Filed under: Art, Arthur C. Clarke, Astronomy, Carl Sagan, ISS, Kindle, Marketing, movies, Music, NASA, Promotion, Publishing, Science, Science Fiction, Space, tech, Writing stuff, YouTube | Tags: 2001, art, aurora, direct publishing, free, jim downey, Kindle, music, NASA, predictions, science, Science Fiction, space, technology, video, writing, www youtube
From Chapter 3:
Wright Station was one of the older stations, and its age showed in its design. The basic large wheel structure, necessary when centrifugal force simulated gravity, was still evident, though significantly altered. The station hung there as they approached, motionless. The aero slowly coasted toward a large box well outside the sweep of the wheel, connected to the wheel by an extension of one of the major spokes. This was the dock, and it was outside the AG field.
Sound familiar?
Though I do think that were someone to film Communion of Dreams, this scene would more closely reflect this reality, taken from the ISS:
Still, it is fascinating that we have already so deeply connected music with space imagery. And that what is seen as a pale blue dot in the distance is, up close, a living world with a thin sheath of atmosphere – a wisp, glowing green.
Tomorrow is a promotional day: the Kindle edition of Communion of Dreams will be free for any and all to download. Share the news.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Amazon, Book Conservation, Depression, Health, Kindle, Marketing, Music, New Zealand, Promotion, Publishing, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, depression, direct publishing, jim downey, Kindle, money, music, taxes, travel, writing
This is . . . difficult.
Difficult because it is hard to see myself this way. Difficult because it is largely taboo in our culture. Difficult because I’m still struggling with it. Difficult because reality sometimes comes as a shock.
Last year was a hard year for me, as I said earlier:
Because 2011, while it had some good things about it, was mostly just painful. Literally. In many regards, I’d just as soon forget the bulk of it.
But I hadn’t quite realized just how hard it was until confronted with some numbers yesterday. Those numbers were on our tax returns, collected from the accountant.
Yeah, like I said, taboo. You’re not supposed to talk about income in our culture, at least within certain limits. I won’t stray too far over the line, but I will say that there was a reason that I was feeling frustrated and angry last year about the response to my writing efforts. That reason amounted to having an income so low that after deductions, we owed *no* taxes to either the state or federal government in the final analysis. Well, we had to pay the ‘self-employment’ tax, but that’s it.
Do you know how little you have to make in order to not pay any income tax? Well, trust me, if you don’t, you don’t want to, at least not by direct experience.
It was due to a combination of things. The recession had squeezed my book conservation business all along, limiting the money people had for something so discretionary, but last year was the worst. And the pain from my intercostal tear was very limiting until very recently. And I sunk way too much time and energy into getting Her Final Year ready for publication and then trying to promote it. Yes, I accept my own culpability for this, and I am not trying to blame or shame anyone else.
Which is why it is difficult to talk about. But facing the hard, cold reality helps me to understand some things. About my self. About my motivations and behavior over the last year or so.
Obviously, I got through the last year OK, thanks to a variety of resources I had. Hell, I was able to travel to New Zealand (a commitment made when things were more flush). And I’m happy to say that so far this year things are looking up. My book conservation work has picked up. My intercostal tear is *slowly* getting better.
And I’m actually selling books. Not too many of Her Final Year yet, but a decent start with Communion of Dreams.
Thanks to all who have helped to change the dynamic. Seriously, just knowing that people find the books worthwhile – that they are willing to tell others about them, write reviews, et cetera, makes a huge difference. I very much appreciate it.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Marketing, movies, Music, Ridley Scott, Science Fiction, Society, tech, Violence, YouTube
So, anyone and everyone (well, in the “Love movies/science fiction/spectacles” crowd) spent much of the last couple of days talking about the new Prometheus trailer. This one:
At the time I write this, some 3,894,928 people have viewed said trailer on YouTube. And little wonder that it has so many people talking – it’s just about perfect for a blockbuster Hollywood spectacle, with massive explosions, plenty of violence and special effects, and a soundtrack that’ll make your ears bleed.
I’m a big fan of Alien, and Ridley Scott in general. And the above Prometheus trailer is pretty damned exciting.
But you know, I’d rather see this movie:
Yeah, that’s also a trailer for Prometheus. But it’s the UK trailer. It’s slower paced. More emphasis on telling a story. Literally quieter. The first explosion doesn’t show up until about 3/4 into the trailer.
Interesting difference in marketing. Using the same tech, many of the same clips/images from the movie (well, as much as you can depend on any trailer to use actual clips from the movie), even mostly the same music, the UK trailer manages to create a substantially different mood.
Like I said, I know which movie I’d rather see. And I know which crew I would rather see turn Communion of Dreams into a movie.
Well, I can dream, can’t I?
Jim Downey
Via Topless Robot.
Filed under: Artificial Intelligence, Civil Rights, Constitution, Government, Music, Predictions, Privacy, Science Fiction, Society, tech, Wired, Writing stuff
Hmm. Quoting a lot of music lately. Wonder why that is.
It’s not explicit in the book, but there is an implication that the Experts of the government have access to pretty much *all* private conversations and communications in 2052. Having true Artificial Intelligences makes it fairly easy to break most routine security, and that’s why you have things like ‘privacy screens’ and military-grade isolation fields – it’s an attempt to maintain some level of privacy. There are also some explicit passages like this one from the beginning of Chapter Nine:
“After he experienced several instances of unusual dream activity, Jon asked my thin-film counterpart back on Earth to collect data on the subject. Reports in discussion groups, news sources, and public postings on any significant change in the
frequency of dreams or their content. My dup went back through the last year’s datafiles to establish a baseline for the study, then I compared that to activity for the last few weeks. There is a significant deviation from the norm.”
Think about that – Seth, Jon’s ‘Expert’, can casually go back through all the material of the previous year looking for a specific pattern to conversations. That is an immense amount of data, and a similarly immense amount of computing power.
And that’s the world we live in today. If you have any illusions that you have some modicum of privacy from our government, read this:
The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)
* * *
In the process—and for the first time since Watergate and the other scandals of the Nixon administration—the NSA has turned its surveillance apparatus on the US and its citizens. It has established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls, whether they originate within the country or overseas. It has created a supercomputer of almost unimaginable speed to look for patterns and unscramble codes. Finally, the agency has begun building a place to store all the trillions of words and thoughts and whispers captured in its electronic net. And, of course, it’s all being done in secret. To those on the inside, the old adage that NSA stands for Never Say Anything applies more than ever.
* * *
Breaking into those complex mathematical shells like the AES is one of the key reasons for the construction going on in Bluffdale. That kind of cryptanalysis requires two major ingredients: super-fast computers to conduct brute-force attacks on encrypted messages and a massive number of those messages for the computers to analyze. The more messages from a given target, the more likely it is for the computers to detect telltale patterns, and Bluffdale will be able to hold a great many messages. “We questioned it one time,” says another source, a senior intelligence manager who was also involved with the planning. “Why were we building this NSA facility? And, boy, they rolled out all the old guys—the crypto guys.” According to the official, these experts told then-director of national intelligence Dennis Blair, “You’ve got to build this thing because we just don’t have the capability of doing the code-breaking.” It was a candid admission. In the long war between the code breakers and the code makers—the tens of thousands of cryptographers in the worldwide computer security industry—the code breakers were admitting defeat.
* * *
In addition to giving the NSA access to a tremendous amount of Americans’ personal data, such an advance would also open a window on a trove of foreign secrets. While today most sensitive communications use the strongest encryption, much of the older data stored by the NSA, including a great deal of what will be transferred to Bluffdale once the center is complete, is encrypted with more vulnerable ciphers. “Remember,” says the former intelligence official, “a lot of foreign government stuff we’ve never been able to break is 128 or less. Break all that and you’ll find out a lot more of what you didn’t know—stuff we’ve already stored—so there’s an enormous amount of information still in there.”
The article is long, but informative. And frightening. That is, if you have any illusions that you have some modicum of privacy. As they also say in the article: “Binney held his thumb and forefinger close together. ‘We are, like, that far from a turnkey totalitarian state,’ he says.”
But are we even that far?
Again, I almost regret that “I . . . see . . . things.”
Jim Downey
*Don’t say words you’re gonna regret
Don’t let the fire rush to your head
I’ve heard the accusation before
And I ain’t gonna take any more
Believe me
The sun in your Eyes
Made some of the lies worth believing
To paraphrase one of my favorite Babylon 5 characters: “I have seen what fame does, and I have seen what fame costs. The one is never equal to the other.”
Yeah, I’ve had just enough of a taste of that to agree. Not everyone is suited for instant and world-wide fame:
Kony 2012 campaigner Jason Russell detained for public rampage
One of the co-founders of Invisible Children, the San Diego-based charity that is campaigning for the arrest of Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, has been hospitalised after police said he was detained for running around the streets screaming in his underwear.
Jason Russell, 33, was picked up by police in San Diego at around 11.30am on Thursday after they received numerous calls from the public about a man vandalising cars, being apparently under the influence of a substance and making sexual gestures.
* * *
A brief statement by the group in the wake of Russell’s detention said that being at the centre of a massive media storm may have taken its toll. “Jason Russell was unfortunately hospitalised suffering from exhaustion, dehydration and malnutrition. He is now receiving medical care and is focused on getting better,” said Invisible Children’s chief executive Ben Keesey in the statement.
A lot of people think that fame is the key to success, and so seek it out in just about any way they can.
Careful what you ask for.
Jim Downey
*Fame, (fame) makes a man take things over
Fame, (fame) lets him loose, hard to swallow
Fame, (fame) puts you there where things are hollow
Fame (fame)
Filed under: Amazon, Kindle, Marketing, Music, Promotion, Psychic abilities, Publishing, Science Fiction
A couple of days ago I wrote about another author’s experience in having his self-published work enrolled in the KDP Select program, which offers authors a chance to promote their Kindle edition book as a free download. If you haven’t read the original post by David Kazzie, I still recommend it, and you can find it here: How Amazon’s KDP Select Saved My Book
His blog post includes this tidbit:
“Now I had heard that the big sales bump for Free-to-Paid came about three days after it came off of Free status, but I didn’t know how accurate that was.”
And he goes on to explore how it actually worked out for him, and how he saw the sales of his book skyrocket.
Yesterday the ‘third day after’ for my promotional push offering Communion of Dreams for free last weekend. And sales did not rise again.
I’m not complaining. I learned things from this promotion, and from reading about Kazzie’s experience. I’ll put those lessons to work in future efforts promoting Communion.
But I am struck by how completely the book fell completely out of everyone’s attention, judging by the sales rank. Currently the Kindle edition is at #39,945 and the paperback edition is at #1,110,942. At one point last weekend it was at #641 overall in the Kindle edition and like #10,000 in the paperback. That’s an impressive plummet back into obscurity.
Will it stay there? No idea. Like I said, I have some ideas on how to handle another promotion, but we’ll see how things actually work out. Certainly I have learned to not trust to hope too much – just enough to keep moving forward. Things will work out however they work out, all we can do is try.
Jim Downey
*Al Stewart’s Nostradamus, of course. Here’s the relevant stanza:
Oh, I had a dream
It seemed I stood alone
And the veil of all the years
Goes sinking from my eyes like a stone
Which ties in to Communion of Dreams in several ways. First, I was a big fan of Stewart when I was young (and have enjoyed his work into adulthood), and really liked his story-telling style. Second, this was very much a metaphor for the creative process in writing the book for me, since in some ways it felt like I was just standing outside of time and watching it unfold into the future. And third, the purported psychic abilities of Nostradamus have always been of interest to me, but just don’t pan out in rigorous scientific testing . . . so I had to find a way to explain that. Which is in the book. And that’s all I’ll say so I don’t spoil any surprises for someone who hasn’t yet finished reading the damned thing. Which, if you have, means you should have an opinion on whether you like it or not, so you should go rate it or write a review of it on Amazon. Right? Right.
Yes, I have a very twisted sense of humor:
Uploaded by “historyteachers“.
And they have a buttload of other vids which may be worth checking out as well.
Jim Downey
Filed under: movies, Music, N. Am. Welsh Choir, New Zealand, Tolkien, Travel, YouTube
Today is cloudy and a bit grim. No, I’m not talking about being in New Zealand. I’m talking about here, in mid-Missouri. The winter solstice is just a couple days away. And I think I have been putting off this last installment of our New Zealand adventure because I don’t really want it to be over. It was, after all, a far green country.
* * * * * * *
We had breakfast, then waited with other members of the group who were going on a bit of a private tour. No, nothing connected with the Choir. This was a LOTR tour.
Most of my friends and readers will understand exactly what that means. But just in case . . .
Lord Of The Rings was a three-movie adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s epic of the same name. Most people know that it was filmed in New Zealand by director Peter Jackson. And as a result, there is lots of LOTR-related tourism throughout the country. You can easily spend weeks in New Zealand, just doing that. There’s a great book on locations from the movies, if you’re interested.
We opted for occasional mentions from Helen, our Choir guide, combined with this 4 hour specific tour with Pure Glenorchy.
The vehicles rolled up. Four medium-sized SUVs. The drivers/guides were all pleasant, typical Kiwis. We had some laughs over the absurdity of our fandom for the movies/books. But hey, this was probably the only time we were going to make it to New Zealand, right? And where else would you get to:
Visit Lord of the Rings Locations and take a journey with us deep into Middle Earth. Explore Isengard, Wizards Vale, Lothlorien Forest, the Dead Marshes, The Misty Mountains, Ithilien and many more. Stories and secrets will be shared by guides who have a great insight into the filming.
* * * * * * *
We rolled down the highway, heading towards the hamlet of Glenorchy. This is a place about 45km from Queenstown, and is so small it has no police force, two pubs, and a “library” the size of a garden shed which is open two hours a week. When the weather is nice. No, I am not kidding. The Queenstown folk consider it something of a hippie retirement community.
It is also quite beautiful. Here’s a shot looking towards Glenorchy from the highway leading in:
* * * * * * *
As it happened, the driver of our SUV was Mark, the owner of the tour company. Young (late 20s/early 30s), outgoing, and well informed. He knew the locations and a lot of the history of the films quite well, and had fun telling us about related stories. How many people took time off from their regular jobs to go play extras in the films, since the pay was good, they were well fed, and got to be outdoors. How the caterers learned to feed the extras playing Orcs separately from the rest of the crew, since said extras tended to run roughshod over the food like the characters they portrayed. How the local rancher who owned a lot of the property where the filming was done managed to make a tidy profit off licensing his land for use, and so build quite the little odd mansion in the middle of nowhere. And so on.
We stopped first here:
From the best I can tell, we’re standing just about where the tower of Orthanc was in the movies.
And here’s a shot of the current filming for The Hobbit:
Yeah, you can’t really see much. Sorry. But you didn’t see it here first.
* * * * * * *
We next went into the Mount Aspiring National Park, a primeval red beech forest. The location is protected such that it is illegal to take anything out of the park, or to leave anything in it, for environmental reasons.
Which presented some real challenges for the film crews which filmed the scenes with the attack of the Uruk-hai and the death of Boromir, according to our guides. But we saw where Boromir died, then had a pleasant lunch.
Following that, it was back to Queenstown.
* * * * * * *
After dropping off things at the hotel room, Martha and I decided to go up the gondola and enjoy the sights. Here are some pictures:
* * * * * * *
After tromping around Queenstown just a bit following our trip up the gondola, we got back to the hotel in time to meet the rest of the group for our last adventure: taking the TSS Earnslaw across Lake Wakatipu to the Walter Peak High Country Farm.
The steam ship is about to celebrate its centenary, and is a delight to explore for anyone who appreciates old machinery. The trip across the lake was about just long enough to enjoy a pint of beer.
Dinner at the Walter Peak High Country Farm was quite enjoyable, and the view of Queenstown across the lake at sunset gorgeous. The display of “working” dogs and sheep sheering was of little interest to me. I’ve seen both done before, and better, and not at the end of a long trip when I was both tired but not really wanting to leave yet. I decided to forgo another beer on the return trip across the lake.
* * * * * * *
When we got back, there was a final gathering in the hotel dining room for all of us on the tour. A bittersweet farewell not just because the tour was coming to a close, but also because the Choir was going into a period of dormancy. It had a good 10-year run, but now many of the key participants wanted a break. There’s nothing wrong with honest sadness at the close of any adventure, and not all tears are an evil.
* * * * * * *
The trip home was uneventful, less unpleasant than it could have been, even though it was incredibly long. I think that Monday for us was some 42 or 43 hours altogether, until we finally made it in the door and back to life as we know it.
Jim Downey
* From this, of course. Which kept running through my head the whole time we were in that beautiful valley where Isengard was located:
The cold made the clouds that much more threatening. And sure enough, we had snow as we headed into the Southern Alps.
* * * * * * *
Dunedin is on the Eastern shore of the South Island. We headed almost due west towards Queenstown, which is on Lake Wakatipu, just a little ways inland from the West Coast, on the lee side of the bulk of the mountains. Getting there means winding on a lot of mountain roads, all of it through beautiful country. I was glad I wasn’t driving and could just enjoy the scenery (and not worry about road conditions).
We stopped at the small town of Arrowtown, an old gold-mining community not that far outside of Queenstown. It’s now mostly a tourist/vacation destination, and they’ve done a lot to maintain the historic feeling of the place. Many of the buildings date back to the early days of the town (mid-late 1800s), and there’s a ton of great little shops and restaurants/bars there.
* * * * * * *
I had been waiting to get to Arrowtown for one primary reason: Pounamu, the New Zealand nephrite jade which is also colloquially called ‘greenstone’. I mentioned that I had been on the lookout for some of this stone while in Dunedin. But Helen (our tour-guide) had said that Arrowtown was one of the best places to get the stone, and jewelry/art created from it.
I wanted a couple of pieces of jewelry as gifts. But I also wanted a rougher piece for my own, to fashion into a tool.
Pounamu was highly prized by the Maori for use in making tools and weapons. For generations it was fashioned into chisels, axes, and adzes. While I very much appreciated the beauty of the many pieces of art I had seen created using Pounamu, for me the most memorable souvenir of the trip would be a bookbinding tool called a ‘folder’ made of greenstone. I didn’t expect to find one ready-made, but rather to find a piece of the stone which I could shape to my own use.
And I did. It’s about 5″ long, roughly an inch tall and an inch wide, slightly tapered towards the ends. One side is already highly polished, the others relatively smooth. I’ve already used it as is, and need to spend some more time with it before I decide whether it needs more shaping or not.
Another good thing – while a small piece of greenstone fashioned into jewelry can be quite expensive, this large and relatively unworked piece was about $25. The perfect memento of the trip, as far as I’m concerned.
* * * * * * *
After doing our shopping, Martha and I settled into a nice little cafe and had a late lunch. The weather had mostly cleared off, and it was a pleasant time just sitting there and relaxing before rejoining the rest of the tour group.
* * * * * * *
We made one last stop on the way into Queenstown, at the Kawarau River bridge. It’s a gorgeous place, and also the first commercial bungee-jumping operation. No, I did not jump. Over 50 + over-weight + high blood pressure = bad idea to seek out high-G forces for fun. I’ve gone sky diving and done other crazy things when I was younger, and am happy to enjoy those memories as memories.
* * * * * * *
Queenstown is a lovely place. The city is well known as New Zealand’s center for adventure tourism. Its location on the edge of the Southern Alps means that it is well positioned for skiing, jet-boats, white-water rafting, and so forth, not to mention such mundane activities as hunting and fishing. It very much has the feeling of being a university town, say like Boulder CO, though there isn’t a university there.
We rolled into town, got to our hotel, located right on the lakefront. Got settled, then did a bit of exploring in the downtown area (which is quite small – just a few blocks total.) The choir had a rehearsal.
* * * * * * *
ML and I went over to where the choir was rehearsing, to get set up to sell CDs. It was a small but very warm & friendly church by the name of St. Peter’s. It was clear from the outset that the local Welsh community had gotten the word out about the performance, and a number of the church members were there to help us get settled into place.
This was to be the “farewell” concert for the tour. We couldn’t have asked for a better venue or crowd. The space was small enough that it felt very intimate. And it was packed to the gills. All the pews were filled. Extra chairs were put in the aisles. People crowded in the back, standing. One of the church members had to actually put a sign on the door announcing that the church was over-filled, and no one else would be admitted.
Not only was the space full, but the crowd was very enthusiastic, both with their applause and with their participation. I swear, the Welsh must have an extra gene which compels them to sing at any opportunity. That church was bursting with sound and love.
And we sold a bunch of CDs.
* * * * * * *
Following the concert, the choir was hosted to an informal reception in the church meeting hall. Refreshments and good company were served and savored.
I was exhausted as we walked the couple of blocks back to the hotel. Nonetheless, we stopped for a bit and enjoyed the fireworks being set off on the lakefront. It was Guy Fawkes Night.
Tomorrow would be our last full day in New Zealand.
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 