Okay, I try not to do this as often as it might be required (there's a lot of scarcety out there). But this one's pretty close to the bone.

My very *very* lovely co-writer 's cat has swallowed sewing thread and needs surgery. Since Gil's a poor student, that surgery is like 1/6 of their yearly income. Gil's already selling off their books to pay for it and getting a second job.

If you enjoyed Collateral or The Trick Is (http://www.aleksandrvoinov.com/free-stuff.html), which are both free and co-written with Gil, and if you have a buck left over, please consider donating it to Kolya's surgery fund. You'd be helping an immensely talented author and a close personal friend of mine who went above and beyond the call of duty to help me through some rather unpleasant times back in 2007.

http://gileonnen.tumblr.com/post/6420493429/my-cat-kolya-has-unwisely-swallowed-my-sewing

Thank you very much.

The NY Times has an interesting article on Mahatma Gandhi, arguably one of the key figures of modern history. Specifically, it's about a biography about to be published - and that's already being banned in some parts of India.

According to the biographer, Gandhi was bisexual.

I need to get my hands on the book - not just because I'm more than happy to welcome Gandhi into our family (of sorts), but I'd be curious to simply learn more, and we seem to live in an age where biographies have stopped censoring anything that isn't cisgendered and straight, or marginalise this part of our lives.

There is a fantastic - well-written - piece of why Fukushima is a triumph of technology and safety:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/14/fukushiima_analysis/

Since I've worked in journalism, I mistrust mainstream journos. Basically, all the hysteria over the weekend about OMG WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! was probably caused by a bunch of 20-year old media graduate interns manning the newsdesks.

Read the analysis. I'm as libertarian a treehugger as they come and I've grown up with Chernobyl, but El Reg (as so often) speaks sense. Please spread the news. (Hence the entry in not flocked).

The auction is up here:

http://community.livejournal.com/graduate_maria/13979.html

and here:

http://community.livejournal.com/graduate_maria/13815.html

Thanks for bidding!

Here's somebody needing help:

http://community.livejournal.com/graduate_maria/

Sadly, I can't offer writing fiction - because my backlog is so bad at the moment I'm not sure when/how to do it all. But maybe you see something there that you want to bid on.

But I can offer signed/personalised paper copies of "Test of Faith" and "Soldiers I and II". There aren't many of those around. In fact, there are only about 15 signed copies of ToF around and two sets of "Soldiers". Please bid immediately, the auction runs out today at midnight, US time.

Why do I get involved? If not for some incredibly generous people, I could not have graduated. There were more points in my life when I depended on somebody else's financial generosity than I strictly want to remember.

Thank you!

Not a hoax - Bombay High Court has decided that Hindu Gods can't invest on the stock market:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/No-demat-accounts-for-Hindu-gods/articleshow/6182619.cms

(One commenter suggested that with the number of Hindu Gods, they can bring a class action suit against this)

(My thought is - hang on, Ganesha is the god of WEALTH. SURELY he knows how to invest. He's clever, too. )

Via Barbara:



Tehehe. I like!

It's been mentioned that some authors have issues with fanfic because somebody uses their characters that they own (paraphrased from different place).

I've thought about it, and I'm not convinced. If somebody writes fanfic about my original stuff (it has happened a few times), I got this feeling, very much, that it's not "my characters", but *their take* on my characters.

None of my characters gets raped, to borrow Mrs Gabaldon wholly ridiculous and disrespectful simile, they just get photographed or painted by some artist who's not me.

The characters themselves, their Platonic IDEA/Essence is still there, nothing has been damaged, nothing has been sullied, because the characters in their true form is in my brain, and nobody can reach inside and influence my view of them. If I go with what a Wiccan/Shaman once told me, I invested my energy in them, they are my energy forms, I do stuff with them, they are alive, and, to a certain extend, can even be a little independent. To talk in magic terms, I've even used my characters to... some interesting ends, and to do stuff for me. (usually protection duty... I've come up with a lot of mafia bodyguards and hitmen, so my astral space is likely a quite interesting place full of well-dressed, well-armed gentlemen, but I disgress).

In any case, no doubt they are mine. They are invested with my energy.

What I write about, though, is only part of them. It's the part of them I need for the story, but there's always more to them. So, what I share is not the original (which lives in my brain/mind/astral space), but a well-made, artistically crafted "master copy".

I'm not sure it makes sense, but it's the reason I don't feel threatened by fanfic. It doesn't diminish my characters in the least. Fanficcers work with the master copy and create their own copies, but those aren't mine, they are theirs. They can even become originals, if they invest the energy necessary (and I wager some people do).

I'm not sure this makes sense to anybody but me. Vadim's mine forever, but everybody can make their copies of him and make them straight, or give them tentacles, or cross him over with their characters or Donald Duck, or transport him into the 1820ies. Do it.


EDIT: This entry is now public so it can be linked.

Flist getting too big, I'm taking a few accounts off. Nobody affected who has been in touch recently, so no worries. If I took you off in error, drop me an email and I'll re-add you.

Anybody who's ever talked to e-pirates knows the discussion. How much are e-books worth? How much are people willing to pay? Should we, as authors/publishers/"content providers" only charge $0.49 per book? Should we "race to the bottom" and be as cheap as we can?

How much is a story "worth" on the "open market"?

I wanted to find out, so I launched an experiment with "Spoils of War" (co-written with raevgray), which I put up on smashwords. And I let readers and buyers decide the price in what is known as the "honor model". 30% of the text is clearly visible as a sample, and if people want the whole text, they can decide the price - that includes "zero". Null. Nada. Nichts. Nothing.

The story went online on Sunday morning (Superbowl Sunday), and here's my report and how much money I made giving my story away for... as much as you want to pay for it. No controls, no penalties--just one very curious author with a few ideas about what his (and his co-writer's) work is worth.

Find the whole story here:

Part 1:
http://aleksandrvoinov.blogspot.com/2010/02/full-disclosure-spoils-of-war-24hr.html

Part 2:
http://aleksandrvoinov.blogspot.com/2010/02/full-disclosure-spoils-of-war-24hr_08.html
(Follow-up after 48 stories):

http://aleksandrvoinov.blogspot.com/2010/02/sales-experiment-48-days-later.html

All thoughts welcome.