Some Projections
Okay, I remember having a really clever idea that I could use to start this newsletter off with, but I didn’t write it down. Not like I don’t ramble on enough as is...
I’ve blathered on a few times here about social media (so hey, what’s one more, right?) but I saw an interesting take on the “Bluesky is awful/ an echo chamber/ doomed” articles that keep cropping up every couple of weeks. Why do we keep seeing these when... well, they don’t really hold up?
It ties back to another question that’s come up many, many times—even just in the past week—which is why anyone would still be on Twitter? A ridiculous number of accounts are just bots. The algorithm has a nightmarishly right-wing slant, and it’s nigh-impossible at this point to see half the stuff you’re there to see or to get any sort of real engagement. Anything posted there is automatically fed into Musk’s MechaHitler AI, which will also cheerfully post (fake) nude photos of people (and, unless I’m mistaken, only of women). Oh, and did anyone mention there’s a MechaHitler AI that regularly vomits out racist/ sexist/ homophobic/ xenophobic garbage when it’s not pretending to be your horny anime girlfriend? Seems like a great place to be spending time and promoting your company/ celebrity brand, right?
So again... why are so many folks staying there?
Journalist Kat Tenbarge pointed out that a lot of mainstream media folks are using Bluesky as sort of a whipping boy, projecting all their anger and frustration about Twitter (and I’d add, probably Facebook/ Instagram, too) onto that platform. That’s why we keep seeing all these articles about how awful Bluesky is... a lot of them from pundits and outlets with a minimal Bluesky presence at best. They duck in, say they hate it, and don’t come back for two months. Because if Bluesky’s awful too, then there’s no real point in leaving Twitter, is there? It’s easier to justify staying here if there is just as bad, right?
As I’ve said once or thrice before, I get it. Switching platforms is a serious pain and, yeah, a bit scary. Having to start over, having to learn the quirks of a new system, learning new behaviors (or just letting go of old ones). But at some point we all need to admit things went bad at this party a while ago and we’re all standing around wishing somebody would leave first and give everyone else an excuse to follow them out.
So hey... maybe you could be that somebody for a lot of your friends and family.
Anyway... let me give you some assorted book and writing news.
Last time I mentioned finishing off one final rewrite of TOS and sending it to my agent. Well, he took it out into the publishing world and, well, there was immediate interest. A lot of interest. So... the next few weeks are going to be very interesting. Hopefully more on that after SDCC (which we’ll talk about soon).
You can still preorder Dread Coast: SoCal Horror Tales. It’s the charity anthology I’ve mentioned before where the proceeds go to help with recovery from the LA Wildfires from earlier this year. It’s got a story from me called “Flesh Trade” which, up until now, has only been available in my audiobook-only collection Dead Men Can’t Complain. And I think we’re doing some SoCal signings in August- September, too.
The ARCs (advance reader copies) of God’s Junk Drawer have (mostly) made their way out into the world. And I’ve got to see some very nice responses to them, which is always kind of a relief. Some people who were supposed to get them have not and... I’m working on that. Preorders are also up for this, if I haven’t mentioned that in the past three newsletters.
The folks at Blackstone also got some nice God’s Junk Drawer bookmarks made up, so I’ll be handing those out at SDCC and so will the folks at the Blackstone booth (#1134). You’ll also probably find them stuck in a lot of books all through the con. Some of them might even be mine...
And hey-- San Diego Comic Con is next week! Between Covid and publishing schedules, it’s been a few years since I’ve had a semi-busy con. I have panels, signings, even some business meetings. Plus, y’know a few things I want to see and some folks I’m hoping to say hi to. If you’d like to say hi...
Thursday 2:15 until 4:15 I’ll be at the Writers Coffeehouse (room Marina D at the Marriott--next door from the convention center)
Then from 5:00 until 6:00 I’ll be signing up in the Sails Pavilion (AA09)
Friday 11:00 until 11:30-ish I’ll be at the Blackstone Booth (#1134) unofficially signing books. Just a casual, not-really-on-the-schedule thing if you want to stop by, say hi, get a personalized copy of The Broken Room or Combat Monsters or bring something of your own. There maaaaay be some other things there as well...
Then from 4:30 until 5:30 I’m signing again up in the Sails Pavilion (AA09)
And from 6:00 until 7:00 I’m doing a panel on Writing Military Fiction & Alternative History (room 32AB)
I’ll probably make up a nice little graphic with all this later tonight and send that out as a quick bonus post early next week. Past that... you might see me wandering the floor. If you spot a masked man at a publisher’s booth or toy display who looks like me... well, it might be me. Halfway decent chance, really.
In other news...
Cool Stuff I’ve Been Watching
Murderbot was just fantastic, beginning to end. Great adaptation, great production, absolutely phenomenal cast. I’ve got one episode left in Ironheart. It started slow, but it’s really grown on me. And oddly enough, my beloved and I decided to watch the Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers movie from a few years back and it was... kind of wonderful. A fun mix of goofiness and nostalgia that also had things to say about Hollywood and fame and friendship.
Cool Stuff I’ve Been Reading
Finally finished up the Godzilla/ Godzilla Raids Again book that I think I mentioned before. It’s the original novelization of the first two movies (from the 50s) translated into English. It’s corny, but also kind of fascinating. Which makes it a lot like Superman: Miracle Monday by Elliot S Maggin. It’s a tie-in novel I had it as a kid and my beloved found me a reprint for my birthday a few weeks back. It’s an interesting artifact of the time, and also as an attempt to combine the Christopher Reeve movie Superman with the 60’s-70s Superman of the comics. I think I enjoyed it more now than I did as a kid, but in a very different way? Almost a nonfiction, research way. Finally, I got to read an early copy of Strange Animals by Jarod K. Anderson (he of the Cryptonaturalist podcast) and it was absolutely fantastic. Alas, you won’t get to read it until early next year... but you really want to read it, trust me.
Cool New Toys
A thin month for toys, caught between my birthday and SDCC. Hasbro’s Indiana Jones line did build-an-artifact sets rather than build-a-figure, and I somehow ended up with a lot of the pieces for the Ark of the Covenant. Then I found the other two on eBay and... well. Also had two My Hero Academia figures I’d preordered show up (Bakugo and Todoroki) and I’m going to try hard not to annoy folks at the Jada Toys booth at SDCC asking what characters are on the horizon. Finally... there’s a company that turns out nice military figures, but the person behind it has... let’s politely say a rather aggressive personality (with all the baggage you can imagine comes along with it) so I don’t do much business with them. But I discovered their figures have a lot of the same jointing/ sockets as Operation: Monster Force figures. So when I found a stripped-down figure on line, I grabbed it, added some bits from Monster Force, GI Joe, and that Indiana Jones line, and made myself a Desert Vamp.
Okay, I’m blathering a bit. That’s good for now. Hopefully more news next month and maybe I’ll see some of you at SDCC.
