Author name: Skiffy Fanty

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My Superpower: Marianne de Pierres

My Superpower is a regular guest column on the Skiffy and Fanty blog where authors and creators tell us about one weird skill, neat trick, highly specialized cybernetic upgrade, or other superpower they have, and how it helped (or hindered!) their creative process as they built their project. Today we welcome Marianne de Pierres to talk about how the power of resisting organization relates to Peacemaker. ——————————– So here’s the thing:  I have an uncanny and deep-seated ability to resist being organised. It’s quite the talent. I mean I’ve written nearly twenty novels, raised three sons and worked at various day jobs. It’s hard to know how it was at all possible really, because the moment someone says, “Oh, you can manage that, no problem, you just need to be well organised”, a veil descends across my mind and my limbs become heavy. I begin to daydream and can find endless distractions in odd and obscure time-gobbling pursuits; my junk drawer needs sorting, the car needs a vacuum, I simply must read this article about prescriptivism versus descriptivism in linguistics, all the twitter feeds of people I don’t know, and my favourite advertising-riddled celebrity gossip blogs.

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Business Time: Self-publishing vendors and ‘royalties’

One of my pet peeves as a publishing professional: the author’s 70% share on KDP is not a ‘royalty.’ It’s the author-publisher’s share. Royalties are paid when rights are taken by a publisher and that content is then sold through vendors. KDP isn’t licensing rights and creating an end-product to sell, it’s just selling end-product. The use of the term ‘royalty’ muddles the reality of the relationship between an author and the vendor. Self-publishing is a solid path to publication now, but let’s be clear what KDP, Nook Press and other vendors are: vendors. When you’re a publisher, you come to terms with vendors – how they’ll sell your product, what discount they get (which then informs their margin), whether they can return the product, and so on. Signing a KDP/Nook Press/etc. deal is signing with a vendor. The thing is that KDP and other vendors that court self-publishers hold a vast amount of power compared to individual small business of self-publishers, so those vendors feel empowered to dictate terms, and are unlikely to negotiate those terms. These vendors depend on volume of sales across a range of agreements rather than on securing a distribution agreement with any specific author (though I imagine they might care more about signing up each new Hugh Howey or Sylvia Day book, or the like).

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

#17 — Babylon 5 Re-Watch (S1D4: Eps. 13-16) — A Shoot the WISB Subcast w/ Jamie Wyman & Erika Ensign

http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/ShootTheWISB17Babylon5ReWatchep1316/Shoot%20the%20WISB%20%2317%20–%20Babylon%205%20re-watch%20%28ep%2013-16%29.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSManiacal colonels, space boxing, and wandering archaeologists, oh my! Mike, Paul, Shaun, and special guests, Jamie Wyman and Erika Ensign, offer their thoughts on episodes 13-16 from Season One of Babylon 5 in our fourth ever re-watch session. We also really want to hear what you think!  So feel free to watch along with us!  Next month:  the fifth disc of the Season One box set! Spoiler Alert:  the following podcast contains spoilers for the film being reviewed; if you wish to see the film without having it ruined for you, download this podcast and save it for later. Download the episode here. [audio http://archive.org/download/ShootTheWISB17Babylon5ReWatchep1316/Shoot%20the%20WISB%20%2317%20–%20Babylon%205%20re-watch%20%28ep%2013-16%29.mp3] Show notes (info about our contributors can be found on the about page): Babylon 5 (IMDB) Episode 13:  “Signs and Portents“ Episode 14:  “TKO“ Episode 15:  “Grail“ Episode 16:  “Eyes“ Jamie Wyman’s Stuff Jamie’s Twitter Jamie’s Website Jamie’s Book! Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets Erika Ensign’s Stuff Erika’s Twitter Erika’s Website Verity Podcast The Incomparable Podcast The Audio Guide to Babylon 5 Comment away!

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My Superpower: Mur Lafferty

My Superpower is a regular guest column on the Skiffy and Fanty blog where authors and creators tell us about one weird skill, neat trick, highly specialized cybernetic upgrade, or other superpower they have, and how it helped (or hindered!) their creative process as they built their project. Today we welcome Mur Lafferty to talk about how the power of giving nicknames relates (not quite) to The Ghost Train to New Orleans. ——————————————— My super power is dormant; I haven’t used it for years. Like most powers, I didn’t realize I had it until the power had gotten out of control. I have the power to give people nicknames that stick. I started with myself — totally unintentionally. My name wasn’t Mur when I went to college; it was just a pet name my parents called me. But there was another woman named Mary in our suite of eight, so I decided since very few people knew me, I could start introducing myself as Mur. It worked. Now only my aunts, bankers, and doctors call me Mary. Everyone else calls me Mur.

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#16 — Godzilla (1954) — A Shoot the WISB Discussion

http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/ShootTheWISB16Godzilla1954AShootTheWISBDiscussion/Shoot%20the%20WISB%20%2316%20–%20Godzilla%20%281954%29%20–%20A%20Shoot%20the%20WISB%20Discussion.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSKaiju classics, Tokyo destruction, and mad science, oh my!  Shaun, Julia, Paul, Mike, and Kaiju Master David join forces to tackle Ishiro Honda’s 1954 classic, Godzilla (or Gojira), for the World SF Tour! Question for everyone:  What is your favorite kaiju movie and/or favorite kaiju? Spoiler Alert:  the following podcast contains spoilers for the film being reviewed; if you wish to see the film without having it ruined for you, download this podcast and save it for later. Download the episode here. Show notes (info about our contributors can be found on the about page): Godzilla (1954)(IMDB) Godzilla (Criterion Edition on BluRay, DVD, or Digital) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNKPY3LkotE

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Book Review: Debris by Jo Anderton

Tanyana is an architect, and a pretty good one, if you’d ask her. Actually, Pride is indeed her nearly mortal sin. While her control of pions, the magical particles at the base of all of the technomagic of the city of Movac-under-Kepper is indeed strong and clever, it is not perfect. An incident in the construction of a great and mighty statue leaves Tanyana cut off from being able to see and access pions. Worse, from her perspective, her abilities have been replaced with the underclass ability to see and manipulate debris, the waste product, the garbage created by pion technology. This debris can be actively dangerous to society, and those capable of manipulating it are tasked with cleaning it up and keeping it from harming the city. And so, the proud and mighty architect has become something she never expected and never wanted–a lowly garbage collector.

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