Marcy Sheiner's Blog, page 11

Smashwords Hits Milestone

Image by None via CrunchBase

Following is a message from Mark Coker, founder and Director of indie self-publisher  Smashwords. One of the 250,000 books on their site is Halfway to the Stars, the adventures of a  journalist whose beat is the San Francisco sex scene.

SMASHWORDS CELEBRATES 250,000th PUBLISHED BOOK!

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One week ago, Smashwords and our authors hit an exciting milestone – 250,000 books!  I blogged my thoughts here.

As I mention in the post, “indie authorship” isn’t just a noun.  It’s an attitude, a mindset and a revolution.  Indie authorship celebrates the value of every author.

While many Smashwords authors have achieved significant commercial success, indies realize there’s a greater success enjoyed by all indies, and that’s the freedom to publish on their own terms. Indies enjoy faster time to market, greater creative control, higher royalty rates, and significant fan-building advantage.

Related articles

Smashwords Hits New Milestone – 250,000 Indie eBooks Distributed (the-digital-reader.com)
Smashwords Lets Authors Define a Series (julietboyd.wordpress.com)
Smashwords Unveils New Indie Author Interview System (goodereader.com)


Filed under: adult material, fiction, Publishing, Sex writing, Writing Tagged: Author, creative control, E-book, Mark Coker, Publishing, self publisher, Smashwords

President Barack Obama: Take 2

Photo: WDCPIX.COM/Lauren Victoria Burke

A few weeks ago I blasted the U.S. President as “The Silver Tongued Devil.”  My catchall complaint is that the Prez talks a good line—actually he’s one of the most coherent, mellifluous speakers of our time—but he doesn’t back up his words with action. His actions are, in fact, so frequently in opposition to his words that at times I’ve considered him far more dangerous than many right-wing politicians and/or bumbling idiots who somehow get their hands on the reins of power.

I’ve known all along there’s more to this story than the simple terms as I stated them. Lately I’ve been newly disturbed by the most heinous aspects of the other side: the way Republicans and those even slightly right of center treat Obama. To be honest, I don’t think right, left, Republican, Democrat, et al. have all that much to do with their antipathy; I believe it lies in conscious and unconscious racism. But then I remember Clarence Thomas, accepted as one of them. Hmm…so maybe it’s not racism. It’s still heinous.

These people hate, but seriously hate, Barack Obama so much that they actually praised Vladimir Putin, Master of The Evil Empire, by comparison. No joke: when Putin offered to mediate with Syria regarding the use of chemical weapons on their citizenry, Fox News, a bunch of raving anti-Communists, went gaga for the Russian, claiming that our own ineffectual President hadn’t done shit, while Putin showed courage and wisdom. I ask you!! That is hatred, my friends, a word I don’t tend to throw about lightly.

They make no secret of their abhorrence. On the heels of Obama’s first inauguration they announced for all the world to hear that their Number One goal was to prevent him from enacting, achieving, accomplishing or changing a single thing about this country. Didn’t matter what it was; it could’ve been putting forth a policy of a gun in every pocket, or no more taxes on the wealthy—anything he embraced, they’d oppose. They didn’t care, either, who knew this was their entire platform, their modus operandi. And, unlike him, they stuck to their word.

Now , for instance, they’re heading up a vigorous campaign to repeal Affordable Health Care, or as they call it, “Obamacare.” For all I know they’ve been secretly working on this all along, but now they’ve gone public, flogging a dead horse. It’s not as if there’s nothing else for them to do, mind you. The issue of Syria is far from settled; floods of biblical proportion have washed away whole towns in Colorado; a fire in Yosemite’s been raging for weeks now; we’ve had two mass shootings in as many days—one in D.C. and another in Chicago. I could probably name 10 or 20 more crises, and meanwhile the Republicans’ chief concern is to prevent American citizens from receiving decent health care without going broke. What do they care? They’ve got excellent insurance—paid for by the taxpayers.

This morning I heard that, while Congress plans to make massive cuts in food stamps that would throw hungry people off the program, they themselves travel around the world eating caviar and steak, drinking premium vodka in the finest restaurants—paid for by whom? Let’s hear it once more for the American taxpayer!

But I digress. My point is that some—not all, but some—of Obama’s actions are undoubtedly attributable to the toxic atmosphere in which he’s forced to function. I’ve never understood how any of these guys do it, run the country I mean, even under harmonic conditions. Since Lyndon Johnson I’ve noticed that every President ages quickly during his time in office (except George Bush Jr., because he didn’t give a shit). Obama’s completely gray now, and he began his first term with rich dark hair devoid of the wisdom and worry signs gray is supposed to represent.

So here’s a small note of compassion for the guy. I still hope that by the time Obama leaves the White House he does something to help us, the people who got him elected. If he doesn’t, then I hope he tosses and turns in his bed every night for the rest of his life, remembering the things he promised but didn’t deliver, as well as his misguided attempts—failures all—to win over these hateful jerks and morons on the other side.

Related articles (I include the following because they illustrate the sort of criticism aimed at Obama every day, every week and every hour. It’s very sad. And infuriating.

New Boehner video ‘mocks’ Obama for negotiating with Russia, but not Republicans (dailykos.com)
Barack Obama to Christians: Drop Dead! (conservativeread.com)
Alaa, the Left’s Quintessential Dreamer (jericho777.wordpress.com)
[VIDEO] @KarlRove on @BarackObama: “This is like amateur hour!” (radio.foxnews.com)


Filed under: Current Events, Health care, injustice, Obama, politicians, Politics, President Obama, racism, Rants, voting Tagged: Barack Obama, Current Events, Politics, right wing politicians, Syria, United States, United States Congress, Vladimir Putin

Interview with Marcy

I’ve just been interviewed at Smashwords by myself! A tough reporter, but somehow I handled me! If you’d like to read it, just click right here. You can read an excerpt from my book, Halfway to the Stars, here as well. Or buy it! Enjoy!

Related articles

Smashwords Announces New Self-Interview Tool for Authors (teleread.com)


Filed under: art, fiction, Literature, Publishing, Writing Tagged: Arts, Author, Books, fiction, Interview, Literature, Publishing, Smashwords, Writing

Look What They’ve Done To My Song

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have a nightmare: In the Afterlife, be it Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory, the soundtrack will be Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in endless loopy reruns.  Why, you might ask, do I consider this inspiring, beloved emblem of ethical goodness, morality, and integration a nightmare?

Because if I hear it one more time I am going to scream!!!

I used to LOVE this song of a speech. I used to memorize parts of it to repeat, showing off at appropriate occasions. Ah, but that was many moons ago, before America was dragged kicking and screaming to  recognition of  MLK‘s birthday as a holiday; before official ceremonies marked not only his birthday but also his death day, speech day, and any other moment of significance to the Reverend, his life, and the Civil Rights Movement.

This year, on the 40th anniversary of the speech’s delivery, I’ve learned that it’s been copyrighted by the King family, and can no longer be repeated anytime or anyplace by anyone. Naturally, this has generated great controversy between those who have a personal interest in MLK’s words (family) and those who think he and every word he uttered belong to the public at large (the public).

I am not family; I’m the public at large, yet  I’m delighted by this news.  Now, if we’re lucky, the speech won’t be broadcast quite so often, and maybe it will someday be appreciated again, at least by me.

A Few Days Later:

I just ran across this wonderful quote by the Reverend that, unlike the above, isn’t overplayed:

Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate…Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

 

 

Filed under: African American, Current Events, Holidays, racism, Rants Tagged: Civil rights movement, Current Events, I Have a Dream, Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King, MLK, Politics