Kevin L. O'Brien's Blog: Songs of the Seanchaí, page 41

The Oracle at Delphi

Long a staple of fantasy stories, the Quest is not restricted to that genre alone. Depending upon how strict you are with the definition, even a mainstream fiction search for self-discovery could be considered a quest. One aspect common to all quests is the trigger, the event that starts the character on his or her journey. In many myths and legends this occurs when an authority figure assigns the quest to a hero, and often times this figure is a prophet. This essay discusses a model for one such prophet, the Oracle at Delphi. In particular, it describes a new theory about where she obtain her prophetic power, which could be adapted for prophets appearing in speculative fiction.

Sanitation in the Dreamlands

Sanitation is as much a problem in the Dreamlands as it is in the Waking World. Perhaps more so, because unlike the Waking World, no one in the Dreamlands is so naïve as to just dump waste into the nearest river and let the current carry it away, not even the most primitive tribe in the most remote land. Modern ideas about disease and ecological systems are just too widespread for anyone not to understand that too much waste can alter, harm, even destroy an ecosystem. For example, bacteria consume oxygen when they break down waste. The more waste they process, the more oxygen they consume, and they can lower the oxygen of the water or ground where they live, harming or killing off other creatures. Not only will this increase the amount of organic material to be processed, thereby reducing oxygen levels even more, but if these creatures normally consume the disease bacteria found in waste, their reduced numbers will allow these pathogens to become established, even multiply, and thereby affect the local human populations. Waste can also lead to 'blooms', which are massive population growths in zooplankton or algae. The former can consume oxygen, killing off other creatures, while the latter can produce toxins that poison the water, also resulting in the deaths of other species. As well, algae tends to die off quickly, which further increases the detritus that needs to be consumed, which depletes oxygen even further. Either of these events can disrupt an ecosystem and cause it to collapse. As such, almost no community simply dumps its waste, but rather tries to reintroduce it back into the ecosystem in a way that causes minimal disruption.

Read the rest of the article.

Sir Differel's Favorite Weapons

As Director of the Caerleon Order, Sir Differel Van Helsing was trained in weapons and hand-to-hand combat. Because of her unique situation, however, she was probably taught more extensively than any previous director. Though she understood the necessity of the training--as the last of the Van Helsings her life had to be preserved at all costs to retain control of Vlad Drakulya--she found she enjoyed it, especially the swordwork. Over time she has collected a group of weapons which are her favorites. These are the ones she uses in preference to all others, though she is trained in a wide variety of different types of weapons.

Read the rest of the article.

Team Girl Weapons Meme

[1] Chose up to a dozen of your OC's. (Okay, make it twenty.)

[2] Describe their favorite weapon(s) and why they like them. (Pick the top 3.)

[3] Share the love. (That means do the chain letter thing and send this meme to all your friends, and make them hate you for life.)

[4] And be sure to send me a link. I'd love to read your result.

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Eile Chica

Daewoo USAS-12 Automatic Shotgun
What can I say? This is one bad-ass mother of a gun. It fires 12-gauge shells at a rate of 360 per minute. The range isn't too great, but it'll blow away anything that gets too close. Eile is hardly a gun nut, but considering the kind of things She and Sunny run into, it makes a pretty good friend. It can take a 10-round box magazine or a 20- or 32-round drum.

Short Broadsword
Eile uses this in the Dreamlands. It's only two feet long, including the hilt, but the blade is twice as wide as a standard short sword. It is good for thrusting and slashing, but it can also chop. Though most of the time she uses it more like a club against people.

Sunny Hiver

AR57A1-PDW Carbine
This is a modified version of the AR-15, which can fire the FN 5.7x28mm round from standard 50-round magazines. It is superior to the 9x19mm Parabellum and can penetrate Kevlar at a distance of 219 yards. It is designed to tumble inside a target, causing more internal damage, but that also prevents it from passing through a target, and it doesn't fragment. While Eile's shotgun is meant to destroy targets that get too close, Sunny can pick off targets before they can get that close.

Composite Bow
Though Medb taught Sunny how to use a staff and dagger, in the Dreamlands her favorite weapon was the composite bow. Medb had her learn that instead of the longbow because it was smaller and easier to handle, but just as powerful.

Both

Walther PK380 Semi-Automatic Pistol
This pistol belongs to the same venerable family as the Walther PPK, the signature weapon of James Bond. However, its primary advantage was that it was a compact pistol for concealed carry. I wanted the Girls to have something with a little more umph. But the PK is still small enough to place in a handbag and it's not overpowering in the hand. And the .380 ACP Cor-Bon JHP +P round has reasonably good stopping power. It uses an 8-round box magazine, which is a fairly adequate amount of firepower.

Other than that, the Girls use whatever weapons are available. For example, Sunny can swing a mean skillet.

Medb hErenn

Short and sweet: spear, sword, and sail eille (that's shillelagh to you barbarian English). She also likes the monk's spade, the sling, the machete; in fact, she knows how to use a host of weapons.

You can read all about Medb's favorite weapons and why she likes them here.

Annis Nin

H&K VP70 Machine Pistol
A 9mm machine pistol capable of three-round bursts with 18-round magazines. It has a plastic frame, making it light and difficult to spot with metal detectors. The 9mm Parabellum is one of the most popular pistol rounds around, and can stop a target with a single shot 90% of the time.

M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper Rifle
The best sniping rifle the US military has to offer. Uses the man-killing 7.62mm NATO round. She prefers the semi-automatic action to that of a bolt, because it allows her to squeeze off several shots in rapid succession.

Gerber Mark II Fighting Knife
A deadly fighting knife patterned after the Roman gladius. Being double-bladed, it qualifies as a dagger. It has serrations along the rear on either side of the blade, making it a survival knife as well, but these also cause greater damage.

Ceithlenn

Scythe
When Ceithlenn is in her beautiful-but-terrible form, her favorite weapon is a giant scythe, the blade of which is made from adamantine with an edge as sharp as a shard of broken glass. Because adamantine is 100 times harder than diamond, the blade never breaks and the edge never goes dull. She can cut through anything, limited only by her strength, and her strength is prodigious, almost as great as Medb's. Despite her prowess in magic, which includes offensive spells, she prefers to fight with the scythe, reveling in personal combat.

Sir Differel Van Helsing

L106A1 Semi-Automatic Pistol
Standard issue British Army pistol, based on the SIG Sauer P226. Uses the 9mm Parabellum round, in 15, 17, 18, or 20-round box magazines. She also uses the L117A1, based on the SIG Sauer P229 (9mm, 13-round magazines), for concealed carry, and the Beretta 93R (9mm, 18 or 30-round magazines, 3-round bursts) for high firepower. Though she was taught how to fire a number of different weapons, she was extensively trained in pistol marksmanship, since that was the most likely gun she would have on hand. She trained with the army pistols, so she prefers them over other models, but she has a fondness for the Beretta as if it were a family heirloom.

Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife
This venerable weapon has been around since before World War II. It was the favored knife of British commandos, the OSS, the Army Rangers, the Marine Raiders, and other commando groups, and is still used by the SAS and the Royal Marines. As with pistols, Differel was extensively trained in its use by knife-fighting experts from the Marines, since it was the one weapon she could carry with her virtually at all times. Her comfort level has reached the point where she almost feels naked without it.

Caliburn
Millennia ago, when the Tuatha De Danann came to Ireland, they brought with them four treasures or jewels, one of which was the Sword (Claideb) of Nuada, which no one could resist or escape from. When Nuada was killed by Balor at the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, Medb claimed the Claideb, but left it in the care of the Fir Bolg when she was exiled. Upon her return, the Claideb had been claimed by Fergus Mac Roich, who named it Caledfwlch. Medb again claimed it after Fergus's death, but after her own "death" it was recovered from her tomb and taken to Wales. It eventually came into the possession of Artur Pen Draig--Arthur Pendragon--and became known as Caliburn, or Excalibur in the French Romances. It disappeared upon his death, but reappeared to his daughter when, in desperate need, she called upon it. Since then, the female descendants of Arthur, known as the Pendragons, were able to summon Caliburn whenever in need. Differel's mother was a Pendragon, and Differel inherited that ability from her. Caliburn is a great, two-handed sword similar to the ancient claymore, but to Differel it is as light as a fencing sabre and she can wield it with one hand. She can summon it instantly to her hand, and if it becomes separated from her by more than six feet, it will disappear again. It is a toss-up whether this or a pistol is her most favorite weapon, but she can call Caliburn anywhere at anytime, whereas she doesn't always have a pistol.

Dolores Cadera-Hueso

Glock 21 Semi-Automatic Pistol
A member of the very successful series of pistols manufactured by Glock, like all of the series it is made almost entirely out of synthetic polymers. The 21 was the first in the series to use the .45 ACP round. Though not as powerful as the 9mm Parabellum, its larger size nonetheless gives it comparable stopping power without the attendant problems of collateral damage due to overpenetration and possible ricochet. It uses a 13-round box magazine. Dolores prefers this over more powerful guns because on the street she must make sure she can bring a suspect down if necessary but without causing harm to civilians. It's lightness due to its polymer frame also makes it easier to handle.

Elizabeth Rebecca Mabuse

Railgun Pistol
Being a typical mad scientist, Mabuse doesn't use any available gun. Why should she, when she can make her own? Among her other accomplishments, she made several significant breakthroughs in railgun technology, allowing her to create a pistol that can fire half-gram flechettes at Mach 7 on a continuous basis. The flechettes have twice the kinetic energy of a 115 grain 9mm Parabellum round using the JHP +P+ propellant load. The main advantage of a flechette over a regular bullet is that it can easily penetrate soft armor such as Kevlar with virtually no loss of energy, and with special hardened tips can punch through metallic or ceramic hard armor. Despite their small size and high speed, they can cause a great deal of damage to a target, but there is a risk of overpenetration and possible collateral damage to other persons. The pistol has selective fire options for single-round semi-automatic action, 3-round bursts, and full automatic at 300 rounds per minute. It uses a 6,000-round box magazine, which allows Mabuse a minimum of 2000 shots unless she switches to full automatic.

Fael Cayleen

M1014 Semi-Automatic Shotgun
As a Werewolf, Fael is herself a deadly weapon, but there are times when she cannot transform. At such times she uses this weapon. It is self-loading and fires 12-gauge shells from an internal magazine that can hold 8 rounds, plus an extra one in the chamber. The stock is removable allowing her to fire it from the hip or holding it like a pistol. She prefers the semi-automatic action which allows her to select and fire on targets in a rapid manner without have to take the time to chamber a new round. Her only regret is the time it takes to reload, but she usually has others to cover her at such times, and against multiple targets she prefers to transform and fight hand-to-hand.

Giovanna Mencia Borgia

Mossberg 590A1 Shotgun
As with Fael, Giovanna as a Vampire is a deadly weapon all by herself, but unlike the Werewolf she only engages in hand-to-hand combat as a last resort. When faced with a powerful adversary, she prefers this weapon. It is a manual loading, pump-action gun that fires 12-gauge rounds from an 8-round internal magazine. A manual-load gun is not a problem for her because she can shoot, pump, and aim faster than a non-Vampire with a semi-automatic. The same is true with loading, though it still takes her about a minute. Her preference for this particular model is because of the red-dot illumination sight, which her eyesight can see very clearly even from a great distance, especially at night. She also prefers to use slugs rather than shells.

Kojoro

Her father, a 9-tail fox, is the greatest warrior that has ever lived. Her mother, an 8-tail fox, is only slightly less capable. Kojoro is a 7-tail fox, inferior to her mother, but still greater than any Human can possibly be. And while in Human form she tends to act like a Harajuku girl, she is still an extremely deadly fighter.

Odachi
Japanese longsword, with a 3 shaku-long blade, compared to the katana which is 2 shaku in length. This sword is a family heirloom, its blade a meter long. It's name translates from Kitsunese as "Divine Arbiter", signifying that its judgment is final. Despite its length, Kojoro has no problem wielding it in places even a katana cannot be used. The blade is made from a semi-legendary metal and is as sharp as a shard of glass. Unlike Ceithlenn's adamantine scythe, however, it needs careful tending to keep the blade sharp, but it can slice through any material simply due to its own weight; ie, strength is not a factor. Eile has first-hand knowledge of the power of this sword, when Kojoro performed kitsune-tsuki on her and she used it to rescue Sunny from Oni.

Daikyu
Japanese laminated asymmetric longbow, over two meters in length. Also a family heirloom, its Kitsunese name means "Direct"; ie, "to the point". Kojoro can load and fire this weapon faster than a Human can aim and fire a semi-automatic rifle. In her hands it has an effective range of 500 yards, but her father can shoot an arrow 800 yards. The actual range of this weapon is unknown.

Naginata
Japanese polearm, six-foot shaft, two-foot curved blade, with a spiked counter-weight at the opposite end. Traditionally a female weapon, her mother is actually more adept at naginatajutsu than her father, whereas she is on par with her father. She prefers to use this weapon over the odachi in open arenas. This is not a family heirloom; it was crafted for her on the event of obtaining her fifth tail. She has yet to give it a name.

Liadan Fionuir

Glaive
Despite their magical prowess, both the Tuatha De Danann and the Daoine Sidhe have a martial tradition that goes back thousands of years. They also practice equality of the sexes, such that women can become warriors as well. Liadan does not consider herself a warrior and has no interest in being one; however, she was trained in the use of the glaive like all children. The glaive is a polearm with a single-edged blade attached. The blade is a foot-and-a-half long and the shaft six feet long. A Sidh blade is made from a mystical metal that is extremely hard and strong and holds an edge like a shard of glass. Like the Kitsune blade metal, it must be cared for to maintain its keen edge, but strength is not a factor in its ability to slice through other materials. However, whereas Kitsune blades are efficient and utilitarian, Sidh blades are baroque works of art, forged by craftsmen who are more sculptors than weapon-smiths. Her people consider Liadan a rank amateur, and a mediocre one at that, but her skill with the glaive still far exceeds anything a Human is capable of, except perhaps Medb.

Maela Hiver

SIG Sauer P232 Semi-Automatic Pistol
In her profession as conman, thief, and forger, Maela almost never used a gun. In fact, she considered guns a hindrance. The few times she did use one, it was either part of the con, or a desperate gamble to save her life. When she does need to use a gun, however, she prefers this one. It makes a perfect concealed carry weapon and the .380 ACP round has reasonably good stopping power. Her reason for preferring it over the Walther PPK has to do with patriotism (until she met Oda, she had no great liking for Germans) and the fact that the P232 holds more rounds (7 vs. the Walther's 6, in a box magazine).

Switchblade
Growing up on the streets, Maela had to learn to protect herself. Aside from dirty street fighting, she became expert with the switchblade. Though not a killer, she gained a reputation of being merciless, and that prompted most people to leave her alone. The few who didn't learned the hard way that her reputation was not undeserved. Even today she still carries one wherever she goes, and she is still an expert.

Marseilles Sheraton

Ithaca 37 "Stakeout" Shotgun
Like many crime bosses, Sheraton prefers not to carry or use guns. There are times, however, when she must, or she wants to. In those cases, she uses the "Stakeout" version of this weapon, essentially a smaller version with a 13 inch barrel, a pistol grip, and no stock. She prefers it because it's easy to conceal and use. It holds 8 rounds in an internal magazine. She prefers to use 20-gauge shells, not as powerful as 12-gauge, but still deadly, they just don't kill immediately, and if they don't kill at all, they maim. Sheraton likes to intimidate and terrify people, and this weapon does that very effectively.

Taser
Whenever Sheraton doesn't want to kill anyone but needs to catch or incapacitate them, or just terrorize them with extreme pain, she uses a taser. She can use it either as a gun to shoot cartridges into a target, or as a baton to jam a cartridge into an attacker. She mostly uses it to drive off an attacker or knock him or her unconscious so she can escape.

Morgan Leia Ross

M15 Semi-Automatic Pistol
Special issue version of the M1911A1 semi-automatic pistol given to all officers of general rank. Ross was issued hers when she was made brigadier general, with her name engraved on it. It uses the .45 ACP round in 7-round box magazines.

M4 Carbine
A smaller, lighter version of the M16A2 assault rifle. It can be selected for semi-automatic action or 3-round bursts. It uses the 5.56mm NATO round in 30 or 50-round box magazines or 100-round Beta C-Mag drum magazines. It can utilize various optical and laser sights, a bayonet, and the M203 grenade launcher. Though Ross rarely goes into combat anymore, she prefers to use this weapon over others her troops may be issued.

KA-BAR Fighting Knife
Standard issue US armed forces fighting and utility knife, based on the legendary Bowie knife.

Oda Gabrielle Hiver nee Jaeger

Makarov PM Semi-Automatic Pistol
While an East German espionage agent, Oda used this pistol, and she continues to use it whenever she needs to have a firearm. Though originally designed to use the 9mm Makarov round, her modern pistols are modified to use the more powerful 9mm Parabellum, in 8-round box magazines. Though she could go with more modern weapons, she is very comfortable using this old but venerable firearm.

NR-40
Standard issue Soviet fighting and utility knife, similar to the US KA-BAR. She was trained extensively with it by the Stasi, and she often used it to kill when she needed a silent way to dispatch victims. As with the Makarov, she is just too comfortable with it to switch to a more modern knife.

Shasta Taffaday

H&K USP Tactical Semi-Automatic Pistol
Manufactured by Heckler & Koch, this is one of a popular series of pistol used by many military and law enforcement organizations around the world. Shasta has two of them, which she has had chrome-plated for extra protection against the elements. She uses the .40 S&W round in a 140 grain hollow-point form for an effective combination of expansion, penetration, and hydrostatic shock. It is more powerful than the 9mm Parabellum or even the .45 ACP. The Tactical uses 16-round box magazines, giving it greater firepower than most modern pistols.

OKC-3S Bayonet modified with a knuckleduster
Standard issue US armed forces bayonet, combat and utility knife, similar to but larger and sturdier than the KA-BAR, which Shasta has had modified by adding a set of brass knuckles to the handle. This is her preferred hand-to-hand combat weapon due to its versatility.

Katana Longsword
Primary weapon of the Japanese samurai, with a two-foot curved blade. She trained under a kenjutsu master, learning various techniques and also how to forge one. Her current weapons are all self-crafted. She is as good as the average samurai used to be. She prefers to use this weapon when engaging in close-quarter combat.

Vlad Tepes Drakulya

Phobos and Deimos
These are two .79 caliber semi-automatic pistols that fire 20mm multipurpose rounds. This means the bullets have armor-piercing, high explosive, and incendiary components, capable of delivering massive damage to a target. As such, they are definitely overkill if used against Humans. While Dracula is not squeamish about who he targets, technically the guns are to be used against paranormal threats, though that can include Zombies, Vampires, and Werewolves. As for why he likes them...well, duh! They're honkin' huge guns with 7 round magazines that can blow holes in foot-thick steel-reinforced concrete! Why'd you think he'd like them?!

Sentience in the Medb hErenn Universe

In science fiction, the term sentience is often used to indicate that an entity has various human qualities such as intelligence, personality, creativity, and morality. While this was meant to be a simple term to convey a complex concept for the sake of convenience, it has been misappropriated.

Even in the Medb hErenn universe, the mind is still a major mystery. It is generally accepted to be an emergent property of the brain that manifests aspects of the intellect and consciousness as combinations of thought, perception, experience, memory, emotion, will and imagination.

Thought, or cognition, is a catchall concept that includes any type of mental form, process, and ability. Perception is the ability to be aware of and understand sensory information. Experience, or empirical knowledge, is the acquisition of knowledge about a thing or event through interaction with that thing or event using perception. Memory is the ability to store, retain, and recall knowledge.

Emotion is a subjective experience based on feelings and involving an individual's thoughts and personality. Will is defined as self-direction and self-governance. Imagination is the ability to create concepts and experiences that are not perceived through the senses, but by cognitive means.

The intellect, or intelligence, describes cognitive abilities such as experience, reasoning, planning, problem solving, abstraction, comprehension, communication, and learning. It touches on wisdom, which is accepted to be the ability to use knowledge well. Reasoning is the acquisition of knowledge about a thing or event using thought, imagination, and insight. Insight is seen as the ability to derive a rule that links cause with effect; to take seemingly unrelated experiences and bits of information, and links them together to create a model of how something works. Abstraction is the ability to derive general ideas from specific objects and events.

Consciousness is understood to be self-awareness, the ability to distinguish between one's self and all other things and events. This in turn allows for Intentionality, which is the ability to have thoughts that mean something or are about something.

In this context, sentience is the cognitive ability to have subjective perceptual experiences. This can be as simple as being able to feel pleasure or pain and react to it, or as complex as being able to understand pleasure or pain and to make conscious choices based on it. Even so, it is considered to be fundamentally different from intelligence, will, and imagination. Sentience is entirely subjective, being based on feelings, whether sensory feelings or emotional and cognitive feelings. Each being will feel or understand an experience differently, based on its own unique personality.

Many of the ideas implicit in the science fiction definition of sentience are better reflected by the concept of sapience. Sapience is connoted with wisdom and is defined as the ability to exercise appropriate judgment. Implicit in this concept is more than just intelligence, but also will and imagination. However, sapience itself would not work as a science fiction substitute for sentience, because it does not imply consciousness.

This leaves us with a conundrum. Being separate, if interactive, aspects of the mind, sentience, sapience, and consciousness may be sufficient qualities for being "human", but they are not necessary. There are many creatures on Earth that demonstrate sentience but not sapience or consciousness, and there are many others that demonstrate the first two but not the third. Similarly, there is no reason to believe that there cannot be beings that demonstrate sapience and consciousness, but not sentience, or beings that are sentient but have no empathy. There could even be entities that are conscious but not sapient or sentient.

So what term can we use in place of sentience? Person could be the best choice, but it has its own set of problems. Human isn't much better and is anthropocentric. A made-up word such as Daonnacht (based on the Irish adjective for human), would be a good compromise, but would be too simple for the complex nature of the concept it represents. Exactly what would make a being Daonnacht? Too specific a definition would exclude many entities that should be included, while too broad a definition would include many entities that should not.

In the end, we can only acknowledge that no single term is possible. As such, many people may continue to use sentience as a convenience, or make distinctions based on sentience, sapience, and consciousness. The only alternative would be to invent a complex system that attempts to categorize beings on the basis of the degree of sentience, sapience, consciousness, empathy, technology, etc., they display. Even then, the question of what constitutes the basic nature of "humanity" would still probably go unanswered.

Next eBook: Do Unto Others...

The next story in my schedule to be published through Smashwords will be:

Do Unto Others...

Jack the Ripper thought he had found Paradise when he went into the future. Humanity had evolved into people who knew no violence, crime, hatred, or fear, who were governed by only two laws: Do As You Will and Do Unto Others. He believed he could slaughter them all with impunity, and no one could stop him. The problem was, he hadn't thought through the implications of the laws far enough....

This will be another free ebook.

New eBook: Gourmand Hag

I have just published my latest ebook:

Gourmand Hag

Sir Differel Van Helsing must be well trained before she can take over the Caerleon Order when she comes of age. Her staff is concentrating on teaching her how to perform her administrative duties and to defend herself, but she also wants to be a monster hunter like Vlad Tepes Drakulya. Though her staff is against it, he believes she could be a great one, greater even than her ancestor, Abraham. However, he insists upon training her himself, using his own methods.

They are unusual to say the least, and she doesn't fully understand their purpose, but they seem useless when she is kidnapped by a Hag, who intends to eat her in her own kitchen. Helpless to prevent it, she assumes the worst, until Madam Trumbo, one of the subordinate chefs, appears. She is her only hope, but how can a mere cook save her from a powerful paranormal being?

This ebook is free and can be downloaded from Smashwords.

GoodReads, Cover Changes, New Editions, and Copyright

I had made a rather minor change to the cover design for my ebook, Life of Duty . Essentially, I removed the shield and Sir Differel's name. Originally, I was going to use that as a sort of publisher's mark to indicate that a book belonged to the Sir Differel series, but I decided that I didn't really need it, and it looked ugly.

So I went to the GoodReads Librarian Group and created a thread requesting that the old cover be deleted so I could upload a new cover.

They refused, citing a policy that ANY changes, no matter how trivial or insignificant, even to the cover, required that a new edition of the book be created for GoodReads.

In other words, say my first cover had a typo: "Lfie of Duty". If I wanted to correct it, I would have to create a whole new version of my book, so that GoodReads would actually have TWO versions of the same book, one with the typo and one without. Despite the fact that they would otherwise be identical.

Why have such an unusual policy? I quote from one of the responses to my request:

"Goodreads policy is to keep all published covers on the site, as users want to shelve the cover of the copy they have."

In other words, the sole purpose of the policy is to keep a member's electronic bookshelf from looking different from the way he or she originally set it up.

I'm not making this up.

One respondent framed the argument like this: "You wouldn't go to someone's house and replace their copy of a book with a different edition. Same thing for a lot of cataloguers [sic] here. I shelve the edition I have."

Another asked this question: "[W]hat about the poor sods who have already paid for the book and added the relevant version to their shelves on Goodreads? Why should they have to put up with having an inappropriate or different image on 'their' book?"

Again, I'm not making this up. Never mind that this is a specious argument; it sounds plausible, so it becomes their main line of defense.

The fanaticism associated with this issue is both surprising and disturbing. Another respondent wrote:

"As a reader, I would be very angry to find a book cover I had noticed or shelved changed so I agree wholeheartedly with the policy and the analogy of your breaking into my own bookshelves I spent months cataloguing [sic] exactly as wanted just because you have a new cover." [emphasis in original]

This same person even went so far as to describe it as vandalizing bookshelves, and another respondent agreed with that assessment.

As a further expression of this fanaticism, the respondent I quoted above, who spoke of vandalizing electronic bookshelves, created a new bookshelf for her profile page entitled "Thinks it's OK to vandalize our shelves", and added all my books to it. Maybe, some day, she might add another author, but it's nonetheless obvious that this is a vindictive measure on her part to get back at me for describing her cherished belief as absurd.

[Author's Note: She has, since this blog was posted, removed that bookshelf, though she added all my then published ebooks into one called "ngawfm", whatever that means.]

Sorry to sound like a broken record, but again, I'm not making this up. As is usual in cases like this, the fanatics cannot help seeing it in absolute terms, so since I do not agree with GoodReads's policy, I must be in favor of "vandalizing" other member's bookshelves. Never mind that this is a strawman, being as I said no such thing.

Let's get real here, folks. Vandalism, by definition, is a deliberate action that causes damage or harm. It constitutes an attack on someone through their property. Were I to hack into this respondent's profile page and replace all her shelved covers with images of pornography, that would be vandalism, because my intent would be to attack her by damaging or destroying her property.

However, the desire on my part to replace the cover on my ebook -- my own property -- can in no rational or legal sense be considered vandalism, since I had no intention to harm the respondent (or anyone else) by changing the look of her bookshelf. In fact, even if I had such an intent, I very much doubt her claim would stand up in a court of law, since her definition of damage would be highly subjective rather than tangible.

The absurdity of this position can be easily demonstrated. Imagine the respondent buys a book in a bookstore, then a week later goes back and discovers the book now has a blurb on the cover. Let's say she further discovers that the new cover is not a new edition. As a result she becomes angry that the publisher has vandalized her bookshelf at home. She is of course free to buy the new cover, but let's say that instead she writes to the publisher and demands that he make the new cover a new edition, to prevent the vandalization of her bookshelf.

I'm sure you can imagine what the publisher's reaction will be, and you would probably sympathize. The only reason why the respondent can get away with demanding a new edition on GoodReads is the fact that it allows anyone to add a book to its database, for any reason.

Now, my scenario is not an exact analogy, but it does demonstrate what I believe to be the problem with these fanatics: the fear that changes that are not treated as separate editions will somehow invalidate the books they own, and that in turn causes them emotional and/or psychological harm.

The absurdity should be stark naked: these are books we're talking about, not holy writ. To devote that kind of emotional and psychological investment in them suggests a desperate need not fulfilled by other means.

To make matters worse, at one point a respondent said she would have created a new edition had a cover image been available. I asked her not to, stated that I would have created one had I wanted that, and stated that I do not authorize anyone to take that kind of unilateral action without first consulting me. She responded by saying that any member can "add a book" anytime they wish. I pointed out that creating a new edition that has not been published and has not been authorized is a violation of copyright law. She denied that, and then the thread was shut down, preventing me from setting her straight.

For the last time, I am not making this up.

I debated how to respond, since it has become apparent that GoodReads has some serious misconceptions about copyright and standard publishing practices. I thought of sending private messages to the respondents, but figured they would simply accuse me of harassing them and get my censured. I thought of posting a new thread, but figured the moderators would simply delete it. Then I realized I had a communications channel they could not interfere with. So I decided to deal with this in a blog post.

The main problem is that GoodReads's policy violates copyright law. It works like this:

To begin with, according to copyright law only the creator of an original work can authorize the creation of a derivative work based on the original.

Also according to copyright law, any new edition of an original work is considered to be a derivative work.

As such, anyone who creates a new edition of an existing GoodReads book without permission from the author is violating copyright law. This does not include adding a new book that has already been published, or has been authorized by the author but not yet published. It does, however, include creating a new edition that the author did not authorize and had no intention of authorizing, much less publishing, simply to satisfy the whim of the member who added the book to the database.

In other words, no member can create new editions of books willy-nilly for their own purposes just because GoodReads allows them to do that.

Furthermore, also according to copyright law, any derivative work, including a new edition, must have a new ISBN and a new copyright registration. GoodReads does not require that for its new editions.

However, the US copyright office requires that a substantial amount of new material be added to warrant a new copyright registration, and it has strict policies on what constitutes a substantial amount of new material.

Simply adding or removing something like a sticker, label, or blurb to/from a cover would not be considered a substantial change. (I know; I've tried.) As such, according to the US copyright office, a trivial or otherwise insignificant change would not make the work derivative, and therefore it would not need to be a new edition.

In other words, the US copyright office would not require ANY change in a cover to be treated like a new edition, just those alterations that constitute a substantial change (such as in the typography, layout, or artwork). GoodReads's requirement that ANY change in a cover must be added to their database as a new edition violates copyright law, both in the sense of creating derivative works without the author's authorization, and in the sense of creating derivative works without the required new ISBN and copyright registration.

Postscript (09-29-2013): I had filed a complaint with GoodReads through their Help page, but I never received any reply or acknowledgement. Action may have been taken behind the scenes, but since I have not been informed of such, I cannot say whether they took my complaint seriously or just blew it off.

Water Sources in the Dreamlands

Of the three elements needed for healthy living—air, water, and food—water is the most critical. As in the Waking World, air is free, and food is abundant in the form of agricultural goods and wild plants and animals, but fresh water is limited. Of the Dreamlands' total water supply, only 3% is fresh, only 1% is unfrozen, and only 0.05% is above ground. Also, it is possible to survive as long as a month without food, but after three days without water dehydration is so severe that death is a likely result. As such, individuals and communities go to great lengths to ensure that they have a plentiful source of fresh water readily available.

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Sir Differel's Family Tree

Sir Differel Van Helsing is descended from four prominent families. Three — the Van Helsings, the Churchills, and the Spencers — make up the paternal branches of her family tree, while the Pendragons are the sole maternal branch. She can also count among her ancestors various famous people, while others are her cousins, if very distant.