War Of Words

Remember when the Internet was at war?  That whole SOPA/PIPA thing spurred unprecedented global action, even turning the Internet itself 'dark' for a day, pressuring American legislators to shelve their proposal to tramp all over the global network that connects billions of world citizens for the sake of a few Hollywood studios.  That's obviously not an unbiased version of events, but words have meaning, and I might as well say what I mean - it was a disgusting and disgraceful overreach from self-centred politicians with no regard for their own Constitution, never mind the rights of the rest of the world.  And speaking of meaning what you say - they are at it again, this time with the CISPA bill, which simply substitutes 'piracy' for 'cyber security' then defines cyber security as including piracy.  That they only waited a couple of months to try to shove this back through is insulting enough, but the sheer laziness of the approach displays breathtaking contempt for the world's public.  Essentially this bill will provide the US government with the same power SOPA and PIPA desired - to play whack-a-mole with websites that share files or so much as criticise a corporate or government entity, shutting them off at will and protecting private profit at the expense of public speech and security.

So Hollywood and its cronies are trying again, and this time they have done the most basic and ham-fisted of rewrites in order to try to pass the exact same solution that was so roundly despised the first time.  All they did was change the words.  And this is why writing, and writers, are so valuable.  It is what gives them power.  The old cliche about the pen being mightier than the sword?  Well, Jack Bauer can kill a guy with a pen, but a politician can kill thousands.  Not only can they kill them directly, through orders to war or execution, but indirectly through policies and legislation and the law of (allegedly) unintended consequences.  Stand Your Ground laws are a controversial collection of words that have given license to citizens in states across the US to shoot to kill when confronted with somebody they are afraid of.  The egregious example in Florida of the Trayvon Martin shooting obviously springs to mind, but while it was the letter of the law that gave license to the actions of the shooter, or at least to the actions of the police who shrugged their shoulders over the incident, it was also the words of the democratised media and the outraged public at its helm that forced the Department of Justice to respond.

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can have far greater consequences than that.  When writing anything, never forget that power you hold literally in the palm of your hand.  I've always said that writing is like being a god, and CISPA proves it - with a little creative writing you can bring the dead back to life.

Now here it is, your moment of zen:

The Humble Bundle: Revenge of the RPG

So another Humble Indie Bundle is out now.

You've probably heard of the concept, but if not, it's a bundle of four or five games that you can purchase for multiple platforms (this one will give you Android 2 and Windows/Mac/Linux versions), and you get to choose the price you pay. It's a great way to get in touch with what's coming out of the indie game studios, and one thing I'm particularly interested in with this bundle is the Ultima-style RPG Avadon - The Black Fortress. I've been playing the demo and am just about to purchase the bundle so I can get the whole thing. It's old school, certainly, but on the other hand it appears to be working towards dealing with the issues I have with modern RPGs. FFXIII was terrible - it wasn't so much a game as a journey with a decent scenic route.  Dragon Age 2 fell off a cliff, seemingly looking for a totally different audience from the first game (which was very good and possibly the last great computer RPG I've seen).  And I just can't stomach Mass Effect at all after the first one managed to be so incredibly dull in spite of having all the right tools and a setting that really appealed to me.  Skyrim I enjoy but its story is sorely lacking, to the point that the big showdown at the end of the main quest felt less dramatic than any of the plethora of random encounters which occur when going for a walk.  That's what I miss most about the genre - the great stories that did not take a back seat to polygons and cut scenes. I'm not deep enough into Avadon to know yet whether or not the story is great, but from the reviews I've read it seems to be a strong point of the game, and what's enjoyable so far is that I'm in a Game of Thrones style world where I have to make decisions that actually seem to matter and have genuine moral weight to them. It's not so simple as choosing red or blue to know whether murdering everything in the room is evil or not. It does involve a fair bit of reading, though, and with the 90s-era graphics and no real soundtrack to speak of, I can see where a modern gamer might not be thrilled by it.

Still, I've complained long enough about RPGs not getting it right anymore. I have serious reservations about the direction of the gaming industry in general - too much flash, too much concentration on multiplayer, and far too high expectations for graphic and sound production that prevents anybody taking any risks and doing something new. This is a game from a studio that's at least trying to do things the way I'd like - forget spending millions of dollars and thousands of work hours on the graphics, let's get the story and gameplay working. So I'm putting my money where my mouth is and recommending it. And the bundle benefits not only developers, but the Child's Play charity and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Brave New World

Once more into the breach, dear friends.

I have a few publishing credits under my belt because, shockingly enough, on occasion editors have taken a fancy to my work and agreed to include it in a collection they have sent to print.  It is always a thrill and an honour, and nothing quite matches the thrill of scanning a reply and seeing the word "Accepted", just as nothing quite stings as strongly as the inevitable "not for us" or other polite euphemism that we writers are so used to when being told we're not wanted.  I have been fortunate enough to receive the good news several times now, but each victory is a struggle, a battle won in a war that at times seems hopeless.  It was like being at war not with the mighty empire of China, but its Great Wall.  Unfeeling, unrelenting, the publishing industry does not care how many stories you sling at it; it will always sit there, resolute and steadfast, unmoved by your plight or the ferocity of your firepower.  Rare is the writer who breaks a few stones; rarer still is the writer who breaches to the other side and can consider themselves an insider.

Until recently, scaling the wall was the only option for a budding author.  Write a slew of stories, submit them as often as it takes, and hope to build some credits so that you might be taken seriously enough to be considered for publication or gain an agent for that novel you've always been working on.  There was only one way to play the game and the rules were set to make entry near-impossible.  Now, the publishing industry finds itself encircled by an enemy unfathomable in its power: the Internet.

Self-publishing has long had a certain stigma attached to it, and with good reason.  Vanity presses would take the money of hopeful authors who had no hope of seeing returns, or even seeing their book on shelves.  Pseudo-academics would use their own imprints to add an air of legitimacy to questionable research they could not bring anywhere near a mainstream journal.  For a long time it did not bode well for one's career if self-publishing was deemed necessary.  Now, however, thanks to the plethora of platforms and the digitising of the reading experience, publishing on your own is not only acceptable, it is becoming a norm.

Not the norm, of course, because there remains the prestige attached to having one's book published by a major house, not to mention the marketing advantages.  But with the likes of Smashwords and CreateSpace, authors no longer have to stand sniveling before the court of publisher opinion.  It is not up to anyone but themselves whether their material gets out there for public dissemination, and it is up to the public whether it yields any returns or gets read at all.  Publishing is democratised and the playing field somewhat leveled.  Of course, as with any open system plenty of drivel will seep out as an over-enthused writer pours a barely concealed fan-fic over the keyboard and throws it online in a rush to see their name in lights, long before considering character, pacing and plot, or even spell-checking.  That is unfortunate, but with the ebook format gaining popularity and millions around the world having a device capable of reading anything at the touch of a button, being on a shelf in Borders no longer seems a requirement to be taken seriously as media to be consumed.  Which is handy, since Borders no longer has shelves.

So it is with this in mind that I have made my first foray into self-publication with my story Diminished.  It is not for the sake of vanity, though I must admit having my proof sitting on my desk does give me a warm glow somewhere inside.  It is to see how viable this process is for a little-known but experienced writer.  Can one really make it on their merit, if they put in some work and publicize their own work?  And what of price?  It's not free, but it's not expensive, certainly not compared to some publications out there, electronic or otherwise.  It is not very long either, but by no means were corners cut in the quest for a quick upload.  The story is one I am proud of, one I want to share, and one I hope will herald a new beginning as a self-published author in a world where 'self-published' does not have to be muttered in shame.




For the TL;DR crowd - I've published a novelette (all on my own this time) that I'd love you to give a try.  It's available for Kindle as an ebook and in paperback.  And it's cheap!