Sunday, August 9, 2009

Time for another chat?

(Updated June 17, 2012) This post has become of historical interest only ... the chat log lived on someone else's website and is now overcome by events. But if chatting is your thing, check out my new discussion group at Goodreads). 

Where does the time go?

My thinking about occasional SF and Nonsense internet chats was: every couple of months. Today I noticed that the first-and-so-far-only chat was way back in ... January. Yikes!

That inaugural chat was a lot of fun. (Curious? Check the chat log here.) So: I thought I'd test the waters (see virtual toe dip) for doing another. Hence, the poll on the righthand side of this page, immediately below my profile. As before, the chat would be on a Saturday late afternoon (as such things are judged in Eastern time).

You want to know more? IIRC the last chat touched on many of the topics you read (and comment) about here: aliens, SF tropes, TV and movie SF. Those are all fair game if we do this again. But the calendar suggests my own writing as a topic (internet chat hasn't been foremost in my mind for a reason):

Last June: Juggler of Worlds (a collaboration with Larry Niven) was reissued in paperback.

September 1: Fools' Experiments will be reissued in paperback.

October 13: Small Miracles will be released.

November 10: Destroyer of Worlds (a collaboration with Larry Niven) will be released.

The poll runs through September. Vote early and often ;-)

4 comments:

Catreona said...

OT: Stupid amateur question:
Is it true that if you put up a story or poem anywhere on the Web, no matter how obscure the corner may be, no professional level editor will purchase it because Google can find it and therefore it must be "published" already? Why would Sheila Williams, for instance, care if a person has a personal web site or blog spot where she puts her stories? How can that possibly count as "publishing?"

Signed,
Dejected Idiot

AReichl said...

I have voted - up to now thats 100% for 'yes'!

Edward M. Lerner said...

Hi Catreona,

My understanding is that a story's appearance on the web counts as prior publication. Magazines usually buy first publication rights, so a public web posting will disqualify a work. (Note that qualifier: public. If access is password protected, posting is like sharing a hardcopy with a few friends -- not publication.)

Does this policy make sense? I believe it does: it enables the magazine to assure its readers they are getting -- for their money -- previously unpublished material.

(Do reprints ever get into magazines? Very occasionally, as I understand it. When it does happen, the story first appeared in a limited access venue, like a limited-edition anthology. Or the magazine explicitly has a reprint section -- although that's often reserved for quite old classics, even stories out of copyright.)

Like it or not, that's how the short-fiction world works.

Catreona said...

Thanks for answering my question, Ed.

Still feeling like the world's greatest idiot. *sigh*