"One of the few book-related things I’d save in a fire." Five Things: January 4, 2024.
Tag: Community
Not-so-random pandemic thoughts on Author Platforms
It's an unfortunate truth about books that it's never simply been about being a good writer, but as literal thousands of new books are published every month, marketability is arguably more important — and harder to define — than it's ever been.
One year later, the problem with social media is clear: PEBKAC
I don't usually buy into "blame the user" for most problems, but our collective addiction to vanity metrics ruined everything, and even those who didn't buy into them have suffered the consequences. The problem exists between keyboard and chair.
Five Things: November 16, 2023
"Culture handbooks don't produce culture, people do." Five things for November 16, 2023.
I don’t miss the office, I miss the people…
Like so many other things, the pandemic completely disrupted those social outings, but at no point did I ever miss getting on the train and going into an office every day... until I suddenly did. Kind of.
Goodbye, Twitter. Goodbye, Substack. *DELETE*
Much like the lack of flying cars and personal jetpacks, the internet in 2023 is a major disappointment.
Five Things: May 11, 2023
"They simply must do better." Five things for May 11, 2023. That's it! That's the excerpt.
Five Things: April 27, 2023
"Be the change you want to see." Five things for April 27, 2023. That's it! That's the excerpt.
Shadowrun Subverted? A First Look at Subversion RPG
Remember the "This is the world liberals want!" meme? Subversion is the game they'd be talking about, and I mean that as high praise. While it has the requisite cyberpunk trappings of economic dystopia and extreme power imbalances, it flips Shadowrun's integration of fantasy on its head, imagining a world that a) always had magic and fantastic lineages (aka, races), and b) building upon Babylonian mythology as its foundation instead of the usual European inspirations. In Neo Babylon, magic has ruled for eons and technology is trying to level the playing field, disrupting the balance of power while crushing the underprivileged between them. In this world, the cops (Lawjacks) are implicitly a gang.
Why I Don’t Give Career Advice: Army Dazed
I was tickled when I saw how Microcosm titled our conversation about my career path in the industry, and listening to it for the first time, it's another reminder that my path was a relatively unusual one, difficult and unlikely to be replicated in the structure of the current industry. That said, I do think there's still an opportunity (and more importantly, a need) for people to be more outspoken about the various challenges the industry is dealing with, dismantling whisper networks to level the playing field for those coming from non-traditional backgrounds.