Filed under: Connections, movies, Science Fiction, Space, Writing stuff, YouTube | Tags: 2001: A Space Odyssey, blogging, Communion of Dreams, jim downey, literature, mathematics, Menger Sponge, movies, Science Fiction, space, technology, video, writing, www youtube
I’m no mathematician, and I won’t claim that the imagery used of the ‘artifact’ in Communion of Dreams was intended to reference this, but if you think about it (and have read the entire book), this kind of explanation would work with higher orders of dimensional reality:
Mathematical Impressions: The Surprising Menger Sponge Slice
Jim Downey
*Of course. Which also fits with CoD, since it was an explicit homage to the first movie/book.
Filed under: Amazon, Art, Connections, Jeff Bezos, Kindle, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, tech, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, anniversary, art, blogging, bookbinding, Boxing Day, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, free, Jeff Bezos, jim downey, Kindle, literature, Merry Christmas, promotion, reviews, Science Fiction, self-publishing, technology, writing
Happy Boxing Day! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, filled with love & friendship.
Yesterday was also a “Promotional Day” for the Kindle editions of Communion of Dreams and Her Final Year, and both books saw a decent amount of traffic for a holiday. More on HFY later — right now I want to chat a bit about Communion.
As it happens, yesterday was also the 11 month ‘anniversary’ for the paperback edition of Communion of Dreams — the Kindle edition came out a few days earlier, but January 25th is what I consider to be the ‘launch date’ for the book.
And in 11 months, there have been a grand total of 23,216 downloads of the Kindle edition of the book, sales of 25 paperback copies through Amazon, and something about twice that of paperback sales through me directly (including the Kickstarter copies). Of the total downloads, a bit less than 7% were sales/loans, totaling 1,507. Meaning that I gave away some 21,709 copies of the book.
Selling 1,500 copies of a first novel really isn’t too bad, to be honest, and that would have been about what was expected through a conventional publisher in the past for an unknown writer. And to be quite honest, I’ve earned more from doing this than I would have through a conventional publisher — the ill-fated Publisher Who Shall Not Be Named offered me an advance which was about one-third of what I have made on the book so far. It’s not a lot of money, but it is nice to be rewarded for all our hard work — thanks, one and all.
And “moving” 23,000 copies of the book all-told? That’s downright respectable. In the previous 5 years when I had the earlier .pdf version of the book available on my website, there were a total of about 35,000 downloads. That right there shows you to power of Amazon’s system and Jeff Bezos’ vision.
I will again offer free a “Promotional Day” next month — probably in conjunction with the first anniversary. But don’t let that dissuade you from going ahead and buying a copy of the Kindle edition, the paperback, or even the hand-bound hard-cover — remember, you’re helping to support good independent writing and art!
Again, happy holidays, everyone!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Book Conservation, Connections, Feedback, NYT, Predictions, Preparedness, Science Fiction, tech, Writing stuff | Tags: 1470, blogging, book conservation, bookbinding, Communion of Dreams, jim downey, Science Fiction, Silas House, technology, writing
There is truth in this:
The No. 1 question I get at readings is: “How many hours a day do you write?” I used to stumble on this question. I don’t write every day, but when I first started going on book tours I was afraid I’d be revealed as a true fraud if I admitted that. Sometimes I write for 20 minutes. Other times I don’t stop writing for six hours, falling over at the end like an emotional, wrung-out mess, simultaneously exhausted and exhilarated. Sometimes I go months without putting a word on the page.
One night, however, I was asked that question and the right answer just popped out, unknown to me before it found solidity on the air: “I write every waking minute,” I said. I meant, of course, that I am always writing in my head.
I’m lucky.
OK, actually I’m very lucky, because I am lucky in many ways. But what I am thinking of right now is that my chosen profession allows me time to think — to write in my head, as it were.
To write in my head as I preserve the words of others. The written words. Specifically, the *printed* words.
Like this:
Joined sheets.
That’s the next step from my last report on the 1470 text. I got all the individual sheets attached, creating “sections” of the book. Or, I should say, re-creating the sections which once were.
Sections “punched” to create sewing stations – where the sewing thread will join them one to the other. And the start of that sewing process.
Then moving on, linking not just words, not just pages, but whole passages, whole section, one to the other:
Linking, one to the next.
What you see there is called a “chain stitch”. A curious term, implying not just links, but connections, even slavery.
Can words be enslaved?
Clean edges. Clean definitions.
And this shows — proves — that my technique works. All the sections line up properly. Almost perfectly.
And so the pages are transformed, from individual pages, into a book.
Like writing.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Art, NPR, Science, Science Fiction, Writing stuff, YouTube | Tags: anamorphosis, art, blogging, Brusspup, jim downey, NPR, perspective, Robert Krulwich, science, Science Fiction, video, writing, www youtube
This is not unlike the tricks that a good story-teller uses, though manifest in a brilliant visual form:
From NPR’s Robert Krulwich, who has this to say:
These illusions were created by an artist who calls himself Brusspup.What he does is an exercise in anamorphosis, a conjuring trick that takes advantage of how our brains make sense of the world. If you know how, you can create an image which makes no sense until the viewer happens onto a particular — and it’s a very particular — spot. Once the viewer finds the right angle — the only place where he or she can see what the artist intended — suddenly, boom!- the drawing leaps into three dimensions.
Getting a reader to that precise point of view in a novel is the hard part. Willing suspension of disbelief is a kindness all readers give any author.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Writing stuff | Tags: blogging, Communion of Dreams, jim downey, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, writing
Interesting. I noticed this morning that a shift has occurred in my thinking about St. Cybi’s Well over the last day or two. Oh, I’m still thinking about plotting and scenes, but now I find myself increasing working through bits of dialogue. *How* one character or another would phrase something, how the pattern of sounds with another would play out.
Meaning that I’m reaching some kind of saturation point, the moment when things, er, “gel”.*
And meaning, based on my previous experience, that I’m about to shift from spending the majority of my energy from making notes/plans/plots to actually constructing sentences and paragraphs, perhaps even chapters.
Interesting.
Jim Downey
(*Those who have read Communion of Dreams will get the joke. If you haven’t — why the hell not?)
Filed under: Civil Rights, Connections, General Musings, Government, Predictions, Privacy, RFID, Science, Science Fiction, Society, tech, Travel, Writing stuff | Tags: blogging, cell phone, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, jim downey, predictions, privacy, science, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, technology, tracking, travel
So, as I am constantly blathering about, I’m spending a lot of time thinking through various aspects of St. Cybi’s Well. Things like characters, plotting, fitting in the storyline with what is already established in Communion of Dreams (while still making sure that the book can stand on its own, without someone having read Communion). Well, one of those things concerns an instance where someone wants to not be readily located. Which is a little harder in today’s world than most people realize, given two things: general surveillance, and the homing-device you’re probably carrying in your pocket.
Yeah, I’m talking about your cell phone/mobile device/tablet. Anything which can connect to a cell network or GPS is probably also capable of being used to track you. And chances are, it will do so even if it is ostensibly “turned off.” About the only good way to be certain to stop this use is to pull the battery out of the thing.
And that’s a PITA, if you want to be able to actually use it without a delay and hassle of installing the battery then booting the thing up.
So the other day I sent a note to a good buddy of mine who has a lot more physics/technical knowledge than I do:
Second, a thought I had: since privacy is a concern, and your cell phone is a tracking device even when ‘off’ (but it’s a hassle to have to pull out the battery and then reboot the damned thing if you need it), why not go with a simple solution to isolate it? To wit: turn the phone off (or put it into ‘airplane mode’), drop it into a small Faraday cage. Just a simple bag or wallet with the right construction would do it. I know there are such things for use with passports/credit cards (I use a wallet for such when traveling overseas), so why not just extend the design a bit to accommodate a phone/tablet?
I got back a response which indicated that it should work, though you may need to tweak the construction specifics to be sure to block out the proper wavelengths most effectively.
And today, just for grins, I went to look for something like this. Guess what I found, which is just now available (actually, it won’t ship for a couple weeks):
Go Completely Off the GridThis cleverly designed, superslim pouch for your wallet and phone blocks transmissions, as well as cell-tower and GPS tracking, and protects personal information from RFID readers. Ripstop nylon. Imported.
Bingo. Like an invisibility cloak for your phone.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Art, Artificial Intelligence, Connections, Expert systems, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, tech, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, art, blogging, bookbinding, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, jim downey, Kindle, literature, predictions, promotion, reviews, Science Fiction, Scrivener, St. Cybi's Well, technology, writing
Just a few quick notes to share…
First is a new review up on Amazon. Here’s an excerpt:
The author deftly crafts a tale of a group of humans who endeavor to understand more about this artifact and in the process make some profound discoveries. The characters, both real and virtual, are well crafted and the story is well written with very few (I think I noted one) flaw in the text.
It is a mind-boggling tale with some tie-backs to present time.
As always, I’d ask anyone who has read Communion of Dreams to please consider doing a review, or at least rating/liking the book on Amazon, Good Reads, or elsewhere — honest reviews really do help.
A quick follow-up to Friday’s post: in case you didn’t see the additional note, the printer realized that they’d made an error with the job, and are going to do a complete reprint. It means a bit of a delay, but nothing serious — and I really respect that they’re going to make things right. So many businesses might try to weasel their way out of that responsibility.
I’ve decided that I like the Scrivener software, so am going to be using it for the bulk of the initial writing of St. Cybi’s Well. I’ll probably post further thoughts on it as I get deeper into the actual writing, but I really like that I can use it for collecting research as well as jotting notes/scenes in a way which is fairly intuitive and seamless to use. Not exactly like having my own Seth around to help me, but …
Have a good Monday!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Art, Book Conservation, Comics, Connections, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff | Tags: art, blogging, bookbinding, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, jim downey, promotion, Science Fiction, writing
Wow — this hits close to home: Making Things.
We should pick up the printed sheets for the special edition of Communion of Dreams tomorrow. I’ll post pix!
Now, back to work for me.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Augmented Reality, Bipolar, Brave New World, Connections, Feedback, Predictions, Psychic abilities, Science, Science Fiction, Society, tech, Wired, Writing stuff | Tags: bipolar, blogging, jim downey, Kevin Dutton, literature, predictions, science, Science Fiction, Scrivener, St. Cybi's Well, technology, writing
As I’ve noted before, writing a long work of fiction is a strange thing, at least for me. I spend a lot of time intensely chewing over ideas, doing research, starting to conceptualize a narrative theory for the book, outlining various relationships between images and characters, sorting out what it is I really want to say more than the actual words to use.
Betwixt & between all of this, some honest to goodness writing gets done, then reorganized and shuffled, with plans and outlines changing. More research, more thinking, more feeling my way through the darkness with the only illumination occasional flashes of lightning.
This morning, after a lot of consideration, I downloaded Scrivener. Over the next week or so I’ll play around with it a bit, see whether it will be a useful tool.
And over lunch, some research & reading. It might be interesting, or even telling, what it was that I found. Here’s an excerpt:
The effects aren’t entirely dissimilar. An easy, airy confidence. A transcendental loosening of inhibition. The inchoate stirrings of a subjective moral swagger: the encroaching, and somehow strangely spiritual, realization that hell, who gives a s—, anyway?
There is, however, one notable exception. One glaring, unmistakable difference between this and the effects of alcohol. That’s the lack of attendant sluggishness. The enhancement of attentional acuity and sharpness. An insuperable feeling of heightened, polished awareness. Sure, my conscience certainly feels like it’s on ice, and my anxieties drowned with a half-dozen shots of transcranial magnetic Jack Daniel’s. But, at the same time, my whole way of being feels as if it’s been sumptuously spring-cleaned with light. My soul, or whatever you want to call it, immersed in a spiritual dishwasher.
So this, I think to myself, is how it feels to be a psychopath. To cruise through life knowing that no matter what you say or do, guilt, remorse, shame, pity, fear—all those familiar, everyday warning signals that might normally light up on your psychological dashboard—no longer trouble you.
Interesting, indeed.
And not unlike the high which comes with creating. Or entering a manic phase in my mild bipolar cycle.
Yes, interesting. Quite.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Connections, Pandemic, Predictions, Psychic abilities, Science, Science Fiction, tech, Writing stuff | Tags: Communion of Dreams, jim downey, predictions, science, Science Fiction, technology
From page one of Communion of Dreams:
>click<
>click<
With a slight sigh, he lightly pressed the small wafer under the skin between his left ear and jaw. He spoke out loud, though his voice was just above a whisper. “What do you want, Seth?”
And then closing that scene on page two:
>click<
He paused there at the railing, right hand manipulating the thin-film controls under the skin on the back of his left hand. Looking out over the herd of slowly moving animals, a see-through display came up before him. Nothing new on the nets. So, whatever the emergency was, it wasn’t public knowledge yet. He turned, opened the door to the station, and stepped inside.
Remember, Communion of Dreams is set in 2052 (albeit after major societal disruptions would have messed with the pace of technological development). Looks like we might get to this point a lot sooner. From a Science News article titled “Beginnings of Bionic: Flexible, stretchable electronics could launch cyborg era“:
McAlpine belongs to a growing pack of tech-savvy scientists figuring out how to merge the rigid, brittle materials of conventional electronics with the soft, curving surfaces of human tissues. Their goal: To create products that have the high performance of silicon wafers — the crystalline material used in computer chips — while still moving with the body.
* * *
In the last two years, another team, led by Zhenan Bao of Stanford University, has been working toward making stretchy, artificial skins from rubber and carbon nanotubes. The skins will feel like the real thing to the touch — and they will have a sense of touch too, electronically detecting changes in strain and pressure from a stretch or a pinch.
* * *
“We went from a computer that fit in a room, to a computer that goes on your desk, to a computer that can go in your pocket,” McAlpine says. Joining computers to the body, he says, is “the next logical step.”
Indeed, I’m reasonably sure such technology will become widespread. All the trends are already in place indicating so.
Unless some … thing … happens to either prevent or reverse such a trend. Those who have read Communion of Dreams will know what I’m alluding to, and I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t yet read the book. Heh.
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 