Radioactive Communist Zombies

Radioactive Communsist Zombies: The Novel

"A highly imaginative adventure."

"The story pulled me right in!"

They live among us. We know they are there. No government can control them; no authority can stop them. Some are evil. Some are good. All are powerful. They inhabit our myths and fairy tales. But what if they were real, the witches, wizards, and fairy godmothers? What if they were called "adepts" and were organized into guilds for mutual protection and benefit? And what if they started mucking around with the affairs of "lessers" (that is, those humans not able to match their powers)?

During the height of the Cold War, Michael Vaughan is a rogue without a guild. He survives by working for the CIA as NOC (Non-Official Cover). Shortly after the funeral of President Joe Kennedy, Jr., he is sent to Cuba to assassinate Castro. There he finds himself in a cat-and-mouse game with adepts working for Fidel.

You've read the blog, now read the novel.  Radioactive Communist Zombies, a novel of magic, intrigue, and action.

Now available for Kindle and all free Kindle apps for Mac/PC, iPad, and smart phones.   

Conflict of Visions

I've got nothing tonight.  Obama is giving (or gave) his health care speech.  I didn't watch because it started at 5:00 my time and I was still at work.  Besides, I don't need to be lied to more.

But I did find this, a very interesting commentary on Thomas Sowell's book A Conflict of Visions that I read recently.  Watch the whole thing. 

Arthur C. Clarke, RIP

Science Fiction writer and thinker Arthur C. Clarke died Wednesday Sri Lanka time.

I've read a fair amount of Clarke's fiction (he also wrote speculative non-fiction).  He is best known, of course, for the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" that he co-wrote with Stanly Kubrick.

I enjoyed Clarke's writing (until his later years).  But one thing I never liked about him was he, unlike Robert Heinlein, never seemed to believe in what could be called "Human Exceptionalism."  ("Star Trek" is steeped in human exeptionalism; just listen to Picard's speeches to aliens.)  That is that the human race is something special.  In fact, Clarke seemed to hold the opposite view, that we were a back-water species that barely deserved our existence.

But Clarke was able to combine hard science with amazing fiction like no other author I've read.  He will be missed.  Luckily he left us 100 books to enjoy.

For an example, one of his earlier works, The Nine Billion Names of God.

Get Published

Vanity publishing is going through a revolution.

In fact, it really shouldn't be called "vanity publishing" anymore.  You could "publish" a book for very little money.  Candice Choi of AP reports:

The [on-demand publishing] programs are easy for just about anyone to use: Authors select basic options, including the book's size, binding style and paperback or hardcover. After the manuscript is uploaded, users go to a page where they select a font and design the book's cover. Even after a book has been printed they can fix typos for later printings.

Unlike vanity publishing, in which aspiring authors pay to have their books run on traditional presses, on-demand publishing doesn't have to cost writers a cent.

Publishers produce books only after they're ordered and paid for, which eliminates overruns and the need for warehousing. They charge for printing, or take a cut of sales, and they set up payment systems, online bookstores and Web marketing tools.

On demand publishing is made possible due to new technology called digital printing that allows publishing without the traditional huge print run of old off-set printing.  In December of last year I reported that Amazon.com had bought HP digital printers.  I said then that maybe it would come to:

For a minor fee anyone can have their book in the database to be published anywhere.  But then how do you get noticed without the critics, book tours, and marketing a publisher can provide.  You'd be one among millions of lonely voices doomed to be read by friends and family but damn few others.

And that's what on-demand publishers are doing.  And it's growing.  As Ms. Choi reports:

On-demand publisher Lulu.com has churned out 236,000 paperbacks since it opened in 2002, and its volume of new paperbacks has risen each month this year, hitting 14,745 in November. Retail giant Amazon.com got into the game this summer, offering on-demand publishing through its CreateSpace, which was already letting filmmakers and musicians burn DVDs and CDs.

I'm still trying to get published by a major (or even a minor) publishing house.  But on-demand publishing is going to change the publishing industry in ways we probably still can't imagine.

Happy Birthday RAH

Today (7/7/07) is the 100th anniversary of Robert A. Heinlein's birthday.

Mr. Heinlein had a large influence on my writing and my politics.  He made me a lot more libertarian.  I ravenously read everything I could find written by him in about a 3 year period.  Some of his books remain my favorites such as Starship Troopers and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Heinlein's influence on 20th century literature, not just science fiction, was enormous.  So much so that an august a magazine as National Review (the actually hard copy magazine) celebrated Heinlein's birthday with a short article as the first of their Arts, Books, and Manners section (subscription required) and featured on the cover of the July 9 issue.

As John J. Miller (National Review's Washington correspondent) writes:

He was the first sci-fi author to make the bestseller lists, the winner of multiple awards, and the inspiration for a legion of protégés and imitators whose own volumes now weigh down bookstore shelves. He was not the most accomplished literary stylist in his genre, but he spun a good yarn, grappled with big ideas, and left an enduring imprint on a popular field. He was arguably the preeminent sci-fi author of the 20th century. One of the key differences between him and the two men who might also compete for this title — Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke — is that whereas they were political liberals, Heinlein was a man of the Right.

It wasn't always so.  Heinlein was an early socialist, supported Upton Sinclair's bid for California's governorship in 1934 (the socialist was running as a Democrat).  Biographical tidbit included in his posthumously published first novel For Us the Living (and the novel itself) indicates as a younger man he had some silly economic ideas.  But his social and sexual ideas seem to have remained constant as the same themes in For Us the Living play out in his last novel To Sail Beyond the Sunset.

But Heinlein is best known, and perhaps most controversial, for his anti-communism.  His two most controversial works are Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land.  And interestingly, the writing of the latter was interrupted to write the former.  As Miller explains:

When Robert A. Heinlein opened his Colorado Springs newspaper on April 5, 1958, he read a full-page ad demanding that the Eisenhower administration stop testing nuclear weapons. The science-fiction author was flabbergasted. He called for the formation of the Patrick Henry League and spent the next several weeks writing and publishing his own polemic that lambasted “Communist-line goals concealed in idealistic-sounding nonsense” and urged Americans not to become “soft-headed.”

Then Heinlein made an important professional decision. He quit writing the manuscript he had been working on — eventually it would become one of his best-known books, Stranger in a Strange Land — and started work on a new novel. Starship Troopers was published the next year, and it quickly became perhaps the most controversial sci-fi tale of all time. Critics labeled Heinlein everything from a Nazi to a racist. “The ‘Patrick Henry’ ad shocked ’em,” he wrote many years later. “Starship Troopers outraged ’em.”

A conservative could read Starship Troopers with few qualms (being a juvenile, even the language isn't bad; in the middle of a firefight the hero exclaims "Golly!").  Stranger was a totally different book, what Miller describes as "a paean to sexual liberation and an attack on organized religion" (not much different from some themes from For Us the Living).

But Troopers is about war, the necessity of it, the honor of it, and the pain and suffering of it.  It's only slightly romanticized, even for a juvenile. 

In fact, I strongly recommend Starship Troopers, especially in this time of war.  As Miller explains:

[T]he richness of the novel lies in these more thought-provoking sections, where Heinlein inserts miniature monologues that sound like outtakes from Zell Miller’s GOP convention address. “My mother says that violence never settles anything,” comments one character. A teacher who doubles as Heinlein’s mouthpiece then pounces: “Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.”

And since it seems most of the American breed have forgotten this, we may lose our freedoms and our lives when we violate sharia law in the North American Caliphate.

Green Woman Book

It took me a long time to read Ensign Flandry by Poul Anderson.  I lost the book, then accidentally bought two more, then found the book and in the meantime had almost read another book.  So now I have three copies of Ensign Flandry.  Not a bad thing.

The cover of the book is actually much more interesting than the one Amazon had on their website (and is shown at left).  The cover of the book, (right, click for a (much) larger view) is evocative of old pulp fiction magazine and the covers of '50's and '60's books.  But it was rather embarrassing to call the medical clinic (where I thought I'd left the book) and ask if anyone had found a book with a green woman on the cover.  I came to call it "The green woman book" as in "I still can't find the green woman book, perhaps I should just buy a new one."  (On closer inspection, she's sorta orange-green.  Her species is called by humans "Tigrey" and it is a matriarchal society.)

The book's great.  Written in 1966 Anderson shows us four civilizations: humans in the distant and decadent future, the Tigeries, a sea-bound species that, even though only spending one chapter with them were very intricately described, and the reptile like Mesians who seem just a bit too human in their culture (to me).  But it's not a travelogue but a great adventure.  The weak point was the Smithian space battle climax but in 1966 it was probably still not a cliche.

Anderson wrote I-don't-know-how-many Ensign Flandry books (this is the first).  I read one in 1993 and have been looking for more ever since.  Don't know why I didn't hit Amazon earlier.

But now I have three of them.  Anybody want one (or two)?

The Wealth of Nations

I bought Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations off of Amazon.  It arrived yesterday but I didn't get to opening the box (nor blogging) because I had a house full of 13-year-olds last night for a birthday party.

The thing is huge.  About 1,200 pages!  That's longer than Atlas Shrugged (at least it had a plot!).

Well, I'll have to set aside a month or two to read that.

No Fiction

Well, finished the last book I was reading and started to look for something else to read and realized that THERE'S NO UNREAD FICTION IN THE HOUSE!

Well, except for kids' books.

I'd like to find Doc Smith's remaining Skylark books.  I've read Skylark of Space and Skylark Three (the second book despite it's title which refers to the third ship named Skylark).  That leaves Skylark of Valeron and Skylark DuQuesne.

There's two more Man-Kzin War books out (XI and Destiny's Forge) but the last few books have been so disappointing don't know if I want to invest the cash or time.

I know there's a whole bunch of Poul Anderson books I've yet to find and read.  Wikipedia lists bunches.  It's almost daunting (as slow as I'm reading these days--not investing the time--I could spend a lifetime reading those books).

So I have a book by Thomas Sowell and one by Bryon York, and I just ordered a couple of books by Milton Friedman and one by P.J. O'Rourke off of Amazon. 

Still no fiction, though.  I'm in a fiction mood.

So many books, so little time.

Publishing Revolution

Amazon.com has bought "an unspecified number" of HP Indigo digital presses.

A digital press is like a very very good color laser printer that can print off-set printing quality paper only faster and cheaper.  In addition, each page can be customized and combined with databases sort of like "mail merge" so you could send 1,000 high-quality brochures out each with the name of the customer printed on it and their favorite item highlighted.

It also "allows retailers like Amazon to offer out-of-print or special-interest books for sale without maintaining large inventories that might go unsold."

Amazon officials said the technology allows the company to offer a greater range of books to consumers. "This collaboration with HP will enable us to significantly increase the number of available titles our customers can purchase while offering publishers the highest-quality printing options," said Greg Greeley, VP of books at Amazon, in a statement.

This is probably a taste of the future:

According to market research firm Interquest, the books-on-demand market will grow from about 20 billion book pages in 2006 to 38 billion book pages in 2009, driven mostly by increasing demand for small-volume, rare, and self-published books.

As with any technology, the price will come down.  How many years until every bookstore has one of these in the back.  You walk in, might see a display ad for the latest Tom Clancy tome, request it, and they give it to you a few minutes later hot off the presses (literally).  Or if a book is selling hot, they might keep a few in inventory.

This might have a profound influence on the publishing industry, making less of a high-stakes game.  Rather than investing six figure sums in printing up books that might end up on the remainder table or in the pulper, they simply distribute the file to bookstores who print it on demand.  Might it be then that publishers will be more willing to take a chance on unknown writers such as, oh, me?

Or book publishing will be like blogging.  For a minor fee anyone can have their book in the database to be published anywhere.  But then how do you get noticed without the critics, book tours, and marketing a publisher can provide.  You'd be one among millions of lonely voices doomed to be read by friends and family but damn few others.

In any case, it's going to be a huge change in publishing.  Can only hope a change for the better.

Diversity's Cost

Thomas Sowell has a piece in today's Wall Street Journal (available here for free).

Sowell's thesis is that the reason Iraq has been a sectarian mess is because it's, gasp, too diverse.

That word [diversity] has become a sacred mantra, endlessly repeated for years on end, without a speck of evidence being asked for or given to verify the wonderful benefits it is assumed to produce.

Worse yet, Iraq is only the latest in a long series of catastrophes growing out of diversity. These include "ethnic cleansing" in the Balkans, genocide in Rwanda and the Sudan, the million lives destroyed in intercommunal violence when India became independent in 1947 and the even larger number of Armenians slaughtered by Turks during World War I.

Despite much gushing about how we should "celebrate diversity," America's great achievement has not been in having diversity but in taming its dangers that have run amok in many other countries. Americans have by no means escaped diversity's oppressions and violence, but we have reined them in.

Because for most of our history we've had a common heritage and language, the U.S. has be E Pluribus Unum (which does not mean, as Al Gore once said, out of one, many).  Iraq was formed after World War I by drawing lines on a map:

[Iraq] has never had the cohesion of nations that evolved over the centuries out of the experiences of peoples who worked out their own modi vivendi in one way or another.

Sowell, of course, knows now that we're stuck there, we'd better finish th job:

However we got into Iraq, we cannot undo history--even recent history--by simply pulling out and leaving events to take their course in that strife-torn country. Whether or not we "stay the course," terrorists are certainly going to stay the course in Iraq and around the world.

Political spin may say that Iraq has nothing to do with the war on terror, but the terrorists themselves quite obviously believe otherwise, as they converge on that country with lethal and suicidal resolve.

Whether we want to or not, we cannot unilaterally end the war with international terrorists. Giving the terrorists an epoch-making victory in Iraq would only shift the location where we must face them or succumb to them.

Abandoning Iraqi allies to their fate would ensure that other nations would think twice before becoming or remaining our allies. With a nuclear Iran looming on the horizon, we are going to need all the allies we can get.

But Sowell's main theme, that "diversity" is not the end-all be-all wonder the left makes it out to be is the important part.  The U.S. assimilated immigrants: they learned English, took on our culture (while in many cases keeping elements of their own, giving us Irish Wakes, Scandinavian Smorgasbords, and Chinese New Years).

It's diversity that makes it possible to hate your neighbor.  Just this morning, for some reason, I was thinking about Robert Heinlein's novel Friday.  Science Fiction, set in the future, at a time when the U.S. is fragmented.  There's a political upheaval in one section of the former U.S., and those now in power sought to secure their power by a most effective means:

Democrats were being rounded up, sentenced by drumhead courts-marshal (provost's tribunals they were called) and executed on the spot--laser, gunfire, some hangings.  They were sentencing them down to age fourteen . . . one family in which both parents, themselves condemned, were insisting their son was only twelve.

The President of the court, an Imperial Police corporal, ended the argument by drawing his side arm, shooting the boy, and then ordered his squad to finish off the parents and the boy's older sister.

Couldn't happen in America?  I think thats what they said about Germany circa 1929.