Round 16: you can slow down a bit, Mister Reaper
Tawny takes it with Jeff Conaway — to become the second double dick recipient in the history of the Dead Pool (steve is the other). Let’s hope this round lasts long enough to update the sidebar; it’s, like, three rounds behind.
Right! Here we go:
1. Pick a celebrity. Any celebrity — though I reserve the right to nix picks I never heard of.
2. We start from scratch every time. No matter who you had last time, or who you may have called between rounds, you have to turn up on this very thread and stake your claim.
3. Poaching and other dirty tricks positively encouraged.
4. Your first choice sticks. Don’t just blurt something out, m’kay?
5. It’s up to you to search the thread and make sure your choice is unique. I’m waayyyy too lazy. Popular picks go fast.
6. The pool stays open until somebody on the list dies. Feel free to jump in any time. Noobs, strangers, drive-bys and one-comment-wonders — all are welcome.
7. If you want your fabulous prize, you have to entrust me with a mailing address. If you don’t want the fabulous prize, you’re too smart to be a regular. It takes me forever to put them in the mail, packages go by slow boat, typically take minimum eight to ten weeks and lose the will to live along the way.
8. The new DeadPool will begin 6pm WBT (Weasel’s Blog Time) the Friday after the last round is concluded.
The fabulous prize? Sweasel dot com’s unofficial sponsor, Aunty’s Spotted Dick! Mmmmm…it’s dickalicious!
June 3, 2011 — 6:00 pm
Comments: 130
A pretty much spoiler-free review of Temporary Duty
I had a schizophrenic experience reading Ric Locke’s Temporary Duty. As I read it through, a little voice kept telling me, “oh, now, a proper editor from a publishing house would so make him change that.”
And then this other voice would say, “yes, but do YOU think he should change it?”
Like, the pacing is uneven. Wait, no it’s not — it’s logarithmic. The set-up and introductory part runs long (background stuff about the ship’s engineering and the aliens’ language and that — I like that flavor of sci fi, so I wasn’t put off). Then it picks up when they get moving. And then it picks up some more. And then it moves really fast to the end.
There are two protagonists, and I found it difficult to tell them apart for a long time. An editor would surely insist he pick one and make us identify with him from the start.
But I have to wonder how much of that I noticed because I was reading it for somebody, instead of just reading it.
I liked it. It was very Andre Norton-y — with a touch of the Chronicles of Gor and a pinch of the Waltons.
I hesitated to describe it that way to Ric. Critics are so snobby about good old-fashioned Norton-style space adventure, but I’m a great fan. Happily, it seems he is, too.
Oh, and dude was definitely in the Navy.
So who won the schizophrenic contest? Well, Voice #1 would’ve made him smooth it over until it was exactly like every other scifi book of its type I’ve ever read. Voice #2 thought that would be a damn shame.
New Dead Pool tomorrow, 6pm WBT. You’ve read about dicks in the news all week, now win one of your very own!
June 2, 2011 — 9:40 pm
Comments: 39
e-bollocks
I love my Kindle, but dang Amazon is making it hard to buy exactly the sort of book I like.
F’rexample, I love me some non-fiction crime and police books. I hate fictional murder mysteries and police procedurals.
You know how you tell the difference between true and fictional crime online? In fiction, the synopsis has adjectives. You know, “irascible police Inspector Slab Hardcheese” or “spunky detective Dick Trouble.” That’s it. That’s the only way. You’d think there’d be a fiction tag or or a subcategory something, but no.
To be fair, that’s been a gripe of mine for years — I belonged to a crime-themed book club for a while that made not the slightest distinction between true and fiction — but Kindle is worse, since only a tiny percent published books are available as e-books.
There seem to be three classes of book available for Kindle: really old (and often pretty lame, outside the classics) for free. Current titles, for the same money as a real book (yeah. Not going there). And a handful of desirable titles for small money that I really have to work to find.
Dear publishers: I can buy a used copy of your out-of-print book from Amazon UK for a penny (the seller makes his money on the shipping and handling and you make nuffink at all), or you can re-publish your back catalogue for $.99 a title and squeeze a little more juice out of that useless pulp. Choose wisely.
In that middle, desirable category — our own Ric Locke has Amazon-published a sci fi title. I read it (I’m mama’s little shit-hot proofreader, me). I promised him a real-live book review with, like, descriptions and shit…but for now, the short version is: I liked it.
And the picture? Why, it’s my new Eco-Nique Natural Hemp Kindle snuggy. I know, I know, but it’s so gosh-darned…snuggy.
June 1, 2011 — 10:21 pm
Comments: 53