hal tweets ·7:13 PM
Harsh words over at Deathmatch, Kate Story coming on, Eshleman’s early lead is dwindling. Check it out: http://ping.fm/NJk7b
2010,
21:02 GMT
The Indie Writers Deathmatch is Now On
Posted by: Hal
Broken Pencil Magazine’s Indie Writers Deathmatch is in full swing with two stories in heated competition with each other. This is the innovative online writing competition fight to the finish brought to you by Broken Pencil: the magazine of zine culture and the independent arts! Check it here out right now! I’m the moderator for the first round!
http://www.brokenpencil.com/deathmatch/
2010,
21:35 GMT
Quick Update on Peep the Movie
Posted by: Hal
A lot of people have been asking what the status is of the Peep documentary. The status is that the good people of Chocolate Box Entertainment are working hard on it in the editing suite. The next big date will be February 3rd, when we are having a full day meeting to watch what they have so far — which, according to director Sally, may be as long as 4 hours! Wow 4 hours of Hal. That might be too much, even for me! In the meantime, I’ll post so more excerpts from the logs of the surveillance cameras, if you missed the first one it’s here. And just because, here’s the original Peep trailer.
2010,
16:39 GMT
The Mass Psychology of Winning American Idol
Posted by: Hal
Here’s an interesting piece from Psychology Today that talks about the psychology at play in who wins American Idol. Much of it is applicable to other Reality TV shows, at least in terms of who we come to love/hate and why. So, check it out. It also quotes my book Hello, I’m Special, which early on has a scene with me in the try-up lineups for Canadian Idol.
2010,
17:00 GMT
The E-book as Argued on CBC Radio
Posted by: Hal
I was on CBC Radio’s The Current this morning. You can download the podcast here.
I discussed/argued the e-book with journalist Noah Richler and David Kent, President of HarperCollins Canada. It was pretty entertaining. I was coming at it from the perspective of a writer, particularly one without the benefit at this current point in time of a publishing deal with a multinational corporate-owned publisher. (Interestingly enough, the producer who contacted me told me she was having trouble finding a writer willing to talk about e-books and publishing…)
So my take on it: small presses and independents are shut out of the chain bookstores that comprise the majority of the marketplace. Furthermore, even those writers who are published by a big company are finding themselves marginalized if they can’t generate significant sales. From that point of view, the e-book can only help writers who won’t find their books stacked up at Indigo or Barnes & Noble anytime soon.
Obviously this is a complicated and divisive issue but I think the situation is relatively dire in terms of access — there are 10,000 plus books published every year in Canada alone, but how many of them will you see browsing through your Superstore? I think the ebook will benefit independents and small presses, and those writers who are increasingly finding for-profit publishing a difficult fit for what they want to achieve. And what about books that fall out of print in a shockingly short amount of time? Things can only get better for writers in terms of ongoing sustained access to the marketplace.
2010,
20:18 GMT
The World’s Bloodiest Short Fiction Contest!
Posted by: Hal
Hey everyone, the magazine I publish, Broken Pencil, runs an annual short story contest called Indie Writers Deathmatch. It’s super fun and crazy. The top 8 stories as picked by the BP editors battle against each other in our online arena. The top three stories get published in the magazine and get cash and prizes. We’ve extended the deadline to January 10, 2010. So enter now!
The Bloggist
Hey, I’m Hal Niedzviecki. I’m a writer/thinker who lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with my wife and daughter. Up till now I’ve always considered myself a private person. But at the same time I’m fascinated by people who effortlessly open themselves up to the whole world. So I’ve… more...
Harsh words over at Deathmatch, Kate Story coming on, Eshleman’s early lead is dwindling. Check it out: http://ping.fm/NJk7b
neck in neck battle over at the broken pencil deathmatch short story contest. it’s round 3, goose vs. frog. vote here:
http://ping.fm/NJk7b
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