friends all grown up and well educated.  The Young Gentleman on one continent and the human friends on the other form the lynch pin of the world to come.  These people belong in their lives but have to grow into them. 

I love the FOREIGNER series, and don't want to read THE SONG OF THE SHATTERED SANDS. 

This is odd because both the Cherryh and  Beaulieu series are from one of my favorite publishers, DAW BOOKS (OK, prejudiced -- I've had some titles from DAW, too).

I like and admire these editors. 

Note that both writers here are creating intricate plots involving complex relationships between human and Alien (or not-quite human) and both involve a vast canvas of history, war, regime change -- all focusing the abstract topics we have discussed in this blog as ripped from the headlines.

DAW has created a collection of works that will appeal to similar readers, and they've done a great job of it.

I don't doubt that Bradley P. Beaulieu has an avid following that will devour this third novel in this series with rapt attention.  Knowing the payoff coming at the end, it won't seem like a difficult read.

But in general, widening your readership, grabbing new readers into a series as you go along, is the more commercial strategy.

So, if you are faced with a writing situation requiring exposition explaining what happened in previous books, make that exposition a precursor to what will be not a rehash of what was. 

Use exposition to explain how a Character now sees the same events from a new perspective.  What those Events portend for the Character's future differs from what readers of the previous books expected. 

Without spelling it out, show-don't-tell how many things might go wrong, how many different paths might lead out of the current pickle, and more why that how these Characters got themselves into this pickle.  What aspect of soul is begging to grow and learn this new karmic lesson?

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

Guest Post: "The First Pirate Hurts Most" by Addison Brae

Today, Addison Brae shares a debut author's rude awakening.

The first pirate hurts most

July 8, 2018
By Addison Brae

Digital piracy is rarely discussed in the publishing world, so seeing an unauthorized PDF of my book for the first time for free download was a shocker. Then add the extra punch that the site owner invites people to pay to join, and the first month is free. How did this jerk get the PDF? And what nerve to sell something that isn’t theirs.

The even bigger bombshell is how many authors have given up on chasing down pirated copies of their books. Last time best-selling crime writer Sue Coletta (http://suecoletta.com/) checked the pirate sites, her books neared 1,000. “If I wasted time trying to get every book off these sites, I’d be sending copyright notices full-time, with no time to write another book, never mind market my existing ones,” Sue said. “Sometimes we need to pick our battles.”

Piracy is cybercrime. It drastically changed the music, movie, and book publishing industries, and it’s spawned other industries to help stop it. But why does piracy continue?

My theory? No one’s looking. People do it thinking no one will notice or care.

A June 6, 2018 Digital Music News (https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/06/06/muso-global-piracy-study/)  article says 53% of UK adults surveyed felt accessing media content illegally is wrong, but did it anyway.

It takes two. One steals the file and makes it available. You have a say in whether pirates are successful. Don’t download from shady sites. Besides, if they steal what they’re selling, they’ll steal and sell the personal information you provide.

Someone I know recently captured an unauthorized version of my book trailer (https://youtu.be/Mf-GlfxPzdY) from the web to play for a group. The intention was good, but the video quality suffered since it was pirated.

I found the first copyright violation instance with a simple Google alert on the book title and author name. I spent about an hour contacting the company that owns the site, and they disabled the link three days later, but hundreds of other titles remain. It was time I should have spent writing or doing something else productive.

Authors overwhelmingly use Blasty (https://www.blasty.co/) to monitor for copyright infringement. Monitoring is free, but the company charges $156 per year to blast the violator with automated notices about DMCA—the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. It took me about a minute to set up a free monitoring account. Another author recently shared with an author email group, “They have taken down over 4k pirates offering my work in the last year.”

Wow. I’m not endorsing the service, but speechless at the number of people who will steal content for their own profit.

Please consider carefully before you swipe a book, piece of art, video, song, or anything without paying.

Think twice before you download!

A version of this post first appeared on Addison Brae’s blog (http://addisonbrae.com/piracy). Addison’s first novel is Becker Circle (Tirgearr Publishing, March 2018). Read more on her website (http://addisonbrae.com/).

Thank you, Addison!

Illusions of Safety

Last week, five people on the staff of our local newspaper were killed by a gunman who attacked their office because he had a long-standing grudge against the paper. (It's worth noting that the paper did not skip putting out a single issue.) Naturally, the rector of our church preached on the incident. He drew upon Psalm 30, which includes the beautiful verse, "Weeping may spend the night, but joy comes in the morning." To reach that epiphany, however, the psalmist has to recall a time when he felt confident in his security but then experienced the apparent loss of that safety and protection. Our rector talked about how we might have existed in a "bubble," thinking we were safe from such unpredictable mass violence, that it would never strike where we live. Now the bubble has been burst.

That reflection reminded me of what the media repeatedly told us after 9-11: "Everything has changed." Then and now, that remark brings to mind an essay by one of my favorite authors, C. S. Lewis, "On Living in an Atomic Age" (collected in the posthumous volume PRESENT CONCERNS). Lewis reminds us that such catastrophic events change nothing objectively. What has changed is our perception. That idea of safety was always an illusion. To the question, "How are we to live in an atomic age?" Lewis replies:

"'Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.' In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways."

As he says somewhere else (in THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, maybe), the human death rate is 100 percent and cannot be increased or decreased. The bottom line is NOT that, knowing the inevitability of death, we should make ourselves miserable by brooding over our ultimate fate. It's one thing to take sensible precautions, quite another to live in fear. Just the opposite—we should live life abundantly. Lewis again:

"If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds."

Steven Pinker's two most recent books, THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE and ENLIGHTENMENT NOW, offer an antidote to the mistaken belief that we live in a uniquely, horribly violent age. Although Pinker and Lewis hold radically different world-views (Pinker is a secular humanist), both counsel against despair. Pinker demonstrates in exhaustive, rigorous detail that in most ways this is the best era in history in which to live—and not only in first-world countries. The instantaneous, global promulgation of news makes shocking, violent events loom larger in our minds than they would have for past generations. (But what's the alternative—to leave the public uninformed?)

We can deplore evils and work for solutions without losing our perspective.

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Depiction Part 37 - Depicting Dreams: Male Or Female by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Depiction

Part 37

Depicting Dreams: Male Or Female

by

Jacqueline Lichtenberg 

Previous parts in the Depicting series are indexed here:
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2015/04/index-to-depiction-series-by-jacqueline.html

Research into Dreams - beyond superstitious interpretation and into scientific observation of brain activity during sleep - continues to find new things. 

Dreams are not only an eternal fascination to people in general, but a powerful story-telling technique to add insight into the psychological pressures driving a Character's behavior.

The focus on the importance of Dreams is engraved on the Priestly Blessing that Aharon the High Priest and his sons were Commanded to pronounce over the Jewish People  in the desert.  It is still practiced today, with no reason to believe it has changed (much) over millennia.

Here is a video of how it is done:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wExzxe2XtUc

During the last 3 words sung by the Cohen, the congregation prays (aloud while the Cohen sings a wordless melody) to have their dreams changed from good to better or from what we call nightmares or just bad dreams to "good.  The prayer references the way G-d changed the curse that Balaam was commissioned to pronounce upon the Jewish people to a series of huge Blessings.  So we pray to have our nightmares be transformed to Blessings.

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3715894/jewish/Balaam-and-Balak-The-Full-Story.htm

-------quote-------
The Torah records how, after being thoroughly humiliated by his talking donkey, Balaam, the non-Jewish sorcerer and prophet commissioned by Balak King of Moab to curse the Jews, found himself incapable of cursing them. Instead, he bestowed on the Jews four tremendous blessings, some of which we even recite in our prayers today, and the last which foretells the Messianic redemption.

-------end quote-------

Tracing how a nightmare or bad dream a Character remembers can be turned, step by decisive plot step, into a Blessing, can allow the writer to depict the nature of Dreams, and thus explicate a vast bundle of Themes which can support a long, complex series of novels.

The nature of Dreams in your World will clearly Depict your Theme - so you never have to state it except in that one, single, clear statement near the opening.

For writers of Romance Novels doing Science Fiction Romance, we now have a deep and rich source of real, concrete science to incorporate into the emotional and often mystical plot element of the Dream.

Here is an article describing a book, titled Superhuman, which you can use as a source of science on Dreams.

Science Is Getting Closer to Understanding What Goes on Inside The Mind When We Dream
Here's why dreams matter.
ROWAN HOOPER, THE WASHINGTON POST
8 APR 2018
2018 © The Washington Post

------quote-------
What you dream about and the emotional tone of the dream probably reflects what your brain considers important.

Research shows that if you play Tetris all day long, your brain will decide that Tetris is what you need to dream about. If you are anxious about something, your brain may well give you a dream with anxiety as the dominant emotion.

--------end quote--------

They needed research to figure that out?  If I drive all day, I dream of white lines whizzing by.  If I write scenes all day, I dream the next scene at night.  In text flowing by.

Earlier in the same article:

------quote-----
There's a good reason dreams are so skittish and peculiar. Memories of life events – "episodic memories" – are stored in a part of the brain called the hippocampus, and in rapid eye movement (REM), sleep signals coming out of the hippocampus are shut off.

That means we can't access specific memories of things that happened in the past while we dream.

But we can still access general memories about people and places, which form the backbone of our dreams.

At the same time, activity in brain regions involved in emotional processes are cranked up, forming an overly emotional narrative that stitches these memories together.

-------end quote---------

The significant parts of this picture of the brain shifting functional areas (also turning off critical thinking during dreaming) is simply that when you are plotting and crafting scenes with conflict and action, there is no room in your narrative for extensive exploration of Characters' emotions-- especially not conscious "thinking about emotions" in the heads of male Characters.

In general, people don't know why they feel what they feel, so when reading about Characters the reader doesn't want to know (consciously, explicitly, in narrative) why the Characters feel what they feel.  The reader just wants to FEEL what the Characters feel the way they would if they were the Character.

So including 1 visually rich, emotionally explicit dream in your narrative can help the reader understand in their guts rather than in words what the Characters feel and why, what is important to the Character and why.  All in a few, short, vivid images, you can bring your readers into the story.

When using dual point of view, male and female, (each might dream), it is useful to keep in mind that modern research is revealing that the Dreams of men are different from the Dreams of women (who knew???).  The results of very expensive research that verifies this difference are yours for reading a bit of non-fiction.

Again from the same article:

-----quote-----
A couple years ago, Christina Wong and colleagues at the University of Ottawa, wrote a computer program to differentiate between the dreams of men and women.

The program correctly predicted the gender of the dreamer about 75 percent of the time. This suggests there may be gender differences in dreaming – but for now it's too soon to say why.
-----end quote----

And of course this suggests that research into trans folks finding their dreams shifting as they change could be worth while.

Here's the book that prompted this article:
https://www.amazon.com/Superhuman-Life-Extremes-Our-Capacity/dp/1501168711/
Hooper is managing editor at New Scientist, from which this is excerpted. His book "Superhuman: Life at the extremes of mental and physical ability" will be published in May, 2018.

So if you want to tell a story of Soul Mates finding each other from opposite ends of the Universe, and include science along with mysticism (e.g. Paranormal Romance), using Quantum Entanglement and Dream Research could create a hard-science Plot for your novel.

Science Fiction Romance is a hard label to earn.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

On Cheating: To Win Or Not To Win... That Is The Question.

According to science, "Some winners really are losers,"  Carol Pinchefsky concludes for GEEK & SUNDRY, discussing scientific findings on why persons who identify themselves as winners will cheat, especially in competitive situations.
https://geekandsundry.com/science-explains-why-people-cheat-at-games/

In other words, if they are a winner in their own mind, they feel entitled to win, and will cheat to preserve their winning status. Philosophically, those guys are probably Consequentialists. (The good ends justify the means.)

On the other hand, goal-focused guys tend to play fair. They are more interested in doing their personal best, rather than feeling that they deserve to score better than someone else.

There's an interesting --albeit archived, so you cannot join in-- thread on Reddit about why people bother to cheat at video games.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/7l3bdx/throwaway_time_people_who_cheat_in_video_games/

For someone needing inspiration for character building or motivation of an endearing cheat, this author found it to be a fascinating resource.

I've written of a hero who cheats. At chess. Just as some persons of influence and power use a game of golf to get the measure of a potential ally or employee, one of my heroes used a board game for interrogation and character assessment.

One of the reddit gamers mentioned the delight of annoying other people (by cheating to win). Another Machiavellian player in battle-games asked himself,  "How many enemies do I have to kill so I don't get caught by the cheating filter?"

For him, the thrill of the game appears to be in finding out how few enemies he could kill before he was ejected from the game by the algorithms for not fighting.

However, aside from the ethical and self-esteem and character aspects of cheating, there can be legal repercussions.  Using "cheats" can be copyright infringement or even a crime.

United Kingdom legal blogger Alistair Symes for Taylor Wessing explains how cheating is becoming "a revenue issue" for games developers and publishers.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=e8271099-771c-4854-946e-41f7bf37671b

As Alistair Symes explains, the game developers own the copyright to their games. Anyone who copies the game or modifies it (by adding "cheat codes") or publishes their adaptation to the public... is infringing the developers' copyrights. "Cheat" makers who sell or rent out infringing copies of software code are also committing a criminal offense in the UK.

In the USA, a teenager's mother tried to assert  an "infancy" defense for him after he had allegedly posted videos on YouTube (allegedly since removed) in which he allegedly promoted and distributed cheat codes to an online game. The copyright owner is not backing down from pursing legal remedies against the alleged copyright infringer and repeated violator of their TOS.

Jason Gordon and Virginia Pavlik, blogging for the USA Law firm Reed Smith LLP detail the case, and suggest that game creators ought to require age disclosure and parental permission slips before young persons may create online player accounts.

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=8f37d499-8056-4ce2-93eb-6b655dbb69e9&utm_source=lexology+daily+newsfeed&utm_medium=html+email+-+body+-+general+section&utm_campaign=lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&utm_content=lexology+daily+newsfeed+2018-06-28&utm_term= 

If a teenager is disposed to cheat, and to breach contracts, and flout Terms Of Service, will he not also be disposed to lie about his age?

Happy Fourth!

Rowena Cherry