ŷ������

Stephen King wrote an essay about guns that he's selling for 99 cents.�� Here are my thoughts, completely free of charge!

A number of my libertarian friends have been posting stuff on Facebook suggesting that the term "assault weapon" is a purely political term that has no real meaning when discussing firearms. I am convinced by this argument.�� They suggest that any proposed regulation of "assault weapons" is a stalking horse for broader restrictions on gun ownership and perhaps even a ban on private ownership of semiautomatic weapons.����

I certainly hope this is true, but I doubt it.

Although semiautomatic rifles show up in horrific massacres like the Sandy Hook Elementary School murder of teachers and children, far more people are killed by handguns in this country than by all other types of guns combined.�� Here's a handy pie chart to illustrate the point!

I live and teach in the city of Boston. Almost every one of my students has lost someone they cared about to a handgun murder. I have been to two funerals for such murders, and I know of three of my former students who have been killed by handguns. This despite the fact that Massachusetts has one of the lowest rates of firearm-related deaths in the country. I can only imagine what it's like in any of the cities with higher rates.��

I can see that some folks might have need of a rifle or a shotgun--I certainly believe that there are some people in rural areas who need to hunt in order to eat, and I suppose ranchers might need rifles or shotguns to keep predators away from their herds. I imagine that all the well-regulated militias that gun owners belong to probably require some sort of rifle or something.�� (I actually don't know anything about these well-regulated militias, but since that phrase is part of the second amendment, I am sure that many freedom-loving Americans volunteer for duty in such militias and embrace serving their communities and conforming to regulations.)

But nobody needs a pistol.

I recently read about his life as a liberal gun owner.�� It's nowhere near as good as .�� It also illustrates why we'll have a very hard time getting rid of the guns that are killing us.

Because our stories are going to prevent it.

Stories are important. They affect the way we view the world.�� More, as it turns out, than rational thought. Cronin's piece is a great illustration of this.�� He owns pistols because freedom, of course, but also because he feels like he needs pistols in order to protect his family.

But I am my family’s last line of defense. I have chosen to meet this
responsibility, in part, by being armed. It wasn’t a choice I made
lightly. I am aware that, statistically speaking, a gun in the home
represents a far greater danger to its inhabitants than to an intruder.
But not every choice we make is data-driven. A lot comes from the gut.

��In other words, Cronin knows that having a pistol in the house actually puts his family at greater risk of dying than not having a pistol in the house. But he's doing it anyway because he's got a story in his head about being some kind of lone holdout with a gun defending his helpless family from something. (The vampire apocalpyse in his bloated, overpraised novel?)

Cronin's big road-to-Damascus moment, the thing that convinces him he needs to own pistols, is literally this: he and his family were stuck in traffic on the road to Austin during a hurricane evacuation and they felt uncomfortable! They were afraid something might happen! And apparently, had they been armed, they would have felt safer knowing they could have engaged in an unpredictable shootout with their fellow citizens!

�۱�����.��

I had some examples to illustrate why having a pistol makes you less safe than not having a pistol,(Wendig's point about the Empire State Building shootings is the strongest) but, as Cronin's piece illustrates, such rational evidence is powerless in the face of the stories we tell each other and ourselves in this country.�� And these stories demand guns.

There is the story of resisting tyranny. This comes from our national mythology and the disgraceful way we teach our history.�� American history is typically taught as a series of triumphant wars, beginning with the American Revolution, when a hardy band of scrappy colonists kicked the ass of an empire!�� Good thing they had guns!�� (And the help of the French, who couldn't resist the opportunity to poke at their rivals and without whose help we'd still be living under the oppressive shackles of the British Commonwealth, like Canada and Australia. Ahem.)

Even when I was taking American History ten years after the US's defeat by Vietnam was sealed, our history was still taught this way. My kids are taking US history next year,and I'll bet the clusterfuck in Iraq won't affect how the story is told any more than the stalemate in Korea and defeat in Vietnam affected how it was taught to me.

So, as always, the truth is complicated and the myth is powerful, so we need guns to resist tyranny and rise up against an oppressive government if necessary.�� Never mind Waco and Ruby Ridge and every other example that shows the futility of trying to outshoot the state.�� Hell, even MOVE got firebombed, and they were only facing the Philadelphia PD.

Ah, but look at North Korea and other totalitarian states--the government is armed and the people are not!�� See where that leads? Tyranny!

Of course, the government is far better armed than the population in nearly every country in the world with the exception of failed states like Somalia.�� But the story of guns as a bulwark against tyranny is too powerful to fall before rational evidence.

We need a new story.

We have another story we tell, and this, I think, is the one Cronin and other pistol owners are responding to: the lone savior with a gun.

I think this one actually grows out of the idea that we stood alone against the British (and later that we singlehandedly saved the world during World War II).�� But you'll see it in Shane, in High Noon, in Die Hard, in Django Unchained, in the upcoming The Last Stand, and especially now in The Walking Dead and other tales of the zombie apocalypse.��

When the shit hits the fan, these stories say, you'll be glad there was a man (always, always a man) there with a gun to make things right.

(Of course, Romero's movies always make the point that it's really people with guns that are the problem in the zombie apocalypse, but where's the fun in that? Left 4 Dead is way more appealing.)

I like a lot of these stories.�� I spent hours of my life playing Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2.

But wow, do we need some new ones.��

There's one more story that affects this debate, and it's a particularly ugly one that I've addressed before.�� This one is a uniquely white people story: the black people are coming for your stuff.��

I made the mistake of reading the comments in several articles after the murder of children and adults by a previously law-abiding gun owner at Sandy Hook Elementary. The idea that if people stop owning guns, criminals will prey on them was pretty prevalent, and often expressed in vaguely racist terms: "who's going to go to the hood and tell the gangstas to give up their guns?"was one comment I saw somewhere, sorry I don't know where but I'm sure it's not too hard to find this sentiment.

When white people say "criminals," they see black faces. This, I think, explains why the NRA gave up its "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns" slogan.�� Because "outlaws" in the white imagination are white guys.�� And kind of cool ones at that.�� But "criminals"--well, those are black guys. (scary! ) And they've all got guns and they're coming for your stuff. (And your women too, but I'm depressed enough without unearthing this ugliest part of the white psyche.)

This is bullshit.

I live in the hood.�� (Egleston Square! Represent!) I do not own guns. The white folks who live in this neighborhood are overwhelmingly liberal and do not own guns.�� This neighborhood is not plagued by bands of armed black guys coming to kill whitey and take his stuff.�� The people who have guns in this neighborhood tend to shoot at other people who have guns. And of course innocent bystanders. And people who resemble people they have beef with.�� Guns have not made my neighborhood safer. Me owning a gun would not make my neighborhood safer.

You know what makes my neighborhood safer?�� Economic opportunity.�� Jobs.

(This leads us to another bullshit story about self-made success and equal opportunity, but let's keep the focus on guns.)

The only thing that will really make us safer is a more just society.�� Working together and looking out for each other are actually far more powerful forces for safety than guns.

Getting rid of the pistols would certainly be a step, but it's not going to happen.�� We simply don't have the will in this country to get rid of guns. And we won't until we can start telling and believing some new stories.�� So here are some potential steps.

Well, I'd love it if rappers could stop feeding white racism with this gun-toting gangsta bullshit. Here's a message for the white kids who buy this music: these guys are not "authentic." They are not "keepin' it real."�� They are bullshit artists enriching themselves by reinforcing racist mythology.�� Please explore some underground hip hop. They will keep shoveling this gangsta bullshit out there as long as white people keep buying it. (This is rap's dirty little secret: the market is driven by white consumers who far outnumber black ones.�� So it's not what's real that gets promoted: it's what white people will buy, thinking it's real).

Parents: let's try to demand better of our schools.�� When our kids come home with the same Triumph of American Progress of Freedom and Liberty crap for a US History textbook, let's talk to the teachers and the schools. Let's demand that US History be more than simply mythologizing a bunch of killing.

Here's a message for my fellow creative professionals: let's try to write some different kinds of stories.�� Sure, we still want to see stories of heroism and survival, but does it always have to be a man with a gun? Does it always have to involve standing alone?

There's a lot to mock about Tolkein--the sexism, the racism, the stupid names, Tom Bombadil and all the horrible singing--but damn if the guy didn't create a myth in which the fate of the world hinges on cooperation. In which, in fact, the world is saved not by carnage, but by an act of mercy. If anybody who had the opportunity to kill the repugnant Gollum had actually done it, then Sauron would have won.��

I'm not calling for a bunch of namby-pamby stories in which everybody holds hands and sings kumbaya. Please, let's continue to have violence and horror and heroism and all that stuff.

But let's try to resist the seduction of the lone man with a gun story.��

Let's tell some stories about the collapse of society in which something other than force triumphs.��

Let's try to create some new mythologies.

Please.

The old ones are killing us.

Warning: this post contains mad spoilers, if one can spoil a 46-year-old TV show.

��

So, on a lark, I started watching Dark Shadows on Netflix.�� It starts out quite slow--I watched a few episodes while I was home sick one day, and I found that I didn't actually miss a whole lot of plot if I dozed off in the middle of an episode.�� But it had a nice creepy vibe that I enjoyed, and I stuck with it. And at a certain point it went from langourous mood piece to ripping yarn.

I frequently watch an episode before bed.�� I just checked and found, somewhat to my surprise and I suppose embarrassment, that I've actually watched 140 episodes.��

But damn, it's good.��

Of course, you have to suspend your disbelief and just go with a lot of pretty loopy stuff. ��And I'm not talking about the existence of a vampire, here. ��I'm talking about the following stuff:

1.)All these people, especially Roger and Elizabeth with their highfalutin' ways, live in rural Maine (They talk at one point about "going into Bangor," which means this is definitely rural Maine). ��Actually Maggie's dad, the gruff, hard-drinkin' artist, is the only character who seems like he might actually be a Maine resident.

2.) Barnabas, after being entombed for over a hundred years, has no desire to see the world or even to go to a bigger city where he could pick off victims without anybody noticing they're gone. ��Nope, he wants to hang out in rural Maine. Forever. ��This is immortality?

3.)Barnabas kidnaps Maggie because she reminds him of his beloved Josette. ��Then when she's out of the picture and suffering from doctor-generated amnesia (don't ask), he decides, no, actually, it's Vicky who reminds him of his beloved Josette and whom he must have.

4.)Carolyn is briefly pissed at finding out that her mom killed her father, but then it turns out that her mom didn't kill her father, she just thought she did, and mom and daughter are both totally fine after this.

5.)Someone exists named Burke Devlin.

��

There's more, plus the flubbed lines that seem to come with a lightning-quick shooting schedule. ��The whole thing is really quite charming. ��And, I think, probably incredibly influential.

Because Barnabas, before Lestat, Edward or even Blacula, is an incredibly emo vampire. (He even wears eyeliner!). ��Sure, he can be vicious, but most of the time he just mopes around. ��I could be wrong, but I don't really remember this mopey, disaffected vampire struggling with the loss of loved ones and the ennui of immortality showing up much before this.��

��Afterward, though--gawd, it's one sad sack vampire after another (including Coppola's Dracula.) ��Now, I think this is actually kind of a crappy trend, but, like many crappy trends, the early practicioners are actually pretty cool. (Thus, the Beatles are good but most overproduced, studio-heavy pop music is horrible; Dylan has moments of brilliance while the batallion of earnest singer-songwriters who followed have far fewer, etc.)

So if you have Netflix and you've got an extra 45 hours, which I wouldn't have said I did, but here we are, I recommend checking out the first 140 episodes of Dark Shadows.

The internet is ablaze with righteous indignation over Glee's ripoff of Jonathan Coulton's cover of Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back."

I like a good righteous indignation buzz as much as the next guy, but I think here it's a bit misplaced. ��Because no one can steal something from you that you don't own.

I actually did a little research and found articles and . ��What seems clear is that if you create a new arangement of a song under copyright, you've created a derivative work that's still covered by the original copyright holder unless you make special arrangements with them. ��So as long as Fox is paying Sir Mix-A-Lot for the Glee performance of "Baby Got Back," they're not actually doing anything wrong.

(Of course, if Fox has in fact just scrubbed the original vocals from Coulton's recording of the song without bothering to rerecord it, then they certainly have stolen something. ��This remains unclear. update: Apparently. ��If true, this is a clear violation of Coulton's copyright and a deeply sleazy move to boot.)

��(But in the rest of my probably-irrelevant-by-this-point post ��I'm talking only about the arrangement.)

It seems to me that this state of affairs, far from being a terrible injustice visited on artists, actually benefits both songwriters and performers. ��

To explain why, let's look at "All Along the Watchtower." Hendrix's cover of the Dylan song was so influential that , "��He found things that other people wouldn't think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day." ��

He's being uncharacteristically generous here, but the fact is that Hendrix's version can't exist without Dylan's. ��Should Dylan be paying royalties to the Hendrix estate every time he plays the song with an arrangement informed by Hendrix's arrangement? ��I think most songwriters would probably chafe against the idea of having to pay to perform their own song. ��

And, indeed, if arrangements of copyrighted work were copyrightable, singer-songrwriters might well refuse to let people cover their songs because they'd be opening themselves up to legal action every time they performed the song for money if they did anything with the song that even remotely resembled the cover. ��

Songwriters who wanted to sell their songs to performers might have a harder time doing so, as the first arrangement of their song would then become the definitive arrangement, and subsequent performers wanting to record the song might have to pay extra to the arranger or else risk legal challenges. ��(Here's of how songwriters have benefited from multiple recordings with artists taking bits and pieces from each other's arrangements of a song. )

Coulton himself . ��He's upset by what he perceives as his mistreatment by Fox.Which I don't really get. ��Coulton has reaped an incredible publicity bonus from this whole controversy, such that even people like me who had never heard of him before have now heard of him, and his cover of Glee's cover of his cover of Sir Mix-A-Lot is now outselling the Glee version on iTunes. And the songwriter, who has not had a hit since 1992, is probably enjoying a nice payday as a result.

It appears that Fox not ripping off something that Coulton did not own has been good for both the songwriter and the performer. ��So what's the harm?

Today I received a message on Kickstarter inquiring into the copyright status of Enter the Bluebird.

The message came from an account bearing the name of a site where one can download ebooks for free.�� This account has not started or backed any projects on Kickstarter.�� But I'm sure it's legit and not at all sleazy!�� I ran a search on their site and found one of my books available to download for free on the site.�� I am quite sure the publisher did not give permission for the book to be distributed in this fashion.

"So now you care about copyright all the sudden?" I sent back.

I received a lengthy missive in return. I shall summarize its contents here.

1.We like books and authors!�� We have vague plans to do some author-friendly stuff with our site in the future!

2.If you see one of your copyrighted books on our site and you haven't authorized its presence, we make it very easy for you to tell us to take it down.

3.If you see your book on our site, you can bet it's on other pirate sites as well. You should probably deal with us because at least we deign to communicate with you. Also, by the way, we are not a pirate site.

4. By the way, neither I nor any of my staff have ever uploaded copyrighted work onto our servers.�� Though, you know, some of our users may have.

I was moved by the logic and moral clarity of these arguments, so I decided to try them out for myself! I marched into my local CVS and asked to speak to the manager.�� What follows is a transcript of our conversation.

Brendan Halpin: I love drugstores.��

CVS Manager: I'm so glad.�� Thank you.

BH: I'm going to start giving condoms away.

CM: Uh. Okay. Why?

BH: Because it's a new age, and condoms want to be free!�� People deserve to be able to get condoms for free. I mean, some people can't afford condoms!�� You claim to care about people's health, but you'd deny condoms to people with no money?

CM:Not at all.�� There are plenty of places to get free condoms.�� Like at Planned Parenthood, or a local clinic.

BH: I'm calling my thing a clinic.

CM: But it's not.

BH: It certainly is.�� Clinics give condoms away. I give condoms away. Therefore I am a clinic!

CM: I disagree.

BH: Whatever. The point is that condoms should be free.

CM: And those who want free condoms already have access to them.

BH: But it's not always super convenient for people to get to the clinic!

CM: And?

BH: Didn't you hear me? I said, It's...Not...Always...Convenient!��

CM: Well, there are clinics in nearly every municipality in the country.�� But, admittedly, they don't have two legs like you and can't actually walk up to someone.�� But why are you telling me this?

BH: I can mention CVS when I give away the condoms.

CM: Well, that's very kind. We can always use the business.�� Where are you getting these condoms, by the way?

BH: My users are going to give me condoms to give to other people.

CM: And where are they getting the condoms?

BH:�� That's their business!�� But don't worry! If you find that I'm distributing condoms that were stolen from your shelves, you can tell me, and I'll stop distributing them!

CM: So I'm supposed to search your inventory periodically to see if you've got anything that's been stolen from me?

BH: It's more than the law requires.

CM: Is it, now?

BH: Probably. But you know, people are going to steal from you regardless.

CM: Yes, I suppose that's true.

BH: Your anti-theft technology is ridiculously easy to hack.�� I can open a box of condoms and take the magnetic strip out.�� Or I don't even have to bother.�� Nobody looks twice when the anti-theft alarm at the door goes off.

CM: That is certainly true.

BH: So people will steal from you.�� You should probably deal with me because at least I like you.�� I'm here talking to you!�� That's proof of my good intentions!�� I mean, other people will be stealing from you, and at least, unlike them, I'm a nice guy. Like I said, I'll mention CVS!

CM: But if people steal our condoms, how will we make money on them?

BH: Money?�� It's not about money!�� It's about exposure! Distribution!�� Making sure that condoms get into the hands of as many people as possible!

CM: But who's going to pay?

BH: This is a new era, Mr. Brontosaurus.�� In case you haven't noticed.�� People aren't just going to pay for stuff because your hidebound old business model requires it. If people like you enough, they'll give you some money!

CM: Even though they can get my products for free.

BH: Yes!�� It's called branding, genius.�� You know?�� Building your tribe?�� Creating value?�� Do these words mean anything to you?

CM: Not really, no.�� But if nobody pays for condoms, who's going to manufacture them?

BH: Somebody will. People want condoms, and people want the satisfaction that comes with knowing their condoms are out in the world doing good.�� Who knows what the future looks like?�� But condoms will survive!

CM: But the fine people at Trojan, Durex and other companies who currently make the high-quality condoms you enjoy will lose their jobs.�� These are real people with families and bills to pay.

BH: Puh-leeze. I'm disruptive technology, okay?�� Now are you going to get on board, or do I just leave you to the other thieves? Not that I'm a thief, mind you.

CM: I think I want you to get the hell out of my store.

BH: I guess some people just can't adapt to the future.

Just in case you've missed it everywhere else I've been pimping it out, I am currently running to pay for editing, cover design, and printing of my novel Enter the Bluebird.��

Here's a link to .

I wanted to expand on some of the stuff I wrote and said over on the campaign page in case anyone wants more background.

First of all, though this character arose from a game of Mutants & Masterminds, this is not one of those books based on an RPG campaign that is really fun to read if�� you were actually at the table during the game and pretty horrible if you weren't. To be fair, I've only attempted to read one such book, so there may be a good one out there. But it was awful. ��Anyway, I created the character of the Bluebird, and the story just kind of grew out of that.

I am attempting to raise money to publish the book on my own, but I'm not bashing Those Awful New York Publishers.�� I say on the campaign that they are cautious and scared.�� I would be too, in their shoes.�� Ebook readership is growing, and even now the "rules" for selling ebooks are completely in flux. (price it high! price it low! give it away! no, wait, don't!)

Borders is gone and Barnes & Noble is on the ropes.�� And remember, those chains drove a lot of independent bookstores out of business when they first started expanding back in the 90's.���� So, yeah, nobody knows even how you're going to be buying books in five years.�� Not to mention the fact that pretty much anybody with a dream can now put their ebook up for sale right next to the traditional publishers' books.

So of course they're cautious. They'd be foolish not to be.�� I disagree with the way they're proceeding, but I don't really blame them.

Speaking of publishers, researching this campaign has really made me appreciate what their economies of scale do and how physical books are a bargain.�� It's going to cost me about 12 bucks to print a copy of Enter the Bluebird.�� And then about five bucks to ship it.�� Both costs could come way down if I had the ability to print thousands of copies or ship in bulk.�� I now appreciate more than ever the fact that I can walk into a bookstore and buy a paperback for fifteen bucks.

Is kickstarter the wave of the future? ��Is this the way people like me are going to get published in the future? ��I have no idea. ��Stay tuned for conclusions on kickstarter after the project gets funded (fingers crossed) and I get the book out.

I have to say that I was concerned about how the content of this book would play with YA editors. Though it takes place in an alternate America, it features some pretty graphic violence as well as frank descriptions of both prostitution and drug addiction. ��

Nobody raised any objections to any of this. ��Of course, they didn't buy it either, but their objection was that they didn't think anybody wanted to read a superhero novel.

Nobody knows what anybody wants to read, really. ��But this is a book I really wanted to read. That's why I wrote it. ��

More info ��in our next installment!

��

��

��

I saw Les Miserables on the day after Christmas in a packed theater.�� I have seen the play once and am about 400 pages into the book (about which more later), and I found it really stunning. The nearly 3-hour movie went really quickly and was very moving to me in a way that movies rarely are.

I'm kind of baffled that the movie is getting somewhat mixed reviews, so I thought I'd take the criticisms one by one.

1.It's big and over the top and unsubtle.�� Well, yes. It's an opera.�� I know, I know, it's billed as a musical, but there's essentially no dialogue.�� Perhaps it says something about opera's sullied reputation that the most commercially successful opera maybe ever doesn't admit that it's an opera. But it is an opera, and most certainly operatic.�� If you're expecting a quiet character study, go hang out at your indie movie house for twenty minutes: one will be along shortly.�� Most criticisms of this kind amount to "I don't like the kind of thing that this is," which is the absolute worst kind of criticism.

2.The actors sang live while filming their scenes. I guess this is a matter of taste, but I thought this was an inspired choice.�� You can hear the actors breathing while they're singing if they're moving around, and it makes the songs feel more natural and organic than they otherwise would. It also makes Anne Hathaway's single-take close up rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" that much more impressive.�� I suppose some fans of the show (and whether you're adapting a stage show or a fantasy novel, you're just never going to please all the hardcore fans) were expecting definitive versions of the songs they love, and that's just not happening here. But this choice gives the songs greater impact than a perfect studio rendition.

3.Russell Crowe.�� Again, I think most of the criticism of Crowe's performance comes from fans of the show with certain expectations of how this role should be played.�� I thought Crowe's performance was fantastic.�� It's pretty easy to play Javert as a cartoonish villain, but I thought Crowe lent him complexity and depth.�� Yeah, he's not an amazing singer, but I think they cast this movie more for the acting than for the perfect singing voices. And he is a competent singer. People would have you believe he's like Lee Marvin in Paint Your Wagon, which he is most certainly not. �� I thought his performance made the character at least somewhat sympathetic, which makes both Valjean's eventual treatment of him and his reaction make more sense than if he's Snidely Whiplash.

4. Anne Hathaway is too thin.�� I agree that we should all be alarmed at Hollywood's pathological fear of curves, but she is playing a starving prostitute in this movie.�� She's gaunt, as she should be.�� I don't think we'd even be having this conversation about a male performer who lost all kinds of weight to play someone who is starving.�� Indeed, I think male actors are usually praised for this kind of thing.

So there you go. Great movie.�� Go see it.

Trying to read the unabridged Les Miserables. Am about 450 pages in, which means I only have a thousand pages to go.�� It's actually a relatively easy read (I'm reading the Signet paperback, which features a modernized translation), though I could have done without the 50-page digression on the battle of Waterloo, which is only important because Thenardier and Javert are there, but that scene could have been done without the 50-page thing about visiting the battle site years after the battle took place. And if you think the movie and show are heavy-handed, well, I've got several hundred authorial asides to show you...

I've run into so many people who are bewildered by Twitter that I decided to write a little user guide.�� It's about 3,000 words, so if you prefer to download it and read it on an ereader or something, here's a .

��

I love Twitter, but it does have a
pretty steep learning curve.�� When
you first log in, you often see a bewildering array of symbols that make no
sense, and nobody’s there to explain it to you.��

Except me!�� What follows is a Twitter primer; I’ll start with the basic technical aspects of Twitter and move from there
into the culture of Twitter and strategies you can use to get the most out of
it.

The
Basics

Creating an account is easy. Just
type in your name, email, and password on Twitter’s home screen.�� You’ll be taken to another screen to
confirm your details.�� Your full
name can be changed as often as you want; so if you want to call yourself
“Heywood Jablomi,�� that’s fine.��
You can always change it if you make a bad choice.

Your username can be changed too,
but this will cause you more problems down the line. I think it’s best to pick
one you’re willing to stick with. My advice is to stick with something bland
here: some version of your name is good, or if you’re tweeting in an official
capacity, the company’s name, or “@mycompanyceo�� or whatever is good.��

As of this writing, Twitter is
asking you if you want to tailor Twitter based on website visits. This means
they’ll plant cookies in your browser and track your web history so they can
show you people you might be interested in following.�� You can do this if you want, but I always like to err on the
side of caution when it comes to internet privacy.�� Do you really want Twitter saying, “based on your interest
in hot girl-on-girl action, you might be interested in the following people?�� I
would uncheck this box if I were you.

Twitter will suggest some
celebrities and news sources for you to follow when you log in.�� You might as well pick a few. This will
help you get a feel for how things work. Also, as of this writing, Twitter is
making it hard to find the button allowing you to skip this step.���� You can then search for some
celebrities to follow.�� Again, this
is a fun and relatively harmless step, so go for it.�� Don’t go nuts though—I’ll explain why later.

Twitter will then ask you for
permission to search your gmail, yahoo mail, hotmail, or aol accounts.�� I know that I suggested erring on the
side of privacy earlier, but I strongly suggest you go ahead and do this.�� It will allow you to find people who
will follow you back.�� This is
important.�� Bite the bullet and do
it.��

Next you can create your profile by
uploading a photo and writing a brief bio. You must do both.�� The photo (you’ll see it called your
“avatar,��) doesn’t have to be of you.��
You can upload a picture of just about anything. The important part is
that you have to have something there.��
Otherwise Twitter will put an egg there, and nobody follows eggs.

(Aside: if you are a
woman, do not put a picture of yourself in swimwear, or bending over in a
low-cut shirt, or wearing or doing anything even remotely sexy.�� At least not at first.�� Spammers use these kinds of photos on
fake accounts all the time, acting on the erroneous belief that men will be
inherently interested in scantily-clad women.)

For your bio, do not use the
celebrities you’ve just followed on Twitter as a model.�� If you’re already famous, you can put
something cutesy like, “I’m just this guy, y’know?�� or “resident of planet earth.��
If you’re not famous, you need to put something that will help people know what
kind of stuff you’re interested in, or why you’re here.���� “Book geek, craft beer fan,
horror movie aficionado,�� for example.��

Don’t obsess about the bio; you can
always change it. But do put something informational there.

You’re In!

Great. Now you’re in and you’re
looking at a screen that might be somewhat overwhelming.�� Let’s take it apart piece by
piece.�� You should be on the “home��
part of your Twitter page—you can tell by the “home�� that’s highlighted at the
top.

The main part of the Twitter screen
(yes, you can do this stuff from your phone too—we’ll get to that later. Just
stay on the website for a few minutes) is made up of tweets from people you
follow.�� The newest ones are at the
top, and you can scroll down to see older ones.��

Here are some things you might
see:�� links.�� Lots of people tweet links to content
they’ve found (or published) elsewhere.��
This is probably the most familiar part.��

@replies.�� If you
follow two people who are talking to each other on Twitter, you might see what
they’re sending to each other.�� So,
for example, if you follow me (@bhalpin) and Daniel Waters (@watersdsan) and
you see a tweet from me that looks like this:�� “@watersdan Just finished Break my Heart 1000x. Awesome,��
that means I’ve sent a tweet at Dan telling him his new book is awesome.�� You won’t see most of these unless you
follow both people.�� Or unless
people start them with a ��.”��
Twitter keeps replies from people you follow to people you don’t follow
out of your stream (though they’re still visible on a profile page), so
sometimes if people want to make sure that everybody sees their reply, they’ll
start it with a period so that everyone can see it. People mostly do this when
they’re fighting on Twitter and want their followers to jump in.

If someone replies to one of your
tweets when you’re not on Twitter, it will be easy to find: just click on the
“Interactions�� tab next to the Home tab, and you’ll see any mentions of your
username along with people who have followed you.

Hashtags.�� These
are number signs followed by strings of text with no spaces.�� For example, #merrychristmas. If you
click on the hashtag, you’ll immediately see all the tweets that are using that
hashtag.�� So, for example, if
you’re watching the Oscars and you want to see what random people are snarking
about, just click on the #oscars hashtag and you’ll see every tweet in which
people have used that hashtag.

This is handy for you if you want
to join in a virtual conversation about an event.�� So if you are watching the Oscars and want people other than
your followers to see what you’ve said, just end your tweet with #oscars and be
assured that your bon mot will get a larger audience.

Note that hashtags are also used
ironically.�� Like, “About to watch
My Little Pony with my bronies! #thuglife�� or “Bought the extra large bottle of
laundry detergent! #yolo��

They are also used to spread
jokes.�� So, for example, someone
might tweet ��#scatalogicalhitchcock The Turds.”�� If you want to join in, you can just tweet,
��#scatalogicalhitchcock The Man Who Pooed Too Much.��

If you see something you’d like to
respond to, you can always reply.��
Just click on the link and hit “reply.�� So if your friend @bhalpin tweets
“want to watch a hilarious horror movie tonight. Suggestions?�� Just click
reply, and in the compose tweet window, you’ll see @bhalpin. Type your
suggestion, hit send, and @bhalpin will see your tweet.�� (I’d recommend Poultrygeist: Night of
the Chicken Dead.)

You may also see someone tweeting
something you think is especially noteworthy or funny or otherwise excellent.
If you’d like to spread the word to your own followers, hit the “retweet�� link
and the tweet will go out to everyone who follows you.

You’ll also see the “favorite��
link. You can use this in two ways.��
One is that it allows you to have access to a list of tweets you can
visit later. So, for example, if someone posts a link to an article you’re
interested in but don’t have time to read now, you can favorite the tweet and
then easily find it later without trying to sift through your entire Twitter
stream trying to find it.�� You can
also use the favorite link as a kind of equivalent to the Facebook like button.
It’s a way of expressing approval, and the author of the tweet will see that
you’ve done this. (Unless they’ve turned those notifications off, but most
people, like me, are vain and like to know when people approve of their work,
even if their work is only a 140-character tweet.)

Someone may post a link with a
little note after it that says “via @bhalpin�� (or, you know, via
@whoever).�� This indicates that
they’ve gotten the link from someone else’s post. More on this in our “culture
and strategy�� section.

You might see the letters RT or MT
followed by a username in a tweet that someone else has posted.�� RT stands for retweet, so “RT@bhalpin��
at the beginning of a tweet would indicate that someone was retweeting me. This
used to be how all retweets worked.��
Twitter has, for some reason, decided that this is bad and only allows
you to retweet without comment.��
Twitter’s users don’t generally agree with this change.�� This leads us to the “Twitter clients��
section. (MT stands for “modified tweet,�� meaning that the user doing the MTing
has taken someone else’s tweet and (usually) shortened it so as to fit their
own approving or snarky comment in there.)

You can use Twitter through the
Twitter.com interface.�� You can
also download Twitter clients to use on your computer or on your phone. There
are also other websites that offer tweaked versions of Twitter’s
interface.�� Which one you should
pretty much depends on which look and feel you prefer.�� Some of them have slightly different
features, like the ability to do an old-school retweet, that you might find
useful.�� Some will let you pick
where to store the photos you upload to Twitter.�� Some will let you see your Facebook news feed side by side
with your Twitter feed.�� If these
features are important to you, you can find a number of clients that will suit
your needs. My advice is to try out a bunch for free.�� If you find one you really like, you can pay for the ad-free
version.�� I use hootsuite.com and
plugg.io on the web, Tweetdeck on my desktop, and Ubersocial on my Android
phone.�� Your mileage will vary.

A note about direct messages: It is
possible to use Twitter to send someone a message that no one else can see.
These are called direct messages. They’re easy to see in most Twitter clients,
but Twitter apparently doesn’t like them much because they are almost
impossible to find on Twitter’s current web interface.�� (They’re in the menu that appears when
you click on the gear at the top right of the screen.) You can only send direct
messages to people if you follow each other.�� You will use this feature very rarely—usually if you’ve had
an interaction with someone and you want to exchange email addresses without
posting your email message publicly on Twitter.

On the bottom left, you’ll see the
trending topics.�� These are
hashtags or phrases that Twitter pulls out of tweets. If you click on them,
you’ll see tweets with those words in them whether you follow the tweeters or
not.�� It’s a good way to find out
about breaking news and celebrity deaths and otherwise is pretty much a way
that people spread annoying jokes. (Not awesome jokes like my scatological
Hitchcock example above.)

On your home screen, you’ll also
see Twitter’s “who to follow�� suggestions.�� I suggest holding off until later on these.�� Why?�� Well, this has to do with our next section:

Strategy and Culture

Apart from all the hashtags and
abbreviations, Twitter’s culture can be pretty hard to understand.�� So here’s some advice:

Take it slow.�� Don’t follow a thousand people in your
first few weeks on Twitter. Try to follow a few people at a time and keep your
number of followers close to the number of people you follow.������

This is why I told you to allow
Twitter to sift through your email contacts.�� People you know are the most likely to follow you back.�� This helps make you look, for want of a
better word, more attractive.��
People who follow tons of people but have few people following them look
kind of desperate and may find it hard to pick up followers.

People who follow almost nobody but
have tons of followers are celebrities.��
Do not imitate them on Twitter.��
If you are a celebrity, fine, act like a celebrity—you don’t have to
follow anybody or interact with anybody, and tons of people will still follow
you.�� If you’re a regular person,
you’re going to have to put some work in and become a good Twitter citizen.

The work comes in trying to find
cool people to follow.�� One thing
you can do is follow someone who’s a kind of big deal in a small field. If
you’re interested in craft beers, for example, you could follow @stonegreg from
Stone Brewing Company. Or, for comic books and/or horror fiction, you could
follow @joe_hill.�� See who else
follows them, check out some of their bios, and if they look interesting,
follow them too.�� See who your
friends follow, and follow some of them too.�� Probably the biggest thing to remember is that a Twitter
follow is very low-stakes and should not be taken as seriously as friending
someone on Facebook.�� If you friend
someone on Facebook, you’re asking for access to photos, biographical
information, and their scores on whatever inane games they’re playing.�� On Twitter, people expect people who
don’t know them to follow them. It’s not weird or awkward. It’s how things
work.��

Since it’s not weird to follow
people you don’t know, it’s also not weird to interact with them. This is a way
in which Twitter is different from real life. So if someone says something
you’d like to respond to, feel free to respond.

A word of advice: you will find
people on Twitter who are consistently annoying.�� Do not tweet at them to try to disabuse them of their
annoying beliefs.�� You will not
change their minds, and you will turn Twitter into The Arena of Pointless
Verbal Combat, which is only fun for a brief period of time.�� Just as it’s not a big deal to follow
someone you don’t know, it’s not a big deal to unfollow someone.�� So if someone is annoying, just
unfollow them.�� Trust me—you cannot
cure all the stupidity in the world.

In addition to responding to
tweets, you can retweet or favorite people’s tweets.�� They will get messages saying that you’ve done this. It’s
another nice way to pick up followers.��
Many non-celebrities will follow people who retweet or favorite them.
It’s also considered good form to acknowledge the original poster if you see
something interesting on Twitter that you want to share.�� So instead of retweeting, you can just
repost the link with an acknowledgment of the original poster.�� So, for example, you might post a link
that I originally posted, and you’d put “via @bhalpin�� at the end.�� It’s not critical that you do
this—everybody understands that stuff you see can get lost in the Twitter
stream. Sometimes I’ll click on a link, read the article an hour later, and
have no idea who originally posted it.��
No big deal.

To sum up, here are my tips for being
a good Twitter citizen:

1.Vary what you post. A nice mix of
links (with your own introduction—nobody will click on a link with no context),
original thoughts, retweets, and replies makes a balanced Twitter feed.

2. Remember that your tweets are
both permanent and evanescent. Which means this: don’t tweet anything you’ll
regret later, since it can be saved for posterity via screenshot or Twitter
client. But, also, tweets come and go, and so you shouldn’t be too concerned if
your awesomely witty tweet provokes no response.

3. Don’t tweet the same thing over
and over. This applies to self-promotion or anything else. It’s okay to say
“check out my book�� or whatever, but don’t do it constantly.�� I have checked out books and music by
people who are interesting on Twitter; I’ve rarely looked at anything just
because somebody was incessantly tweeting a link at me.

4.Don’t over-hashtag.�� Sometimes people add as many hashtags
as possible to a tweet to try to get more people to see it.�� Hashtags are like bumper stickers; the
more you have, the less likely it is that anybody’s going to pay attention.

5.Don’t message people to thank
them for following you.�� There are
services that will do this for you automatically.�� Do not use them. Everybody hates this.��

6. Interact. Of course the caveat
“don’t feed the trolls�� applies, but overall, just have some cool
mini-conversations with some of the many cool people you find on Twitter.�� This is doubly or triply important if you
are using Twitter in a business capacity. ��If you’ve opened a Twitter account for your business,
congratulations! You’ve just added a customer service line where people expect
answers.�� If you’re using Twitter
for fun, then what fun is it to talk to yourself? You don’t need the internet
for that.

That’s it. Have fun. I hope this
was helpful!

��

I write books, and I write blog entries, but I'm not, strictly speaking, a book blogger.�� So I don't get a lot of books for free.�� So most of the books I read in 2012 are not actually 2012 releases.�� But here are the ten books I enjoyed the most that I read this year.�� (In chronological order by when I read them.) As I did last year, I'm pasting in my goodreads review of each one.�� Because I'm lazy.

Clarity by Kim Harrington:

I really
enjoyed this. I got caught up in the quick, page-turning mystery and
actually didn't see the end coming, which, when you've read and watched
enough mysteries, is a pretty rare thing. I really liked the main
character--her teenage angst and overthinking really help sell the
psychic elements of the book. A lot of fun.

Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancey:

I delayed reading this
because I loved The Monstrumologist so much. And with all the
father-son stuff that was explored in that book as Will grew into his
role as the apprentice, what was going to be left? Well, I needn't have
worried. Another beautifully written book that is simultaneously a
ripping yarn and an exploration of what it means to be human. Just
freaking fantastic.
Warning: as with the first, there is a high
level of gore that some people might not like. I love this stuff, but,
as before, if you are repelled by the word "suppurating," (which I'm
pleased to see making an appearance in this book)this isn't for you.

Kiss of Life by Daniel Waters:

Another
real winner that is a deeper, darker, more thoughtful book than the
cover suggests. What I really admire about this series is how well the
implications of (some) teenagers returning from the dead are thought
out--there are just all kinds of legal, moral, and theological wrinkles
brought about by the whole situation. Really this book and the whole
series are entertaining reads that also happen to be packed full of
interesting ideas. I really like the twist that the zombies just want
to fit in and, as in the best zombie movies, the real horror here is the
monstrous behavior of the people who are still alive. Or, if you will,
traditionally biotic. Great stuff and highly recommended.

All the Earth, Thrown to the Sky by Joe Landsdale:

An
almost perfectly awesome adventure story hobbled by too-poetic title
and dull cover that makes it look like one of those "good for you"
books. This book is not good for you. This book is awesome. Well, it
might be good for you too, but it is first and foremost a rip-roaring
adventure story full of bank robbers, hobos, alligators, carnival
wrestlers (okay, just one), and three plucky orphan kids on a road trip
during the dust bowl. The ending is spot-on perfect, too. Would never
have picked this up if I wasn't familiar with Lansdale. I hope other
readers aren't thrown by the prestigious packaging because this is a
really fun book.

So why four stars instead of five? Well. It's
the race thing. Not that there's a hint of racism in this book. Not at
all. But (perhaps one might consider this a spoiler, though I don't)
our protagonists, three kids raised in two different families in
Oklahoma in the 1930's prove to be completely un-racist. And even risk a
great deal in order to show kindness to a black character. I mean,
maybe that's possible, but it felt to me like Lansdale was trying too
hard. (Oh, yeah, and the only black characters we meet are noble and
kind. Not, thankfully, magical, but still a little too wholly good to be
believable characters). I don't know how to get around this in
historical fiction--if your white protagonists are realistically racist,
then modern readers won't find them sympathetic. But if they're not
racist at all...well, it just feels too comforting to me to white
readers. We can tell ourselves that if we lived in those times and
places, we too would have been completely not racist. I dunno. This
isn't a book about race or race relations, so that element just felt
off. But otherwise, it really is a great story that I really enjoyed
and am glad I read.

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi:

Believe
the hype, and don't be put off by the "dystopian" tag. This is a
non-stop adrenaline rush of an adventure story. I kept having to put it
down because it was getting too intense. And then I would pick it up
again a few minutes later because I couldn't stand not knowing what was
going to happen.

There are also a lot of good, timely ideas about
haves and have-nots, but they inform, rather than get in the way of,
the nonstop action. Great book.

How to Make Friends with Demons by Graham Joyce:

Wow.
This is a really well-written and compelling book. It's definitely
light on the supernatural scares and creepiness and long on the
character development, which is an inversion of the usual horror novel
and which I really enjoyed. It's really a very sweet and hopeful book
about how to really live in a world filled with sadness and horror.
Which is of course right up my alley. Highly recommended.

Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow:

This
book knocked me out. It's really a noir crime book that happens to have
werewolves--well, weredogs, actually. And written in verse, which
seemed at some points like a kind of meta commentary on noir prose
style, but not a precious, annoying meta-commentary, but anyway, some of
the lines are just stunningly beautiful. It's about longing and loss
and betrayal and love and murder. And weredogs. And bridge. And
crystal meth. Excellent book. Highly recommended.

Young Miles by Lois McMaster Bujold:

An omnibus is always a
gamble for me because I never know if I'm going to want to dive right in
to the next book. In this case, I finished The Warrior's Apprentice,
which is an awesome, rip-roaring adventure--really, it's paced like the
best kind of old-time cliffhanger serial,where every success creates a
new and bigger danger. I needed a change of pace before starting the
next one, but I will be back for more.

UPDATE: Finished it. "The
Mountains of Mourning" is a fantastic little mystery, and The Vor Game
is another nonstop action space opera with Miles getting into scrape
after scrape and emerging through a combination of intelligence,
brazenness, and luck. Loved it.

Death in the City of Light by David King:

I
found the first half of the book incredibly compelling. Starting with
the horrific discovery of body parts in various states of disposal, King
follows the police inspectors trying to unravel the crime. All of this
stuff was fascinating to me, as was the way in which the Nazi occupation
complicated the investigation and facilitated the crimes. The blurbs
aren't lying when they say this reads like a thriller. Actually, what
it reads like is an episode of Law & Order, which is why I didn't
like the second half of the book as much. (I never like the second half
of a Law & Order episode as much either). The trial was a circus and
it is interesting to read about all the ups and downs, but it just
doesn't compare to the investigative part for me. Still, overall an
excellent book I would recommend (and have already recommended) to just
about anybody who likes a mystery.

Two Worlds and In Between by Caitlin R. Kiernan

I saw her at a panel at
Readercon (I did the "dip my toe in the water for free on Thursday
night" plan), and was just really impressed with how she talked about
art-- it's clearly a life or death thing for her. So I found this
"Greatest Hits" collection at the library and checked it out. I really
enjoyed it. She is insanely talented--so much so that I really liked the
early stories, in which nothing really happens. To say that I am not
usually a fan of such stories is an understatement. But Kiernan is just
so good at creating dread and a sense of the eerie that even the
relatively plot-free stories really got in my head. It was also fun to
watch her style evolve through the stories, and her brief afterwords
after every story are actually pretty illuminating.

Having said
all this, it was due at the library and I took it back without finishing
because it's a massive volume, and after spending two weeks with
Kiernan's excellent work, I just needed a change of pace. Still, highly
recommended, and I'll definitely be checking out more of her work.

It's
a shame that a book with such a striking cover turned out to be so
poorly copy edited. It's not exactly rife with typos, but I had about a
dozen pop out at me, which is pretty shocking in a professionally
published book and really disappointing in what's supposed to be a major
career retrospective. I saw in the back that Subterranean put out a
limited edition for 60 bucks. If I'd paid for a collectable like that
and gotten something with such sloppy copy editing, I'd be mightily
pissed. As it was, I was pulled out of some really excellent stories by
glaring errors.

Something Red by Douglas Nicholas:

So often
we have to choose between beautiful writing and, you know, a plot where
something happens. Not this time. This book is a total gem--a
tightly-plotted, thrilling story told in really beautiful prose. I hope
this finds an audience because it defies easy categorization. Kind of a
historical fiction/fantasy/horror-ish novel.

I'm not talking about my personal Facebook problem, which is my propensity for jumping in to ultimately useless arguments.�� I seem to have solved that by uncoupling my twitter from my Facebook and by not checking Facebook very often.�� So far so good!

I'm speaking here in my capacity as a writer.�� Like many people in many fields, I've spent some time and energy building up my Facebook page by asking people to "like" it and posting little updates about my writing.��

Initially it worked very well: liking the page was a pretty low bar for people to clear, and this allowed me to remind people in a fairly unobstrusive way about stuff that was happening with my writing career.��

Most of us who depend on our fans to spread the word about our work need some way to push information out to our fans. People with huge followings can always pull people in--so this isn't a problem for, say, John Scalzi. He's got a wildly successful blog that people will go out of their way to check.�� But most of us don't have that kind of audience on the internet, and we need a way to remind people that we're here, that we've got something new coming out, that we value their support, and stuff like that.

And now Facebook can no longer serve that purpose. Because on average only about a quarter of the people who have liked my page see anything I post there.�� They want me (and everybody) to pay to promote our posts--in other words, to pay to get people who like the page to see what we put there.�� They have every right to do this--they've got to make money, and this seems like a pretty shrewd way to bring in some income without annoying the great majority of users.��

Except that the promotion tool, as I've mentioned in other posts, is broken. My test post was promoted largely in Indonesia, and resulted in no traffic increase to this site.�� Oh well.

So now I need a way to reach those of you who want to be reached. So I'm kickin' it old school with an email blast.��

I have a bunch of addresses, but I really want to start fresh with this as a totally opt-in thing.�� So, if you'd like to receive irregular email updates from me about what's going on with my career, please .�� (or just use the handy subscription form on the side of this page!)I promise (I'm swearing on my copy of Peter Guralnick's 2-volume Elvis biography, so you know I'm serious here) never to give away, sell, or otherwise use your email address for any purpose other than sending you stuff about my writing.

And if you sign up, I'll make sure and throw in some cool bonuses.�� Not sure what that is--some rare unreleased tracks or behind-the-scenes info, or something.�� Tell me what you'd be interested in seeing.�� And thanks!

It's been a very rough year for me, writing-wise.

In this year I've experienced more rejection and disappointment with my writing career than ever before.��

But it being Thanksgiving, I would like to dwell on some of the stuff I'm most thankful for, in terms of my writing life.

Here goes:

Tessa MastersonWill Go To Prom.

I'm tremendously proud of this book. I think it's the best one Emily and I have written together, and I'm glad it got published this year.�� I had a lot of fun working on it, and as I said, I'm really proud to have my name on it. And I'm glad it's in so many libraries; I hope a lot of kids who might benefit from it will find it.

A Really Awesome Mess.

Trish finally saved us from title search hell by pulling this phrase out of our collaboration that we called Escape from Assland (and that will probably always have that title in my mind).�� I just re-read this for the first pass on the typeset pages, and it is just fantastic, if I do say so myself.�� It's coming out next year from Egmont.

Emily Franklin and Trish Cook.��

I've been very lucky to collaborate with both of these talented writers.�� Writing can be a lonely business, and bouncing ideas off someone else and sending chapters back and forth has been fun and social and has made me a better writer.

Doug Stewart.

In spite of a number of professional setbacks, my agent�� Doug remains an unwavering supporter of me and my writing.�� He is awesome.

A New Life for Old Books:

It felt good to bring back both It Takes a Worried Man and Forever Changes from out-of-print purgatory.�� I'm certainly not making huge money on the ebook sales, but both of these books mean a lot to me, and it makes me feel good knowing they're available for readers to continue finding and enjoying.

My Monthly Mutants & Masterminds (and/or Marvel Heroic Roleplaying) Group:

I've written about this before, but reconnecting with the collaboarative storytelling of tabletop RPGs has been incredibly energizing to me creatively.�� I get to play with a bunch of really creative and funny people every month. The games are fun and hilarious and always make me want to write things that give as much joy as this game does to me.��

Living in the Future:

The terror that is paralyzing the publishing industry right now and that has led, directly or indirectly, to some of my career setbacks, has an upside.�� There are now more ways than ever to reach readers, and it's invogorating to consider all the things I can do to get my work in front of people.�� Crowdfunding? Podcasting ? Who the hell knows?�� All I know is that it's fun to think about trying new projects.

Readers:

I have met and interacted with a lot of really cool people through my writing.�� I have a small but really cool core of fans who interact wtih me on a regular basis and who seem to enjoy my work. I notice that a lot of popular authors have these fans who post five-star reviews for everything they've ever written and post worshipful comments on every blog entry.�� I would be fundamentally uncomfortable with that kind of attention, and I really appreciate having real interactions with people.�� When someone who's friended me on goodreads posts a 3-star review of one of my books (for those of you unfamiliar with goodreads culture, 3 stars is the equivalent of a pan for most people, though not for me), I really appreciate it.�� Because I can't think of any author who's written books that are all 5 stars for me, and your willingness to post a 3-star review with some criticisms attached knowing I'm going to see it just feels incredibly respectful to me.�� And it makes me take your 5-star review way more seriously.�� I also enjoy it when people comment on a blog post to disagree with me.�� These feel like genuine interactions with real people rather than some kind of weird adulation, and I really value all of them. Because people who praise you when you've done something good and nudge you when you've done something not so good aren't fans; they're friends.�� I know the idea of friendship across digital social platforms is weird--it's not like I've had any of you folks I've met only through my writing over for dinner--but I guess what I mean is that it feels closer to friendship than fandom to me, and I'm grateful for that.

��