Subscribing to the EV

After the first mention of a subscription/support drive, and the subsequent thank you for support, I'm still continuing to get orders and subscriptions at an increased rate than before. This is great. I had been hoping to reach a certain number of subscribers, and I'm really, really close. I won't tell you what the number is, or how close I am, but I'm going to do something special for the person who is that number subscriber.

I don't have an overwhelming amount of subscribers. There are a lot of reasons for this.

One reason is that I'm not very good at marketing the subscription to people. When I see people, I always want to sell the issue in my hand, I never ask someone to subscribe. I don't advertise at other places about subscriptions. I don't push the subscription concept on my webpage (it's pushed down beneath the individual issues, although I know have a internal page jump to the subscription section). I don't push the concept here on the blog...until recently.

Another reason is that it's a larger initial expense on the part of the consumer. Sure, $15 isn't much, but compared to $4, it's nearly four times as much. You might more readily have $4 in your pocket at any given time than have $15. The expense is more than monetary. What if you hate my editorial acumen? Then you're stuck getting more issues of this zine that you aren't going to read. Buying one issue allows you to sample.

Furthermore, at two issues a year, people may feel it's just as easy to buy the issues when they come out rather than subscribe. I'm hoping that next year I can put out three issues, and the year after that, four. I think this will be a good thing for everyone involved.

Lastly, the shopping link of the top of this page has been broken for years. I didn't notice it until recently. This is just stupid on my part. Who knows how many people tried to click on that link, got nowhere, and went on to something else.

But in the end, I want people to subscribe. It's better for me to get the investment from people in subscriptions, and it's better for the readers to lock in prices. Prices will be going up next year. I know I don't have a lot of subscription options; I'll be working on that this fall with some changes to be announced by World Fantasy (which is only three months away, yike!).

To those who have subscribed, thank you. Your support means everything. And to those who bought individual issues, thank you, too. Your willingness to try something new is certainly laudable.

LISTENING: Stanton Moore's III

Is there a way to be more emphatic than just saying: phenomenal?

Unbeknown to me, I first encountered Stanton Moore's drumming on the Corrosion of Conformity album, "In the Arms of God." Stanton looked the part of rocker in the band photos. Sure, he had on glasses, but this was a cool-looking cat to be sure. COC's original drummer (and band founder) had left the group after the previous studio album. His drumming style was very unique, so I was concerned what this new drummer would be like.

No worries. He was just amazing. Good power rock drumming, but with interesting little twists and fills all over the place.

I forget what brought me to Moore's current solo album, III, but I suspect it was looking into information on his side project with Charlie Hunter, Garage a Trois. I love the sound of Garage a Trois, so when I saw that Moore had a solo album, I went and listened to it on his website.

I actually never got past the first song, "Poison Pushy," before I decided to order the disc. It's got this groove to it that makes me want to push everything off my desk and get up on it and dance. There's a lot of that on this disc. For me, I feel that it comes from the fact that Moore is New Orleans native, and the whole grooving, dancing vibe that infuses the city rings loudly in his music.

Moore took advantage of Preservation Hall being closed after Katrina to record the album there. It sounds amazing. You can tell they're in a room that's used to great jazz performances. Often the music is quite sparse, allowing Moore to let loose and just go. You can tell these guys had FUN recording this album.

The last three tracks of the album are a sort of musical tribute suite to New Orleans. While I would have loved an album of all groovy rocking jazz, this somber, introspective jazz also reminds me of New Orleans.

The one track that I'm left a little disappointed is Moore's cover of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks." While the song is completely appropriate for what Moore was going for with these final songs--considering the title of the song is what made Katrina so horrible for the city--it doesn't work for me. It's one of my least favorite Zeppelin songs. Of course, I shouldn't expect these last songs to be tap your feet fun, and within that context, "When the Levee Breaks" works just fine.

This album is great fun, and it showcases a lot of talent. I really like modern funky jazz like this, and I'm always thrilled to find a new-to-me artist that does it well.

Internet Access and Dr. Black

I now have internet access at the new house, huzzah! I am in my office working wirelessly in the basement while the wireless router whirs away upstairs. The only problem is that I have no office furniture so I am laying on the floor and typing.

In other news, two of the three free Dr. Black and the Guerrilla that Brendan Connell is offering to new subscribers are now gone. If our math is done correctly, that means there is only one left. This is a fantastic book. Only one new subscriber will be lucky enough to get the copy.

Make sure it's YOU!

A Quick Post About That Book

Yes. Even with moving, I bought a copy of that book. I had it delivered to our house via Amazon's guaranteed on-sale date delivery option. It was waiting for us on the front step when we arrived with the truck.

I'm unpacking. And working. And very busy. AND sharing reading the book with my spouse. So we're reading it to each other.

If any of youse bastards spoil it for me, I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND END YOU.

That is all. :)

Moved

We are in our new house. Thanks to Mark, Martha, Todd, Amber, Ted, and Mom & Dad for helping getting our stuff moved from one house to another. Mark & Martha came down on Friday and helped us get our kitchen set up Friday night. This was a huge help.

Then on Saturday we picked up the moving truck around 8:30 and were done with the move before 4 in the afternoon. We're clicking right along in getting the house set up, but there's a lot to do. (and interruptions like lawn mowing get in the way of unpacking)

Here's the big thing, we currently don't have internet access set up at home. Oh, we're paying for it. I have all the equipment. We just don't have a phone jack in the room that I want to put the main computer. I've been putting off connecting everything in the kitchen (my kitchen looks so nice and uncluttered right now; I don't want to mess it up!) but I think I may have to for the short term.

So, if you're trying to contact me, relax. I'll get to you as quickly as I can. I can only check things at work, and at work I have to...you know...work, so often I'm not able to check my e-mail, etc. very reliably.

Soon, some photos of the house with our stuff in it and an update on the home internet connection.

o GuD, did I reeLy dO Thiz?

What have I revealed about myself?

Your Score: Cheezburger cat

75 % Affection, 63 % Excitability , 57 % Hunger

Sure, you deserve one. You helped popularized lolcats from a running gag to an online sensation. Now mainstream media writes asinine columns on this 'phenomenon', students write theses on the topic, programming languages adopt the grammar, and losers write tests about them on dating sites. Now take your cheezburger and never touch the internets again.

Link: The Which Lolcat Are You? Test written by GumOtaku on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

For one thing, I'm STARVING!

Night Shade Books Sale 50% Off

I assume if you read this blog you're at least somewhat aware of the awesome work that's being done by Jason Williams and Jeremy Lassen over at Night Shade Books.

I first found out about these guys when they published a Norman Partridge short-story collection back in the day. Since their humble beginnings, they've become a major force in genre publishing today. So I'm happy to see the following announcement in my inbox:

It's sale time at Night Shade again. We've got a few big titles coming in, and we need to clear space in a big way! So until midnight on Sunday, July 29th, we're offering 50% off all in-stock and forthcoming Night Shade books. Use the coupon code NSB0750, and there is a four book minimum order.

And just to entice you a bit more, we've just added a whole bunch of new forthcoming titles to the site, including new novels from Greg Egan and Walter Jon Williams, the new Detective Inspector Chen novel from Liz Williams, the fourth and fifth Clark Ashton Smith volumes, and a post-apocalyptic anthology called Wastelands that will include stories from Stephen King, Jonathan Lethem, George R.R. Martin, Orson Scott Card, Gene Wolfe, Nancy Kress, Octavia Butler, and a whole lot more.

In addition, for those that keep asking, we're reprinting a bunch of classics. Volume one of the Clark Ashton Smith series is sold out, but will be reprinted in September. Volume one of the Hodgson series will be reprinted in January, and volume two will be reprinted in May.

So what are you waiting for? Go get some awesome books at an unbeatable price!

Teh Summer Cold, It Sucked Harder and Then Went Away

For a moment there, I was wondering if the body could run out of snot. Sorry to be vulgar, but after going through TWO boxes of tissues on Friday, I was wondering where all this mucus was coming from? Was my brain disappearing? Was I at least losing weight? I could hardly sleep without having to get up and blow my nose for fear of having my ear getting filled during the night.

Then came Saturday. Ah Saturday. The day I mowed lawn for the first time since 1990. There are muscles aching in my body that I wasn't even aware that those places had muscles (I think those places didn't really have muscle and the atrophied thing that was there is screaming in defiance at being awoken). To make things worse, I was reminded of my lawn mowing was always particularly hellish for me.

I am allergic to grass.

Yeah, I know. Freak. So, I have a summer cold, and I'm having allergic reactions to the grass blowing in the air. Fun times. Fun times. The nose blowing was over with, but now it was time for coughing.

And coughing.

And more coughing.

(Did I mention that I think Iowa is trying to kill me?)

Today I feel fairly normal. However, when I cough, it's completely dry. It reminds me of the cough I had when I had pneumonia.

Joy.

The Summer Cold, It Sucks

Ah, the summer cold. A very different beast from the winter cold. When the winter cold strikes, you are not surprised. You do not think, "The sky is filled with freezing rain, sleet, snow, and god-knows-what-other-type-of-precipitation...the ground is covered with 34 degree water and slush...the sun goes down at 3pm...whatever reason is there for me to be sick?"

No.

You start to sniffle around November and stop in April. (as least in the Midwest) You expect to get some sort of sickness during the winter since you are constantly moving between frigid temperatures and scalding hot temperatures and Mrs. Grass soup tastes like the elixir of the gods to your cold-benumbed tongue because it's hot and noodley, and who doesn't love hot and noodley?

In the summer, however...

The sun is out. Squirrels scamper through the trees like madcap clowns on a bender. Rabbits eat all of your garden, but their little rumps look so cute when they hop away you can't stay mad at them. The birds wake you in the morning. It's light out from 5am to 10pm (or something like that) so you can have a nice, long, luxurious day of sunlight. In the evenings, you sit on your veranda drinking sangria and snacking on an exquisite cheese.

And the next morning you wake up feeling like a giant dog is sitting on your chest and breathing in your face. Your throat hurts, your nose runs, you can't stop coughing and sneezing.

And that damn sun mocks you. It's 95 degrees out, and you feel like you should be wrapped in a scarf and eating hot, delicious Mrs. Grass soup, but no! That makes you sweat so much that you fear removing the finish from your desk at work or at the very least, your forearms are so lubricated with sweat that you might slide off the edge of your desk and crack your skull on your keyboard. And then where would you be?

The extra heat makes the cold insufferable. You can't get comfortable. You can't relieve any symptoms. You break down and buy some cold medicine (which you don't buy in the winter because you have that delicious soup!) and take a few caplets. Or four. Who knows? Who has time for directions. If two work well, four should work better, right?

Too bad you don't notice that in your cold-fueled delirium you bought the night-time formula until after the pills are washed down your gullet. Wonder what will happen?

Will it be like the last time when your eyes stopped focusing together and each eye showed you it's individual view point? Or will you be found face down on your computer, beeping away since your face is pressing the space bar for all its worth?

Oh, it will be a grand adventure regardless, that much is true.

Readercon

OMG. I can't believe Readercon happened and I forgot to send copies of EV to someone to sell at the convention. What was I thinking?

Oh yeah, I bought a house.

There are foods that I remember....

It may not be apparent, but I love to cook. And to be even more specific, I love to bake. Love it. There was a point in time where I thought about becoming a baker or a chef. Baking appealed to me more since it didn't necessarily mean late nights, but in the end I did not pursue that track.

Living on the east coast gave me exposure to a lot of cuisines and foods that I never knew existed while growing up in the Midwest. On top of that, there are so many places to buy different/gourmet/unusual/ethnic foods (and I mean grocers, not restaurants) that any time you need something, you can find it relatively easily.

And on top of that, I worked in Manhattan for most of the time that we lived out east, and the stores in Manhattan had anything you could think of. You need thai chiles? Got 'em. British candies? Yep, got those. Panettone? Of course! Alligator? Got it, too.

You get so used to having Asian/Indian markets around you chock full of great, cheap produce and spices and other things that you forget the rest of the country isn't quite the same.

Recently I moved back to the Midwest with my family. We wanted to be closer to our extended family so our little girl had a chance to know her cousins and so on. Little did I know that I was stabbing my culinary life right through the heart.

We lived out east for ten years. That was ten years of diet changes. I had no idea how drastically different my diet was from the typical Midwest diet. All of a sudden, there were a lot of things we couldn't find in the grocery store. And it wasn't that we just couldn't find them, there were no alternative to check to see if someone/some place else would have them.

So what am I talking about? Well, here's a link to a Flickr set of some things we've not found locally:

A lot of these things we have to drive more than two hours from where we live to be able to get them. Some of them (e.g., the tea) we have to order online. There are some things that we could not find when we first moved here (e.g., rice paper, which a lot of stores now carry) that have shown up in stores. But there are still some things that we have not found in the Midwest (e.g., capers packed in salt, rose petal jelly, Walker's crisps, Aero bars, Mars bars, Hob Nobs, Ribena, etc.) at all. We'll have to look online for these things. (can you tell that we're suffering from a little Anglophilism?)

I was shocked to find these:

But very happy all the same. Now, a lot of these things we can find near my parents, which works out great since we're there to visit with some regularity. Which is particularly great for the cheese and produce since that's I'd rather not buy online. I just wish I didn't have to travel so far to get some of these things.

There are no gourmet grocery stores in the Quad Cities. There are very few Asian markets, and they aren't what I expected them to be. There are even very few stand alone liquor stores (most everything is sold in the grocery store...with limited variety). The closest thing we can find is in the Iowa City area, which is about fifty minutes away. That's a little far for groceries.

This has been the toughest thing to adjust to. And I don't know that I want to learn how to adjust.

LISTENING: Live music

So, with the two big televised concerts from the past few weeks (Concert for Diana and Live Earth) I've been thinking a lot about the live music I've seen. I thought I would create a sort of meme, but mostly just an informational post about me and music. Anyone who wants to make one of their own please feel free. So here goes:

1 List the concerts you've seen (as best you can; maybe a top ten if you've seen a lot):

(I'm going to try and list them all; all have the headliner first)
Iron Maiden w/Twisted Sister
Supertramp w/The Motels
Iron Maiden w/Waysted
Van Halen w/Bachman Turner Overdrive
Los Lobos
E.I.E.I.O.
INXS w/Cheap Trick & Ziggy Marley
Whitesnake w/Skid Row, Great White, Bad English and Havana Black
Motley Crue w/Tesla, Joe Satriani, & Bonham
Flotsam & Jetsam w/Powermad
The Mighty Might Bosstones
The Rolling Stones w/Living Colour
Voivod w/Soundgarden & Faith No More (twice)
Metallica w/Queensryche
Queensryche w/Suicidal Tendencies
Anthrax w/Helloween & Exodus
Anthrax, Slayer, and Megadeth (rotating headliners) w/Alice in Chains
Rush w/Mr. Big
AC/DC w/L.A. Guns
Megadeth w/Stone Temple Pilots
Skid Row w/Megadeth & Pantera
Pantera w/Wrathchild America, & Realm
Pantera w/Crowbar, & My Sister's Machine
Metallica (no opening act)
Metallica w/Metal Church
Meatloaf
Faith No More w/local Milwaukee bands opening
Duran Duran & Violent Femmes w/Faith No More, The Ramones, Letters to Cleo, Sponge, Flaming Lips, Bush, Collective Soul, & The Caulfields
Ben Folds Five
Band of Susans w/My Cousin Kenny
Sting w/Don Henley & Susannah Hoffs
Dr. John
Don Henley
Brian Setzer Orchestra
Sting w/Lyle Lovett
Rollins Band w/Apt. 26
Sting w/Cheb Mami
Barenaked Ladies w/Vertical Horizon
Charlie Hunter Quintet
Barenaked Ladies w/Gavin DeGraw
Sting w/Annie Lennox
Harry Connick, Jr.
Barenaked Ladies w/Alanis Morrisette
Rod Stewart

(I tried to put them roughly in the order that I saw them and that was more painful than I thought it would be)

2. List any musical acts who are currently recording that you would like to see:

Robbie Williams
Corrosion of Conformity
Queens of the Stone Age
U2
The Arctic Monkeys

3. List any musical acts that you wish you could have seen (this list is intended to be bands in their prime or that are no longer recording; i.e. bands that are on tour [e.g., The Police] who are NOT recording new material or are not in their prime; so, you could have The Police in this list if you wish...unless they record a new album; this list also should only include bands you COULD have seen, so for people my age no Beatles!)

Nirvana
Black Flag (well, lots of punk bands, but I'm only picking one)
Guns 'n' Roses
Stevie Ray Vaughan

4. In the comments, point me at some live music that I'm missing out on.

Reinventing the Store

Introduction.
Seth Godin had a post the other day about changing the way retail stores display clothes. Basically he said that instead of having all the shirts together, have all the sizes together regardless of designer/pattern/color/whatever. And it's not just clothes that he suggests making changes for:

When you go to Home Depot to get what you need to build something out of wood, why don't you find the glue and the wood saws and the screwdrivers and the screws all together in a section called, "working with wood"?

Today he posts about responses to the original post. Of course he got a lot of responses in the vein of 'that would never work' because people don't like change. To me those responses are a variation of the 'we've always done it this way' which just makes me cringe any time I hear it. (it makes me look for a way to change it just so we can no longer say 'we've always done it that way') To quote Seth again:

The most fascinating takeaway for me is this: many retailers believe that they still have the power to inconvenience shoppers as a way of increasing revenue. "Too many stores in that mall," in my opinion, for me to stay with you if it's easier and more fun to go over there instead.

I go back and forth on this type of concept. Sometimes I want my stuff to be all over the place so that I can wander upon something I would have missed if everything I needed/wanted was in one place. Other times I want what I want in one place. Either I don't feel I have time for wandering and browsing or perhaps I am just looking for what I want and nothing else.

To elucidate these two ideas, here's some examples.

Example #1.
I love grocery shopping. If I spend less than an hour grocery shopping it was a failure. But I love to cook. I love spending time in the kitchen putting together recipes. I like searching out that ONE ingredient I can't find anywhere (hello rose-petal jelly!) for a recipe that sounds interesting. When I was in London and Scotland in two consecutive summers, we spent a good portion of our time there walking through grocery stores.

When I visited my parents at the beginning of this year, they took us to a cool grocery store near them (posted last week: Sendik's) and my wife and I spent more than hour going around the store, AND WE DIDN'T BUY ANYTHING.

When Wegman's first opened in Princeton, we spent more than THREE HOURS in the store, and again, didn't buy anything. We went to the store every day that week, and rarely bought anything. We just spent time exploring.

Example #2.
However, when I go book shopping (or to the library for that matter), I want to shop for what I want. If I want science fiction books, I don't want to wade through Fiction to find them. In fact, I hate that. If your bookstore/library has merged everything together, I won't go there again. If I want Fiction, I'll look for Fiction. If I want science fiction, it had better be in its own section.

I know there are writers and readers who hate categories and compartmentalizing of fiction. There are books and authors who could/should appeal to broader audiences and don't because their book is on the shelf next to book with a half-naked woman on the cover being eyed lasciviously by an alien. That is frustrating. As an editor/publisher, I know how hard it is to get people to break stereotypes and take a chance on a book that doesn't look (or isn't in the section) what they normally read. I don't have a good answer for this one. If I did, I would be doing that for a living. Even with great subject assignment and natural language searching, it's often not enough to place the book in front of someone to get them to break stride and try it. (try getting someone to try new food, it's the same line of thinking)

I also know that in the past I've sometimes said that I like all the fiction books (Fiction, science fiction, romance, etc.) mixed together. I no longer do. I want stuff separated. Imagine if you had to flip through self-help books to find a cookbook? Or if you had to sort through Sudoku books to find a car repair manual? That would suck.

Conclusion.
The point I take away from this is to consider reorganizing how you do things. How are your customers shopping? Do they seem like browsers or do they come in quickly and grab what they need? Do you have both? If you can determine how people are coming to your business (and it could be shirts, wood, legal services, etc.) then you can determine how to organize it.

The nice thing about an online store is--if it's set up properly--your customer gets to decide how to shop. They can sort everything together or have everything separate. It's tough to have both options in a brick-and-mortar store. Most places can't afford the inventory--in both space costs and dollar costs--to have everything together and everything separate options in the same store.

Something to Consider.
Perhaps the best option is to have an introductory section right inside your door that highlights what you have to offer (sort of like a physical welcome page) and then customers can expand off that list. It would be great if a store could have moving shelves and inventory so that I could go to a room/area and have the store physically reorganize itself to match my current shopping needs.

Finally With the Pictures

Sorry it took so long. I've just been, you know, preparing to move and all that. Without further ado, photos of our house (for Gwenda):


Clicking on the photo takes you to the Flickr set of the house.

And, some fireworks:

Again, clicking on the photo takes you to a (small) Flickr set of the fireworks.

Just as I was figuring out how to take the photos of the fireworks, my batteries died. *sigh* Things might get quiet here while we move into the house. But who knows? I may blog frequently to vent.

One Last Post Before the Photos

(and man, the photos are getting quite a lot of buzz, and to be honest, they're just not that exciting, but hey...)

Electric Velocipede is closed to submissions until October 1. This is planned. This is part of my reading schedule that is posted on my submission guidelines. I'm basically open for three months, closed for three months, open for three months, closed for three months. This has nothing to do with previous posts about needing help or subscription drives. This is done to keep me sane and give me a chance to read and reply to submissions.

Any submissions received during my closed reading time will be returned to the sender to be resubmitted when I open again October 1.