#macmillan publishers | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

a-wandering-imagination · 10 months

Text

Chapter 5

The knock on the glass brought Colonel Cooke out of his thoughts. He looked up to see Lieutenant Miles standing outside his door. Cooke waved him in.

"Sir, You said you wanted to be notified of any communications..."

"Where's it from, Lieutenant?" Cooke interrupted.

"We're not entirely sure, sir." The concerned look on Miles' face caught Cooke's attention. He stood quickly and followed the lieutenant out to the control room and down to the workstation where several techs were huddled around the speakers.

"Have we been recording this?" Cooke asked as he approached.

"Yes sir," the group responded in unison.

"Good" he muttered as his attention was drawn to the soft crackle being emitted from the speakers. "What did you hear?" he asked, directing his question at no one in particular but scanning the faces of the entire group while he waited for an answer.

The lieutenant pointed to the fellow seated in front of the workstation. "Specialist Toccaro, play back what we have."

The young specialist clicked out a few commands on his terminal and the speakers crackled to life.

"Cent-four, this is rol-ler-se-ven, come in."

"Rol-ler-se-ven, this is cent-four."

"Max lot on con-tact point six. Swept and clean. Four-teen points. Mo-ving to se-ven. Con-firm."

"Rol-ler-se-ven. Con-firmed se-ven. Pro-ceed."

The speakers fell silent again except for an occasional pop and hiss.

"Is that it?" Cooke asked. The young specialist nodded, but the lieutenant held up his hand.

"That's all that we’ve received, sir," the lieutenant responded.

"What the hell is this 'cent-four' and 'roller-seven'? And what's up with the voices."

"We're working on that, sir." The lieutenant's face clouded a bit as he spoke.

"What's going on, lieutenant? There's something you're not telling me here."

"Well, sir, it's just that we have access to all the top secret communication channels. We also are kept apprised of all covert operations because we tend to intercept most communications with our equipment. The DOD and CIA keep us in the loop so that we don't run afoul of non-disclosure between departments and such."

"So what are you saying, lieutenant? That nobody warned you about this exercise?!? Don't you think in our current situation that there may be some military units that are unaware that anyone is listening any longer and therefore didn't bother to notify us? Don't you think that they may be under the impression that there isn't anyone left for them to notify? Didn't you consider that?" Cooke's voice rose with each sentence until the last one was nearly a yell.

The lieutenant, visibly shaken, adjusted his blazer and straightened his tie before he responded. "Yes sir. I am very aware of our current situation. That is why this particular communication is so troubling sir."

Cooke's blank stare and soft shrug was all the permission given for the lieutenant to proceed.

"Sir, this communication was not broadcast on any existing DOD or CIA frequency. It wasn't even broadcast on secured satellite. This broadcast is hidden in a radio frequency at the very margins of the spectrum. At this frequency, sir, atmospheric interference is quite high. The military gives this area of the radio spectrum a wide berth because there is such a high volume of ambient noise that data transmission is sketchy at best."

Cooke was quickly becoming more interested. "Continue, lieutenant. Why would a military group be using this frequency? And what do you mean by 'hidden'?"

"Well, sir, that's another aspect of this broadcast that puzzles us, sir. Not only is it in a spectrum that is usually outside the range of radio communication, it is also encrypted."

Cooke's face darkened. "Encrypted?"

The lieutenant motioned to the specialist. "Let him hear the original." The specialist typed another series of commands at the terminal and the speakers once again came to life, but the sound was nothing more than an aggravating cacophony of hisses, pops, and scratches, like a radio receiving electronic interference. There were no discernible tones or sounds, just a lot of what sounded to Cooke like animated static.

"That's the transmission?" Cooke asked, bewildered. "You found a message in that?"

"Not me, sir," Lieutenant Miles responded, "Specialist Toccaro here did. He used to work at NRAO before he came to our office, sir. He spent a large portion of his career analyzing patterns in audible spectrum radio wave transmissions."

Cooke turned to the specialist. "So you just picked this out, Specialist?"

"Well, uh, no sir. At NRAO we were trained to treat all radio wave receptions as possible communications, even ones that sounded like static. I was personally assigned to study this particular frequency range at the edge of the spectrum where this broadcast occurred. There has been a lot of activity in this spectrum for decades. Most scientists thought it was just atmospheric interference, you know, meaningless static, solar interference, magnetic resonance, whatever, but NRAO wanted to be sure. So, a group of technicians, including myself, was assigned to try and find patterns in this seemingly random radio noise."

"And did you find any patterns?"

"Well, yes sir, we did. We started to see a certain predictability in the patterns about two years ago, just before I was transferred here. Our group was pretty sure that someone or something was using that spectrum for communication, but the patterns seemed to have an almost mathematical randomness attached..."

"Encryption." Cooke was following the specialist's logic very closely at this point.

"Exactly sir. That's what we suspected. We briefed our superiors. We were all pretty good at math, but our specialties were outside the realm of cryptography. Likewise, we figured if it was encrypted, it may be classified, and we didn't want to step on anyone's toes. We were looking primarily for extraterrestrial communications. We didn't want to get caught eavesdropping on covert ops."

"So what did your superiors say?" Cooke asked.

"We never heard, sir. It wasn't two days later that the entire team was disbanded and everyone was transferred to even higher security installations."

"Wait. Are you insinuating that you were silenced?... That this is one of 'ours'?"

"Well sir, the transfer for me was a real promotion, so I didn't complain too loudly... All the people on our team were sent to different installations where communication between us, even in our off hours, would be considered a security breach and grounds for disciplinary or even criminal action."

Cooke's eyebrows crunched together and he brought both his hands together, steepling his pointer fingers against his lips. "That still doesn't explain how you cracked this code today, specialist."

"No sir. It doesn’t... I mean, I didn’t...” Tocarro paused for a moment. “I’ve been programming algorithms into Roadrunner and letting her run them against the database of recordings I have accumulated. I've been working off the numerical algorithms we had considered while back at NRAO before we turned it over to our superiors. I figured we must have been close when they disbanded us. I also figured it must have been covert government communications because no one else would have had the influence to ship us all to the four corners of the moon."

Cooke nodded his agreement. "So you have been working on this in your spare time, then?"

"Kind of sir. This installation is a prime facility for monitoring radio communications. As you know, we're the best in the world. Well, off and on over the last two years, I have monitored that fringe frequency, just kind of checking in from time to time to see if the activity was changing."

"And?"

"Well, sir, it was rather sporadic... Until March of last year."

The words struck Cooke like a sharp blow and his head snapped to attention. Staring hard into the specialist's eyes, he spoke with tight, clipped, speech, "Are you insinuating something, Specialist?"

"Sir, I am only providing you with the information. The activity in this frequency picked up substantially in the lead up to the event, sir."

“What? And why am I only just now learning about this?!?”’ Cooke was nearly screaming again.

“Sir. At that time we... I... had no way of knowing for sure that this static was truly encrypted transmissions. There are many other explanations. With all the coordination during the original outbreak, the increased use of regular communication channels could have been causing some sort of feedback in this spectrum. I didn’t want to raise a false alarm so I continued working on the encryption algorithm trying to see if I could decode any of it.”

“Are we still receiving transmissions in this spectrum?” Cooke asked.

“Yessir. There is still quite a bit of activity, sir, but it gets even more complicated."

"Explain."

"Well, sir, like I said, I have been using the Roadrunner terminals to run computations based on the algorithm and last night I got a possible match on the encryption. Of course, a ‘possible match’ only means that patterns in the source files, the ‘static’, could be predicted. I was planning on coming in today to run the algorithm against my recordings... and then we received this morning’s transmission. The algorithm cracked it immediately and I notified the Lieutenant.”

"So, have you gone back and tried the algorithm against your previous recordings?” Cooke was visibly agitated.

"Oh, yes sir. Unfortunately, however, the algorithm was only successful on two other communications. Both from a while back and they both reference the same 'cent-four' and 'roller-seven'. None of the other transmissions were cracked by this code.” Toccaro glanced at the lieutenant.

“I should have been notified as soon as you cracked the first message, Specialist. As you were doing this ‘under the radar’ so to speak, I’m going to let it slide this time. I hope I make myself clear, however, that withholding this kind of information in the future will have serious repercussions.” Cooke paused for a moment and mulled over the new information. “What is your opinion concerning the other transmissions and why they would be encrypted differently?”

“Sir, I think they may have algorithms specific to location or unit. All three of the transmissions I was able to decode reference the same Cent Four and Roller Seven designations. Perhaps each group has their own encryption.”

Cooke was silent for several moments as he stared at the floor, the index finger of his left hand tapped the hem of his blazer. Finally, he looked up at the specialist once again.

"Have you been able to triangulate on the origin of any of the transmissions?" Cooke continued.

"No, sir. They appear to be using various repeaters and the nature of the encryption also seems to have some broadcast masking."

Cooke rubbed his temples with his thumbs. "They ain't gonna make it easy for us, are they? What do the other two communications say? Pull them up."

The specialist typed in some additional commands. "Here is the oldest one, sir. This one was transmitted on February 22nd, 2013."

"Rol-ler-se-ven, this is Cent-four, o-ver."

"Rol-ler-se-ven co-py, go a-head Cent-four."

"Se-cur-i-ty le-vel 3, Rol-ler-se-ven, make ap-pro-pri-ate pre-par-a-tions. O-ver."

"Con-firmed, Cent-four, se-cur-i-ty le-vel 3. In-i-ti-a-ting count-down."

The speakers went silent again. "And here is the second communication..." Toccaro continued as he typed in another command. "This one was transmitted a couple weeks later on March 2nd, 2013.

"Cent-four, this is Rol-ler-se-ven, o-ver."

"Rol-ler-se-ven, this is Cent-four, pro-ceed."

"Tar-gets i-den-ti-fied and pre-par-a-tions com-plete. A-wai-ting di-rec-tive."

"Rol-ler-se-ven, main-tain sta-tus and pos-i-tion. A-wait your or-ders. O-ver."

"Con-firmed, Cent-four. Rol-ler-se-ven a-wai-ting or-ders."

The speakers went silent once again. "That's it, sir. That's all we have."

"Pretty high-tech equipment. The voices are obviously computer-generated. Who the hell is Cent-four?!?" Cooke studied the faces of the men, hoping someone would come up with an answer.

"We're at a loss on the 'Cent-four' designation, sir," the lieutenant replied. "We've been cross-referencing through all the military, DOD, CIA and FBI databases and we've found nothing. No mention whatsoever. The numbers 'four' and 'seven' lead us to believe there are other command centers and perhaps several teams under each command. Pure speculation, of course."

"Any voice print matches on what we have so far?" Cooke asked.

At this point, the specialist cut in. "No sir, as you said, they are computerized. We could find a match just about anywhere, sir. That synthesized voice is used in all sorts of government software. Everything from instructional material to weather reports."

"So they used it to mask their voices, then..."

"Not so much. I think it is simply another aspect of their security. The voices are computer generated from the communication software, I believe. The communications are typed at either end. The data is then encrypted and converted to analog and the recipient hears a computer-simulated voice 'speaking' what was typed on the other end. It is another layer of security. There is no data on the recipient’s terminal that would verify they had received the transmission. I think this may be how they are avoiding triangulation as well."

Cooke looked stumped. "What do you mean, Toccaro?"

"Well sir, the data that is sent out is encrypted and then broadcast, just like a radio broadcast but because it is not originally analog, the message can be distributed across a network so that many different places are broadcasting a small bit of the message. The receiver would reassemble the pieces and then use the decryption algorithm. Likewise, the bits of the message are not sent in sequence, but instead using a random order. This prevents anyone with limited signal reception from getting all the pieces of the message. Only places with exceptional equipment would be able to collect all the pieces, and then you still need the encryption algorithm to crack the code."

"This just keeps getting deeper and deeper. You seem to think that whomever is doing this has a facility similar to this one..."

"Yes sir. Anyone with less reception would not be able to get the whole message. Whoever is doing this is really trying to keep it hidden."

Cooke looked at the faces of the men gathered around the terminal. "Okay, boys, this is priority number one. I want you working with Toccaro on these algorithms 24/7 until we get something. We need to know what is going on here. I don't care whose toes we step on, I don't care who might get pissed off. As you know, our superiors went offline a couple weeks back and we've received dick from them since. We are pretty much on our own here. Radio wave interception is what we do best. Let's get moving. Lieutenant, I need to speak with you in private. The rest of you, get to work!"

The men quickly separated and headed to their workstations while Cooke and Lieutenant Miles headed for Cooke's office. Once they were both inside, Cooke shut the door and pulled the blinds. "I don't like this, Miles, I don't like this at all."

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"That's why you're in here, Miles."

"Sir, this is something outside the legal chain of command. I've been here for seventeen years, sir... I've listened in (without difficulty, I might add) on communications between covert seal teams buried in some of the most dangerous corners of the globe. I've located, listened to and recorded secret communications that would bring down the involved governments if the recordings ever saw the light of day. But this, this was even off MY radar. This is something that was developed outside the regular military channels, using technology that hasn't been shared amongst the regular players."

"What do you make of it, Miles?"

"Well, sir, I don't want to step outside my manners or my rank, but this has the smell of executive privilege written all over it. No one else could authorize such a program and get it funded all while keeping the rest of the military in the dark. Either that or some rogue agent in the Administration has some SERIOUS connections in the black ops side of intel--either here in the NSA or over at the CIA. I would bet it is an NSA secret, though, as I don't think even the CIA has the technical capability to build this or the need for such a system. FBI is out of the question. Those guys don't know anything about security OR encryption. No, this is someone who is trying to prevent the rest of us from figuring out what is going on. I would bet they are hiding from folks like us more than anyone else. And I think they are hiding right under our noses."

"My thoughts exactly. And I've got an additional theory to throw into the pot..." Cooke glanced at the windows around him to make sure all the blinds were in place and then looked directly at Lieutenant Miles. "I don't think they are friendlies." Cooke hesitated for a moment, rubbed his hands together and then continued. "I think WE are on their list of targets."

"What?!?" Lieutenant Miles flinched backwards.

"Shhhhhhh..." Cooke held his finger to his lips. Then he pulled out his desk drawer and removed a sheet of paper. "I've not told anyone else yet, but the other Echelon facilities have started dropping off line. Two months ago, Pine Gap went down. A week later, Geraldton went black. And this morning, not ten minutes before you came and got me, Yakima dropped it's connection..." Cooke had a worried look on his face. He flexed his hands and rubbed his eyes and stared at the ceiling. He began to scratch the stubble on his chin. "Lieutenant, do you remember what the decoded message from today said?"

The lieutenant shuffled through the papers in his hand and pulled one out. He scanned it for a second. "Here it is, sir."

"Cent-four, this is rol-ler-se-ven, come in."

"Rol-ler-se-ven, this is cent-four."

"Max lot on con-tact point six. Swept and clean. Four-teen points. Mo-ving to se-ven. Con-firm."

"Rol-ler-se-ven. Con-firmed se-ven. Pro-ceed."

Cooke rubbed his jaw again. "Lieutenant?"

"Yes, colonel?"

Cooke slid the paper across the desk towards the lieutenant. "There were fourteen soldiers manning the listening post at Yakima."

#apocalyptic fiction #creative writing #first novel #new fiction #pandemic fiction #book publishing #booklover #fiction books #random house #harper collins #simon and schuster #macmillan publishers

0 notes

olgachildrensillustrator · 2 years

Text

#picturebooks #kidlitillustration #macmillan publishers #comingsoon #preorder #buy now

1 note · View note

newshubnaija · 2 years

Text

$156,711.87 fraud: Macmillan publishers, others arraigned

By Francis IWUCHUKWU, Lagos Macmillan Nigerian Publishers Limited was on Monday arraigned before Justice Mojisola Dada of an Ikeja Special Offences Court, Lagos State, Nigeria, over alleged fraud to the tune of $156, 711. 87 USD. The book publishing company was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. Others arraigned alongside the book publishing company are; Fasasi Bola…

View On WordPress

#$156 #711.87 fraud #Arraigned #Macmillan publishers

0 notes

mostlysignssomeportents · 2 months

Text

The Cory Doctorow Humble Bundle

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TUCSON (Mar 9-10), then San Francisco (Mar 13), Anaheim, and more!

It's been 21 years and 29 days since Tor Books published my first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. In the years since, Tor has published every one of my novels, sending me around the USA and Canada to talk about them. Now, they've teamed up with Humble Bundle to sell 18 of my ebooks on a name-your-price basis, with part of the proceeds going to benefit EFF:

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/cory-doctorow-novel-collection-tor-books-books

I've been associated with EFF even longer than I've been published by Tor! My first novel came out while I was working EFF's first-ever booth at CES. I split my time between the booth and my motel room, where I paid $0.25/call to dial up to Earthlink's local number and manage the launch-day publicity. Over the years, I've benefited immensely from Tor's editorial and publicity departments, working with brilliant publishing people like Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Patty Garcia, Dot Lin, Laura Etzkorn, Elena Stokes, Sarah Reidy, Lucille Rettino, and of course, Tor founder Tom Doherty.

But I like to think that it was a two-way street. Tor and I have come a long way together on ebooks: most visibly, they allowed me to publish several novels under Creative Commons licenses (my first book was the first ever CC book, coming out just weeks after the licenses themselves launched). As my editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden said at the time, "Ebooks have the worst hours-in-meeting-to-dollars-in-revenue ratio of anything in my publishing career. Why not?"

https://craphound.com/down/download/

Just as important – but less visible – was Tor's willingness to let me insist that all my books be published without DRM, meaning that anything you buy on say, Amazon, can be moved to any reader program if you decide to start getting your ebooks elsewhere. This worked so well that in 2012, Tor became the first major publisher in the world to ban DRM on all its ebooks, flying me, John Scalzi and Charlie Stross to New York City to announce it this at a big, splashy event at Book Expo America:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130512022634/https://tor.com/blogs/2012/06/tor-books-announces-e-book-store-doctorow-scalzi-a-stross-talk-drm-free

Tor's unique status as the sole major DRM-free publisher in the world was well timed! That same year, I curated the very first Humble Ebook Bundle, which was very top-heavy with Tor titles, and raised more than $1,000,000 for the writers, publishers and charities associated with it:

https://web.archive.org/web/20121017215636/http://www.humblebundle.com/

That opened the floodgates to a series of Humble Bundles, tempting other major publishers to dabble with DRM-free, including Simon and Schuster:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-I5QyAfglU

And Harpercollins:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHMLfeCrCrE

Now, 12 years after that inaugural Humble Ebook Bundle, I find myself honored by being the subject of a bundle of my own (it helps that I've written a hell of a lot of books in the intervening years). Included in the bundle are (nearly) all of my Tor novels and novellas: The Lost Cause; "The Canadian Miracle" (a Lost Cause story); Red Team Blues; Radicalized; Walkaway; "Party Discipline" (a Walkaway story); Pirate Cinema; Rapture of the Nerds (with Charlie Stross); For The Win; Makers; Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town; Eastern Standard Tribe, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Little Brother, Homeland, Attack Surface, and "Lawful Interception" (a Little Brother story).

(The sole exclusion is The Bezzle, which came out two weeks ago and is already a USA Today national bestseller!)

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

Also included in the bundle is Poesy the Monster Slayer, my 2020 picture book for the littlies:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627/poesythemonsterslayer

All these books are delivered as DRM-free epub files. The Bundle runs for the next three weeks, and the minimum buy-in is $18 – that's just $1/book (full retail value is $187). Of course, you can name a higher price, and, as with all Humble Bundles, you can adjust the final split to share out the money between me, EFF, and the Humble folks.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/03/humbly-bundled/#eff-too

#pluralistic #ebooks #publishing #science fiction #tor books #tor #macmillan #drm #drm-free #eff #electronic frontier foundation

135 notes · View notes

monstermoviedean · 7 months

Text

bury your gays by dr. chuck tingle out july 2024

#spn #i did not realize this is being published by macmillan. that changes things.

173 notes · View notes

uwmspeccoll · 4 months

Text

Publishers' Binding Thursday

Today's Publishers' Binding Thursday book was found while simply browsing our stacks—and what a find it is! This is Poems, Dramatic and Lyrical by English poet, coin enthusiast, and botanist John Leicester Warren, Lord de Tabley (1835-1895). It was published in London by Elkin Mathews (1851-1921) and John Lane (1854-1925) at the Sign of the Bodley Head and in New York by Macmillan and Company in 1893. The book features five engravings by British artist, illustrator, and printer Charles Ricketts (1866-1931) and the bookplate of John Leicester Warren designed by Scottish artist William Bell Scott (1811-1890). Warren had an interest in bookplates and became an authority on them.

The binding was designed by Charles Ricketts, possibly with help from someone with the initials H.L.S. (or those initials in another order). Ricketts's initials and those of the mysterious H.L.S. are stamped in gold in opposite corners of the covers—C.R. in the top left and H.L.S. in the bottom right. The cover features in the upper righthand corner an angel inside of a golden heart holding a lyre made from wings and a heart. Surrounding this is a pattern of repeated rose petals, which to us look a bit like teeth or hot air balloons. The book cloth is a leafy green color that on our copy has either been glued unevenly or has become rumpled with time.

View more Publishers' Binding Thursday posts.

-- Alice, Special Collections Department Manager

#Publishers' Binding Thursday #publishers' bindings #Poems Dramatic and Lyrical #John Leicester Warren #Lord de Tabley #Elkin Mathews #John Lane #Sign of the Bodley Head #Bodley Head #Macmillan and Company #Charles Ricketts #William Bell Scott

38 notes · View notes

cucumber-pictures · 4 months

Text

Bunnies talk about book publishers

#cucumber quest #cq #cucumber #almond #princess nautilus #nautilus #peridot #eggplant #penguin random house #hachette #harper collins #macmillan #simon and schuster #the cat in the hat #the color of money #bart simpson's guide to life #the simpsons #first second publishing #book publishers

2 notes · View notes

lilibetbombshell · 7 months

Text

2 notes · View notes

sarahbethdurst · 9 months

Text

Announcing THE SPELLSHOP!!!

My BIG news is out! I'm outrageously excited to announce that I sold a new book, a cozy romantasy called THE SPELLSHOP, to the amazing Ali Fisher at Tor's new Bramble imprint! Can't wait for you all to meet Kiela (a rogue librarian) and her best friend Caz (a talking sentient spider plant)! Coming 7/9/24!

#books #new books #book deal #bramble #bramble romance #tor #tor publishing group #macmillan #the spellshop #sarah beth durst #ali fisher #andrea somberg #fantasy #cozy fantasy #romantasy #cottagecore #talking spider plant

4 notes · View notes

retrocgads · 1 year

Photo

UK 1985

#UK1985 #MACMILLAN PUBLISHING COMPANY #EDUCATIONAL #ACTION #TRIVIA #PARTY GAME #SPECTRUM #BBC #ELECTRON #QUIZTIMER #SPACE SCAN #CASTLES AND CLOWNS #THE SUNFLOWER NUMBER SHOW #SNAPPLE HOPPER #TOPS AND TAILS

10 notes · View notes

brightbeautifulthings · 2 years

Text

The Luminaries by Susan Dennard

"That's why we're called the Luminaries, Winnie: we are lanterns the forest can never snuff out."

Year Read: 2022

Rating: 3/5

About: All her life, Winnie Wednesday has dreamed of joining the ranks of the hunters in the Luminaries, a secret society of magical hunters and researchers in Hemlock Falls. Since her father was exposed as a witch, Winnie and her family have been outcasts, but she's determined to change that by passing her first hunter trial on her sixteenth birthday. All she has to do is kill a nightmare in the woods at night before it can kill her. What she discovers that night in the woods is a monster no one in Hemlock Falls has heard of before-- and no one believes is real. I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Macmillan-Tor/Forge. Trigger warnings: severe injury, body horror, blood/gore, bug horror, violence, bullying.

Thoughts: This was a weird instance of enjoying the world-building but not so much the characters or the plot, when usually it's the opposite for me. Generally, I get bogged down in fantasy novels with too much world-building, but in this case I was fascinated by the different kinds of monsters and wanted to know more. (Obviously, there's your answer-- put monsters in it, and you have my attention.) Unfortunately, I was way less interested in the structure of the Luminaries' secret hunter society, and every moment we didn't spend in the woods while Winnie got her ass kicked by some creature, I was bored.

More unfortunately, there's almost no plot to be seen. The novel does exactly what it says on the tin and takes Winnie through her three trials, and literally nothing else happens. There are no twists or turns and no surprises other than the fact that she manages to survive increasingly unlikely numbers of monsters despite being hopelessly undertrained. I felt like I should be interested in the sudden switch between her outsiderness and her reacceptance, but it all felt very repetitive. Winnie goes over the same things in her head in every chapter, and the clan mottos are beaten to death.

I liked Jay's character more, since brooding loner is one of my preferred character types, and while I have my theories about what's up with him, nothing much comes to light in this book-- which is actually one of the major problems. So many mysteries are started and left open-ended that it has neither plot nor thematic closure, so the ending doesn't really feel like an ending, and I was kind of wondering why I bothered by the time I got there. I'm probably curious enough to read spoiler reviews when the next book is out, but I’m not likely to continue with the series on my own.

#book review #the luminaries #susan dennard #macmillan publishers #tor forge #ya fantasy #netgalley #3/5 #rating: 3/5 #2022

7 notes · View notes

ebookporn · 1 year

Text

The E-Book Wars

ALA members Alan Inouye, Barb Macikas, and Sari Feldman march towards the offices of a major publisher, Macmillan, in Manhattan. They carry boxes of petitions addressed to John Sargent, at the time Macmillan's CEO. The petitions protest a controversial policy on e-books in libraries.

In 2019, a group of librarians (quietly) stormed the offices of a major book publisher, Macmillan. They carried boxes stuffed with petitions. They'd collected thousands of signatures, and now, they wanted to deliver them in person. Their goal: to put an end to a controversial policy known as "windowing." It would prohibit libraries from loaning out more than one copy of a new e-book in the first 8 weeks after its release, leading to long wait times for bestsellers. Librarians saw this as a threat to their mission to freely share knowledge with the public.

But Macmillan said: we're the ones who are threatened here. More and more people are borrowing e-books from libraries. And of course, when you borrow a book, you don't buy it. Publishers began to feel that libraries were threatening their business model, and making it harder for authors to stay afloat, too.

It's in some ways a familiar story. An industry goes digital, and that changes the calculation of who makes money. Think music streaming–Spotify comes along, and musicians and labels have to adapt. Except, in this case, the organization that Macmillan said was disrupting the whole system was...the friendly local library.

On today's show, we go inside the battle between libraries and publishers over e-books. The stakes couldn't be higher: everyone feels like they're fighting for their very right to exist.

Listen Here

#ebooks #ereaders #digital publishing #librarians #libraries #macmillan #john sargent #booksellers #book publishing

6 notes · View notes

thegirlwiththelantern · 21 days

Text

2024 YA Fantasy Books

I didn’t really notice it while I was putting this list together but scrolling down just to check the formatting really put into perspective how many utterly amazing books there are. There might be more YA fantasy than adult fantasy that’s pulling at me this year. Sky’s End (Above the Black #1) by Marc J Gregson | 02 / 01 / 24 – Peachtree Teen Exiled to live as a Low, sixteen-year-old Conrad…

View On WordPress

0 notes

drchucktingle · 4 months

Text

THE TEXAS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION TELLS CHUCK TINGLE TO STAY HOME BUT WE PROVE LOVE ANYWAY

just when you buckaroos thought 2024 would be a break from book drama, here comes chuck tingle in the mix. recently i was asked to be a featured speaker at the TEXAS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION annual conference. a few days ago they rescinded my invitation. here is what happened.

(EDITED TO ADD THIS LINK. if you have a hard time reading this on way of tumblr you can also read for free on chucks patreon)

i would like to start off by saying it is not my intent to start a fight, and all those reading this should know that the actions of a few misguided folks do not speak for the whole TEXAS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. i am sure there are many involved who will be very upset to learn what others at TLA have done in their name. there are many individuals here, so please do not paint them all as villains in your mind. besides, chuck loves the dang library everyone knows that.

the point of writing this is not to vilify. i am writing this is because MOMENTS OF DARKNESS are the best places to SHINE A LIGHT AND PROVE LOVE IS REAL. this is a perfect time for learning and growing and for us talk on some very important things that queer buckaroos and neurodivergent buckaroos face every day. this is an unfortunate moment that WE can turn around and use to prove love is real.

i am also writing this to understand some of my own personal feelings on the matter. for something that seems very simple on the surface, the trot is complex, and i am still working out my emotions on the whole dang thing. i am learning in this way.

PART ONE: BAG OF LOVE

a few months ago chuck was asked to be a featured speaker at the 2024 TEXAS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION ANNUAL CONFERENCE. i have been asked to do things like the before and it is ALWAYS a fun time to meet bookseller and librarian buds. trotting around face to face and talking about my story of conquering chronic pain and overcoming my mental hurdles is VERY IMPORTANT to me. i say YES to these things whenever i can. (here i am with authors at CALIFORNIA INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLERS ALLIANCE conference. they are a WONDERFUL group and they proved love with their OWN invitation to chuck. this was such a moving event with so many amazing authors and stories. got very teared up during this photo)

ANYWAY BUCKAROOS i get the TEXAS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION invite and say 'YES BUD LETS TROT'. we are then confirmed.

months pass. a few weeks ago i get a call from my manager and agent and publisher saying ‘the TLA have rescinded their invitation.’

turns out some things had been going on behind the scenes

at some point the TLA asked chucks INCREDIBLE HEROIC BAD ASS PUBLISHER if chuck would be okay with not wearing the mask, to which tor/nightfire/macmillan said ‘what the heck are you talking about of course chuck is going to wear his mask. this is how chuck presents himself’ (NOT EXACT QUOTE)

as you all know, my pink bag way is a VERY IMPORTANT SPACE. as an autistic buckaroo it is a boundary that allows me to express myself freely and relieve my chronic pain from neurotypically masking all day. i have talked about this for years, and it is why i consider my private identity a SACRED THING. it is literally a health issue.

fortunately THE PINK BAG is never really a problem when making appearances. i have spent years going on television shows, doing interviews, speaking at other conferences and conventions, hosting book events on tour, and even MEETING WITH LAWYERS in my pink face covering. it is always respected and that is very validating to my way.

when arriving anywhere i always take precautions. i always warn buckaroos ahead of time that there is a masked man coming. i always have someone go in ahead of me JUST IN CASE. again, there has never been an issue. at a big conference where i am a special guest there is ESPECIALLY not an issue because my face and bio are printed IN THE DANG PROGRAM

SOME FUN TIMES AT BIG EVENTS BELOW:

CHUCK ON TV SHOW NAME OF 'AT MIDNIGHT' BACK BEFORE I WROTE LOVE IS REAL ON MY HEAD:

well, there has never been an issue.... UNTIL NOW.

PART TWO: RESCINDED

a few days ago TEXAS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION suddenly messaged my publishers and said that chuck tingle is no longer invited. my invitation was rescinded. the reason given was that people could possibly be uncomfortable with my mask

right out of the gate i would like to say this: it is absolutely the right of the texas library association to disinvite someone from their conference. it is their event, after all, and they can ban anyone they would like, for any reason.

of course, that doesnt mean other folks HEARING THIS NEWS wont have their own opinions the TLA choices. if the TLA disinvites someone, their reasoning for doing this can be discussed and analyzed. whether or not they follow their own guidelines can be questioned, and certainly their kindness and tact can be considered

there are a few BIG POINTS to make regarding this choice from the TLA

first and foremost, i just gotta say buckaroos, it is incredibly rude to invite someone to be a guest speaker at your event, have them confirm and mark off their calendar and turn down other offers, then rescind their invitation. this is maybe the simplest of the points, but it is an important one.

second, (DEEP BREATH HERE WE GO BUCKAROOS) i personally do not think of my autism as a disability very often, but i also KNOW that despite these feelings it ABSOLUTELY IS. autism is important to be listed as a recognized disability because of the help some autistic buckaroos need regarding government programs and things like that. ALSO just because my neurodivergence has helped me in some ways (hyperfocus and a unique artistic sensibility for example). i personally need to step back and remember my battle with stress and chronic pain from having to neurotypically mask all the time. for as much as i love being autistic it has made some things very difficult.

in other words, i am perfectly capable of speaking and interacting with folks without this pink bag on my head BUT WHEN I AM IN THE CHUCK TINGLE SPACE I REQUIRE IT. i can ONLY use this space while covering my face. is not a want. it is a need. holding this boundary is more important than i can ever say. i will not, and can not, let these spaces cross.

TLA not letting an autistic author wear the face cover theyve set up to express their neurodivergence in a safe, healthy way is--for lack of a better term--NOT A GOOD LOOK.

i cannot fathom them disinviting another author for using a disability aid. i cannot fathom them saying that a buckaroo who hears better with a hearing device cannot use it during their panel because it would make others 'uncomfortable'.

but here we are.

PART THREE: WHAT DOES A BUCKAROO GOTTA DO TO GET BANNED AROUND HERE?

this is the TLAs official stance on disability issues according to their website:

when poking around on the TLA website i noticed a few other things. i noticed a previous guest speaker wearing a niqab, and i was left wondering if the religious significance is what make that okay but chuck tingle banned. that made sense until i looked deeper and saw mascot buckaroos dressed up on the exhibition floor, and saw some kind of spiderbud in a costume contest. nobody around them seemed to be all that scared. their invitations REMAINED INTACT.

it should be mentioned here that AT ONE POINT during the discussions an email was sent from TLA saying chuck is allowed to come and wear his mask in the exhibition halls and smaller panels, just not at any of the big PAID PANELS i was once supposed to participate on. this was a confusing offer, but their explanation was that people who paid for something should have the option to not see chucks 'scary neurodivergence aid'. i tried to wrap my head around WHY they would make a distinction. maybe the exchange of money (rather than time) causes some kind of philosophical adjustment that i just cant grasp?

i wonder, would the author who wears a niqab ALSO be banned from the paid panels? i hope not

my answers trotted up short until i investigated deeper and found this quick moment from one of the TLA help videos. while some events DO require additional buckaroo cash, it actually appears that THE ENTIRE CONFERENCE IS TICKETED AND COSTS MONEY.

at this point i realized there is clearly no actual official policy about not covering your face (other than one from a few years ago saying that you HAVE to cover your face), and the addition of 'money' is a red herring. these excuses make no sense

PART FOUR: CLOSE THOSE GATES

it appears that my neurodivergence is 'scary' enough to get me uninvited, REGARDLESS what their disability and mask policies may say

BUT WHY? why is chucks preferred physical presentation valued SO little by the TLA that a THEORETICAL complaint is worth more? is my neurodivergent expression so awful? is my own safety as a queer activist such an afterthought?

is a pink bag with the words 'love is real' scrawled across the front REALLY going to frighten someone when the posters and pamphlets on the way into in panel would have a photo of my masked face saying THIS IS LITERALLY WHO IS ABOUT TO APPEAR BEFORE YOU.

if THAT accommodation is too much, would it really be so difficult to have someone trot out beforehand and make an announcement? to say 'there is someone on this upcoming panel who needs a mask to express this part of himself, if this makes you uncomfortable then this panel might not be for you'.

and really, i have to heckin ask, is this physical expression of my raw inner truth really so hideous and frightening that fear of making someone uncomfortable is a REAL problem?

(a terrifying display of autism. apparently)

i cannot imagine what kind of precautions they need to take before a stage play featuring costumes and masks.

you MIGHT think chucks queerness and left leaning politics could be the issue with this organization, but they have had drag queens as past speakers (also featuring some GLORIOUS makeup and hair that covers almost all of their faces. VERY CURIOUS). regardless, the TLA do not seem like a conservative bunch.

if you are bisexual or an autistic person who is good at 'passing' you probably already know where this is headed, your dang spiderbuckaroo senses are tingling at FULL ALERT. i will say i do not KNOW the real reason why i was uninvited, and i do not have enough information to make any concrete statement of the real answer. there is only evidence that masks have been fine at TEXAS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION events in the past, but not much else to go on.

so the FACTS part of our discussion ends there, but i think it opens us up to talk about some very important feelings that bisexual and autistic buckaroos know well.

THIS is where we take a unfortunate, hurtful moment and turn it into a discussion. this is where we prove love is real.

as someone who is constantly doubted and put through purity tests because of my unique way, we are pushing up against a subject i know well. thats right buckaroos: we are talking GATEKEEPING

AGAIN, i do not know if this is the answer, but someone in my position might be VERY STRONGLY INCLINED TO THINK that a few well-meaning left leaning buckaroos think i am a joke and that this is a character, and that there is something problematic about my work because i am not really a real person.

any upstanding left leaning organization would OF COURSE allow a mask for a neurodivergent buckaroo with an unusual visual presentation, an autistic buckaroo who conquered his chronic pain ONLY by creating this important space... but what about a FAKE autistic buckaroo?

any upstanding left leaning organization would OF COURSE allow a mask for a queer LGBTQ activist standing up for gay and trans rights against a torrent of scoundrels hunting for his legal identity. its a matter of safety... but what about a FAKE queer activist?

let me be very clear for the 100th time: i am a real person. this is not a joke. i am not playing a character. i am really autistic and bisexual. tinglers are sincere and they are not ‘so bad theyre good’. they are just good. camp damascus is not ‘my first serious book’ because my queer erotica is serious. my art is important and real.

when people tell me to unmask they often do not know WHY they want it, and of course one very good reason is innocent curiosity. but there are SOME cases where i start to get THAT feeling--that tingle all of us ‘passing’ buckaroos get when we can sense the real intent behind the poking and prodding. that is the feeling of stumbling into a gatekeepers crosshairs.

if i was to take off my pink bag, what about my face would you analyze to tell if i was REALLY queer. my eye color? my ear shape? if you learned my legal name, would you see if it sounded autistic? is my voice neurodivergent enough?

or is all of that utterly absurd? i am curious what the TEXAS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION thinks.

PART FIVE: GENDERED

this will be the shortest of parts, but it has to be said. i have a very complex relationship with gender, as written about at length here and here. i understand these things can be difficult to parse for some, but i ask that you trust me when i say that the ONLY reason i have been able to talk about my gender and sexuality and learn these things about myself is because of this pink bag. this outward appearance is a direct expression and reflection of my gender journey.

if the texas library association does not care about my appearance as an expression of my autism, then i cant imagine them giving a dang about it as an expression of my gender and queerness. that being said, it is personally very important to me and i think it should be mentioned

PART SIX: SO YOU WANT TO REMOVE AN AUTISTIC QUEER AUTHOR FROM YOUR EVENT BECAUSE PEOPLE MIGHT FIND THEIR DIFFERENCES SCARY

there is a question to be asked here: how could the TLA have done this correctly?

i have one very big piece of advice i would like to shout from the rooftops. please, for the love of sweet barbara, DO ENOUGH RESEARCH to know if this appearance will be a problem and, IF SO, dont extend an invitation in the first place. unique buckaroos with different presentations are constantly left in this place of limbo because we are bombarded with careless actions like those of the TLA. before you consider extending a branch to an artist who might need more accommodations than usual, think to yourself 'CAN WE MAKE THESE ACCOMMODATIONS?'

putting all of this on the shoulders of a single 'buckaroo with a difference' is exhausting. as the TLA has shown, we currently live on a timeline where a buckaroo like myself never really knows if an invite is SOLID without doing a deep dive history lesson on how often a group discriminates and against who.

i did not want to spend my whole family holiday worrying whether or not i should say something publicly or just lie down and shut my dang mouth. i had to consider HOW i should say it. i had to worry whether or not its worth standing up for myself in the face of the largest state library association in the country. i think buckaroos with differences are with me when i say: WE ARE SICK OF HAVING TO DO THIS WORK TO COVER FOR THE POOR BEHAVIOR OF LARGE ORGANIZATIONS WHO TREAT US BADLY

another option would just be to use kindness and common sense and happily accommodate artists with unique presentations to your conventions

PART SEVEN: LOVE IS STILL REAL

i would like to close by saying THANK YOU to my publisher nightfire and editor kelly for standing up for me. they immediately stood firm and had my back. they are the real dang deal. THANK YOU to my management and agent buds dongwon and gino for trotting along beside me. THANK YOU to the folks at the texas library association who initially invited chuck with goodness in their heart and then likely got bowled over by someone else, and maybe even got knocked to the side by a big closing gate.

i hope there are librarians in texas who are still interested in carrying BURY YOUR GAYS when it comes out (which is ironically about someone who creates a space through art to express their queerness where they cant otherwise). libraries prove love is real and what they do IS SO IMPORTANT. it was SO IMPORTANT TO ME as a young buckaroo and i cannot thank you enough. i am not sure if me writing all of this will hurt my sales in some way, but this opportunity to speak about the reality of disability awareness and queer gatekeeping is too important to stay silent. (if you have not already preordered BURY YOUR GAYS then give it a preorder to make up for some texas library losses i guess.)

which leads me to my final thank you. THANK YOU to the buckaroos reading this. yes YOU. i am in the position to stand up and speak my mind against scoundrel forces ONLY because i have the might of you buckaroos by my side. the buckaroo trot is ALL OF OUR TROT and we are ALL HERE TO PROVE LOVE. i cannot tell you how much i appreciate the way you have created a space for me to express these important parts of myself. you have seen this pink mask over my face and saying YES, I ACCEPT YOU, you have literally saved my life. for that i am so thankful.

if you are UPSET by what youve read here, then turn it into something positive. you can support autistic creators, or make a donation to the AUTISTIC SELF ADVOCACY NETWORK

and besides WHO IS REALLY MISSING OUT? this is what it looks like when you invite the worlds greatest author chuck tingle to your event and treat their identity as valid. WE HAVE A DANG GOOD TIME

youtube

KEEP TROTTING INTO THE FUTURE. KEEP KICKING DOWN GATES WHEREVER THEY MAY BE. KEEP PROVING LOVE IS REAL AND PROVING IT TOGETHER. lets go buckaroos - chuck

UPDATE AN HOUR AFTER POSTING:

true buckaroo TJ KLUNE was set to be another author on panel chuck was removed from and has informed me he has now chosen to decline his invitation in support and solidarity with chuck. i am so deeply moved by this. thank you from bottom of heart buckaroo

to be very clear TJ has a huge platform and DOES NOT NEED TO DO THIS. these conferences are great for book sales and he is taking a hit out of pure solidarity. this is queer buckaroos standing up for eachother. i am floored by this kindness and love

please consider checking out his books if they are not already covering your dang bookshelf. chuck blurbed IN THE LIVES OF PUPPETS and i was blown away i heckin loved it

MOST RECENT UPDATE:

here is more

#love is real #chuck tingle #tingleverse #texas library association #actually autistic #lgtbqia #Youtube

10K notes · View notes