Filed under: Arthur C. Clarke, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Brave New World, Expert systems, Humor, Marketing, movies, Paleo-Future, Predictions, Science Fiction, Society, tech, TIME Magazine | Tags: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke, artificial intelligence, blogging, Communion of Dreams, HAL, HAL9000, humor, jim downey, movies, predictions, Science Fiction, Seth, St. Cybi's Well, technology
One with an ‘expert’ like Seth from Communion of Dreams?
Or maybe, a little closer to our own time, say one which includes something like HAL from 2001?
Ha! Sucker. You should know that reality would prove to be more … banal. And corporate. Like this:
The phone call came from a charming woman with a bright, engaging voice to the cell phone of a TIME Washington Bureau Chief Michael Scherer. She wanted to offer a deal on health insurance, but something was fishy.
When Scherer asked point blank if she was a real person, or a computer-operated robot voice, she replied enthusiastically that she was real, with a charming laugh. But then she failed several other tests. When asked “What vegetable is found in tomato soup?” she said she did not understand the question. When asked multiple times what day of the week it was yesterday, she complained repeatedly of a bad connection.
Over the course of the next hour, several TIME reporters called her back, working to uncover the mystery of her bona fides. Her name, she said, was Samantha West, and she was definitely a robot, given the pitch perfect repetition of her answers. Her goal was to ask a series of questions about health coverage—”Are you on Medicare?” etc.—and then transfer the potential customer to a real person, who could close the sale.
Hmm, I think I can still work “Samantha” into St. Cybi’s Well …
Jim Downey
Filed under: Augmented Reality, Brave New World, Civil Rights, Comics, Connections, Constitution, Government, Humor, Politics, Predictions, Preparedness, Privacy, Science Fiction, Society, tech, Terrorism, Writing stuff | Tags: augmented reality, blogging, comics, Constitution, Edward Snowden, government, humor, jim downey, Non Sequitur, NSA, politics, predictions, privacy, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, technology, Washington Post, writing
As I’ve noted before, it’s hard to keep up with the steady trickle of revelations about what the NSA has been up to, and how the reality of what has actually been going on keeps surpassing the dystopian aspects I have been writing about in St. Cybi’s Well. For example, here’s this passage from the beginning of the book:
He turned the hand-held on, did a quick check to make sure it had the software and apps he’d asked for. Everything was there. He’d pick up a burner phone later, and swap the SIMM card into the hand-held. He turned off the hand-held, dropped it into a special pocket inside his vest – one which was RF-blocked. He had another such compartment in his satchel. These, like the wallet/holster, were prohibited items and grounds for arrest in the States, but while they would raise an eyebrow in the UK they weren’t technically illegal.
With this item from yesterday’s Washington Post revelations that the NSA and related agencies are basically tracking every cell phone on the planet:
The NSA’s capabilities to track location are staggering, based on the Snowden documents, and indicate that the agency is able to render most efforts at communications security effectively futile.
Like encryption and anonymity tools online, which are used by dissidents, journalists and terrorists alike, security-minded behavior — using disposable cellphones and switching them on only long enough to make brief calls — marks a user for special scrutiny. CO-TRAVELER takes note, for example, when a new telephone connects to a cell tower soon after another nearby device is used for the last time.
Now, see, I was thinking I’d use something exactly like that as the ‘rude surprise’ which would trip up my protagonist later in the novel, since he wouldn’t expect that the NSA would have that level of data-collection ability.
*Sigh.* So much for my trying to come up with a dystopian reality …
And this is timely:
Jim Downey
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Amazon, Connections, Failure, Feedback, General Musings, Health, Hospice, Kindle, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: Alzheimer's, Amazon, blogging, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, feedback, free, health, Her Final Year, hospice, jim downey, John Bourke, Kindle, literature, predictions, promotion, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, writing
So, without a lot of fanfare I went ahead and scheduled a two-day promotion for the Kindle edition of Communion of Dreams the other day, as mentioned. After I posted something about it on Facebook, John Bourke, my primary co-author on Her Final Year asked whether we might as well do a similar promotion for the Kindle edition of that book. D’oh! An oversight on my part.
But, I think, an understandable one. Right now I’m focused on writing St. Cybi’s Well, the prequel to Communion of Dreams. So there’s that.
And there’s something else. This passage from a post last February sums it up for me:
I am frequently struck just how much of our life doesn’t make sense until seen from a distance. Just recently I was surprised at the revelation of *why* the failure of Her Final Year to be more successful bothered me as much as it did: it was because I had seen the book as being a way to create something positive (for the world) out of the experience of being a long-term care provider. To have the book only reach a limited audience was, in my mind, saying that our roles as care-givers didn’t matter.
Yeah, that. In a word: disappointment.
And when things disappoint, it is only natural to disengage somewhat from them, to not sink a lot of additional emotional energy into it. At some point you just say “well, OK, that’s done — time to move on.”
Except moving on isn’t always the best course, or even possible. John reminded me of that. So I went ahead and scheduled the promotion for Her Final Year to run the same time as the one for Communion of Dreams did.
And guess what? Her Final Year, for the very first time, did better in terms of the number of downloads than Communion of Dreams did. Not by a lot — just a dozen books — but still, it did better. Whereas in the past when we did promotions for the two books at the same time, CoD almost always did better, by upwards of a factor of 10. And for the first time, one of my books was downloaded through the Amazon Australia portal. Guess which one it was. Right: HFY. And I think that’s pretty cool.
Now, the numbers in either case aren’t huge. Just 271 copies of Communion of Dreams, and 283 copies of Her Final Year. But I find myself somewhat surprisingly pleased.
I hope you had a similarly good Thanksgiving holiday.
Jim Downey
PS: If you missed this promotion, don’t worry. For people who get new computers/readers/mobile devices, we’ll repeat in shortly after Christmas. And of course you can always just go to the links above and buy either book for only $3.01.
Filed under: Failure, Feedback, Predictions, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff | Tags: blogging, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, jim downey, Kickstarter, predictions, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, writing
I just put up the following update on my Kickstarter page:
13 months ago this Kickstarter project was successfully funded. You guys did your part in supporting it. I wish I could say that I’ve completed my end of the deal.
But I haven’t, in spite of my best intentions and hard work. This happened for all the usual reasons creative projects get delayed, some of which I have discussed on my blog — you can find them under the tag St. Cybi’s Well if you are interested.
Now, I am actually making great progress working on the book. The structure and format is all laid out, and presently I am working through writing the text systematically. I’m excited about it, to the point of being a bit obsessed, and when I’m not having panic attacks about being a complete hack of a writer (I’ve yet to meet a writer who doesn’t occasionally have such attacks) I get the sense that this may be the best thing I’ve written to date.
But progress isn’t completion. So this is my mea culpa, and an offer: if you backed this Kickstarter in good faith, and want a refund, just drop me a note to jim@communionofdreams.com and we’ll work things out. Now, I hope that you won’t. But I will understand if you do. We had a contract, and I have not fulfilled my obligations.
For those who don’t want a refund, here’s as realistic a progress report as I can offer: I think I’m about a third to halfway to completion of the book, and I hope to have it ready for editing in three or four months. One good aspect of how I am creating this book is that the manuscript should require much less reworking/redrafting when done. So, ideally, it should be ready for publishing sometime in the Spring of next year, with the various hand-bound editions and whatnot to follow.
Like I said, that’s my best estimate. But I also honestly thought when I launched this Kickstarter that I could have the book completed and rewards out by this point in time. The last year has taught me that sometimes you can’t force or predict creativity, no matter what your best intentions are.
One last thing: for those who decide to stick with the Kickstarter, I’ll find some way of enhancing your chosen reward. Not sure what that will be at this time, and I am open to suggestions.
Thanks, everyone!
Just thought I’d share that.
Jim Downey
PS: I just want to add that I’m not beating myself up over this missed deadline. Publishing has *always* had to take into account the fact that writing a book is a necessarily unpredictable process, and that it is foolish to try and be too hard-nosed about time schedules. But as I told another friend, in this case I felt that I had a direct relationship, a contract if you will, with the Kickstarter backers and that they deserved both an explanation and a option for making adjustments. So don’t worry.
Filed under: Civil Rights, Connections, Constitution, Government, NYT, Predictions, Science Fiction, Society, tech, Writing stuff | Tags: blogging, Constitution, Edward Snowden, government, jim downey, New York Times, NSA, predictions, privacy, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, technology, writing
I said this in passing back in August:
Anyone who has read my blog for a while knows that these topics are ones I have discussed at some length in the past, well before the latest news. Just check the “Constitution“, “Government” or “Privacy” categories or related tags, and you’ll see what I mean.
And the things I have had to say in the past reflect a lot of what informs the background of St. Cybi’s Well. I don’t want to give too much away, but a lot of the book is concerned with what happens when a government uses tools intended to protect its citizens to instead control them. And working off of what was already in the public domain about the different security programs, I made a lot of projections about where such things could lead.
Then came the Snowden revelations and subsequent discussion. As it turned out, I was very accurate in my understanding of the spying technology and how it could be used. Almost too much so.
Yeah. From the close of a long, disturbing article:
Another former insider worries less about foreign leaders’ sensitivities than the potential danger the sprawling agency poses at home. William E. Binney, a former senior N.S.A. official who has become an outspoken critic, says he has no problem with spying on foreign targets like Brazil’s president or the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. “That’s pretty much what every government does,” he said. “It’s the foundation of diplomacy.” But Mr. Binney said that without new leadership, new laws and top-to-bottom reform, the agency will represent a threat of “turnkey totalitarianism” — the capability to turn its awesome power, now directed mainly against other countries, on the American public.
“I think it’s already starting to happen,” he said. “That’s what we have to stop.”
Perzactly.
Back to writing. Before my predictions of dystopia all become entirely too real.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Faith healing, Wales, Writing stuff | Tags: excerpt, Holywell, jim downey, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, St. Winefride's Well, Wales, Well Hopper, writing
The writing continues to go well. Thought I’d share this bit from today:
She looked around the edge of the table, to where his shoulder bag sat on the floor. “Got your hand-held in there?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Get it out, search St. Winefride’s plus 1917.”
Darnell picked up his bag, opened the pocket where his hand-held was, took it out. He turned it on, and while it booted up looked at Megan, who was calmly finishing her dinner, watching him. He tapped an icon on the phone.
“Hi, I’m Andi, your assistant application. How can I help you?”
“Andi, find me information on St. Winefride’s Well in Holywell which is either tagged 1917 or has that date in the entry.”
“Very good. The search results are displayed on your screen. Would you like me to read relevant passages?”
“No, thanks. That will be all.”
“Very good.”
Darnell looked at Megan. “The assistant isn’t very good at finding context in articles, usually just reads the sentence with the specific information requested. Is there a specific reference you had in mind?”
“Yeah. Is there a link to a blog called ‘Well Hopper’ there?”
“Yup.”
“Try that one. Should be towards the end.”
Darnell went to the blog post, scanned down through the entry. “Yeah, here it is: All early descriptions and illustrations of the well indicate that the volume of water flowing from the well was much greater than that seen today, the spring forming a small river that ran from the well. Disaster struck the well at 8am on 5th january 1917 when nearby mining works struck and diverted the underground stream that fed the well causing the well to run dry. Eventually another source was found to feed the well; however the force of this is much less and the well now forms a modest bathing area outside the shrine rather than the rapid stream that used to flow from the building in earlier days.”
He looked up at her. “Huh. So, it’s not really the same well?”
“Does the source of the water matter more than where it emerges?” She sipped her wine, considered, then continued. “You went there, expecting one thing because of your previous experience at the place.”
“Yeah, but I did what you told me, and tried to see the place as the believers see it.”
“But Dar,” she said, “you didn’t try to believe. You just tried to see their perspective. There’s a difference.”
“Now, wait a minute …”
“Don’t get upset. I didn’t figure that this would be something you could do on your first try. You’d been there before, and were necessarily going to have some understandable barriers in place.” She smiled. “It was a good start. Leave it at that, and move on.”
Jim Downey
And yes, that is a real blog post. Remember, St. Cybi’s Well is set in 2012, in a timeline very close to our own. There will be a lot of material in the book drawn straight from our reality.
Filed under: Wales, Writing stuff | Tags: Conwy, excerpt, Great Orme, jim downey, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, Wales, writing
As he came into the open from the narrow spiraling stairs, he saw a man standing on the upper viewing platform, calmly looking out over the city as he leaned on the ramparts. He was tall, even though he had a slight stoop which Darnell sensed came from extreme age. And while he wore a large, wide-brimmed hat, it was clear that he still had a full head of hair, mostly of the sort of silver color which suggested it had once been deep black. His full yet neat beard was completely white. He wore no glasses, and noticed as Darnell emerged from the darkness of the tower.
Darnell nodded to the man. “Hello.”
“Good afternoon,” said the man in reply. His voice was rich, still solid. There was a touch of an accent that seemed familiar to Darnell, though it was neither American nor Welsh. He turned his attention back to the city below them, but spoke again. “You’ve come a long way.”
And with those words, Darnell was better able to define the accent. Mediterranean. Possibly Greek. “So have you.”
“True enough.” He looked at Darnell, smiled just a bit. His eyes were dark, a little sad. He glanced east to the castle proper, then north, where the mass of the Great Orme disappeared in low-hanging clouds. Then back at Darnell, seeming to size him up. “I suspect that both of us have a ways yet to go.”
“If we’re lucky.”
“Perhaps.” He stepped past Darnell, and disappeared down the stairs without another word.
The writing is going well. Things are coming together nicely.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Astronomy, Connections, Religion, Science, Science Fiction, Space, Writing stuff | Tags: astronomy, Communion of Dreams, exoplanets, Gliese 1214 b, jim downey, Norio Narita, science, Science Fiction, space, Space.com, St. Cybi's Well, writing
Got an email from an old friend and fan of Communion of Dreams which consisted of a link and this comment: Couldn’t resist…when I read this, all I could think was, “they’ve found the gel!!” 🙂
From the article at the link:
A nearby alien planet six times the size of the Earth is covered with a water-rich atmosphere that includes a strange “plasma form” of water, scientists say.
Astronomers have determined that the atmosphere of super-Earth Gliese 1214 b is likely water-rich. However, this exoplanet is no Earth twin. The high temperature and density of the planet give it an atmosphere that differs dramatically from Earth.
“As the temperature and pressure are so high, water is not in a usual form (vapor, liquid, or solid), but in an ionic or plasma form at the bottom the atmosphere — namely the interior — of Gliese 1214 b,” principle investigator Norio Narita of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan told SPACE.com by email.
You should read the whole thing, it’s pretty cool.
And yes, there is a reason why the prequel to Communion of Dreams is based around visits to holy wells in Wales … 😉
Jim Downey
Filed under: Connections, General Musings, Humor, Music, NPR, Science Fiction, Society, Writing stuff | Tags: Alwyn, blogging, Darrell Scott, Fat Tire, humor, jim downey, Lake of the Ozarks, music, New Belgium, NPR, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, Tim O'Brien, travel, writing
At about 7:45 in this interview:
NPR: “I wonder: your original CD together Realtime is so beloved by your fans, does that make you just a tad nervous about how this much-anticipated follow-up might be received? Or do you just block that stuff out?”
O’Brien: “Ah, you know, I’m gettin’ over that.”
NPR: “But not yet? You’re still working on it?”
* * * * * * *
It was a hard week. He may have been only a dog, but his absence was entirely too distracting.
* * * * * * *
The other night I played supportive spouse and accompanied my Good Lady Wife to a professional meeting she had at the Lake of the Ozarks.
The Lake (as people in Missouri almost universally refer to it) is an interesting sort of place, from a purely anthropological perspective. Originally built to help generate electricity, it then became a tourist trap in the 1960s, then evolved into something of a Spring Break party spot for college kids throughout the state. It still has something of that reputation, though it has now branched out a bit into being a general purpose convention/resort area. I’ve written about it previously.
Anyway, like these sorts of meeting things go, the first night there was a cocktail party with an open, but limited selection, bar. I walked up to the bar, nodded to the nice very clean cut young man behind it, asked “Got any Fat Tire? ”
“Sorry, just domestic beer. ”
I blinked, a bit stunned.
He explained further “We don’t have any of those Belgium beers.”
* * * * * * *
At about 7:45 in this interview:
NPR: “I wonder: your original CD together Realtime is so beloved by your fans, does that make you just a tad nervous about how this much-anticipated follow up might be received? Or do you just block that stuff out?”
O’Brien: “Ah, you know, I’m gettin’ over that.”
NPR: “But not yet? You’re still working on it?”
O’Brien:“Well, there is a sort of a fermentation that happens in people’s minds, and I guess it happened in my mind too, that you know, what, can we do that again? Can we go back to that? And then, at some point I just said ‘well, you know, if we don’t try we’ll never do anything together again'”.
Scott: “To me the word is ‘fearless’. Putting it out there, and then, with the right ingredients it’ll probably turn into something edible.”
Something edible, indeed. Back to work.
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 