alien romances

Sunday, June 04, 2023

You Can't Make It Up [Double Entendre]

I may have used "You Can't Make It Up" for an earlier post, so have added a disclaimer. My apologies if the disclaimer [Double Entedre] weakens the title, does not make sense, or comes across as pretentious.

What can't one make up?

For one thing, one cannot make up ones own copyright law to suit oneself.

CDL or Controlled Digital Lending is not something that a so-called internet library may simply impose on copyright owners. One may not purchase a print copy of a copyrighted work, scan it, and create an e-book for the purpose of loaning out that ebook to online borrowers. One "can" do it, as has been demonstrated, but by doing so, one falls afoul of copyright law and one may lose a copyright infringement lawsuit.

The case is Hachette Book Group, Inc versus Internet Archive. Legal bloggers Matthew Samet and Margaret A. Esquenet for the law firm Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett and Dunner LLP write a very thorough, reasoned, and superb explanation of how the Internet Archive fails on every point of law to justify copyright infringement under the "fair use" doctrine.

https://www.finnegan.com/en/insights/blogs/incontestable/ebook-lending-library-infringes-publishers-copyrights.html#page=1

There may be an appeal. This case could go further, although this writer wonders how a self-described "non-profit" enterprise has the funding necessary to litigate the matter for years.

For The Copyright Alliance, Isabella Hyun discusses the Internet Archive, but also a variety of other seminal literary copyright cases of which writers and publishers should be aware.

https://copyrightalliance.org/literary-copyright-cases/

For anyone who really likes to get into the weeds (see the logo of the House Judiciary Committee), there is an informative video on the hearings on AI and IP.

https://judiciary.house.gov/committee-activity/hearings/artificial-intelligence-and-intellectual-property-part-i

Speaking of Artificial Intelligence (as I did just a week or so ago), a guest on one of the financial news programs that I have on in my kitchen all day, weekdays (except for when I try to do my part to prevent blackouts by cutting back on my power consumption) explained how his company was scammed using a deep fake of his distinctive voice.

As I recall, the scammers made a brief telephone call purporting to be from the executive in question to a direct report. The scammers claimed that the line or connection was bad, and "he" (the boss) would complete the call by text. The scammers then, still pretending to be the distinctive-voiced boss, instructed the employee to send gift cards to certain folks. The scam was discovered because they made a further request, and the employee called the real boss and asked in person if the boss truly wanted to send a second batch of gift cards.

This bad stuff is not made up. Just do a search of "deep fake voice".

My view? Never agree to voice-recognition as authentication for any accounts that you want to be secure!

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

SPACE SNARK™

http://www.spacesnark.com/

http://www.rowenacherry.com

Friday, June 02, 2023

Read What You Love, Part 1 by Karen S. Wiesner

Read What You Love, Part 1

by Karen S. Wiesner

In this three-part article, I talk about what conditions, if any, cultivate or discourage a love of the written word as well as about the importance of reading what you love, regardless of your age, the genre or content appropriateness, your gender, or what's considered your "level". In the last two segments, I'll also review two of my favorite Young Adult book series that any fan of the supernatural should love as I much as I do.

I don't know when I started reading as a child, though I suspect it wasn't as soon as I would like to brag it was, if anyone in my family could actually recall such a thing. For as long as I can remember, every catalog, magazine, even the TV Guide, as well as literally anything that had words on it (shampoo bottles, cereal boxes, telephone directories, maps…), I devoured. We didn't have many books lying around our house. I suspect those we owned had been left there by the previous home owner. We had a very old dictionary that lost its hard cover binding long before I dug it out of a junk pile--and read it front to back. Hey, maybe that aided the reading comprehension I seemed to have grasped very early in life.

I also unearthed one of what had to be the very first Nancy Drew novels published (a cloth hardcover!) that had, once upon a time, fallen down the well, been retrieved, and dried, making the gray cloth shrink, and the pages stick together until I carefully freed each one so I could read it.

I reread that book and the dictionary until I started grade school and discovered an entire world open to me through the school library. I was in utter awe. From the time I got to school each day, I went to the library whenever I could between classes. From Kindergarten and on, the elementary school librarian let me help her in the library, checking books in and out, reshelving those returned, getting brand new selections ready. She even let me have early access to each of those. I knew where everything went in that little library in no time at all based on the decimal number classification.

All my years in that school, I loved it when the librarian read books to us. I was utterly lost in the fictional world of those stories as me and my classmates sat on the reading rug. I barely noticed how uncomfortable it was to sit on the floor, I was so enraptured. I didn't want her to stop until she read the very last word of each book.

The librarian saw my love of books in how often I was there and the sheer number of books I checked out on a weekly basis. I got over my extreme shyness, at least to a certain level, because I saw a kindred soul in that kind lady. She never questioned whether I understood what I was reading. Instead, she asked me how I liked it, and we talked about those books all the time. From my introduction to the library, I always checked out books that interested me, regardless of genre and the suggested age level, which I can't imagine I even noticed back then. Even that young, I suspect I wouldn't have cared to be told reading material was beyond my age group or comprehension level, let alone appropriate for me to read. In fact, ever harboring a bit of the rebel, I would have taken it as a challenge.

I swear I read every single book in that teeny-tiny library before I graduated to the middle and high school that were in a single building. That new library was triple the size, another whole new world for me to explore. I was quick to set myself up for working there when I joined Library Club and became an aid to the librarian. I might not have read all of those books in the years I was there, but I sure made a dent in them.

As I got older, I fully realized there were actually age-related guidelines and categories for books. Additionally, comprehension determined what levels of books a person could or should read. I think those standardized tests we took, where I excelled almost to the extreme at language and reading comprehension (and performed dismally in math, lol), made me aware that (and appreciative of) my ability to understand nearly any book I picked up. I was also starting to comprehend that cultivating a love of the written word had more to do with personality and preference, not always (or at least not necessarily) with environment or conditioning. After all, I don't think I ever saw my parents reading, and the only time I remember them reading to me and my siblings was when I was watching for the school bus to pick us up in the morning. While I stood at the window, my mom would read out loud from the library books I checked out in towering stacks for those precious minutes on weekdays.

It's true that some people are just drawn to reading and books while others aren't--sometimes at all--for a variety of reasons, which can include skills, abilities, preferences, and personality quirks (or lack thereof). I don't think environment and conditioning are solid criteria for deciding emphatically that someone will turn out to be an avid reader or not. But that doesn't mean you can't slant the odds in your favor, as I actively did when I was old enough to start having my own children.

I suppose since my happiest memories as a child mostly all involved books, I began to read to my son even before he was born. Early on, he discovered his love of books. He started reading on his own when he was only four. Nevertheless, I still read to him all the time, by mutual consent. I don't remember when I started reading things like The Hobbit, Terry Brooks' Shannara Chronicles, and Harry Potter to him, but I know he was still in his early single digits. I could tell he understood most of what I read to him by 1) the discussions we had during and afterward about what we read and 2) how excited he was to get back to the story, just as I was, each time.

Later in life, another thing that struck me was when someone my husband knew asked what kinds of books I wrote. Because that was what I was writing at the time, my husband said science fiction. This person commented about how that genre was for little kids, wasn't it? I confess I was initially offended and embarrassed when I heard this, though of course I concluded eventually that this person wasn't a reader per se and didn't really know much about reading or writing. Commonsense says that most kids' books are written by adults, right? My science fiction was an adult novel series, but I imagine those younger would also enjoy it just as much. Besides, even if science fiction as a category could be relegated to only youth reading it, I couldn't help wondering how anyone would think that age, let alone genre, should dictate someone's reading likes and dislikes. I knew plenty of grown men who still enjoyed comic books and manga as well as grown women who continued to indulge in those "true confession" magazines that tantalized and scandalized them as teenage girls.

I do want to be clear here that I don't think there's anything wrong with parents "censoring" stories that are far too sexual or violent for their children. There's a lot of shocking material that's readily available these days to kids that wasn't anywhere near as accessible in my time. Also, in my day nearly everyone cared about being a role model to kids (not something that seems prevalent in today's world). While freely admitting that I never had any boundaries set on me and probably read a lot of things that weren't appropriate for my age, I turned out pretty good, despite this. My point here, for the most part, is that in the general sense, people should read what they're interested in. It doesn't matter if someone else dubs it too mature or immature, or if it's in a genre that social convention says adults or kids shouldn't be reading. Additionally, I don't think gender should play a factor either. Why can't males read romance novels while females read action/adventure and horror? Read what you love!

I myself am no respecter of age or level dictating what I do and should read. When I was young, I read books that others, even educators, would have (wrongly) assumed were far beyond my comprehension and, yeah, as I said earlier, some that was wildly inappropriate reading material for my age. Now, as an adult, the tables have turned. I read (and sometimes write) books that many would consider far below my level and too immature for someone my age. Oh, the wondrous things many readers are missing, all because of ill-perceived restrictions on age, level, gender, and/or genre!

I was never too young or sheltered to read Go Ask Alice (by Anonymous), Black Like Me (a must-read for every human that I'd read long before my high school teacher assigned it), anything by S.E. Hinton, Janet Dailey, Bruce and Carole Hart, Paul Zindel, and Judy Blume. I even read the occasional Western, which was simply not something girls read in my time.

I will never be too old or mature to love the brilliant works of Dr. Seuss, Astrid Lindgren, Peggy Parrish (and her belovedly ditzy, literalist character Amelia Bedelia), Betty MacDonald, the crazy-fun Robert Munch, Scott O'Dell, Brandon Mull, and Joseph Delaney.

A love of the written word transcends any boundaries. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

In the next two parts of this article, I'll post in-depth reviews of two phenomenal Young Adult series I discovered as a 30-something year old adult and would have missed (and been the worse for it) if I cared anything about maturity, appropriateness, genre, and level classifications.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Thursday, June 01, 2023

Brain-Computer Interface

Elon Musk's Neuralink Corporation is developing an implant intended to treat severe brain disorders and enable paralyzed patients to control devices remotely. As a long-term goal, the company envisions "human enhancement, sometimes called transhumanism."

Neuralink

Here's a brief article on the capacities and limitations of brain implants:

Brain Implants

A Wikipedia article on brain-computer interface technology, which goes back further than I'd realized:

Brain-Computer Interface

In fields such as treatments for paraplegics and quadriplegics, this technology shows promise. It "was first developed to help people paralyzed with spinal injuries or conditions like Locked-in syndrome — when a patient is fully conscious but can't move any part of the body except the eyes — to communicate." Connection between the brain's motor cortex and a computer has enabled a paralyzed patient to type 90 characters per minute. Another kind of implant allowed a man with a robotic hand to feel sensations as if he still had natural skin. A "brain-spine interface" has enabled a man with a spinal cord injury to walk naturally. Deep brain stimulation has been helping people with Parkinson's disease since the 1990s. Most of these applications, however, are still in the experimental stage with human patients or have been tested only on animals. For instance, a monkey fitted with a Neuralink learned to control a pong paddle with its mind.

Will such an implant eventually achieve telepathy, though, as Musk claims? Experts say no, at least not in the current stage of neuroscience, because "we don't really know where or how thoughts are stored in the brain. We can't read thoughts if we don't understand the neuroscience behind them."

What about a paralyzed person controlling a whole robotic body, like the protagonist of AVATAR remotely living in an alien body? Probably not anytime soon, but I was amazed to learn how much closer we are to achieving that phase of "transhumanism" than I'd imagined. If it's ever reached, might the very rich choose to live their later years remotely in beautiful, strong robotic bodies and thereby enjoy a form of eternal youth -- as long as their flesh brains can be kept alive, anyway?

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Sunday, May 28, 2023

Scams N More

Never in my life have I pleasured myself in front of a computer. Have you? That is rhetorical. I do not want to know.

So, today, when I received an email that appeared to come from an Intuit account, I know that it was a scam. I googled some keywords from the email, without opening the email, and the amazing people of Google showed me this:

https://malwaretips.com/blogs/hello-i-know-your-password/

That most excellent online store, Amazon, is proud to announce that it has taken down tens of thousands (two-tens) of scam sites that have tried to take advantage of Amazon customers. If you receive a call, text, or email from someone who may not be from Amazon, you can report it at amazon.com/reportascam

I've noticed scores of emails that display bogus "order numbers" that might be from Apple, or EBay, or Wayfair. If one has placed an order somewhere, it is best to verify with the site rather than open a random email.

Two-factor authentication is a bit of a nuisance, but far less of a nuisance than losing access to an account!! So, maybe one should go along with it... on the same principle as the sign in the dentist's office where they say, "You don't have to floss every tooth, only the ones you want to keep."

Why ever would you share with strangers your pet name, nick name, schools you attended, links to your family members, and your real birth date? For many, it is too late to delete that stuff, but if you shared it on a social networking site, the bad hats probably have that info.

Make sure your "secret" answers to security questions do not involve relatives' names, addresses, or important locations that you have shared openly. A memorable series of lies might work, as demonstrated in the Kelsey Grammar movie "Like Father" (where he cheated in a couples game).

Any scammer can type in any name on the "from" line. Why is this legal? And why can't something be done about it? So, if in doubt, hover your cursor over the FROM name, and also check the REPLY TO address. If still in doubt, check by some other contact method without replying to the sketchy email.

Finally, and nothing to do with scams, but possibly to do with devastating loss of information, if you have a You Tube or Gmail account that stores splendid stuff, but might appear to be dormant to a bot, you need to log in to that account before December to reinvigorate the account and save it from permanent oblivion.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

Friday, May 26, 2023

Reflections of Life, Part 5 by Karen S. Wiesner

Reflections of Life, Part 5

by Karen S. Wiesner

In looking back over the course of my life as an author who's looking forward to becoming an artist in retirement, I've learned to slow down and reflect on the past, savor the present, and look forward to the future. Interspersed through these ruminations, I'll include some of my own most apropos sketches.

In Part 4, I covered strategies I implemented to restructure my life to bring better balance. As of this writing (April 20, 2023), I can see the end of the road before me. At my current rate of output, it's conceivable that I can finish the last three books in my last two series within the next year. In learning each day to reflect on where I'm going and what it took to get me there, I can also see just how far I've come in learning and relearning how I approach life, how I complete tasks, and accomplish the things I want to do in my time remaining. Instead of starting each morning (after the obligatory shower and coffee that have always been my initial protocol) by jumping headfirst into a mile-long list of the constant and relentless daily checklist of projects awaiting me, I now have--even by ordinary human standards--a manageable amount of tasks to complete each day.

When I avoid crash and burn habits by starting each day with study, prayer, and reflection, I actually sleep better most nights as a result. This feat isn't something I could have handled in the past, when I carted around a semi-trailer sized head full of tasks that needed nose to the grindstone diligence in order to check off each day. The thought of leisurely getting to work after beginning a day with contemplative endeavors would have been pure torture for me back when I believed I needed to fill the limited number of hours I was given each day with ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

I won't lie to you. I have backslidden. I struggle whenever I see my daily "To Do" lists grow. Amidst embarrassment, amusement, frustration, bewilderment, and even shock that I didn't see it as it was happening, I'm directed and redirected and prodded gently back to the path where I can slow down, start each day off right with morning reflection that sets the tone for the day I have, and decides whether or not I sleep well.

The part that astonishes me almost more than any other about all this is that I've discovered I actually accomplish more these laidback days than when I'm scrambling to check things off my list, causing myself so much stress I lay awake most of the night with a brain that just won't shut off. Rinse and repeat in an endless, vicious, boneheaded cycle in which I'm returned by factory reset to where I started.

Karen Wiesner Sketch: Reading in Bed

Research has shown that there’s scientific benefit involved in practicing appreciation on a day by day basis. In a study published in the Journal of Personality and Individual Differences, Rutgers University Psychology Professor Nancy Fagley Research has shown that there’s even scientific benefit involved in practicing appreciation on a day by day basis. In a study published in the Journal of Personality and Individual Differences, Rutgers University Psychology Professor Nancy Fagley suggests that people focus on and value what they have, spend time outdoors, and. "...reflect on the positive aspects of our lives, value our friends and family, relish and savor the good times...”

I've also discovered that the faster my pace in life, the busier I am, the less I find myself enjoying any part of my life. Think about that word "enjoy". It implies taking pleasure in something, experiencing appreciation and satisfaction in things, and benefitting from the act of savoring and relishing as opposed to viewing the blur of my life as it goes speeding by, leaving me coughing or even run down in its passing dust. There are also strong connotations of reverence and veneration in the word "enjoy". Daily reflection has taught me that humans can only honor and respect the countless blessings that make up our lives by allowing the whole of our beings--physical, mental, and spiritual--to slow down to enjoy them.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Thursday, May 25, 2023

Crossing Genres

A publisher called Obsidian Butterfly is assembling an anthology to be titled "NecronomiRomCom," comprising Cthulhu Mythos romantic comedies:

Obsidian Butterfly

Working on a story to submit to this project reminded me of a panel at this year's RavenCon about mixing genres. A panelist asked what would be the most unlikely combination of genres. Of course, many mashups of classic novels with horror exist, such as PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AND SEA MONSTERS, and LITTLE WOMEN AND WEREWOLVES, but I'm not sure they count, consisting mostly of slightly revised texts of public-domain originals with horror content tacked on. Paranormal romance and various permutations of historical, SF, or futuristic romance have become recognized subgenres in their own right. Historical mysteries are also commonplace, as a natural outgrowth of the quest for fresh settings in which to place unsolved murders. Historical fantasy and horror aren't much of a stretch, either. Mystery is compatible with many other genres, and a romance subplot can be included in almost any kind of fiction. Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy series combines alternate history, fantasy, and mystery. Effective, credible crossovers of that kind require the setting and the magical rules to be clearly and consistently laid out for the reader, with no cheating.

Novels of secret histories that transform famous people of the past into fighters against supernatural evil demand more suspension of disbelief. Authors have made Abraham Lincoln a vampire slayer and Queen Elizabeth the First a hunter of demons. A duology by Cherie Priest, MAPLECROFT and CHAPELWOOD, pits Lizzie Borden, in her reclusive later years, against Lovecraftian monsters. (In this version of her life, she really did kill her father and stepmother, but only because they were possessed by eldritch entities from the sea.)

The Cthulhu Mythos seems to be a favorite candidate for genre-blending. The anthology SHADOWS OVER BAKER STREET merges the worlds of Lovecraft and Sherlock Holmes, a not terribly unbelievable combination. There's at least one anthology of stories set in a postapocalyptic world where HPL's extradimensional monsters have conquered Earth. Plunging into the realm of the absurd, SCREAM FOR JEEVES, by Peter H. Cannon, retells several of Lovecraft's best-known stories by inserting P. G. Wodehouse's characters and style into them. Probably the most incongruous cross-genre mashup I've ever encountered, however, is an anthology titled THE CALL OF POOHTHULHU--H. P. Lovecraft meets Winnie-the-Pooh.

Or how about colorful Lovecraftian board books for small children? A Mythos alphabet book is one of several cute products from the "C Is for Cthulhu" project:

C Is for Cthulhu

Has anybody here run into an unlikelier combination?

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Sunday, May 21, 2023

NIL Protection

Happily, my title for today's rag bag of copyright-related news from the legal blogosphere is not as nihilistic as it ("NIL Protection") may sound on first glance.

N.I.L. is the acronym for "NAME IMAGE LIKENESS", but before I get to the names and likenesses part, I'd like to share something I read in translation (I assume) on an Italian law blog concerning photography that was an epiphany for me.

The philosopher Herbert Marshall McLuhan once stated: ‘Photography, photo-graphy [sic], means writing with light. Photography, cinema, confer a kind of immortality, a pre-eminence on images and not on real life’.

In my opinion, which is based on following copyright protection issues since the early 2000s, the intellectual property rights of photographers seem to be the least understood and least respected by internet users.

The concept that photographers write with light is an eye-opener. Check out the website of Mitchel Gray http://mitchelgray.com/ with Herbert Marshall McLuhan's definition in mind.

Once upon a time, in November of 1996, Mitchel Gray's photograph of an extraordinarily handsome gentleman was on the cover of Men's Health, to which I subscribed because I hoped that reading men's magazines would help me write in the male POV. I bought the limited rights to that photograph for the cover of FORCED MATE for the e-book and POD versions.

One of the most newsworthy cases in recent years is that of the photographer Lynn Goldsmith, who claimed that Andy Warhol infringed her copyright in a particularly sympathetic photographic portrait of the late musician sometimes known as Prince.

Last week, seven of the nine Supreme Court Justices agreed with the photographer that it is not "fair use" to take someone else's photograph, duplicate it, colorize it, and call it transformed into something new. (My words).

NPR writer Chloe Veltman discusses the Supreme Court's decision in the case of the photographer Lynn Goldsmith vs the Andy Warhol Foundation. Her explanation is well worth reading, especially if you ever wanted to snag a photo from the internet to copy, or colorize, or monetize.

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/18/1176881182/supreme-court-sides-against-andy-warhol-foundation-in-copyright-infringement-cas

"Under copyright law, fair use permits the unlicensed appropriation of copyright-protected works in specific circumstances, for example, in some non-commercial or educational cases..." Chloe Veltman explains.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor for the majority opined,

"Goldsmith's original works, like those of other photographers, are entitled to copyright protection, even against famous artists....Such protection includes the right to prepare derivative works that transform the original."

Dissenters feel that the world is a "poorer" place if Andy Warhol wannabes cannot cut corners by taking other people's works and making minimal alterations. Read Chloe's work for the perhaps-surprising revelation of which two SCOTUS justices fear that creativity will be stifled if (my words follow) those who write in light cannot protect their rights and their work from permissionless riffers and samplers.

The "writing with light" article can be found here:

https://www.ictlc.com/the-publication-of-images-a-grey-line-between-privacy-and-data-protection/?lang=en

Italian intellectual property law bloggers Vittoria Mazzotta, Francesca Tugnoli, and Eleonora Margherita Auletta for ICT Legal Consulting discuss the publication of images and the grey line between privacy and data protection. Perhaps, the crux of the matter is the possible requirement that a person whose image is being exploited for the financial benefit of others ought to have the right to give --or withdraw-- permission for such exploitation.

https://www.ictlc.com/the-publication-of-images-a-grey-line-between-privacy-and-data-protection/?lang=en#_ftn1

That's mostly about images, but what about names and likenesses? Not to mention voices (which I will not mention, having discussed deep fakery a few weeks ago).

For the law firm Venable LLP, legal bloggers Sharoni S. Finkelstein and Alexandra L, Kolsky explore how AI (artificial intellience) wants your name, image, and likeness... especially if you are a celebrity. Naturally (pun intended) AI would prefer not to pay for the privilege, but there are protections for your NIL.

Read all about the right of publicity, Lanham Act protections, and enforcement issues here:

https://www.venable.com/insights/publications/2023/05/artificial-intelligence-wants-your-name-image

Readers may be disturbed to read about what applications such as "Reface" can do in violation of the rights and privacy of the person whose likeness and body may be exploited.

As an aside, one might wonder if a Reface-type process is used when implausibly buff and ripped (Superman-style) bodies are used with a fairly flattering head/face portrait of a vigorous but senior public figure who is seeking office.

Use of a catch-phrase, if it is associated with a celebrity, might also be an infringement of NIL, as might the use of lookalikes or soundalikes in advertising campaigns.

As the Venable bloggers point out (amongst a great deal more information):

"In 2020, New York expanded its right of publicity laws to specifically prohibit certain deepfake content. Second, the right of publicity specifically applies to commercial uses. The doctrine might stop AI users from profiting from celebrity image in the advertising and sales context, but creative uses—like deepfake memes, parody videos, and perhaps even uses of AI-generated NIL in film and television—may fall outside the scope of the right of publicity."

Under most countries' laws, ignorance is not a good defence.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

SPACE SNARK™

http://www.spacesnark.com/

http://www.rowenacherry.com

EPIC Award winner, Friend of ePublishing

Friday, May 19, 2023

Reflections of Life, Part 4 by Karen Wiesner

Reflections of Life, Part 4

by Karen S. Wiesner

In Part 3, I went over what brought about the strong sense that I needed to slow down as well as a few of the initial strategies I implemented in my struggle for balance in my life. After I decided a critique partner was crucial for me, ticks were made in my progress toward what I could accomplish in my remaining time writing. I was now able to return to my "To Be" list. I began to realize I needed to rename it my "To Be or Not To Be" projects. This time, I took off the list the books I didn't feel I had enough material to complete, nor did I believe I could brainstorm and bring about more, certainly not enough to bother undertaking them. Thus, the graveyard of books I was burying expanded. I grieved. I slowly and surely worked on my final two series to complete, one book at a time (for the most part anyway).

Oddly, in this process, I was also beginning to heal. I saw my editor/publisher and author relationship improving. Mutual compromise and finding a new way to accommodate my editor's suggestions, picking my battles with her, went far, but I also needed to humble myself in ways I never would have attempted in the past. I would have jumped ship and struck out anew instead.

Karen Wiesner Sketch: Braided

The quality of my new work also surprised me. I began to feel my books were even stronger than they were in my heyday, though as I said, my editorial skills feel like they're in decline due to aging…or other reasons I'm not entirely sure I want to define.

At this point, just how very tired I'm becoming was brought home to me. All those years of balancing a hundred different projects at the same time over the course of a year had taken their toll. Inconceivable to me in the past, when I actually thought about what I would write on my death bed, I could now see a point in time when I would retire from writing…when I would do something else instead of writing. Even I'm stunned that all of this was actually cathartic for me. It needed to happen, and not just for my own well-being. I actually began to want it to happen, which wasn't something that "sat easy" with my family and friends, who seemed to see this as a kind of death sentence for me instead of the new life I viewed it as.

One last time, I went back over my "To Be or Not To Be" project list and buried a few more stories that I knew I didn't have it in me to finish. I had only two more series to finish, and even less requirements to resolve them, considering that a few of the titles in them both were cropped. As a concession to what could have been some great tales in their own right, I started incorporating some of the ideas from those lost stories into the remaining books in the series.

Next week, I'll cover the progress I've made in restructuring my life to bring better balance.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Thursday, May 18, 2023

When Do Conspiracy Theorists Make Sense?

Cory Doctorow's column in the May issue of LOCUS discusses what we'd probably think of as paranoid conspiracy theorists, vehemently protesting imaginary global plots against our lives and liberties, who in Britain are often informally labeled "swivel-eyed loons."

The Swivel-Eyed Loons Have a Point

Of course, we do have to distinguish the paranoid looniness from valid concerns. As he says, we all want to "save the children." Most of us, however, want to save them from "real threats who never seem to face justice," while the swivel-eyed loons obsess about "imaginary threats," e.g., "adrenochrome-guzzling Satanists."

Some issues about which he suggests they have valid points:

Automated license-plate recorders, presently used in London, really can constitute "a form of pervasive location-tracking surveillance." That kind of power has been used in the past to target "disfavored minorities" and organizations regarded as suspicious.

While “'Climate lockdowns' are a product of a conspiracist’s fevered imagination," it's nevertheless true that COVID restrictions have sometimes served as a pretext "to control everyday people while rich people swanned around having a lovely time." The powerful were happy to promulgate regulations they didn't consider to apply to themselves.

The "post-ownership society" fearfully anticipated by some conspiracists has already begun to infiltrate the economy. Our Kindle books, music files, and other software don't really belong to us; we lease them from companies that can delete them at will.

What about the futuristic promise of a cashless society, when institutions such as credit card companies will be nearly all-powerful gatekeepers? "Access to financial services is a primary means of extralegal control over whole sectors of the economy."

Doctorow's article offers several other alarming examples.

However, he exaggerates about the demise of DVDs. Yes, we can still buy movies and TV programs (and music) in physical media that we permanently own; they aren't likely to disappear anytime soon. (The choice of renting DVDs from Netflix will go away later this year, though. Sigh.)

"We live in a fraught and perilous time," he reminds us, "and powerful people really do want to capitalize on this situation to enrich themselves at our expense." How can we enjoy the benefits of technologies such as those mentioned in his essay while avoiding their threats to our privacy and autonomy?

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Sunday, May 14, 2023

Failure Is An Option

My title for today --which is American "Mothers' Day"-- is a downbeat twist on Gene Kranz's famous quote that "Failure is not an option."

There are plenty of inspiring words about the refusal to fail, for example:

https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/failure-is-not-an-option.html

All credit to legal blogger Daniel Kaufman who writes for the Baker & Hostetler LLP AD-ttorneys Law Blog for sharing a link to the top ten marketing failures of our time and also a link to the museum of failure.

https://www.watchmojo.com/video/id/10864

When I started this blog, roughly fifteen years ago, I chose Sundays as my day to post because I thought that most holidays are celebrated on Sundays and at the time it seemed to me that there might be a marketing advantage to promoting my novels on holidays.

I was probably mistaken on both counts!

On the other, hand, while digressing about calendars, the Copyright Alliance has a lot of great stuff scheduled for May.

https://copyrightalliance.org/events/

And now, back to failures and strategies for recovery.

Daniel Kaufman tells a personal tale of being on the receiving end of a tactless marketing pitch by email, but also of the power of a prompt and well-crafted apology.

Here:

https://www.adttorneyslawblog.com/ftc/holidays-and-marketing-may-not-always-be-a-perfect-match/#page=1

And here:

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=4d6bcc03-a433-4c88-ac31-1bb84b829ae7

"Mother’s Day is of course not the only holiday that can create such challenges for marketers and those who receive their messages. Father’s Day is the easy parallel, but let’s not forget Valentine’s Day, which also has the potential to have some real impact on people who might not want to receive such messages. There have been countless other email campaigns that have gone horribly off the rails, most notably a campaign ten years ago that involved a photo company sending emails to new parents congratulating them on their new bundle of joy. The email was supposed to be sent to a limited number of recipients who had recently purchased birth announcement..."

Is failure an option? Does anyone elect to fail?

Probably not, however, one does choose to forgo a final proof-read, or to cut and paste a mailing list, or to take another short-cut, or to live by the credo that it is easier to ask forgiveness after the fact than it is to ask permission in advance.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/06/19/forgive/

As a copyright enthusiast, I must point out that when it comes to potential copyright infringement, it is always preferable to obtain permissions, waivers, licenses etc. Just saying.

Have a happy day.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

SPACE SNARK™

http://www.spacesnark.com/

http://www.rowenacherry.com

Friday, May 12, 2023

Reflections of Life, Part 3 by Karen S. Wiesner

Reflections of Life, Part 3

by Karen S. Wiesner

In Part 2, I discussed what it took to bring about change in the crash and burn lifestyle that dominated most of my adult life. On a daily basis, I began to sense the gentle nudge that led to the restructuring and reallocating of my energy and ease in juggling multiple projects at once. However, I can't move forward with this reflective essay without adding that the years of COVID hell were strong contributors to what truly seemed like the mighty falling and the dwindling effectiveness of my previously relished Super Powers. Like many other authors who struggled to produce anything salable during those aghast (in this context, an odd but fitting word) years, I produced next to nothing until at last light again penetrated the emotional void of my blackest period of existence. I saw distinct changes in my writing, from the quantity I was capable of producing right on down to the quality of the material. Some of these changes were for the better, others most certainly for the worse.

Ultimately, I came to the point where the only way to cope with my drastically altered form was to say "It is what it is", and move forward the best way I could. I had to learn to accept the new me, which most days seemed like a weaker, pitifully lessened, shell of myself. What came next was the aftermath of battles fought and lessons learned.

Karen Wiesner Sketch: Innocence Light and Dark

I went through the projects I'd once upon a time fully anticipated completing during my lifetime and evaluated whether I would or even could complete them after all. I started with the ones I'd already faced issues with in attempting to outline. In the course of my career, I'd realized that if I could finish an outline for a story, I would be able to write the book to my satisfaction. The first step was to remove those uncertain projects from the "To Be" list. A huge chunk of wannabe books fell by the wayside in this endeavor. On the plus side, I was able to finish within the next year two of the four series I had left to complete.

I also started gathering backup against having to endure further revision nightmares. I wanted to ensure as far as I possibly could that the body of material I submitted to the publisher I intended to keep for the rest of my career was as solid and flawless as I could make it. Over the years before my crisis, I'd begun to forsake critique partners for two very distinct reasons. The first reason is practicality. Simply put, I wrote too much and too fast to ask any critique partner or even a whole team of them to do so much for me. I think a crew, each member taking on a full-time job with handling even just a few of my books at a time, would have been required through most of my career. I did have a variety of critique partners, most of the time more than one, all put on different projects, but eventually it became harder to find ones I really trusted and believed were equal to the task. (I apologize if that sounds conceited, but…yeah, being practical, that was the way things stood.)

My second reason for not having critique partners for every single project was exactly what you may have guessed from that last paragraph: I got big-headed enough to assume in those later years before my crisis that I didn't need any helping making the majority of my books better and stronger. I thought I could do it completely on my own. Live and learn, but I have now found one single reliable critique partner that I'd worked with on and off in the past. I trusted her implicitly then, and even more so now that I find my once honed and sharp editorial skills becoming a bit more lax than even I'm comfortable with. Since my output has also been diminishing rapidly in these crisis years, I hoped I wouldn't overwhelm her with critique projects. I admit I definitely would have done that if not for the fact that the pipeline of my book releases has become hopelessly clogged during this time, stopping almost altogether in the course of the last five years as my only publisher has taken to renovating her entire backlist of books with new cover designs, fresh formatting, and updated promotion.

Next week I'll go over other strategies I implemented to restructure my life to bring better balance.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Thursday, May 11, 2023

Do-Overs

A vintage short story that was filmed as a TWILIGHT ZONE episode features an elderly millionaire who wants to relive his life, with his memories intact, for the thrill of making his fortune all over again. He stikes a deal with a demon and is duly returned to his home town in the early 20th century. Unfortunately, the past turns out to be less golden than he imagined, and, most important, he forgets to specify having his youth restored. Therefore, he suffers a heart attack and dies for lack of modern medicine. As he faces death, the demon taunts him about his request that he keep his memories: "Can we help it if your memory is lousy?"

The hypothetical question often arises, "Would you live your life over again, knowing what you know now?" Occasionally pondering that fantasy, I definitely would not accept a do-over from childhood or even my early teens. Go through all that again, with the added horror of being treated like a dependent child while having the mind and memories of an adult in my seventies? No, thanks! In the movie PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED, a middle-aged woman reverts to her high-school self with her memories intact, faced with the decision of whether or not to repeat the choices that led to marrying her present-day husband, from whom she's currently separated. After reliving part of her senior year (spoiler), she reawakens to her reasons for loving her husband and, upon returning to the present, decides to stay with him.

Would I repeat my life starting from, say, my marriage at the age of eighteen? In T. Kingfisher's latest horror novel, A HOUSE WITH GOOD BONES, the narrator returns to her grandmother's house (now her mother's), where she lived for part of her childhood and teens. Upon waking up in her old bedroom on the first morning, she experiences a disorienting moment of terror that her entire life since the age of ten has been a dream, and she'll be condemned to repeating high school, college, and graduate school—and writing her PhD dissertation all over again. I can identify with that nightmare. I'm not sure I'd have the stamina to struggle through all my university courses and the rewriting of my dissertation from scratch, although I might perform better in my advancement-to-candidacy oral exam with the memory of my previous blunders. On the other hand, I would have a fair chance to avoid most if not all of the worst mistakes and wrongdoings of my first lifetime. And yet, knowing I'd have to relive some painful events that are outside my control, would I want to face them again?

A further concern: If I repeated my life from my wedding day on, we might end up without all the children we've had in this timeline. Alternate history novels often include real people from the primary world but in different roles from the ones they played in our version of history. Although that's an entertaining trope I enjoy reading, in fact it's a vanishingly remote possiblity. A minor change in the timing of a sexual act could more likely than not result in the conception of a different individual. A difference of a month would, of course, definitely do so. Given a point of departure in the 19th century—say, the familiar scenario of the South winning the Civil War—virtually none of the people alive today, at least in this country, would ever have been conceived. On a lesser scale, the same result would happen in a family after a point of departure in one couple's married life. In Jo Walton's novel MY REAL CHILDREN, the protagonist faces a moment of decision in early adulthood when she decides whether or not to marry the man whom she's been dating. That decision splits her life from then on into two separate timelines, one in which they marry and one where they don't. In her final years, she remembers both lifetimes and families she's had. One interesting aspect of this novel, by the way, is that neither timeline is our own history. One alternate world turns out worse, the other better; in a further intriguing twist, the protagonist's personal life is happier in the dystopic world than in the optimistic one.

So if a genie offers to grant me a wish to re-do my adult life, I think I'll turn it down. That scenario would hold too many risky variables.

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt