I read in Teresa's particless over on the left, the poem about "The Day THe Saucers Came" (now aged off the column and in the MORE... area). Does it seem to anyone else that the narrator of the poem is stuck in the dark ages? Any reasonable woman would clip on her cellphone and go out to see what's interesting. Sitting and mooning at the phone for someone to call is a last century notion.

And I get the definite impression that the waiting person is a she ... is that just sexism on my part?

Posted February 26, 2006 4:04 PM by Scorpio

I just learned, via Patrick's Sidelight, about Octavia Butler's death. We had met a few times. I love her work, and was looking forward to much more of it. I was so happy when she won the MacArthur award. Damn. This hurts.

Posted February 26, 2006 4:19 PM by Lizzy L

has it been confirmed then?

Posted February 26, 2006 4:20 PM by bryan

Scorpio: cellphones aren't romantic ;) They don't FIT into poetry. Unless the poet wants to make the point that he's NOT romantic. And since I read the poem when it was linked to from Neil Gaiman's blog and I knew he had written it, N was clearly male to me.

Posted February 26, 2006 4:21 PM by Daniel

Waiting for the phone to ring isn't romantic, either. Then you hear the poem as Neil upbraiding some brain dead chick for waiting for him to call??

I'm aghast, meanwhile, to hear about Octavia Butler. She has been one of my very favorite writers for years.

Posted February 26, 2006 4:28 PM by Scorpio

The post linked to in the second half of the Sidelights link, here, certainly appears to be confirmation.

Posted February 26, 2006 4:37 PM by Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Octavia Butler: Hell. Damn. Spit. I got nothin' to the point.

Any reasonable woman would clip on her cellphone and go out to see what's interesting.

I'm sitting here now thinking about how many truly worldshaking events have happened since I was born that made no real impression on me at the time because I was preoccupied with something that was shaking my own world too hard for my eyes to focus on anything outside myself.

Posted February 26, 2006 6:12 PM by Marna

Not mine, but I've liked it for years:

I am the one who said:

"Don't you see the acacias have blossomed
and within us is the springtime of souls?"

That's not mine any longer,
I smoke my cigarette
and think of something else.

I can't remember the author's name, though I have the original by heart:

Son eu aquel que dixo:

"¿No vés? ya florecieron las acacias
y hay en nosotros primavera de almas."

Iste xa non é meu.
Eu fumo meu cigarro
e penso noutra cousa.

Does anybody know who wrote it?

Posted February 26, 2006 6:51 PM by Fragano Ledgister

I should add that I'm saddened by the death of Octavia Butler, a writer whose work I admire.

Posted February 26, 2006 6:51 PM by Fragano Ledgister

I kissed my love.
He wasn't there.

Tears filled my eyes,
and a little fear.

I need him so;
My heart is prone.

My only contact is by cell phone.
-- An Insta Poem by Rachael

Who says there's no romance in a cell phone?

Posted February 26, 2006 7:49 PM by Rachael de Vienne

Oh dear, that is sad news. We need her imagination and depth.

Posted February 26, 2006 8:00 PM by Clifton Royston

Butler will be missed. I wish I could articulate why, and what an important person she was, but words are failing me now.

Posted February 26, 2006 8:09 PM by Josh Jasper

RIP, Ms. Butler. Thanks for the wonderful stories.

Posted February 26, 2006 8:11 PM by Harry Connolly

I'm looking for some recommendations: Would folks mind passing on some titles of first novels published in the sf/f/mys genres in 2005-06?

Thanks.

Posted February 26, 2006 8:12 PM by Harry Connolly

Then you hear the poem as Neil upbraiding some brain dead chick for waiting for him to call??

On my first read, since I knew it was by Gaiman, I imagined the narrator was male. However, I can imagine it being a female narrator criticizing a rather brain-dead guy like, say, me. It's a pretty gender-neutral poem, in my humble.

Posted February 26, 2006 8:40 PM by Heresiarch

First novel - _Counting Heads_ by David Marusek.

_Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell_ by Susanna Clarke.

And here is a whole web site full of others:

http://www.awardannals.com/award/barry/first/

Posted February 26, 2006 8:50 PM by Scorpio

Nah -- it's a he addressing a she. If it were the other way, well instead of:

You didn't notice any of this because
you were sitting in your room, not doing anything
not even reading, not really, just
looking at your telephone,
wondering if I was going to call.

we might have seen:

You didn't notice any of this because
you were sitting in your oldest undershirt with holes
drinking beer, can after can and
watching the Super Bowl
staring and waiting to see Janet's boob.

OK, maybe that is extreme, but it would at least explain why the person was sitting in one place. A phone call just doesn't cut it anymore :)

Posted February 26, 2006 8:54 PM by Scorpio

Harry Connolly asked: Would folks mind passing on some titles of first novels published in the sf/f/mys genres in 2005-06?

I don't know if this quite counts, as the actual publication date was October 2004 (I didn't read it until 2005), but I really enjoyed Tamara Siler Jones' first novel Ghosts in the Snow. And it qualifies for at least two out of the three generes you specified.

Which two, I'm not exactly sure. Definitely mystery, but I haven't decided if the other genre is fantasy (because the world of the novel still has traces of magic in it) or science fiction, because there are hints that this might be a future world in which magic came, and then (nearly) went.

In any event, it's a good read. As is its sequel, Threads of Malice, which was published in late 2005.

Posted February 26, 2006 9:28 PM by Shawn M Bilodeau

First novels in 2005
Fantasy-Poison Study by Maria Snyder,
and Vellum by Hal Duncan..
both good reads.
Rest well Ms. Butler..

Posted February 26, 2006 11:06 PM by nina armstrong

This, this is not a woman speaking to a man?

You didn't notice any of this because
you were sitting in your room, not doing anything
not even reading, not really, just
looking at your telephone,
wondering if I was going to call.

Oh, we've waited for her to call. Look up. Say something. Notice. "I stood under the window with my open arms," said Zadie Smith;

I did all the old boy tricks. These tricks are not as difficult as some boys will have you believe, but they are indeed slow, and work only by a very gradual process of accumulation.

thereby proving obliquely enough there's nothing peculiarly boyish about them at all.

(Is it the phone that puts one off? Do boys not wait for it to ring? Do girls not call? They did my God twenty years ago, when I'd get the machine and do my best to say it just so, nary a hint of the deeps I was trying blithely to skate over, but still it was there if she chose to hear it, if and only if she felt the same way, and then I waited to see what—)

Posted February 26, 2006 11:30 PM by Kip Manley

I just read on DailyKos that the death toll from Katrina is now 1420. (Apparently they find one or two bodies every day...) In the best managed situation some of those folks would have died, no doubt, but as far as I'm concerned, the Bush administration's do-nothing version of FEMA is probably responsible for at least 1000 of them.

Grrr.

Posted February 27, 2006 12:00 AM by Lizzy L

Regarding the Gaiman poem:

When I read it I liked it, didn't concentrate too much on the narrator's voice.

If you really want to analyze it though, (especially if you concede the lack of cell phone argument as indicating it is either "old fashioned" or set in the past) one might argue that someone "waiting" for a call would (traditionally) be female, while someone "wondering" would be male ...

Bottom line though is that Marna's analysis for meaning is outstanding. I wish I'd gotten that first time around; I was laughing to hard st the repetitive tropes.

Re: Octavia Butler:

Damn! Too many people dyin' lately. May she rest well, and be remebered in her works.

Posted February 27, 2006 12:39 AM by M.E. Henaghen

I'm so shocked at the news about Octavia Butler that I don't know what to say. She will be greatly missed.

Posted February 27, 2006 1:07 AM by Darkrose

Any reasonable woman would clip on her cellphone and go out to see what's interesting.

The point of the poem is that the addressee (which, being female, I read as female) doesn't find any of that interesting in comparison to waiting for the poet to call.

Speaking personally, I might very well find myself at home mooning at two phones, mobile and landline, under those circumstances. It's not the technology, kids, it's the heart.

Posted February 27, 2006 2:14 AM by abi

Yes, Octavia Butler's death has been confirmed... Here's her obituary...

Posted February 27, 2006 3:18 AM by protected static

I am a gentleman in a dustcoat, trying
To make you hear. Your ears are soft and small
And listen to an old man not at all.
They want the young men's whispering and sighing.
But see the roses on your trellis dying
And hear the spectral singing of the moon,
For I must have my lovely lady soon.
I am a gentleman in a dustcoat, trying.

I am a lady, young, in beauty waiting,
Until my lover comes, and then we kiss.
But wait! For what old man is this
Whose words are dry and faint, as from a dream?
Back from my trellis, sir, before I scream!
I am a lady, young, in beauty waiting.

John Crowe Ransom.

He did it without a cellphone.

Posted February 27, 2006 3:24 AM by Dave Luckett

That Seattle Post-Intelligencer obituary for Octavia Butler is definitely better than the usual local-media coverage of the death of an SF notable. Good for them.

SF and fantasy debut novels from Tor in 2005-6:

Old Man's War by John Scalzi (January 2005)
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (May 2005)
Singer of Souls by Adam Stemple (August 2005) (1)
Counting Heads by David Marusek (November 2005)
Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell (February 2006)
A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham (March 2006)
In the Eye of Heaven by David Keck (April 2006)
Grease Monkey by Tim Eldred (June 2006) (2)
Reiffen's Choice by S. C. Butler (September 2006)

feetnote:

(1) First solo novel. The same season saw his collaboration with Jane Yolen, the middle-grade YA novel Pay the Piper.

(2) Graphic novel.

Posted February 27, 2006 6:46 AM by Patrick Nielsen Hayden

I'm really upset about Octavia Butler too. I didn't know her at all, but I've always loved her work. She wrote so brilliantly about coping with the alien. I was re-reading Dawn just on Friday. Damn.

My favourite first novels of 2005 were John Scalzi's Old Man's War as just mentioned by Patrick, and Sarah Monette's unusual fantasy Melusine.

My best new discovery of 2005 was the brilliant Kurt Schroeder. He had been published in previous years, I'd just not been paying the right kind of attention.

Posted February 27, 2006 8:15 AM by Jo Walton

Do you mean Karl Schroeder, Jo?

Posted February 27, 2006 9:00 AM by Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Karl. Or course Karl. I have no brain.

Posted February 27, 2006 9:09 AM by Jo Walton

Thanks for all the suggestions. My reading list is filling up nicely.

Posted February 27, 2006 9:10 AM by Harry Connolly

So sorry to read about Ms. Butler passing. Way too soon.

Posted February 27, 2006 9:21 AM by Kip W

They're pstng wtht vwls on Barbelith Underground. (Link from bOINGbOING; disemvowelling credit given where due.)

Posted February 27, 2006 9:22 AM by Kip W

Octavia Butler: oh no!

A friend of mine who was never into sci-fi recently discovered her work and loves it. She's going to be so disappointed. Along with all the rest of us.

Posted February 27, 2006 10:01 AM by Laura Roberts

I already posted on Steve Barnes' blog about Octavia's far-too-premature death, but the sentiment all of us seem to share is "Damn!"

As to first novels, I only just read Hal Duncan's Vellum for the US edition -- it will be my top review for March -- but can join the chorus of praise, even if it's not an "easy read." My year-end column in the Feb. Locus also mentions Berman's Bear Daughter, Marusek's Counting Heads (though it was a bit too grim for me to love it), Monette's Mélusine, Zahrah the Windseeker, and Elantris (didn't make the official list, but no it's not just one of those fantasies with a map in front), as well as Tim Pratt's Strange Adventures of Rangergirl and Anna Tambour's witty Spotted Lily. Just wish I'd had the chance -- and the time -- to see the others!

Posted February 27, 2006 11:22 AM by Faren Miller

OK, it's an open thread, so I trust this is alright.

I'm trying to find a book I remember reading when I was a kid. But I can't remember the title.

It was a fantasy about a family competing with a giant who had (IIRC) dammed up their stream.

There is a clever interplay about a "Giants' Law" where as each member of the family comes to duel they say
"But I know the Giants' Law: 'If I can perform a giant's task, then he must do wahtever I ask.' "

And the giant responds "But do you know the rest of the law? 'If that task you cannot do, it's seven years of work for you!' "

Mom and Dad think the giant looks dumb, and take on the giant, and lose. Then the kid comes and wins through general cleverness and kid-qualities.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Can anyone tell me the title and or author?

Many thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Posted February 27, 2006 11:31 AM by M.E. Henaghen

I was chatting with a friend a little while ago about various mythologies, when something occurred to me that seemed a bit odd. The Judeo-Christian mythos, as I know it, is distinctly lacking in a representation of the nature of the Sun and the Moon. That may be unique in my experience...almost every other mythology I've heard of has a prominent explanation of some sort for what the Sun and Moon are, or once were or represent, or whatever. All the stories that I heard when I was a child seemed to have been borrowed (usually with attribution) from other cultures.

Were there traditional Judeo-Christian sun/moon stories to which I've just never been exposed, or did something happen to supress them, or what?

Posted February 27, 2006 12:20 PM by Skwid

Skwid - I think the story is that God made 'em in the first couple of days, and that's all you need to know. Now get back to supportin' the troops.

Posted February 27, 2006 12:41 PM by Larry Brennan

ZOMG! Picture and link to article called "Dungeon Masters With Mice" on the front of nytimes.com!

LOL TEH R0XX0RZ!

ahem sorry.

-r.

Posted February 27, 2006 12:44 PM by rhandir

It's just hit the wires that Dennis Weaver has also left the area.

Posted February 27, 2006 1:07 PM by P J Evans

Skwid:

The creation story in Genesis 1 essentially displaces the type of stories about cosmological struggle or identification of gods/goddesses with the heavenly bodies which give us the sun/moon stories of other traditions. The sun and moon are created things entirely owing their existence to Elohim (Genesis 1 is an E-text) and their courses are entirely subordinate to his command. In many ways it is not only un-mythological in character but anti-mythological in character. (For more of this, see von Rad on the Old Testament).

Posted February 27, 2006 2:17 PM by James

Just about right now, sometime b/w 3pm & 4pm Eastern Standard Time, Monday, 27-Feb, NPR's "Talk of the Nation" will have a segment on Octavia Butler, featuring Greg Bear.

Posted February 27, 2006 3:05 PM by Michael Weholt

Sorry to hear about Ms. Butler.

In totally other news, I happened to see Our Host at the comicon on Saturday.

I may have gone "Squee!" .

Posted February 27, 2006 3:23 PM by Sandy B.

This might be pertinent to the copyright discussion as well:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4754308.stm

Much as I find the idea of Dan Brown getting into trouble for lifting his 'scholarship' from elsewhere, I doubt that his taking a historical theory and turning into a pile of schlock is really actionable. Although if the judge issues an injunction, we might be spared the film of the Da Vinci code...

Posted February 27, 2006 3:24 PM by Jakob

This lawsuit is going to boil down to free publicity for Dan Brown and that movie.

Posted February 27, 2006 3:48 PM by Stefan Jones

Interesting question on Solar and Lunar mythology. If you count angels of the heavenly bodies, the answer might be a qualified yes, for both Judaism and Christianity; but there isn't much to be said about such personifications; and the whole idea tends to merge into the Intelligences of the medieval world-view, somewhere between physics and theology, once Aristotle had come into the picture.

Rabbinic lore does include some narrative material on the Sun and Moon. much of which probably can be traced most easily in Louis Ginzberg's old "Legends of the Jews" (now closing in on its centennial, and available in paperback and CD-ROM), I don't have my copy at hand, but, working strictly from memory, I can point to a little tale of sibling rivalry:

The Sun and Moon were created equal, and the Moon complained that they were too much alike, asking that some distinction be made between them. God obliged, by transferring much of the jealous Moon's radiance to the innocent Sun.

There are other midrashic (homiletical exegesis) treatments of the theme of "be careful what you ask for," generally with ironic endings; in some, Abraham makes open-ended requests with unexpected results, like Pain and Old Age. This is the only one I recall with a cosmological, rather than terrestrial or heavenly, setting.

In pre-Rabbinic literature, the astronomical sections of the "Book of Enoch" (now found in the Ethiopic translation; fragments from Qumran reveal an older, fuller text) have a good deal to say about the sun, moon, and stars -- but mainly as personifications, and related to a theory of a "perfect" Solar Calendar of *exactly* 364 days. (Apparent deviations being due entirely to someone's misbehavior; so pay no attention to the evidence of your eyes!) Whether one wishes to consider this mythology is a matter of definitions -- it is perhaps rather more interesting as cult astronomy (in several senses of cult) and mathematics than as narrative.

Finally, there is an early Muslim account of a Jewish apocalyptic tradition -- not, I think, clearly attested elsewhere, but much has been lost -- in which, at the End of Days, God casts down the Sun in order to refute, with visible evidence of its subordinate status, all the sun-worshipping idolaters. The Muslim reporter waxes indignant at the idea of God punishing the Sun for the sins of mortals. However, there is a Rabbinic doctrine that those in high positions are held responsible for leading others astray by example, *even through actions which are, technically, legal*; which may have been the immediate point of the tale, or at least as important as the colorful eschatology.

Posted February 27, 2006 4:30 PM by Ian Myles Slater

My contribution to the Gaiman poem stream. This is by Robert Graves and is quoted from memory (all errors in spelling and accentuation are mine):

Entre deux belles femmes dans un seul lit
Un homme se sentant interdit.
Des convenances n'ose pas faire foin
Mais opte pour elle qu'il aime le moins.

Entre deux beaux hommes en pareil cas,
Une femme sans mœurs si délicat,
Mais sans s'exprimer en termes crus
Se penche vers lui qu'elle aime le plus.

Posted February 27, 2006 5:01 PM by Fragano Ledgister

Fragano, it may amaze you to learn that not everyone here reads French that easily. Could you give us a gisty translation?

Posted February 27, 2006 5:27 PM by Xopher (Christopher Hatton)

Xopher:

Between two beautiful women in one bed
A man, speechless,
Does not dare cause a scandal
But opts for the one he loves the least.

Between two handsome men in such a case,
A woman without such delicate morals,
But without expressing herself crudely
Leans toward the one she loves the most.

[Translators' note: Hrmph.]

Posted February 27, 2006 5:36 PM by TexAnne

Sonuva....

Translator's.

Posted February 27, 2006 5:37 PM by TexAnne

Good translation, TexAnne. Thanks.

Posted February 27, 2006 5:45 PM by Fragano Ledgister

To M.E. and anyone else trying to find title/author of a book of which they have only vague recollections:

This is an excellent resource. Warning: can be addictive.

Posted February 27, 2006 5:46 PM by Lila

We believe in the Father, the Sun, and the Holy Spirit...

Posted February 27, 2006 5:50 PM by candle

What a shame about Octavia Butler! I really enjoy her work, and enjoyed speaking to her the one time I attended a reading.

Posted February 27, 2006 6:41 PM by Emily

I just read "Counting Heads", and I can't see what all the fuss is about. OK, spoiler warning -- the problem with the novel is that nothing is resolved, so I'll have to give away plot and ending details to explain what's going on:

---- SPOILERS ----

The first segment introduces Eleanor, whose sole function is to die and Samson, who does nothing but whine. I could forgive this if the rest of the book were complete -- but it's not. The only worthwhile characters are Fred and Mary -- and their story arcs are left dangling. What happened to the whole idea of clone fatigue? Evangelines turn out to make fantastic secret agents -- so Mary ends up as ... a model. Meanwhile, Fred and Mary's marriage is on the rocks because Fred likes little girls, but this, too is dropped. Meewee is certainly convincing as a fanatic -- but we never learn why he cares about the Project. Most annoyingly, the whole probate problem isn't resolved. HomSec's manipulation of mentars, and arbitrary detention policies, drive the whole plot of the novel. But since they're never explained, they function as a deus ex machina.

And now I'm off to go catch up on the Octavia Butler that I should have read years ago.

Posted February 27, 2006 7:33 PM by novalis

For those looking for some good news: Dub(ai)ya's approval is down to 34 percent.

Posted February 27, 2006 7:49 PM by Jon Meltzer

Yep, a smart young feller could make himself good money selling something that could remove Bush / Cheney bumper stickers.

Hmmmm, BadThought: When Bush's positive rating hits 33%, Karl Rove gently suggests that it is time to nuke Iran.

Posted February 27, 2006 7:53 PM by Stefan Jones

I just got around to taking out renter's insurance on my place (having let it lapse while I was Very Poor in school), and I'm pondering how to estimate my book collection. It's not as big as some -- around 1500 sf paperbacks (mostly from the 60s through now), maybe 300 or so sf hardbacks, and maybe 500 other books, reference etc.

Nothing terribly valuable; an ex libris copy of the first American edition of Solaris is about as big as it gets, but there's certainly things that would be difficult to replace, like my copy of Butler's (and wah, dammit, for such an early death) Survivor.

So anyone got any advice as to how to estimate how much it is worth/would cost to replace? And what sort of information should I give the insurance company/document to make sure it's fully covered and that they won't refuse a claim? I plan to eventually catalogue the books, but that's well in the future, and I did a back of hand calculation and realized that it would quite possibly take more to replace my books than all my clothes, computers, furniture, and jewelry.

Plus, does anyone have advice on good, free (or at least inexpensive) book cataloging software? Particularly one that reads bar codes and translates them to titles? I have an old CueCat that I could use, and I'd like to minimize my data entry time.

Posted February 27, 2006 8:20 PM by tavella

You might check to see how far along Tim at Library Thing has gotten with barcoding. I know he's mentioned (on the official blog) that he hopes to do that. There's also a LibraryThing Group at Google (linkable from LT) which discusses all manner of features, both desired and completed.

Posted February 27, 2006 8:38 PM by Linkmeister

Fragano: Thanks, though there was little actual poetry in there. Troubadour lyric, now there's something you can sink your teeth in (and tear your hair out over).

Posted February 27, 2006 8:44 PM by TexAnne

I played around with Library Thing, and found it easy to use, even without a barcode scanner.

I only indexed my small living room bookcase, though. For the curious, here's that subset:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/lsbrennan

Posted February 27, 2006 9:05 PM by Larry Brennan

Tavella:

I still have a plan to catalogue my books, along with my CDs and movies. A friend of mine recommended Readerware. You can buy their software for books, CDs, or videos for $40 each, or get all three for $75, which is what I did. The software works with the CueCat, although it takes some practice to master the art of swiping the Cuecat - be patient. I've only tried the CD catalog, but it has worked well so far.

Meanwhile, there's online software that not only catalogs your books, but shares your catalog information with others. I have yet to make up my mind whether this is a bug or a feature. I see that folks have already mentioned LibraryThing, which appears to cost $25 for a lifetime membership. (Whose lifetime? This is an important question to ask. Unless you really enjoy cataloging books over and over, you should make sure you can download a copy of your catalog as a backup. )

I've seen someone online - I wish I remember who - raving about the latest thing in social book cataloging software: Delicious Library. But it turns out to be for the Mac, and I'm between Macs at the moment, so I have no idea how good it is.

Posted February 27, 2006 9:14 PM by Mike Booth

Mike Booth - You can download your library data from Library Thing in CSV and dump it into Excel, Access or pretty much any other data management tool.

Posted February 27, 2006 9:21 PM by Larry Brennan

Mike Booth, under the "extras" tab in Library Thing is an item which when clicked will export your data into .csv format for Excel. I haven't done it yet, but then I've got just over 1200 books and they're mostly in one place, so I could always start over. (Hmm. I think I'll do that export thing this evening.)

Posted February 27, 2006 9:25 PM by Linkmeister

Literal translation makes figurative translation possible, however crudely:

When three ways simmer down to two
A man who knows not what to do
Will not just laugh and stay between
But coldly sacrifice his queen.

A lady at the same divide
Who's as resigned to take a side
Won't curse the game, or snarl and fight,
But lose the pawn, and play the knight.

(Don't expect an alternate version of Saucers.)

Posted February 27, 2006 9:43 PM by John M. Ford

TexAnne: My knowledge of troubador lyric is primarily 12th and 13th century Galician-Portuguese

(Waves of the sea at Vigo
Have you seen my beloved?
Oh, God, may he return soon!

Waves of the risen see
Have you seen my beloved?
Oh, God, may he return soon!

I grant you this loses something from the original

Ondas do mar de Vigo
Se vistes meu amigo?
E, ai Deus! que verrá cedo!

Ondas do mar levado
Se vistes meu amade?
E, ai Deus! que verrá cedo!)

John M Ford: That's brilliant!!

Posted February 27, 2006 10:07 PM by Fragano Ledgister

Dirty pool!

I just borrowed 'The Wizard of Karres' from my local library, and I noticed in the blurbs section on the back there's a section of "Praise for the prequel".

No mention is made of the "prequel" being written by a different author 30 years ago (well - 57 years ago for the first couple of chapters).

As for the book - maybe I've grown too old, maybe I'm grumpy from working till 2am most nights for the last few weeks, but the writing seems extraordinarily dull and lustreless. I didn't expect better, but I did hope for it.

Posted February 27, 2006 10:08 PM by Steve Taylor

Would folks mind passing on some titles of first novels published in the sf/f/mys genres in 2005-06?

Elizabeth Bear, Hammered

Posted February 27, 2006 10:08 PM by Lis Riba

That's 'sea' not 'see'.

Posted February 27, 2006 10:10 PM by Fragano Ledgister

Steve Taylor, you want the original Witches of Karres. Not the edited version by Baen.

Tavella, for regular SF/F hardcover, I usually get about $5 each. For regular paperback, $2 each. For unusual items, you'd have to trawl the booksellers to see what they're worth.

Posted February 27, 2006 10:32 PM by Marilee

Jim Baen edited The Witches of Karres? No, no, Lizzy, you can't say those things here... *hand over mouth*

Posted February 27, 2006 10:53 PM by Lizzy L

Marilee wrote:

> Steve Taylor, you want the original Witches of Karres. Not the edited version by Baen.

And I've got it, albeit in a rather battered edition. I'm not talking about the Baen re-edit though - I'm talking about the entirely new sequel by Eric Flint, Mercedes Lackey, and Dave Freer.

I love the original, but for me the sequel didn't work a bit - much as I'd feared. I'd be interested to hear other people's impressions though.

Posted February 27, 2006 11:24 PM by Steve Taylor

Harry: Karen Traviss, City of Pearl. (I have no comment about the other books listed; I just grabbed this one recently, in contrast to being 1-2 years behind in my reading of novels.) Not perfect, but a very good first effort.

Posted February 27, 2006 11:30 PM by CHip

Mike, that's gorgeous.

Posted February 27, 2006 11:47 PM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Stefan, re: removing bumper stickers. Mayonnaise or something similarly oily will jar the adhesive off a bumper or other such metallic element. You may have to apply and then let it soak in for a bit, but it won't hurt the finish and you will be able to roll any left over adhesive off the car.*

* This is what I've been told from reliable sources, I've never owned a car that I've applied a bumper sticker to that hasn't gone away with bumper ticker still intact. I'm still holding off on putting the cuthulu antenna doohickie on my car because I'm driving the oldest car i the house and don't want to have to get rid of the cuthulu thingie. (secure application involves Crazy Glue....)

Posted February 27, 2006 11:57 PM by Paula Helm Murray

Ooh, LibraryThing looks pretty sweet, thanks Linkmeister. It'd be nice to have everything online, too. And thanks for the estimate, Marilee. That sounds about right for rough order estimate, and I should probably break out things that I know are distinctly out of like, like Solaris and Survivor.

Posted February 28, 2006 12:08 AM by tavella

Awwww, I was being silly about the bumper sticker removeal business, Paula. But that technique IS good to know.

I won't share it with any Republicans, though. If they're going to get rid of their "W" stickers, I'd rather see them scrape the things off the hard way and scratch up their bumpers and tailgates. Right penance, that.

Posted February 28, 2006 12:09 AM by Stefan Jones

Wow. Mayonnaise? Really? I've got a stereo turntable platter I'm trying to restore, and its pedestal has residue from the old belt which decomposed in place. So far I've tried #0000 superfine steel wool, nail polish remover, and I'm about to try (on the recommendation from a turntable repair guy in NC) lacquer thinner.

Hmmm. Mayonnaise. I need to think about this.

Posted February 28, 2006 2:07 AM by Linkmeister

The fall of 2000 the sticker went on
A diehard Republican family car
With two-point-five children and wife stayed at home,
The husband a hardworking man.

Fast forward fast forward,
The children grow up
The husband he loses his job,

Fast forward fast forward
Their medical bills,
Go soaring to orbit so high.

The fall of 2004 the sticker still there,
They still the party line vote,
Supportive are they of Executive Branch,
Their family values intact.

Fast forward fast forward
The bills and their lives
Behind on the payments they fall,

Fast forward fast forward
Corruption takes toll
They're starting to notice at last.

Posted February 28, 2006 3:56 AM by Paula Lieberman

Linkmeister, do you know the composition of the old belt? Was it mostly rubber, or something based on fossil fuel derivatives?

Posted February 28, 2006 5:25 AM by Mez

Paula, I am sad to report that super glue only works so long as there are no determined human hands involved, and that all that is left of my Cthulhu antenna ball is greenish super glue residue on the antenna. Thieving bastards. I'm surprised they didn't take my WWCD license-plate frame while they were at it.

Posted February 28, 2006 8:57 AM by Skwid

Oh, while we're dispensing advice: You can likely leave off the use of solvents to remove bumper stickers altogether with cautious application of a heat gun, or (should you not wish to concern yourself with the possibility of stripping the paint off your car) just a hairdryer will probably do.

Posted February 28, 2006 9:00 AM by Skwid

Many booksellers use a program called HomeBase. It’s a listing program for Internet sales. However, it works well as a personal library catalogue. You can download it for free from abe.com. Try it.

Posted February 28, 2006 9:03 AM by Rachael de Vienne

Linkmeister,
Peanut butter is supposed to have similar properties to mayonaise. (For stickyness removal.)

-r.

Posted February 28, 2006 9:41 AM by rhandir

Mike: Wow. Can I translate anything else for you?

Fragano: I also like "Mia hermana fremosa" by...mm, are they both by Martin Codax? But my all-time absolute favorite poet is Raimbaut d'Aurenga, aka Raimbaut d'Orange, he who wrote "Ar resplan la flors enversa" (Now shines the inverted flower).

Posted February 28, 2006 10:03 AM by TexAnne

about LibraryThing,

There is an excellent tutorial on the hows and whys of using cuecat with librarything. Unfortunately it is stored in the librarything yahoo group, so you have to sign up for it. Just go to yahoo groups and search for it.

(Firefox chose this post to stop responding correctly to the control and quotation mark keys, so I effectively can not do a darn thing to be directly helpful. Hopefully this is nothing serious.)

-r.

Posted February 28, 2006 10:15 AM by rhandir

TexAnne: Yes they're both by Martín Códax.

I should read more Occitan verse, I suppose, slogging my way through the originals and cursing Ezra Pound the while.

Posted February 28, 2006 10:28 AM by Fragano Ledgister

I love the original, but for me the sequel didn't work a bit

I thought the sequel was a bit too far towards (a) trendy science and (b) slapstick. I keep wondering what Schmitz might have done if he'd written the sequel.

Posted February 28, 2006 10:40 AM by P J Evans

Fragano: thanks for the accents. I forgot about those. Furthermore: Ezra Pound? Ick. As for slogging, may I suggest William Paden's An Introduction to Old Occitan? Published by the MLA, I believe. It comes with a pronunciation guide and musical examples on CD.

Posted February 28, 2006 10:51 AM by TexAnne

I'll just note that the major edits, more than an occasional word substitution, in some of Schmitz's other stories don't mean the originals have vanished. They're now available in the Baen Free Library.

Posted February 28, 2006 11:58 AM by Dave Bell

Re: bumper sticker (or gunky sticker) removals

Yes, mayo, peanut butter, olive oil, Crisco, etc. all work for removing gummed labels from just about anything. The secret is the oil. Using mayo or peanut butter is good 'cause they don't run off slanted surfaces before the oil has the chance to do its thing with the glue.

I've tried this several times; it's worked every time. Don't forget to wash with a mild soap and water afterward to clean up the leftover oil.

Posted February 28, 2006 11:59 AM by Renee

TexAnne: In writing Spanish, Galician, or Portuguese words inserting the accented characters has become second nature to me (much less so in French, a language which I speak badly).

By slogging, I mean I can work my way slowly through texts in Catalan and Occitan generally by referring back to French and Spanish. I do the same for Italian (helped by the fact that I have a digloss Machiavelli), even though I can make no claim to speak the language.

An Introduction to Old Occitan does sound like something I'd want to have.

Posted February 28, 2006 1:08 PM by Fragano Ledgister

Andrew Plotkin describes his own book-scanning project on his site.

Be warned, it's rather techie/hackish, and took place a few years ago, so some of the web pages it queries may be out of date. Highlights: Use of free web resources to gather book information; clever matching of publisher numbers between the EAN and the UPC barcodes, by taking advantage of the books that have both; flat-text processing and output (using Python). And it has references to a Radio Shack CueCat giveaway program from several years ago (links now broken).

Posted February 28, 2006 1:10 PM by Nathan E. Rasmussen

TexAnne: The Ezra Pound reference was to his, ahem, translations of Occitan verse. As Gilbert Highet put it, 'It took old Ezry/To ruin Provençal poetry for us.'

Posted February 28, 2006 1:10 PM by Fragano Ledgister

mez, I'm pretty sure it was rubber alone, but I can't be entirely positive. One of the issues is that whatever gets used must not leave a residue behind which might harm the replacement belt I just acquired.

Posted February 28, 2006 1:32 PM by Linkmeister

One of the reasons I'm restoring this turntable is that the newer ones being made all have plastic bases and look like they're only two degrees of evolution up from something Fisher-Price or Hasbro might have come up with -- plastic bases for a unit which might weigh about 3 pounds. The old one looks like a solid piece of electronics combined with attractive design.

Posted February 28, 2006 1:38 PM by Linkmeister

Mike: wow. Just...wow. You're bloody fucking brilliant.

Can't wait to meet you!

Posted February 28, 2006 1:39 PM by Xopher (Christopher Hatton)

Fragano: Yes, that's what my "ick" was for, the overdramatic churl. In happier news, I'm joining a Dante reading group. Getting together monthly with friends, bilingual editions, and good wine ought to teach me Italian in nothing flat.

Posted February 28, 2006 1:49 PM by TexAnne

Given the number of translators on this page, I thought I could dare the question...

Anyone know a good source for used books in French? I've already tried lexlibris.com.

I'm looking for Ansen Dibell's 4th and 5th books in the Kantmorie series, and know they're only available in French and Dutch. Any thoughts?

Posted February 28, 2006 2:15 PM by J. Cheney

The thing to do with a Bush bumper sticker is place a bold IMPEACH above it. Penance is expensive.

Posted February 28, 2006 2:42 PM by Scorpio

Nathan: clever matching of publisher numbers between the EAN and the UPC barcodes, by taking advantage of the books that have both

"Scan both and build a table of cached lookups" may not be perfect, but it's free. Free is good.

Posted February 28, 2006 2:47 PM by Christopher Davis

Personally, I would love a pack of little, font-matched stickers reading "an idiot" to place where appropriate on those obnoxious huge W stickers captioned with "Still the President."

Those make me want to rear-end someone at least once a day.

Linkmeister, the heat gun would probably be useful in your circumstance, particularly as the residue you're dealing with may not be oil soluble.

Posted February 28, 2006 3:35 PM by Skwid

I would never put a bumper sticker on someone else's car. That would be WRONG.

But now that the fine for parking in a marked handicapped spot has gone up enough to be a very serious and effective deterrent around here, I ... MAY have a small stock of "I don't give a flying fuck about the crippled and the elderly" stickers sitting around eating their heads off.

Variations are possible...

Posted February 28, 2006 5:48 PM by Marna

TexAnne: I've not learned Italian from my digloss Machiavelli. It's come in handy for nice quotes in the original...

Pound was a decent poet who thought he was better than he actually was.

Posted February 28, 2006 7:51 PM by Fragano Ledgister

Surely you've seen Jeffrey Rowland's answer to the "W" sticker.

I'd buy one, but I suspect it'd be misunderstood.

Posted February 28, 2006 8:07 PM by Larry Brennan

"I suspect it'd be misunderstood"

Gee, ya think?

Posted February 28, 2006 8:12 PM by Linkmeister

Lizzy L, I've just started on the new antidepressant and don't have my sarcasm-alert back, so, not Jim himself, Eric Flint edited it on behalf of Baen. Eric has been editing some of their republished books to bring them "up-to-date."

Steve, of course the sequel is crap. Look who wrote it. (My opinion, almost certainly not that of our hosts.)

Posted February 28, 2006 9:26 PM by Marilee

Ahem.

(PRLEAP.COM) "We’ve tested a lot of e-book waters, including various cockamamie schemes involving overpriced e-books laden with DRM," says TOR Books Executive Editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden.

"Oddly enough," Hayden continues, "a lot of those ‘books’ didn’t even sell enough copies to pay for their file-conversion costs. Meanwhile, it hasn’t escaped our notice that Jim Baen has been doing something that works, that people like, and that makes money. I’m delighted to be doing this pilot program; I think Jim has been clueful on this issue for a long time, while almost everyone else in publishing has been staggering around on stage hitting one another over the head with inflated pig bladders."

Jim Baen’s Universe is published as a bimonthly online magazine, beginning June 2006, with over 150,000 words per issue, making it far larger than a typical magazine. The magazine can be read online, or in a variety of downloadable formats, including Acrobat PDF, Mobipocket, Microsoft Reader, RTF, and others.
As with all of Baen Publishing’s electronic offerings, Jim Baen’s Universe is published completely unencrypted and without any Digital Rights Management schemes or copy protection.

Hey, Patrick, I liked the Guiilvers Travels reference.

Posted February 28, 2006 9:38 PM by Josh Jasper

The Witches of Karres did not need to be brought up-to-date the last time I read it...

Are they doing that a lot? Never mind, I don't really want to know.

Posted February 28, 2006 10:10 PM by Lizzy L

Jeffrey Rowland's answer to the "W" sticker

I made a version a month or so back that turned it into "Wiretap", flying the skull and crossbones. It's more a standard bumper-sticker design.

Posted February 28, 2006 10:20 PM by P J Evans

Ad seen in main city newpaper today:

Writer's wanted

Your book published!

Call this number....

Ay de mi.

Posted March 1, 2006 4:23 AM by Dave Luckett

M.E.: I win at poem? Oh good, I was starting to think I'd missed the point completely.

TexAnne: That was a stunning translation. Not the flavour of the original, exactly, but its own thing, and I adore it.

I will NOT post limericks. I will NOT lower the tone. Oh, heck:

*folds hands primly and recites*

King Richard in one of his rages
Forsoook his good lady for ages
And rested in bed
With a good book instead
Or preferably, one of the pages.

Posted March 1, 2006 5:14 AM by Marna

The Witches of Karres did not need to be brought up-to-date the last time I read it...

Yep. Goth girls in 1950 :-)

Posted March 1, 2006 7:13 AM by Jon Meltzer

Marna: no, mine was pedestrian and boring. The stunning one belongs to John M. Ford and posterity.

Posted March 1, 2006 9:32 AM by TexAnne

J. Cheney, the best way I know of to locate used books in French is through abebooks.com, which gives you, in the advanced search mode, the option of searching for books from bealers in specific countries. Of course, the basic search mode allows for author and title searches, so locating works by a specific author in any location is not a problem.

A quick search by author alone ahows 298 titles in various locations; a search for author and dealers in France 24 titles.

There are probably other and better ways to do this, including sites that handle French dealers alone, which may well have more French used book dealers than abebooks does; but this does produce some titles, even if they aren't the ones you're looking for.

Posted March 1, 2006 9:38 AM by fidelio

rhandir: thanks for the pointer to the LibraryThing tutorial on CueCats--I hadn't thought to check eBay for cheap ones, and this will make my life much, much easier.

(Question: is there any reason you can't just output the CueCat's "typing" into a text file and then use the Universal Import feature?)

Posted March 1, 2006 10:50 AM by Kate Nepveu

Apparently this Witches book is a gap in my SF education- both the book and its history. I can piece together some of the story from looking at the Amazon "Edited by Eric Flint" cover. . . is there more to the story than "colorizing the Maltese Falcon"?

Posted March 1, 2006 1:15 PM by Sandy B.

Regarding the link about Paul: Every time I listen to a Beatles' tune and compare it with solo work from them, my mind consciously picks out elements that belong to one Beatle and only one because each had not only a distinctive musical voice, but a unique compositional one. I believe Paul tried to claim too much credit over the years.

Posted March 1, 2006 2:06 PM by Dave Kuzminski

Kate Nepveu,
thank you! You wrote:
(Question: is there any reason you can't just output the CueCat's "typing" into a text file and then use the Universal Import feature?)
I don't have the foggiest. There's two ways to use a cue cat - to have a program or driver that recognizes it and pulls out the "magic scrambling*" OR to neuter the thing. (Instructions here. Allows you to save 5$ over ebay.) Anyway, people have used it in the way you describe before the existance of Librarything. On the other hand, I have yet to fiddle with one or with library thing. So much for being helpful eh?

-r.
*Why magic scrambling? It was an early "give us your shopping habits and we'll give you otherwise inconvenient but free information" sca...er...deal. You'd scan a barcode, and pipe it through their website to decode it. It was cracked very quickly.

Posted March 1, 2006 2:55 PM by rhandir

Witches of Karres is known as the one book about which The Other Change of Hobbit bookstore never had a complaint from a custmoer it was recommended to.

Posted March 1, 2006 3:04 PM by John M. Ford

Kate, IIRC CueCats have a hardware UUEncoder built into them, so scanning the barcode results in a long string of what appears to be nonsense characters. Some CueCats can be physically hacked with a soldering iron to bypass this encoding and output unencoded data, but some can't.

I haven't read the tutorial, of course, this is all from vague memories of research I did years ago when I was first exploring creating my own library DB. I've still got my CueCat, actually, and am thinking about starting up a LibraryThing project...

Posted March 1, 2006 3:26 PM by Skwid

I've just bought a "modified" CueCat, and the tutorial for LibraryThing, written for the modified versions, describes scanning the bar code while your web browser is open to LibraryThing's "import" page, where it will write the data into the search field, as though you'd typed in the numbers.

Which suggests to me there's no reason you couldn't dump a bunch of scanned numbers into a text file at a time and do the Universal Import, rather than wait for LibraryThing to do the lookup before scanning the next one--but when my scanner arrives, I will look into it and see!

(I'm very excited about this, and kicking myself for not thinking to check for cheap CueCats before--I'd priced regular scanners and decided they were a bit too much.)

Posted March 1, 2006 3:57 PM by Kate Nepveu

If you want even cheaper cue cats, look at MCM, mouser, or digikey catalogs. They sometimes have large lots on surplus, for 5$/pc +s/h. On the other hand, you'd have to modify them.

-r.

Posted March 1, 2006 5:02 PM by rhandir

TexAnne: His was very good. I didn't like it as much, though I did like it, because it didn't have that concreteness, that sense of a moment.

I liked the simplicity of yours, and didn't find it pedestrian. It has *flails for nonexistent critical vocab* balance and rhythm and the emphasis in all the right places and images that stuck.

Take the nice compliment, it's got chocolate icing on it and those little candy sprinkles and everything.

Posted March 1, 2006 6:05 PM by Marna

In reply to Marna's limerick:

*places hands behind back and recites in prim schoolgirl voice*

Said the Queen to the King: "I don't frown on
The fact that you choose to go down on
Your page on the stairs,
But you'll give the lad airs
If you will do the job with your crown on!"

(Lowering the tone? Us? Never. That was Auden! It's culture!)

Posted March 1, 2006 6:12 PM by Lea

...continuing the royal theme, alas with work of a lesser poet:

Our Sovereign Lady, the Queen
Is a woman of most demure mien,
Except when she's dating
A young lord-in-waiting
Her behaviour then is obscene.

Posted March 1, 2006 10:13 PM by Fragano Ledgister

For cataloging on Macs I've heard interesting things about a commercial program called (I think) Delicious Library. Does books, CDs, and DVDs, scans stuff if you simply hold the barcode on the book/CD/DVD up to a webcam (if you have one) and then indexes it various ways as well as giving you a picture presentation of the cover. Apparently has a bunch of cute Easter eggs and clever little thingies in it too (e.g. if you catalog a copy of The Empire Strikes Back, it mutters "I am your father, Luke.") I don't have a Mac so I have no direct experience of it, just reporting hearsay.

Posted March 2, 2006 12:11 AM by Clifton Royston

By purest serendipity, there happens to be i) an Auden poem ii) that I know iii) mentioning telephones (ok, not cells, but I'm sure he'd've written it that way if he'd been familiar with the things) that's iv) somewhat suitable (modulo gender) for the passing of Ms Butler. Forthwith:

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever; I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood,
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

I'll add as a footnote that a composition student at my university has just written a choral arrangement of this poem that is, in a word, stunning. I doubt it's available yet but if you ever get a chance to hear it -- and it won't be too hard to identify, seeing as how it was written just last year -- don't pass it up.

[And I'd be happy to give you the composer's name except that I, uh, don't remember it.]

Posted March 2, 2006 12:22 AM by Anarch

Thank you Clifton, gonna have to look into that (I've used both platforms but love my Mac much better.There was discussion of this at Boskone, and i'd just rather use my computer than know the details/progamming of how or why it works. I do fairly complex data manipulations for work, but they have to be compatible/given to a layout artist on a Mad. And it does the job, with filemaker's help.)

Posted March 2, 2006 12:32 AM by Paula Helm Murray

Lizzy L, I've just started on the new antidepressant and don't have my sarcasm-alert back, so, not Jim himself, Eric Flint edited it on behalf of Baen. Eric has been editing some of their republished books to bring them "up-to-date."

Posted March 2, 2006 1:05 AM by Dan Blum

I'm so glad The Witches of Karres is back in print especially if it has not been re-edited. I have long loved that book; I was very pleased to score a used copy when passing through a small town near Taos some 12 years ago. Schmitz's other writing I've read is OK, but Witches is pure gold from start to finish.

Posted March 2, 2006 1:24 AM by Clifton Royston

How pleasant it is to arrive
On Karres, by the Sheewash Drive.

Posted March 2, 2006 7:54 AM by Fragano Ledgister

Avram: Tolkien's dead.

While the author is alive, if someone wants to do something with their work, from republishing it in an anthology to quoting it or making a film out of it, the author can, and ought to be able to, say "Sure, that's nifty" or "No" or "I want more money than that". I think this level of control benefits the author and doesn't unduly harm the soup of story, which is what matters, because people really don't live all that long in those terms. If people were immortal, I'd be in favour of fixed term copyrights. But people hardly live a hundred years, and not as much as that after they publish. And really, most authors are pretty generous people. They care about their work, but they don't always say no.

I have several times contacted actual authors over wanting to quote them, and a couple of times over wanting to create a derivative work (my play "Tam Lin"). Every time, these living authors have graciously given permission, even when it was for a translation of a medieval Welsh poem to be published in a roleplaying game and the poor author had never even heard of RPGs and I had to explain at length.

I've also several times had to contact literary estates over quotes. This is a totally different experience. They don't get back to you for months, if they get back to you at all. Then all they tend to care about is money.

Posted March 2, 2006 8:48 AM by Jo Walton

Jo Walton,
I think you crossposted by accident.

Posted March 2, 2006 8:58 AM by rhandir

Clifton Royston
mentioned the "Delicious Monster" a (currently) mac-only librarything like program that uses a webcam to see the barcode.

People often say, "well that does me no good, I don't have a webcam". Note well that if you own a digial video camera or a digital camera that uses usb or firewire, you have a webcam. (Usually) Often you can see video in real time if you have it in record mode while it is hooked up to your computer, even in windows. Give it a try.

-r.

Posted March 2, 2006 9:03 AM by rhandir

Clive Thompson blogged about Margaret Atwood's telerobotic booksigning device over on Collision Detection, and the posting contains these immortal lines:

First of all, this confirms my growing sense that Atwood is among the biggest secret geeks on the planet. After all, she's basically a sci-fi author masquerading as a writer of "serious" adult nonfiction. Her "what if" novels are so superb -- and so manifestly superior to her other books -- that I sometimes wish she'd just give up writing about the usual maundering-around-the-kitchen-moaning-about-your-children/divorce/boring-ass-upper-middle-class-life crap that comprises 99% of all of today's dinosaur literary fiction, and just throw it down old-skool in sci-fi and fantasy, and crank out a bunch of 4,000-page novels with, y'know, dragons and instellar spacecraft and shit on the covers. I would so pay for that.

Posted March 2, 2006 9:07 AM by debcha

If I could write a publishaable novel, I expect I'd feel differently about some things, like whether another 4000-page dragon/starship novel would sell, and if Margaret Atwood turns out to have been writing for decades as "Anne McCaffrey", I can't see anything I could complain about.

There's certainly cases of authors adopting more-or-less transparent pen-names to sell different sorts of work, but I think I could distinguish a romance from