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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) caveman_joe explains in gloriously organized detail why ebooks suck, why they should not suck, some things that could be done to make ebooks stop sucking so much, and some features that would be attractive in an online fiction magazine. If you write cyberfunded material, or would like to; or have anything to do with electronic writing, reading, or publishing; this post is well worth reading.
Not everyone thinks that ebooks suck, which is okay. I don't think they suck 100% and I don't agree with every single point on this list, but I do agree with most of the points, which is why I almost never read ebooks. I am, however, really pleased by this list because it will be useful to me if I decide to release some ebooks (which I am considering) and for my ongoing work in promoting cyberfunded creativity (which will hopefully evolve into a website).
Learning new technology is always a bumpy ride. This is a rubbing of the bumps on the way to enjoying electronic literature.
Tags: cyberfunded creativity, cyberspace theory, networking, reading, writing
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The 2009 Holiday Poetry Sale concluded yesterday. I posted a total of seven poems as part of this project, which you can read here: "Choralia""Sail With Me, Lady Washington""The Secret of Gobekli Tepe""Skydiving Through Time""The Stars Must Be Crazy""The Sword from the Foundling House""Warning Sine"The idea of doing a holiday sale for poetry came from my partner Doug, and I'm pleased to call it a success. Several of these poems were sent as gifts from one person to another, and the recipients were delighted. I've also enjoyed delivering poetic gifts with a jingle of sleigh bells! So, happy holidays to everyone, and thanks for taking part. Tags: cyberfunded creativity, fishbowl, holiday, poetry, reading, writing
Current Mood:  happy
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This poem came out of the August 4, 2009 poetry fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from ellenmillion and sponsored by nhpeacenik as part of the 2009 Holiday Poetry Sale. This poem is a sequel to "The Sky-Eyes and the Earth-Hearts," in which humans are trying to get along with two insectoid alien species whose life experiences are very different. The Stars Must Be Crazy
Today I learned
why the Star-Minds are crazy.
They go through metamorphosis
fully conscious. Think about it.
Think about being horribly aware
while your body changes,
old things falling out,
new things growing in,
rivers of hormones pouring all over.
Think about spending years like that,
never being able to
close your mandibles on a single day
and say, “Now I am an adult.” No wonder they’re crazy.
No one could go through that
and stay sane. I give thanks to Queen Cosmos
for my cocoon
in which I slept in blissful oblivion
through my own metamorphosis. But what in earth and sky
can we do for the poor Star-Minds? Tags: cyberfunded creativity, fishbowl, holiday, poem, poetry, reading, science fiction, writing
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This poem came out of the March 10, 2009 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from ladyqkat and sponsored by Ahmet Yazman as part of the 2009 Holiday Poetry Sale. Happy holidays, and thank you! Göbekli Tepe is a real place; people are still arguing over interpretations of it, as you can read here. The archaeological speculations gave me some haunting ideas ... The Secret of Göbekli Tepe What do you do when your god dies?
You lay him down low on the temple stones,
between the priests who have died of their grief,
and you cover them all with the skins of the sacred foxes. You bring stones until your fingers bleed, raising a cairn
to bury them – god, priests, foxes, temple, and all – until
the cairn becomes a hill and no hint is visible of what lies below. Then you walk away, and you try to forget that you ever had a god,
that you were ever among the chosen people, and you hope –
because you can no longer pray – that no one ever digs up the past. Tags: cyberfunded creativity, fishbowl, history, holiday, poem, poetry, reading, spirituality, writing
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Recently we've had an ongoing discussion about loneliness, community, social skills, and introverts: "Loneliness and Fraying Social Fabric""Very Basic Steps""Friendship Tips for Introverts""Role Models for Introverts"Along through here, I mentioned that I have a previously written class, "Friendship 101," created in response to seeing a lot of folks express a lack of friendship skills. It's not currently available online, although I'd like to have a venue for offering classes. I have several dozen classes, I don't know how many articles, and assorted other bits of nonfiction in my archives. (The recommended reading lists have been gradually appearing over on Hypatia's Hoard of Reviews.) mdlbear suggested that I try crowdfunding for nonfiction. I have previously considered bundling some of my nonfiction into ebooks, or making it available through a "buy this article" site; but I hadn't really thought about doing it with crowdfunding. Two aspects that particularly appeal to me: 1) being able to keep my older nonfiction in print so that more people can benefit from it, and 2) being able to generate a steady trickle of income from older material, a bit like royalties. So, I'd like to open a discussion on this topic. What kind of nonfiction might you like to see from me? What are some funding options that appeal to you? Would you be interested in reprints of older material (which I can let you have cheaper, but you only get to pick from available items) or hiring me to write Just What You Need (which would cost more, but be more flexible in topic and form, and tailored to what you-individually or you-collectively ask for)? What format(s) would you prefer for crowdfunded nonfiction? Is there anything else that you'd like to request, propose, or discuss about the process or content of crowdfunding nonfiction? To see examples of my nonfiction, you could simply read my blogs -- I've posted a lot of mini-articles this way, including the loneliness series above -- or you could type "Elizabeth Barrette" into your favorite search engine. (Fair warning: last time I did this, the first 25 pages of hits were all me, so it can be a real timesink.) There's stuff of mine online that I wrote years ago for print markets that, apparently, somebody typed or scanned. I also have some of my earlier articles on my old archive website. Oh, and you can look at the Amazon page for my book Composing Magic. Over to you... Tags: cyberfunded creativity, networking, nonfiction
Current Mood:  curious
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Yesterday I launched the 2009 Holiday Poetry Sale ... rather late in the day, because it took a long time to pull together all the information I needed. So I'm reposting about it now in case some folks missed it. The original post with all the poetry choices and bargain prices is here. Amazingly, natasiakith has redone the list of poems by month, in order of comments, with the original fishbowl posts linked so that folks can read the thumbnail descriptions in the comments as an aid to selecting poems. Wow, and thanks! Links for the first three gift poems appear in this post; you may be pleased to hear that both ongoing epics have been fully funded. Tags: cyberfunded creativity, fishbowl, holiday, poetry, reading, writing
Current Mood: happy
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This poem came out of the January 6, 2009 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from janetmiles, minor_architect, and moosl. You can read more about the indriso form here. stonetalker gave this poem as a gift to bodhifox. Happy holidays! Skydiving Through Time
– an indriso Life is a climb Up the strange stairs of time: A spring to wind, a pump to prime. When you get to the top, you dive, Soaring till you arrive At birth, alive. This is the soul’s eternal pantomime. This is the flight from which all dreams derive. Tags: cyberfunded creativity, fishbowl, holiday, poem, poetry, reading, writing
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EDIT 12/14/09: The 2009 Holiday Poetry Sale is now CLOSED. Thank you for your support! This year I'm trying something new, suggested by my partner Doug: a holiday poetry sale. Today through Sunday, my remaining fishbowl poems from 2009 are half price. Especially check out the epics; many of these are under $20 now and the highest one is only $36, so if you've been yearning for an epic of your very own, now's the time! For those of you with just a few dollars to spend, there are lots of poems in the $2.50 and $5 range. If you want to buy a poem as a gift for someone, let me know; I can dedicate it to anyone you wish. Here is a PayPal button for your convenience, or you may contact me for other options. Your poetry choices include the following... ( Read more... )Tags: cyberfunded creativity, fishbowl, holiday, networking, poetry, reading, shopping, writing
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This poem came out of the December 1, 2009 poetry fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from natasiakith. This is actually the extra freebie poem you get when someone new participates in the fishbowl; sorry it's late. New prompters this month were natasiakith, Anthony Barrette, Doug Edwards, and probably the Anonymous person. The liturgies mentioned in the poem are colloquially called "The Egyptian Book of the Dead" and "The Tibetan Book of the Dead." I have instead used the best translation of their original names that I could find. These are real texts and should be treated with respect. Books of the Dead and the Living The Egyptians wrote a book of the dead, Spells of Going Forth by Day, scratched out on papyrus scrolls, illustrated in gold leaf and tucked into sarcophagi beside the slain. The Tibetans wrote a book of the dead, Great Liberation Through Hearing, describing the passage through the intermediate state, past the buddhas and dakkis and dakinis into rebirth once more. The Americans write books for the living, not for the dead, and then wonder why the dead hang around lost in the liminal mists between here and There. Tags: cyberfunded creativity, fishbowl, history, linguistics, poem, poetry, reading, spirituality, writing
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This poem came out of the December 1, 2009 poetry fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from beetiger and sponsored out of general funds. You can read more about the five days of Divali and the masnavi form online. The Festival of Lights – a masnavi On Danteras, Hindus shop for gold To praise Lakshmi and her wealth untold. Choti Divali is small and sweet; Rice powder draws the goddess’s feet. Lakshmi-Puja is the moon-dark night, Welcoming Lakshmi with candle light. For Annakoot, one hundred and eight Types of food are laid on Krishna’s plate. On Bhai Duj, each sister makes her mark, Keeping her brothers safe from the dark. Tags: cyberfunded creativity, ethnic studies, fishbowl, holiday, poem, poetry, reading, spirituality, writing
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The general fund currently has $5 in it. You may spend this on the last $5 poem, "The Festival of Lights," or you may direct it toward either of the microfunded poems, "Choralia" or "Warning Sine." I also forgot to post the extra freebie poem, since we had several new prompters. I'm letting you choose from several $10 poems for this. EDIT 12/5/09: Ignore "Stepchild Wit" on this poll; I forgot that it's already been published. Oops. The poll is below. I will leave it open at least until Saturday evening, longer if necessary. Poll #1494727 Generally Sponsored Poetry Poll for December 2009
This poll is closed.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11 How do you want to spend the $5 in the general fund? Which of the following do you want as the extra freebie poem? Tags: cyberfunded creativity, fishbowl, poetry, poll, writing
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This fishbowl began with a steady flow of prompts that lasted for a while before petering out. I worked from 11:30 AM to 12:30 AM, so about 11 hours allowing for lunch and supper breaks. I wrote 15 poems, almost all medium. There was only one epic and two short poems. Several form poems appeared along with the free verse ones. This month brought moderate participation. Please welcome new prompters natasiakith, my father Anthony Barrette, my partner Doug Edwards, and probably the anonymous person who mentioned "treppenwitz" too. (I just realized, I got so caught up in the fishbowl, I forgot to post a freebie poem! Oops. I think I'll let you pick it, to make up for being late.) I can put your options for that into the generally sponsored poetry poll. All told, there were 41 comments including mine. The following poems have been posted:"All the Sleeping Heroes""The Culture of the Earth""haikoan""History Returned""Stepchild Wit""The World We Made"Epic poem report:This month we're carrying over two poems, one epic and one long. Give a cheer for the cosponsors who are microfunding these! "Choralia" (began microfunding 11/3/09, $9 remaining) "Warning Sine" (began microfunding 11/5/09, $17 remaining) All currently sponsored poems have been posted, and I've sent the backchannel copies of the other poems to their respective prompters. I still need to write a donor perk-post. I also need to make up a poll for the generally sponsored poetry; you have $5 to spend and an extra freebie to pick out. December's donors are ellenmillion, nhpeacenik, and janetmiles. Slow month for donations, but I love you all. Donors make the CFC world go 'round. I also appreciate the folks who show up to give me ideas, and who assist with networking. The poetry fishbowl project has a permanent landing page. Tags: cyberfunded creativity, ethnic studies, fishbowl, networking, poetry, reading, writing
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This poem came out of the December 1, 2009 poetry fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from haikujaguar, and from my partner Doug who threw in a reference to "The Blind Men and the Elephant." The poem was sponsored by janetmiles. The Culture of the Earth Six aliens came down to Earth And parked their cosmic bike. They all resolved to spend the time To take a little hike Across “the culture of the Earth” To see what it was like. The first one went to Africa And therein made his score. He saw a bigger heap of grief Than he had seen before, And said, “The culture of the Earth Is very like a war!” The second went to Europe where He stayed a week at least, And in the cafés of the land He sampled bird and beast And said, “The culture of the Earth Is very like a feast!” The third attempted Asia till The weather called a halt; The Himalayas stymied him, Though that was not his fault. He said, “The culture of the Earth Is very like a vault! ”Australia was the port of call The fourth one called his own But shortly he got pounded flat; His cover was all blown. He groaned, “The culture of the Earth Is very like a stone!” The fifth to South America Was beckoned to embark And there he found compelling things To chase from dawn to dark. He swore, “The culture of the Earth Is very like a spark!” At last in North America The sixth made his landfall. He shopped his way across the states Till he could hardly crawl, And cried, “The culture of the Earth Is very like a mall!” When they returned to share the tales Of everywhere they’d been, They could agree on nothing, not A single specimen – And that is the last the Earthlings heard Of those little green men. The wives of the explorers soon Had puzzled out the gist And when each one stopped laughing, she Said to her husband, “Hist! Forget ‘the culture of the Earth’ As it does not exist!” Tags: cyberfunded creativity, fishbowl, humor, poem, poetry, reading, science fiction, writing
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