May 2013
1 post
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Labels, Schmabels. A Semi-Coherent Monday Rant.
Labels can be helpful if you’re shopping for clothing or food. If food companies are made to disclose the irradiated baby seal hearts they’re using as sausage filler on the label, that’s quite helpful for the irradiated baby seal heart intolerant. But political labels…pshaw. Yes, I said “pshaw,” and I don’t regret it. I’m tired of them and what they stand for.
I admittedly fall on the left side of...
April 2013
1 post
Some Publishing Nuts and Bolts
Here’s a little behind-the-scenes publishing info. Photo insert placement is one of the hundreds of odd little decisions I make as a book’s editor. Books aren’t simply a bound-up stack of single pages; they’re a bound-up stack of little booklets; each little booklet, called a signature, is a folded group of a certain number of pages. The number of pages per signature can be 16, 32, or 48 (or...
March 2013
2 posts
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My Big Fat Copyright Infringement Adventure
Last August I got an email from a major textbook publisher asking for permission to reprint my story “The Mailbox” in a college textbook. This was a small, custom textbook, one of those things where the professor picks an anthology-worth of stories for a class and gets a short print run.
Of course I was happy. Other authors in the anthology included Percy Shelley and T.S. Eliot. Holy...
Lucky 2013: A Resolution for Writing
I generally don’t do resolutions. Mostly because my success rate would be, let’s be honest, fairly low, and then it becomes something to feel guilty about and what a way to start out a new year, with a feeling of failure. With that in mind, I’m reluctant to label any newly turned over leaves as resolutions. But so far this year there are a couple things going on that I’m...
February 2013
1 post
After finally watching Caprica . . . Meh
In honor of finally posting a new blog long after I should have, I’m blogging about a show I finally watched long after I should have. For my nongeek readers, I’ll explain that Caprica (2009–2010) was the prequel series to the rebooted Battlestar Galactica (2003–2009). I loved much of BSG, particularly since I accepted early on that the finale would not be satisfying. There’s no...
September 2012
1 post
The Birth of Generations Geek: A Father/Daughter...
Back in July I was thinking about podcasts. As in, “I should have a podcast.” I’d been noticing how many of my writer friends had podcasts, and it seemed interesting and challenging and, yes, another part of my “online platform” as we say in the pub business. But what would the podcast be? It seemed like if I started one it could be called A Writer You’ve Never...
June 2012
1 post
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Reminiscences and Synchronicities: Ray Bradbury,...
Last Wednesday morning, June 6, I learned of the passing of Ray Bradbury the day before. My eyes misted … and I was surprised by the depth of my reaction. Sure, I’m a fan, have been so for well over thirty years, but it’s not like I knew the man. I’d never met him. He’d lived a long life and had been in deteriorating health, so his death was no shock. Nevertheless, I...
May 2012
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The Weird Scheisse that Happens to Me at Signings
Had a great signing for Writes of Spring tonight at a Barnes & Noble. That link is to buy from B&N, but if you live in the Twin Cities and feel like picking up a copy, please consider popping into Once Upon a Crime Mystery Bookstore, the Raven-Award-winning independent bookstore behind the anthology. Even though there were about seventeen of us contributors, we managed to pull in an...
April 2012
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M*A*S*H Re-View
The kid (aka Ella, my fourteen-year-old) has been on a M*A*S*H kick lately. She discovered the show last year on a DTV broadcast station while staying at my mom’s place in the country and then was very pleased to find it running on TVLand on our cable system. She’s about the age I was midway through the show’s original run. She’s loving the show, and I’ve been...
March 2012
4 posts
1 tag
Why The Interwebs Are So Cool
The other day I was listening to the great internet radio station A Fistful of Soundtracks. When I fired it up they were playing a cut from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, composed by James Horner. From that they cut to “Rock & Roll High School” by the Ramones. I thought that was pretty cool, so I tweeted about it, calling it “cool musical whiplash.” After a little...
3 tags
Zombies! A Comic Book Review
The 2011 ten-part crossover Infestation from IDW Publishing is basically a zombie story. I loves the zombies, as The Walking Dead knows, but I generally find crossovers to be a forced conceit. Nevertheless, I’m often drawn in by their epic geekiness, and what drew me into this one was my long-standing love of Star Trek.
IDW’s original series CVO (Covert Vampire Operations) serves as...
3 tags
Androids! A Comic Book Review
I recently got around to reading a couple of big comic book series, 2010’s eight-part Dust to Dust, an authorized prequel to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? from Boom! Studios, and 2011’s ten-part crossover Infestation from IDW Publishing. I liked Dust to Dust well enough. It certainly looks good, taking its visual cues from Blade Runner. At first I was disappointed by the story,...
2 tags
Wherein I Self-Publish a Short Story and Get...
I’ve been announcing my impending entry into the brave new world of self-publishing e-books for some time now but, as with everything, it was taking much longer to get organized than I had originally hoped. So last weekend when a couple of friends independently ask me for my feedback on publishing with Smashwords, I decided, “Eff it, I’m going to self-publish this weekend or...
February 2012
2 posts
2 tags
"My name is Scott, and I'm powerless over computer...
Two things you need to know about me: 1) I love computer games, and B) I don’t have any time to play computer games.
The result of these two incompatible facts is I have tons of games. That I’ve essentially never played. I rarely reach the end of a game, because I don’t invest enough time to play all the way through. So I never get rid of games, because I haven’t finished...
1 tag
Which Wich. What . . . what?
So our neighborhood got a new sandwich shop chain, the somewhat cleverly/annoyingly named Which Wich. They advertise having over fifty customizable sandwiches (I refuse to say “wich” like they do), and it’s true, take a peek at their menu. Their shtick is that they have the menu printed on the bag your sandwich will go in. You’re supposed to grab a sandwich-specific bag...
Back From the Grave and Ready to Tweet
I haven’t blogged in months, but I’m feeling a little re-energized by finally getting on Twitter (follow me at @SMichaelPearson) a few days ago. I’ve had a pretty good run already from a geek standpoint. On my first day I got a shout out from Robert Meyer Burnett, director of Free Enterprise, a supergeek film starring William Shatner as himself, more or less. I’m sure most...
October 2011
1 post
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Steve Jobs, 1955–2011
It’s been nearly a week now since the passing of Steve Jobs. I was surprised by how much it affected me emotionally. Sure, I’m a dedicated Mac user, but it’s not like I knew the guy. When an actor dies, someone you’ve watched on screen for years, perhaps decades, it’s more understandable, because there’s a greater illusion of knowing the person. Watching that...
September 2011
1 post
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Deadlines, Campfires, and Wi-Fi: The Craziness of...
Things continue to be a blur, and not because I’ve had too much wine; but writing that did make me get up and pour myself a glass of Coppola Claret. That’s just a little product placement in my blog, although it’s never worked for me before. My first published Star Trek story (Happy 45th, Trek!), “Full Circle,” featured the fabulous Scoma’s on Fisherman’s...
August 2011
4 posts
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That Was a Strange Jumble of a Weekend, yet...
I went to work Friday morning optimistic that I’d be taking advantage of our summer hours and heading home about 12:30. I finally left at 3:00, disappointed that the long afternoon of writing I’d been looking forward to had evaporated, and I decided to just relax. Had a too-late lunch while watching a few episodes of Mr. Show. Then got a call from my wife … the kid had been...
4 tags
A Small Post to Keep My Blog On My Mind
I was on vacation last week, and so there is very little to report by way of writing. We did have a lovely time in the great Northwoods of Minnesota, however. We were way up in beautiful Ely, Minnesota, just twenty or so miles from Canada as the crow flies. Went to the International Wolf Center and the North American Bear Center, which were both pretty cool. And we got to see some, well, wolves...
3 tags
Progress made. Momentum slowly building.
OK, step one taken care of. I’ve finished a handful of short sketches for novels. Some of them read like jacket copy more than anything. But this has helped me get my mind around these ideas and assess their potential. Now I need to show them around, get some advice, and choose one to move forward on for now. I think at least four of them are solid ideas, and I’m sure I’ll keep...
3 tags
Existential Malaise is Not a French Condiment
In my last blog, over a month ago, I mentioned existential malaise. I thought I was over it, but then I disappeared back into it’s murky depths. Granted, there was a freelance project in there that devoured a lot of time, and then a day job project that demanded attention, but the turmoil in the publishing industry and the confusion it has rained down on my writing has knocked me for a loop....
July 2011
1 post
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Shore Leave
After too long an absence from posting while breathing deeply of the existential malaise emanating from the publishing industry (and please check out Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s fabulous blog on the subject), I’m back with fun news. It’s that special time of year known as Shore Leave! I can’t overemphasize the importance of this convention to me. I first attended in 2006 with...
June 2011
1 post
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How I Became a Wine Lover by Drinking Tea and...
I didn’t drink alcohol until I was in my midthirties. Didn’t have any ethical issue about it, I just never liked the taste of alcohol and didn’t see any need to force past that. In high school and college, watching friends occasionally partake of the excess of youth, drinking far too much and doing stupid things combined with vomiting, the appeal of drinking was lost on me.
...
May 2011
4 posts
We Interrupt This Blog for a Public Service...
This is a PSA for backing up your computer files. We all know we should. Many of us don’t. Maybe we have great plans for it, get started at it, then fall away. I was in that last category back in January when my computer started coughing up blood, fell on its face, convulsed for a while, then got frightfully still. Flat line. I started looking at my backup discs and realized that they were...
2 tags
In for the Long Haul . . . Just Didn't Realize How...
I date my wanting-to-be-a-writer revelation to 1977 when I was in seventh grade. If memory serves (and it may not) that was the year I had a writing assignment on what I wanted to be. I wrote two papers, actually, one on being a veterinarian and one on being a writer. This was because, being a writer-type, I was already heavily neurotic and/or without esteem and just couldn’t bring myself to...
2 tags
Writing Every Day . . . Or Not, As the Case May Be
“Remember, a writer writes, always.” Wise words spoken by Larry, Billy Crystal’s character in Throw Momma from the Train, the most realistic movie about writing ever. Well, maybe not the part about Hitchcockian swapping of murders. But the shot of Larry sitting at the typewriter (remember them?) trying to write but being distracted, cleaning his typewriter, playing with Scotch...
2 tags
Osama bin Laden, Dead
What a night here in the Enemy Lines compound. Spent most of the weekend working on my latest article for Star Trek Magazine, finally sending it in to my editor, Paul “Oi, you!” Simpson, around 6 p.m. Sunday evening. “Finally my weekend can start,” I joked. After dinner, watching some TV with the family, and cleaning up the kitchen, I sat back down at the keyboard with a...
April 2011
5 posts
3 tags
The Casual Piracy of the Internet: Stealing is...
Not long after my Star Trek novella came out I discovered a pirated file of the anthology online while searching for reviews. I posted about it on Trek BBS, a very popular message board for Trek fans and writers. I was surprised at some of the responses, that people thought my anger was a waste, that fighting piracy is foolish, that it was all tilting at windmills. I fully admit that fighting...
1 tag
Warning: Liberal Political Rant to Follow
I fully admit that raising the taxes of the rich will not singlehandedly cure our budget woes. Now I expect in return that conservatives will fully admit that cutting the taxes of the rich will not inherently help our budget woes. I’ll wait. Still waiting. Man, it’s quiet.
I’ve encountered conservatives ridiculing liberals as ignorant for thinking raising taxes on the rich will...
2 tags
The Scarlet W: On Being a Writer in the End Times
I picked a great time to have my writing career briefly regain consciousness, didn’t I? The acquisition of Honor in the Night, my Star Trek novella, back in 2008 seemed to roughly coincide with the beginning of the end of traditional publishing. As blogged elsewhere, the novella had a bumpy road to print, but it’s out there now, and doing fairly well. But the options for what I should...
3 tags
All Things Being Equal, It’s Better if Things Make...
A recent episode of the Hawaii Five-O reboot—spoiler warning!—built up to Danny finding out his brother Matt (or Chris, depending on which website you believe) had made some poor financial decisions and was now in over his head with bad guys and in serious legal trouble. Danny counseled Matt to turn himself in and promised to help him in every way possible. Matt appears to agree, but then ditches...
3 tags
The Collaborative Process in Traditional...
Previously on Enemy Lines … I’m a writer who makes my living as an editor. It’s my day job, like Bruce Wayne without the money, that covers for my writing, like fighting crime, but without the crime or the fighting. It’s the perfect metaphor, except for all the exceptions. Literally.
I was a writer for many years before I ended up as an editor, so I approach my work in a...
March 2011
3 posts
2 tags
To Self-Publish or Not to Self-Publish: The...
I’ve lately been thinking that I should upload something on the Smashwords that all the kids are talking about. This is a site that facilitates e-publishing. You upload a file formatted in the necessary way and soon your book is for sale on Amazon, Apple’s iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, and so forth. It seems like another plank in the platform: website, check; blog, check; Facebook,...
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My Job Interview with Garrison Keillor
There’s been a lot of media coverage of Garrison Keillor’s comments on retirement this week, so it seemed like a good time to share my Keillor story. I started listening to him in seventh grade or so. That was back when he still did a morning show during the week in addition to the Saturday broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion. I would set my alarm earlier so I’d get to listen...
Plus, it gets you free cable . . . in your head!
One expects a certain amount of puffery in ads, of course, but there’s a line between puffery and physically impossible bullshit, if I may use the technical term. Lately I became aware of a company called Phiten, and its claims about their product Aqua-Titaniumtm: In nature, titanium is not a soluble material. However, by utilizing the high-intensity Phild Process, Phiten scientists are able...
