News, events, and general discussion

[alison]

Cool interview, Raaaad! You sounded very self-possessed and knowledgeable. The persona thing is interesting, no? My fear is that one day it will take over, like an alien parasite, and the sweetly amok street sweeper self will be lost forever...

The "panel persona" is generally a whole different Kevin from the real one (not too different from the "radio interview" Kevin who was created out of whole cloth for that last little exercise). The artificial personas attempt to sound convincing, erudite, and humble, while not disclosing that their owner may not have a clue, that his mind internally resembles a street sweeper run amok on a quiet suburban Australian street, and that he must be very full of himself to think that anyone wants to listen to what he has to say.

 

[Radthorne]

all of them are finnish-swedes (including me) meaning they would not speak english with a ugly finnish accent but with a more natural Swinnish accent..

note: Finnish-swedes are people in finland whose ancestors came from sweden to finland (don't know when )
we usually speak both finnish and swedish fluently.

A Finnish-Swedish sub-cult!

So, do you and the other Finn-Swedes on SFFWorld all know each other? As in, from the same-town sort of thing? (Must be a hotbed of scfi-fi/fantasy activity lurking over there...)

 

[Radthorne]

Cool interview, Raaaad! You sounded very self-possessed and knowledgeable. The persona thing is interesting, no? My fear is that one day it will take over, like an alien parasite, and the sweetly amok street sweeper self will be lost forever...

Why, thank you.

No fears about the fabricated personas taking over; I only trot them out for public appearances. In private the street sweeper runs rampant, gunning the spinning brushes into a frenzy just about the time poor Sheepie tries to lay down to sleep, then cruising effortlessly off into the night, nothing but a neat and tidy street in his wake.

 

[SilverDagger]

A Finnish-Swedish sub-cult!

So, do you and the other Finn-Swedes on SFFWorld all know each other? As in, from the same-town sort of thing? (Must be a hotbed of scfi-fi/fantasy activity lurking over there...)

Yes, we Finn-Swedes at sffworld know each other. We are best friends or then we are related

About the record...no way

 

[Rocket Sheep]

Sffworld even has enclaves?

I'm just heading over to the Finnish-Swedish quarter now to get a...
a... vodka?

 

[Radthorne]

Hey, you're supposed to be going out with me and Alison to the bar to celebrate her finishing her book!

On the "News" front, which is part of what this thread is about, after all:

I had two good pieces of news this evening. One is from my publisher that indicates that Barnes and Noble should be picking up their titles for in-store stocking. This is a mighty good thing, as the number of indepenents on chain store shelves is pretty paltry. So, if any of you wander into a Barnes and Noble in the coming months and see my books there, please let me know. (And do feel free to pick them up and do whatever you usually do to evaluate books pre-purchase!)

The second thing that came in the ol' inbox was an email from the buyer at the University of Washington bookstore, who is setting me up for another reading and signing at the store to coincide with the release of The Sands of Sabakushi. So, any of you local SFFWorlders in the Seattle area, stay tuned for details.

 

[alison]

Good news, Rad - I guess that it won't appear here? Does your publisher distribute internationally? I've down the download thing, but I'd love to read the rest of the book...Good luck on your appearance too, I bet the sweet streetsweeper peeks coyly out from your professional exterior.

A few vodkas in the Finnish quarter sounds right up my alley, so let's head to the Finn's bar. But I bet there's some punishing local drink we ought to try. I was in Iceland last year and bought a deadly spirit to ward off the cold. Alas, by the time I reached the end of the bottle, I had forgotten what it was called...though I maintain it was the elves stealing my memory...

 

[Radthorne]

Good news, Rad - I guess that it won't appear here? Does your publisher distribute internationally? I've down the download thing, but I'd love to read the rest of the book...Good luck on your appearance too, I bet the sweet streetsweeper peeks coyly out from your professional exterior.

A few vodkas in the Finnish quarter sounds right up my alley, so let's head to the Finn's bar. But I bet there's some punishing local drink we ought to try. I was in Iceland last year and bought a deadly spirit to ward off the cold. Alas, by the time I reached the end of the bottle, I had forgotten what it was called...though I maintain it was the elves stealing my memory...

It so happens that Windstorm has just got themselves set up to do some international distribution, although via direct order through them rather than by stocking the books in "far away places." Here is the link to their info. And if you are kind enough to give his books a read the sweet streetsweeper will dance a personal jig just for you (well, maybe not *during* the bookstore reading, but perhaps any other time... )

Finn's bar it is. Give Sheepie a call (I'm sure she's got a car) and tell her to swing by and pick you up; then hang a right when you get to Hawaii, when you reach Seattle stop by the house with all the trees around it and a sleepy black cat in the window, toss me in the boot of the car, then gun it across another huge body of water until we hit Finland.

SilverDagger and SwordMaster will open their front doors and go

(Hmm, SilverDagger and SwordMaster... Something about edged weapons attract those among the Finnish-Swedish sub-cult, perhaps?)

 

[SilverDagger]

You are all very welcome to Finland
I'm afraid that I can't help you with any Finnish drinks...you'll just have to try them

SwordMaster was here before me and I don't know why he took that name. My name is taken from one of my favourite books. The name of Katharine Kerr's first book is Hopea tikari in finnish, I translated it into english and that's why I'm SilverDagger.


I hope that we'll get your books to Finland too Radthorne. Haven't seen them here yet but I'll keep my eyes open

 

[Radthorne]

Thanks, Silver! (If Rocket and Alison don't take a wrong turn on the way here, maybe we can bring some with us!) (Books, not the drinks...) (But with those two, well, who can tell what may be rattling around in the back of the car with me...)

 

[JRMurdock]

Sounds like great news Kev. I'll keep you posted if B&N down here in SD carries your books (and I'll be picking up my copies).

Also, I listened to your interview. I liked it, but...I always hate saying but...please please please take a speech class. You um, ah, er, etc a lot. You also speak in run on sentences by connecting each thought with 'so' and 'and' a lot. Listen to yourself over. You'll see what I'm pointing out. It's easy to do, but if you re-listen to yourself, you don't come across as well as when you write your thoughts.

That's my opinion. I'm anal when it comes to public speaking though. Still great you were able to get a radio interview. Not just great, awesome!

 

[Radthorne]

Thanks, Maus. I shall take your comments to heart and work to improve for the next time.

 

[Radthorne]

The second thing that came in the ol' inbox was an email from the buyer at the University of Washington bookstore, who is setting me up for another reading and signing at the store to coincide with the release of The Sands of Sabakushi. So, any of you local SFFWorlders in the Seattle area, stay tuned for details.

Nothing like quoting yourself to make one really vain!

I had confirmation this evening from Duane Wilkins, the University of Washington Bookstore buyer, that I'm scheduled for a reading and signing at the store on Wednesday, April 20th. I'll be sharing the reading evening with another author again, this time Ted Butler, a very nice gentleman who also happens to be a Windstorm Creative author.

So, if you're anywhere in the area on that day, please feel free to stop by and have a listen!

(And Maus - never fear; my readings are not the same as a spontaneous radio interview. Which is why Duane is having me come back - he liked my first reading quite a bit.)

 

[JRMurdock]

You should record it for those of us who can't be there.

 

[Radthorne]

I've posted a picture over in my Cover Art and Computer Graphics thread, using a people-modeling program called DAZ. I've also posed a question over there about the use of people on book covers. Feel free to hop over there and take a peek, and offer me your opinion on the topic!

 

[Radthorne]

As this is also my news thread...

As an FYI, I have updated my website www.KevinRadthorne.com, in case anyone cares to take a peek.

Also, this past weekend I attended RadCon in eastern Washington state. Full details are in my new news section at the revised website but all in all, aside from a long drive, it was a pretty good con.

 

[Rocket Sheep]

Very professional looking. Nice menu. I'm always worried about using frames tho because not all browsers like them... tables are good... I like tables, tables are my friends, tables and html.

I maintain about four sites and I've got two down to straight html... working on losing the java on the other two. It's swish but it's not bomb proof or fast.

You've got this bit of extraneous code under your SoS2 pickky giving you a little white "Th" in front of the black lettering: <font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size="-1">Th</font></font>

Oh and your background on opening is dark, switch that to beige so it will match your background gif when that loads. Then people will see a smoother transition and be able to start reading the dark lettering on a lighter background before the gif kicks in. Some people might still be on dial up.

 

[Radthorne]

Thanks - I forgot about that little white "Th" - meant to fix that!

Good point about the background. On my browser it loads the texture first and then all the images, so the text is readable. But it's an easy change, so I'll take care of that too.

I debated about the frames, but decided that it seemed like an easy way to keep the nav buttons around without having to maintain them on separate pages. And besides, I was able to steal a functioning design as a model (Alison told me that she nipped hers from a friend, so it seems ok that I filched mine from her...). I figure there's probably another way that might be just as easy to deal with the nav buttons, but for the totally untrained webmaster (I guess that makes me "webminion" instead), borrowing something that works and expanding on it seems like a good idea.

 

[Gary Wassner]

How is Jay? crazy as ever?

I am glad that the con went well. Did you see any publishers there? Any that I might know?

 

[Radthorne]

How is Jay? crazy as ever?

I am glad that the con went well. Did you see any publishers there? Any that I might know?

Jay is fine, and most assuredly just as crazy as ever. He and I shared an autograph table, as well as one of the panels, so I certainly had my fair share of Jay stories! Apparently I missed a good one, though; at the opening ceremonies he had accepted a bet about being able to get the whole room to do something that they wouldn't ordinarily do. It would seem that he got the entire assemblage to do "Ring Around the Rosie," with a troop of female Middle Eastern dancers in the center and the various guests of honors in the first ring around them... But I was at dinner and missed it all... Only Jay could be so persuasive as to make this happen, though.

The only NY press there was Baen Books. Small presses included Patrick Swenson with Fairwood Press, Bridget & Marti McKenna, and a couple of others. They all got together and did another Small Press Party, which I was unaware of beforehand (otherwise I would have joined in).