Mark

I showed up to voidcon last year in bright blue basketball shorts and, though no one asked, kept referring to them as my "punk rock shorts." I am unsure if this is helpful.

One day I'm gonna say something publicly about whether it was a good idea to make any sequels to Alien, a perfect movie, and then I'm gonna lose all my friends.

Oh, damn. That's pretty good!

Carnage for Christmas is gorgeous. Good in a lot of ways, but oh boy did I love looking at it.

Oh, uh oh, there's a neat-looking region 2 of She Dies Tomorrow? Guess who's finally in the market for a region-free player...

At this point, the absence of a physical release for either of Amy Seimetz's movies is just a personal attack on me, right?

I'd wager five American dollars that this shit's gonna sear my eyebrows right off.

Even better that he didn't change the bits early on about campus Maoists, so now that song is coexisting with like SDS splinter groups.

I think this is more viscerally upsetting than anything I've ever written. Maybe everybody was just stunned.

IT'S ALIVE! I'm excited for people to get their hands on my slimy (both senses) lil book.

Thanks!

Oh, that is interesting! Guess I have a reading of the enemy to add to the other stuff I made note of to read.

True to form, this is an excellent must-watch. Only thing I'd add is that the "tragedy" framing's popularity makes it much harder to talk to anyone about the *enclosure* of the commons, an actual tragedy that actually occurred, carried out by the state and not the self-interest of individuals.

My phone doesn't connect to the car radio anymore, so I've been listening to FM radio a bit, and there is an upsetting amount of Seether still happening. The past isn't dead, etc.

Ah, yes, that eternal category, "Logic/Relationships."

Snuck one in there!

Got a new one next month! For the first time ever, the back cover copy doesn't mention Florida, but don't worry. It's set in Florida.

Me, only reading novels I know I'm going to hate: There are no good novels today!

Hell yes. Looked over at my buddy like ten seconds before this moment and said, "I swear to god, if he ninja-fights that fucking helicopter..."

Cf. me ctrl+f-ing every draft for "situates."

The science fiction establishment lining up behind the tech establishment that lined up behind the administration, a few months before getting together to give awards to Tales of Cozy Resistance at a banquet sponsored by an arms manufacturer.

I guess it simplifies the torment nexus process if both steps are done in-house.

What does "at scale" even mean here?

"Worldbuild...film at scale" is absolute loser shit. Lyonne joining the war on AI on the side of AI.

Not saying Lebowski and Miller's Crossing and their best film Burn After Reading aren't bangers. Just...well. I guess we can see where nihilism goes.

I continue to find Sam and Weirdpunk's transparency and promptness remarkable, but they really shouldn't be. Every indie press can do this, and if they don't, it's a sign to me they're not really in it for the art or the artists. In which case, just go into finance like every other predator.

Weirdpunk's cut is Weirdpunk's money. Mark's cut is Mark's money. We're not dealing with huge piles of cash from my little book, but even if we were, I am fully confident that the situation would be the same. I have this confidence because of how I've been treated.

And royalties have never been late.

I suspect Sam ain't gonna brag about it, because I know he thinks as I do it ought to be the default way of doing business, but he published my most recent book, and I know (to the copy!) how many books have sold and where they sold and how much each of us is making from that.

I have a lot of thoughts about Recent Developments, but you know what I think is the key phrase here? "Other people's money." Royalties to authors aren't a favor the press is doing for authors, or a like a bonus from a nice boss. They're the author's money.