Despite the fact that National Kite Month is in April, now is the best time to fly a kite in most of North America. Here in Michigan, it’s been a frikkin’ beautiful October; go fly a kite! (My FedEx Diamond Kite project is included in the Craftfoxes database of free projects).
(see also: Reminder: Springtime is an Awful Time for Kite Flying)
Author: dave-o
Enter to win a copy of “Junkyard Jam Band: DIY Musical Instruments and Noisemakers”!!! #DIY #books @nostarch
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Junkyard Jam Band
by David Erik Nelson
Giveaway ends November 04, 2015.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
My latest DIY book is out later this month, and those sweethearts at No Starch Press is giving away 10 copies(!!!). Click through now, and enter to win! And please help spread the word—Thanks!
Never used Goodreads before? No sweat: You can create an account (which is maybe a drag for you) or sign in with your existing Facebook/Twitter account (which is actually sorta nice if you’re a book lover connected to a lot of book lovers, since then you see your friends who are also on Goodreads, and can share raves, gripes, recommendations, etc.)
Oh dag! Just learned that No Starch has posted the first sample project from Junkyard Jam Band! Check out the Droid Voicebox Here’s a sample of what it can sound like:
Squidtastic Steampunkery: Free Fiction this Thursday! #steampunk #kindle #scifi
ATTENTION: My steampunk short “The Bold Explorer in the Place Beyond” will be free for Kindle tomorrow and Friday. Here’s the official link:
http://amzn.to/1Q7iPcU
Please do me a solid and help spread the love far and wide; thanks! If you read the story, please hit it with a review–even if you don’t like it. Bad reviews help readers just as much as good reviews and, let’s be real, you ain’t gonna hurt my feelings (scroll down for details).
ADDED BONUS: My celebrated steampunk novella set in the same universe, Tucker Teaches the Clockies to Copulate
FUN FACT: The most negative review I’ve ever received was in response to “The Bold Explorer”–which was also my first big break in publishing. That review begins:
“The Bold Explorer in the Place Beyond” by David Erik Nelson, reads like a sick joke. …
and ends
… It’s a dark day in the history of science fiction when such an offensive and ridiculous story appears in one of the pillars of the genre.
It is, to date, my absolute favorite review of one of my works. This guy may not *like* me, but he certainly *gets* me.
(If you wanna stay on top of things, and get advance notice of freebies, giveaways, and my ongoing lapses in judgement, sign up for my basically-only-monthly newsletter. Thanks again!)
HO-LY *SHIIIIIIIIIIIIT!* New Mammoth Found in Chelsea, MI!!!
Unearthing of a mammoth today in Chelsea Michigan.
Posted by Sheryl Myers on Thursday, October 1, 2015
UPDATE: Farmer uncovers woolly mammoth bones near Chelsea, Michigan | MLive.com
“The main quality of a Strong Female Protagonist is someone who is a full human being.”
I love this short film. As I’ve seen it float around online, I’ve seen folks say “Watch this! It’s such a great short film about domestic violence!” (which obviously it is), and I’ve seen folks say “Really, this is a short film about abortion! It’s great and powerful; watch it now!” And it’s that, too. And I can imagine someone saying “This is a great film about Patriarchy! Feminism! Rape Culture! The legal system! Psychology! Psychiatry! Our Prozac Nation!”
All of that can be argued. It’s all those things.
But that isn’t why I love it.
I love this because it is a great short film–a great short story–about a human making a wrenching decision. And it is about the protagonist’s will to power. And, as Cortazar instructs it must, it wins by KO.
So, watch this now. Please.
REDACTION on Vimeo
REDACTION from Tim Sanger on Vimeo.
FYI: The quote I used as this post’s title comes from a pal of mine, Sarah Zettel; she says some very concise and sharp things about women in SF as both readers and characters here:
The Video Table of Contents for “Junkyard Jam Band” is Finally Live! #DIY
book trailer #2: “Junkyard Jam Band” video Table of Contents – YouTube
And you still have time to sign up for a free PDF Jam Pack including full build instructions for two projects and a steep discount on either of my DIY books. Check it out!
A Very Cool Lil Vid on the Physics of Harmonics in Music
These two news items demonstrate the same fundamental fact: Meritocracy Isn’t a Real Thing
. . . so let us meditate upon that, and then neither kvell about folks’ successes or flagellate them for their failures. The truest statement of the 21st C is this: You didn’t build that. All the greatness, all the folly, all of the sound and fury and mess and wonder, of that is stuff that we all done did together.
How Elementary School Teachers’ Biases Can Discourage Girls From Math and Science – The New York Times
Beginning in 2002, the researchers studied three groups of Israeli students from sixth grade through the end of high school. The students were given two exams, one graded by outsiders who did not know their identities and another by teachers who knew their names.
In math, the girls outscored the boys in the exam graded anonymously, but the boys outscored the girls when graded by teachers who knew their names. The effect was not the same for tests on other subjects, like English and Hebrew. The researchers concluded that in math and science, the teachers overestimated the boys’ abilities and underestimated the girls’, and that this had long-term effects on students’ attitudes toward the subjects.
…
Although the study took place in Israel, Mr. Lavy said that similar research had been conducted in several European countries and that he expected the results were applicable in the United States. The researchers also found that discouragement from teachers in math or science wound up lowering students’ confidence in other subjects at school, showing again the potential importance of nods of encouragement.
In math, the girls outscored the boys in the exam graded anonymously, but the boys outscored the girls when graded by teachers who knew their names. The effect was not the same for tests on other subjects, like English and Hebrew. The researchers concluded that in math and science, the teachers overestimated the boys’ abilities and underestimated the girls’, and that this had long-term effects on students’ attitudes toward the subjects.
…
Although the study took place in Israel, Mr. Lavy said that similar research had been conducted in several European countries and that he expected the results were applicable in the United States. The researchers also found that discouragement from teachers in math or science wound up lowering students’ confidence in other subjects at school, showing again the potential importance of nods of encouragement.
Congratulations to Yi-Fen Chou, whose poem “The Bees, the Flowers, Jesus, Ancient Tigers, Poseidon, Adam and Eve” was selected for inclusion in the Best American Poetry anthology for 2015. BAP, launched in 1988 by the writer and professor David Lehman, is co-edited every year by a visiting literary starlord. This year, that starlord was the great Sherman Alexie…
There’s just one problem: Yi-Fen Chou’s real name isn’t Yi-Fen Chou. It’s Michael Derrick Hudson. Hudson, who works for the Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library in Indiana (and from whom we might expect a fuller understanding of the difference between Anglo-European and Chinese lineage), explained his nom de plume in a contributor’s note:
There’s just one problem: Yi-Fen Chou’s real name isn’t Yi-Fen Chou. It’s Michael Derrick Hudson. Hudson, who works for the Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library in Indiana (and from whom we might expect a fuller understanding of the difference between Anglo-European and Chinese lineage), explained his nom de plume in a contributor’s note:
After a poem of mine has been rejected a multitude of times under my real name, I put Yi-Fen’s name on it and send it out again. As a strategy for ‘placing’ poems this has been quite successful for me. The poem in question … was rejected under my real name forty (40) times before I sent it out as Yi-Fen Chou (I keep detailed submission records). As Yi-Fen the poem was rejected nine (9) times before Prairie Schooner took it. If indeed this is one of the best American poems of 2015, it took quite a bit of effort to get it into print, but I’m nothing if not persistent.
…
(Sherman Alexie has published a blog post explaining his decision not to pull Hudson’s poem. It is passionate and charming and asserts that dumping “The Bees” would “cast doubt on every poem I have chosen for BAP.” To me this doesn’t quite follow. I’ve reached out to Alexie and to David Lehman for further comment, as well as to Hudson, and will update this post if I hear back.)
On the other hand, has Hudson’s immoral gambit exposed a flaw in the literary ecosystem? Why should a poem be rejected under one name and accepted under another?
These situations seem an awful lot like alien abduction stories…
. . . if you replace the people with aliens and the sharks with you (see also X-FILES s3e20, “Jose Chung’s ‘From Outer Space'”).
OMFG JUNKYARD JAM BAND IS DONE DONE DONE!!! Hear samples of rad #DIY music projects! Get FREE projects! @nostarch
Believe it or not, my latest DIY book–Junkyard Jam Band: DIY Musical Instruments and Noisemakers–is finally done, and only 30 months late (!!!) For the past three+ years I’ve been toiling on a great big book of DIY music projects, and it went to the printer last Friday–all 400(!!!) pages of it! That’s 16 projects, ranging from some quick-kid-fun-on-a-rainy-day noisemakers to full-blown grown-up analog synthesizers and effects. The web site now has video samples and a full audio table of contents, so you can hear all the projects before you decide to build (scroll down to the bottom of the page for audio samples). Here’s a little video taste of what’s in the book:
Since the book is going into print shortly (copies will hit shelves in early October), that special Early Bird discount price is going to disappear. If you’d still like to beat Amazon’s price while supporting independent publishing (and get the multi-format DRM-free ebook at no additional fee), download the Junkyard Jam Pack PDF, which features the two most popular music projects from my first DIY book, and includes a 30% off coupon code that’s good for either of my books.
And, hey: Spread the word! I’m really pumped to have this book out, heading into the world to spread the DIY music love, and a strong kick-off really, really means the world to me. The more folks who are building their own amps, electric diddley bows, synths and sound-toys, the better. Thanks!