Michael W. Lucas's Blog, page 44

New Patreon video

I’ve had a Patreon for a while, and it seems to be working okay.

So, with help from Lawrence Technology Services, I created a Patreon video. By “help,” of course, I mean that Tom and Marvin at LTS worked the camera, did the editing, provided the set, did the lighting, and probably dozens of other things I have no awareness of.

I did, however, write the script and blather in front of the camera.

If you have three minutes to waste, check it out.

I don’t know if this video is right for Patreon....

Book Fair, 23 June 2018

I’ll be at the Scriptorium Book Fest in Troy, Michigan this coming Saturday. No, my name’s not on the official list there at the bottom, but I’m a late addition.

The Book Fest features a few dozen local authors, all of us available for discussion, photos, and general abuse. We’ll all have copies of our books.

If you’re in Metro Detroit, come by and find your new favorite book.

Now, back to writing git sync murder and FreeBSD Mastery: Jails…

Author Discoverability

I’m at BSDCan, so it’s a great time to talk about the discoverability aspect of being a writer. My goal is to make a living as a writer for the rest of my life. My literary craftsmanship affects that, but it’s not the biggest factor.

When you read a book, a couple things can happen. You might get quit reading partway through and forget about it. You might read the book, take what you need, and move on. Or, if the author twiddles your brain just right, you’ll track down everything else the aut...

“FreeBSD Mastery: Jails” Sponsorships, and writing schedule changes

I’ve been scurrying to finish git sync murder, the sequel to git commit murder, so I could have it at BSDCan.

This isn’t going to happen. If I’d been writing anything else it would have been done, but the numbers show that cozy mystery is not my natural form. Most of the time I top out at about 500 words per hour, as opposed to the 1000 wph I achieve writing fiction involving flamethrowers and bare-knuckled amateur dentistry.

For the record, I’m fine with the speed. Quality beats speed any da...

New talks, and the F-bomb

The video from my recent mug.org visit is now online. It’s my ZFS introduction, as well as a brief talk about Ed Mastery.

I had originally planned a talk about ed(1), but the ZFS talk went too long. (That first speaker was a real blabbermouth.) Instead, they asked me to talk about why the book was a secret, how I arranged sponsorship for that book, and how the various versions of that book came to be.

This talk is a little rough, because I wasn’t prepared to give it. I completely winged the w...

My Penguicon 2018 Schedule

Putting everything together, this is what talks I’ll be in this year at Penguicon. All the slots are an hour long unless specified.

Friday

5 PM: LN2 Ice Cream 8 PM: The Internet Before the Web (panel)

Saturday

9 AM: BSD Operating Systems in 2018 (talk) 10 AM: LN2 Purple Haze Ice Cream (2 hours) Noon: Large Scale SSH: Keys and Certificates (talk) 1 PM: Senior Sysadmin Panel 3 PM: Writing Groups (panel) 4 PM: Reading (in the Writer’s Block) 6 PM: Writing Productivity (panel) 7 PM: Critiquing wi...

Too Subtle for my Own Good

It turns out that part of my April Fool’s book release failed. More than one person has commented on the excoriating review of Ed Mastery posted on Dan Langille’s blog.

People missed the italicized text at the top:

Here’s a guest post by Michael W Lucas.

I wrote this review.

Of my own book.

Ripping it apart as a terrible idea, and myself as a terrible author.

Of all the parts of the Ed Mastery release that could be taken as a prank, this was the most prankish. I thought it was obvious.

The f...

“Ed Mastery” follow-up

Yesterday I released #mwlSecretBook: Ed Mastery.

April first is the perfect day to release such a book. I wrote a nice release announcement and everything.

Now that April Fool’s is over I should probably say: this is a real book. It exists. You can buy it.

The Manly McManface edition? Yep, that exists. It is a real thing. To my surprise, people have bought it.

The release announcement? Completely sincere.

While I normally don’t solicit release day reviews, this time I did. Because if I’m rele...

For 1 April: #mwlSecretBook reveal!

So, I wrote a book. And I didn’t tell people what it is.

The book is now out. You can buy it.

And it has an authentic, legit blurb from Ken Thompson, co-creator of Unix.

Explaining why I did it this way takes a little bit of context.

First:

People have sent me all kinds of guesses for the book topic. Some of you have guessed correctly. I haven’t told anyone that they’re correct, though. You people are perfectly capable of launching a dictionary attack on me, so the only answer I could give is...

On Sponsor Gifts

(Posted so I can refer to it later.)

Last week, Liz and I converted this:

into this:

Note the little stack of customs forms off to the side. It’s like I’ve learned a lesson from standing at the post office counter filling out those stupid forms. Sponsors should get their books soon.

This seems like an apropos moment to talk about what I do for print sponsors. I say I send them “a gift,” but what does that really mean? The obvious thing to ship them is a copy of the book I’ve written. Flat-out...