1. Why Mondays? Seriously. Why?

Labels: humor, Random stuff

Go enter Ann Aguirre's Hell Fire ARC contest.

She's giving away 8 ARCs on her blog, and two on Twitter. Check it out. Enter. You won't be sorry.

Over at The Riskies we're setting up a Read-Along. Help us decide what book to read. There will be some prizes during the Risky Reading.

Labels: Authors, contest, reading

Oh, isn't it pretty? If you speak Italian and want to buy it, Italian eHarmony

Labels: Scandal, Translations

Amazon gives in to Macmillan

Macmillan has a monopoly on their books.

Of course they do. Surely Amazon wasn't naive enough to think otherwise? Only St. Martin's Press publishes Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter Series. If you want to read this series, you can only get the stories from a book that says St. Martin's Press on the spine. Or a digital file provided by SMP.

I refuse to believe Amazon wasn't fully aware of that fundamental fact about the publishing business.

So, is there a winner? It would seem to be Macmillan, since they got what they wanted -- a higher price for their eBooks. And Macmillan authors get their Amazon buy button back. That's good.

But is Macmillan really the winner? I'm thinking, maybe not.

Macmillan won an important right -- to set the price where they THINK it should be. They've also established a different model for selling eBooks: the agency model, in which Amazon gets 30% of the price set and the publisher gets the rest. Previously, Amazon kept well over 50% of the price. I've heard as high as 70%.

On the one had, I admit to being a wee bit relieved that Amazon is no longer going to set digital prices since they've been doing that in a way that can only hurt publishers and the current Amazon price structure for the self-published is a disgrace and insult to a working writer.

But now I'm worried that publishers will set digital prices in a way that's calculated to hurt the digital customer whom they seem to think of as a threat.

Macmillan and other publishers who follow suit -- I think that's inevitable, by the way -- will soon learn what consumers think is a fair price for what they're getting for their eBook purchases. It's not a bad lesson to learn.

I'm afraid publishers will set eBook prices at levels intended to protect their paper versions. There's no reason to think they won't. That's been what they've done at the other eBook sellers such as FictionWise and the like. This can only make the piracy problem worse since the potential legal buyers of eBooks will know they're being ripped off.

It just makes me kind of sad to think about a new market being deliberately hindered.

With luck, I'll be proven wrong. I hope so.

Labels: Amazon, books, eBooks, Kindle

Today I'm author Judi Fennel visits my blog to talk about her new release. It's got mermaids. Is that awesome or what? Please note, Judi has a great contest going so check it out at the end of this post!

About The Author

Judi Fennell has had her nose in a book and her head in some celestial realm all her life, including those early years when her mom would exhort her to "get outside!" instead of watching Bewitched or I Dream of Jeannie on television. So she did--right into Dad's hammock with her Nancy Drew books.

These days she's more likely to have her nose in her laptop and her head (and the rest of her body) at her favorite bookstore, but she's still reading, whether it be her latest manuscript or friends' books.

A three-time finalist in online contests, Judi has enjoyed the reader feedback she's received and would love to hear what you think about her Mer series. Check out her website at www.JudiFennell.com for excerpts, reviews and fun pictures from reader and writer conferences, and the chance to "dive in" to her stories.

About the Book

She's on a mission to save the planet. . .

Mermaid Angel Tritone has been researching humans from afar, hoping to find a way to convince them to stop polluting. When she jumps into a boat to escape a shark attack, it's her chance to pursue her mission, but she has to keep her identity a total secret. . .

When he finds out what she really is, they're both in mortal danger. . .

For Logan Hardington, finding a beautiful woman on his boat is surely not a problem-- until he discovers she's a mermaid, and suddenly his life is on the line. . .

What people are saying

Fennell's got detailed worldbuilding, creative secondary characters and an impressive use of mythology in this great read. While this title is part of a series, it works well as a stand-alone. Angel and Logan are both incredibly textured characters.
RT BookReview Magazine 4 Stars

Judi Fennell has extraordinary imagination and has certainly used it in creating this exciting and colorful story. Her characters are wonderful.
Fresh Fiction

The best blend of both worlds. I... love each and every character in Catch of A Lifetime (and) found (it) well worth diving into.
Long And Short Reviews 4.5 Books

4 Stars!
Affair de Coeur Magazine

Catch of a Lifetime is a heart warming tale. Ms. Fennell Ms. Fennell has created a delightful world that, I have enjoyed escaping to. It is both dangerous and fun.
Anna's Book Blog

The Interview

1. If your protagonist were to wake up one day with a super power, what would that super power be?
Angel actually wouldn't care whether she had one or not. She can change her tail to legs and back again, so she's pretty happy. Maybe if she could extend that change from two days to six months, that might do it. But she's a scientist; she prefers facts and evidence to magic.

2. If your protagonist were to wake up one day with an intense craving for something, what would the craving be?
Ice cream. Peppermint. Frozen iceberg chips just don't have the same flavor.

3. Would your villain (or antagonist) prefer to be Emperor Ming The Merciless or Darth Vader? Why?
Darth - Ming ruled a planet. Darth has a bigger focus; he wants every universe out there. Ceto has a bone to pick with The Gods and she wouldn't mind having more power than them. As for the sharks, they'd just be happy to have a say in what happens on The Council. Actually, that's not true. I could see A.C. using that as a stepping stone to the throne. Maybe even Poseidon's trident.

4. What do you consider the heart of your story? That is, what is the issue or emotion that propels things forward? Spill your guts on this one.
Angel wanting to be someone. I hadn't seen that coming when I wrote her story. All of a sudden, she's thinking about how much she wants to be so much more than "Just Angel." I hadn't realized. I love when things like that happen when I'm writing a story. All along, she's known why she's pushing so hard for the job she's after, but I hadn't realized why until that moment. It makes writing magical.


5. If you were in charge of casting the movie adaptation of your book, who gets the call?
I always love this question because while I can pick actors/actresses for my characters, I have a hard time seeing them as the characters because the characters are such vivid personalities in their own right. But, by all means, let Hollywood come calling! For Angel, I see Jessica Alba, and for Logan, Hugh Jackman. I have yet to see a Michael anywhere, though. And I'd pull Susan Sarandon in for Ceto, and either Pacino or DeNiro for A.C. Hell, this is a "what if" so let's get both. There are enough thug hammerheads to go around Hollywood mafiosos. Ray Liotta, too.

6. Is there a scene you cut from the book that you kind of wish you could put back in?
The first five chapters. :) Yep, I wrote five chapters before the opening of the book. They showed Angel escaping Hammerhead Harry, and what happens when she shows up on the boat and Michael sees her. But I think the book is stronger written the way it was published. Those five chapters, however, make good "freebies" on my website and will go up over the next few weeks.

7. Do you have a sample chapter posted?
I have an excerpt on my website.

8. Tell us why your editor is the best editor ever in the universe.
Because she loves my stories enough to buy them! And my next series, too. And hopefully more after that. Seriously, though, Deb Werksman is amazing. She knows just how to get to the heart of the story and build it outward from there. She can see things that need clarification and convey them wonderfully. Not that I like having to do those kinds of revisions, but all of my books are stronger because of the role she plays.

Contest

To celebrate the release of each of her books, Judi Fennell and the Atlantis Inn and the Hibiscus House bed and breakfasts are raffling off three romantic beach getaway weekends. All information is on Judi's website, www.JudiFennell.com.

Labels: Authors, contest, Interview

I was going to blog about something else but since there's a major controversy going on in the publishing world, I'm going to blog about that instead.

Here's the details as I know then now. FYI: Things may change as this is ongoing.

1. Wednesday (Jan 27) Apple introduced its iPad. This touchpad computing device does a bunch of stuff. For this issue, you need to know it includes iBook -- kind of like iTunes for books -- and Apple's answer to the Amazon Kindle. Reader and writer types noticed right away that the book prices were pretty high. $14.99. For the most part Amazon sells Kindle books for $9.99 and below. They take a loss on books for which the publisher actually charges more.

2. Soon after the iPad announcement, video surfaced of computer techno-maven Walt Mossberg speaking with Steve Jobs. They talked about books and their pricing vis-a-via the Kindle and Steve Jobs told Mossberg that "They will be the same."

Now that's interesting, I thought when I saw that clip. How does Steve know that? Does that mean they're lowering their price to match the Kindle? (I am at times sadly naive.)

3. The CEO of MacMillan Books has said some pretty uninformed stuff about eBooks, mostly about the price Amazon is charging. The basic issue is that hardcover books, as you probably have noticed, cost a lot more than $9.99 which is what the Kindle version of the hardcover costs. Hardcovers are VERY profitable for publishers. Mass Market Paperbacks (MMP) are not as profitable, don't cost as much and sell in far greater numbers, excluding the odd blockbuster everyone buys in hardback because they just can't wait.

4.MacMillan, in particular, has been very vocal about this. They, and other publishers have done things like publish in hardback but delay the availability of the Kindle version because they don't want to loose a hardback sale to a (cheaper) Kindle sale.

5. Today, Amazon pulled the Buy Now button from all MacMillan titles. This includes Tor and St. Martin's Press, by the way. This means you can no longer buy these books at Amazon unless you want to buy them used and that means NO money going to the author.

Here are the links to check out:

• Amazon Pulls MacMillan Books Over eBook Price Disagreement - NYT This article is pretty sketchy as to detail.


• Jane over at Dear Author has done a much better job than the NYT: Game On, MacMillan pulls the Kindle Books and Amazon Removes the Buy Button


• Authors, as is so often the case, are getting screwed right now. See John Scalzi MacMillan Books Gone Missing From Amazon. Scalzi writes for Tor, among other publishers. His books are now gone from Amazon.


• If you subscribe to Publishers Lunch, they have a decent but brief article.


• From Silicon Valley Insider: Steve Jobs Says Book Publishers Hate Amazon's Kindle reporting the Mossberg, Jobs exchange, which was filmed by another techno-maven, Kara Swisher. You can find the smoking clip at the SVI article.


• However, here it is from Swisher's report at Boom Town if you want to check out the original posting.


• And here's a grand irony from Reuters: Books a must-have even in sluggish economy: poll

My Take on This

There are several things wrong with this. The first is the assumption that but for the availability of the Kindle version, book buyers would buy the hardback. This appears to be an egregiously wrong assumption. There is, to my knowledge, no evidence that a Kindle owner would be a hardback buyer if she didn't own a Kindle.

I think it's much more likely that a Kindle owner, if she didn't have the device, would wait for the MMP rather than buy the hardback. The MMP would be priced at $7-8. But the Kindle owner, instead of waiting for the MMP, pays a bit more for the book right now. Instead of waiting. By the time the MMP comes out, she's not going to want to pay $9.99. So what's actually happening is the Kindle buyers represent BRAND NEW customers with respect to this release. MORE people buy this brand new book because there are two formats. And the cheaper one comes with some well known and much hated limitations.

But anyway, that's what the publishers are thinking. They think this because they haven't informed themselves about the changing landscape of book buying. (which is different from the changing landscape of book SELLING) They are not only technophobes, they are techno-idiots. They don't understand the digital world and they don't understand the people in it. Instead, they're running around yelling The sky is falling instead of listening to the consumer, some of whom are NEW consumers, tell them what they want.

Instead, they're trying to force consumers, who are new and/or different than they used to be, to behave in the comfortable way that matches the spreadsheets they've already got. Which are about selling something these consumers would rather not buy in the manner it's being sold to them.

Publishers need to hire someone who actually understands technology. Someone who grew up with it or enthusiastically threw themselves into it when the world changed. And it did, people, it did. And then they need to actually LISTEN to that person. Any C-Level employee who didn't personally take a look at Twitter when the buzz started is automatically disqualified from this position.

That's my personal line in the sand, by the way. If you weren't curious to know what Ev was doing over there, you're not the right person to help lead Publishers out of the Analog world. If you don't know who Ev is, you're really not the right person.

FYI: Ev is the person who started Blogger. After Google bought Blogger, Ev went off and tried a couple things that were neat but not neat enough. Then he did Twitter with some buds. Blogger, by the way, does not look significantly different than it did shortly before Ev left Blogger (post acquisition). There was one big upgrade, then Ev left.

Carolyn's Demands

• Stop wishing this digital stuff would just go away. It won't.


• Believe in your heart, because it's true, that pissing off your customers is not a sound business practice.


• Start listening to what READERS want.


• Forget territorial rights. They are now only a fiction. (heh) Concentrate on translation rights for your eBooks. If someone in Singapore reads English well enough to prefer buying books in English, let them. If I decide I want to buy a book in French, even though I live in California, let me. You will sell more books that way.


• Do some fucking research about piracy. Fund it if you have to. Pick an academic to do the work. Get some real data instead of the fake data, knee jerk assumptions you're using.


• Listen to your tech person about how to get people to buy legally. Oh hell, I'll just tell you now:
  
  1. Make it easy
  2. Don't rip me off
  3. Don't break my shit doing it.
  
  


• Keep in mind that you sell stories. Authors write them. If we have to, we'll write them without you. Your (fiction) business goes away without the stories.
  

Update

Thanks for the comments. I appreciate people weighing in on the issue. I thought I should clarify a few things.

First, I don't write for MacMillan, so my books are still on Amazon. I write for Berkley (Penguin Putnam) and Grand Central (Hachette Books) I do, however, read lots of authors who do write for MacMillan.

Also, I have the Kindle app on my iPhone and have purchased and read a lot of books that way, including books from MacMillan. I also read books on Stanza, another iPhone app, because the Kindle isn't always the best way to go. Especially when my author friends send me their books to read before they're published (Oh, I am so lucky!)

At Christmas, I bought my 82 year old mother a Kindle. She and my dad have both read books on it. I loaded it up with free books and helped my mother buy a book she was interested in reading.

So, that said, this post is not about DRM (Digital Rights Management). I happen to think it's a mistake, particularly as DRM is typically implemented. So far, in my opinion, DRM does far more harm than good because it breaks stuff for the consumer.

This post also isn't about piracy. I've posted about that a few times on this blog. My books have been pirated. What frosts me about that is the people who pirate my books and then sell them. Yeah. They steal my stuff and then sell what they stole to other people. That is wrong. Other than that, there's only one person (Brian O'Leary) who is actually studying piracy with any rigor at all.

Therefore, my position on piracy is aside from the obvious issue of stealing, I don't know for sure yet.

BUT!

Please don't think I am totally on the side of Amazon here. I'm not. I'm not a lawyer but I'm not clear on what agreements were made about pricing for iBook, the Kindle or anything else. Was there a smoke filled room and nefarious dealings? I don't know.

I think Amazon removing MacMillan from its site is pretty silly. They're screwing authors and readers to make a point with MacMillan and, probably, Apple. It's possible to view Amazon's pricing decision, and its $9.99 price point as predatory in effect. They know what publishers charge. They're willing to take a loss on these books in order to create a market at at price point less than publishers charge.

What happens when Amazon decides it doesn't want to take a loss any more? History suggests they won't be raising their price. History suggests they'll go to the publishers and say, hey, we won't carry your books unless you charge us less. Publishers have seen it before: from the big chains and from Wal-Mart. That's a fundamental change in the economic landscape. Price isn't set by the cost of the product + markup - what consumers will pay. Price gets set by the retailer and the seller has to suck it up or else. In MacMillan's defense, that's scary. But it doesn't excuse publishers lack of understanding.

Hopefully, I've been clear that I think publishers are making decisions based on misinformation and misunderstanding and that can just lead nowhere good.

And, as usual, let me say that in an emerging trend, the facts are fluid, not everything is known. All I can say is this is what I think so far, but I stand really and willing to hear more facts and opinions and change my mind accordingly.

Labels: Amazon, publishing, Rant, Whoopsies

Sigh

Reading another book where a writer has used the already egregiously wrong stereotypes of about computers to show a character who is supposedly a computer expert. In this case, a (airquotes)hacker(airquotes).

First off, hacking is in some ways ridiculously easy and in other ways quite complex. I can't even begin a 101 level discussion. From what I've seen most writers would be lucky to reach the remedial level. What they are right now is woefully ignorant. It's every computer user's right to be ignorant about their computer. I happen to believe that users have every right to expect their computers to simply freaking work without putting their security at risk. That is, alas, not reality.

But if you're writing a story that includes computers, please. TV and movies are simply not a resource you can rely on.

So here's some horrifically high level facts about hacking. Consider these jumping off points for your research. I am leaving out massive amounts of information. LOTS!

If you're going to write a book about a hacker, then please subscribe to 2600. As mentioned in a previous post, it's quite possible you can't get to that website at work, even though it's not dangerous to your computer. 2600 will quickly educate you on the mentality of people who do this sort of thing for good, evil or neutral. Every word of the magazine is a clue and reference material. EVERY FREAKING WORD!

Hacking is not what you think. It's not the stereotype you read in the newspapers, see on TV or hear about anywhere else in mainstream media. Seriously.

Criminal hackers are a different matter as nowadays it's often organized crime, but 2600 will educate you about that too.

It's not enough to know there's such a thing as a firewall and that there are ways to get around one (or perhaps more accurately, through one).

How do the bad guys Do Bad Stuff?

It's not magic. There are programs written specifically to exploit known vulnerabilities. Some of them have good purposes (penetration testing for example) but, like anything, such programs can be used for evil. And some were written specifically to do bad things.

It is possible to write your own.

The key point is the bad person is not just jumping on the internet and looking at web pages and then stuff just happesn. They are firing up programs that look for open ports and then sending commands to those ports that will accomplish evil things.

If a website was put together without considering security, then there WILL be commands from a web browser that can get you into a server. That, by the way, is typically the goal. The bad person wants to get from the computer serving up the webpage to the server that has the database, or to the domain controller or some other internal server.

SQL Injection, for example, involves tacking on certain commands to the end of a browser URL that will open up the database. From there, on a server that was not set up with thought to security, you could get to many other servers internal to a company.

Also, please remember that it's unlikely that a hacker will be using a Windows computer to do evil. It's fairly certain he or she will be using one of the flavors of Unix/Linux. The reason is beyond the scope of this post, but I think we could stop at, it's a matter of pride. It's possible. Of course.

An accomplished hacker, one whom you hope to portray as evil and/or heroic is going to have a customized set of tools and scripts, some of which he/she has likely written on his/her own.

Such a person could sit at a random computer and accomplish evil things. But they'll be using telnet or the command prompt -- that person would have to be VERY GOOD INDEED because they will have had to memorize really a lot of arcane commands. Or they could plug in their flash drive containing their toolset.

A evil person could sit around looking for websites vulnerable to SQL Injection, for example. But there are easier ways to find the low hanging fruit.

What they're not doing is jumping onto the World Wide Web and bypassing firewalls [waving of hands in magical incantation].

Understanding Firewalls

I am flying at a high level here, OK? There are also many many other ways to do evil than what I describe here. This is incredibly basic.

The Internet depends on a series of protocols -- rules that have been agreed upon regarding how one computer communicates with another computer. There are many different protocols. Here are 4 common ones:

FTP
HTTP
SHTTP
SSH

You should recognize the second protocol: http

If you don't, look up at the top of your browser. If you're reading this directly from my website, you should see http://www.carolynjewel.com etc. You could substitute ftp.carolynjewel.com (And I suppose you could try to guess the login and password set for ftp services at carolynjewel.com.) If you did that, you would not see my lovely website because websites are written for the rules of the http protocol. ftp does not understand the rules for http. To do anything you would need to know the commands for ftp or be using an ftp shell program that will send those commands for you. Once you've guessed the login and password for my ftp site.

The Well Known Ports

Each protocol has been assigned its own port number. There are a set of agreed upon port numbers for each of a series of internet protocols. They are cleverly called The Well Known Ports. You can see the list here: IANA List of Well Known Ports

Side Note: The port numbers tend to be assigned in pairs of ports called TCP and UDP. If you care, traffic sent over the TCP port gets a return acknowledgment. I sent this. Yup, I got it. Traffic send over UDP is not acknowledged. I sent this.

The http protocol has been assigned the Well Known Port of 80.
FTP is 20
Microsoft SQL Server is port 1433

Your email is almost certainly being sent over port 25 (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol or SMTP).

Really Simple Example

So there you are at your computer. Your computer could send traffic over any and all of the ports using any of the agreed upon protocols. If you want, you can think of the ports as doors that reside on your computer. Corresponding doors exist on any other internet connected computer.

But certain doors (ports) may be locked on your end, from the inside (you can't get out that door) or from the outside (others cannot get into your door.) It's also true that on any other computer, certain ports may or may not be open from the inside or outside.

You are on the World Wide Web, looking at www.carolynjewel.com. That's because your computer sent an http request to carolynjewel.com over port 80 that said, please show me the page at carolynjewel.com

carolynjewel.com responds to your http request by displaying my home page to you over port 80 on your computer.

Now, suppose you have a firewall. A firewall is designed to stop traffic from going out and/or coming in. For your firewall, you have to decide which doors are open to outgoing and incoming traffic.

Side Note: What if you don't have a firewall? Then anything can go out and ANYTHING can get in. If you don't have a firewall installed, you should be worried.

If you don't have SQL Sever installed on your computer, when someone comes to your computer from elsewhere on the internet and wants inside via port 1433 nothing will happen. But what if you do? Anyone from the outside can talk to your SQL Server. Uh oh.

Now, suppose your firewall blocks all OUTGOING traffic on port 80. Will you be able to see anything on the World Wide Web?

No, you will not.

Your request to see carolynjewel.com will never get to the server that hosts my website.

Now suppose your firewall blocks all INCOMING traffic on port 80. Will you be able to see anything on the World Wide Web?

No, you will not.

Your request to see carolynjewel.com will reach my server and my server will say, you betcha. Here's the page. The page will be sent to your computer over port 80 but port 80 on your computer will be CLOSED so you can't see it.

If incoming and outgoing traffic is blocked over port 80, then the WWW is dead to you.

So practically speaking, nobody blocks port 80 because then you can't see any lovely webpages. And what would be the point of that?

Suppose, though, that you had an internet connected computer whose only job was to receive and serve up FTP related commands. In that case, you might set up a firewall to block port 80. Unlikely, but possible.

But there are all these other ports that can provide a way into an internet connected computer. Hackers know this. The information is COMMONLY known. It has to be otherwise the internet wouldn't work as designed.

You need a firewall to keep out the folks who scan for open ports. There are some high value, if you will, ports that will have juicy stuff on the other end. Since each port is allotted to a defined protocol, what you do when you find one that's open depends on what port it is.

You can, if you like, think of the protocols as different languages. If I only understand French, it does no good to speak to me in Chinese. I will never understand.

So, suppose I am port 1433 (SQL Server). If you send traffic to port 1433 that is designed for FTP (port 20) nothing happens. But if you send traffic to port 1433 and you speak SQL Server to it .... ooh la la. You will get an answer. If you are a good person, then hey. But what if you are bad? What if you are looking for the information in the SQL Server database on the other end of that open port 1433? That is not so good.

One of the things hackers do is scan for open known ports. When they find one, they will execute an attack known to work against whatever is at the other end of that port. (It's more complicated than this, OK? There are things you can do to protect against that. etc.)

I think if I keep going, brains will asplode.

Labels: Ack, computers, Hacking

Saturday, I drove down to Sunnyvale, California, the heart of the Silicon Valley, to attend Donald Maass's seminar Fire In Fiction. I hate driving. I particularly hate driving to the South Bay because the freeways there were designed by a sadist. Even with the GPS I still confuse left and right and I sometimes still take the wrong exit. Driving is stressful for me. But I got up at 6:00 am on a Saturday and drove a hour and a half South.

I listened to Maass's 2009 RWA workshop on my DVD and heard enough in that 2 hours to think I'd really like to hear more about his thoughts. I was particularly interested because I know that in addition to being a top Literary Agent he's also been a writer. I've read his book Writing The Break out Novel and thought it was one of the more helpful writing books. For me. YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary).

The seminar ran from 9:30am to 6:30pm and what a great experience it was. There was a lot of detailed analysis and explanation. I have pages and pages of notes and examples. I'm so glad I went. This was completely worth the money.

I now have several new and interesting ways to think about writing.

Never stop learning.

Labels: learning, Revisions, workshops, writing

On Wednesday jan 19 2010, I will be over at Risky Regencies blogging about Lord Byron and contemporary opinions, among other heavily opinionated things. So if you're reading this on Wednesday, it's a two-fer! Check it out.


First off, here's the cover of The Mammoth Book Of Regency Romance in which I will have a story. I don't know the release date yet, but I will update you all when I know.

My story is about a couple who realize their long correspondence via the post has made them perfect for each other. He's younger than she is, by the way.

I don't know how mammoth the book will be, but hey, what a great way to find out about other authors you might like!


In other news, the official title for My Beloved Assassin is now My Immortal Assassin. You heard it here first!

In other, other news, I recently finished my first book by John Scalzi. I've been following his wonderful blog for ages and have been thinking, for ages, that I should read something by the guy. I was at my local independent this weekend, Copperfield's Books, and there was his first book. Old Man's War so I said Whatever and bought it.

Then I read it. And damn! It was really good. It gave me the warm and fuzzies for SciFi again after years and years of being all depressed about how hostile so much SciFi is to the women in the books. I grew up adoring Azimov and Heinlein etc and even when I was twelve or so I remember feeling sad that the women didn't do much besides die or be cast off or require saving. They were so rarely characters that changed the story on their own. Over the years, I'd pick up something in the genre -- maybe I was just unlucky -- and I'd end up feeling like not much had changed. I love stories with ray guns and space ships and physics and all and I've missed them, as I discovered.

Old Man's War was like reading Heinlein or Azimov only the women were real people! They were capable and worthy of admiration and respect for so much more than big boobs. And the story was romantic. Really, truly romantic. ::Sigh::

And now, back to work for me.

Has anybody read anything good lately?

Labels: Mammoth Book of Regency Romance, My Immortal Assassin, reading, SciFi

I'm reading a really great book right now -- not a romance by the way -- with a major plot point that involves computers.

Someone is blackmailing people with surreptitious photos of them engaging with prostitutes. The photog has a digital SLR camera and emails the photos to his partner in crime (PIC). He then deletes the photos from his computer. The computers described, by the way, are all running a Windows Operating System (OS), that's pretty clear.

The hero is in possession of the PIC's computer but is questioning the photog at his house in full sight of the photog's computer and camera. I'm not sure because the scene is actually unclear, but I believe the hero removes the memory chip from the SLR and hands it to someone else while he reviews the photos in the camera's memory.

Stop
I have big issues with the camera thing, since my experience is that a professional quality SLR takes such HUGE file-size photos that you can't store anything on the camera itself. But while my Nikon D80 is a high end SLR, I'm not familiar with the kind of SLR pros use, so maybe this is right. I doubt it, but whatever.

The photos the hero hopes to find are not on the SLR (and I'm thinking, doh! They're on the memory card you took out and then the photog explains how he deletes the photos from the computer and emails the best ones to his PIC.

I am now thinking, cool! This is going to be easy. Make the guy login to his email program and check his email sent items folder.

But no. They push aside that computer, go get the PIC's computer and find where the PIC saved off the emailed photos because the photog says, hey, I bet my PIC never renamed my photos. After which the author describes a file naming convention that contains characters that are illegal in a Windows OS.

Full Stop
What the F? Number one, most people are clueless about their computers. There is nothing wrong with that other than the pain that inevitably arises from owning a computer with an OS that is actively hostile to people who just want the damn thing to work.

So, people, if this guy has deleted the photos, they are surely in the trash file. The hero is supposed to be someone clueful and any fool should have thought of that.

But not to even think of looking in the guy's email program? Come on. The stupid photos are there. There was no freaking need to fetch the recipient's computer.

Sigh

As an author, if you write a story in which someone is supposedly being all tricky and geeky about computers, please please please check with a REAL geek.

Please note, I am flying at a high level once again. There are nuances and details I'm skipping. This is informational only -- if you're looking for facts for your writing, please dig deeper and consult multiple sources.

In a Windows OS, you cannot name a file any darn thing you want. There are certain characters (most of them are puncutation) you are not permitted to use. You can use multiple periods, though. If you try to use them, the computer will return an error to the effect that you can't name your file in that manner.

On any computer it is REMARKABLY hard to delete all traces of a file. The trash file is the blindingly obvious place to look, but there are other places to look as well as known methods for recovering deleted drives. Now, this story does not (yet) involve a computer forensics specialist so I'm not griping that the hero doesn't know this.

But here's some interesting things:

To well and truly wipe a hard drive, you have to degauss it. Three times. There's a military spec program that will do this. It will wipe a hard drive, rewriting ALL the bits and bytes three times. Even then I bet there's a way to get around that. For more info, you can google

degaussing a hard drive

When Windows deletes a file, it's not really deleting it. Let me say that again: Windows doesn't actually delete a file when you tell it to delete a file. All it does is overwrite the first character of the file name with a 0. Presto, to the OS, it's deleted, but on your hard drive, it's still there. And unless the OS happens to write another file to the exact same location it will stay there.

In case you think encrypting your computer is enough, all I can say is in the face of a skilled and determined geek, au contraire mon frere. But it's still the best thing you can to do to protect your data.

As a side, side note to that, encrypting your hard drive is only as secure as your password. If you tape it to your computer or nearby or use a weak password you might as well not have bothered.

Turning off your computer is also no guarantee that everything in volatile memory is gone. It's not. You can recover that, too. And if you get to a computer quickly enough (the time is longer than you think) you can reconstruct what was going on before it was turned off. Google

 computer forensics volatile memory

A really fun and interesting resource is 2600. I subscribe because there's all kinds of crazy-cool stuff in it. If you're at work, don't be surprised if you can't get to the site. Some companies block it. (I am laughing at that - because any good computer person will get there anyway -- Not that I ever looked at 2600 when I worked for an employer who blocked the site -- in a half assed way. Really.)

Passwords

Here's some password thoughts for you. Since I am a Database Administrator (DBA) I can tell you from personal experience that the MOST UNBELIEVABLY common passwords are:

password
12345
54321
password123
[Your name]
[curse words]
[keystrokes in the horizontal or vertical order of appearance on a standard keyboard]

Any DBA can tell you it's astonishing the bad passwords people pick. And disappointingly nasty. Some people are just crude.

An experienced computer person probably has a 40% chance of flat out guessing your password. Because they'll run through the unbelievably common passwords. If that person knows a few things about you (your spouse, your birthday, your kids names or pets) bump that to 60%. Heck, if they're just sitting at your desk, they'll probably pick up enough to make some darn good guesses.

But what if your password isn't unbelievably obvious? Check this out: How Long Will your Password last? A few examples: If you chose a password of numbers only: a 2 digit password will be cracked instantly.

Oh, you say, who picks a password that lame? You'd be surprised.

Let's say you pick a 9 digit numeric password. On a crappy desktop, your password will be cracked in 28 hours. If you're the government using a great computer, it's instantaneous.

Letters are a little better, right? A five letter password (in the same case -- all upper or all lower) will be cracked in 20 minutes on a crappy desktop machine. If you double the length to 10, then it's 447 years. Unless you're the government in which case it's 39.5 hours. At 20 characters, even the government will need 631 billion years. Excluding words in the dictionary, of course, since those will be cracked in the first round . . . So, is YOUR password that long AND not in the dictionary?

Check out that link, once you've checked out the footnotes so you understand the chart (easy!!!) I hope you will go change your banking password.

Possibly NSFW because of the curse words: Top 500 Worst passwords I rest my case. There's a lot of people who are picking passwords they'll remember (understandable) instead of a password that's not so lame it can be cracked instantly.

Of course, it's possible to just install some malware and get passwords sent to you.

Alas.

But true.

I won't keep going even though I could.

Labels: carolyn geeks out, computers

About Meljean Brook. On Tuedsay January 12, she blogged to ask whether, being desperate for caffeine in an accidentally caffeine free house, it would be safe to use a powdered mocha mix that was 6 months past the expiration date. Here's the post: Life or Death Poll if you'd like to add your 2 cents. Or may just warn her, because . . .

According to the poll, just about everyone said yes, she'd be fine.

Except now it's been two days and she hasn't been heard from.

We may have been wrong.

Or, maybe she decided not to risk it and her head exploded from the lack of caffeine.

Meljean?

Labels: Meljean Brook

A while back I was invited to write a story for the Mammoth Book of Regency Romance. The deadline was pretty short so by the time the contract was all final and the event announce-able I was just about done with the story.

Tonight I finished and sent it off to the editor, so hey! It should be out sometime this year I believe with stories by lots of other really great Regency Historical authors. Since I retain electronic rights at some point the story will be available for download. Watch this space!

Labels: Mammoth Book of Regency Romance

Ahem. I've been getting a few things off my shiny New Year Plate so I can put some bigger things on it. A short story is ready to head out the door. A draft proposal off to my agent.

Now, I need to get my head down and finish revisions for My Beloved Assassin

What about the big lunch, you ask? Let me tell you!

Some of you may know that last year I won lunch with Barry Eisler through Brenda Novak's Diabetes auction. Various things prevented an immediate luncheon, but this weekend we hooked up and I ordered the biggest lunch possible. (Not really.)

He signed some of his books for me (squeeee!!!!) and gave me the ARC of Inside Out. We had a lovely lunch. He's a really nice guy. You can bet your bippy I'll be trolling the auction lists against this year for more wonderful things to bid on.

Yesterday, an embarrassingly short time after I got home from lunch, I started reading Inside Out and just kept turning pages. I finished at 1:45 this morning.

Inside Out is the book that follows last year's Fault Line which I loved when I read it. This one features Ben Traven as the hero and well, I'll do a full review when I have a bit more time, but I loved this book. It's on a par with Lee Child. Ben is now in Carolyn's Hero Hall of Fame too. If you like action books then when it comes out in June this year, get your hands on it.

I'm now getting myself to bed early as I did not exactly get enough sleep today and don't wish to be wreck tomorrow.

I hope everyone's inaugural week of 2010 has been lovely!

Labels: books, My Beloved Assassin, writing

Today I got my hair beautified. I'm looking pretty spiffy! Then I walked up the street to one of my fav stores in town and they were having a 30% off sale. I did not leave empty handed. Then I came home and got some writing done.

Am up to chapter 3 three on revisions for My Beloved Assassin. It's going well.

Tomorrow is mailing day for several December Extravaganza prizes. Two packages are heading off to Africa. My thanks to everyone who dropped by to answer my silly questions!

I read a bunch of books during my break.

• Covet by JR Ward -- still thinking about what I think
• A vampire book with a heroine I adored, but the rest -- meh. And the ending. WTF?
• Susan Elizabeth Phillips No One's Baby But Mine I enjoyed this book, but I have an issue with a woman tricking a man into impregnating her without his knowledge. That's just too wrong for me to believe in such a heroine.
• Susan Elizabeth Phillips Glitter Baby Also enjoyed this one. But it's dated. This must have been one one the last generational Romances written. I kind of miss them.

Did anyone else read Covet? What did you think?

Labels: My Beloved Assassin, reading

Happy New Year to everyone!

It's a bright and shiny start to the year. Any day you can start off by sleeping in is a win in my book. I didn't get myself out of bed until 10:30. Then I had lemon meringue pie for breakfast (home made by yours truly!) AND Darjeeling tea my brother brought from India.

Now that's a good breakfast.

Even better, it's Friday so I have a weekend in front of me with total denial about the day job locked in for an extra day. GRIN!!

I don't make New Year's Resolutions because they're always the same, I just roll them over from the previous year. I'm on a 10 year roll. Heh.

I ended up taking a mini-break from writing from shortly before Christmas to now, and I'm must say I'm feeling refreshed and ready to go. I've been dreaming about writing, though, which in interesting. I have two big projects to get cracking on and well, yes. I am blogging instead of writing.

• Revisions for My Beloved Assassin need to be done.
• Final pass through Regency short story
• Need to get going on The Next Paranormal
• Must write up a different Historical proposal

So, yeah. Stuff to do in this bright and shiny year of 2010. How about you guys?

Labels: Happy New Year, My Beloved Assassin, The Next Paranormal

The randomly chosen winner of the Amanda McCabe books is:

#14, Angie

I've sent an email so watch your in box and spam folder.

Interesting results, by the way. Out of 18 entries, 12 of you said you'd chose an unerring sense of timing over fashion sense. Personally, I am torn on the issue. I have essentially zero fashion sense so the fashion sense would be useful. As others pointed out, if you look great, does it matter if you're late? Timing, however, might just me more universally helpful. Always the right thing at the right time . . . including, one presumes, buying and selling stocks. Or leaving a room right before the big fight breaks out.

I am now assembling all the prizes that need to be mailed now that the holiday mailing crush is over.

Labels: contest winner

Two more signed books are up this time, both by the fantabulous Amanda McCabe

The Winter Queen

Sent to Serve
As Queen Elizabeth's lady-in-Waiting, innocent Lady Rosamund is unprepared for the temptations of Court. She is swept up in the festivities of the yuletide season and, as seduction perfumes the air, Rosamund is drawn to darkly enticing Anton Gustavson. . .

Seduced By A Master!
With the coming of the glittering Frost Fair, they are tangled in a web of forbidden desire and dangerous secrets. For in this time of desperate plots and intrigues, Anton is more than just a handsome suitor-- he may have endangered the life of the woman he is learning to love . . .

Spirited Brides

This book includes two wonderful stories for your enjoyment! How could you possibly resist?

One Touch of Magic
Sarah, Lady Iverson, is forging ahead with her late husband's work by excavating an ancient Viking village on an estate owned by Miles Rutledge, who inherited the property from his uncle. Although dismayed that a dig is being performed on grounds best suited for crops, he's intrigued by Sarah's scholarly pursuits--and by a connection between them that promises wealth beyond any buried treasure.

A tour-de-force -- Rakehell Reviews

A Loving Spirit
Visiting Royce Castle in the wilds of Cornwall delights Cassie Richards, for she's always been intrigued by the stories of its ghosts--and by the enigmatic lord of the manor. Rational-minded Phillip, the Earl of Royce, has no time or patience for silly rumors of phantoms--or the attentions of attractive young ladies. But when Cassie arrives at his mother's invitation, he's hard put to deny an unexpected infatuation that might just bloom into love...with some spiritual guidance.

An engaging romp with a romance that's sure to please -- Romance Reviews Today

How to be in the running to win these two books

Easy! All you have to do is answer the following question before December 31 is over -- here in California. Shortly after that I will choose a random winner. If you don't leave me a way to contact you, you'll have to commit to checking back after the 31st to see if you won. I reserve the right to choose another winner if previous winners fail to timely respond. Void where prohibited.

The Question

Which would you rather have, exquisite taste in fashion or an unerring sense of timing. Why?

Go.

Labels: contest

Randomly chosen winner is:

#14: Amanda

Amanda -- you'll need to email me with your snail mail address. If I don't hear from you by next Friday (12.31) I'll have to choose a different winner, so claim your books! Woot!

Labels: contest winner

Right. So In February, Berkley published my historical Scandal. And recently, Scandal was on three of Dear Author's reviewer lists of top reads for 2009, including Jane's. Indiscreet made a couple of those lists, too. I was really really flattered by that.

Today, Scandal was included on Dear Author's list of Top 100 Romances. Not Top 100 for 2009. Top 100 ever. Take a look at the names and books on that list. I would hyperventilate if I were to meet some of those authors. Probably all of them. The way I did when I met Mary Balogh. She probably thinks I'm a total dork -- Thankfully, I doubt she remembers me by name.

This is quite an emotional moment for me because Scandal was almost the book that wasn't.

I am flattered beyond words that Scandal would show up on a list like that.

Labels: Scandal

OK. Here's the winnings. Also, All these books are signed by the author!

Lisa Dale's It Happened One Night

Sometimes Love Finds You When You Least Expect It
Lana Biel has always wanted to shake the dust of Vermont off her feet and see the world, one exotic country after another. But when a lighthearted spring fling changes her life forever, she turns tot he one man whose strong shoulders can lighten any burden: her best friend, Eli Ward.
Eli has always been there for Lana-- after all, that's what best friends do. But Lana isn't the only one hiding something. Eli is keeping secrets of his own that threaten their relationship. Yet as summer turns to fall, new desires awaken between them, even as old fears tear them apart. Then, when another Vermont winter fills the valleys with snow, Eli and Lana are given the chance for an adventure greater than they ever dreamed possible. . . and a love that will last for all time.

Evenings at the Argentine Club by Julia Amante

Victor and Jaqueline Torres imagined moving to the U.S. would bring happiness and prosperity-instead they found a world of frustration. While Victor put long hours into his restaurant business, Jaqui devoted her life to her daughters, until they grew up and moved on. Even their eldest, Victoria, is torn trying to reconcile being the perfect Argentine daughter and an independent American woman. Antonio and Lucia Orteli face the same realities, especially when their only son Eric leaves their close-knit Argentine community in pursuit of his own dreams. When Eric unexpectedly shows up at the Argentine Club-the heart of the Argentine community in southern California-he starts a series of events that will bring these two families closer than ever. New relationships are formed and old ones are put to the test, as everyone must learn how to balance different cultures-and different dreams-without hurting those they love.

Seduce Me by Robyn DeHart, Legend Hunters Series: Book One

Fielding Grey is a treasure seeker with a taste for danger and experienced women. His latest mission: wrest Pandora's fabled box from a notorious criminal mastermind. Not in the job description: save an innocent damsel in distress.

A bookish miss, Esme Worthington has favored dusty tomes over society balls, and thrilling tales over flirtations. But when two scoundrels break into her home, she is thrust into a real-life adventure. Pursued and suddenly possessing the forbidden box, Esme can't resist peeking inside. Under the spell of Pandora's seductive curse, she's soon offering herself to Fielding – body and soul. With her reluctant rescuer determined to resist her charms, can the two outwit an enemy who will stop at nothing to seize their precious prize?

Spine-tingling adventure and sexy secrets! Robyn DeHart's vibrant characters sweep the reader into a clever and sensual romp that is not to be missed.
-- Julia London, NYT Bestselling Author of Highland Scandal

SEDUCE ME is a rousing and rollicking romantic adventure! If you like THE MUMMY and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, you'll love SEDUCE ME. Robyn DeHart proves that falling in love is the greatest adventure of all.
-- Teresa Medeiros, NYT Bestselling Author of Some Like it Wild

Find out More

A Hint of Wicked by Jennifer Haymore

What happens when a lady desires not one man, but two?

CAUGHT BETWEEN DUTY AND DESIRE...
Sophie, the Duchess of Calton, has finally moved on. After seven years mourning the loss of her husband, Garrett, at Waterloo, she has married his best friend and heir, Tristan. Sophie gives herself to him body and soul... until the day Garrett returns from the Continent, demanding his title, his lands-and his wife.
TORN BETWEEN TWO HUSBANDS...

Now Sophie must choose between her first love and her new love, knowing that no matter what, her choice will destroy one of the men she adores. Will it be Garrett, her childhood sweetheart, whose loss nearly destroyed her once already? Or will it be Tristan, beloved friend turned lover, who supported her through the last, dark years and introduced her to a passion she had never known? As her two husbands battle for her heart, Sophie finds herself immersed in a dangerous game-where the stakes are not only love... but life and death.

... one of the best historical romances I have read this year.
-- Fallen Angels Reviews

... delivers almost too thoroughly on its heart-tearing premise.
-- Publisher’s Weekly

...an up-and-coming new writer who displays a skillful touch...
-- New York Times bestselling author Shirlee Busbee

...a unique plot filled with powerful emotion and complex issues.
--Romantic Times

How to Win All These Books!

Leave a comment with an answer to this question:

Do you ever cry at movies? If yes, what's the most recent movie that got you teary-eyed? No worries if the answer is no.

I'll choose a random winner on 12/24, okay?

Labels: contest

Today I didn't feel good, so I didn't do (much) day job work on my work-from-home-day. (Not much of a sick day if you spend your waking hours checking email and doing work, which is what happened . . .) Anyway, when I woke up after going back to bed this morning, I still felt like crap so I started reading this book. A Romance. Because I do enjoy Romance a lot. And this was one I bought because it's clear my historicals need to be lighter in tone if I'm to continue publishing them. And this one had the elements that have been under discussion.

This book started out well. The writing was rock solid. But the whole thing kind of took a left turn quickly and I soon realized that the very early signs of a conflict between logic and Authorial Need weren't just minor issues I could overlook, but signs of a writer who was not in control of the internal logic of her story.

In the opening, the heroine is being kidnapped and she's running through an internal monologue that has nothing to do with fear or worry. Nothing explained or hinted at why she wasn't in fear for her life. Then later when she's mostly naked, drugged and tied to a bed in a brothel, the hero comes in. And for the entire rest of the scene, despite being drugged, she is able to converse with him with absolutely no sign of mental impairment. She is witty and amusing!

I admit I kept thinking, but she's been drugged! The bad guys wouldn't send the Hero up to have his way with her if they didn't know the drugs would have taken effect by then. They were experienced bad guys. It was obvious they'd done this sort of thing before.

But the hero was kind of cool and awesome and I kept thinking all of this would be explained somehow. It wasn't. And this disconnect between logic and what the author needed to happen continued.

Characterizations were horrifically shallow. The characters all felt about two inches deep and I was fast loosing interest. I began to actively hate the hero and the heroine was giving me a sugar high. In a not so good way.

Then I had to take my son to tennis because Mom duty doesn't stop just because you don't feel good. So I sat in the car and read the book until finally, I'd had it. I tweeted that I hated the book I was reading. (Without identifying the book.) Then the hero did something so tremendously stupid and illogical that I tweeted about that, too.

Long story short, I ended up tweeting about the parts that struck me as lacking interior consistency; a plot that hinged on motivations that were thin as air or actions that made no sense. Sometimes the characters' convictions changed from one chapter to the next without explanation.

And people were following along, asking questions or otherwise remarking. Many wanted to know what book it was. Because of this feedback, I actually finished a book I was planning to throw away unfinished.

At no time did I tweet the title or author of the book.

A lot of people asked what book I was reading. And therein lies my dilemma. To tell or not to tell?

I have to say that on a personal level, I don't care to see someone pointing out perceived flaws in my books. Even when I realize Ohh, point! (Maybe even especially then.) As an author, I've have had my share of bad reviews. I'm pretty confident in saying every author gets them at some point, probably for every book. Few books are universally and unreservedly loved. You shrug and move on. You have to because the other way lies madness. Few books are universally loathed, by the way.

I read a lot of books. All kinds of books. And I often talk about them on this blog. If I read and did not like a non-Romance book, I have no problem saying so and identifying the book and author. I thought the Gargoyle, for example, was a breathtaking bit of writing yet so horrific in the details of the protagonist's near fatal burning and recovery therefrom that I very nearly had to stop reading. I also thought (think) that the book's heroine was an example of how male authors can fail to see the world from any point of view but that of their privileged gender. Their books suffer when that happens. And this heroine was, I felt, particularly stereotypical, cliche and shallow, which you'd think shouldn't be tolerated in Literature. The heroine was nothing more than a male fantasy of female sacrifice on his behalf. I was, in fact, offended. But he's still a brilliant writer and his was a debut. He can only get better and, one hopes, more mature in his portrayal of women.

So, see? I can say that because when you write a book, you're inviting readers to respond. Some of us do respond in writing or on a blog or in other formats. Reader response and opinion, by the way, is not always sweetness and light.

I don't do this with Romance novels I didn't like. I blog happily about Romances I loved. There are a lot of them. Some of the finest, edgiest, funniest (you name it) writers today are writing Romance, only no one's paying much attention because hey, it's Romance. But if I don't like a Romance or think it's flawed or unfinishable, I don't blog about it.

Why?

Because I know (or know of) a lot of these authors personally. I might well meet them at RWA one day or end up sharing a publisher with them. I have had wonderful conversations with authors who wrote a book I did not care for. I'm not a professional reviewer, rather, I'm their colleague, and it doesn't feel right to me to blog a negative response to a colleague's book.

I understand that opinions differ. There are people who loved books I didn't and who hated books I've loved. I don't usually hold difference of opinion against people. The more reasoned and thoughtful the analysis, the less I hold it against them. As for Amazon reviews, hey, readers are always entitled to their response to a book.

Authors are readers too, though. In fact, they're some of the most die hard readers around. They read far more than average. Romance authors in particular read far more widely than most authors -- in part because they're not excluding Romance from their reading. Authors read with insight into the minutia of craft and that expertise can make for rich reviews and responses.

But I don't want to hurt a colleague's feelings and that's why I don't blog about Romances I didn't like. It's why I didn't tweet the author or title of the book I didn't like.

But should I? Should I have? That's the dilemma.

If a non-author had done that (and Jane at Dear Author has, naming the book and author as well) that can only be a legitimate response of a reader to a book. Readers are entitled to say what they think no matter what platform they use to express that opinion. What is the difference, really, if the flaws or merits of a book are reported in a review or in a series of tweets? There isn't one that I can see.

The distinction drawn has been between complimentary and not-complimentary remarks. It's nonsense to say the line is different depending on format (blog, tweet, etc.) Let's be up front and say people are getting all twisted about negative opinions. Makes sense. Girls especially are supposed to be nice. Those of us who are parents spend a lot of time explaining to kids why you have to care about other people's feelings. But that doesn't mean you don't get to express an opinion, particularly when it's invited. Publication is, de facto, an invitation to respond with one's opinion.

I'll have to write another post on the situation with Jane at Dear Author. RWA made a mistake, that's all I'll say right now.

Obviously, in my role as a reader, I had a strong response to the particular book I read today. The author in me was thinking about the how, why and how not, of what I felt were major flaws. The author's book was out there in the public forum, I bought it with my own money and I am entitled to my response. The reader in me was pissed off that I'd paid good money for a plot with holes big enough to hold New York City. My opinion!

I also think Romance gets more than its share of criticism, often from people who've never read a Romance in their life.

What do you think?

Labels: What do you Think

Through the able assistance of Random.org:

3: Kinsey Holley

12: joder

2: Camille

I am sending emails to you if they were provided. (Watch your inbox and your spam folders!) or else email me with your name and complete mailing address so I can get your info to Zoe Archer.

Congrats!

Posting the next give away soon!

Labels: contest winners

With the assistance of Random.org, the winner is:

Commenter #17: Carol

I've emailed you, so if you see this watch your inbox (and your spam) or just email me with your mailing info.

Congrats!

Labels: contest winner

I'm reading this really good book in which the heroine is all computer geeky, which is fun. The author, at one point, has her heroine visiting a facility described as cutting edge, technology-wise, including computers. The author then casually mentions that the employee workspace (not IT employees) has computers and servers sitting around.

Ka-Thunk!

That's the sound of Carolyn falling (briefly) out of this otherwise extremely excellent book. I forgive the author because the rest is so good.

So I'm going to explain, at a very high level, about servers so you won't make that mistake. If you need specifics, Google around for more targeted info. I have left out details so as not to be hopelessly confusing. Or befriend someone in your IT department.

Employee workspace with computers? You betcha. Gotta have that.

Employee workspace with servers sitting around? No. Sorry. In a corporate environment there would NEVER be a server anywhere but in the server room. (See slight exception below).

What's a server room you ask? Oh, what's a server? Well, it's a computer. Doh.

Hmm. Maybe an analogy will help. This applies to medium to large companies, OK? Companies with an IT budget of more than $200,000K a year -- or way way more.

Your desktop computer is a Toyota Corolla. A server is a Lamborghini.

A basic Windows PC costs <$1,000.

A basic server costs about $30,000 (If your needs are limited, otherwise, $100,000 wouldn't be unusual.

A server room is a climate-controlled room dedicated to housing servers.

The server room should have controlled physical access so that only authorized people can get inside. Why? Because you don't want your data or equipment walking out the door or worse.

Climate-controlled means it's freaking cold in there. You need a coat if you're going to be in there for very long.

Why? Because servers generate a lot of heat and hot servers shut down and your business ceases to function. Server rooms tend to be noisy. Often the AC is quite loud. The network guys will get paged if the server room temp gets too high (68 might be a warning level. 75 is reason to panic. at 8o, meltdown is immanent if not already happening.)

A lot of companies house certain servers in colocation facilities. These COLO facilities rent out server racks and provide some tech support, the climate control and the physical access control etc. You bring your own servers and put them in the racks yourself. Corporate IT personnel remotely administer the servers from wherever.

But many companies have at least some subset of servers on-site.

Servers do NOT have monitors. There might be a desk(s) in the server room with monitors and keyboards so you access the servers from there. Or, there might be a monitor/keyboard tray in the server rack that pulls out so you can pull up the monitor and access the servers in that rack.

This picture shows what looks to be a fairly modest sized server room. Over on the left there, toward the bottom, those 3 beige things are older severs. Note that they are labeled. The vertical thingees (there are 4 in each of the 3) to the right side of the beige servers are the hard drives. They come out -- if one is broken, for example-- and you can put a new drive in. To the bottom right, you can see two narrow black box thingees. They are also servers, but different ones. There's another beige server underneath the two black ones.

Here's an example of why you need physical access control (and also of how it can fail any way). Someone at a company once removed a server drive, replaced it with another drive and walked away with a copy of the corporate data. The multiple drives (depending) contain redundant data -- they all have the same data. That way if one drive fails, your data is still up and running.

There are all different looks to servers and server rooms. Things can look all mismatched like this picture, or homogeneous. It depends on your budget, who you decided to buy from and what your needs are.

Server racks usually look like very tall cabinets. They usually have doors. You open the doors and see a stack of servers with blinking lights. They should also be labeled so you know which one is which in case you have to access the physical box (to add drives, memory or even (ack!) restart the box.)

The BACK of a server rack has ethernet cables that run from the network cards (most servers will have more than one network card) to a router or switch and usually from the router or switch to a patch panel. (Flying at a high level here!)

Those cables can look like a spaghetti nightmare (in which case someone should be fired) Or they can be neat and orderly and tied down.



Here's a flickr grouping of various server room photos if you're curious about the variety.

But you can see that a server looks NOTHING like your desktop computer. You *could* configure a desktop computer as a server -- but that's not what you'd typically see in a corporate environment. Except in the room where IT personnel sit. Then you'd see workstations configured as servers for testing and development but, pray God, not production end-user equipments. Geeks like me play with those.

So, no high-falutin' cutting edge company will have servers sitting around in an area open to non-IT personnel. Really. They generate heat and need to be kept cold. They wouldn't sit flat on a desk. They're made to be inserted into a rack. Would *you* want to be the one who accidentally knocks the $100,000 server off the table? Or watch it fall off the table during an earthquake? I don't think so.

So, that's it.

Labels: computers, details, servers

I have 3 copies of Zoe Archer's Half Past Dead


In this round, there are three books up for grabs AND you get two stories by two great authors.

Samuel Reed had no idea magic existed, until it almost destroyed him. Thirsting for vengeance against the enemy who made him something less than human, Sam returns to England and crosses paths with Cassandra Fielding. His best friend's little sister has become a fearless woman on a dangerous mission of her own. And against all odds, she sees past what he’s become, and stirs a desire he thought he’d lost forever....

Two...novellas combine themes of love and zombies. Vintage horror, high adventure, and soul-aching romance blend in Archer's compelling The Undying Heart, prequel to the upcoming Blades of the Rose trilogy.... Readers [will] love Archer's powerful, polished tale.
-- Publisher’s Weekly

Four Stars! These zombie stories stand out in a genre dominated by vampires. The two tales of lovers reunited feature strong, courageous women who won’t let zombies stand in the way of getting their man. Archer's imaginative and unusual tale will have you cheering for the characters, while D'Arc delivers a creepy and pulse-pounding story of danger.
-- Romantic Times

So, three of you will win a copy of this book. Awesomeness.

Here's how to throw your hat in the ring:

Leave a comment (and a way to contact you) in which you answer one of the following Three Questions

Question 1

If you woke up one day and discovered you could do magic (NB: This does NOT make you god-like) would you:

1. Quit your day job and schedule a long vacation to Paris
2. Serve up some revenge. Ice cold
3. Read the Manual you found on the foot of your bed, THEN serve up some revenge, arctic style
4. Only use your powers for good
5. Other.(Please explain)

Question 2

Speculate on why Yours Truly is so fixated on revenge.

Question 3

Look down. What's on your feet? How come?

You have until Thursday December 17th to get your comment in.

Go.

Labels: contest