Author: Andi Marquette

Andi Marquette once wanted to be a seafaring pirate. But she realized that could be a problem, growing up in the Rocky Mountain West and Southwest. So she became an editor, anthropologist, and historian instead. But that, too, didn't satisfy her weird cravings for stories and strange realms. Now, she's a writer ensconced in Colorado and when she wants to go pirate-ing, she just makes something up.

Zombie apocalypse survival tip!

Hi, all–

Whew. A busy week. Hope everyone’s going to have a great Labor Day Weekend! And if you’re part of the contingent out there along the Gulf Coast of in the Crescent City who thought “oh, cool! Beach weekend!”, well, bummer. Tropical Storm Lee, as you no doubt have already found out, is bringing tons of rain. And then the storm will move northeast, so Texas and Oklahoma won’t get any of that much-needed rain. Dang. For those of you in the path of Lee, stay safe.

And speaking of storms, if you can help in the clean-up of Hurricane Irene, here’s a list of organizations accepting donations. Please share it far and wide, because these organizations are not only helping with Irene, but they help all kinds of people following all kinds of disasters all over. Thanks.

Moving along. It’s Saturday, and time now for a zombie (or other) apocalypse survival tip. This one is one you might want to start putting into play long before any sort of apocalyptic event, however. It has to do with adding to your skillz box.

Read on to find out what I’m talking about…

Continue reading →

by Categories: Apocalypse, Zombie Apocalypse Survival TipsTags: , ,

Irene relief

Hi, all–

As many of you have no doubt realized, Hurricane Irene did a lot of damage inland in New England, as well as along the coasts of states like North Carolina and Virginia. Many major roads have been rendered impassable and there are people still stranded because of that. Some people have lost everything in the flooding, and others lost loved ones.

I know this has been a hard and heinous year in terms of natural disasters, but if you could, please consider helping again.

Huffington Post has a good list of organizations that are lending relief.

The Salvation Army has made it easy if you don’t want to go online. Text “STORM” to 80888 to make a one-time $10 donation. Or, if you want to go online, here’s the link.

The Red Cross has also made it easy: You can call 1-800-RED CROSS or text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Or, if you want to go online, here.

AmeriCares specializes in getting medicines and medical supplies to hard-hit areas. You can donate here.

Operation Blessing is accepting donations to provide relief supplies to communities affected by Hurricane Irene.

Network for Good has lists of organizations that are helping with relief efforts.

If you’re in those hard-hit areas and you’re able to volunteer for relief efforts, thank you. If you’re not, but you can donate some money to organizations that are helping, thank you, as well.

And please do share this list.

Thanks.

by Categories: Hurricanes, WeatherTags: , , 1 Comment

Weather or not: Writing Prompt!

Hi, kids!

Well, it was a crazy weekend for some of you. And the effects of Hurricane Irene may still be a problem (i.e. flooding and power outages). Regardless, glad you made it and hope you’re unscathed or at least able to fix the problem easily.

Along those lines, thought I’d give you some writing prompts/tips. I thought about this because I was worried about all the people I care about who were in the path of Irene, and I got to thinking about how climate and weather can determine what we do and where we go. That got me thinking about the 1948 Humphrey Bogart film, Key Largo, in which Bogart plays a guy who goes down to Key Largo to visit a friend of his. Turns out the friend was a hotel owner, but when Bogie gets there, a gangster has taken control of the hotel. Well, you just know these two are slated for a showdown and the catalyst turns out to be a hurricane.

Or, more recently (though not much, if you’re a youngster), think about how a thunderstorm played a role in a pivotal scene in the 1994 movie The Shawshank Redemption. Here’s the scene, when character Andy (played by Tim Robbins) makes his escape. You’ll see the role the weather starts to plays at around 1.00 (and not just creepy, tense atmosphere).


link

And that, in turn, got me thinking about writing prompts.This one, I’ve found, is particularly good if you’re having some trouble coming up with ideas or you just want to work on your powers of description.

Want more? Read on…

Continue reading →

by Categories: Uncategorized, Weather, Writing tipsTags: , , ,

Weather Goest Thou…

Hi, folks–

Okay, as much as I enjoy tickling my apocalyptic bone, this is not one of those occasions. The Eastern seaboard is in the path of a major hurricane. The size of Hurricane Irene is unreal — I’ve heard that her wind bands alone encompass 300 miles and 29 MILLION people are under a hurricane WARNING. This is a big-ass storm, and she’s working her way up the East Coast. If you are in those areas, please take the warnings seriously.


source: Baltimore Sun

She’s also an extremely unusual storm in that she will maintain her power all the way up into New England, possibly as a Category 1 or 2. That’s unusual because normally, the Atlantic isn’t warm enough that far north to fuel a storm like this. But sea temps have been rising over the past few years, and last year’s were pretty high (relatively speaking) and this year’s are, as well. Third highest on record. Guess what? Warm water is hurricane food. And hurricanes also spawn tornadoes, so please pay attention to the warnings. Flood, wind, tornadoes. This ain’t kiddin’ around time, friends.

And because I am a weather junkie of a sort, I’m fascinated by things like tornadoes and hurricanes. Here’s a great link that can teach you about hurricanes, how they form, and how they manage to move around and do what they do. Sometimes, understanding something on the science level of it makes you understand how very powerful these storms are and the damage they can do.

The NOAA provides a good “basics” list here.

For info about hurricane preparedness and what you should consider having in a hurricane kit or a bug-out bag, here’s the NOAA again.

Here’s a disaster supply kit/list.

Here’s Ready.gov with great info, too.

And it’s a good idea to have a bug-out bag at the ready. Keep it in your closet and check it every few weeks to make sure everything’s a-okay. Here’s a good list of what to include in it and why you should have one.

Keep in mind that key to all of this is planning ahead of time. Figure out the best evacuation route for you and your family (if applicable), keep your gas tank full, and your bug-out bag at the ready. Think about what you personally need in your bug-out bag, and the climate in which you are (e.g. you may want to pack a poncho). So it’s always a good idea to be prepared, even if you don’t end up using your gear.

With regard to Hurricane Irene, the Weather Channel has great updates on that storm, preparedness, and other helpful information. The Weather Channel is a great website to check, anyway, especially when there’s a weather emergency because they make sure people get good information.

And, to bring this back to a book, check out fab writer Eric Larson’s Isaac’s Storm, about the 1900 Galveston hurricane that changed the course of Texas coastal history. Isaac Cline was the weatherman at Galveston.

Okay, all. If you’re in Irene’s path or stand to be affected in some way by her, please take precautions.

Happy Friday, and stay safe.

by Categories: Hurricanes, WeatherTags: , , 1 Comment

Comic book series proves to be awesome wine guide

So how groovy is this? A Japanese brother/sister duo has created a comic book series that includes a healthy dose of wine-ness! In other words, you’ll become somewhat of an oenophile from reading Japanese manga! Sweet! I’m late to the party, too. They’ve been at it since 2004. Not sure they’re readily available in English yet. You might need to search around. I’ve seen the cover in English, so perhaps I’m missing a link. 😀

The comic series, called The Drops of God, introduces readers to wine through the adventures of their characters. Tejal Rao tells us that

Brother-and-sister duo Shin and Yuko Kibayashi turn wine-writing into an adventure with their weekly comic, Drops of God. In their world, wine drinkers are either good or evil, depending on how they approach the divine juice, and blind tastings can pit brother against brother in an epic struggle to win the family fortune. It’s goofy, it’s thrilling, it’s educational, and it’s changing the entire industry and culture of wine in Japan and beyond.

So how does it work?

Rao says:

The hero, Shimizu, is a wine newbie who works as a beer rep for a Japanese drinks importer. When Shimizu’s famous wine-critic father dies and leaves behind a priceless collection, Shimizu must compete for his inheritance in a 12-part puzzle, which he plays against his adopted brother, a despicable young wine critic. Seriously, this is juicy stuff!
Source for both quotes: Gilttaste.com, article by Tejal Rao

High drama and fine wines. I am so there.

source: mydramalist.com

Happy reading, happy sipping!

by Categories: Comics, Cool stuff to readTags: , ,

Shake it UP!

Holy temblors, Batman!

For those of you in the eastern part of the country, you experienced something today, didn’t you? A 5.8 quake hit near Mineral, VA today (about 40 miles NW of Richmond). Its effects were felt as far north as Portland, Maine. South of Mineral, people in South Carolina felt it, while Tennesseans felt it to the west. Some structures in Washington, DC sustained damaage; reports of flooding in the Pentagon basement have hit some news outlets, and apparently the National Cathedral was also damaged.


source: Fox28, Columbus

Wowzers. It was the largest tremor in recent history. Perhaps Virginia was just succumbing to peer pressure. A rare 5.3 rocked SE Colorado the day before, about 9 miles from the city of Trinidad, which is just north of the New Mexico border. I know that area, as I grew up in Colorado and then moved to New Mexico. Whoa!


source: Examiner

And, because I’m a writer and reader, here’s a list of literary treatments of earthquakes, the oldest published in 1807. That book is

“The Earthquake in Chile” by Heinrich von Kleist. Originally published in 1807, Kleist’s novella takes place during the 1647 Santiago earthquake and ends tragically, with a young couple killed after having been blamed, in a sermon, for the disaster. But Kleist has a bigger purpose, which is to highlight the idea that meaning is a matter of interpretation, that what we know is what we see.
source

I hope everyone is okay, and now, East-coasters, get ready for the next weather event. Hurricane Irene is right around the corner.

source: weather.com

So here you go. Hurricane preparedness (scroll down on that page) and, just in case, earthquake safety tips. I am, after all, an apocalyptic-type. 8)

All rightie. Happy reading, and happy safety!

by Categories: Earthquakes, WeatherTags: , , , ,

More on ebooks and royalties

Well, hi, kids!

Hope everyone had a groovy weekend. I was thinking about that link I posted last week in which author Graham Swift noted that authors are in danger of getting screwed with regard to ebook royalties.

And today, thanks to one of my writers’ associations (that would be Sisters in Crime), I was apprised of this story at BookBaby.

It’s an article titled “Do Publishers Pay a Fair Royalty Rate for ebooks under the Agency Model?”

Here’s what I found kind of interesting:

But despite these costs which publishers incur [read the piece to see what those are; it’s short]…they’re saving buckets full of money on not having to print or ship books – savings which range from the production department to the warehouse – and the authors simply are not being credited for those savings.

And while the price of ebooks generally is lower than hardcover, the publisher’s contribution on every sale of an ebook has remained equivalent to that of a hardcover, whereas the author’s share has dropped by about 1/3.
source: BookBaby

So I then followed the suggested link to THIS blog, with an article titled “How Ebook Royalties are Cheating Authors.” The blog includes figures, which look pretty crappy for authors.

QUOTE:

E-book royalty rates for major trade publishers have coalesced, for the moment, at 25% of the publisher’s receipts. As we’ve pointed out previously, this is contrary to longstanding tradition in trade book publishing, in which authors and publishers effectively split the net proceeds of book sales (that’s how the industry arrived at the standard hardcover royalty rate of 15% of list price). Among the ills of this radical pay cut is the distorting effect it has on publishers’ incentives: publishers generally do significantly better on e-book sales than they do on hardcover sales. Authors, on the other hand, always do worse.
[…]
So, everything else being equal, publishers will naturally have a strong bias toward e-book sales. It certainly does wonders for cash flow: not only does the publisher net more, but the reduced royalty means that every time an e-book purchase displaces a hardcover purchase, the odds that the author’s advance will earn out — and the publisher will have to cut a check for royalties — diminishes. In more ways than one, the author’s e-loss is the publisher’s e-gain.
source: Ask the Agent (emphasis mine)

Go to the link for the specific examples that’ll show you just how bad authors do on ebooks.

Anyway, I’m not going on a rampage against ebooks. I’m an author, after all, and I like that my stuff is available in multiple formats. However, I am concerned about ebook royalties, and about the invalidation of an electronic format as “work,” thus allowing publishers to contract a lower royalty rate. Or just because they like the greater profit they make from ebooks, and sadly that doesn’t seem to be trickling down. Just some stuff to think about.

Happy reading!

by Categories: Ebooks, Publishing biznessTags: 10 Comments

In Training (for an apocalypse)

Hey, fellow apocalyptids!

Yesterday I was thinking about trains. I was thinking that I sure wish this country had a better (and high-speed) train system, because I love traveling by train. I like getting up and walking around in a train, and going to the snack bar and watching the landscape fly past out the windows. Love that. We here in the States are deprived of super awesome train travel. Not to diss on Amtrak, or anything, but seriously. We need more tracks, more trains, and we’d be able to get around this country a lot easier, I think.

Anyway, I’m getting to something, here. Seriously. Bear with me.


source

And clickie to read more.

Continue reading →

by Categories: Apocalypse, Zombie Apocalypse Survival TipsTags: , , , 2 Comments

Food for thought

Hi, folks!

I came across a couple of interesting links the past day or so. This one is self-explanatory: DON’T PLAGIARIZE. It’s just plain sucky to do that to someone. Here’s one author’s experience with it. And yes, it does happen in the fanfic world. In this case, the plagiarizer posted the work on a fanfic site.

Plagiarism is theft. If you’re a writer (whether aspiring or not), show the world your individual creativity. You don’t need to steal somebody else’s work. Make your own. You’ll feel better about it. For reals.

And the second link has to do with ebooks and how they can threaten the livelihoods of aspiring writers. Award-winning author Graham Smith offers his concerns:

“The e-book does seem at the moment to threaten the livelihood of writers, because the way in which writers are paid for their work in the form of e-books is very much up in the air.

“I think the tendency will be that writers will get even less than they get now for their work and sadly that could mean that some potential writers will see that they can’t make a living, they will give up and the world would be poorer for the books they might have written, so in that way it is quite a serious prospect.”
source: The Telegraph

I think he has some valid concerns, especially when it comes to the idea that things in digital format should somehow be “cheaper” than things that are not. That’s a raging debate, by the way, in book land. The pricing of ebooks. The thing is, the same amount of work goes into creating a digital file as goes into a product that becomes a print book. That is, author time/effort, the various editors’ time/effort, the cover designer’s time/effort, and the typesetter’s time/effort. All that time and effort costs money. The only difference between a print book and an ebook is that one doesn’t go to a printer for binding. And that does save a little bit of money, but it doesn’t negate all the work and time that went into the back end. Make sense?

Anyway, just some stuff to ponder. Happy reading, happy writing!

by Categories: Books, Ebooks, Plagiarism, Publishing bizness, Stuff that sucksTags: , , 2 Comments