Today is a very special day, today is the day that the internet died.
Now, I don't make political posts here often, because this really isn't the place for it, but somethings just have to said. The internet was invented by the USA, and because of the rights of free speech that were once very important to the government of the USA, everyone was allowed to speak their minds and even say the most stupid or outrageous stuff on the internet.
However, there were (and are) people in our government who do not like free speech and who do not like our citizens having such total access to it. Worse yet, most governments in the world (like 90 percent) do not allow their citizens free speech, and they hate the internet with a passion, but because the USA controlled it, they could do nothing about it.
Well, President Obama came to their rescue. Tomorrow (October 1, 2016) Obama, totally on his own, disregarding what the citizens want, is giving the internet away. It will no longer be controlled by the USA.
I'm not sure who will end up with it, the UN wants to get their hands on it, and a more evil and corrupt organization really doesn't exist in the world. China wants it, so does Russia, so do all of the governments in the middle east. As the organization that controls the internet (ICANN) is up for sale, who knows where it will end up. But where ever it ends up, they don't have a right to free speech.
Now some of you (say 99 percent of the world's population) have no idea how the internet works, or why giving ICANN control away matters. Well you see, ICANN gets to say who connects to the internet, and who does not. And their word is LAW, they are the god of the internet and it is impossible to gainsay them. So if they don't like your website, they just pull your IP address, which is the way all computers connect to the internet.
So yes, your content will still be on your machine, or your server, but no one will ever be able to see it. And it only takes minutes to take down your website (Drudge Report, the biggest site on the internet will probably be among the first to fall). Also, buying a domain only costs a few dollars a year now, well if the UN gets control, they'll put a 'tax' on that fee, and you'll see domains start costing thousands of dollars a year, if not millions.
Now I don't expect these changes to start instantly tomorrow. But they will come, and they will come soon. They might start off slowly, but I can guarantee you that in a year, you will notice the difference. In a few years, the internet will be nothing at all like it is today. We all just lost something very important, because of a malignant narcissist who hates the USA, hates Freedom, and hates free speech, and he found a way to destroy it, and nobody did anything.
As always, freedom does not die with a huge explosion or a great battle...
... just a whimper.
Friday, September 30, 2016
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
You know what's a pain in the butt?
Running a character through a post apocalyptic possible future where there are enough things that have remained the same (because there are no people there anymore) so you're researching those area's in some detail to make sure that nothing can throw your story off track, or worse yet, you have to take a little detour.
Well, at least a lot of the next book is underwater now, so that will make some of it easier.
Well, at least a lot of the next book is underwater now, so that will make some of it easier.
Thursday, September 22, 2016
So yes, the Air Races
I'm back, actually I got back late Sunday, and spent Monday recovering and taking care of things around the house. As for the Air Races, there were a number of good and bad things this year.
The bad things is that this was a bad year for aircraft. About 5 were in accidents and at least two of them were destroyed. Thankfully no one got hurt (well, I think Thom broke his hand, but haven't heard if it was broken or not - Hot Stuff Accident ). Also, because last year had bad attendance and the main sponsor pulled out, there were less of the acts that go on between races. They just didn't have the money.
However, the new sponsor (Stihl the chainsaw makers) did well, and there were more people at the races this weekend than I have seen there in a good many years. The stands were actually packed. So I'm hopeful that next year they'll have more money. It was also hard on a number of the unlimited racers, about ten of the now aren't showing up, as they just couldn't raise the money to come, and we're talking about past champions. But on the other hand, there were almost twice as many sports class racers than ever before, and while the sports isn't always the most exciting class, it's the every man class, and sometimes it really can be pretty exciting to watch.
So, the races this year had its ups and downs, and some of those were a bit different than I've gotten used to expecting. Hopefully next year we'll see some of the airplanes and other things back that were missing this year, and the crowds will continue to stay big.
I also bought another bass guitar, this one is used, I got a good deal on it from a pawn shop in Reno. It was pretty dirty, and dirty pots were causing it to have sound problems when adjusting the different volume knobs, but that's an easy fix for me. The fret board was also a bit dry (high desert, go figure) and rather dirty as well. It looks like it got played a lot, in a lot of smoky casinos. I got most of it cleaned, when I change the strings, I get the frets and the bridge cleaned out. It's an Ibanez SR300ROM and it has almost the same tone as my SR700, as well as the same thinner neck and 25 fret neck, which is why I bought it. Also, I got a good deal.
Last of all, check out Elio motors if you have the chance, an American made car that gets 84mpg and costs only 7K. They're hoping to start producing them next year. I can tell you that two men over 6 feet tall, can in fact fit in one at the same time. I even have pictures to prove it.
The bad things is that this was a bad year for aircraft. About 5 were in accidents and at least two of them were destroyed. Thankfully no one got hurt (well, I think Thom broke his hand, but haven't heard if it was broken or not - Hot Stuff Accident ). Also, because last year had bad attendance and the main sponsor pulled out, there were less of the acts that go on between races. They just didn't have the money.
However, the new sponsor (Stihl the chainsaw makers) did well, and there were more people at the races this weekend than I have seen there in a good many years. The stands were actually packed. So I'm hopeful that next year they'll have more money. It was also hard on a number of the unlimited racers, about ten of the now aren't showing up, as they just couldn't raise the money to come, and we're talking about past champions. But on the other hand, there were almost twice as many sports class racers than ever before, and while the sports isn't always the most exciting class, it's the every man class, and sometimes it really can be pretty exciting to watch.
So, the races this year had its ups and downs, and some of those were a bit different than I've gotten used to expecting. Hopefully next year we'll see some of the airplanes and other things back that were missing this year, and the crowds will continue to stay big.
I also bought another bass guitar, this one is used, I got a good deal on it from a pawn shop in Reno. It was pretty dirty, and dirty pots were causing it to have sound problems when adjusting the different volume knobs, but that's an easy fix for me. The fret board was also a bit dry (high desert, go figure) and rather dirty as well. It looks like it got played a lot, in a lot of smoky casinos. I got most of it cleaned, when I change the strings, I get the frets and the bridge cleaned out. It's an Ibanez SR300ROM and it has almost the same tone as my SR700, as well as the same thinner neck and 25 fret neck, which is why I bought it. Also, I got a good deal.
Last of all, check out Elio motors if you have the chance, an American made car that gets 84mpg and costs only 7K. They're hoping to start producing them next year. I can tell you that two men over 6 feet tall, can in fact fit in one at the same time. I even have pictures to prove it.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Saturday, September 10, 2016
I do not think that word means what you think it means...
While I appreciate positive reviews, I think some people need to look up the meaning of the word 'graphic'. Graphic sex means it is described, in graphic (complete) detail. If the sex isn't described, but is just hinted at, it's not graphic, because there are no details described.
I guess I've gotten rather good at setting off people's imaginations, even though I don't go into detail in most of my stories, that they somehow think I do. So maybe I should be proud of that?
I guess I've gotten rather good at setting off people's imaginations, even though I don't go into detail in most of my stories, that they somehow think I do. So maybe I should be proud of that?
Tuesday, September 06, 2016
License Statements
As I'm sure a few of you may know, ebooks have licensing statements attached to them, as well as copyright statements. For many years I've used the Smashwords licensing statement, because it was required for you to use it, if you wanted to publish on Smashwords. The reason for the license, at least as I always saw it, was because anyone could quite easily copy your ebook and send it far and wide to everyone. And of course, there are quite a few people who do this. The idea behind the statement is to try and stop that behavior.
Now some will argue that you can take a book and send it around to everyone you know, and that's true, you can. However, you can only send that book to one person at a time. Oh you could try to photocopy it, which is illegal, but that would cost you more than just buying another copy. Also that book will wear out with time. Ebooks don't wear out.
Amazon does have a method by which you can loan ebooks to your friends, one at a time, and it takes it away from you while it does so. Preserving the 'single' identity of each copy. Also, this is part of why ebooks are (at least from me) significantly cheaper than paperbacks. That whole lack of paper that must be bought, printed on, assembled, warehoused, and delivered.
Now, every once in a while I consider re-writing that license statement in my ebooks, I haven't yet because most people don't really pay any attention to it, it's just a legal necessity that I have to follow, and without a lawyer's help, which is expensive, I don't want to screw myself over by changing it. However lately I'm considering making it a little bit clearer. When you buy a copy of one of my ebooks, as far as I'm concerned, you have the ownership of that copy for life (unless you return it of course).
Will I give you the license to pass that right on to others? Sorry, not for 3 or 4 bucks I won't. If you want it to last for that long, buy the paperback. It's printed on high quality paper and odds are it will last a hundred years (maybe more, I don't know) if taken care of. If you look, you'll see my paperbacks are priced lower than comparable paperbacks in the bookstores, and I use better paper.
If you want to loan that book to someone else to read, well Amazon has a process for that and you might want to look at it. Of course if you want to hand your kindle (or whatever you read it on) to someone else, hey I'm fine with that. But if you want to make a -copy- and give or loan that to someone else? That's illegal, and no, I'm not going to give you the right to do that. Again, if you want to pass the book around, spend the couple of extra bucks and buy the paperback. Then you can treat it like a paperback.
Now I realize that there are people who will think I'm being unreasonable over this. I suspect those people also make more money an hour than I do :-P But you also have to understand that Amazon also has a licensing agreement that you agree to when you purchase an ebook. As far as I know, mine isn't any different than theirs is, and in fact may be a little more liberal.
As for why I'm writing this? Well someone got upset with my licensing agreement. I think they figured that once they bought it, they could give it to whomever they wanted to, I'm not sure. I pointed out the Amazon sharing program, but I haven't heard anything back. Also I'm a bit suspect, because honestly, who reads the copyright and licensing statements in a book? I don't, do you?
Anyways, back to work!
Now some will argue that you can take a book and send it around to everyone you know, and that's true, you can. However, you can only send that book to one person at a time. Oh you could try to photocopy it, which is illegal, but that would cost you more than just buying another copy. Also that book will wear out with time. Ebooks don't wear out.
Amazon does have a method by which you can loan ebooks to your friends, one at a time, and it takes it away from you while it does so. Preserving the 'single' identity of each copy. Also, this is part of why ebooks are (at least from me) significantly cheaper than paperbacks. That whole lack of paper that must be bought, printed on, assembled, warehoused, and delivered.
Now, every once in a while I consider re-writing that license statement in my ebooks, I haven't yet because most people don't really pay any attention to it, it's just a legal necessity that I have to follow, and without a lawyer's help, which is expensive, I don't want to screw myself over by changing it. However lately I'm considering making it a little bit clearer. When you buy a copy of one of my ebooks, as far as I'm concerned, you have the ownership of that copy for life (unless you return it of course).
Will I give you the license to pass that right on to others? Sorry, not for 3 or 4 bucks I won't. If you want it to last for that long, buy the paperback. It's printed on high quality paper and odds are it will last a hundred years (maybe more, I don't know) if taken care of. If you look, you'll see my paperbacks are priced lower than comparable paperbacks in the bookstores, and I use better paper.
If you want to loan that book to someone else to read, well Amazon has a process for that and you might want to look at it. Of course if you want to hand your kindle (or whatever you read it on) to someone else, hey I'm fine with that. But if you want to make a -copy- and give or loan that to someone else? That's illegal, and no, I'm not going to give you the right to do that. Again, if you want to pass the book around, spend the couple of extra bucks and buy the paperback. Then you can treat it like a paperback.
Now I realize that there are people who will think I'm being unreasonable over this. I suspect those people also make more money an hour than I do :-P But you also have to understand that Amazon also has a licensing agreement that you agree to when you purchase an ebook. As far as I know, mine isn't any different than theirs is, and in fact may be a little more liberal.
As for why I'm writing this? Well someone got upset with my licensing agreement. I think they figured that once they bought it, they could give it to whomever they wanted to, I'm not sure. I pointed out the Amazon sharing program, but I haven't heard anything back. Also I'm a bit suspect, because honestly, who reads the copyright and licensing statements in a book? I don't, do you?
Anyways, back to work!
Sunday, August 21, 2016
The Hammer Commission is doing rather well
Surprisingly, with the release of A new Hammer Commission book, the first book in the series has actually been going rather well and shot up into the top 100 in the three main categories it is in. Not bad for a book I wrote over three years ago!
While it's in the top 20 in the werewolves / shifter categories, it hasn't gotten much below 80 in the SciFi action and adventure category, moving back and forth quite a bit there. 'The King of Las Vegas' really hasn't seem much more action than it originally got however, but then that isn't a story about the main protagonist, Mark, but a spin off of another character in the series.
If the sales continue, there will be another Hammer Commission book, which would be nice as I already have most of the plot for it anyway, but right now I need to finish the new novel, then a POI book, and now perhaps another Hammer Commission story.
And linky for the old book:
While it's in the top 20 in the werewolves / shifter categories, it hasn't gotten much below 80 in the SciFi action and adventure category, moving back and forth quite a bit there. 'The King of Las Vegas' really hasn't seem much more action than it originally got however, but then that isn't a story about the main protagonist, Mark, but a spin off of another character in the series.
If the sales continue, there will be another Hammer Commission book, which would be nice as I already have most of the plot for it anyway, but right now I need to finish the new novel, then a POI book, and now perhaps another Hammer Commission story.
And linky for the old book:
Friday, August 19, 2016
Thursday, August 18, 2016
So yeah, Amazon and guns on covers in advertisments.
Got called by Amazon's advertising department today about my complaint on their killing my ad.
They weren't pleased to be calling me, and while they claim they weren't giving me the brushoff, I'm not so sure. The reason for why it was canceled was pretty much bull. Then again, this 'new' direction that they've been taking for a while is pretty much bull as well. Special snowflakes needing to be protected from pictures that might hurt their fragile psyches.
Whatever. I suspect eventually they'll be policing our covers as well, but not yet at least.
So on a brighter note, my battles over the problems with them changing my categories did not go unrewarded. I changed categories on the book 'The Hammer Commission' which is the book that comes before 'Wolf Killer' and guess what? In only 24 hours the changes went through! Awesome.
Also, Hammer Commission is in the top 100 in two categories. Hopefully that will spread to more as well. I honestly did not expect to see sales on that book as well, but I'm rather glad I am. Now if only I could find the time to actually WRITE this week. All of this stuff going on has really been cutting into my writing time.
Oh, and thanks for your patronage, as always. I do appreciate it very much!
-John
They weren't pleased to be calling me, and while they claim they weren't giving me the brushoff, I'm not so sure. The reason for why it was canceled was pretty much bull. Then again, this 'new' direction that they've been taking for a while is pretty much bull as well. Special snowflakes needing to be protected from pictures that might hurt their fragile psyches.
Whatever. I suspect eventually they'll be policing our covers as well, but not yet at least.
So on a brighter note, my battles over the problems with them changing my categories did not go unrewarded. I changed categories on the book 'The Hammer Commission' which is the book that comes before 'Wolf Killer' and guess what? In only 24 hours the changes went through! Awesome.
Also, Hammer Commission is in the top 100 in two categories. Hopefully that will spread to more as well. I honestly did not expect to see sales on that book as well, but I'm rather glad I am. Now if only I could find the time to actually WRITE this week. All of this stuff going on has really been cutting into my writing time.
Oh, and thanks for your patronage, as always. I do appreciate it very much!
-John
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Amazon doesn't like pictures of guns on the covers of books.
So,
There are people at Amazon who do not like the cover of my new book, because the FBI agent on the cover is holding a gun.
I'm not making this up.
If you're thinking of buying it, better hurry up and do it soon. They've already pulled my advertisements for the book, because of the gun on the cover. I wouldn't be surprised if they pull the book next.
http://amzn.to/2aZFnxw
There are people at Amazon who do not like the cover of my new book, because the FBI agent on the cover is holding a gun.
I'm not making this up.
If you're thinking of buying it, better hurry up and do it soon. They've already pulled my advertisements for the book, because of the gun on the cover. I wouldn't be surprised if they pull the book next.
http://amzn.to/2aZFnxw
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
The new book is out: Wolf Killer
I originally wasn't going to publish until tomorrow, so the book would be live on Friday, but for other reasons (I had to have the asin number and URL for a Saturday advert) I published last night and the book is now live on Amazon:
http://amzn.to/2bgvr7n
Go check it out, I hope you like it. This is the next book in the Hammer Commission universe, it follows Mark as he gets loaned out to the FBI, and picks up after the first book in the series. You do not have to have read any of the other books in the series to read this one. They all stand on their own.
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Haven't posted in a couple of weeks
Hi all, Just noticed I hadn't posted in almost two weeks. Not a lot has been going on, the new novel is out to the beta readers, I really need to come up with a title for it. Come Monday I'll start doing a grammar edit on it, maybe even see if I should send it out to my editor. I really do wish someone made a program that actually could fix grammar (I believe I have mentioned this here before) but so much of grammar is subjective, and the rules are so loose, that's it not possible for the English language. Which of course is why no body does it.
So, yes, been busy with that, an with a few side projects under a pen name. Now that all of that is out of the way, I need to start working on the next novel, as I've fallen a bit behind. I wanted to be pushing out the fourth novel for the year by this time, instead I'm only pushing out the third. I know I'll get two more done before the end of the year, but I'd sorta hoped to do six this year, and not just five.
Well, the best laid plans, after all, right?
As for what's new? Nothing really, just lots of work. I lowered the prices on all my paperbacks by about a dollar, by pulling them out of 'expanded distribution' which really wasn't giving me any sales. Most of my sales were via Amazon, so by getting rid of that option it allowed me to drop my prices more, to (hopefully) make my paperbacks more appealing to Amazon shoppers. I know I'm not a name author, so I don't want to charge name author prices. By charging significantly less, I figure folks who only read paperbacks are more likely to buy one of mine.
I also need to see about going to more cons and selling stuff there. That would be completely new territory for me, I've never sold stuff at a con before. But I'm thinking that I probably should consider it. I just wish there were more cons near where I live. It's like a cultural wasteland in this town.
So, that's it for me mostly. Just work and more work. Thanks all!
So, yes, been busy with that, an with a few side projects under a pen name. Now that all of that is out of the way, I need to start working on the next novel, as I've fallen a bit behind. I wanted to be pushing out the fourth novel for the year by this time, instead I'm only pushing out the third. I know I'll get two more done before the end of the year, but I'd sorta hoped to do six this year, and not just five.
Well, the best laid plans, after all, right?
As for what's new? Nothing really, just lots of work. I lowered the prices on all my paperbacks by about a dollar, by pulling them out of 'expanded distribution' which really wasn't giving me any sales. Most of my sales were via Amazon, so by getting rid of that option it allowed me to drop my prices more, to (hopefully) make my paperbacks more appealing to Amazon shoppers. I know I'm not a name author, so I don't want to charge name author prices. By charging significantly less, I figure folks who only read paperbacks are more likely to buy one of mine.
I also need to see about going to more cons and selling stuff there. That would be completely new territory for me, I've never sold stuff at a con before. But I'm thinking that I probably should consider it. I just wish there were more cons near where I live. It's like a cultural wasteland in this town.
So, that's it for me mostly. Just work and more work. Thanks all!
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