Eric James Stone

Tanget Online has a review of my story “Taint of Treason”. Here’s how the review begins:

Eric James Stone’s “Taint of Treason” is another gem, a brief but tragic story with a surprising conclusion.

You can read the story in the October 2005 issue of Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show.

UPDATE: Link to review fixed.

5pm

After-signing Report:

They didn’t have Brandon’s book, so he didn’t bother to go. And a good thing, too, as it was extremely slow.

6:00pm-9:00pm
Waldenbooks
1200 Towne Center Blvd # 2002
Provo, UT

I prefer watching TV shows on DVD to watching them “live” (or even Tivoed.) Why?

• No commercials
• Watching multiple episodes makes story arcs easier to follow
• My laptop’s DVD-playing program lets me alter playback speed so I can watch episodes in less time

Still, there are some things that would make watching TV shows on DVD even better, if the DVD manufacturers would do them consistently. (All of these things are done on at least some TV shows on DVD.)

1. If an episode begins with “Previously, on [Name of Show]” and clips of prior episodes, let me skip to where the new stuff is. I just watched the previous episodes, so I don’t need a refresher.
2. I’m watching this DVD because I’m a fan of the show. I know who’s in it, and much as I may like the theme music, I don’t need to hear it every time. Let me skip the opening credits without also skipping some of the episode.
3. When I finish watching an episode, don’t make me go back to the episode menu, then back to the main menu, then to the next episode menu, in order to play the next episode. Include an option to watch all the episodes on the disc as one continuous whole.

The following tips also apply to movies on DVD:

1. Nobody actually bothers to read the FBI and Interpol warnings in order to inform themselves about the potential penalties for copyright infringement. And nobody cares that the views expressed in the commentaries may not reflect the views of the studio, etc. Let the viewer press the skip button and move on past the legalese.
2. You’ve designed a really cool animated menu for the DVD. That’s great, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the primary purpose of the DVD. I want to watch the show. Don’t force me to wait for animations to finish in order to be able to start watching. Either make the menu choices available immediately or let me skip to the end of the animation.

On Saturday I did a signing at the BookShelf in Ogden. For the first time ever, I had someone waiting at the store for me to sign — that made me feel like a famous author.

Overall, the signing went very well — eleven books sold in two hours, which tops my previous record of ten. Of course, it helped that the store was selling Writers of the Future, Volume XX, for only $1.95. Since the BookShelf is a used book store, I believe Galaxy Press sent them remaindered copies of that one so they could sell them at a price more in line with expectations for used book customers. Even so, I sold five copies of Volume XXI at the full cover price.

After my previous experience with a signing at a used book store — at which I would have signed no books had the store owner not asked me to sign one — I didn’t have much in the way of expectations for this one. But it turned out to be one of my best signing experiences.

The people at the BookShelf were all very friendly, and the store seems to have a huge collection of not only used books, but used movies, CD’s, and videogames. So if you’re in the Ogden area, I recommend them to you.

I’ve been going on Tuesday nights to the slush-reading sessions for the Leading Edge (BYU’s SF&F magazine.) Well, they’ve asked me to take over as webmaster of their website because the old webmaster was leaving.

Fortunately, the major work comes when there’s a new issue, and the old webmaster did all the work for the latest issue, the special 50th issue. (Even though the cover is dated October 2005, the issue is not out yet, as there was a printer’s error.) They got Orson Scott Card, Dave Wolverton and Brandon Sanderson to write stories for the issue. I can highly recommend Brandon’s story, as I got to proofread it before the issue went to press. You can read the beginnings of the stories online; if you want to finish them, I recommend that you purchase the issue.

2-4pm
2432 Washington Blvd, Ogden, UT
(801) 621-4752

2pm
Nifty Cool Toys
1348 South Foothill Drive
Salt Lake City, UT

Earlier this year I attended BYU’s science fiction and fantasy symposium, Life, the Universe and Everything (aka LTUE.) While there, I got to hear Howard Tayler speak about life as a webcomic artist/writer. I started reading his webcomic, Schlock Mercenary, and found it to be hilariously entertaining. It’s the story of a bunch of space mercenaries, including Sergeant Schlock, a shapechanging blob who stores weapons in his mouth.

Schlock Mercenary is one of my daily reads, and if you like humorous SF, I suggest you give it a try.

Today’s strip is the 2000th consecutive daily strip Howard has published. And all of them — going back to June 12, 2000 — are available online.

Congratulations, Howard.