Well, I won't be using those guys

Have you heard about the hot new mainstream novel Atlanta Nights? If not, maybe you shouldn't click on that link and download it: the entire text is there, released under a Creative Commons license.

Why not? Because it's bad. Horrible. Utterly unsaleable. As the John MacDonald, lead author of the project, put it: "Plot, characterization, theme: none of them are to be found. Grammar and spelling take a drubbing." One reviewer wrote: "These writers engaged in public cacosyntheton, synchisis, acyrlogia, alleotheta, amphibologia, anacoluthon, and every vile cliché, transparent plot device, and literary offense ever to have thrived in the slush pile."

The origin of this book was apparently a meeting at an SFnal convention to discuss America's least credible publishing house, PublishAmerica. The accusations leveled against PA are many, but they all center around a single theme: PA seems to be a vanity press. They charge hardcover rates for trade paperbacks, don't take returns, can't find welcome takers at public libraries, can't find reviewers to read their books, and can't find bookstores that will distribute them.

PA owns AuthorsMarket.com, a website that begins to look more ridiculous the more you look at. First, they have a rant against e-books, even sold e-books, as completely worthless. They make all the usual points: active screens cause eyestrain and portable readers aren't as comforting as books-- both true, but I still buy and read e-books. I read the entire Honor Harrington series in e-book format. It was portable, dammit. I enjoy the tactile quality of paper, true, but I carry my planner with me everywhere; having "something to read" on it, just as I have "something to listen to" on my Jukebox (Dorothy Dunnet, Niccolo Rising this month, after I finish my Japanese homework, honest!) is a priceless benefit.

But then they attack SF writers: "As a rule of thumb, the quality bar for sci-fi and fantasy is a lot lower than for all other fiction.... [Science fiction authors] have no clue about what it is to write real-life stories, and how to find them a home. The SciFi and Fantasy genres have also attracted writers who erroneously believe that SciFi, because it is set in a distant future, does not require believable storylines, or that Fantasy, because it is set in conditions that have never existed, does not need believable every-day characters." Has this guy never read a romance novel?

So John MacDonald set out to prove that thirty science fiction writers, each working on a chapter apiece-- in their favorite voice, style, and point-of-view-- could write a horrible mainstream novel and get it accepted.

It was. When the hoax was revealed, PA withdrew their acceptance, naturally, but the damage was done. PA was revealed for the uncritical, unediting vanity resource authors have accused it of being. Teresa Nielsen-Hayden has a wonderful summary. And the Washington Post handed PA its head.

But John Scalzi has the best last word: "Here's a quick rule of thumb: Don't annoy science fiction writers. These are people who destroy entire planets before lunch. Think of what they'll do to you."

I don't wanna work today!!!

Wanna write, dammit!

Weird Question: How do you make a mash-up?

Don't ask how this happend, but by accident I started feeding both the soundtrack to Kannaduki No Miko to the soundserver but had neglected to turn off XMMS, which at the time was playing Moby's Everloving.

Frighteningly enough, they worked. Now I have to track down which track I was listening to and figure out if I was just hearing things or if I have something worth exploring further.