tinpra

...but thanks to lieueitak (which, usually i can spell your name from memory, but every now and then i.e. right now you have way too many I's and E's in your name, woman) and our Lenten NaNo, I am currently working on:

• the next sequel series to my TDKR/BtVS series
  
• that Iron Man fic that I never thought would get past a couple of random scenes emailed to a friend (ha! couple of scenes. ha!)
  
• I did an Inception/TDKR/BtVS interlude to the TDKR/BtVS series that apparently broke some brains (sorry!)
  
• my previously on-life-support LFN series for FF100
  
• my seemingly-on-life-support-but-no-it-really-was-on-my-mind-y'all Tin Man series
  
• and started writing that sequel to my Jeb-and-a-little-person-in-the-woods Tin Man story that's been kicking around in my head almost from the beginning. Actually, technically this one's erinm_4600's fault, so "blame" her ;)

And that's my life in fandom. Vaguely. :D

If you're wondering why I'm not posting this on the fanfic journal, I did a while ago while I was in the thick of things. Honestly not sure why I'm giving an update here, too.

I need a girl's name that's adorable and non-normal, like Sugar or Cherry or Kit for a short story. Ideas? A laundry list of names is good. It takes me a while to find names.

by Nathan Bransford

It's difficult to overstate how big of a deal it is to bookselling culture that the Department of Justice is reportedly planning to sue five publishers and Apple for colluding over e-book prices*.

In order to understand why this is a big deal, here's a brief recap of what led us here (this summary is described in greater detail in my post Why Some E-Books Cost More Than the Hardcover).

Wholesale vs. Agency

At the time Amazon kicked off the modern e-book market with the introduction of the Kindle, e-books were sold according to the traditional wholesale model. Essentially, publishers set a cover price and they got half, the bookseller got half. If a book was listed at $25, publishers got $12.50 on an e-book sale, the bookseller got $12.50.

Problem was from publishers' perspective, Amazon was selling some e-books at $9.99 and taking a loss on those sales, all the while locking readers into their proprietary format. Not only did this devalue what consumers felt a book "should" cost, publishers were worried that competitors wouldn't be able to enter the e-book space because they wouldn't be able to compete with Amazon's prices. No competitors would mean a virtual monopoly for Amazon, and publishers were presumably concerned about Amazon's ability to then dictate terms.

Along comes Apple and the iPad. Steve Jobs talked the publishers into the agency model - publishers set their own prices and they get 70% of the proceeds.

( Read the rest of this really fascinating post on Nathan Bransford's blog )

FYI, Nathan's blog is great for writers/authors and readers. Great community and, as a former agent, now writer, he has amazing insight into the publishing world. I can't recommend him highly enough.

here's what little came of my nano-novel, warts and all. The idea has been bouncing around in my head for some time so I'll probably pick it back up sooner than later, though I don't think it will appear on LJ.

---

Grey (1/2)

Prologue

It’s the worst way for a Grey Assassin to die. They warn you about it in training.

Never get hurt alone. Never lie bleeding by the side of the road.

The reason was tacitly clear if not explicitely said. You couldn’t ever expect help from anyone but your brothers and sisters, because no one would ever dare. What we Greys did was legal of course. We were color-coded weren’t we? But we were one of the most mysterious colors. One of the deadliest.

Was the Grey lying in the gutter really dying, or was she on assignment waiting for her assigned Target to walk by? Better not to find out.

I wish they would. Because I’m not on assignment. I’m not on anyone’s time but my own. And my brothers and sisters… They’re probably wishing me to a wretched painful hell anyway.

What good is being a Colored Person, with a House and Name and Family if even they are going leave you to run out on the side of the road like Clear Water?

I was just looking for my kin.( Read more... )

I have a wee dilemma. I need to choose a male Japanese name. (Yes, these are the big questions of my life) I've narrowed it down to Yaru and Yori, for reason of their meaning.

Meaning notwithstanding, what do you guys think. Which sounds better, or less bad, to you?

Thanks!

I have 4 fics for "Inception" -- only one of which has gotten reviews on ff.net. the other three have strong hit numbers, have been favorited...everything but reviews. What does that meeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaan?

How do ya'll feel, fellow fic-writers, when you this happens to you? One the one hand it's frustrating not getting reviews on stories posted to lj since there's little way of knowing who's reading or bookmarking your work. On the other hand, there's the frustration of knowing ppl are reading your work on ff.net and having to wonder why the heck they won't say yea or nay about it!


Argh!

Then again, maybe this doesn't happen to you guys. Meep.

*hugs!* Thank you for the best review! :D

Last year I made 10 new fiction-related posts for the entire year to my fic-journal, 3 of which were brand new stories. The year before (2009) I made over 30 new fiction-related posts, 9 of which were brand new stories. Time to make a change, n'est-ce pas?

By TRIP GABRIEL
Published: August 1, 2010

At Rhode Island College, a freshman copied and pasted from a Web site’s frequently asked questions page about homelessness — and did not think he needed to credit a source in his assignment because the page did not include author information.

At DePaul University, the tip-off to one student’s copying was the purple shade of several paragraphs he had lifted from the Web; when confronted by a writing tutor his professor had sent him to, he was not defensive — he just wanted to know how to change purple text to black.

And at the University of Maryland, a student reprimanded for copying from Wikipedia in a paper on the Great Depression said he thought its entries — unsigned and collectively written — did not need to be credited since they counted, essentially, as common knowledge.

Professors used to deal with plagiarism by admonishing students to give credit to others and to follow the style guide for citations, and pretty much left it at that.

But these cases — typical ones, according to writing tutors and officials responsible for discipline at the three schools who described the plagiarism — suggest that many students simply do not grasp that using words they did not write is a serious misdeed.

( Read the rest at the NYTimes.com )

I know at least two people on my f-list are teachers, and various ones of us are writers or have other creative interests. I think most of us are beyond college. What do you guys think of this? Beyond being lazy and not wanting to put in the hard work of writing, as is mentioned later in the article, I think a lot of the current college generation's apathy about plagiarism, and cheating in general, comes from having cheated for much of their academic lives. I know cheating was alive and strong when I was in middle and high school, and there were definitely mixed feelings about its immorality then.

Nathan Bransford, literary agent and blogger extraordinaire, is holding a wee contest at his blog. All you have to do is read the rules post a suspense/action sequence of yours. Nathan will judge and hand out fabulous prizes. And, as any nano'er knows, there's bragging rights!

Have at it, peeps.