A fiction revolution.

[Camy]

Author Denise Mina predicts fiction revolution

The rise of ebooks will "fundamentally change" the types of stories that are written and who they are written by, an award-winning author has predicted.

Denise Mina's book The End of the Wasp Season won the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award in Harrogate, Yorkshire, on Thursday.

Ebooks will "revolutionise everything" from book lengths to the dominance of middle-class authors, she said.

"People are very frightened in publishing at the moment," she said.

"Nobody knows what sells. More so now because the market's changing so fundamentally because of Kindle and electronic publishing. It's a fundamental shift in the way stories are put out into the world."

http://www.bbc.co.uk...t-arts-18921480

[Cole Parker]

The fact she was quite unspecific about exactly what the new norm would be could be taken to mean neither she nor anyone else knows exactly what changes are coming, what new kinds and forms of stories will be popular, what writers should be trying to establish in their works.

Just as with blogs, I think there will be a slew of new works competing for readership, and readers not knowing where to find what they want.

Early days still.

C

[Cole Parker]

I've heard the Guiness we get here in bottles, or even in imported kegs, is nothing like the real stuff, either. Perhaps you guys believe the old saw about not meddling with perfection.

C

[Nick Deverill]

The brewers own site on the beer, http://www.theakston...s/Old-Peculier/

There is also a pub locater on the site, and one is in my town... But I'd advise as does the site to ring and check as it is certainly not a session beer

A bottled beer site also remarks that the draught does not taste the same as the bottled, but I've not given a link since although this is true, the comment compare it to Fullers ESB which to my mind tastes nothing like it.They are both dark strong ales but that is as far as it goes.

Guinness - try Foreign Extra Stout if you can get it. It's a bit rare, very strong, only in little bottles but absolutely gorgeous.

On topic, the web is full of self publishing sites, but very few are consistently good places to visit. The trick of writing a good readable story is not that easy to learn. Ease of publishing, yes, but good?

[Merkin]

On topic, nowadays I find that I spend more time reading online than on the page.

Off topic, Guinness in the bottle misses the mark, in my estimation, for the flavor lies in the pour. Unless it takes at least ten minutes to draw it lacks character.

[Paco]

I don't know much about beers. But, I sure would miss curling up with a good book. Somehow it just isn't the same with the computer.

[Cole Parker]

Right on, Paco. I agreee 100%. Curling up with a Kindle isn't the same at all.

C

[Paul_and_Paco]

A book and an ale... ha!

[colinian]

Jeez, Cole and Paul, you two sure are such Luddites when it comes to reading. I can curl up with my Kindle and I can read anything I've downloaded from Amazon.com or the Berkeley or Walnut Creek libraries. A Kindle or a tablet with a 7" screen are lightweight and easy to hold. In fact, they can be held with one hand and no fear of having the book close on me like can happen with a real book.

Colin

[Cole Parker]

But think of all those empty bookshelves. How will anyone know you're a scholar? They always know when they see all those leather bound tomes in your office.

C

[colinian]

I wouldn't of course, but I could rave on and on about how many books I have in the Amazon Cloud and on my Kindle or tablet or smartphone, whatever I'm carrying at that moment. Because I almost always have my smartphone with me, I can read just about anywhere I go.

Colin

[DesDownunder]

The book has the advantage that after the magnetic pulse from a nuclear explosion has knocked out all the little transistor thingies, or after a simple power out, a book can still be read (with a candle if it's night time).

One of the problems with books is that after 40 or 50 years, the binding glue they used to hold paperback books together, destabilises; leaving you with lots of single pages that inevitably seem to get lost before you can glue them back into place. But, I guess that the electronic readers can fail after a few years of use, too.

[Cole Parker]

That's a thought. Those pages that came unglued, and the ones that didn't, in most older paperbacks, get so yellowed or brown it becomes hard to read them. When that happens to books on Kindle, they'll probably just claim it's a background color setting rather than an aging factor.

C

[Paul_and_Paco]

I just like the smell and feel of a book... the front always tells me what I am reading, and I can loan it out to friends. I have used the eBook readers, and even got the AD book on one, but still... what would go on all my shelves? Bottles of beer I did not drink?

[Merkin]

Potpourri. Snow globes.

[Lugnutz]

Car junk. Dosen't everyone do that?

[The Pecman]

The book has the advantage that after the magnetic pulse from a nuclear explosion has knocked out all the little transistor thingies, or after a simple power out, a book can still be read (with a candle if it's night time).

And that aptly describes the new J.J. Abrams NBC-TV series Revolution coming this fall, about a world where all the electric power goes off and stays off for 15 years. Trust me, if electricity no longer works, we're gonna have a lot bigger problems than how to read books or use computers.

[colinian]

If electricity is no longer available for 15 years, the majority of people in the industrialized countries will die during that period. Without electricity you can't kill for oil or extract it, you can't manufacture gasoline, you can't grow food in sufficient quantities, what can be grown using horses and mules and bison can't be shipped in sufficient quantities, you can't drill for natural gas or extract and distribute it, you can't distribute water, you can't run sewage treatment plants, all transportation will revert to walking and horses but there aren't enough horses... and on and on and on. The people who don't starve or freeze to death in the winter or contract illness or injuries that have no recovery possible, will be killed by other people seeking what they have: clothing, canned food, bottled water, blankets, batteries... and cities will be taken over by gangs who will recruit members among the kids whose parents the gangs have killed, and the gangs will fight each other. There will be no government, no army, no police, no firemen, no doctors, no nurses... the only good thing is that there won't be any politicians or lawyers. What will be left are religious wingnuts preaching salvation if you follow their way and escape the trials sent to earth by a vengeful God who wants all adulterers and fornicators and abortionists and homosexuals, especially homosexuals, and the followers of these religious wingnuts. Farms will be taken over by people escaping the cities and they will lay in ruin because those people will kill the farmers and won't have a clue what to do after they eat the vegetables growing in the fields they ravished.

Cool, 'eh?

Colin

[DesDownunder]

Well Colin and Pecman, aren't you two the voices of happiness?

Try seeing if this link sent to me by Trab, cheers you up...or down:

http://t.co/x3rheevU

[DesDownunder]

On second thoughts, I want to state how worrying this all is...not from the actual disasters that are obvious but from the sheer fear that the whole deprived future engenders. Specifically, the idea of replacing 'fear of God' with fear for human survival, or fear of returning to instinctual reactions to threats of the cultures we have created is not far from the facts. Certainly the religions are reacting to loss of their influence through 'fear of God' being questioned, and replaced by scientific attitudes, but it is also true that fear of the unknown has always been part of human existence. Indeed, one of the reasons for inventing gods was so we had an answer to the fears of our awareness; our consciousness of ourselves and our environment.

If we have created cultures that cannot cope with reality, then by definition, our cultures, our societies are insane. Part of that insanity is to look for psychosis only in individuals, to blame people for being mad, and to promote our societies as being sane because a majority of us have voted that we live in a sane society. Sanity is not up for a vote, neither is it an inalienable truth determined by a government or a religion.

So far we have permitted religions the latitude to claim god as an answer to all that we find inexplicble, yet that latitude is shrinking almost daily and we find ourselves having to rely on reality and fact more and more. If we don't start rejecting the superstitions, the ridiculous assertions of religious texts, then we will end up waiting for a Messiah in a hostile environment with no electricity and all the disasters that will follow.

How we manage to combat the insanities of our societies whilst maintaining our core human attributes is a real challenge. Our evolutionary adaptation to our environmental changes may not be entirely natural since we have some measure to affect our our own evolutionary pathways, but do we really want to displace the one thing that makes us unique...the ability to intuit knowledge of our existence?

When we discuss altering our genetic structures, or replacing our biological form, we had best be certain that our intuition, and our empathy for life remains intact, along with a reliable supply of energy. The alternative is indeed bleak.

It is nearly 30 years since I told my retiring boss that I felt his generation had the best the planet could offer. He said he felt the same way. He also had a rather direct way to confront his fellow workers when they weren't doing their share of the work, he would say to them, "Whatever happens, you are doing it to yourself."

Seems appropriate to humanity's present position.

[Trab]

Earlier today I looked at some pictures of a major religious trek in India, with thousands upon thousands heading to their shrine. I've also seen photos of millions in the Vatican, and many more millions of Muslims at their own religious symbols. After that, how can I even remotely suppose that our human direction is going to change to one of enlightened fostering care for our planet?

We truly are the lemmings heading for the cliff, or maybe a better analogy is the voyage of the Titanic. You've probably all heard the expression "shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic" and it couldn't be more true for all of us. We are on the road to drastic and probably very painful changes, but we are arguing about religious rights, marriage equality, the right to have babies, etc. None of it will count for shit if there isn't a livable planet to do it on. We are doing it to ourselves, and nobody is going to stop us till we come to that crashing end.

[Cole Parker]

We've had wakeup calls in the past and have responded. The trick is to not wait till it's too late. Have we passed that point? Is it rapidly approaching? I don't think this planet is capable of sustaining a human population in the several billions for long, certainly not if an abundant lifestyle is based on ravaging the earth for all her bounty.

C

[EleCivil]

If electricity is no longer available for 15 years, the majority of people in the industrialized countries will die during that period.

[...]

Cool, 'eh?

Reminds me of this book - it takes place after an unknown phenomenon changes the laws of physics so that fast-releasing energy sources (combustion, electricity, etc.) no longer work (ex. you can set gunpowder on fire, but it just slowly burns instead of exploding).

Most people do die within the first couple months - riots break out in the cities, failing refrigeration causes stored medicine to expire, starvation, disease, etc. It mainly follows three groups that try three different ways to survive-

The Bearkillers - A group that was in a plane that crashed in the woods when the event happened, leaving them isolated. Their leader is an ex-Marine who knows how to survive in the wilderness, so they end up becoming a wandering tribe of hunter-gatherers, working as mercenaries, fighting off cannibals and scavengers in exchange for food and supplies from the encampments they pass.

Clan MacKenzie - A nature-worshiping Wiccan clan that manages to escape the city and begin subsistence farming in the middle of nowhere. They end up creating a farming community based on Wiccan principles, showing how the sudden loss of technology can cause a resurgence in religious belief systems.

The Protectorate - A history professor and Renaissance Faire enthusiast takes over a big city, using his knowledge of medieval leadership and sword fighting skills to recruit the local gang members into an army (and kill off all opposition). He installs himself as a feudal lord called The Protector, and attempts to build an empire through conquest.

Really fun “What If” kind of book. I recommend it.

[Merkin]

I second the nomination. "Dies the Fire" by S.M. Stirling is a great read, and only the first of what has turned out to be a complex and thoughtful series.

James

[Gee Whillickers]

And that aptly describes the new J.J. Abrams NBC-TV series Revolution coming this fall, about a world where all the electric power goes off and stays off for 15 years. Trust me, if electricity no longer works, we're gonna have a lot bigger problems than how to read books or use computers.

This sounds like it could be good, and this is the first I've heard of it. I'm looking forward to it.

We've had wakeup calls in the past and have responded. The trick is to not wait till it's too late. Have we passed that point? Is it rapidly approaching? I don't think this planet is capable of sustaining a human population in the several billions for long, certainly not if an abundant lifestyle is based on ravaging the earth for all her bounty.

C

I think it's fairly obvious at this point that Earth will no longer happily feed so many billions of us for an indefinite time. We are borrowing from the planet at this point in order to do so. Unfortunately, as always, debts eventually have to be re-paid.

Reminds me of this book - it takes place after an unknown phenomenon changes the laws of physics so that fast-releasing energy sources (combustion, electricity, etc.) no longer work (ex. you can set gunpowder on fire, but it just slowly burns instead of exploding).

This looks really good. I'm going to have to get it. Thanks for the recommendation.