Forum Beta is Live

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I'm testing out an embedded tal.ki forum onsite. You can click on the above "Forum" tab or follow this link. Feel free to monkey around with it and offer feedback.  I'll decide whether to plunk down some cash on the service based on your opinions.

One of the major pros of tal.ki forums is that you can use any of your social media logins as your username. (You would not need to create a new user ID for this site.)

The forum will remain in beta for now. Posts may be lost and/or gobbled up without notice. Image hosting is not yet enabled.

B.

See you Space Cowboy...

"Data from NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft indicate that the venerable deep-space explorer has encountered a region in space where the intensity of charged particles from beyond our solar system has markedly increased. Voyager scientists looking at this rapid rise draw closer to an inevitable but historic conclusion - that humanity's first emissary to interstellar space is on the edge of our solar system." —NASA

Or put more clearly...

Dark was the Night, by Blind Willie Johnson
The story of the Golden Record

The Scenes from Earth
The complete Golden Record playlist

B.

ZOMG, you broke the ZS comments page! : P

I've received several Emails alerting me to the fact that the comments section of the Zero Sight fan page just suffered the technological equivalent of an acute left main stem MI. You can still enter comments--and I still get each one in my inbox--but all entries beyond May 12 cannot be seen. (There is a 'load more comments' button at the bottom but it is nonfunctional.)

This snafu appears to be due to some issue within Blogger. I've checked the admin side of things, but I can't figure out to fix it without wading into the code. I'll consult with some more tech savvy friends over the weekend lest I ruin everything. Sorry for not addressing the issue sooner. I read all the comments via Email, so I wasn't aware that the site was freaking out.

More generally, there have been requests that I set up a forum for ZS discussions. I'm open to your suggestions on how best to do this, and I don't mind plunking down some money to host it. Has anyone had a good experience working with a particular forum software package and/or host? A low maintenance option that allows for easy, non-logged posting would be ideal. That and embedded images. We're going to need a thread for giant sleeping elemental narwhal fan art.

B.

UPDATE 6/28/2013: A temporary fix is up. I switched back to full page (non-threaded) comments and you can now see newer comments. I'll be working on forum stuff this weekend.

Meanwhile, on the Amazon Front Page...

Taken straight from Amazon.com's front page...

I've never submitted a piece of fiction to a publisher before, so I can't say I relate to the rough times Jessica Park details in her column on Indie Reader. I can only say that my experience working with Amazon has be fantastic. The KDP team has gone out of their way to promote my content, and they respond to my questions and concerns with the same speed and courtesy that people have grown to expect as Amazon customers.

You can check out Jessica Park's book, Flat-out Love, here.

It is so cool to do business with a CEO this engaged with his author-suppliers. I can't think of another company that would dedicate the entirety of their front page real estate to give a shout out to a single self-published author. It give you a sense of the depth of focus Mr. Bezos has with regards to digital publishing. His vision isn't limited to selling Kindles or dominating the book market. With his focus on KDP, he hopes to disrupt the entire publishing ecosystem.

It's an exciting time to write books. In addition to Amazon's big steps, B&N is teaming up with Microsoft to create a better NOOK, Apple is improving their back-end support for authors, KOBO is moving at light-speed to improve both their e-readers and webpage, and Smashwords is about roll-out long awaited adjustments in the way they handle the book uploading process.

It's also an exciting time to be a reader. After years of atherosclerotic stagnation, the book world is becoming more diverse and accessible. Soon, readers from all nations will have every single piece of classic literature at their fingertips for a pittance. Nothing will ever go out of print. Nothing will be too hard to find. Isn't technology cool?

B.

What Is It?

He leans forward and asks me, "What is it that you want to do, exactly?"

"The unreasonable," I reply.

www.polderanimation.com

B.

Ray Bradbury, 1920-2012

A Story of Love

by Ray Bradbury, first published in 1951

B.