For the record, my actual plan, before tonight, was to write a nice quick "Congrats to all the Hugo winners!" and leave it there. (Although, you know, and even though the Hugos are still getting awarded as I type, congrats to all the Hugo winners, especially Betsy Wolheim who won for a very, very long overdue award for Best Editor, Long Form. Like ( Read more... )

From Fandom Wank comes a cheery tale of a comics conman, which I mention only because I briefly saw this guy at Mega-Con. (Briefly, because, as I mentioned, crowded. What's entirely left out of this story is how remarkable it is that Ethan Van Sciver and Mark Waid managed to get to his table at all ( Read more... )

The Tolkien estate is demanding that all copies of Mirkwood: A Novel About JRR Tolkien be destroyed.

Next up: Jane Austen rises from the grave to sue Stephanie Barron, joined by Virginia Woolf, Edgar Allan Poe sends ravens after Matthew Pearl and Joyce Carol Oates and many many others I'm forgetting, and Shakespeare comes after Elizabeth Bear.( ( Read more... )

Ok, I lied. (Not intentionally, but I lied.) I do have a Tor.com post up today, about L. Frank Baum's Sky Island. I also have a copy of Towers of Midnight, featuring
( Read more... )

From multiple sources, a couple of recent articles explain again why most musicians make no money from record sales - and why most of that money ends up heading to the record label.

This is why some artists - the one that comes to mind is Jane Siberry - have given up on the concept of record sales altogether, while many others survive on touring ( Read more... )

The New York Review of Books on the current Google Books court case.

Justice Department investigating Google's settlement with the Author's Guild.

I have mixed feelings on the entire settlement, from my different perspectives as a writer (read truepenny for more specifics on how the settlement can affect writers), reader, and Google user. The more discussion, the better.

As you may or may not be aware, President Obama is currently conducting a long overdue study of and negotiations over international copyright and intellectual property treaties. These negotiations are, in theory, being conducted in secrecy for national security issues. I'm not sure what here precisely falls under national security, unless chemical ( Read more... )

Another night of insomnia. I reached work and realized that I really shouldn't be here, but since I also really do have projects that need to be completed, let's see if thinking helps wake me up ( Read more... )