Posted by Douglas Roberts-2 on URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/George-R-R-Martin-tp7580282p7580286.html
Actually (and don't tell anybody) I just leap to the end of your digital missives to, you know, cut to the chase.
:)
Re: rewards for the aggressive on-line advertising: how about after I get back from Blackhat next week. Oops, that weekend is taken. Oops^2, I'll be on the bike in Colorado the following week, August 24th - 27th.
Hmm. The 31st of August is a Friday. And my birthday. Sounds like a good excuse to eat, drink, and etc....
Asymptote City, regarding the shape of the sales curve. I'm still a bit away from selling fractional portions of a book per week, though.
As to that other Doug Roberts. Hmph. Just hmph.
--Doug
On Fri, Jul 20, 2012 at 3:25 PM, Steve Smith <[hidden email]> wrote:
Doug -
Thanks for the honorable mention, Steve!
You are always welcome! I throw those things in just to make sure
you read my massive missives to the end (or at least grep for your
name!)...
BTW, I'm now qualified to give seminars, workshops, etc. that
provide clinical proof of how rapidly your book sales can
(will!) fall off a cliff without a pretty aggressive, ongoing
marketing plan.
Sorry to hear that, but it is not surprising in these times... have
sales gone to zero? Or just asymptotically approaching.
On Fri, Jul 20, 2012 at 2:43 PM, Steve
Smith <[hidden email]>
wrote:
Jochen -
I met George when I used to hang with some of the local
(NM) SF authors, I've since dropped out of that crowd.
I also hosted a series of events at LANL during the 1998
Nebula awards... At that event I even met a woman (SF/F
Author who claimed to have accidentally started the
Society for Creative Anachronism when she invited all of
her friends and aquaintences and colleagues to her house
in Berkeley to celebrate her recent Masters in Medieval
Studies and they all showed up in period costume and
weaponry.... I can't remember her name now and could
not corroborate her story.
George is a lot like many of the SF/F authors I know...
only a bit more successful than most. I found George to
be a self-important curmudgeon long before he hit it
bigtime (while he was producing the work that he would
hit it bigtime with!)... so I can't imagine that has
decreased. The Game of Thrones series (even before it
got picked up by HBO) was very powerful even though it
is not my usual fare. George also initiated and edited
a series of collected/themed short stories known as "the
Wild Card" stories which in my opinion presaged (or
inspired, or informed) the "Heroes" HBO series. These
are (I think he's still cranking them out) very good
examples of collaborative fiction as well...
We (NM) recently (2006) lost the legendary Jack
Williamson at the ripe young age of 98... he came to NM
by way of covered wagon just around 1912/statehood (age
4). He was incredibly prolific right up until his last
few years, and managed to get credit for many neologisms
from Science Fiction as documented in the Oxford English
Dictionary.... including my favorite "contra-terrene"
(anti-matter). He also told a great anecdote about
being visited by the FBI during the Manhattan project
because of one of his stories' reference to "Atom
Bombs"... he got them off his back by referring them to
a much older (1932?) story with the same ideas... I
recommend his first novel in the "Humanoid" Series... I
think it was called "With Folded Hands" (what goes awry
when you make the perfect robotic servants whose
directives are roughly those that Asimov is given credit
for... "Allow no human to come to harm"... taking this
to the extreme they became a kindler, gentler version of
the Borg or the Berserkers.
We also lost the similarly legendary Roger Zelazny who
was a long time resident of Santa Fe and most famous for
his series referred to as "The Amber Chronicles" I
think. Zelazny was also much loved for the writing
workshops he taught in the area.
Steve (S.M.) Stirling is another prolific Santa Fe
author. He has several collaborators who he publishes
with, including the well known name of Anne McCaffrey
("The Ship who Fought). Most of his works are military
SF, Post Apocalyptic and Alternate History. I enjoy
the last the most.
Stephen C. Gould and Laura Mixon are perhaps my favorite
"writing couple"... Stephen's work hit it "big time"
when one of his juvenile novels, "Jumper" was made into
a movie (disappointing result as such endeavors often
are) a few years ago. They wrote a great collaborative
novel together for those here interested in
collaborative efforts. Laura is a very powerful
Cyberpunk (my measure of the theme of her work) Author
in her own right and collaborator on an Interactive
Storytelling engine (Storytron). Laura and/or Stephen
might even be members of this or the SFX Discuss list.
I hosted them at SFX for a "blender" on interactive
storytelling a few years ago.
Walter Jon Williamson is another of my favorites...
His work touches on Cyberpunk (HardWired in particular)
but manages to be very highbrow technically despite the
lowbrow tropes such as "Space Opera". I haven't seen
anything from him lately, but I'm sure he's still
working...
Other SF names from the immediate are that might also be
recognized include: Fred Saberhagen, Sage Walker, Patty
Nagel, Sally Gwylan ...
And of course, there is the ever-famous annual SF
Confention in Albuquerque called the "Bubonicon" after
the unfortunate disease, "Bubonic Plague".
Oh, and then of course, we have Doug!
- Steve
A colleague came up today with a book from George
R.R. Martin. They say he is the American Tolkien, so
I decided to read one of his books, 'Game of
Thrones'. Has someone actually met him? He lives in
Santa Fe and seems to be cool.
-J.
Sent from Android
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