kgbooklog

My panel for bittercon.

Big long series are very popular (readers like them because they know what to expect, publishers like them because they know how well they'll sell, authors like them because publishers like them). But sometimes an author will lose control of the story and just start flailing around at random. What are the signs this has happened?

My list:

• Individual volumes end at arbitrary points and lack their own story arc


• Focus shifts from the original main characters to minor characters introduced partway into the series


• New mysteries added without old ones being solved


• Page counts increase while the number of events decrease


• Cliffhangers aren't resolved in the next book

I'm not just referring to Robert Jordan here; I suspect GRRM is already showing some of these, and this post was prompted by seeing that last point in the latest mystery by Carole Nelson Douglas.

The Webcartoonists's Choice Awards were announced today in an online ceremony which is cute, appropriate, and damn slow on dialup. It also has a bad link between the Artist and Writer categories and no links for the runners-up (and many of these comics have common names, and one you have to misspell the name before Google finds it).

( WCCA 2007 )
[ETA]I've now finished looking at everything that was nominated, and have adjusted the formatting accordingly.[/ETA]

via james_nicoll

( Sounds like another silly quiz )

Taken from le_trombone(who despises the word "meme"), the rules are:

Copy and paste.
Bold the ones you've read.
Add four recent reads to the end.

( Book list )

I just got an email from Lawrence Watt-Evans announcing the start of his second serialized Ethshar novel, The Vondish Ambassador. So I'm now reading three serialized novels online; the other two are Diane Duane's The Big Meow and Brandon Sanderson's Warbreaker. Kelley Armstrong is also doing a serial novella, but I need to read more of her novels first.

I'm also following several webcomics, most of which have novel quality stories: Girl Genius, A Miracle of Science, Order of the Stick, No Rest for the Wicked, and Hello Cthulhu. I'll probably add Freefall once I finish reading the archives (3 strips per week * 8 years = a heck of a lot of strips).

I like big, thick novels. Even better, I like series of novels. The more pages, the more time I can spend with the characters and setting.

So there I am, five chapters into the second novel of a series I like, with characters I like, and just as I'm getting interested in the new conflict, I find unambiguous evidence that I missed something important. Checking the author's website, I find that there's a novella set between the novels. Now, I'm not saying authors shouldn't write shorter works, but I don't care for them (they always leave me unsatisfied), and libraries are less likely to carry anthologies than novels, so if an author does write one, it should be optional. (And in this particular case, I don't see how any story worth writing about the protagonist could also optional.)

And worse, this seems to be the hot new trend in urban fantasy. I'm not going to read any more books by MaryJanice Davidson, since she has already done it twice (introducing new characters to the series both times). Charlaine Harris has done it once (that I know of), but that wasn't too bad (I was more upset by Sookie having an ability that doesn't appear in the novels). Jim Butcher also seems to have done it, but that at least fits my idea of "optional" (which is good, since the anthology won't be published until several months after the novel that mentioned the events).

Why are they doing this? Sure, this may help sales of the anthologies, but if those sales are poor, it's probably because of people like me who prefer novels, and punishing us for that is more likely to cause us to stop buying the novels too.

I was checking Amazon to see exactly where my copy of Girl Genius vol 4 is, and happened to glance at the information section:

Ship Carrier: USPS
Tracking Number: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Status: In transit

Order #: XXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX
Shipment Date: Apr 24, 2006
Destination: Richardson, TX, United States
Estimated Arrival: Dec 23, 2005

Via od_mind:

Instructions:
Bold the ones you've read.
Italicize the ones you have wanted/might like to read.
* Another book by this author read, but not this
?? Place question marks by any titles/authors you've never heard of??
*** I’ve tried it and abandoned it
XXX Life Is Too Short


( list of questionable origin )

Snitched from rolanni

Those I have read are in bold. Those I have started but not finished are in italics.

( Major SF Awards )

Hmm... finished 11 and started 3 more. That's better than I expected.

Years ago, I must have told someone I was Republican, and they put me on the official mailing list and started phoning me saying they needed my help "to keep liberals and Democrats out of Congress" etc. And I haven't seen any way to get off the list (I don't consider the Democrats much better, not that there are any around here), until now...

In today's mail was a "census" (I think they meant "survey") from the Republican National Committee:
... your answers will represent the views and opinions of all Republican voters in your voting district.

Mwuhahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

For those of you who didn't get one of these, I'm enclosing the list of questions in case you want to answer them yourself (their website should have mail and email addresses).

( I am not making this up )