Ashley R. Pollard's Blog, page 4

PteroDynamics X-P4 Transwing®

 

They call this a sizzle video.

For those wondering what I'm doing, a few of you do ask what I'm writing, I've been editing other people's work... mostly.

Mostly being broken on occasion by editing my Cosmic horror novel.

Slow and steady will get me to my goal.

Barbie: A Subversive Review

 

And, to answer Hans-Georg Moeller, I don't know or care what is authentic. If a product triggers joyful emotions by manipulating my emotions that evolved over millions of years, then I think that's clever of them.

Of course, since I know that the western industrial media complex seeks to sell me on stuff, then if I'm bothered I can choose to not engage.

The caveat being whether or not one has any real choice in a world where physics says everything is determined, even if the variables mean that one can't calculate the outcomes. So saying don't watch Barbie can lead to you watching it.

Yeah, studying physics and quantum mechanics does your head in.

You're welcome.

What Do Scientists Think About UFOs/UAPs?

Worth watching for the statistical analysis of the numbers and what it means for the chances of any unidentified object seen in the sky.

How much money do I actually make as a writer

Title says it all. The guy breaks down the likely earnings for both Trad and Indie authors.

Five Times Interstellar Got Physics Wrong

I so wanted to love Interstellar. Just the pictures of the black hole alone made it a visually stunning movie. But, several things through me out of the story.

The first being the use of the SLS to launch the crew to the orbiting ship. Bot because the SLS is in anyway or shape bad, but it set my level of expectation on the technological assumptions, no single stage to orbit rockets.

Then what so we see later? Single stage to orbit rockets. Not only that, designs that could never carry enough fuel for the Delta-V required to fulfill the mission.

After that the film might have well been Star Wars, which I love, but Interstellar had none of the joy or excitement of the former. As for the plot, again I had no problem with the MacGuffin, but what it wrapped around it was I felt utter trite sentimentality.

And don't get me wrong, I don't mind sentimentality, I do dislike trite story telling.

Indian Summer Rain

This is a notice that I've been invited to write a short story for an anthology. The shift from trying to write my novel, to actually writing a short story to meet the set deadline has rather discombobulated me.

Also, much to my surprise, new ideas for the story are springing into my mind.

So, the words are being put on paper (metaphorically that is), and as all writers know, the words must flow.

This notice is to inform you all that I'm really hard up against a deadline, and any correspondence I owe will be late. I apologize for this delay. Remember the words must flow for stories to be written.

RT: 5,569 words

Picture a clue to amuse, a space filler, or to be ignored: delete as appropriate.

Indignation: Addiction and Hope

Brin doesn't always manage to convert his ideas into practical actions that work, or at least not from what I've seen. His arguments about bets come across differently when looking at them from the other side of the argument. 

They come off as the intellectual equivalent of bullying. At least to me.

There again I look at everything as confrontation between differing perspectives, with negotiation and deescalation  being the prime goal so that that a problem can be worked on cooperatively. But, what do I know?

However, this talk struck a chord; It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift...

Science Fiction: Gatekeeping, Fandom & Genre Stagnation

Caught this, and I have opinions, which are probably not fair given this guy is doing an informal video talk about his opinions. Here's the reply I left.

I'm going to have to go away and think about this. While a lot of the points raised are worth discussing, I found some of the conclusions weak. For example, Sci-Fi as a term, coined by Forrest J. Ackerman, who arguably was the first high profile SF media fan as opposed to SF literature fan.
I used to rankle at SF being called Sci-Fi or skiffy, but nowadays I don't think it really matters because any negative implications from the term have long been overcome by the ubiquity of SF as a genre. Looking down on the term says more about the person looking down on it than the genre; namely intellectual snobbery.
And that's my problem with gatekeepers for what is essentially something that no longer makes any sense in the world as it is now, as compared to the 1930s, the evolution through the genre from the 1940s and 50s, to the new wave of the sixties and early 70s etc.
I tend to agree that fantasy encompassing sword and sorcery, epic fantasy and the such is not trying to emulate the sense of wonder that SF achieves when at its best. And as you say, revolutionary ideas are different to the evolution of tropes.
However, placing publishing as gatekeepers who are upholding the traditions of the genre doesn't stand up to scrutiny. An equally convincing argument can be made that they've held back the genre because their goals are to make profits, not evolve the genre per se. And, I agree these are not mutually contradictory goals, but the evidence is in product on the shelves.
Also, writers like Kristine Kathryn Rusch are self-published, yet also featured in traditional magazines (she is a Hugo award winner back in the 1990s), and the problem is rather diminishment of publishing from corporate buyouts. If anything one can argue that despite the criticism of self-publishing as being slapdash, this is the only area where a writer can write what they want, rather than write to market.
Of course, I would concede that a large number of self-published writers will write to market, but this has always been the case. It is a feature of capitalism, not a bug. As such, there's room for all fiction to reach the market, but the problem I fear you're actually railing against is how to sort out the wheat from the chaff.
That's a problem that I have no answer to, except that broad sweeping generalizations about self-publishing, and arguing from what one prefers has led to the arguments we see in social media. The vastness of cultural products, their accessibility, and becoming jaded from a glut of books to read only leads to a cul-de-sac of refined taste, and and as such becomes largely inaccessible to the general book reader.
TL;DR: There's room for revolutionary stories and re-framed retelling's of old stories.

Slow Horses: Strange Game - Mick Jagger

I've read the first six books, and I'm now looking forward tot he opportunity to watch the TV series. Of course, that means signing up for Apple TV, but they also have a couple of other shows we'd both like to watch, so it will happen some time soon.

For soon that is defined as in the near future.

Worth watching just for the Mick Jagger theme song. The humour is very British, but that's a good thing, and then there's Gary Oldman, and he's well worth watching too.

Snappy Title...

The month has passed me by. I thought of a snappy title, but didn't want to give the wrong impression. So the long and the short of the month is that I've been reading a lot. It takes me away from problems that are outside of my control. It is what it is.

Failure Mode the last book in the Expeditionary Force series by Craig Allanson

The finale. Sort of figured out the shape of the ending, as in there is a story that is set up in a certain way and the ending has to deliver on the promise. So while the details of said ending were well played, there was nothing unexpected. No twist that might have made me go, I didn't think of that! Fun read.

Leviathan Falls last book in The Expanse series by by James S. Corey

The conclusion to the Holden and proto-molecule shenanigans that was the basis of six seasons of TV space show awesomeness. The books are subtlety different to the show, which is neither good nor bad. Arguably the books do some things better than the show, and the show does some things better than the books. For example Cara Gee as Drummer, and Shohreh Aghdashloo as Chrisjen Avasarala

Again, the promise of the story and the title pretty much gives away the plot of the book. The epilogue was a welcome, if slightly predicable from projecting the consequences of the plot, meant again that the basic shape of the ending was obvious; it was just the order of the details.

That might be me being a bit harsh.

Shards of Earth & Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The first two books of the Final Architecture series, which I think is going to be a trilogy. Has the whole Expanse vibe going for it, except the setting is farther into the future.

Really enjoyed both. They kept me thinking, and surprised me too. So highly recommended.

War Dogs Trilogy by Greg Bear

War Dogs, Killing Titan, and Take Back the Sky read as a result of his passing, which was not your typical MilSF story. Felt like I was reading a fever dream, or someone recounting a their trauma.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamysin Muir

Another fever dream of a read is this is gay romp, think Rocky Horror Picture show, featuring lesbian necromancers, which I understand is now a thing.  We met the author at a convention several years ago, before the dark times, and she was a scream to hang out with. Not a book for everyone, but a book that a lot of people will enjoy.

I've managed to read a bunch of other books too, but I'll talk about them next time.

However, I will say that I've started reading Mick Herron's Slow Horses series, as research for Anderson's character development in my current draft of Two Moons. 

Also, I've managed to get about half way through the editing of my Cthulhu novel, The Bureau, which is good.

Things are looking up. That's all for now.