Jms, any plans to write a book?
ABS
Considering all the writing you do, do you have any plans to write you
own B5 novel?
Jms at B5
>own B5 novel?
I did that in B5 itself. Any further actual published novels will be in other
areas.
jms
(jms...@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
(all message content (c) 2000 by
synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
to reprint specifically denied to
SFX Magazine)
in_vale...@hotmail.com
jms...@aol.com (Jms at B5) wrote:
> >Considering all the writing you do, do you have any plans to write
> >you own B5 novel?
>
> I did that in B5 itself. Any further actual published novels will be
> in other areas.
The new original one you've already done and are shopping around is a
supernatural thriller, isn't it, like your eariler two?
Do you still have interest in SF? Any plans for a new SF novel, your
first in prose?
scott tilson.
--------------------
Recommended: INHUMANS by Carlos Pacheco & Jose Ladronn.
http://www.anotheruniverse.com/comics/features/inhumanart1.html
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Jms at B5
>supernatural thriller, isn't it, like your eariler two?
The first two were nominally horror novels, with the supernatural aspect right
at the core of the story; this one isn't. It's a contemporary mystery thriller
with a slight supernatural aspect to it.
>Do you still have interest in SF? Any plans for a new SF novel, your
>first in prose?
>
The SF book market is SO screwed up right now, with so many changes in
management and scheduling and editors, that I'm kinda steering clear.
A Jensen
JMS' comment piqued my interest. I'm not an expert on the current market,
but I've sort of noticed the lack of good SF titles in the bookstores over
the past year or two. Is this something cyclic or is there a some sturctural
problem in the publishing end of things. I always appreciate JMS' insights
on "how things work."
AJ
al...@maconnect.com
aim high!
----------
In article <20000415234347...@ng-bk1.aol.com>, jms...@aol.com
Jms at B5
>but I've sort of noticed the lack of good SF titles in the bookstores over
>the past year or two. Is this something cyclic or is there a some sturctural
>problem in the publishing end of things.
Too many publishing companies are now owned by too few corporations, leading to
the Hollywoodization of Publishing: total emphasis on blockbusters, the
eradication of the midlist, the production of cookie cutter books, the mass
proliferation of generic fantasy titles, shrinking advances and marketing
support, and an environment that makes it harder for new or midlist writers to
survive, and even more difficult for ANY writer to get something new or
challenging onto the marketplace in deference to safe choices.
Other than that, it's copacetic.
Shaz
"Jms at B5" <jms...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20000416234408...@ng-ba1.aol.com...
> Too many publishing companies are now owned by too few corporations,
leading to
> the Hollywoodization of Publishing: total emphasis on blockbusters, the
> eradication of the midlist, the production of cookie cutter books, the
mass
> proliferation of generic fantasy titles, shrinking advances and marketing
> support, and an environment that makes it harder for new or midlist
writers to
> survive, and even more difficult for ANY writer to get something new or
> challenging onto the marketplace in deference to safe choices.
Explains why I spend less and less time in the new bookshops and more and
more in the second hand ones. Luckily there are hundreds of classics I have
yet to read.
> Other than that, it's copacetic.
OK, I looked this up in my dictionary (Collins English) and either that's an
Americanism my English dictionary has never heard of, or it's a recent (last
15 years) addition that never made it into that volume, or it's Hollywood or
writer specific. Whatever, I'm stumped. What does that mean?
Shaz
Chibi-Light
writes:
>Too many publishing companies are now owned by too few corporations, leading to
>the Hollywoodization of Publishing: total emphasis on blockbusters, the
>eradication of the midlist, the production of cookie cutter books, the mass
>proliferation of generic fantasy titles, shrinking advances and marketing
>support, and an environment that makes it harder for new or midlist writers to
>survive, and even more difficult for ANY writer to get something new or
>challenging onto the marketplace in deference to safe choices.
>
>Other than that, it's copacetic.
>
> jms
Well that's sad to hear. One of the reasons I prefer books and
indy/foreign films is because they're not cookie cutter stories and
huge (generally mindless) blockbusters.
CL
The Reverend Jacob Corbin
Have you heard much about the "print on demand" technology being floated around the
past year or two? (Supposedly it'll allow Joe Schmoe to walk into his local
bookstore and ask for a copy of whatever book he wants, then hang around for a
minute or two while a new copy of the book is run off, collated, and bound while he
waits.) Maybe this is the answer to the shrinking midlist--with this, publishers
won't have to worry about remainders, and they might be willing to take more risks.
And speaking of SF, have you had a chance to read Bruce Sterling's DISTRACTION?
One of the better books I've read in the past few months....
--
Reverend Jacob
http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/shirley/272/
"People that are really weird can get into sensitive positions and have a
tremendous impact on history." -- J. Danforth Quayle
Tad Simmons
copacetic - adj. Slang. Excellent; first-rate [Orig. unknown]
Have a good day.
-Tad
"Shaz" <hyp...@Dial.pipex.com> writes:
> "Jms at B5" <jms...@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:20000416234408...@ng-ba1.aol.com...
[SNIP]
> > Other than that, it's copacetic.
>
rob....@usa.net
Their shoddy treatment of one of my favorite authors, Jack Chalker, is
unexcusable. Check out www.jackchalker.com for more details.
Rob G.
In article <20000416234408...@ng-ba1.aol.com>,
jms...@aol.com (Jms at B5) wrote:
> >I'm not an expert on the current market,
> >but I've sort of noticed the lack of good SF titles in the bookstores
over
> >the past year or two. Is this something cyclic or is there a some
sturctural
> >problem in the publishing end of things.
>
> Too many publishing companies are now owned by too few corporations,
leading to
> the Hollywoodization of Publishing: total emphasis on blockbusters,
the
> eradication of the midlist, the production of cookie cutter books, the
mass
> proliferation of generic fantasy titles, shrinking advances and
marketing
> support, and an environment that makes it harder for new or midlist
writers to
> survive, and even more difficult for ANY writer to get something new
or
> challenging onto the marketplace in deference to safe choices.
>
> Other than that, it's copacetic.
>
> jms
>
> (jms...@aol.com)
> B5 Official Fan Club at:
> http://www.thestation.com
> (all message content (c) 2000 by
> synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
> to reprint specifically denied to
> SFX Magazine)
>
>
Shaz
"Tad Simmons" <sim...@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu> wrote in message
news:8766tgu...@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu...
> >From the American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition (circa
1985):
> copacetic - adj. Slang. Excellent; first-rate [Orig. unknown]
>
> Have a good day.
> -Tad
Thanks to all those who helped. Apparently it's an Americanism that hasn't
quite made it into the UK standard dictionaries yet.
Shaz
WWS
It came out of the American military, 60's and 70's. I'm not completely
sure of the derivation, but I had one cow-orker in the early 80's who
was just out of the army and who thought it was his mission in life to
work that word into every sentence. Got me to where I never wanted to
hear it again as long as I lived!
--
__________________________________________________WWS_____________
Iain Rae
that's ok, the Brits will retaliate with klebbies, proff raz,waz, double
bagger, sandy bottoms, brass monkeys and "the man from del monte"[1] all of
which are RN and most of the clean ones.
[1] special award to anyone who can work out this derivation and how it relates
to seaquest DSV.
>
> --
>
> __________________________________________________WWS_____________
Tammy Smith
time I try to find an interesting book in the SF-section. I decided
recently to read Dune instead. I had never read it before--it's
fantastic! I had been looking for a book that was a huge story, like
B5, & Dune is it!
Tammy
in_vale...@hotmail.com
But still a few good ones somehow sneak though.
If you like them big, epic, far future, with large casts, check out
Vernor Vinge's A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY. The prologue is a little vague,
but all things begin come together when the human alliances and empires
conflict over the sleeping aliens ...
Charles Sheffield's AFTERMATH was also a good, if not quite the same
scale or size of cast. I mean, it's *only* about surviving on a
devastated Earth. :)
scott tilson.
--------------------
Recommended: THE AUTHORITY by Mark Millar & Fank Quitely.
http://www.dccomics.com/bnw/march/au13/a.htm
Iain Clark
"Iain Rae" <ia...@civ.hw.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:38FB484F...@civ.hw.ac.uk...
> WWS wrote:
>
> > Shaz wrote:
> > >
> > > "Tad Simmons" <sim...@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu> wrote in message
> > > news:8766tgu...@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu...
> > > > >From the American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition
(circa
> > > 1985):
> > > > copacetic - adj. Slang. Excellent; first-rate [Orig. unknown]
> > > >
> > > > Have a good day.
> > > > -Tad
> > >
> > > Thanks to all those who helped. Apparently it's an Americanism that
hasn't
> > > quite made it into the UK standard dictionaries yet.
> >
> > It came out of the American military, 60's and 70's. I'm not
completely
> > sure of the derivation, but I had one cow-orker in the early 80's who
> > was just out of the army and who thought it was his mission in life to
> > work that word into every sentence. Got me to where I never wanted to
> > hear it again as long as I lived!
> >
>
> that's ok, the Brits will retaliate with klebbies, proff raz,waz, double
> bagger, sandy bottoms, brass monkeys and "the man from del monte"[1] all
of
> which are RN and most of the clean ones.
Speaking as a Brit....Eh? (Okay, I know "brass monkeys", and the man from
del monte....well, he say yes.)
> [1] special award to anyone who can work out this derivation and how it
relates
> to seaquest DSV.
And indeed...Eh?
Iain
--
"Signs, portents, dreams...next thing
we'll be reading tea leaves and chicken entrails."
The Reverend Jacob Corbin
> Well, Joe, you gave me the answer as to why I get so frustrated every
> time I try to find an interesting book in the SF-section. I decided
> recently to read Dune instead. I had never read it before--it's
> fantastic! I had been looking for a book that was a huge story, like
> B5, & Dune is it!
Tammy,
I'm glad you're enjoying Dune so much. (That's one of those books that,
when I first read it, I made all my family and friends read it too.) If
you like big, epic SF, here are some other recommendations:
A FIRE UPON THE DEEP by Vernor Vinge
THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN by Gene Wolfe (Actually this is four books in one:
"The Shadow of the Torturer", "The Claw of the Conciliator", "The Sword of
the Lictor", and "The Citadel of the Autarch")
HYPERION by Dan Simmons
Iain Rae
Are you sure...are you really sure? hint: it has nothing to do with eunoch
apes.
> , and the man from
> del monte....well, he say yes.)
>
Hey, c'mon we're supposed to be a seafaring nation all these nautical terms
are supposed to flow into the natural vocabulary, like "between the devil and
the deep blue sea", "letting the cat out of the bag ", "POSH" etc)
Did Yomp make it in there or are you post Falklands?
I suppose klebbies is unique and I think, a beautiful word (same meaning as
shrapnel i.e. any collection of small denomination foreign coins which are
completely and utterly bloody useless but which you keep for the next time you
go back there cos you can't afford to get them changed)
If anyone want's to guess at the rest I'll award points, you probably would
need a forces background for most of them though Double Bagger is a measure of
the beauty (or lack of) a member of the opposite sex, or possible same sex as
everyone is now PC.
>
> > [1] special award to anyone who can work out this derivation and how it
> relates
> > to seaquest DSV.
>
> And indeed...Eh?
>
OK the logic is tortuous but beautiful.
Some time ago there was a film about an amazing helicopter, this film became
much favoured amongst helicopter pilots partly because of the things this
amazing helicopter could do but mostly because of the fact that the writer
acknowledged the true value of the ballast^w Observer by tagging him as JAFO
(Just another F**king Observer). All was now well with the world except for
those pilots cursed to provide a helicopter for trainee observers to crash^w
train on. They couldn't call them JAFO's cos they were clearly not proper
Observers and much more dangerous so JAFO became JAFA (Just another f**king
arsehole), one version of the story has it that trainees wore orange helmets.
Clearly the chief Instructor, who has the final say as to who passes and fails
is an important man.......
The connection with Seaquest is left to those still awake.
Thomas A. Horsley
>the Hollywoodization of Publishing: total emphasis on blockbusters, the
>eradication of the midlist, the production of cookie cutter books, the mass
>proliferation of generic fantasy titles, shrinking advances and marketing
>support, and an environment that makes it harder for new or midlist writers to
>survive, and even more difficult for ANY writer to get something new or
>challenging onto the marketplace in deference to safe choices.
Ah, but technology is stepping in to solve this problem. We're just in a
temporary transition period at the moment. There are now actual, honest to
gosh (not merely theoretical) "on demand" publishers out there. They use
technology that prints the book when its ordered. No more need for
blockbusters so you can print up 100,000 ahead of time, now the publishers
can make just as much money printing one copy each of 1000 different books
as they do printing 1000 copies of the same book.
Right now, they are mostly mail order, but in the near future, the machine
will be right in book stores. No more out of print books. For the 10 cents
worth of disk space required to store it, every book can stay in print
forever.
Now all they really have to do is figure out how to adapt the marketing
and editing end of the publishing industry to this new technology :-).
--
>>==>> The *Best* political site <URL:http://www.vote-smart.org/> >>==+
email: Tom.H...@worldnet.att.net icbm: Delray Beach, FL |
<URL:http://home.att.net/~Tom.Horsley> Free Software and Politics <<==+
Iain Rae
> >Too many publishing companies are now owned by too few corporations, leading to
> >the Hollywoodization of Publishing: total emphasis on blockbusters, the
> >eradication of the midlist, the production of cookie cutter books, the mass
> >proliferation of generic fantasy titles, shrinking advances and marketing
> >support, and an environment that makes it harder for new or midlist writers to
> >survive, and even more difficult for ANY writer to get something new or
> >challenging onto the marketplace in deference to safe choices.
>
> Ah, but technology is stepping in to solve this problem. We're just in a
> temporary transition period at the moment. There are now actual, honest to
> gosh (not merely theoretical) "on demand" publishers out there. They use
> technology that prints the book when its ordered. No more need for
> blockbusters so you can print up 100,000 ahead of time, now the publishers
> can make just as much money printing one copy each of 1000 different books
> as they do printing 1000 copies of the same book.
>
> Right now, they are mostly mail order, but in the near future, the machine
> will be right in book stores. No more out of print books. For the 10 cents
> worth of disk space required to store it, every book can stay in print
> forever.
>
> Now all they really have to do is figure out how to adapt the marketing
> and editing end of the publishing industry to this new technology :-).
And immediately you will have people coming up with all sort of stupid encryption
schemes to stop people making pirate copies of books and requiring you to spend
silly amounts of money to on the license. Home publishing kits which limit you to
printing in courier or times and to crappy plastic binders. I'm willing to bet
that very few of these places will do leatherbound or even good quality hardback.
Sorry but when it comes to reading I'm a luddite.
Shaz
> Iain Clark wrote:
>
> > Speaking as a Brit....Eh? (Okay, I know "brass monkeys"
>
> Are you sure...are you really sure? hint: it has nothing to do with eunoch
> apes.
They were the brass balls outside pawn shops.
> > , and the man from
> > del monte....well, he say yes.)
>
> Hey, c'mon we're supposed to be a seafaring nation all these nautical
terms
> are supposed to flow into the natural vocabulary, like "between the devil
and
> the deep blue sea", "letting the cat out of the bag ", "POSH" etc)
> Did Yomp make it in there or are you post Falklands?
The devil and the deep blue sea has a similar etymology to 'between Cylla
and Charibdis'. One was a rock, the other a whirlpool. Navigating between
these two potential disasters was no mean feat.
> I suppose klebbies is unique and I think, a beautiful word (same meaning
as
> shrapnel i.e. any collection of small denomination foreign coins which are
> completely and utterly bloody useless but which you keep for the next time
you
> go back there cos you can't afford to get them changed)
Never heard that one before. Of course, it depends on what part of Britain
you're from. For example, in Sussex, what a Londoner would call an alleyway,
we call a twitten. In County Durham that same alleyway is called a vennel.
anyone who thinks everyone in the UK speaks the same language isn't paying
attention. Try and get someone with a rich Somerset accent to communicate
with someone speaking Durham Pit Talk (heck, anyone try and communicate with
Durham pit talk!!! 'aya gorra tab, mon?' Now who the heck would know that
means 'do you have a cigarette?'???)
> If anyone want's to guess at the rest I'll award points, you probably
would
> need a forces background for most of them though Double Bagger is a
measure of
> the beauty (or lack of) a member of the opposite sex, or possible same sex
as
> everyone is now PC.
Forces idiom is a language all its own. The same goes for some university
lingo. At my college in Durham everyone knew what someone meant when they
said they'd 'quiched out on the bed' but it had nothing to do with food!
I am not even going to try!
Shaz
Bob Joesting
> 1985):
> copacetic - adj. Slang. Excellent; first-rate [Orig. unknown]
>It came out of the American military, 60's and 70's. I'm not completely
>sure of the derivation. ...
It goes back further than that but it isn't clear
where it came from. I have heard a few possibilities.
One theory is that it was part of a pidgen trade
language with the Native Americans in the Pacific
Nowthwest around 1900 and before. The original was
supposed to be something like "copasenee."
One source said it might be from a combination of
"cope" and "antiseptic."
The origin that sounds best to me is that is could be
from the Hebrew "kol ba seder." There may also be a
Yiddish word there but I haven't heard it.
Whereever it came from, it became wide known in the
South from Bill "Bojangles" Robinson who used it in
his act. From his audiences it became widespread in
the military during and after World War II.
Bob Joesting <valen (at) psicorps (dot) com>
Tom Holt
The message <8dg4jq$2u3$1...@lure.pipex.net>
from "Shaz" <hyp...@Dial.pipex.com> contains these words:
> For example, in Sussex, what a Londoner would call an alleyway,
> we call a twitten. In County Durham that same alleyway is called a vennel.
In Oxfordshire, a snicket.
> anyone who thinks everyone in the UK speaks the same language isn't paying
> attention. Try and get someone with a rich Somerset accent to communicate
No, don't. Not if you value your sanity.*
Cordially,
Tom Holt
Somerset, UK
*Old, old joke about the Somerset mafia; they'll make you an offer
you can't understand...
Andrew M Swallow
>>
>> Are you sure...are you really sure? hint: it has nothing to do with eunoch
>> apes.
>
>They were the brass balls outside pawn shops.
If you ment that the weather was cold, I thought it came from the brass
contraption used to hold canon balls. When it got too cold the balls fell off.
Andrew Swallow
Jms at B5
>time I try to find an interesting book in the SF-section. I decided
>recently to read Dune instead. I had never read it before--it's
>fantastic! I had been looking for a book that was a huge story, like
>B5, & Dune is it!
I'd also commend to you the Foundation trilogy, and Childhood's End.
Jms at B5
A cow-orker?
Did it give milk and live in Mordor?
Pelzo63
>I'd also commend to you the Foundation trilogy,
i second this recommendation, and i'd also include the second foundation
trilogy(the ones asimov wrote later in life; foundation's edge, prelude to
foundation, forward the foundation. not the new ones being written by the 3
other authors, i haven't read those yet, so i can't recommend).
---Chris AOL/AIM--pelzo63
http://members.aol.com/pelzo63/welcome.html
and maybe in a few years, another epic will be out. <g>
Tom Holt
The message <20000417203155...@ng-fo1.aol.com>
from jms...@aol.com (Jms at B5) contains these words:
> >I had one cow-orker in the early 80's who
> A cow-orker?
> Did it give milk and live in Mordor?
Sounds pretty orkward to me.
Thomas A. Horsley
That shouldn't enter into it. All the consumer gets is a paper book just
like he always has. I don't think there is any interest in letting people
print the books at home (at least not by publishers :-).
>I'm willing to bet that very few of these places will do leatherbound or
>even good quality hardback.
I've never held one in my hand, but the video I've seen of them make them
look pretty much the same quality as a typical paperback. They do appear
to have color covers, etc. I doubt the machines are equipped to do different
kinds of bindings.
Herranen Henrik
[ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ]
[ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ]
"Shaz" <hyp...@Dial.pipex.com> writes:
> > Other than that, it's copacetic.
> OK, I looked this up in my dictionary (Collins English) and either that's an
> Americanism my English dictionary has never heard of, or it's a recent (last
> 15 years) addition that never made it into that volume, or it's Hollywood or
> writer specific. Whatever, I'm stumped. What does that mean?
55 leopold@pikkusirkku ~ : dict copacetic
1 definition found
>From WordNet (r) 1.6 [wn]:
copacetic
adj : completely satisfactory; "his smile said that everything was
copacetic"; "You had to be a good judge of what a man
was like, and the English was copacetic"- John O'Hara
[syn: {copasetic}, {copesetic}, {copesettic}]
- Leopold
--
Joo, totta. laitoin just 5000mk hiiren välijohtoon ja mä luulen, että
paintbrushin värit on vähän paremmat. kannattaskohan seuraavaksi hankkia
photoshop vai satsaanko hiirimattoon?
-- Jyrki Jaatinen, sfnet.harrastus.audio+video (1997)
Paul Mcelligott
www.mightywords.com which lets you self-publish to the web? Right now it's
too small and probably not the way to fame and fortune, but it seems like it
might ultimately do for publishing what mp3 did for music (in other words,
it'll scare the shit out of the big guys)...
--
Paul McElligott
"Life is a full contact sport;
Wear a cup or get off the ice."
Jms at B5 <jms...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20000416234408...@ng-ba1.aol.com...
> >I'm not an expert on the current market,
> >but I've sort of noticed the lack of good SF titles in the bookstores
over
> >the past year or two. Is this something cyclic or is there a some
sturctural
> >problem in the publishing end of things.
>
> Too many publishing companies are now owned by too few corporations,
leading to
> the Hollywoodization of Publishing: total emphasis on blockbusters, the
> eradication of the midlist, the production of cookie cutter books, the
mass
> proliferation of generic fantasy titles, shrinking advances and marketing
> support, and an environment that makes it harder for new or midlist
writers to
> survive, and even more difficult for ANY writer to get something new or
> challenging onto the marketplace in deference to safe choices.
>
> Other than that, it's copacetic.
>
Daniel S. Riley
> > "Tad Simmons" <sim...@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu> wrote in message
> > news:8766tgu...@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu...
> > 1985):
> > > copacetic - adj. Slang. Excellent; first-rate [Orig. unknown]
> It came out of the American military, 60's and 70's. I'm not completely
> sure of the derivation
The Oxford English Dictionary has cites going back to 1919, mostly
from the American south, but no origin.
--
Dan Riley d...@mail.lns.cornell.edu
Wilson Lab, Cornell University <URL:http://www.lns.cornell.edu/~dsr/>
"History teaches us that days like this are best spent in bed"
A Jensen
business revolution/evolution which shrinks the large company overhead yet
can still deliver product at a reasonable price and still pay the author a
worthwhile fee. The internet and electronic books offer this promise, but
we'll have to see if someone can capitalize on it. Reader-devices will also
have to get better and cheaper.
AJ
al...@macconnect.com
aim high!
----------
In article <20000416234408...@ng-ba1.aol.com>, jms...@aol.com
(Jms at B5) wrote:
A Jensen
easy to read -- currently the available products are getting there, but are
still only so-so -- we may just see a new reading revolution. The key during
this early on-demand and electronic prublishing period, if the publishers
can actually make money -- then can the authors make money. So far, most of
the stuff "published" is older media, which has previously been paid for
under the traditional print media structure. The question is -- will there
be a big enough market for electronic books, which pay the authors
appropriately in the future. We shall see.
AJ
al...@macconnect.com
aim high!
----------
In article <uitxgs...@worldnet.att.net>, Tom.H...@worldnet.att.net
(Thomas A. Horsley) wrote:
>>Too many publishing companies are now owned by too few corporations, leading to
>>the Hollywoodization of Publishing: total emphasis on blockbusters, the
>>eradication of the midlist, the production of cookie cutter books, the mass
>>proliferation of generic fantasy titles, shrinking advances and marketing
>>support, and an environment that makes it harder for new or midlist writers to
>>survive, and even more difficult for ANY writer to get something new or
>>challenging onto the marketplace in deference to safe choices.
>
>Ah, but technology is stepping in to solve this problem. We're just in a
>temporary transition period at the moment. There are now actual, honest to
>gosh (not merely theoretical) "on demand" publishers out there. They use
>technology that prints the book when its ordered. No more need for
>blockbusters so you can print up 100,000 ahead of time, now the publishers
>can make just as much money printing one copy each of 1000 different books
>as they do printing 1000 copies of the same book.
>
>Right now, they are mostly mail order, but in the near future, the machine
>will be right in book stores. No more out of print books. For the 10 cents
>worth of disk space required to store it, every book can stay in print
>forever.
>
>Now all they really have to do is figure out how to adapt the marketing
>and editing end of the publishing industry to this new technology :-).
Iain Rae
> >And immediately you will have people coming up with all sort of stupid
> >encryption schemes to stop people making pirate copies of books...
>
> That shouldn't enter into it. All the consumer gets is a paper book just
> like he always has. I don't think there is any interest in letting people
> print the books at home (at least not by publishers :-).
You'll hit the same problem that the music business has over cd's, mp3 and
cinema has with dvd, the main reason that people don't pirate books is it's
cheaper to buy a printed one than it is to photocopy one. In order to stop
people doing it at home you're going to have to make the machines expensive or
make the system completely closed ( did I hear anyone say monopoly?).
That said, I have about 4-5K of books sitting on my shelves at work, I'd
happily pay a subscription to each book if it allowed me to print off updates
as and when they became available and it cost about the same between versions
as buying the new edition did.
P.C. Kilinskas
Jms at B5 <jms...@aol.com> wrote:
>>Well, Joe, you gave me the answer as to why I get so frustrated every
>>time I try to find an interesting book in the SF-section. I decided
>>recently to read Dune instead. I had never read it before--it's
>>fantastic! I had been looking for a book that was a huge story, like
>>B5, & Dune is it!
>
The Foundation trilogy is a brilliant piece of work, one that I plan on
going back to read a second time. Another series that might be exactly what
you're looking for is "Chung Kuo" by David Wingrove. It came to me strongly
recommended , and I mean to check it out as soon as I'm caught up with the
latest book in the Wheel of Time.
Phil
--
p...@cse.buffalo.edu
Only that in you which is me can hear what I'm saying.
Baba Ram Dass (b.1931)
Lisa Coulter
Tammy Smith wrote:
> Well, Joe, you gave me the answer as to why I get so frustrated every
> time I try to find an interesting book in the SF-section. I decided
> recently to read Dune instead. I had never read it before--it's
> fantastic! I had been looking for a book that was a huge story, like
> B5, & Dune is it!
>
> Tammy
I have to agree with you about Dune it's great - the movie is _awful_ by
the way.
On the other hand, I definitely failed to appreciate the sequels to _Duen_
Another book I would reccommend (hard sf, large scale) is Vernor Vinge's
_A Fire Upon the Deep_
Just my opinions!
Lisa Coulter
Lisa Coulter
in_vale...@hotmail.com wrote:
> In article <7415-38F...@storefull-138.iap.bryant.webtv.net>,
> gka...@webtv.net (Tammy Smith) wrote:
> > Well, Joe, you gave me the answer as to why I get so frustrated every
> > time I try to find an interesting book in the SF-section. I decided
> > recently to read Dune instead. I had never read it before--it's
> > fantastic! I had been looking for a book that was a huge story, like
> > B5, & Dune is it!
>
> But still a few good ones somehow sneak though.
>
> If you like them big, epic, far future, with large casts, check out
> Vernor Vinge's A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY. The prologue is a little vague,
> but all things begin come together when the human alliances and empires
> conflict over the sleeping aliens ...
_A Fire Upon the Deep_ which I just mentioned as being excellent in a post,
is a very long term sequel to this, but was written first . Won the Hugo
(tied with Connie Willis's _The Doomsday Book_)
Lisa Coulter
Rob Perkins
news:20000417202759...@ng-fo1.aol.com...
> >Well, Joe, you gave me the answer as to why I get so frustrated every
> >time I try to find an interesting book in the SF-section. I decided
> >recently to read Dune instead. I had never read it before--it's
> >fantastic! I had been looking for a book that was a huge story, like
> >B5, & Dune is it!
>
I enjoyed all four of those books. I still think Clarke is a tad too
preachy, but he writes good books.
Compared to Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, Dune is an easy read. I also
enjoyed:
_Contact_ by Carl Sagan. (Even if you didn't like the movie, give it a try.)
_The Worthing Saga_ by Orson Scott Card (he wrote "Ender's Game"), which has
an epic feel to it.
I could go on for a long time. Those are good epic-story kinds of books.
But, if you want to bend your soul into a new shape, pick up _The
Dispossessed_ by Ursula K. LeGuin. The woman is an artist with words, better
even than JMS (sorry Joe. You're a grade A writer, but she leaves everyone
who writes science fiction in the dust... :) )
Rob
Damien Ryan
> "Iain Rae" <ia...@civ.hw.ac.uk> wrote in message
> news:38FB879A...@civ.hw.ac.uk...
> > Iain Clark wrote:
> >
> > > Speaking as a Brit....Eh? (Okay, I know "brass monkeys"
> >
> > Are you sure...are you really sure? hint: it has nothing to do with eunoch
> > apes.
>
> They were the brass balls outside pawn shops.
They're actually the frame used to hold cannonballs on a ship. When it was cold
enough the cannonballs would fall out as the brass contracted ;)
--
Damien 4.7*@7.5#
http://djryan.tripod.com/
Penny Roberts
> > For example, in Sussex, what a Londoner would call an alleyway,
> > we call a twitten. In County Durham that same alleyway is called a vennel.
>
> In Oxfordshire, a snicket.
I grew up in Oxford but I never came across that word until I
honeymooned in York and read about "Snickleways", now I use it all the
time (especially in shopping centres - a lot of very handy shop-snickets
around these days)
> > anyone who thinks everyone in the UK speaks the same language isn't paying
> > attention. Try and get someone with a rich Somerset accent to communicate
>
> No, don't. Not if you value your sanity.*
An Aussie friend did a Thomas Hardy play. When she came to live in
England she was horrified to discover that their very authentic Wessex
accent was actually ..... Cockney !
Damien Ryan
> jms wrote:
>
> i second this recommendation, and i'd also include the second foundation
> trilogy(the ones asimov wrote later in life; foundation's edge, prelude to
> foundation, forward the foundation. not the new ones being written by the 3
> other authors, i haven't read those yet, so i can't recommend).
I enjoyed them, though I wouldn't recommend any rabid purists read them ;-)
Another epic book is The Postman by David Brin. it's a bit patchy and the
Costner film didn't help but it's a right old romp.
Penny Roberts
> Hey, c'mon we're supposed to be a seafaring nation all these nautical terms
> are supposed to flow into the natural vocabulary, like "between the devil and
> the deep blue sea", "letting the cat out of the bag ",
I don't go along with the naval derivation of that saying. It just
doesn't accord with its meaning. Why would getting the cat-o-nine-talis
out of its bag be a surprise to anyone? It certainly wouldn't be
revealing a devious secret.
The "pig in a poke" explanation fits the usage of the saying perfectly.
Penny
WWS
I always figured "cat out of the bag" was about as obvious as it can get.
You ever try to put a cat in a bag? You might could do it, if you caught
him sleeping. But once you let him out, he ain't ever going back in again!
This is totally OT, but on one of those "police video" shows they had one of
the funniest/most painful home videos I've ever seen. The animal control
officer was filming a "pet of the week" segment for the local animal shelter.
Started off all well and good; then the cat he was holding started to get
upset, then began to flail around at the end of it's leash whilst caterwauling
terribly, and then raced around the officers legs till the leash was wrapped
around the officers leg and the animal was pinned to him, wherupon the
demon-posessed cat sunk it's teeth into the officers crotch.
He'd maintained his composure up until that point, but that's when he
started screaming. One wonders about the sadistic camera operator who
sat back and filmed it all.
--
__________________________________________________WWS_____________
I'm sexy. Admire Me. Touch Me. Taste Me. And Take Me Home.
- Words on a Holiday Inn coaster in Colombo, Sri Lanka
John W. Kennedy
> If you ment that the weather was cold, I thought it came from the brass
> contraption used to hold canon balls. When it got too cold the balls fell off.
Is that a C of E joke?
--
-John W. Kennedy
-rri...@ibm.net
Compact is becoming contract
Man only earns and pays. -- Charles Williams
Iain Rae
> Andrew M Swallow wrote:
> > If you ment that the weather was cold, I thought it came from the brass
> > contraption used to hold canon balls. When it got too cold the balls fell off.
>
> Is that a C of E joke?
>
nope, he's absolutely serious and correct..
Andrew M Swallow
>From: Iain Rae ia...@civ.hw.ac.uk
>Date: 18/04/00 20:08 GMT Daylight Time
>Message-id: <38FCB30F...@civ.hw.ac.uk>
Brass monkeys were used to hold cannon balls on ships, to prevent them rolling
around. Cannon balls used to be made out of either iron or lead. So it should
be possible to calculate what this temperature is.
On the other hand cannon becomes canon at room temperature.
Andrew Swallow
Iain Clark
"Tom Holt" <lemmi...@zetnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:200004180...@zetnet.co.uk...
>
> The message <8dg4jq$2u3$1...@lure.pipex.net>
> from "Shaz" <hyp...@Dial.pipex.com> contains these words:
>
> > we call a twitten. In County Durham that same alleyway is called a
vennel.
>
> In Oxfordshire, a snicket.
Hurray! We had a snicket near our house in East Yorkshire (aka North
Humberside). I wouldn't dignify it with the word Alley, though. More of a
short gap between two houses in a small village! Snicket seems much more
appropriate.
Iain
--
"Signs, portents, dreams...next thing
we'll be reading tea leaves and chicken entrails."
Alison Hopkins
Iain Rae wrote in message <38FCB30F...@civ.hw.ac.uk>...
>"John W. Kennedy" wrote:
>
>> Andrew M Swallow wrote:
>> > If you ment that the weather was cold, I thought it came from the brass
>> > contraption used to hold canon balls. When it got too cold the balls
fell off.
>>
>> Is that a C of E joke?
>>
>
>nope, he's absolutely serious and correct..
>
>
>
I suppose that the limerick about the man from Madras would be wholly
inappropriate at this point, yes? <veg>
Ali
Cassius81
>I'm sexy. Admire Me. Touch Me. Taste Me. And Take Me Home.
>
>- Words on a Holiday Inn coaster in Colombo, Sri Lanka
I'm glad I'm not the only one who owns the '00 "365 Stupidest Things Ever Said"
desk calendar. ;)
Cassius' Quote of the Day:
Lao Tzu: "There is nothing softer and weaker than water, and yet there is
nothing better for attacking hard and strong things."
Aubrey W. Adkins
<snipped for length>
>
> I always figured "cat out of the bag" was about as obvious as it can get.
> You ever try to put a cat in a bag? You might could do it, if you caught
> him sleeping. But once you let him out, he ain't ever going back in again!
>
> This is totally OT, but on one of those "police video" shows they had one of
> the funniest/most painful home videos I've ever seen. The animal control
> officer was filming a "pet of the week" segment for the local animal shelter.
> Started off all well and good; then the cat he was holding started to get
> upset, then began to flail around at the end of it's leash whilst caterwauling
> terribly, and then raced around the officers legs till the leash was wrapped
> around the officers leg and the animal was pinned to him, wherupon the
> demon-posessed cat sunk it's teeth into the officers crotch.
>
> He'd maintained his composure up until that point, but that's when he
> started screaming. One wonders about the sadistic camera operator who
> sat back and filmed it all.
>
> --
>
> __________________________________________________WWS_____________
>
>
> - Words on a Holiday Inn coaster in Colombo, Sri Lanka
WWS,
One wonders about those who watched it and laughed until their sides
hurt, as I did.
Aubrey
Jay E. Morris
On 17-Apr-2000, jms...@aol.com (Jms at B5) wrote:
> >I had one cow-orker in the early 80's who
>
> A cow-orker?
>
> Did it give milk and live in Mordor?
>
> jms
Actually, they emit anti-clueons and live in cubicles.
--
Jay E. Morris Epsilon 3 Productions | Web Site Design and Hosting
mailto:e...@epsilon3.com
http://www.epsilon3.com
David DeRubeis
>
>
>I have to agree with you about Dune it's great - the movie is _awful_ by
>the way.
>On the other hand, I definitely failed to appreciate the sequels to _Duen_
>
>Another book I would reccommend (hard sf, large scale) is Vernor Vinge's
>
>
>Lisa Coulter
>
>
A Fire Upon the Deep is excellent. I would also suggets Bavid Brin's Uplift
books, starting with Startide Rising.
bev1...@ecn.ab.ca
: Well, Joe, you gave me the answer as to why I get so frustrated every
: time I try to find an interesting book in the SF-section. I decided
: recently to read Dune instead. I had never read it before--it's
: fantastic! I had been looking for a book that was a huge story, like
: B5, & Dune is it!
: Tammy
Try any of the books by David Weber, especially if you are into military
strategy/intrigue. I'm not, and still enjoyed the two I read quite a bit.
The Honor Harrington books in particular are heavy into tech and military
strategy. The hero is a woman! Yay!! (See: women in SF thread)
Bev
_______________________________________
God, help me to accept the things I cannot change, change the things I
cannot accept, and give me the wisdom required to hide the bodies of the
people I've killed because they pissed me off.
Lisa Coulter
bev1...@ecn.ab.ca wrote:
Also, I assume you have read _The Lord of the Rings_ (being discused on a
different thread here) If not, get thee to a bookstore! This was my very
first SF/Fantasy book (other than fairy tales).
Another great set of military space opera (not large scale like B5 but very
good and well done) is the Miles Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold.
This is not my favorite subgenre, but I really like these.
Lisa Coulter
Martha Tonkin
Lisa Coulter wrote:
>
> Also, I assume you have read _The Lord of the Rings_ (being discused on a
> different thread here) If not, get thee to a bookstore! This was my very
> first SF/Fantasy book (other than fairy tales).
> Another great set of military space opera (not large scale like B5 but very
> good and well done) is the Miles Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold.
> This is not my favorite subgenre, but I really like these.
>
>
I second Lisa's recommendations. And I would add, while the
Vorkosigan books are in some sense military space opera,
one gets a little of everything in the series - humor,espionage
capers, mystery, politics, romance. Miles Vorkosigan is not
your conventional military SF hero for a lot of reasons,
including his personality. To paraphrase what his father
says of Miles, placing him in the regular military is like
trying to fit a tesseract into a round hole.
With Bujold one gets a _lot_ of humor, and not a lot of
technobabble, which is just the opposite of what I personally
have found with respect to David Weber's Honor Harrington
novels; I enjoy the character of Honor Harrington but there
are a lot of things about that series that I find problematic.
MET
Michael J Wise
> > I had one cow-orker in the early 80's who
> A cow-orker?
> Did it give milk and live in Mordor?
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/cow-orker.html
Aloha mai Nai`a!
--
"Please have your Internet License http://kapu.net/~mjwise/
and Usenet Registration handy..."
Shaz
"Michael J Wise" <mjw...@kapu.net> wrote in message
news:Pine.MAC.4.10.100041...@kapu.net...
> Jms at B5 wrote:
>
> > > I had one cow-orker in the early 80's who
>
> > A cow-orker?
> > Did it give milk and live in Mordor?
>
> http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/cow-orker.html
>
look an idiot a little less frequently
Shaz
Iain Clark
"Cassius81" <cass...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20000418225042...@ng-ck1.aol.com...
> WWS wrote:
> >I'm sexy. Admire Me. Touch Me. Taste Me. And Take Me Home.
> >
> >- Words on a Holiday Inn coaster in Colombo, Sri Lanka
>
Said"
> desk calendar. ;)
Is that one of those lists the Technomages know?
Everett Ogden
>
>"Jms at B5" <jms...@aol.com> wrote in message
>> Other than that, it's copacetic.
>
>OK, I looked this up in my dictionary (Collins English) and either that's an
>Americanism my English dictionary has never heard of, or it's a recent (last
>15 years) addition that never made it into that volume, or it's Hollywood or
>writer specific. Whatever, I'm stumped. What does that mean?
>
My 33 year old WNI III defines copacetic as slang for "very
satisfactory; fine and dandy." And my 41 year old Webster's New
Collegiate defines it as "capital; snappy; prime." Perhaps you need
an older dictionary.
Everett Ogden <ogd...@global2000.net>
Shaz
"Everett Ogden" <ogd...@global2000.net> wrote in message
news:8fnofsol9s3dh1u6s...@4ax.com...
Nah, just an American one, or the (expensive) Oxford English full version.
Given I'm a Brit I tend to find Collin's or the smaller Oxford quite
adequate to my requirements under most circumstances. If I will insist on
hanging out with you Americans I guess I'd better invest in Websters at some
point!
Shaz
Gharlane of Eddore
news:8766tgu...@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu...
>
> From the American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition
> (circa 1985):
>
> copacetic - adj. Slang. Excellent; first-rate [Orig. unknown]
>
Hardly "unknown," which is why it's largely a waste of time to
consult any dictionary that has the words "College," or "Collegiate"
in the title, or which can be lifted with one hand.
Shaz wrote:
>
> Thanks to all those who helped. Apparently it's an Americanism that
> hasn't quite made it into the UK standard dictionaries yet.
>
Try a *REAL* dictionary. ( cf. OED, or any of the W's "Unabridged
New International" variations, 2nd or 3rd. )
Nota bene: OED on CD-ROM is the only exception to the "lift
with one hand" rule.
In <38FB5FA2...@tyler.net> WWS <wsch...@tyler.net> writes:
>
> It came out of the American military, 60's and 70's. I'm not
> completely sure of the derivation, but I had one cow-orker in
> the early 80's who was just out of the army and who thought it
> was his mission in life to work that word into every sentence.
> Got me to where I never wanted to hear it again as long as I lived!
>
Not quite far enough back. Check out Beatnik jargon of the late
fifties, and then track it backward through Jazz terminology into
the forties.
John W. Kennedy
> One wonders about the sadistic camera operator who
> sat back and filmed it all.
Not sadistic, just professional. Camera operators, theatre
electricians, and certain other professionals just don't have the same
responses as other people....
Iain Rae
> WWS wrote:
> > One wonders about the sadistic camera operator who
> > sat back and filmed it all.
>
> Not sadistic, just professional. Camera operators, theatre
> electricians, and certain other professionals just don't have the same
> responses as other people....
yup, there's the wonderful example from one of the (I think) world
superbike rounds where the cameraman caught one of the riders dropping
the bike on a corner and held the shot all the way up until the bike
broke his legs.
Pål Are Nordal
>
> <svere snippage>
>
> or which can be lifted with one hand.
ITYM "tentacle".
HTH. HAND.
--
Donate free food with a simple click: http://www.thehungersite.com/
Pål Are Nordal
a_b...@bigfoot.com
Shaz
"Gharlane of Eddore" <ghar...@ccshp1.ccs.csus.edu> wrote in message
news:8dofgt$8...@news.csus.edu...
> "Tad Simmons" <sim...@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu> wrote in message
> news:8766tgu...@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu...
> >
> > From the American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition
> > (circa 1985):
> >
> > copacetic - adj. Slang. Excellent; first-rate [Orig. unknown]
> >
>
>
> Hardly "unknown," which is why it's largely a waste of time to
> consult any dictionary that has the words "College," or "Collegiate"
My own Collins has neither the word College in it, nor can it be easily
lifted with one hand. Your rule of thumb clearly needs some fine tuning.
> Shaz wrote:
> >
> > Thanks to all those who helped. Apparently it's an Americanism that
> > hasn't quite made it into the UK standard dictionaries yet.
> >
>
> Try a *REAL* dictionary. ( cf. OED, or any of the W's "Unabridged
> New International" variations, 2nd or 3rd. )
> Nota bene: OED on CD-ROM is the only exception to the "lift
> with one hand" rule.
My dear chap, you buy it for me, and I'll be happy to use the OED. I have a
professor friend who has promised me his copy on his demise, but I sincerely
hope I do not receive it in the immediate future. In the meantime, the 200
pounds or so for the full version (I prefer a hard back dictionary I can
thumb through to one on my hard drive. I can't take a computer to bed with
me, but I do a great deal of reading there) is a *tad* out of my league, and
my local library is a disaster zone. Consequently I'll have to make do with
the dictionaries that work fine here in the UK, even if they don't contain
words more peculiar to the USA.
Thank you, once more, to those who were kind enough to explain the term to
me without insulting my intelligence or my library.
Shaz
Tom Holt
The message <8dooha$d6s$1...@lure.pipex.net>
from "Shaz" <hyp...@Dial.pipex.com> contains these words:
> My own Collins has neither the word College in it
Try looking between 'colleen' and 'collet'. If it isn't there, you
should consider asking for your money back.
Matt Maurano
>Well, Joe, you gave me the answer as to why I get so frustrated every
>time I try to find an interesting book in the SF-section. I decided
>recently to read Dune instead. I had never read it before--it's
>fantastic! I had been looking for a book that was a huge story, like
>B5, & Dune is it!
I just re-read Dune. Love that book! I suggest that everyone go out
and read _True Believer_ (by Eric Hoffer, IIRC). It's nonfiction
written post-WW2, and IMHO applies directly to the religion of
Maud'Dib.
Shaz
Oh hardey har har!
I'm not rising to that one, Tom!
;-)
Shaz
Tom Holt
The message <8e0ll9$lv7$1...@lure.pipex.net>
from "Shaz" <hyp...@Dial.pipex.com> contains these words:
> I'm not rising to that one, Tom!
Not sinking down to my level, you mean...
Shaz
"We are all in the gutter...."
(and you know the rest of the quote)
:-)
Shaz
Gharlane of Eddore
Andrew M Swallow wrote:
>
> If you ment that the weather was cold, I thought it came from the
> brass contraption used to hold canon balls.
> When it got too cold the balls fell off.
>
Correct. The brass doohickey was called a "Monkey" or a "Brass Monkey."
OBSP: "meant."
OBSP: "cannon."
In <38FC8674...@bellatlantic.net>
jwke...@bellatlantic.net writes:
>
> Is that a C of E joke?
>
No, it's a cannonical one.