Well another week of dramas has just passed. I have left out a lot of detail in what has been going on with my father, his behaviour is so out of character and strange that I feel if I describe it on this blog it will just take away any dignity he has left. Anyway, this blog is supposed to be about writing, not an excuse for why I am not writing, which is why I changed its title to Why I did Very Little Writing This Week. So, all up, I did a couple of hours of editing of Stalking Tigers spread over the week.
I did finish reading a book, my first for the year, Year Million, edited by Damien Broderick. It’s a non-fiction book filled with essays about what humanity and civilisation might be like during the next million years. The authors are scientists, some of whom, like Gregory Benford, also write science fiction. I suspect many of them played a role in Damien’s research for his two non-fiction books, The Spike, and The Last Mortal Generation (both of which I have read), because much of their speculation was not new to me. But there were some interesting thoughts. I will review it properly later this week.
On twitter, Aussie Science Fiction author Graham Storrs pointed out another interesting article on ebooks, this one on the Idea Logical blog, a blog concentrating on the future of publishing. The blog entry: Are Free ebooks a Good Idea? points out that in the future every wannabe writer will probably have a free ebook of some or all of a novel available for download on the web in an attempt to market it. As a result, a number of websites will probably be set up with links to these free ebooks. Eventually there will be so many free ebooks available that consumers won’t feel the need to pay for them and they will probably be so upset when asked to pay for an ebook, that they just download an illegal copy.
It seems to have already started, with eight of Amazon’s top selling ebook downloads in a recent week being in fact free ebooks and not sales. So much for making a living out of writing. In related news, from The Age, Australia is currently in discussion with the US and a number of other countries to try a create web copyright laws that are enforceable. I hope they are successful, but don’t think they will be. It doesn’t look good at the moment for authors who want to earn some money from the thousands of hours they put into writing a novel.
I have just learnt that my father is being very unresponsive at the nursing home and they have called a doctor. He has been very unresponsive with us, like yesterday when we visited. I don’t think there is much point in going to see him, so we will wait and see what the doctor says. Ain’t life great.
Graham.