DoshDosh: 11 ways to influence people online and make them take action; http://j.mp/5JcRPA (via @ramskill)

Welcome to the Reynox House website.

Please visit us often for updates as we make the move to NZ and get Reynox House ready to host the most inspirational and fun writers retreats in the world!

Jennifer Fallon

Panel Borders:

The art of Rian Hughes

Broadcast 26/11/09 as an episode of Strip! on Resonance 104.4 FM

Excerpt from Tales From Beyond Science, illustrated by Rian Hughes for 2000AD

Concluding our month of shows about ‘British Mavericks’, artists whose work is surprisingly avant-garde for the mainstream, Alex Fitch talks to comic book artist and graphic designer Rian Hughes about his work, from his early days in the small press and discovering European comics through Escape magazine to working on 2000AD and its spin off title, Revolver. Alex and Rian also talk about the latter’s reasons for becoming a full time graphic designer in the mid 90s and leaving comics for over a decade, before becoming interested in the medium once again over the last couple of years.

For more info about this podcast and a variety of formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.org

Also check out Alex’s interviews with Woodrow Phoenix and Paul Gravett about working on Escape magazine and their interest in ‘The Atom Style’

Links: Rian’s website – www.devicefonts.co.uk
Reviews of Rian’s 2000AD work and Yesterday’s Tomorrows collection
Pages on Rian Hughes at wikipedia and identifont.com
Video interview with Rian at the Veer design website

Related events:

Laydeez do Comics : ART & COMICS
Monday 30 November 6.30-8.30pm

Guest Speaker: Mel Brimfield, artist and curator of The Comic Book Project talking about her work and leading a discussion on ‘ Need More Love’ by Aline Kominsky Crumb

The Sewing Room @ The Rag Factory
16-18 Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ
www.ragfactory.org.uk

The Norwegian last name Stein means stone and comes from a small farm on the west coast of Norway, where the first settlers found more stone than soil.

Tarald Stein is a Norwegian poet and transman – the first to write about transitioning from female to male in Norwegian.

In this english edition of the  first two of his collections of poetry, the poet has rearranged the poems and created a  new entity.

(Yes, I really want to do that some day and get my work published in a larger language. Any foreign publisher or agent reading this?)

In fantasy land, which is a place that most writers go to fairly often, how would your ideal publishing industry look? How would it work?

After reading Robert McCrum’s piece in the Observer a few weeks ago, Stop The Bean-Counters Ruling The Fiction Roost, you might be forgiven for thinking that we had now witnessed the final nail in the coffin for books as we know them. It’s long been known that sales departments dictate what gets published, but for a publisher to renege on a deal because of sudden sales wimpishness is another order of ugh.

My grasp of economics, I admit, is not always great, but whenever I try to explain the books industry to people who work in media, finance, or the law, or any other industry for that matter, they don’t get it either, so I feel slightly more justified. ‘But that doesn’t make sense at all,‘ they say, and I can only throw up my hands and shrug. I am clearly not alone in trying to make sense of the Morlocks vs Eloii circus that the vexed publisher/author relationship so often, sadly, appears to be.

Here’s a good piece about the money side of things: Why Life’s A Tough Gig For Writers. I also well know that authors, now more than ever, have to get real, and I’ll be getting on to that in another post.

Anyway, this is my fantasy land:

Publishing houses would get rid of both their sales and their publicity departments, outsourcing the work to companies that actually need the business and therefore have to work for it. Imagine the scene: ‘Right, here are the 10 books we’re doing next season, and we’ll pay you lot X to sell them, and we’ll pay you lot X to make sure they get out there.’ Boot firmly returned to other foot, and suddenly, there would be a new mobility of vision – wouldn’t there?

Like I said, just a fantasy. Experts, please explain why this wouldn’t work.

Photo: Daniel Wildman | Stock.xchng

When the dragons start their interrogation of entrepreneurs, one of the most essential questions they ask is “How do you make a profit?” In other words: How is it a business? How do you make your money in this setup? What is your business model?

The past seven seasons have, of course, brought a variety of entrepreneurs into the den, so we’ve had the privilege to see many business models falling under the scrutiny of the investors. Franchises, exclusive clubs, licensing, retail, and pyramid (!) schemes are just some of the many models presented before our fierce five. Very often, after a thorough dissection of them, the dragons are simply unconvinced that they could work, i.e., that they could make money.

It’s really very important to determine what the business model is from the outset. Just today, I was reviewing another DD episode, when I came upon a father-and-son team hoping to sell their ladder box invention. When Theo Paphitis asked them what their plan was (to make money, of course), the son answered, “We’ll sell lots of them”. Nice quick answer but very ambiguous. After all, every business IS supposed to sell something (product or service), but the how-to of it must be nailed down pat to leave no room for doubt as to its viability. That’s what a business model answers.

Again, flashback to my early days as an entrepreneur. It’s now cringe-worthy that in those times, I used to talk at length about the quality of CAN-DO! but very little about how it could be profitable. And, of course, these days, with publishing establishments falling by the wayside almost every week, I can’t just simply rely on selling the usual advert space, even if advertising is the recognised bloodline of magazine publishing. So one of the primary questions I’ve now learned to ask myself: What is my business model here? How do I intend to make money from this?

Very soon, a new thing will start with CAN-DO! (Teaser!) And even as I’m excited about its possibilities, I’m making sure that my entrepreneurial neck is steadily holding up my head. I have to focus on the fact that the new thing is not just an opportunity to be more creative. The bottom line question is “Is there a solid business model behind this new thing?”

I’ll end this point of reflection by sharing a link my assistant gave me today. It’s a short article in a Kenyan newspaper, detailing a “futuristic” business model, appropriate for e-commerce entities like CAN-DO! It’s something I’m currently marinating on as I figure out the new business model for our new thing in CAN-DO!

http://www.nation.co.ke/blogs/-/445642/687968/-/view/asBlogPost/-/wqumpp/-/index.html

It is the night before Thanksgiving and I must say, as 2009 starts to wind down I have a lot to be thankful for! I feel so lucky to have discovered a romance writing community online that is just so full of wit and wisdom! And ladies, I must say you all share your experience and thoughts so generously it is very humbling for a relative newbie like myself. I am thankful for the opportunity to take over as President of the Board for my local chapter of JDRF. Giving back is important, but being able to do something that could impact my family’s lives is amazing. I am thankful for our new kitty…Flash is a handful, but he has livened things up around our house. I am thankful for my new job I started this year. It has been a great transition to another company and I really enjoy my client. I am thankful for all of my friends and family who continue to bring me joy and love. And, last but not least, I am thankful for 9 years of marriage to my husband. He is the hardest working man I know, and without him I wouldn’t have the time to write and explore my dreams.

Urban Iran by Charlotte Noruzi.
Published January 2009 by Mark Batty Publisher.

ISBN: 9780979966613

The review:

Modern Iran through lenses, ink, paper, words of creatives living there.  Amazing layout/design, graffiti spreads.  Chapters on book publishing should be absorbed by everyone.

About Sean Cranbury:

Sean Cranbury is a regular contributor to this blog.  For more info please check his initial review.

Hello all. This being Thankgiving day, it feels like a great time to announce a special surprise I’ve been planning for my readers. A scavenger hunt! The rules for playing are explained below.

This is a Read, Play, and (hopefully) Win game. The prize is a $25.00 giftcard to Barnes & Noble.

Step #1. If you haven’t already, you’ll need to read all the way through my book Brought to Life. (You knew that was coming, didn’t you? I’m a sneaky, sneaky lady.) Brought to Life is a paranormal romance/time travel ebook that can be found here.

Step #2. Email me at: dara [at] daraenglandauthor [dot] com with the answers to these two questions (these answers can only be found in the book). *1. What is the name of the heroine’s roommate? *2. What famous author does the heroine meet at the end of the book?

Step #3. Wait. I’ll randomly select a winner out of those who answered correctly and will notify them via email on 1/1/10. If there are any questions, please post them below.

Happy hunting and happy holidays!

~Dara England

Happy Thanksgiving, to my American friends.

Perhaps thinking about giving thanks, and the question of my perspective from this vantage point in life, is what made this post from the Bad Astronomer pop out in my reading this morning. It’s about a scale model of the solar system hosted on the web. From the site:

This page shows a scale model of the solar system, shrunken down to the point where the Sun, normally more than eight hundred thousand miles across, is the size you see it here. The planets are shown in corresponding scale. Unlike most models, which are compressed for viewing convenience, the planets here are also shown at their true-to-scale average distances from the Sun. That makes this page rather large – on an ordinary 72 dpi monitor it’s just over half a mile wide, making it possibly one of the largest pages on the web.

Just for reference, the image of the Sun on my monitor is about 6″ diameter. Yeah, Pluto is a speck about 6,000x the diameter of the Sun away.

I love these sorts of things which convey the notion of deep distance (similar to the concept of deep time). One of these days I’d like to make it to Sweden to see the Sweden Solar System, which uses the Globe arena to represent the Sun, with Pluto a sphere about 5″ in diameter almost 200 miles away.

This question of scale – of the deep distance from one planet to another here in our solar system – is one which I tried to deal with honestly in writing Communion of Dreams. It’s why it takes over a week for the researchers sent out from Earth to reach Saturn (Well, Titan, actually) even using a constant thrust of about one-third gravity, and why there is a time-lag in radio communications of about 90 minutes (yeah, I researched not just the average distances between the planets, but where they would be in their respective orbits on the dates in the book – as well as what the intermediate time lag would be en route at various points). Which presented a problem in the writing – what to do with the characters in the book during this period? Which, in turn, is what I think made the readers at the publisher feel that the book moved too slowly in the first half.

Well, I still haven’t heard back from the publisher about the revisions I sent (and I didn’t expect to yet), so I don’t know whether I was able to address this concern adequately with the changes I made. And once I do hear, I expect that my perspective on the matter will change – as it always does, after the fact. Such is life. Such is the universe.*

Again, Happy Thanksgiving.

Jim Downey

*Thanks, JB.

In an earlier post, I indicated that my conversation with Charles Harper Webb about his book, Shadow Ball, would air on Monday, 11/30. However, the show will air 12/7. In the meantime, the first half of a conversation with Scott Russell Sanders is now available as a Podcast, and the second half of that talk will air on 11/30. We discuss his new book, A Conservationist Manifesto. Thanks for listening…

I recently attended an online writers conference called The Muse Online Writers Conference (which I completely recommend to all aspiring and established writers)

One of the workshops, hosted by Beth Barany,  asked the question: If time and money were no object, what is your grandest version of yourself?

Here’s  my answer:

My passport would say ‘Occupation: Novelist’. I’d work from my home-office, so I can write and spend time with my family.  My work would be read all over the world, translated into different languages and some turned into movies. I’d be on New York Times best-sellers list.

I’d travel to do research, but will spend as much time as I can at home with my family (or take them on some of the trips). Some of my books will be used for Literature in secondary/high schools.

I’d create bedtime stories for my children and their friends when they do sleepovers in my house. Each of my children will have a novel written for him/her for their 16th birthday (or whatever other special age).

Oh, and I’d be on first name basis with Nora Roberts and Dan Brown.

That’s me (to start with). What is your grandest version of yourself if money and time were not an issue. Let’s see if we can work towards those dreams.

cheers,

Empi

Charlie Adler Schlurping!

1) Self-publishing means you need to purchase the various components of your book.

If you get a fancy literary agent, or you’re lucky enough to have a major publisher throw beaucoup dollars at you with an advance, then you actually have money in your pocket when you start the publishing process. I considered sending proposals to publishers and literary agents early in the process until I met with my old neighborhood buddie, Dan Moldea. Dan is an investigative journalist, he’s written eight books that have covered everything from the Mafia to O.J. Simpson (his website is at Dan Moldea’s Website I met him at his hangout in DC, Morty’s Deli back in early 2008 to discuss writing my first book. What Dan told me was fascinating. In his experience, he never felt he was treated very well by the major publishers, in fact, he felt they pretty much forgot each of his books about eight months into the marketing of his book. Yes, he received advances and he also made some good money on the O.J. title which was a timely best-seller, but he guided me away from going to a traditional publisher. He mentioned a company called “BookSurge” which is a self-publishing company owned by Amazon.com.

In a nutshell, Dan told me that self-publishing was the way to go: yes, I would have to purchase all the services from editing to layout, but there were numerous benefits. Some of the benefits he mentioned include the ability to continue marketing and promoting your title for as long as you choose, higher royalty fees, and setting your own deadlines for production. Just so you know, the latter may or not be a benefit, I started my first book almost two years ago, I thought the process would only take six to nine months! There are some negatives as well, such as the fact that I won’t have my book for sale in traditional book sellers, but frankly that’s probably a good thing. Realistically, how long do brick and mortar bookstores have left in the commercial world, and even if they survive the internet, they also hold the right to return unsold books. Add the lower royalty to selling through a traditional bookstore, and it becomes obvious why selling on Amazon.com and other internet retailers makes more sense. It’s all about On-Demand publishing, books are printed as they are ordered on Amazon.com, but that’s a story for another Blog entry.

Almost forgot to mention: The actual cost of self-publishing my first book including interior photographs, publishing services and a dedicated website will be around $10K. Could you do it cheaper? Yes, there are ways to save money, for example, you could create your own website and forego hiring a photographer. Other ways to save money include using Booksurges standard templates for cover and interior, and learning to edit yourself, but I felt these were outside my expertise. Let’s just say, you need a few thousand dollars to self-publish a full book.

2) You must give yourself plenty of time.

As I mentioned in the prior paragraph, my first book has been about a 24 month process – that is IF I finish it by the end of January, 2010, but that seems realistic at this point. If you have a full-time job and a life before you start your book, one of them will have to give way for the book! I know that life isn’t fair, but you can’t have it all, and you need immense concentration and free time to finish a book. You’ll most likely turn into a moody, overly emotional vagabond..well, OK, that’s a bit extreme, but I have definitely developed a personality “edge”, although some people say I’ve always been this way.

My publishers told me that slow and steady is the way to go. They suggested that hurrying a book is not a good idea, most authors only regret it later. I’ve taken plenty of time for each process, I even hired a PR company to handle my book and then decided a few weeks later that they were not right for me. Since I didn’t really need to do much research for my book because I am the subject of the book based on one class that I’ve taught for twelve years, I put my efforts into organizing and re-organizing all the information. I have spent time with a photographer for interior photos, promoting myself to local wine festivals as a speaker, networking at various charity and wine events, and now I’m working on www.idrinkonthejob.com as the main book web site and re-designing this Blog. You can’t hurry time, you just learn to deal with delays..

3) Self-publishing means you need to be self-motivated.

If you’re used to having a boss, a weekly paycheck and you follow orders really well at work, then self-publishing might be self-torture. Since I’m entrepreneurial and I’ve run my own company TasteDC for over twelve years, I’ve learned to stay focused and motivated. I have a personal trainer, I get a “therapeutic” massage every Friday like clockwork, and I generally stay in shape to keep my mind and body sharp. I’ve even added self-hypnosis tapes to increase my concentration, relax better and ultimately I lost forty-seven pounds as well – an important feat because I’m on the cover of my book! I wake up when I need to, I eat when I need to, I write/edit when possible, I run my full-time wine tasting business in-between, and I sleep when I need to. I’ve learned to balance my work and my book, my social life has been reduced significantly. Sometimes I think about all the fun things I could be doing other than writing a book, but I know from experience that the payoff will take time. The first book may not sell well, but that’s irrelevant to me. I’m writing the book for credibility and as a vehicle for self-promotion-OK, there’s a bit of ego involved, but I accept the worst-case scenario of failure and I can live with it. Self-motivated people are used to rejection and negative reactions in general, frankly I find it motivates me to another level. When I’m at the gym with my personal trainer and he tells me to do 50 push-ups, I do 55 if I can. There are no excuses in life–especially when you rely only on yourself!

Cheers everyone and happy Thanksgiving!

Charlie “I Drink on the Job” Adler

Veronica Lario filed for divorce in May, angered by a reported liaison with an 18-year-old aspiring hooker.According to Italy’s Corriere della Sera, Mr Berlusconi has offered Ms Lario, with whom he has three children, 200,000 euros a month on the top of  60[m] to 70m euros that have already been paid out.

But that’s barely enough for Veronica, she wants more and honestly she’s right, no amount of money could fade away the public shame and disgrace she has encountered between sex tapes,  the orgies, her husband private parts all over the internet.That was so hard and painful to take on that Ms Lario re-issued her autobiography and demanded a front page apology for his disparaging comments about women.

Mr Berlusconi’s vast fortune – which spans interest in media, publishing, real estate and investment sectors – is estimated by Italian financial journals to be some 9bn euros.Go on Girl !!!!

Stuck for ideas this Christmas? Wanna know all about the new Ferrari? Then you need to get your mince pies around these two little numbers…

iMOTOR
iGIZMO

iMotor has undergone a small refresh, making it now officially the most pink car magazine on the virtual shelves. Includes a nice 360, shed loads of video and an interview with Jenson Button. Although a tad over crowded on most pages and their being the usual too much content being crowded into 30 pages, it works well and a nice title. Considering it is not a contract title and done on a monthly basis it’s a cracking magazine, one of the best online.

iGizmo has expanded substantially this issue, due to the rise in sweeeet Christmas gadgets, so it’s a bumper issue. Functionality seems have been smoothed out in most instances and there are some nice features in there. Again, arguably too much content for this platform but for a free monthly consumer title it’s a pretty damn good.

Check ‘em out for yourselves…

…hi. Sorry for my absence. In an ideal world, I would’ve had two new proof copies and an order for Outland sitting here right now. Sadly, due to no fundings and this insane cold I’ve gotten, I don’t have either of the two.
I’m halfway through the second round of the proof-editing, so now I need to read through part 2 and edit it again, adn then read through the entire document before I order the new proofs. But those should be perfect, so there’s still hope of getting the Norwegian publication on the way before Christmas.
It’s tedious though. As much as I love SNOW, I am tired of reading through it over and over. I want to share it with people, instead of just reading through it myself all the time. Gah. But I’m hanging in there.

Meanwhile, I’m coughing my lungs out, and cursing my cellphone for not wanting to work properly. >_<

About the poll that I've got going: it will remain open until I've finished up Jaded. I haven't really touched it since I finished NANO on teh 14th, since I've been busy with the editing, so I don't know when exacttly I'll end the poll. I'll make sure to update and let everyone know when it's being closed though. but for now: Keep voting. Although you can only vote once. Feel free to comment and tell me which of the names you like better and why though, it's always fun to know. Personally, I do like Sasaki, but Yoshida is also very fitting, which is why I'm leaving it up to other people x'3
The poll of course, can be found here.

I guess that’s what I wanted to say today… I need to get back to work.
Everyone, try not to catch colds! It’s terrible I tell ya! D:

Caroline

I know promised to write this yesterday but then Man proposes and God disposes. Yesterday was a terribly hectic day and I got no time at all. Anyhow, here it is. Enjoy!

My next story is going to be about a vampire who’s in love with girl who’s human. The antagonist is going to be a Marathi Manoos werewolf who wants to kill the vampire because he’s a Bhayya. He wants to kill the girl because she called Mumbai Bombay to express solidarity with her lover.

How this helps:

Raj Thackeray takes affront and decides to express his outrage by vandalising bookstores and burning copies of your book in illustrative / intimidatory bonfires. Of course, this results in loss of revenue but it also guarantees publicity. Publicity that you can’t otherwise buy. Your book starts getting talked about and people who otherwise wouldn’t have bought it queue up to buy. It all works out.

Now, the flip side:

What if Raj Thackeray isn’t interested? What if the issue is not worth his time?

Enter the failsafe:

The vampire-girl duo are on the run and take shelter with some friendlies. Did I say friendlies? Not quite. You see, those friendlies are actually Jehadi Lychans who have an agenda of their own.  And their plan is to drill a hole all the way into the Earth’s core and plant a zillion megaton nuclear bomb there. Of course, you can’t drill a hole all the way to the Earth’s core but figure out a revolutionary new technology that does it anyway. For ideas, look up the film The Core.

Now, why would the Lychans shelter our protagonists? There can be two reasons. One, well, the werewolves with their heretic ideology are their enemies and any enemy of an enemy is a friend. Two, the journey to the centre of the Earth is fraught with peril and they need stooges to do it for them.

Meanwhile the Sun is flaring up out of control, and shooting tiny neutrinos into the Earth which is heating up the crust intolerably.

While our protagonists are with the Lychans, introduce a brilliant, sensitive Lychan painter who paints nude werewolf goddesses. 

Meanwhile, the werewolves catch up with the protagonists. While they are in Lychan territory, they stumble upon the painter’s works. Of course, once that happens, they do what comes naturally to them. They destroy the paintings. In the midst of the destruction, however, in a fit of petulance, the werewolf leader, an accomplished cartoonist, stops to draw some offensive sketches of the Lychan god.

How does it all end? How do I know? I haven’t thought of everything yet.

All I know is your book gets released. All castes and communities unite in calling for a universal ban on the book. Now join hands with a pirate on a revenue share basis. Now sit back and watch your bank balance grow.

Sigh. If only I could get someone to publish it. Sigh, maybe I’ll go to the Danish cartoon guys.

I’ve been working on my website. It’s not the greatest website in the world because I’m not the best web builder there is.  But I have new free classified ads.  You can post you ad for free.  No strings, pop-ups or viruses.  

I just did this to get traffic.   I think if I people have a free place to advertise they might come to my site.

Some might consider this spam.   I hope not.  That’s not really my intention,   I use wordpress alot to blog.  I also advertise for them on my site so I figure maybe they can return the favor.

Either way I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Steve.     www.booksbysteve.com

There is a lot of hue and cry amongst bloggers about how Mr. Murdoch is committing harakiri by talking about blocking Google.

1. The way search works is that if newspapers leave the search engines blogs will rise and become more powerful.
2. Blogs will make more money, get more readers, become more trusted.  

Why then are Blogs trying to save newspapers?

Perhaps Blogs really care about newspapers and want to save them.

This is the rationale that will appeal most to people who believe that people are fundamentally good (no one has proven good or evil exists so how could we know).

1. Blogs see newspapers are jumping off the cliff. 
2. Although it helps blogs, they still want to do the right thing and let newspapers know. 
3. Blogs are newspapers’ knight in shining armour. Saving them from a terrible, terrible mistake.

Let’s say there’s a 75% chance that this is what it is – Blogs care deeply about newspapers and journalism and they want quality competition and that’s why they are so critical of Mr. Murdoch’s idea.

That still leaves 25%.

Perhaps Bloggers care more about arguing and railing against Mr. Murdoch than doing what’s best for them

This is possible too. Perhaps Blogs do want newspapers to die.

• They are just so intent on being right that they’ll save newspapers just to win the argument.
• Perhaps they don’t just want newspapers dead. They want newspapers to be dead and to be able to say - ‘We Bloggers, we tried to save them. Yet they wouldn’t listen. It’s so unfortunate.‘

Let’s say there’s a 20% chance that this is what it is – Bloggers realize that newspapers dying is good for them and yet they want to have their cake and eat it too.

Which leaves us with just the 5% chance.

Could it be that blogs are wrong?

The current opinion has shifted from -  ‘Mr. Murdoch’s plan could never work’ to ‘All the major newspapers would have to join’.

Could it be that it will shift even more.

Are we suddenly discovering that newspapers aren’t the worthless doddering dinosaurs we thought they were?

1. The Washington Post-Amazon tie-up is far more crucial than people realize.
2. It’s as crucial as the potential Microsoft-News Corp. tie-up (which would be hugely important).

Suddenly newspapers are in demand. The same content that was worthless a few weeks ago suddenly has dual value -

1. Microsoft is ready to pay for the content itself.
2. Amazon wants to pay for traffic from newspapers – traffic that comes for the content.  

The ugly duckling has turned into a swan.

Perhaps Bloggers aren’t wrong – just evil.

Perhaps the 5% chance isn’t that Bloggers are wrong. It’s that Bloggers don’t want to pay for the news content they get for free.

‘Information wants to be Free’ empowers people and allows for a ton of possibilities - It also lets you fool newspapers for a really, really long time.

Eventually though, you realize P. T. Barnum was right. You can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

Both in the US and in the UK newspapers are realizing their content isn’t worthless and advertising isn’t the answer. Amazon and Microsoft are providing newspapers a lifeline – Will newspapers be able to open their eyes and step away from the delusions that have plagued them to this point?

Red Planet Noir

Michael Sheppard was the best private eye in New Orleans, and then his wife left him. After finding solace in the bottle, he finds his career in the toilet. Nights at the casino pay the bills, until they don’t, and leg breakers start knocking at the door, and knocking out his teeth.

When a socialite on Mars offers him work, it’s a chance for a new start. Her name is Sofia Reed and her father is dead. The coroner says suicide, but Sofia suspects foul play. A leader of the Martian police state, her father had powerful enemies, and nobody on Mars will touch the case for fear of retribution. Michael Sheppard is her only hope.

Chased by cops and gangsters, his investigation takes him from stately mansions to smoke-filled speakeasies, from deserted ice colonies to mining towns on the asteroid belt.

All he wanted was a paycheck to clear some gambling debt. Now Michael is the key figure in a murder conspiracy that’s left a vacuum in the halls of power, with the labor union, mob and military vying for control of Mars.

Red Planet Noir is a hard-boiled detective novel written in the pulp tradition of the 1930s. It’s a Raymond Chandler mystery in a Robert Heinlein world, and it can be yours here.

Still not convinced? Click here to read chapter 1.

Doing a search of books with a word from the above two, it is revealing how many titles you come across like: ‘Women and Development’, ‘ Alcoholism and woman’, ‘Woman working’   or sewing wemen’, and so on. I mean the books that promote the activism.

The politics of sex dominates the agenda.

The talk show that I stopped watching in 1997 is disappearing in 2011, as was declared by its hostess. What a loss…