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Messages - guessingo

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91
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Postmodernism in Fantasy by Brandon at Scalzi's Whatever Blog
« on: September 15, 2010, 12:26:50 PM »
Very good essay. Shame I don't live in Utah so I can take Brandon's class. Maybe one of these days soon, BYU will get with the modern world and let him put the class online. Berkley, MIT, and the University of Washington have a lot of classes online.

92
Dan Wells / Re: Serial Killer book 3 release date?
« on: September 13, 2010, 07:48:31 PM »
Quote from: Peter Ahlstrom on September 12, 2010, 09:53:08 PM
In the US book 3 will come out just about one year after book 1 came out.

I don't know about the audiobook. Dan's editor wants to buy his book about a schizophrenic and is enthusiastic about his Extreme Makeover: Apocalypse Edition book.

What is this second one? Is this a play on the TV show?

93
Books / Re: longest book
« on: September 12, 2010, 08:05:05 PM »
For novels it was probably The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough. I believe it was 1,200 pages. Longer doesn't mean better.

94
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Money
« on: September 11, 2010, 08:51:34 PM »
Quote from: Munin on September 11, 2010, 08:42:51 PM
It sounds like your local library had a terrible selection. I suppose I've been somewhat lucky in that respect... mine has a ton of fantasy and sci-fi books.

he probably only goes after new releases and those always have a waiting list of they are bestsellers. Just the way it is .The library can't buy 100 of them to weather the storm and then they sit on the shelves with only a few being checked out.

as far as people not taking care of books. It is worse for audiobooks. I have checked out CDs with scratches all of them that won't play or tapes that won't run. I always tell the librarians about this. They thank me and fix them. Other people don't. It is because they are not directly spending their money on it so they don't care. Alot of library patrons are pigs. How hard is it to tell a librarian that the audiobook doesn't work. They will just copy a new one.

95
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Help!! I'm new!
« on: September 11, 2010, 04:01:50 PM »
Quote from: Salkara on September 11, 2010, 06:10:39 AM
Adonalsium is a god material that was shattered way back when (no one knows when exactly). Each Shard of Adonalsium makes its holder into a sort of deity. Ones you've met for sure are Ruin and Preservation. Many currently believe that Aona and Skai were on Sel (the world of Elantris).

As for why people are worried about Sazed... well, we don't want him to die, and apparently Odium wants to destroy everything.

which book does he explain that in?

96
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Money
« on: September 11, 2010, 04:00:24 PM »
Quote

l seriousness, I've hated libraries for as long as I can remember. I never checked a book out of my high school or jr. high libraries. Not once in six years. The last time I checked something out of the public library was 4th grade. I've only used the library here at BYU because a) It's not quite so bad as other libraries, and b) I had to for one of my classes. It wasn't even an option. It said, "Go to the library and get this book. You probably won't be able to find it anywhere else, as it's out of print." Sad day. But I've only been there once since I got here. That's pretty good, right?

I don't understand this. Your taxes pay for it. These days you can go online and reserve them, then they email you to go pick the item up. When I was a kid, I had to use the old card catalog. (ok when I got to junior high we had computers). I don't understand what is not to like about them. They are one of the few things that tax money is well spent on. I constantly have books and audio books checked out. For the last 5+ years I think I have always had stuff checked out. When I was in grad school, I could check books out for months. Your statement does not make a lot of sense.

97
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Money
« on: September 11, 2010, 03:55:45 PM »
request it at your library. There will be a waiting list, but bestsellers tend to have a lot of copies and they don't allow renewals, so you will get it with in 2 months (this is why you should request it before it comes out). I am 36, so 2 months is not a lot of time to me... as you get older time goes by faster. And yes, I feel that way with Robert Jordan.

reading in the bookstore is a good option. Earlier in my programming career, I used to go to Barnes and Noble every Saturday morning and spend several hours sampling a variety of programming books. The library never carries a good selection of these and they are about $50+ each. So it would have cost me $1,000s of dollars to buy them. Learned a lot.

I believe amazon.com still gives you a $25 credit if you get their credit card. That covers the cost of the book. If your too young to get a credit card have your parents do it. Costs them nothing. Just rip the card up when done if you don't want it (I have a drawer full of once used cards that I got for discounts).

98
Movies and TV / Dark tower coming to TV and movie at the same time
« on: September 10, 2010, 08:06:03 PM »
Ron Howard is producing. Sounds cool. Probably several years off.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/09/universal-lands-stephen-kings-the-dark-tower-and-plans-unprecedented-featurenetwork-tv-adaptation/


99
Books / Re: What are you reading, part 3
« on: September 10, 2010, 12:37:12 PM »
Quote from: Silk on September 10, 2010, 07:45:39 AM
Finished www: wake by Robert J. Sawyer. Fun book, interesting ideas, but I have some problems with it. (Don't I always.) ::)

what are your problems? I think elistist gave it a bad review. I really liked his book Flash Forward.

100
Books / Re: Did he use my review as a reference?
« on: September 10, 2010, 12:36:12 PM »
You are getting famous. Your review was plagiarized. I think it is rather funny that someone is so lazy that they need to plagiarize a book review.

101
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Impact of Book Signings?
« on: September 10, 2010, 12:33:59 PM »
Quote from: Peter Ahlstrom on September 09, 2010, 07:17:57 PM
It's very hard to quantify. Tours taken by themselves are probably not profitable. What they do is foster the dedicated fans, who get even more pumped to recommend the books to their friends. And that's not something you can really track the results of.

The release day signings that move hundreds of books do affect the New York Times ranking. But you're right that the further into the tour you get, the more likely it is that the readers have already bought their book.

I am willing to bet it has more of an affect on future sales. I think it is part of the marketing strategy. Authors are basically a brand name and this enhances the brand.

102
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Brandon's D.C. Signing (Sep 8)
« on: September 10, 2010, 12:30:30 PM »
Quote from: calvin on September 09, 2010, 06:20:16 PM

Good news:  As he was going out the door, he was talking with the bookstore staff and his local "handler" and I overheard him say, "I'll see you in November," so it sounds like he'll be back pretty soon...and at the same location.  From all appearances, that's the bookstore of choice for Fantasy/Sci-Fi signings, while there's another one downtown where most of the political and non-fiction ones are done.



I didn't realize they picked certain stores for certain genres. So I guess we will never see any sci-fi fantasy authors at the Barnes and Noble in Tysons Corner? It is right off the beltway. I think Newt Gingrich was there. They also had the guy who wrote the book version of the HBO series the Pacific. According to Peter, authors don't have any say over which store they go to. I really can't get to the one in Baileys Crossroads. I live in Reston and I get up for work at 5 AM. It is really not practical.

So does this mean all of the fantasy/sci-fi authors that come to town will go to Baileys Crossroads? Is there anyway to get on a mailing list from Barnes and Noble just for Sci-fi/fantasy authors coming to town for signings?

103
Writing Group / Re: story ideas
« on: September 09, 2010, 04:26:35 PM »
I also thought about a satire where our world comes into contact with a fantasy world. I would need to use tolkein like species or it would not be that funny.

The redskins sign a 2000 pound troll to play defensive tackle and they still suck.
Al Quaeda recruits goblins to be suicide bombers telling them they can have all the virgins they want  when they blow up(they want them for dinner)
Demons claim they are oppressed and the Civil Liberties Union defends them
The NRA protest for the right to have magic +5 AK-47s.
The democratic party hires an alchemist to create love potions to bring back the man love for Obama.
Then I'd steal an idea from District 9 and have nigerian gangsters trafficking in inter-species prostitution.
Elven princesses hooked on cocaine
Faeries who are con-artists

It would probably be bad also.

104
Writing Group / Re: story ideas
« on: September 09, 2010, 04:16:15 PM »
1. I don't like the rich wizards vs. poor people with technology trying to avoid change. Too cliched.
2. It doesn't take alot of money to start a business. Google was founded in a dorm room. Early technology improvements that helped alot were pretty simple. For example when more people started farming in northern Europe, they needed a heavier plow to turn the soil. This made a large difference, but was not something that required investment.

I thought about doing it from the perspective of a merchant who turns into a business tycoon. I want to do something different. He is terrible with magic so has to come up with other ways to do things. It would be terrible at first since to do this right, I would need to do alot of research on industrialization. It would be easy to see through if I fake it. I would just do it for fun anyway. I would probably use some non-human races to represent third world countries that have cheap labor.

105
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Brandon's D.C. Signing (Sep 8)
« on: September 09, 2010, 03:59:54 PM »
Did anyone video this with intent to put it on youtube? I wanted to go, but the traffic around here is insane at that time of night. I couldn't get off work to go early.

"(later they said that was compared to the women's book signings and political signings they do there)"

This made me think of a possible fan fiction. Loial wrote a romance novel. Some Aes Sedai (probably greens) are in line waiting to have the book signed impatiently. The male bookstore employees are making comments about how annoying they are. The Warders are giving them the evil eye.

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