Writing links

Slacktivist looks at the Left Behind series and the problems of writing plausible near-future scenarios when time can so easily overtake them. A bigger problem when you’re writing about the Rapture, which is supposed to be imminent.
•You can measure Tweets, page views and FB links of your work, but what does it really mean?
•Should refusing a legitimate public records request result in jail time?
•Mark Waid: “All writers are better off swinging for the fences and failing than simply writing what they think people want to read. That’s just a pathetic waste of electrons, the latter.” From this interview.
•Eric Naiman in the Times Literary supplement investigates a series of hoaxes (for example a non-existent meeting between Dickens and Dostoevsky) and plagiarism that may all have been the work of one aging scholar.
•The Department of Justice has proposed Apple settle the ongoing ebook lawsuit (details at the link) by letting booksellers use the Kindle and Nook apps for Apple products to sell without taking a cut. Publishers worry the end result will be Apple cutting prices to compete with Amazon, so publishers and creators get less.
•Horror writer Lisa Morton lists 10 rules that separate pro writers from amateurs. For example: “Do you plan vacations around writing opportunites (either research or networking potential)?” and “Would you rather be chatting about the business of writing with another writer than exchanging small talk with a good friend?” (if the answer is no, that’s a mark against you). As John Scalzi says, these questions undoubtedly reflect Morton’s feelings about her craft, but they’re not universal (I would definitely be a No on both those questions).
Mari Ness’s response is one I’ve heard before: Writers don’t take vacations because we’re always learning, coming up with ideas or even writing on vacation. I class this with Morton’s list: I’m sure it’s true for Ness, but when I’m on vacation, I’m on vacation (if I’m working, it’s not a vacation). The fact some of what I see or learn may influence my fiction does not make that any less true for me (this may be a narrow dispute over our concepts of work, of course).
And it’s only a short slide from this to an excuse for not writing: You’re gaining life experience, you’re working through that pile of current novels as Market Research, etc. (Ness is a published writer who blogs regularly on Tor.com, so I feel safe in saying she’s not offering it as an excuse).
•Vast sinister conspiracies are commonplace in fiction, but do they make sense? And Slacktivist looks at the difference between an unreliable character and a douchebag (both types think they’re cool, but when the author believes it to, we get a douche).
•A writer equates his support for using texting and cellphones in theaters with fighting for marriage equality or abolition of slavery.
•A writer argues that while Tesla was impressive, his achievements are exaggerated because they fit the myth of the Lone Struggling Genius. I suspect something of the same is why Tesla shows up in historical fiction when the plot requires a brilliant inventor or super-weapon: Correia’s Grimnoir Chronicles, Atomic Robo, The Prestige and the very Tesla-esque figure in the TV show Legend (Richard Dean Anderson’s short-lived series between MacGyver and Stargate). Plus, of course, the fact Edison built and marketed his ideas more successfully (and in some cases ruthlessly) makes it easier to work Tesla into a fantasy as his potential seems more untapped.
•I may have mentioned this before but I’m absurdly pleased to have contributed assistance to the International Superheroes website (specifically this page on the Great Thespius).