Q&A with Josh Lanyon discussion
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What Are you Reading?
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I haven't read those (yet). ;-) But I added them into my to-read list.
And for some reason your Warning: Bohannon is straight comment made me smile widely. :-)
Johanna wrote: "And for some reason your Warning: Bohannon is straight comment made me smile widely. :-)"I wouldn't like to lead anybody astray-ght ;-)
I hate to bring this up because it may be a sore point, but it kind of fits with our discussions on authors and fans in the digital age (or something with a similar meaning that sounds less pretentious). Today I stumbled on Josh Lanyonwhich appears to be a sort of biography made up of Wikipedia articles and other free (public domain?) articles the editor found on the Internet. It's not on Amazon, and it costs $57.00 at Barns and Noble, so I doubt many buy it, but I do wonder how this happened. I am in no way trying to bully the editor, (and I did not leave comments anywhere except here) nor do I expect other people to do so, but I do wonder if that is something that goes too far (or not far enough for what I would expect from a "real" biography). Has anyone seen this?BTW This is not the first time I've seen self published books that were copied and pasted from public domain sources. I suppose it's legal, but I think it gives all self published authors a bad name.
Bizarrely it also appears to actually be about Andrew Klavan, not Josh. So unless Josh haas a double life as Andrew Klavan, then these knobheads have mixed up whatever process they use to scrape this stuff off the internet and make "books" with it. They are loads of them on all kinds of subjects that are just Wikipedia articles.
Becky wrote: "Bizarrely it also appears to actually be about Andrew Klavan, not Josh. So unless Josh has a double life as Andrew Klavan, then these knobheads have mixed up whatever process they ..."I wondered about that too. There is no way to peek inside and see why that was the blurb--but you may be right. And what a weird author to mash with Josh.
Na wrote: "No matter the conditions of use of the sources, it should not be legal. Unless of course if authorised by the eponymous person of the given title, or one of his/her kin if this person is mentally o..."In the US, unauthorized biographies are legal (First Amendment) but defamation(libel) might apply if there is any damaging deliberate (or reckless) untruth. I'm not sure how the right to publicity fits in. If there was fraud involved, it's illegal. Also there may be copyright violations (just because something is on the Internet does not mean it is in the public domain), but I don't know. It's probably not worth the time or effort to check out. It just seemed messed up.
ETA: legality aside, if I had turned in a paper without any original analysis, application or explanation of my source material, my high school English teacher would have not only have failed me, but treated the class to an extended lecture on the decline of civilization as we know it. Where was this editor's English teacher when he needed one?
Feral wrote: "I hate to bring this up because it may be a sore point, but it kind of fits with our discussions on authors and fans in the digital age (or something with a similar meaning that sounds less pretent..."Wait, what?
Idamus wrote: "Wait, what? "Yeah, I ran across it by chance. There was thread about why there are so few male UF readers, and of course people brought up PR overlap. So I wanted to mention a few MM paranormal books and when I searched for Josh, that book popped up. It seems weird, no?
They are in the UK too, as long as they don't contain anything actually libellous - and our libel laws are draconian compared to the US.
Na wrote: "In France, we are protected by the Right for privacy. So one has the legal means to forbid the publication of those. Our image, our life, ours to determine."Except from the NSA, I presume. :-)
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It just confuses me. And the editor's name sounds very fake. I've always thought it was just a thing thrown together to make money off the unsuspecting reader. But, I dunno.
What I do know is, I'll never buy it.
Feral wrote: "I hate to bring this up because it may be a sore point, but it kind of fits with our discussions on authors and fans in the digital age (or something with a similar meaning that sounds less pretent..."It used to be on amazon too. And as long as they use texts from Wikipedia (which are all in public domain) you probably can't do anything against it. :(
Jordan wrote: "I've seen that book listed places before. It's been around a few years. It's not something I understand, but there it is. I think I first saw it listed here on GR too, of all places."Jordan, when I first tried uploading my huge ebook library to GR, I rated by author (assuming I thought I had read everything I found by the author). If I had seen "Josh Lanyon" batch processing, I'd have rated it 4 stars by default. Let me check to see if I did. I was pretty much scanning without thinking.
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I didn't see your name on the list. But you're right, the others who did rate it, might have done the exact same thing. It would be very easy to rate it while rating everything else by him. Though, someone did give it one star, which I find very funny. No review, just a single star. odd.
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Yeah, that's where I first saw it a couple of years ago. Either on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk (or both?).
ETA: Good thing it isn't there anymore.
I'm well chuffed today, bookwise. I reserved a copy of The Thin Man from my local library. It took a while for them to email to say it was in. But eventually it was, so I popped in today to pick it up. I found it was a rather battered old hardcover that had been brought up from the stacks. No dust jacket. No ISBN of course. The library thingy inside that they used to stamp before it went all computerised had loan return dates starting in 1965. That's before I was born. :D But it's a lot older than that. I looked at the copyright page and it's a first edition third printing from 1934. 80 years old! Printed in the US, not a British edition or anything, so how and when it ended up in the library system of a city in the north east of England, who can say?
Good condition copies go for several hundred dollars on eBay (and first printing for a couple of thousand!) but this one is in very battered condition, having been in the library system since at least the 1960s.
Anyway, it's very cool to be able to read a first edition. :)
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This is really cool, Becky. :-)
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That is pretty cool!
When I was weeding our non-fiction, I found three books that were over a hundred years old. They were hardcover books of poems published in 1895, 1898, and 1899, I believe. I recall one of them was Tennyson. All in relatively good condition too. And we also had a lot of other books published in the 1930's and up. Crazy stuff. I had no idea we had books in our teen collection that were that old. It was kinda cool.
22% into the 762 pages of The Place Where They CriedYeah, this one's gonna break me
A so-so selection lately...1. Relief Valve - good, but not as good as Pressure Head which i reread just before and enjoyed even more on the reread. This one felt a bit too long. I love JL's humor though, so it was still fun overall.
2. The Arnifour Affair - nice; this is a gay mystery not m/m, with a dash of humor; reads a bit like a Holmes&Watson original fanfic.
3. A Matter of Time - started off well, but it repeats a lot and at some point i felt there was an exaggerated lack of motivation for the characters' behavior. It's still a fun read, but i decided to stop just short of the cliffhanger-y ending.
4. Taking A Chance - short story, fun fluff
5. The Little Death and Goldenboy - very good, the lawyer stuff is interesting, so i'm continuing the challenge and looking forward to discussing them. I can't help but compare with Hansen's books, still in withdrawal i guess :-)
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Yes, I think that was probably the most enthusiastic M/M review I ever saw in Publisher's Weekly.
However, speaking of starred PW reviews, Blind Eye Books' newest entry -- Highfell Grimoires - just got a rave review. It sounds really, really good. Especially if you love Steampunk.
You can preorder too! http://www.blindeyebooks.com/publicat...
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That is so neat!
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This came out a while ago -- about the same time someone released a bunch of porn books under a name too similar to mine to be a coincidence. I think readers managed to get it all pulled from Amazon, but I guess the B&N site still lists it. Hopefully no one gets tricked into buying it.
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I don't remember how the Klaven connection was made. I think we were listed alphabetically after each other on some mystery site. Clearly someone just scanned internet pages and threw it out there.
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I doubt if it's defaming. I doubt if it's anything beyond the most cursory effort to trick unwary readers into buying web page views they have probably already seen dozens of times.
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It just confuses me. And the editor's name sounds ver..."
I doubt if anyone has read it. If *I* couldn't be bothered, I can't imagine anyone else would care enough. If someone rated it, I would suspect them of being the author! :-D
Josh wrote: "Blind Eye Books' newest entry -- Highfell Grimoires - just got a rave review. It sounds really, really good. Especially if you love Steampunk. You can preorder too! http://www.blindeyebooks.com/publicat... "
Thank you! Going to the page I noticed that one can pre-order Champion of the Scarlet Wolf Book One, the sequel to Lord of the White Hell! It is scheduled for fall of 2014, still...
http://www.blindeyebooks.com/champion/
ETA: Also book 2 is there for pre-order
Antonella wrote: "Thank you! Going to the page I noticed that one can pre-order Champion of the Scarlet Wolf Book One, the sequel to Lord of the White Hell! It is scheduled for fall of 2014, still...http://www.blindeyebooks.com/champion/ "
Ooh. Yes, how early is it appropriate to pre-order? It stills seems a very long way away, but still...
Alison wrote: "Ooh. Yes, how early is it appropriate to pre-order? It stills seems a very long way away, but still..."If I would be a publisher I'd like people to pre-order as soon as possible ;-)
Josh wrote: "Yes, I think that was probably the most enthusiastic M/M review I ever saw in Publisher's Weekly.However, speaking of starred PW reviews, Blind Eye Books' newest entry -- Highfell Grimoires - just got a rave review. It sounds really, really good. Especially if you love Steampunk.
You can preorder too! http://www.blindeyebooks.com/publicat... "
That sounds neat! I'll look forward to it. Thanks for mentioning it. :)
Antonella wrote: "Alison wrote: "Ooh. Yes, how early is it appropriate to pre-order? It stills seems a very long way away, but still..."If I would be a publisher I'd like people to pre-order as soon as possible ;-)"
Indeed. Maybe I should just go buy it now and hope I don't forget about it. Fine, you've convinced me. :)
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Alison wrote: "Maybe I should just go buy it now and hope I don't forget about it."That is my only worry.
We could ask Nicole if there is an in-built system avoiding that you pre-order twice...
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I'm planning to read The Little Death next.
I just finished Flying Blind by JCP this morning. I've got two books left, I think. I'm wondering where this series is going. But I'm still not going to rush it. So, I'll read the next one next week. I am really enjoying this. Very few people write about pilots and flight crews so this is really interesting and I like the whole idea behind this particular one too.
Antonella wrote: "Alison wrote: "Maybe I should just go buy it now and hope I don't forget about it."That is my only worry.
We could ask Nicole if there is an in-built system avoiding that you pre-order twice..."
Whoa, there's two volumes! That's exciting. I am excited. :)
Alison wrote: "Whoa, there's two volumes! That's exciting. I am excited. :)"To get you even more excited ;-)... Ginn had posted an excerpt of it a very long time ago, the definitive title wasn't there yet:
http://ginnhale.livejournal.com/13800...
KC wrote: "2. The Arnifour Affair - nice; this is a gay mystery not m/m, with a dash of humor; reads a bit like a Holmes&Watson original fanfic. "They could use this line as a sales pitch. It definitely got me interested. ;-)
5. The Little Death and Goldenboy - very good, the lawyer stuff is interesting, so i'm continuing the challenge and looking forward to discussing them. I can't help but compare with Hansen's books, still in withdrawal i guess :-)
The lawyerly stuff (especially in the first book where it was a bit more detailed) had me fascinated. It's interesting to see how different legal systems can be and still work. The whole intestacy stuff from #1 wouldn't have flown around here. A had the case solved several times according to our inheritence laws and couldn't see how anyone would profit from the deaths... It was puzzling and by this fun. ;-))
Calathea wrote: "It's interesting to see how different legal systems can be and still work. The whole intestacy stuff from #1 wouldn't have flown around here. A had the case solved several times according to our inheritence laws and couldn't see how anyone would profit from the deaths... It was puzzling and by this fun. ;-)) ..."Funny how that works! I remember reading a old mystery and I couldn't get past thinking: "but the marriage invalidated that will so they can't inherit under it!".
Calathea wrote: "The lawyerly stuff (especially in the first book where it was a bit more detailed) had me fascinated. It's interesting to see how different legal systems can be and still work. The whole intestacy stuff from #1 wouldn't have flown around here. A had the case solved several times according to our inheritence laws and couldn't see how anyone would profit from the deaths... It was puzzling and by this fun. ;-))"Yes, it's quite intriguing to consider the implications from the point of view of a different set of laws, well, variations rather. And he has a way of drawing the reader into the proceedings, almost like watching it live.
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Finished The Place Where They Cried by Rose ChristoBawling like a baby now
Idamus wrote: "Finished The Place Where They Cried by Rose ChristoBawling like a baby now"
Tissue?
Lillian wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Finished The Place Where They Cried by Rose ChristoBawling like a baby now"
Tissue?"
Thanks.
It's a beautiful book, but very emotional, so much death
Finally read Half Moon Chambers yesterday. Couldn't put it down until i finished it. Excellent! as always :-)
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1. tie them to a chair.
2. read the deaths of all their favorite characters to them.
Yeah, that IS real torture.
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The structure of the story is excellent and it has so many layers in it that I will be pondering over this book for a long time. It'll make a great re-read, too. It has lots and lots of brilliantly, vividly drawn characters and I loved the way the mystery started to reveal itself slowly, but mercilessly.
It was extremely painful to read at times, but I couldn't help but to hopelessly fall in love with it nevertheless. (And this is actually very cool, because if/when you read the book you'll see that many of the characters fall in love or do other, more conscious things even though they should know better. The circumstances just kind of 'force' them to act certain way, the way they are used to act — or at least they think that there is no other way to solve the situation.)
I hope this doesn't sound too corny, but somehow Hansen manages to tell a story that really makes the reader mull over life. He tells about life's tragedies and joys intervened with each other, lives linked to one another and the consequences of it all. I also like the fact that there seemed to be mysteries inside mysteries. I'm not sure if this makes any sense, but I don't want to spoil anything by telling more about the story.
Anyway, it's a sunny day here and we've decided to trim the hedge and to do some tidying around the garden. While picking up the branches winter storms have dropped in our yard, I'll be thinking of Hansen's Pretty Boy Dead and the different paths we choose (or, in some cases, are forced to take) when trying to survive in life. Because, somehow, this story really makes me mull over choosing.
I highly recommend it. It truly shook me — in a good way.
Johanna wrote: "I just finished reading Joseph Hansen's Pretty Boy Dead. Wow, what a ride! It was wonderful. Not light-and-romantic-wonderful, but heart-wrenching-and-powerful-wonderful.The structu..."
Seems I have to buy it now :)
I have read Shoot the Humans First by our own Becky. Really different in a good way, a smart sci- fi, or actually street smart, if that makes any sense.
This is the first weekend in a long time with nothing planned and it is raining, so I shall just potter around in my flat doing random chores in slow motion, read, knit and relax. Lovely!
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I'm absolutely convinced that you'll like it, Anne. :-)
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Q&A with Josh Lanyon
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Heh. I fixed that problem by star..."
Thank you for the link, Karen. I had totally forgotten about that reading list.
Yes, you better start excavating your nightstand! And be sure to put Pretty Boy Dead on the top of the book pile there. :-)