Monthly Archives: October 2011

Special Halloween Interview

Posted on October 31, 2011 by

by Jennifer Stevenson and Chris Dolley To celebrate Halloween, Book View Cafe has become Demon View Cafe for a day. We’ve invited two demons – Archie, a sex demon slash bartender from Chicago, and Brian, a Vigilante Demon from London … Continue reading →


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Posted in fantasy, Humor, mystery, paranormal romance | 2 Comments

Writing Nowadays–Doomsday Has Arrived!

Posted on October 31, 2011 by

We interrupt the usual business-oriented side of this blog for a brief announcement: It’s Doomsday!  The first book of the Clockwork Empire has reached its official release, and The Doomsday Vault (by Steven Harper) is now in stores everywhere.  Air … Continue reading →


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Horses at the Gates of the Otherworld

Posted on October 31, 2011 by

Happy Celtic New Year! Tonight is the night when the gates open between the worlds, and the dead–and anything else that has a mind–can travel back and forth freely. Mostly when people think of Halloween, they think of black cats … Continue reading →


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Posted in Animals, Book View Cafe, horses | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

What do writers owe readers?

Posted on October 30, 2011 by

by Sherwood Smith A question came up at a convention panel: “What do writers owe readers?” Wow, did this one cause a firestorm of responses.


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Posted in Books and Reading, Writers on Writing | Tagged , , | 24 Comments

Hatsune Miku and the Magic Turing Test

Posted on October 30, 2011 by

(Picture from here.) I am fascinated with Hatsune Miku. A quick history. Back in 2000, Yamaha started developing vocaloid technology– a synthesizer aimed at recreating a singing voice. By mid-2000s they technology had been encapsulated in two “virtual soul vocalists”, … Continue reading →


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Posted in Music, Science | Tagged | 2 Comments

In Defence of Apathy

Posted on October 29, 2011 by

by Chris Dolley Slackers have a bad press. “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing” after Edmund Burke “First they came for the communists…” – Martin Niemoller


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Posted in Book View Cafe | Tagged | 6 Comments

Practical Meerkat’s 52 Bits of Useful Info for Young (and Old) Writers, week 43

Posted on October 28, 2011 by

by Laura Anne Gilman I once admitted to a fellow writer that I got a great deal of satisfaction in waking up and accomplishing things before the sun rose.  I think that an admission of gleeful cannibalism would have been … Continue reading →


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Posted in Writing life | 5 Comments

Thinking About the Middle Class and the 99 Percent

Posted on October 27, 2011 by

by Nancy Jane Moore While reading Suzanna Andrews’s excellent piece on Elizabeth Warren in the current Vanity Fair, I came across this quote from a speech Warren gave to a conference of bankers: We cannot run our country without a … Continue reading →


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Posted in Science, science fiction | Tagged | 6 Comments

Traveling on Empty

Posted on October 26, 2011 by

Going someplace always sounds like such fun–I’m just back from a trip to Florida. And, yes, it was fun. It was also exhausting, stressful, and I’m so glad to be back home. Which makes me wonder–do we take trips just so we can be glad to be home? And either airplanes have gotten noisier or I’ve gotten more touchy about it, but I’d be happy to skip any more flights. Amtrack here I come. But I always think that I’ll do more writing on these types of trips than I manage. Continue reading →


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Posted in Book View Cafe, Writers on Writing | Tagged | 3 Comments

Research Resource: The Psychology of Space Exploration

Posted on October 25, 2011 by

As writers, we often place our characters in environments with which we are not personally familiar. Whether it be in space, on another planet, in Siberia or Faerie, or in some other time like Renaissance Italy or prehistoric Australia, we … Continue reading →


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Posted in Science, Writers on Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments