> source terminal location: UNKNOWN

> source terminal identity: UNAVAILABLE

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Ultimately though, this discussion is not about what the Kindle can do today but what it might be able to do in the future.  Some will argue that in time the computer voice will be able to rival the human voice.  This might be true and people even refer to computer animation as an example.  However,  even if it gets to that point I think you can look at animation as a good example here.  You can not give a computer a script and say animate this and I believe that no matter how good a computer text to speach gets, you still need thought and understanding of the text to be able to put the right emotion and emphasis into the speach.  This is not just a matter of a vice voice.

For me, however, this is not the whole story behind this.  I see this as a fight between the old world publishing of books and the new technical world.  Today technology is changing at an incredible rate and has changed they way we consume many arts.  Music was once only available in live concerts and then came the radio and the record.  This developed into the iPod and other MP3 players.  The Theater and Plays turned to Movies and TV; then to digital movies that can be downloaded and streamed.  These art forms and others adapted to the technology and were change.

This appears to just another case of the old and new clashing.  Publishing has been fighting eBooks and changes.  It comes down to two thing.  The first is providing a product that people want, in the format that people want, for a price that is reasonable for both the consumer and the producer.  The second is fair use.  What do people have the right to do with a book they buy.  For me a people has a right make derivative works of something they buy as long as they done sell it or distrubute it.  Here is how Neil Gaiman summarized it:

When you buy a book, you’re also buying the right to read it aloud, have it read to you by anyone, read it to your children on long car trips, record yourself reading it and send that to your girlfriend etc. This is the same kind of thing, only without the ability to do the voices properly, and no-one’s going to confuse it with an audiobook.

A writers end goal is to get there work into the hands of their audience in the form that the audience wants and hopefully make money doing that.  If you provide people with what they want and you provide it to them in a mannor that it fair, people will buy it.

Thank you for your understanding and I will keep you updated.

I am working on the next episode, I have most of it recorded just need to edit.  My plan is to have Chasing Shadows done by the end of October.  I am doing things differently with the next book, planning on having at least half records and edited before I launch sometime early in January.

This next book will bring Shadow Hunter to a close.  When it is done, my plan is to turn back to Buried in the Sand.  I am working on something different here and will be looking for a lot more input from you.  I hope you’ll be ready and willing to help out.  I’m hopefully going to have the ground work for that done by the end of October as well.

Thank for sticking with me through my inconsistent release of Chasing Shadows.  I am working to make sure that Shadows Fall does not suffer the same pain.

That being said it’s time to talk about the actual reason for this post and that is Earth Day tomorrow.   My famil (my wife, son and I) will be taking part.  We may have to make some exceptions as my son will be in bed and really doesn’t like the dark.  I’m considering leaving a candle of him, but I am concerned about leaving a four year old with a candle.

I think that anytime people group together for something they believe in is a great idea (as long as they aren’t hurting anyone).  In this case I agree with the message.  We need to start doing more about Climate Change.  When I look around I see people still making choices that are more harmful to the environment than they could otherwise make.  People are still buying large vehicles when smaller ones would do.  I’m not saying that larger vehicles are not needed but some buy them when they are not.  As long as we are not willing to give up a little of what we want for the environment things are not going to be better.  Earth hour is a start, but it is how we live each day that will make the real difference.

That is when I decided to reorganize my writing files and back them up. I have done this in the past and have back up files from that last reorganization. To be honest my files had got quite disorganized with duplicates. I finished my reorganization and copied my writing files off to a USB key.

Yesterday I plugged the key into my computer and went looking for my work in progress, Chasing Shadows. To my shock the file was not there. I check around the key and still could not find the file. At home I searched through the files I had organized and still could not find the file. I did some searches and found some delete file restore programs. After some some work I was able to “recover” the file. I clicked on the file and watched in horror as the file opened but did not display the text of novel, instead it displayed a mass of unreadable characters.

I am currently looking at ways of fixing my file, but at this point I’m not hopeful. The only saving grace is that when I started writing this story I was writing it by hand. That means that I have only lost my work since the beginning of the year, about 1/4 of what I had. So I will continue to try and recover the file but in the mean time it looks like I’ll be typing out the story again, and re-editing the novel.

Because of this, obviously, Chasing Shadows will not be out as soon as I hoped. I do not have another novel to podcast at this point; my only two finished novels are Shadows Falls and Shadow of a Hero. Shadows Falls is part 3 of Shadow Hunter and Shadow of a Hero is book one of the series that follows Shadow Hunter. I will however look at what I do have and what I might be able to give you for content until Chasing Shadows is ready.

I will keep you updated.

I also wanted to write about a post on Boing Boing today “Science Fiction Writers of America abuses the DMCA”.  It is worth reading and is one of the reasons why I don’t support a DMCA style law in Canada.  We need a law that protects creator and consumers in a balanced way.

Because of other commitments two of the writers had to step away from the site. I volunteered to contribute to the site and was invited to join. Tomorrow (Tuesday May 15th) my first post goes up. It is a basic introduction about me and my writing, some you may already know about me from Never Was or the White Wall but there are a lot of new things there too. I hope you will join me and the other Starting Write Now authors as we post about our experiences in writing.

Although my intention is to still Podcast and Blog here, most of my more personal writing experiences and status posts will be posted on Starting Write Now.  The post on this site will focus more on the Podcast and other items of interest.

SOCAN, an organization that is suppose to support Music in Canada and compensate artises for public performance of their works (Radio, Dances, etc.); if you are putting on such an event or broadcasting music you have to pay them a fee (which they “give” to their member).  The thing with SOCAN is that you have to pay them even if the musician doesn’t belong to SOCAN.  Even to the extreme of if an independent musician plays their own music at a gathering they have to pay.

However in the exchange for this, we, in Canada, we are allowed to make copies of music for personal use.

Due to pressure from the US Government and US Music Companies, the Canadian government is making changes to our Copyright laws.  The changes would include support of DRM, anti-curivention and Tariffs on new music “Broadcast” delivery.  This includes a tariff on Podcasters.  The recommendation is that for non-commercial Podcasts that they would need to pay $60 per year.

Now $60 a year isn’t a lot of money, but it’s it might be a lot for some Podcast hobbiests. Almost every Podcaster I know users music that: they have created or have had someone create for them, get approval from the creator or use Creative Commons/Pod Safe music.  In almost all cases the creator is not a member of SOCAN and thus don’t see any of the Podcasters $60.  It instead goes to line the pockets of SOCAN and the big Music Companies (essentially the RIAA), this does not make any sense to me.  Why do I have to pay SOCAN for Music the creator has provided to me for an agreed upon amount (free is an amount) so that they can give it to someone  else?

The only advantage that I could see for this is the possibility of being able to podcast “big” artists.  I would be interesting in hearing from anyone who know if this would be allow under the new laws.

I have been blogging for since 2003 when I started back up with writing. A lot has change in that time for me, I have moved my site from the White Wall to here at Never Was in 2006 with the launch of my Podcast.

Here is my list of nominees for the Thinking Blogger Award:

1. Michael Geist – If your a writer (even if your not Canadian) his knowledge and insite into copyright is priceless.
2. Lifehacker – Because if there is an easier/better way to do something sooner of later it will turn up here.
3. Mark Blevis – For his support of the Canadian Podcast community.
4. Wil Weaton – If your a geek so is he (and no he is not Wesley Crusher he just play him on TV)
5. Start Writing Now – Why read about one writers experiences when you can ready about several.  Great insite on writing with a life.

I would have added Scott Sigler and J.C. Hutchins but they aren’t blogger per say but their impact to writing and podcasting is too large for words

Here are the rules of participation:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the “Thinking Blogger Award” with a link to the post that you wrote.

Update:

I think I have all the podcast posted restored.  I know I lost some comments and some posts.  For which I am disapointed.  I’m not sure if I can get them back.

While I was listening to him talk about writing and started to consider taking his advice I thought it would be best to read one of his novels before taking his suggestions. I need to make sure he wrote a type of novel I would like to write. I decided on the novel he references in his Podcast “A Secret Atlas”.

At first glance a novel about a family of cartographers might not seem interesting; how exciting can it possibly be when the main characters sit around and draw maps? I put this thought aside and starting reading, after all, from his Podcast it sounded like he knew what he was talking about and you don’t convince publishers to print nearly 40 novels if you’re not good.

I am glad that I found his Podcast and took the risk on his story about a cartographer family. This book is anything but boring. His charters have a depth about them that make them feel real. The story is complex and leaves the reader wanting to push onto the next chapter.  “A Secret Atlas” focuses on the characters, their lives and the personal and global conflicts they face. Michael understands how to create tension and action without having resorting to violence. You feel the conflict within the characters and watch with interest as they learn and grow.

Upon reaching the end of the “A Secret Atlas” it truly hit me that this was a great author and one that had his publisher’s trust. This novel is the first in a trilogy and like the Lord of the Ring;s it doesn’t so much as end as it stops at a good place to take a breather. This is not a stand alone novel so go in expecting to read all three novels in the series, it will be more than worth your time. The good part about this series is that all three books will be available in paper back by the summer, meaning you don’t have to wait for the next book.

I have only just started the second book “Cartomancy” and already I am looking forward to “The New World”. I honestly doubt that if you pick up the Age of Discovery series that you will disappointed.

Thanks for understanding and thanks for listening,

Terry

The feed is now fixed. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Terry

Terry

The first Podcast for Never Was is planned for September 1, 2006. This will simply be an introduction episode with the first real episode sechduled for the following week. Then every week following I will release another podcast with a continuation of the Serialised fiction or in some casts a completely independant short story.

Comment and feedback are always welecome and can be posted here on the blog, in the forum or through e-mail to neverwas <@> mcleanweb.ca.

Terry