tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13949810548905320352023-11-15T23:11:59.968-07:00Nigel G. Mitchell - Author, Blogger, GeekNigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.comBlogger358125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-52487221034529479582019-02-06T13:46:00.003-07:002019-02-06T13:46:33.456-07:00Story Structure as a Roller Coaster [Art]<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxLnnftP7nHulmO4JK-Yx2IwEA_0HfUZsIdw5kWiZsNVQWtpax_FifND8MwR4dXd0NpAqgVyZh7d-l6PBfYjwIzwHogfq1NOfGewEBpQqBLchrUStyk4AtPsaWt1EsUJFNL664WotzWsc/s1600/the-story-coaster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="289" data-original-width="600" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxLnnftP7nHulmO4JK-Yx2IwEA_0HfUZsIdw5kWiZsNVQWtpax_FifND8MwR4dXd0NpAqgVyZh7d-l6PBfYjwIzwHogfq1NOfGewEBpQqBLchrUStyk4AtPsaWt1EsUJFNL664WotzWsc/s400/the-story-coaster.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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We all know that reading can be an adventure with all sorts of twists and turns, which is why this image is so great. What is exposition? Falling action? An unreliable narrator? What if you could illustrate story structure as an amusement park roller coaster? That's where this hilarious and really insightful cartoon by Grant Snider comes in. A glance shows how a great plot twist can be an exciting part of the journey while an unresolved subplot can send you crashing. Check it out.<br />
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<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js"></script> What do you think?<br />
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<i>More aliens and planets lie ahead as the journey continues in <a href="http://a.co/h6VXCzA">Heart of the Nexus</a>, part two of the Nexus Trilogy!</i><i>!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-77445498687202026562018-12-09T18:59:00.002-07:002018-12-09T18:59:09.071-07:00Available: "Little Green Men: The Complete Novel"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFQeC_7Cx6ziJn7L4NfsZ5pWceFDMFa-az6nqS5jBc7lZtgI5_JcFkmB_r469oyqkikQEHn_UrPr6Twjm_PxpSOaLOvvWp2Q59YdVdK2u2wICgZgD_vryinaqsk-Mk3J4fIHF44AodtmA/s1600/LittleGreenMen-sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="300" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFQeC_7Cx6ziJn7L4NfsZ5pWceFDMFa-az6nqS5jBc7lZtgI5_JcFkmB_r469oyqkikQEHn_UrPr6Twjm_PxpSOaLOvvWp2Q59YdVdK2u2wICgZgD_vryinaqsk-Mk3J4fIHF44AodtmA/s200/LittleGreenMen-sm.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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All three parts of the <i>Little Green Men</i> serial are now assembled into one volume, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L2F9YCF" target="_blank">Little Green Men: The Complete Novel</a>.<br />
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Saving the world was just the beginning...</blockquote>
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Jeffrey Foster thought saving Earth from an alien invasion would be the high point of his life. Now he just wants to find a nice place in the Galaxy to settle down. But when he discovers the Xenon Empire plans to send its deadliest warlord to destroy the Earth, he must go through grueling training to earn the right to become an official Planetary Savior. If the training doesn't kill him, his annoying squadmates just might. And can he ever find some alien food to eat that won't make him gag?</blockquote>
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"Little Green Men" is the second in the "Flying Saucers" trilogy. Fans of Douglas Adams, Monty Python, and "Red Dwarf" will enjoy this new series.</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_EUgI1eve06-A5Dkd2O1Jggi2-9ESrYD65Gh07sxCwTVBLc9v5RHwVKeYaJCxp6F48VaA9FwXU1mKZRgfawfqOTlW3W9CiQ3oBa88xjUZKdhyphenhyphen2vUAakVPdMLZNDZVJjNRvc_2c0Fnc1w/s1600/LittleGreenMen-lg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_EUgI1eve06-A5Dkd2O1Jggi2-9ESrYD65Gh07sxCwTVBLc9v5RHwVKeYaJCxp6F48VaA9FwXU1mKZRgfawfqOTlW3W9CiQ3oBa88xjUZKdhyphenhyphen2vUAakVPdMLZNDZVJjNRvc_2c0Fnc1w/s320/LittleGreenMen-lg.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L2F9YCF" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a> to get it on Amazon. You can also buy the first in the series, <i><a href="http://a.co/d/gWzrJA5" target="_blank">Flying Saucers</a></i>.<br />
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<i>More aliens and planets lie ahead as the journey continues in <a href="http://a.co/h6VXCzA">Heart of the Nexus</a>, part two of the Nexus Trilogy!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-87679170953393140122018-11-03T21:38:00.000-07:002018-11-03T21:39:01.319-07:00Myths of "Fight Club": Homemade Napalm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDaRJOKm2O1fxO4XFiZAOcDZsv7pPOadgiGtl3GPMMZ96Wof5whyphenhyphenFCKYJ1RZe9Pm7bQqLcvKTczUAmtIHM8nJguyhtWFaP0qLHmj8QSG3lgME1vuwr2nCn_tSQABpT1PDa2AtmOjbfMf0/s1600/35038579485_c982fa62cd_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="163" data-original-width="240" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDaRJOKm2O1fxO4XFiZAOcDZsv7pPOadgiGtl3GPMMZ96Wof5whyphenhyphenFCKYJ1RZe9Pm7bQqLcvKTczUAmtIHM8nJguyhtWFaP0qLHmj8QSG3lgME1vuwr2nCn_tSQABpT1PDa2AtmOjbfMf0/s400/35038579485_c982fa62cd_m.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<i>This is a series about </i>Fight Club<i> by Chuck Palahniuk. The novel is famous for the popular movie adaptation, but also for the numerous anarchist "recipes" provided in the text. Throughout the book, the narrator and Tyler Durden provide various tips and methods for everything from making nitroglycerin to how to make a silencer. Palahniuk has claimed he </i><a href="http://www.dvdtalk.com/interviews/chuck_palahniuk.html" style="font-style: italic;">carefully researched all of them</a><i> and apparently </i><a href="http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=171934" style="font-style: italic;">a lot of people believe him</a><i>. I'd like to set the record straight: </i>Fight Club<i> is full of lies. Today, we'll talk about his "homemade napalm."</i><br />
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<b>“The three ways to make napalm: One, you can mix equal parts of gasoline and frozen orange juice concentrate. Two, you can mix equal parts of gasoline and diet cola. Three, you can dissolve crumbled cat litter in gasoline until the mixture is thick.”</b><br />
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This "recipe" is one of the most frequently mentioned in the novel. In fact, it becomes a mantra of sorts with members of the secret society Project Mayhem reciting it at random times. That made many readers and fans of the movie wonder, can you really make napalm with gasoline and orange juice concentrate? No, none of these recipes is even close to accurate.<br />
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First of all, what is napalm? Napalm itself is a brand name, not a substance on its own. The word "napalm" comes from the mixture of naphthenic acid and palmitic acid. It's a highly flammable sticky jelly used in incendiary bombs and flamethrowers, essentially gasoline thickened with special soaps. It's designed to burn at a specific rate and to adhere to surfaces to increase its effectiveness.<br />
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Given all that, the napalm recipes in <i>Fight Club</i> make no sense. Frozen orange juice wouldn't be frozen once it was set on fire, so you might as well use regular orange juice. Orange juice doesn't burn and isn't sticky. Diet cola might get you an explosive if you mix it with Mentos, but it won't do anything if you mix it with gasoline but make it taste better. Mixing gasoline and cat litter makes even less sense. Traditional cat litter is clay, so you might as well just mix gasoline with dirt and see what that gets you.<br />
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For his part, Palahniuk originally claimed all the recipes (including the napalm) are accurate but changed. It says so in his <a href="https://chuckpalahniuk.net/author/frequently-asked-questions-about-chuck-palahniuk#work-4" target="_blank">"official/unofficial" website</a>:<br />
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Q: Are the recipes in <i>Fight Club</i> real?<br />
A: They were. Chuck did very meticulous research and received some great notes from his brother, but at the last moment his publishers decided to change one ingredient in each recipe for liability reasons.</blockquote>
Later, he claimed that the recipe was <a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/interviews/chuck_palahniuk.html" target="_blank">changed by the movie</a>:<br />
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Well, Ed Norton changed one ingredient in every one to make them useless. So, that really pissed me off because I really research those really well. Actually its styrofoam and gasoline - it make the most incredible explosive.</blockquote>
So he claims that gasoline and Styrofoam is the original recipe, but that ignores the fact that the orange juice recipe was in the novel first.<br />
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Gas and Styrofoam does approximately get you <a href="https://youtu.be/mWbRCQawB24" target="_blank">something like napalm</a>. But he's still wrong, because the combination just gets you a sticky goo that will burn really hot, but is <i>not</i> explosive. It also doesn't explain why he uses two more recipes that were equally useless. Why include the recipes at all if they were so wrong? My guess? He made up the recipes or got them from someone equally clueless.<br />
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<i>More aliens and planets lie ahead as the journey continues in <a href="http://a.co/h6VXCzA">Heart of the Nexus</a>, part two of the Nexus Trilogy!</i><i>!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-60860900879522352982018-10-30T20:46:00.002-07:002018-10-30T20:46:16.176-07:00This Copy of "1984" Gets Less Censored As You Read It [Art]<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqBDIVVe_ZKEGqelKuJK1Duh_m_4mxkn4NN6Ry5kfftn3Hj_mqsZC34t_1OPnQtEujE-z_pvHIUx-Zno8RGQhR0oKoKDdqT5wdo_pmdWOTbwo2JAcJgZCpcOVjkJpUWLXoqslKIu0KIDA/s1600/1984-worn-censored-cover-header.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="188" data-original-width="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqBDIVVe_ZKEGqelKuJK1Duh_m_4mxkn4NN6Ry5kfftn3Hj_mqsZC34t_1OPnQtEujE-z_pvHIUx-Zno8RGQhR0oKoKDdqT5wdo_pmdWOTbwo2JAcJgZCpcOVjkJpUWLXoqslKIu0KIDA/s1600/1984-worn-censored-cover-header.jpg" /></a></div>
<i>1984</i> by George Orwell is a classic and defining dystopian novel, set in a future Britain ruled by a fascist government that uses manipulation, propaganda, and censorship to control the minds of its citizens. The novel brought us the term "Big Brother" as a catch-all term for any oppressive government actions, and has only grown more popular over the years as technology has allowed new levels of surveillance into our lives, and propaganda grows more sophisticated.<br />
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In 2013, Penguin Books UK released a new cover of <i>1984</i> to capture the theme of censorship and also the importance of reading. Designed by David Pearson, the cover has nothing except the publisher and price. Where the title and author should be are what look like black strips like they've been blacked out. However, if you look closely and feel, you can find the missing information has been embossed into the cover.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO0lijA-bHY_NMO_M1SRnjXJm7lInqzhX1US_6hiyUfhQ5oWEJOkWBIVEmLzJi9itZEML7xXWM1uNgQLzC1hfCc5m3OlFizUIn27Bli7hpmNgEad09JUhwzXK_j2cLCwsd-TNcl2_vhA4/s1600/nineteeneightyfourdropshadow569_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="569" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO0lijA-bHY_NMO_M1SRnjXJm7lInqzhX1US_6hiyUfhQ5oWEJOkWBIVEmLzJi9itZEML7xXWM1uNgQLzC1hfCc5m3OlFizUIn27Bli7hpmNgEad09JUhwzXK_j2cLCwsd-TNcl2_vhA4/s320/nineteeneightyfourdropshadow569_0.jpg" width="284" /></a></div>
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But that's not the best part. No, the best part is that the black foil strips can be worn off over time, so the more you handle the book, the more the cover becomes clear. It's like every time you pick it up, you're fighting the censorship implied by the cover.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUIVGFCP40k1U-QOLNLkS1m6ANohzpBlsOpIrOMBcE-XTNER2ZdWd1fU7psDbhrGMabYa6Qk0J_JtN0-PDQg75WJEpkTG3uSA82vV-Wk8SRqTuhex89pLJgjjp0YfmwJyh-Uvwbr1CKcU/s1600/1984-worn-censored-cover.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="600" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUIVGFCP40k1U-QOLNLkS1m6ANohzpBlsOpIrOMBcE-XTNER2ZdWd1fU7psDbhrGMabYa6Qk0J_JtN0-PDQg75WJEpkTG3uSA82vV-Wk8SRqTuhex89pLJgjjp0YfmwJyh-Uvwbr1CKcU/s320/1984-worn-censored-cover.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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What do you think?<br />
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[Via <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130310221849/https://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/january/great-orwell-penguin-david-pearson">Creative Review</a> via <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2013/1/12/3867350/new-penguin-edition-orwell-1984-black-out">The Verge</a>]<br />
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<i>More aliens and planets lie ahead as the journey continues in <a href="http://a.co/h6VXCzA">Heart of the Nexus</a>, part two of the Nexus Trilogy!</i><i>!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-26685301515822633042018-08-15T12:29:00.000-07:002018-08-15T12:29:12.294-07:00Why This "Forager's" Cookbook Almost Killed Someone<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirzF75UK4ToyVGef2hj6opYG-nOu4qd10BcJOuUnL60voncn1TzujiTspz-MXEUuE8M8IjDAiyVDQewGaWnRNxe_uK0GPsji91ogpQ0wI1JG68mW1MlZefvVoZr-wm8mqSssKd38JNqJ4/s1600/tales-from-a-forager-s-kitchen-the-ultimate-field-guide-to-evoke-curiosity-and-wonderment-with-more-than-80-recipes-and-foraging-tips.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="320" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirzF75UK4ToyVGef2hj6opYG-nOu4qd10BcJOuUnL60voncn1TzujiTspz-MXEUuE8M8IjDAiyVDQewGaWnRNxe_uK0GPsji91ogpQ0wI1JG68mW1MlZefvVoZr-wm8mqSssKd38JNqJ4/s320/tales-from-a-forager-s-kitchen-the-ultimate-field-guide-to-evoke-curiosity-and-wonderment-with-more-than-80-recipes-and-foraging-tips.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
Johnna Holmgren is a hugely popular Instagram star known as "foxmeetsbear" who's built a following around her natural, raw diet so it seemed natural to release a cookbook. The new book Tales From a Forager's Kitchen hit shelves but was quickly removed after it was discovered some of the recipes weren't just wrong but lethal.<br />
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One recipe that got a lot of attention was Dark Chocolate Dipped Morel Mushroom. The recipe calls for the mushroom to be washed and eaten raw. Wild mushrooms are recommended to be cooked because there might be poisonous debris inside it or chitin which is hard to digest but breaks down in cooking.<br />
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Even worse, there are mushrooms called "false morels" which are hard to distinguish between real morels and can cause dizziness, confusion, and coma. In other words, going around to pluck what you think are morel mushrooms and eating them raw is horrifically bad advice.<br />
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The mushrooms are not alone. There's also the elderberry smoothie which can be poisonous and the recipe that recommends soaking but not cooking wild rice, which makes it almost inedible.<br />
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Publisher Rodale Books has recalled the cookbook from shelves, and Holmgren has taken a major hit in the reputation department. It's almost as if getting food advice from some chick who lives in the woods with no medical or culinary expertise is a bad idea.<br />
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The funny thing is she admits this on her own website with the disclaimer:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: museo-sans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">While I strive to be 100% accurate, it is solely up to the reader to ensure proper plant identification. Some wild plants are poisonous or can have serious adverse health effects. I am not a health professional, medical doctor, nor a nutritionist. It is up to the reader to verify nutritional information and health benefits with qualified professionals for all edible plants listed in this web site and any published content.</span></blockquote>
Then why are we listening to you at all?!<br />
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<i>More aliens and planets lie ahead as the journey continues in <a href="http://a.co/h6VXCzA">Heart of the Nexus</a>, part two of the Nexus Trilogy!</i><i>!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-23150518496164142982018-07-13T08:16:00.001-07:002018-07-13T08:16:54.996-07:00This Awful Premade Book Cover Costs $85I've been shopping for book covers, looking to see if I could find a good premade cover. I came across this and just had to share because it shows the problem with book cover design these days. It's hard to find good designers, especially when people who have no idea how to do it throw themselves into the market.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy0sWz7ky3KaByRpKAFk-HxdgqFsQIPcQiKs7kJSyMhUCLCbhUqJq1sp-tRpd8-hepkJnJ80lLC_2VJSQVdiNViYHtC_zLms5ySgUq1taUeB6hhEXW_a7BYupCFriGwbV9MhNCG9ZAI88/s1600/16522_1527198619_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy0sWz7ky3KaByRpKAFk-HxdgqFsQIPcQiKs7kJSyMhUCLCbhUqJq1sp-tRpd8-hepkJnJ80lLC_2VJSQVdiNViYHtC_zLms5ySgUq1taUeB6hhEXW_a7BYupCFriGwbV9MhNCG9ZAI88/s1600/16522_1527198619_.jpg" /></a></div>
For example, the site I was looking at had a bunch of premade covers from various designers and I was stunned by this one. It's pretty much the worst book cover I've ever seen. It's a headless body badly cropped out and set to one side with a jarring color in the background. Plus, the fonts are all wrong for the romance category it was in.<br />
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Worst of all, the cost is $85.<br />
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Eighty-five dollars for this monstrosity?! If I paid five dollars for this cover I'd demand my money back! It probably took the artist ten minutes to make, and he or she has the nerve to slap an eighty-five dollar price tag on it. I only hope some desperate author isn't dumb enough to pay that for it.<br />
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<i>More aliens and planets lie ahead as the journey continues in <a href="http://a.co/h6VXCzA">Heart of the Nexus</a>, part two of the Nexus Trilogy!</i><i>!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-35359334624438747372018-07-08T10:13:00.002-07:002018-07-08T10:14:45.324-07:00Wendy's Released a Trashy Romance Novella About Fruit Tea<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF2Ru7g6TtHYTEmAqv1rOQ3yzVhDksrK5HZ-3WhyphenhyphenkSnuuMhk1zivNXQGwwekzfxN5fJwd09iPvEnDp9oJ73G56XiyHIU9TxBjvGox2NP-qfIAtGBdQQSPID-jLPVGqzY5Vv6K7tZgKEOI/s1600/wendys-fruit-tea-temptation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="210" data-original-width="400" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF2Ru7g6TtHYTEmAqv1rOQ3yzVhDksrK5HZ-3WhyphenhyphenkSnuuMhk1zivNXQGwwekzfxN5fJwd09iPvEnDp9oJ73G56XiyHIU9TxBjvGox2NP-qfIAtGBdQQSPID-jLPVGqzY5Vv6K7tZgKEOI/s320/wendys-fruit-tea-temptation.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<i>I want to make absolutely clear that this is not an endorsement of Wendy's or its products. I'm sure Wendy's Berry Cherry Fruit Tea is very nice, but I think iced tea is disgusting, so I haven't and never would drink it.</i><br />
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Fast food companies have a lot of competition and have to promote their products in different ways, so they've done some pretty crazy schemes. The annals of advertising are littered with wild campaigns like Wendy's "Where's the Beef" to Burger King's <a href="https://www.geek.com/culture/coq-roq-burger-kings-poultry-punk-band-1691574/" target="_blank">Coq Roq</a> website, but Wendy's has done something I can get behind. They released a trashy romance novella on Wattpad called <i><a href="https://www.wattpad.com/story/153799637-the-forbidden-fruit-tea" target="_blank">The Forbidden Fruit Tea</a></i>. It's a love triangle between a man, a woman, and a cup of Wendy's Berry Cherry Fruit tea. Here's the description:<br />
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Courtney Craig is done with dating. Done, that is, until she goes on a weekend trip to Tampa and meets the love of her life. Unfortunately for her, the love of her life is also the love of someone else's life... her old roommate's sister's ex-boyfriend Jean-Paul. Drama ensues when both Courtney and Jean-Paul vie for the affection of their one true love... Wendy's Berry Cherry Fruit Tea.</blockquote>
I wish more companies would promote their products with silly but surprisingly well-written stories.<br />
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<i>More aliens and planets lie ahead as the journey continues in <a href="http://a.co/h6VXCzA">Heart of the Nexus</a>, part two of the Nexus Trilogy!</i><i>!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-15531368488920015852018-06-27T07:53:00.001-07:002018-06-27T07:53:24.627-07:00New Release: "Little Green Men 3: Starship Losers"The final book in the three-part <i>Little Green Men</i> is finally done: <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F1BRR4D" target="_blank">Starship Losers</a></i>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRITKLIWpbZxIvv1K75vg1XPapcTUe_7hjCP-YEyTeown-d0JVPZcWsk9iIhIQOnCXWdIze_txkx6u278SoExQPBjx3_MoiR9gbO0N8shgjaAs-UTgg3a4hQ-QAlOex3VmJuPgqslsvTw/s1600/LittleGreenMen3-sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRITKLIWpbZxIvv1K75vg1XPapcTUe_7hjCP-YEyTeown-d0JVPZcWsk9iIhIQOnCXWdIze_txkx6u278SoExQPBjx3_MoiR9gbO0N8shgjaAs-UTgg3a4hQ-QAlOex3VmJuPgqslsvTw/s320/LittleGreenMen3-sm.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Once, Jeffrey Foster was just a cashier at a convenience store until an alien warlord invaded Earth. He helped to fight them off but they returned, and this time they mean business.<br />The alien Xenon Empire has sent a fleet of battleships to destroy Jeffrey Foster and the planet Earth, but Jeffrey is trapped in a rickety spaceship more likely to kill him than the Empire. The military training facility trying to teach him to become a hero has been destroyed. His ship's crew is fighting a duel to the death. Other than that, Jeffrey's goal of trying to save Earth from destruction is going great.<br />This is it, the final part of "Little Green Men!" Fans of Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, "Red Dwarf," and other comedy science fiction will love this series.</blockquote>
I honestly didn't intend to go a year between releasing each part. The original plan was to release one every six months or so, but it turned out to be a lot harder to write than I thought. But it's finally finished. As I originally planned, I'll be putting them together into a single volume <i>Little Green Men</i>, which will be the sequel to <i>Flying Saucers</i>. There is a third book coming to complete the Flying Saucers trilogy, but I'm not making any promises after last time.<br />
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Also, check out the rest of the "Flying Saucers" series:<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D0H17OS/" target="_blank"><i>Flying Saucers</i></a><br />
<a href="http://a.co/3mVJI0L" target="_blank"><i>Call Center Of Doom</i></a><br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0188IDVDI" target="_blank"><i>Little Green Men #1</i></a><br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072JR9M2G" target="_blank"><i>Little Green Men #2</i></a><br />
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<i>More aliens and planets lie ahead as the journey continues in <a href="http://a.co/h6VXCzA">Heart of the Nexus</a>, part two of the Nexus Trilogy!</i><i>!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-2051311117435838792018-06-26T08:54:00.000-07:002018-06-26T17:34:19.972-07:00Authors Behaving Badly: Richard Brittain<i>While most authors are wonderful, some authors are not. That's why I'll be featuring some of the worst behavior of authors in this series. Today, the worst response to a bad review ever.</i><br />
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I think every author is upset by bad reviews. Some authors don't read reviews at all. Some authors read reviews, just swallow the pain and go back to writing. Other authors get into long and heated arguments with their reviewers online. One author Richard Brittain took his anger way, way too far.<br />
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In 2014, Richard Brittain published <i>The World Rose</i>, self-described as an "epic fairytale romance." Before this incident, Brittain was best known as a former champion of the TV quiz show <i>Countdown</i> in 2009. His book, however, didn't receive positive reviews. One particularly long review by a reviewer named Paige Rolland on Wattpad seemed to have sent Brittain over the edge.<br />
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In October 2014, Brittain used Facebook to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/countdown-champion-pleads-guilty-to-tracking-down-and-attacking-teenage-girl-a6728476.html" target="_blank">track down</a> the eighteen-year-old Rolland. He traveled from England to Scotland (a distance of 400 miles) where Rolland worked at a grocery store. While she worked stacking cereal, Brittain picked up a bottle of wine from a shelf, snuck up on her from behind, and smashed the bottle over her head. Then he walked out.<br />
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Rolland was knocked out briefly, and ended up going to the hospital with lacerations on her scalp. Doctors said if the blow had been harder or in a slightly different part of her head, it would have killed her.<br />
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That's right. He knocked a woman unconscious and sent her to the hospital. Over a bad review.<br />
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Brittain was later arrested, confessed to the police, was charged and put in prison. Last we heard from him, he claimed to be <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4374902/Jailed-Richard-Brittain-heard-voices-prison.html" target="_blank">hearing voices</a> that told him to stare directly at the sun for several days.<br />
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As of this writing, his book <i>The World Rose</i> has a one-star rating on Amazon. But no one's been hit over the head with wine bottles for those reviews, so there's that.<br />
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UPDATE: So the story gets worse. It turns out the main character in <i>The World Rose</i> was based on a woman Brittain had been stalking for years, both online and in real life. Guess that's where he learned his mad Facebook stalking skills.<br />
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<i>More aliens and planets lie ahead as the journey continues in <a href="http://a.co/h6VXCzA">Heart of the Nexus</a>, part two of the Nexus Trilogy!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-72708482153832260392018-06-15T07:25:00.001-07:002018-06-15T07:25:28.349-07:00Worst Books Ever: "Moon People" by Dale M. Courtney<i>Whenever people call books like </i>Twilight <i>the worst book ever, I always shake my head. Not because Twilight is good, but because it's by no means the worst book ever written. It's time we talked about the real stinkers. That's why I'm going to be highlighting the true worst books ever published by a traditional publisher in the science fiction and fantasy genre. Today, </i>Moon People<i> by Dale M. Courtney.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEienCU-5dMcgA3Ohb6GOqVDxaCHhW8v0CUo2tPLmeQVUcIIPDY0tdB0x0_dt5wDDFifOdhLgdJANkNwWvR0QwAvNAB1gjDf6u7GPfK_NiLaCL4HWes-_tMp1ANBcGTP-Iio_aRVvcA59t8/s1600/moon-people-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="220" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEienCU-5dMcgA3Ohb6GOqVDxaCHhW8v0CUo2tPLmeQVUcIIPDY0tdB0x0_dt5wDDFifOdhLgdJANkNwWvR0QwAvNAB1gjDf6u7GPfK_NiLaCL4HWes-_tMp1ANBcGTP-Iio_aRVvcA59t8/s200/moon-people-1.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
Long before Amazon leveled the playing field for self-published authors, anyone who wanted to publish their own books had to go to companies called vanity presses. Vanity presses became notorious for their sleaziness, charging huge amounts of money to desperate people to print books regardless of quality that would end up gathering dust on the author's shelves. In 2008, the online self-publishing industry was just getting off the ground with Xlibris, a company that published books on demand. That's where <i>Moon People</i> came from.<br />
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Here's the official description by the author:<br />
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This Book is based on the turning point for Earth into a new era of space travel and the beginning of the Age of Aquarius. The story focuses on one Man by the Name of David Braymer and his adventures from High school teacher to 1st Science Officer on board the Lunar Base 1 Mobile Base Station and his encounters with Alien Life forms through out our universe and the space Battle of all battles David experiences. I hope you enjoy the many adventures of David Braymer and his conquest in space and our journey into the Age of Aquarius.</blockquote>
Just from that description, you've got an idea what you're in for.<br />
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The story is about a high school teacher named David Braymet who get caught in the middle of a war between the good alien Powleens and the bad alien Arcons.<br />
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The book achieved fame in 2009 through its horrifically bad prose.<br />
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In case we still haven't convinced you, here's the first page of the novel.<br />
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<i>This story begins on a Beautiful sunny day in Daytona Beach Florida With a man by the name of David Braymer. A 45-year-old Single man that works at the local High school as a science teacher and astrology in the 12-grade level. Now he’s been here about 5 years and has become kind of partial to a young lady by the name of Cheral Baskel a local restaurant owner in Daytona Beach. At the moment Cheral’s preparing her restaurant for another Shuttle launch at the cape and everyone always gathers at her place because you can see the launch real good at her place. It’s also on the water and its real close to the cape and she really decks the place out.</i></blockquote>
Soon after, the book became the target of Internet trolls posting fake reviews of praise and mocking its writing (although there is debate as to whether some of the five-star reviews written in the same style are satirical or the author himself trying to post fake reviews).<br />
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The book inspired two sequels: <i>Moon People 2</i> and <i>Moon People 3</i>. From all reports, his writing hasn't improved. At one point, Courtney claimed Moon People was going to be adapted to a movie in 2016, directed by J. J. Abrams and starring Harrison Ford. Clearly didn't happen.<br />
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I haven't been able to find a single thing on the author other than his bio:<br />
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D. M. Courtney is Married and a father of three, a writer and also does work for National Security on the part of foreign policies and war strategies and world economic equality. My hobbies are Scuba diving and fishing. I was raised in Miami Florida at the time of the Muriel flotilla of refugees from Cuba in the early seventies. Also did a tour in the military in the Army, went to Korea for a year. </blockquote>
Not sure what working for "National Security on the part of foreign policies and war strategies and world economic equality" means. Airport security? Accountant? Hopefully, the job doesn't involve a lot of writing.<br />
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<i>Moon People</i> has been called the <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/02/worst-book-ever-moon-people_n_1244836.html" target="_blank">worst book ever</a>, the literary equivalent of <i>The Room</i>. Sadly, it's not. The worst book ever written was penned by myself at the age of 11. Thankfully, the original manuscript and all copies have been lost forever.<br />
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<i>You only know half the story of Jekyll and Hyde. Prepare to see literature's greatest monsters in a whole new light with <a href="http://nigelgmitchell.blogspot.com/p/hyde.html" target="_blank">Hyde</a></i><i>!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-45947581057235929232018-06-14T10:04:00.000-07:002018-06-14T10:04:32.013-07:00Popular Kindle Unlimited Authors Make Way More Than You Think<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYU0rSVUqQuWzdt8Zu5j0_2C-WLlqCzh_Kb-RETS-CLl3NGjy-z7W7PAekRjFEBdsxv13Uv-CGP8_MMtb76tSsgrlpBTE3sKo0X6SA9tY9Od8XdyJ8nZf125wIQiJ8Sc8HCBW09flK14c/s1600/Dollar_symbol.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="171" data-original-width="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYU0rSVUqQuWzdt8Zu5j0_2C-WLlqCzh_Kb-RETS-CLl3NGjy-z7W7PAekRjFEBdsxv13Uv-CGP8_MMtb76tSsgrlpBTE3sKo0X6SA9tY9Od8XdyJ8nZf125wIQiJ8Sc8HCBW09flK14c/s1600/Dollar_symbol.jpg" /></a></div>
What do popular indie authors on Amazon make?<br />
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That's a question you may not have thought about. I think we all know that big stars like Stephen King and Hugh Howey make a lot of money, but what about people you'd consider lower-tier? Those self-published authors who most people have never heard of but have books floating in the top 1000 of Amazon? Authors who might never end up on the <i>New York Times</i> bestseller list or reviewed by major publications? What are they taking home?<br />
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Well, get ready for some math that will blow your mind.<br />
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We're going to make up a fictional author named Penny Moneybags. Penny is an indie author who's released a new book, <i>Love of Money</i>. <i>Love of Money</i> is a 300-page werewolf cowboy romance novel written in her spare time and has surprised everyone by jumping up in sales. Now we're not talking millions of copies sold. We're talking a modest success by Amazon's publishing standards. It's not on the bestsellers lists of the NYT or <i>USA Today</i>, and it's not even in the top 100 of Amazon's general bestseller lists. How much does Penny make each month?<br />
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We'll start with the premise that <i>Love of Money</i> is ranking in the #1,000 range for the month out of millions of other books on Amazon's shelves. Let's say that would mean the book is selling two thousand copies a month. Again, that's awesome but it's not at the top of most of the charts. Let's also say that <i>Love of Money</i> is priced at $2.99, which is the minimum Amazon will let you charge for a book and get 70% of the profits. That means Penny is earning $2.09 per book which is $4,180 a month.<br />
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That's a good amount of money. Not enough to retire on, but she might quit her day job and write full-time. But it's just the beginning.<br />
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Let's say she has her novel enrolled in Kindle Unlimited, where subscribers can pay a monthly fee to read any enrolled books for free. Most books in KU get more page reads than direct sales, but let's say <i>Love of Money</i> gets 2,000 people reading her entire book in KU for that month. Since KU currently pays around a half-a-cent a word and the book is 300 pages, that means she gets 600,000 page reads for the month which earns her $3,000. That, combined with the $4,180, gives her $7,180 a month.<br />
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If that still doesn't sound like much, remember most authors published by traditional publishers get a one-time advance of maybe $5,000 and then a portion of royalties which they might never see, thanks to low sales or publishers cooking the books. That means Penny has already made more in one month than most authors see for the entire run of their novel.<br />
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And that's just the start. You can tweak the numbers even higher with small changes. What if she charged $4.99 for her book, earning her $3.49 per sale? What if her novel was read twice as much by KU readers (1,200,000 pages read instead of 600,000 pages)? None of those slight changes mean her book is any better or longer or sells more copies, but doubles her earnings to almost $10,000 a month.<br />
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And what if she published two more novels that did equally well? Now it starts to add up to serious money.<br />
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There's also the fact that Penny is an indie author, which means once her self-published book is released on Amazon, there's no one else taking a cut of her earnings. It's pure profit.<br />
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Remember that next time you're scrolling through Amazon. You might see those low-level self-published authors in a different light.<br />
<br />
<i>You only know half the story of Jekyll and Hyde. Prepare to see literature's greatest monsters in a whole new light with <a href="http://nigelgmitchell.blogspot.com/p/hyde.html" target="_blank">Hyde</a></i><i>!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-29496278622823368792018-06-03T12:35:00.000-07:002018-07-08T10:22:38.125-07:00When Bestsellers Are Badly Written [Rant]<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsu-0a_n7a7Kvta3itaKk_Ua5X5A7Angb-e2ybdArM7B1lFVWsuVH5vD-pPfCOtpj4pbYBUVHe4G2tyLr2AewPuWrM3Ktmmw_u8DrTlrRnP3iXYg7NA3ftxTiDWMVs4W2CXuY4wCXo2qk/s1600/twilight-fiftyshades.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="504" data-original-width="600" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsu-0a_n7a7Kvta3itaKk_Ua5X5A7Angb-e2ybdArM7B1lFVWsuVH5vD-pPfCOtpj4pbYBUVHe4G2tyLr2AewPuWrM3Ktmmw_u8DrTlrRnP3iXYg7NA3ftxTiDWMVs4W2CXuY4wCXo2qk/s320/twilight-fiftyshades.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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There's a Darwinian belief that great books become bestsellers and bad books never even get past the slush pile. Of course, we all know that's not true. If you look on lists like Goodreads' <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2.The_Worst_Books_of_All_Time" target="_blank">Worst Books of All Time</a>, you'll find books like <i>Twilight</i> and <i>The Da Vinci Code. </i>Those books are riddled with weak characters, ridiculous plot twists, and bad grammar. At the same time, we can all agree those aren't really the worst books of all time. I'm not saying those books are well-written, but they clearly aren't the worst. I mean, <i><a href="http://nigelgmitchell.blogspot.com/2018/06/worst-books-ever-moon-people-by-dale-m.html" target="_blank">Moon People</a></i> by Dale M. Courtney and <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eye_of_Argon" target="_blank">The Eye of Argon</a></i> by Jim Theis aren't even on the top ten. Also, there are plenty of people who think these books are fabulous, enough to make them bestsellers. So why are writing problems in so many bestselling novels hated?</div>
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The truth is that somehow bad writing is made worse when it's in a successful book because it seems so undeserved. When writers who agonize over every comma in their work never even get published at all while other writers who break basic rules of grammar become rich, it makes people angry. Well, I know it makes me angry.<br />
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This all came to a head for me last month when I noticed a certain series of novels rocketing to the top of the science fiction bestseller lists. Of course, when you see three or four books in a series in the top ten on Amazon, it gets your attention, so I looked into it. I'm not going to name the books or the author because I'm not here to shame anyone, but I was struck by how horribly written they were. It's seriously some of the most clumsily written fiction I've ever seen in a novel, let alone a monstrously successful one with a four-point-five rating from over 500 reviews.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgox0cSoj4l2ErE-TinStJqtInRp4E4WIu8QmJMqOSQb-tOHxbPDZ42dj8kclhm5gRNxNDdyg6DEvUOIvXG5MhYPZAFsZZRO4u-Fj2VOudtCB3iz7ehpr5u1BlW-0YwnixFy9SPQF9JYPI/s1600/funny-fake-book-covers-15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="397" data-original-width="700" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgox0cSoj4l2ErE-TinStJqtInRp4E4WIu8QmJMqOSQb-tOHxbPDZ42dj8kclhm5gRNxNDdyg6DEvUOIvXG5MhYPZAFsZZRO4u-Fj2VOudtCB3iz7ehpr5u1BlW-0YwnixFy9SPQF9JYPI/s320/funny-fake-book-covers-15.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not the actual book</td></tr>
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I'm going to include an excerpt, but I'm changing some names just to keep from identifying it. I also want to add that I've made no changes other than the names, and that I chose this because it's literally where I'm at in the novel, not because it's a particularly bad section. The whole book is like this and there's much worse.<br />
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He heard it then, someone was knocking on a door.<br />
"John Steel, this is detective Schumer! Please open the door."<br />
"Oh s--t," Ruby grumbled, rolling out of bed.<br />
"Yeah," John agreed, standing up, "I don't have any clothes in here!"<br />
"You left your robe in here yesterday," Ruby said, moving over to the back of the door where it was hanging. Grabbing it, she tossed it to him, and he quickly put it on while she donned her own.<br />
"Mr. Steel!" he heard again, followed by more knocking.<br />
Opening the door, John leaned out and looked at the man knocking on his door. Actually, there were two of them. One was dressed in a plain suit with a badge hanging out of the breast pocket; the other was wearing a uniform. John noticed that George, the other guy living on the floor, was looking out of his door, and when George saw him stick my head out of Roxy's room, his eyes got wide.<br />
"What do you want?" John grumbled. "It's early."<br />
They both turned towards him. "Are you John Steel?" the one in the suit, obviously the detective, asked him.<br />
John nodded. "Yeah, that's me."</blockquote>
Now this one's a self-published novel so some mistakes can be expected but this one I found almost unreadable because the editor in my head kept screaming about all the mistakes. If the author came to me for editing, I would grab a red pen and scrawl the following all over it:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He heard it then <span style="color: red;">[Of course he heard it. What would he do, <i>breathe</i> in someone knocking?]</span>, <span style="color: red;">[You don't use a comma, but a period, because you're starting a new sentence]</span> someone was knocking on a door. <span style="color: red;">[Which door? He's in his bedroom. The bedroom door? Clarify as "front door"]</span><br />
"John Steel, this is detective <span style="color: red;">[capitalize "Detective"] </span>Schumer <span style="color: red;">[Police don't normally give their name before someone opens their door, just state that they're police]</span>! <span style="color: red;">[No need for an exclamation point]</span> Please open the door <span style="color: red;">[Police also don't say "please open the door," way too polite and at the same time, stiff. Change this to: "Can you please open the door" or skip the obvious and say "We'd like to speak with you." Opening the door is implied]</span>."<br />
"Oh s--t," <span style="color: red;">[Brilliant dialogue right there. Shakespeare would be proud.]</span> Ruby grumbled, rolling out of bed <span style="color: red;">[Cliche. And unless she rolled out of bed onto the floor, I'd expand this a little to say something like "She rolled over and climbed out of bed"]</span>.<br />
"Yeah," John agreed <span style="color: red;">[Do we really need him to agree with her? And why say "agreed" at all? Him saying "yeah" means we know he agrees with her]</span>, standing up <span style="color: red;">[So did he roll out of bed, too or what?]</span>, <span style="color: red;">[no comma needed]</span> "I don't have any clothes in here!" <span style="color: red;">[again, no need for the exclamation point. And is that his biggest concern with police knocking on his door, is his lack of clothing?]</span><br />
"You left your robe in here yesterday," <span style="color: red;">[Okay, these two are facing police pounding on their door in the morning for unknown reasons and they're more worried about getting him dressed. Doesn't ring true, especially since they just killed some people in the last chapter. There's no sense of the fear or urgency to the situation. They might as well be responding to a FedEx deliveryman knocking on their door]</span> Ruby said <span style="color: red;">[We don't need "said" here at all, since we identify her with the description]</span>, moving over to the back of the door where it was hanging <span style="color: red;">[Why bother saying anything about the robe and explaining where it came from when it's literally right in front of her? It feels like the author is just filling pages]</span>. Grabbing it, she tossed it to him <span style="color: red;">[We can assume she grabbed it if she tossed it to him, I'd cut "grabbing it"]</span>, and he quickly put it on while she donned her own <span style="color: red;">[After all the tension and drama of him getting his robe, I'm surprised the author didn't wring more out of it by including a conversation about where her robe came from. Did she buy it at Wal-Mart? Was it on sale? Inquiring readers demand to know!]</span>.<br />
"Mr. <span style="color: red;">["Mr." is supposed to be "Mister" when it's in dialogue]</span> Steel!" he <span style="color: red;">[Who?]</span> heard again <span style="color: red;">[The police officer didn't say Mister Steel last time, he said "John Steel" so this wouldn't be "again"]</span>, followed by more knocking.<br />
Opening the door, John leaned out <span style="color: red;">[This is awkward. How did he lean out of his front door to look at someone standing right in front of it? Was the man not directly in front of him? Or did John open the door just a little so he could lean through the gap?] </span>and looked at the man knocking on his door <span style="color: red;">[This is so stiff. It's not really necessary to say he "looked at the man." You could be more descriptive to rewrite the whole sentence as "John opened the door to see the man with his hand up, ready to knock on the door again]</span>. Actually, there were two of them <span style="color: red;">[Then change the last sentence to "the two men at his door." It's like the author changed his mind but didn't bother to go back and fix it]</span>. One was dressed in a plain suit with a badge hanging out of the breast pocket <span style="color: red;">[Okay...I guess that's the way some police dress.]</span>; the other was wearing a uniform <span style="color: red;">[What kind of uniform? Say police uniform]</span>. John noticed that George, the other guy living on the floor, <span style="color: red;">[He literally introduces this character out of nowhere for the sole purpose of this one moment. Don't really need his name.]</span> was looking out of his door <span style="color: red;">[Start a new sentence]</span>, and when George saw him stick my <span style="color: red;">[Uh, this book is third person but switched to first person. This happens a few times in the book, actually.]</span> head <span style="color: red;">[The author just said John leaned out, not stuck his head out. Make up your mind!]</span>, out of Ruby's room, his eyes got wide. <span style="color: red;">[Literally no explanation for why his eyes got wider. Was he surprised about the police? John being in a girl's bedroom? The fact that John had a robe? What?]</span>
<br />
"What do you want?" John grumbled. "It's early." <span style="color: red;">[Honestly, if I had just murdered some people and police knocked on my door the next morning, I wouldn't start out so hostile, but that's just me.]</span><br />
They both turned towards him.<span style="color: red;">[Wait, they were facing <i>away</i> from the door? I thought they were knocking on it. Did they knock on the door, hear him inside, and decide to turn around? Why would they be facing <i>away</i> from the door they expect someone to be opening? Also, wouldn't John leaning out and talking to them have made them turn around before this?]</span> "Are you John Steel?" the one in the suit, <span style="color: red;">[I would rearrange this to avoid the comma, saying, "The one in the suit asked, "Are you John Steel?" Or better yet, avoid another "said" by using description instead like "The one in the suit looked down at his notebook"]</span> obviously the detective <span style="color: red;">[Why is this obvious?]</span>, asked him.<br />
John nodded. "Yeah, that's me." <span style="color: red;">[Again, brilliant dialogue.]</span></blockquote>
Okay, so...there's that.<br />
<br />
Most of my life, it's been my belief that becoming a better writer would lead to more readers. This book has shattered decades of writing practice with the realization that it just doesn't matter.<br />
<br />
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I learned this when I read the above section out loud to someone to show her how badly written it was and she shocked me by saying that she liked it and she could visualize the scene. I argued with her about the bad grammar and construction but she just insisted the same thing. At that point, I read her a passage from a book I'm currently writing and she said that she had a hard time visualizing the scene compared to the other one I had read her.<br />
<br />
After over thirty years of writing, I have learned a valuable and important message which is that readers don't care about editing. They care about the story. Obviously, the bestselling series currently on Amazon is what people want. Some of the five-star reviews even mention that there are errors, but they don't care because they love it.</div>
<br />
Most of my life, I've been writing with the goal of conforming to rules of grammar and spelling while also using descriptive phrases that captured the imagery I wanted to convey. Taking my beta reader's words to heart and the hated text in hand, I realized what the offending book does is deliver the story in simple and easy-to-understand language. It's not always accurate, but it does the job. My writing doesn't.<br />
<br />
With that in mind, I humbly set down to rewrite the section I had written with the goal of making it easier to read and understand. To my surprise, the same beta reader thought it was much better, even though I had cut some of my favorite writing.<br />
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That's a lesson that all writers should remember. Most readers don't care about grammar. They care about how easy and fun the book is to read. By that measure, maybe <i>Twilight</i> and <i>The Da Vinci Code</i> aren't that bad after all because they did what they're supposed to do. Clearly, the books have value to the reader and that's what's important, not the use of commas.<br />
<br />
What do you think? Is grammar more important than story? Have you read a popular book that was badly-written? Let me know in the comments.<br />
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<i>You only know half the story of Jekyll and Hyde. Prepare to see literature's greatest monsters in a whole new light with <a href="http://nigelgmitchell.blogspot.com/p/hyde.html" target="_blank">Hyde</a></i><i>!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-21342899857421739372018-05-31T14:54:00.002-07:002018-05-31T14:54:25.630-07:00New Release: "Heart of the Nexus" - Book 2 of the Nexus Trilogy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUGXickWvny0yaxyYA440vD47Iq7nVhbvrjntdmXTbX_ALQ_ZP4GjKVxIne8Yb3P4GzP6OfF8VaXdv_K5_il-ddxGWEsYjS2IZXDmGCGu174xTZApFIaaC2rA1y_VLEYhe1kXWX3vnXVw/s1600/heart-of-the-nexus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="344" data-original-width="218" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUGXickWvny0yaxyYA440vD47Iq7nVhbvrjntdmXTbX_ALQ_ZP4GjKVxIne8Yb3P4GzP6OfF8VaXdv_K5_il-ddxGWEsYjS2IZXDmGCGu174xTZApFIaaC2rA1y_VLEYhe1kXWX3vnXVw/s200/heart-of-the-nexus.jpg" width="126" /></a></div>
The second book in the Nexus trilogy, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BKB6G4C" target="_blank"><i>Heart of the Nexus</i></a>, will be released on June 1, 2018. It continues the saga from the first book and throws the four refugees from Earth into a new and more dangerous world.<br />
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Four people have been taken from Earth to the interplanetary maze known as Nexus where they've survived their first journey to a dangerous world, but the trip home is far from over. It isn't long before they discover the brutal alien Kraghs have returned, and they don't plan to leave them empty-handed. When one of the four is threatened, the other three must fight to save them but they discover the Kraghs have a plan that could threaten the Universe.</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BKB6G4C" target="_blank">Click here to pre-order your copy</a><br />
<br />
Of course, you can also get the first book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075RWPTPW/" target="_blank"><i>Enter the Nexus</i></a> now.<br />
<br />
<i>You only know half the story of Jekyll and Hyde. Prepare to see literature's greatest monsters in a whole new light with <a href="http://nigelgmitchell.blogspot.com/p/hyde.html" target="_blank">Hyde</a></i><i>!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-59824197422704806782018-05-30T13:30:00.001-07:002018-05-31T14:55:37.019-07:00"Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4981.Slaughterhouse_Five" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Slaughterhouse-Five" border="0" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1440319389m/4981.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4981.Slaughterhouse_Five">Slaughterhouse-Five</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2778055.Kurt_Vonnegut">Kurt Vonnegut</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/483231543">5 of 5 stars</a><br />
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Most people think the purpose of science fiction is to explore things that don't exist like laser guns and spaceships. In fact, the best science fiction is a way of exploring our modern world in ways that regular fiction can't. In that sense, "Slaughterhouse Five" is one of the best and most important science fiction novels ever written.<br />
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At first glance, "Slaughterhouse" is the story of Billy Pilgrim who becomes "unstuck" in time and travels to what seem to be random moments in his past, present and future. Most of the book is about his experiences during World War II as a soldier and POW. The novel touches on his early life, the horrific moments of war and loss, and his future where he seems to be older and wiser. However, many of the experiences Pilgrim goes through were the real moments that author Kurt Vonnegut went through in WWII. In that sense, the novel is really an unconventional memoir.<br />
<br />
That's where the power of the novel really lies. By attributing the experiences of his life to Pilgrim, there's a distance that can be achieved which a real autobiography might not have. Reading about how he's forced to march for miles in mud, forced in train cars so cramped no one can sit down, and huddling in a bunker during the bombing of Dresden come to life with Vonnegut's brilliant but sparse writing.<br />
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"Slaughterhouse" also falls into the realm of satire when Pilgrim ends up being mated with a beautiful actress by aliens in a sort of zoo. No one believes him when he returns to Earth, as can be expected, but some of his war experiences aren't believed either so there's a nice parallel. The alien aspect isn't taken seriously though with descriptions of the aliens looking like plungers. The mix of the brutally real and ridiculously false is part of the novel's charm.<br />
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While his wartime experiences get a lot of attention, I thought the moments after the war have a powerful impact. When his girlfriend asks him to talk about the war and Pilgrim dismisses it as being uninteresting, we know all that he went through and why he refused to burden her with it. It's almost too much for a normal person to hear and understand. It made me sympathetic to veterans who suffer PTSD.<br />
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I love Vonnegut's writing. He doesn't go into long and detailed descriptions, but chooses a few words that speak volumes. For instance, "We saw waterfalls, too, streams jumping off cliffs into the valley of the Delaware" is the description for an entire scene and packs a lot of information.<br />
<br />
This is one of my favorite novels and a powerful message against war in all its forms. So it goes.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/6021650-nigel-mitchell">View all my reviews</a>
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Related:<br />
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<a href="http://nigelgmitchell.blogspot.com/2014/04/10-most-brilliant-lines-from.html" target="_blank">10 Most Brilliant Lines From "Slaughterhouse Five"</a><br />
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<i>You only know half the story of Jekyll and Hyde. Prepare to see literature's greatest monsters in a whole new light with <a href="http://nigelgmitchell.blogspot.com/p/hyde.html" target="_blank">Hyde</a></i><i>!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-29014228430827386222018-05-04T20:28:00.003-07:002018-05-04T20:28:57.508-07:00Bizarre Books: "English As She Is Spoke"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOify1xVFQZD-7KFbnHu6fxHbfrSiaA-SmIjCZ_pYo4LjGx_34G-iG4S6BKdAT1EsozYEZ6S6vu-hGArIeeV8nJhh4isP59BPM1lQVxF9oHnJI9afx3qQSEaJEplOBj-qdF64OzMlZGyk/s1600/english-as-she-is-spoke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="273" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOify1xVFQZD-7KFbnHu6fxHbfrSiaA-SmIjCZ_pYo4LjGx_34G-iG4S6BKdAT1EsozYEZ6S6vu-hGArIeeV8nJhh4isP59BPM1lQVxF9oHnJI9afx3qQSEaJEplOBj-qdF64OzMlZGyk/s200/english-as-she-is-spoke.jpg" width="136" /></a></div>
If you ever saw the classic Monty Python sketch about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6D1YI-41ao" target="_blank">a bizarre Hungarian phrasebook</a>, then you might have an idea of the comedy that can come from a badly translated English phrase. In modern times, the Internet has brought Japanese culture and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engrish" target="_blank">its bad translations of "Engrish"</a> to a whole new audience, but before all of them, there was <i>English As She Is Spoke</i>.<br />
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In 1883, an obscure author named Pedro Carolino published a small Portuguese-to-English phrasebook titled <i>English as She Is Spoke</i>. Though it was intended for Portuguese speakers, it quickly gained an international audience for its bizarre English phrases. It seems that Carolino spoke little to no English himself but did know French. As a result, it's believed he used a Portuguese-to-French dictionary to translate his phrases into French, then used a French-to-English dictionary to produce an English translation. The result was a lot like running English through Google Translate, and made unintentionally hilarious results.<br />
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Here are some of the more famous examples:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The walls have hearsay. = <i>As paredes têm ouvidos</i> ("The walls have ears")</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
That not says a word, consent. = <i>Quem cala consente</i> ("Silence is consent")</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What do him? = <i>Que faz ele?</i> ("What does he do? / What is he doing?")</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
That pond it seems me many multiplied of fishes. Let us amuse rather to the fishing. = <i>Este lago parece-me bem piscoso. Vamos pescar p</i><i>ara nos divertirmos.</i> ("This lake looks full of fish. Let's have some fun fishing.")</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
These apricots and these peaches make me and to come water in mouth. = ??? ("These apricots and peaches make my mouth water.")</blockquote>
Ever since the 19th Century, many hours were wiled away with the book being passed around and read out loud to howls of laughter. Author Mark Twain himself wrote the introduction for the first U.S. English edition, and said, "Nobody can add to the absurdity of this book, nobody can imitate it successfully, nobody can hope to produce its fellow; it is perfect."<br />
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The book is available <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/30411" target="_blank">online in full</a> at Project Gutenberg, and it sure lives up to its reputation.<br />
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Related Posts:<br />
<a href="http://nigelgmitchell.blogspot.com/2015/04/bizarre-books-pop-up-book-of-phobias.html" target="_blank">Bizarre Books: The Pop-Up Book of Phobias</a><br />
<a href="http://nigelgmitchell.blogspot.com/2014/06/bizarre-books-six-gun-gorilla.html" target="_blank">Bizarre Books: Six-Gun Gorilla</a><br />
<a href="http://nigelgmitchell.blogspot.com/2014/03/bizarre-books-how-to-avoid-huge-ships.html" target="_blank">Bizarre Books: How to Avoid Huge Ships</a><br />
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<i>You only know half the story of Jekyll and Hyde. Prepare to see literature's greatest monsters in a whole new light with <a href="http://nigelgmitchell.blogspot.com/p/hyde.html" target="_blank">Hyde</a></i><i>!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-65244480965493674772018-04-28T09:39:00.001-07:002018-05-04T19:54:32.869-07:00"Blindsight" by Peter Watts [Review]<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48484.Blindsight" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Blindsight (Firefall, #1)" border="0" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1386924412m/48484.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48484.Blindsight">Blindsight</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/27167.Peter_Watts">Peter Watts</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2375573212">3 of 5 stars</a><br />
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When I first read this book, I liked it a lot. I also thought I understood it. I had a few nagging questions, but I thought those were easily dismissed in favor of a larger story. I read the book again to clear up those questions, and I was even more confused. I also discovered plot threads that had come up earlier that were never addressed and parts where I thought something had happened that really didn't. I know some people argue this book improves on further reading, but I had the opposite experience. I thought the novel got worse on the second reading.<br />
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In case you haven't read the summary, here's the short version: a group of transhuman scientists enhanced with cybernetics is sent on a mission to make contact with a spaceship on the edge of the solar system. As they begin interacting with the alien ship, the crew becomes consumed with the question of whether the ship itself or the creatures inside are actually capable of communicating or even sentient beings.<br />
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First, the good.<br />
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This is one of the few First Contact novels that made the aliens feel truly alien instead of just humans with bumpy foreheads. The attempts to communicate and understand the aliens were detailed and baffling. The twist of how the aliens became invisible and what it revealed about them was mind-blowing. I also liked the philosophical debates about sentience and consciousness.<br />
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I also thought the portrayal of a transhuman world was very well-done. The use of cybernetics ranged from people with slight modifications that put moving color-changing tattoos to people so heavily modified that their bodies had become almost useless to them. Many dropped out of the real world entirely, living in a virtual world known as Heaven. At the same time, it felt like people were still human and grappling with human problems. Very intriguing and well-developed. I wish Watts had spent more time on that aspect.<br />
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The technical details are great. You can tell Watts put a lot of thought into the spaceship, the aliens, and the science behind his story. That's proven by the lengthy (but mostly unnecessary) appendices at the end of the book.<br />
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I also thought the use of vampires was interesting, although the race should have been called "cannibals" instead of vampires, because that would have avoided confusion. The "vampires" are really just a prehistoric predator of humans who share some traits from the legendary creatures like pale skin, fangs and avoiding crosses (really, 90-degree angles), but they don't drink blood, avoid sunlight, live forever, or have any other features we associate with vampires. Another aspect I wish Watts had spent more time on.<br />
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Now, the bad.<br />
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The characters are mostly unpleasant, making it hard to get into the story because I didn't really care about any of them. Their personalities ranged from arrogant to violent to sociopathic, and their enhancements made it hard to identify with them. Also, one character shares her body with three other personalities, meaning it was hard to tell who was in control. Some of the personalities were introduced without explanation so I thought they were separate crew members until halfway through the novel.<br />
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The main character Siri Keeton is a sociopath, making him an unpleasant and unreliable narrator, which made it hard to know what happened in the story. He also tried to avoid getting involved in the mission in any way so others did most of the action. That formed another barrier since there are literally moments where Siri doesn't know what's going on, doesn't care or is shut out of events. Some crucial moments are never explained at all. At the very least, switching perspectives to other characters (if not choosing another viewpoint character in the first place) would have made the novel better and easier to follow.<br />
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The novel ends with a resolution that neither Siri or any other characters had anything to do with (except the ship's AI who spent most of the novel not interacting with anyone), meaning the ending wouldn't have changed if the Earth ship had been simply launched at the alien spaceship without any crew at all. Obviously, that's disappointing after spending so much time with the characters to find them ultimately useless.<br />
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This is a really hard sci-fi technical novel with a lot of conversation about biology and mechanics. I could follow most of it, but I can understand a reader without a scientific background struggling. Not all of it was really important to the story, either. It's obvious Watts put a lot of thought into the aliens, but some of the design like how the creatures process ATP had nothing to do with the main focus of the story. He was just showing off at that point.<br />
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The whole point of the novel seems to be that sentience isn't necessary for intelligent life, but in many places, Watts confuses the issue. In some areas, he argues the subconscious is more efficient than the conscious, which confuses consciousness with sentience. If a person walks into an office, holds a meeting with three other people, builds a prototype invention and then announces that he was sleepwalking and didn't know he did it, that doesn't mean the person wasn't sentient. Watts also confuses self-awareness with sentience. Just because an animal can't recognize itself in a mirror doesn't mean it's not a sentient or conscious being. In other areas, Watts confuses empathy with sentience, presenting the vampires as being more advanced than humans because they lack empathy, but empathy isn't the same as sentience. In other words, Watts' argument only works if you broaden the definition of sentience to mean anything from kindness to being awake. Without that broad definition, his argument is worthless.<br />
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Then there are the plot holes. [SPOILERS] How could Siri imagine the physical shape of a completely alien species before he even set foot in their ship? If the Captain was controlling Sarasti, why did it talk and behave like Sarasti, right down to threatening the crew and calling itself a predator? What exactly was Sarasti and the rest of the crew trying to get Siri to understand? That the scramblers were non-sentient and communication with them was a threat? That Siri needed to be more empathetic? How did cutting open Siri's hand help him do that?<br />
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Bottom line is that I can understand how readers could enjoy this novel. The scientific details are good, the writing is phenomenal at times, and the story turns all First Contact clichés on their heads. At the same time, the novel is depressing, confusing, and full of ideas that never get developed. On my first reading, I would have given the book 4 stars. Second reading gets 3 stars.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/6021650-nigel-mitchell">View all my reviews</a><br />
<i><br /></i> <i>You only know half the story of Jekyll and Hyde. Prepare to see literature's greatest monsters in a whole new light with <a href="http://nigelgmitchell.blogspot.com/p/hyde.html" target="_blank">Hyde</a></i><i>!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-28755514297371219702018-03-09T08:00:00.000-07:002018-03-09T08:00:32.797-07:00New Release: "Enter the Nexus" - Book 1 of the Nexus Trilogy<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
Today is the official release of my next novel, the first in a trilogy that will be released throughout 2018. Called <i>Enter the Nexus</i>, here's the cover and synopsis.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbG00v98Yhp7vRh4KB2hN_JRDZgzyMRlj23l3hMrCPSz3udwtqQdo3J-vkcbv7xQ6QfVvj-V_yS4SO21NB0Q8Ht4F909Fd5TcMS9qNsUEckjHn6iApHbcoNHNdHzqIW1HejjBC7uBV6LM/s1600/enterthenexus-NGM-3D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="363" data-original-width="500" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbG00v98Yhp7vRh4KB2hN_JRDZgzyMRlj23l3hMrCPSz3udwtqQdo3J-vkcbv7xQ6QfVvj-V_yS4SO21NB0Q8Ht4F909Fd5TcMS9qNsUEckjHn6iApHbcoNHNdHzqIW1HejjBC7uBV6LM/s320/enterthenexus-NGM-3D.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Shy librarian Brenda Martinez, tough cop Jack Taylor, arrogant businessman Wallace Carrington, and geeky teen girl Moonbeam Zhang were just living their lives until they were suddenly teleported onto a mysterious world. Facing terrifying monsters and bizarre aliens, they quickly discover they've been caught up in a strange experiment and the only way home is to go through a maze that crosses thousands of planets throughout the Galaxy. They'll have to work together to survive and uncover the secrets of the NEXUS.</blockquote>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075RWPTPW" target="_blank">Click here to buy your copy at Amazon</a>.<br />
You can check other online bookstores like Apple and Nook at <a href="https://www.books2read.com/u/mqp6E6" target="_blank">Books2Read</a>.</div>
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Stay tuned for more information on <i>Heart of the Nexus</i> (Book 2) and <i>Fall of the Nexus</i> (Book 3) in the Nexus Trilogy!<br />
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Already released:<br />
<i>You only know half the story of Jekyll and Hyde. Prepare to see literature's greatest monsters in a whole new light with <a href="http://nigelgmitchell.blogspot.com/p/hyde.html" target="_blank">Hyde</a></i><i>!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-29478005001178928442018-03-06T15:41:00.001-07:002018-03-06T15:41:50.437-07:00Cover Release: "Enter the Nexus" - Book 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZZPLSrWZ7TOvetweRE80s3EMkLGH6KNp3t7VCABXDJmajTKOPbi6YexN6XLUTZplBUtAFDJP6bCVdPD3aHN9prcFpAAiEwX0y5hKZnKUbSaGKM60OEO6WNdCGUGVdfJpY2DtZ6TdBw04/s1600/enterthenexus-NGM-sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="313" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZZPLSrWZ7TOvetweRE80s3EMkLGH6KNp3t7VCABXDJmajTKOPbi6YexN6XLUTZplBUtAFDJP6bCVdPD3aHN9prcFpAAiEwX0y5hKZnKUbSaGKM60OEO6WNdCGUGVdfJpY2DtZ6TdBw04/s320/enterthenexus-NGM-sm.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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On Friday, my next novel <i>Enter the Nexus</i> will be released. It's the first in the Nexus Trilogy, an epic adventure that I'll be releasing every three months this year, starting on March 9, 2018. I'll have more details on Friday but check out the cover!</div>
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What do you think?</div>
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<i>You only know half the story of Jekyll and Hyde. Prepare to see literature's greatest monsters in a whole new light with <a href="http://nigelgmitchell.blogspot.com/p/hyde.html" target="_blank">Hyde</a></i><i>!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-39899636619443263792018-03-04T16:58:00.001-07:002018-03-04T17:12:42.346-07:00China Has the Most Beautiful and Horrible Library in the World<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlf2U9cxaotsFEzc_70fzEUPRzY9zqMxb0sBnQ1Jry56XnTZvzJY31hR_BodI5qfCMmuGfZGeO_uhtoKHuiHFyIfTFRnhhp11-WyBCTZzdvxdOEN-JksQ6atvN2MlLcpP5FsqcsRBnxK8/s1600/tianjin-library-binhai-library-auditorium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="334" data-original-width="500" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlf2U9cxaotsFEzc_70fzEUPRzY9zqMxb0sBnQ1Jry56XnTZvzJY31hR_BodI5qfCMmuGfZGeO_uhtoKHuiHFyIfTFRnhhp11-WyBCTZzdvxdOEN-JksQ6atvN2MlLcpP5FsqcsRBnxK8/s320/tianjin-library-binhai-library-auditorium.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
In 2017, China unveiled a library that captured the imagination of the entire world as what was called <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-5078055/Is-world-s-ULTIMATE-library.html" target="_blank">the ultimate library</a>.<br />
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The <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/tianjin-binhai-library-710828" target="_blank">Tianjin Binhai Library</a> was designed by Dutch design firm MVRDV, working with local architects from the Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute. It was completed in only three years and stands five stories with more than 36,000 square feet.<br />
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The really impressive part is the atrium. Designed to look like a gigantic eye, the main area looks like it has bookshelves that run from the floor to the ceiling.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs9ux2St0PTpFbSanMGyvgCEcLEHhiSMSVlq_QXAxDDuXl3gU6L8eh6yG-PrqV575XyxdFagUKt2himWGZ6F5qOUIS4Bb8T-A2Vffskf7z7Pyur0zii7x_tjE9LzWDf0ciX1zGEMHRDSE/s1600/Tianjin-Binhai-Library.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="419" data-original-width="656" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs9ux2St0PTpFbSanMGyvgCEcLEHhiSMSVlq_QXAxDDuXl3gU6L8eh6yG-PrqV575XyxdFagUKt2himWGZ6F5qOUIS4Bb8T-A2Vffskf7z7Pyur0zii7x_tjE9LzWDf0ciX1zGEMHRDSE/s400/Tianjin-Binhai-Library.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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That's where the problems start.<br />
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You see all those books on the walls? They're fake.<br />
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The walls are decorated with pictures of the spines of books, but they're not actually real books. Yeah, hundreds and hundreds of fake books. The real books are kept in a different section. In fact, books aren't even allowed in the main atrium, because authorities have said it's only approved for "circulation, sitting, reading and discussion."<br />
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To me, that would be depressing to be surrounded by what looks like hundreds of books and not be able to read any of them.<br />
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The second thing that makes this library horrible is that it doesn't have that many books. According to the article, the Tianjin library can hold 1.2 million books. For comparison, the main branch of the New York Public Library can hold about 2.5 million books but some estimates put it as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/28/arts/design/a-slippery-number-how-many-books-can-fit-in-the-new-york-public-library.html" target="_blank">high as 3.5 million</a>.<br />
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Then there's the fact that this library is in China which has some of the most oppressive censorship of books in the entire world. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_censorship_in_China" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a> says that there are so many banned books in China that it's impossible to list them all. Possessing one of the countless banned books can even land you in prison. For China to make a library celebrating books is like sheep making a museum celebrating wolves.<br />
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Fake books and censorship. In other words, the Tianjin library looks beautiful but is the enemy of every lover of books.<br />
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<i>"My name is Timothy McGill, and I'm a time travel addict..." </i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Time-Junkie-Nigel-G-Mitchell-ebook/dp/B01527IJSA">Time Junkie</a><i>, now available in paperback and ebook formats!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-9360725940183877642018-02-22T21:07:00.001-07:002018-02-22T21:07:18.676-07:00"Hyde" is Now Available on Apple and Other Formats<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you've been wanting to read <i>Hyde</i> but you don't buy books through Amazon, I have good news. You can now find <i>Hyde</i> through Apple, Nook or other book services by checking out this <a href="https://www.books2read.com/u/mgrNlz" target="_blank">Books2Read Universal Link</a> to purchase it through other stores. Paperback is coming soon!<br />
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Of course, you can still get <i>Hyde</i> on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076135MF5" target="_blank">Amazon</a> as well.Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-39149030469958317062018-02-03T08:45:00.000-07:002018-02-03T08:45:02.232-07:00Sci-Fi Legend Ursula Le Guin is Dead at 88<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyx8VqszeqB4hmrnBo1NOdcE82MIjrDkvWL-IZixPqbPzZi4Tsfyfyiy2qcSw4K6YMWeOAvkUJWeWC7VkYJGPuAJBEBo4ogESO-Vbh8L71CmmClaoM8XcQr6rspZ9yfONQ_8XfQ40n42A/s1600/109px-UrsulaLeGuin.01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="145" data-original-width="109" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyx8VqszeqB4hmrnBo1NOdcE82MIjrDkvWL-IZixPqbPzZi4Tsfyfyiy2qcSw4K6YMWeOAvkUJWeWC7VkYJGPuAJBEBo4ogESO-Vbh8L71CmmClaoM8XcQr6rspZ9yfONQ_8XfQ40n42A/s1600/109px-UrsulaLeGuin.01.jpg" /></a></div>
Ursula Le Guin, one of my favorite authors, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42798654" target="_blank">has passed away</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin" target="_blank">Ursula Kroeber Le Guin</a>* worked mainly in the genres of fantasy and science fiction, but she also wrote children's books, short stories, poetry, and essays. She started in the 1960s when women sci-fi and fantasy writers were rarely published. and her work often depicted futuristic or imaginary alternative worlds in politics, the natural environment, gender, religion, sexuality, and ethnography. <i>The New York Times</i> described her in 2016 as "America's greatest living science fiction writer", but she said that she would be known as an "American novelist."<br />
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She was a huge influence on other writers like Neil Gaiman and Iain Banks. She won the Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Locus Award, and World Fantasy Award, each more than once. In 2014, she was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. In 2003, she was made a Grandmaster of Science Fiction, one of a few women writers to take the top honor in the genre.<br />
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For me personally, she was an inspiration for her novel The Left Hand of Darkness, which remains one of the most stunning and detailed alien worlds I've ever read. I'll be reviewing that later on. She'll be missed.<br />
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* From <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>.<br />
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<i>"My name is Timothy McGill, and I'm a time travel addict..." </i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Time-Junkie-Nigel-G-Mitchell-ebook/dp/B01527IJSA">Time Junkie</a><i>, now available in paperback and ebook formats!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-23253397575078240492018-01-24T09:46:00.000-07:002018-01-24T09:46:21.936-07:00"Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" by Cory Doctorow [Review]<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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What would it be like to run Disney World after the Singularity?<br />
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"Down and Out" takes place in a future where humans have perfected rapid cloning technology and the ability to download and upload the human mind. Anyone can get rid of their old body and send their memories into new bodies, essentially getting rid of death and disease. With unlimited resources, money has also gone away, replacing the economy with a system of reputation-based points called Whuffie.<br />
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Yet people still need stimulation, and Disney World is still going strong, using the same animatronic technology developed hundreds of years earlier. Yet a new generation is taking over the park, pushing to replace the old rides with just dumping virtual memories of the experience into people's heads. Caught in the fight between the old and the new is Julius, a Disney World worker who's worked at the park for a century. When someone guns him down, Julius sets out to find out who killed him and why as well as sabotage the new team.<br />
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I'll be honest and say I never thought I'd see a science fiction novel or story set in a futuristic Disney World, and certainly never thought it would be any good. Yet the story peels back the happy veneer to show a world of people living and working in the park like residents of a small town who fight and love in dynamic ways. The struggle over control of the park is like "Game of Thrones" with roller coasters and an animatronic Abraham Lincoln.<br />
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Really, the story is about the conflict between the old and the new. Julius is old enough to remember life before the Singularity while his girlfriend only knows a world where replacing your body is easier than curing a cold. Just like Julius fights to keep the old rides, he also fights to keep from replacing his body with a new version.<br />
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One minor complaint I had is that the "whuffie" concept was underexplained when it should have been the center of the novel. Whuffie was presented as something like reputation points where people's opinion of you either took points away or gave you points. Someone well-liked or loved got a lot of points, and someone hated lost points. An interesting concept pushed to the background, and it's treated like money even though it's not. For instance, when Julius ran out of whuffie, not only couldn't he go home because he was locked out, but someone immediately stole his car, which made no sense to me. Why would not having whuffie mean his car was free to be taken? And if someone wanted his car, what stopped them from stealing it before he ran out of whuffie?<br />
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It's a story that's often touching and moving with raw emotion while also funny at times. It's also mind-bending with the ways society has changed in a world where everyone is online and reshaped their bodies at will. I never would have thought the novel would work, but I enjoyed it. I probably would have liked it more if I had any affection for Disney, but I don't. I think someone who really loved Disney would find this novel a dream come true, but I think anyone who enjoys journeys into new worlds can find something to love here.<br />
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<i>"My name is Timothy McGill, and I'm a time travel addict..." </i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Time-Junkie-Nigel-G-Mitchell-ebook/dp/B01527IJSA">Time Junkie</a><i>, now available in paperback and ebook formats!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-6913705619439211762018-01-14T15:56:00.000-07:002018-01-14T15:56:06.298-07:00"Pirate Cinema" by Cory Doctorow [Review]<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13539171-pirate-cinema" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Pirate Cinema" border="0" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1337400827m/13539171.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13539171-pirate-cinema">Pirate Cinema</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12581.Cory_Doctorow">Cory Doctorow</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2257888843">3 of 5 stars</a><br />
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If you read the book's description, <i>Pirate Cinema</i> is about the media conglomerates and their abusive approach to copyright infringement. Yet most of the novel is really about how "great" it is to be homeless.<br />
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In a near future, Trent McCauley is a teenager in a small British town obsessed with remixing existing films into new movies. When he's caught using films illegally, the punishment is to cut off the Internet in his home for a year. In a world where the Internet is used for everything from medical treatment to supporting his family's only source of income, the loss of web access is a devastating fate. Riddled with guilt, McCauley leaves for London, where he gets involved with an underground community. His frustration with an even more restrictive Internet hacking bill leads him to become an unlikely spokesperson for the movement, and his movies become a powerful form of protest. Will Trent ever reunite with his family? Can Trent stay out of prison? Will he bring freedom back to Great Britain and the world? These and more questions drive the novel, along with his love of an anarchist girl named 26.<br />
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I started this novel because I love this kind of protest fiction, and tend to lean on the side of the idea that the movie and TV companies have been too heavy-handed. I also find underground filmmaking interesting and wanted to see how Trent evolves into the pirate cinema of the title. That's why I was disappointed that most of the novel isn't about movies and copyright at all.<br />
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In London, Trent almost immediately meets an eccentric homeless man who calls himself Jammie Dodger who has turned being homeless into a choice and a luxury. He uses squatting laws to move into abandoned buildings and renovates them into mansions. He finds expired food in skips (dumpsters) and cooks them into gourmet meals. <i>Pirate Cinema</i> makes being homeless seem like the best thing ever, but I'm pretty sure most homeless people wouldn't agree.<br />
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It also makes Trent a criminal, which fits into the overall theme. Honestly, the copyright stance Doctorow makes in this novel is beyond what most people would consider reasonable. He argues that anyone should be able to do anything with any creative product that they want, as long as they're not charging for it. A stance like that is admirable but ripe for abuse. I understand wanting to support some guy remixing funny trailers, but when Trent's gang goes as far as handing out copies of movies still in theaters to people standing in line to see the movie, that's going a bit far.<br />
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I didn't have much sympathy for Trent, to be honest. The obvious solution to all his problems was to stop downloading and distributing films illegally, and there wasn't that compelling a reason for him to keep doing it other than a vague need to be creative. He went through Hell and cost himself and his family everything, and at a certain point, I felt like he just needed a new hobby.<br />
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The whole voluntary homeless theme really took over the novel. When I'm reading about how Trent repaints the abandoned pub he lives in or the delicious coffee his friend brews from homemade equipment, I'm thinking, "What does this have to do with pirate cinema?" I figured it would all connect at the end, but it doesn't. The ending wants to tie everything up into a bow when Trent makes a protest film and pulls a stunt that turns everyone against the new bill. Cue celebration. I felt like the journey getting there had too many distractions and subplots. The novel is just okay to me. Maybe for another author, I would have enjoyed it more, but I thought Doctorow's earlier novel <i>Little Brother</i> dealt with themes of privacy and teen angst better with more focus.<br />
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At least he puts his money where his mouth is in regards to copyright laws. You can download <i>Pirate Cinema</i> for free at <a href="http://craphound.com/category/pc/" target="_blank">Cory Doctorow's website</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/6021650-nigel-mitchell">View all my reviews</a>
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<i>"My name is Timothy McGill, and I'm a time travel addict..." </i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Time-Junkie-Nigel-G-Mitchell-ebook/dp/B01527IJSA">Time Junkie</a><i>, now available in paperback and ebook formats!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-36220173675229990832017-11-20T20:15:00.001-07:002017-11-20T20:15:31.776-07:0014 Ways Reading Improves Your Mind and Body<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3E6zMmwRr7WWxpadhJjSnhsOzSQDUX76acQY-0F8Xj8fa0ljnG390v1LuQtMnzKs88REftTTfAvWA4kiGNl_q5z4hGMy5L_kIYCo_YafJNw81vqRBc4UunmHCSGb4wgQFGIytOpk888Q/s1600/how-reading-strengthens-the-brain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="600" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3E6zMmwRr7WWxpadhJjSnhsOzSQDUX76acQY-0F8Xj8fa0ljnG390v1LuQtMnzKs88REftTTfAvWA4kiGNl_q5z4hGMy5L_kIYCo_YafJNw81vqRBc4UunmHCSGb4wgQFGIytOpk888Q/s400/how-reading-strengthens-the-brain.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
If you're here, you probably love reading, but did you know it's good for you, too? <a href="https://experteditor.com.au/blog/brain-books-benefits-reading/" target="_blank">The Expert Editor</a> created this massive infographic that breaks down 14 different ways your brain and body are improved every time you snuggle up with your favorite book.<br />
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<i>"My name is Timothy McGill, and I'm a time travel addict..." </i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Time-Junkie-Nigel-G-Mitchell-ebook/dp/B01527IJSA">Time Junkie</a><i>, now available in paperback and ebook formats!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1394981054890532035.post-14014384588734125892017-10-08T13:37:00.001-07:002018-02-22T21:03:18.937-07:00New Release: "Hyde"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN8yOee54qLPiDBVoevjbuQbQtbpm-MENjhQDN64P8YObYEm5x-heiLjqBWEW4GAz0De8F3HnMxJtJZRsQCGRKQdOmllta-U0GFc0Z_3-H4eluIHdzBhkXooz42JkAUmM-2taDxxPUoTY/s1600/hyde-NGM-3D-small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="452" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN8yOee54qLPiDBVoevjbuQbQtbpm-MENjhQDN64P8YObYEm5x-heiLjqBWEW4GAz0De8F3HnMxJtJZRsQCGRKQdOmllta-U0GFc0Z_3-H4eluIHdzBhkXooz42JkAUmM-2taDxxPUoTY/s320/hyde-NGM-3D-small.jpg" width="283" /></a></div>
My latest novel is ready for download from Amazon, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076135MF5" target="_blank">"Hyde!</a>" It's the story of Jekyll and Hyde with a twist...it's told from the perspective of the monster. Here's the description:<br />
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<b>You only know half the story...</b> </blockquote>
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In the spirit of "Maleficent" and "Wicked," get ready to see one of fiction's greatest villains in a whole new way with HYDE. </blockquote>
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You may think you know the story of Jekyll and Hyde, but what if Hyde wasn't the monster? That's the question faced by Henry Jekyll's lawyer Utterson when a mysterious woman gives him a manuscript in the dead of night. In the pages, Utterson finds a new account of the story from the perspective of Edward Hyde, trapped in the body of Henry Jekyll, and hated by all men. As Hyde struggles to build his own life independent of his creator, Hyde finds himself drawn into sin and corruption, abused and driven to violence and murder. At the same time, he discovers the cruelty and hypocrisy of society at large. Prepare for a compelling story, not about good and evil, but the shades of gray that lie in between them.
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076135MF5" target="_blank">Get your copy today!</a><br />
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UPDATE: I don't know what's wrong with my Disqus comments....<br />
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<i>"My name is Timothy McGill, and I'm a time travel addict..." </i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Time-Junkie-Nigel-G-Mitchell-ebook/dp/B01527IJSA">Time Junkie</a><i>, now available in paperback and ebook formats!</i>Nigel G Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01587936933402372050noreply@blogger.com0