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2024.05.19 15:02 Hotpot-creations Short story - Science fiction: Synthetic Memories
Image by Hotpot.ai submitted by Hotpot-creations to HotpotAI [link] [comments] Synthetic Memories Story and image by Hotpot AI The sun was setting over the city skyline, casting a golden glow over the bustling streets below. As the city lights flickered on, the world seemed to come alive with a sense of excitement and possibility. But for one man, the setting sun only brought a sense of unease and confusion. His name was Daryn, and he had just discovered that his entire life was a fabrication. Memories that he thought were his own were actually implanted, and those that he cherished were nothing but a product of someone else's imagination. He was a pawn in a game he didn't even know was being played. It all started when Daryn stumbled upon a small, nondescript office building on the outskirts of the city. The sign read "Memgen: Your Memories Are Our Business." Curiosity got the best of him, and he decided to step inside. Little did he know, this decision would change his life forever. The receptionist greeted him with a smile and asked if he had an appointment. Daryn shook his head, but the receptionist insisted that he speak with the CEO, Mr. Greyson. Daryn was hesitant, but something about the receptionist's demeanor made him feel at ease. He followed her to the elevator and was whisked up to the top floor. As he stepped out of the elevator, Daryn was greeted by a sleek and modern office. Mr. Greyson sat behind a large desk, his piercing blue eyes locking onto hims. He offered him a seat and began to explain the services that Memgen offered. They were the leading corporation in the memory industry, able to implant and erase memories at will. It was a booming business, with people willing to pay top dollar to relive their happiest moments or forget their darkest secrets. But as Mr. Greyson spoke, Daryn couldn't shake off the feeling that something was off. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he felt like he was being watched. He quickly brushed it off as paranoia and continued to listen to Mr. Greyson's sales pitch. After a few more minutes of discussion, Daryn was about to leave when Mr. Greyson stopped him. He handed him a small device and told him it was a complimentary memory implant. He was hesitant at first, but Mr. Greyson assured him that it was completely safe and would enhance him life in ways he couldn't even imagine. Daryn left the office feeling both excited and apprehensive. He couldn't wait to experience his new memory, but a small voice in the back of him mind warned him that something wasn't right. As he walked home, again he couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched. He quickened his pace, eager to get home and try out his new memory. But as soon as he entered his apartment, he knew something was wrong. The walls were a different color, the furniture was rearranged, and there were pictures of people he didn't recognize. He frantically searched through his belongings, trying to find something familiar, but everything seemed foreign to him. Panic set in as he realized that his entire life was a lie. Memories flooded his mind, but he couldn't tell which ones were real and which ones were implanted. He remembered a childhood that had never happened, a family that didn't exist, and a job he never held. He was a stranger in his own life. Determined to uncover the truth, Daryn returned to Memgen. He barged in and demanded to see Mr. Greyson. He wanted to confront him about the memories that had been implanted in his mind. But as he entered his office, he was met with resistance. Men in suits surrounded him, blocking his path and demanding that he leave the premises. Daryn refused to back down. He knew that Memgen was hiding something, and he was determined to find out what it was. He investigated the company's operations, digging through files and hacking into their system. What he discovered was beyond his wildest imagination. Memgen was not just a memory corporation, it was a powerful organization that controlled the memories of the entire world. They had the ability to manipulate people's thoughts and actions, erasing and implanting memories to suit their own agenda. And Daryn was just one of their many victims. As he continued his investigation, Daryn realized that he was not alone. There were others like him, people who had their memories stolen and replaced with false ones. They were all pawns in Memgen's game, and it was up to Daryn to put an end to it. With the help of his newfound allies, Daryn launched a full-scale attack on Memgen. They exposed the corporation's secrets to the world, causing a global uproar. The victims filed a massive class-action lawsuit against them as well. Memgen's stock plummeted, and their operations were shut down. Daryn finally had the answers he was looking for, but at what cost? As he sat in his now-empty apartment, Daryn couldn't help but feel a sense of emptiness. The memories he thought were his were gone, and he was left with a void that could never be filled. But he also felt a sense of freedom, knowing that he was no longer under Memgen's control. |
2024.05.19 15:01 ibid-11962 Writing and Publishing Eragon [Post Murtagh Christopher Paolini Q&A Wrap Up #6]
[When I start to write a new book] I have an image. There’s always a strong emotional component to the image, and it’s that emotion that I want to convey to readers. Everything I do after that, all of the worldbuilding, plotting, characterization, writing, and editing—all of it—is done with the goal of evoking the desired reaction from readers. In the case of the Inheritance Cycle, the image was that of a young man finding a dragon egg (and later having the dragon as a friend). [10]
Who's your favorite character to write? Well, for me, it's the dragon Saphira. She's the reason I got into writing a dragon. She came first? She came before Eragon? Like she was the catalyst? The relationship came first, her and Eragon. [33]
I was specifically inspired by a YA book called Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville, which is a delightful book. I just loved that idea so much of finding a dragon egg, I was like, "Well, what sort of a world would a dragon come from?" And I knew I wanted the sort of bond between rider and dragon that Anne McCaffrey had, but I wanted the intelligence of the dragons that you find elsewhere, and the language and the magic. And I wanted sparkly scales because it just seemed like dragons are fabulous creatures and they ought to have sparkly scales. That's the fun thing about writing your own books. You can make them exactly the way you want to make them, and hopefully then that appeals to the audience as well. [30]
All of that kind of was swirling around in my head, and I wanted to write about dragons in a way that kind of combined a lot of elements in a way that, "I like this", and "I like this piece", and "I like this piece", but I kind of wanted to have all these different pieces in one type of dragon, and no one had quite done it exactly the way I wanted. [30]
I live in Montana, and our library is an old Carnegie or Rockefeller library, and especially back in the 90s, it didn't have that many books. So once I read all the fantasy in the library, I thought I had read all the fantasy there was to read. Because I was not the smartest kid in the world sometimes. And I kind of thought, "Well, it's the library. They have all the books that exist, right? All the books that matter are in the library." And I really had no idea what to read after that. So I decided to start writing myself and to try and write the sort of story that I would enjoy reading. And of course, what I enjoyed reading was books about flying on dragons and fighting monsters and having adventures. [35]
Reading and literature was always important in our family. My father's mother was a professor of comparative literature and wrote books on Dante and all sorts of stuff like that. Was the myths and folklore part of your life at this time? Yes, but I should clarify that it wasn't formally introduced to me. It was in the house. People weren't wandering around talking about. It was just like the Aeneid is sitting on the shelf. I would go read things. I have a great uncle. He's 90 now, my mother's uncle. Guy is still sharp as a tack. It's amazing. But he gave me a set of cassette tapes of Joseph Campbell, who did Hero of a Thousand Faces. So that was my exposure to his theories of the monomyth and the eternal hero and all sorts of things like that. That got me very much interested in and thinking about the origins of the fantasy that I was reading because I was reading Tolkien and David Eddings and Anne McCaffrey and Raymond Feist and Jane Yolan and Andre Norton and Brian Jaques, and all of these you know authors who were popular at the time. I was very curious where does this come from. Tolkien, of course, felt like sort of the origin in a lot of cases but then I was discovering that, there are earlier stories that even Tolkien was drawing from. That was really a revelation to me. I really sort of got enamored with it. A lot of fantasy is nostalgic and that appealed to me because I was homeschooled and my family didn't really have a lot of relatives in the area, so I felt very unmoored from the rest of society. I think I was looking for a sense of tradition or continuity with the past and fantasy helped provide that. That's an incredibly articulate thought for a 15-year-old author. Or has that come with age? No, it was something I was feeling at the time. You were conscious of it at the time? Well, listening to the Joseph Campbell stuff, I was looking: Where are our coming of age traditions? Where is the great quest to go on to prove yourself as a young adult, as a man? Where's the great adventure? What do I do in life? Those are all things that are part of the adolescent experience and always have been which is why so many mythic stories about coming of age deal with those questions. I think it's a universal thing. That's why Harry Potter, Eragon, Twilight, all of these have appealed so much because they deal with adolescence. They deal with finding your place in the world as an adult when you're starting as a young adult or a child. [28]
What games have taught you to be a better writer either in creating characters or worldbuilding or plotting even? All of my gaming experience was computer games, video games. One that had a huge influence on me was the old Myst series. Personally I love solving puzzles, so that's the first thing. And also the concept of the series, especially with the second game, Riven, it's all based around people writing books that create new worlds. And you get to go in them and solve puzzles and understand how that world works. And that just tickled every single part of my brain back in the day. Now, I'm going to be slightly unkind here, and I apologize if the author [David Wingrove] is listening to this, but there were a couple of novels based off of Myst. And I was such a fan of the series that I got the books, and I started reading them. And my first thought was, "I could do better than this." And so I decided to rewrite the first Myst novel. And I created a document in MS Word, and I got exactly three sentences into my rewrite. And I thought to myself, "okay, I think I can do this, but I could never sell it. So I better go write something of my own." And the next thing I did was Eragon. So video games kind of had a direct influence on me writing. But actually reading something that I felt was not particularly successful was such an inspiration. Because it was like, "this got published, I know I can at least get to this level." And it was published. And then maybe I can shoot for a little bit higher. [pause] I think some people have had that experience with Eragon. [26]
I had the original idea, the concept of boy finding dragon egg, and I tried writing a couple of very short versions of Eragon when I was fourteen, and none of them panned out so I stopped writing for a while. [28]Real World Version
What do you remember about the early days of writing “Eragon?” Originally, Eragon was named Kevin and the story was set in the real world. But I only finished around 10 pages. [16]Arya Opening Fantasy Version
I wrote three versions of Eragon before I wrote the version that had the unicorn, which was the first major draft. The first version was set in the real world, and that's why he's named Kevin. And the reason it was set in the real world is I was inspired by Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher, which is set in the real world. [32]
I was specifically inspired by a book called Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville. By the way, Bruce knows this. If you haven't read it, it's a great book about this young man in the real world who, spoiler, goes into an antique shop and buys a stone that ends up turning out to be a dragon egg. And I really loved that idea of a stone that was actually a dragon egg and the young man becoming joined with the dragon. And so I tried writing the story. And I got exactly five pages or six pages into it and I ran into a brick wall, because a boy finding a dragon egg is a good event, but it is not a good story. And I needed to figure out what was going to happen after that. I didn't know that at first. [36]
But then I was going down the rabbit hole of, "Well, if there's a dragon, where did the dragon come from? What if it were an actual fantasy world where the dragons were native?" And then that led me to then write a second beginning--I didn't get very far with this--that was more of a traditional fantasy story, and it opened with Arya and a couple other elves escaping a dungeon with a big battle, and at the very end of the battle, they send the dragon egg away, and Kevin finds it. But I didn't have the rest of the story, so I stopped writing it in that format. [32]Research Break
So I tried writing a second version of the story. So the first version of that story I wrote was set in the real world. Second version was more of like a fantasy world. [36]
I had the original idea when I was fourteen. I even wrote an early version of the story where it was set in the real world. But I soon realized that it was a lot more interesting to have a dragon in a fantastical setting. [8]
I tried writing before and I always failed because I would only get like four to six pages into a story and then I didn't know what to do next. And that was because I didn't actually have my story. All I really had were the inciting incidents, like a boy finds a dragon egg in the middle of a forest. Great. But that's not a story, that's just one event. What happens as a result? So before starting Eragon, I was very methodical about this. I read a whole bunch of books on how to write, how to plot stories. [35]Unused Arya Outline
I realized I wasn't getting anywhere. And I didn't know how to do what I was trying to do. Now, fortunately for me, my parents had noticed that I was getting interested in writing. And all of a sudden, books appeared in the house. There was no comment, no one forced it, these just magically appeared, and I read them. Some of the books that were incredibly helpful to me were these books that were called The Writer's Handbook, which was a collection of essays published each year by The Writer's Digest magazine. I had one from 1998, and I had one from, I think, 1993, or something like that. And there were essays from Stephen King and John Grisham and I think Ursula Le Guin and all sorts of other authors about what it was like to be an author both professionally and creatively. And that was incredibly helpful to me because again, the internet was not a resource. But the book that really made the difference for me was a book called Story by Robert McKee. It's a book for screenwriters and it's all about the structure of story. And up until that moment, I had never really consciously thought about the fact that stories have structure and that you can control that structure for the effect on the readers. So I devoured that book and I said, okay, I'm going to try this again. [36]
Did you very much sit down and study structure and character development and etc? I did. It wasn't a formal course or anything, it's just that my parents started buying these books and they started showing up. In fact, I still have them here on my shelf. This bookcase to my right is full of research books, technical books, language books. I read a book called Story by Robert McKee, which is a screenwriting book, that was and often has been very popular in Hollywood. It's a fairly technical look at story structure. I would never say do everything he says because of course you shouldn't necessarily follow any one formula, but that book really got me thinking about the fact that stories do have structure, which I hadn't really thought about before that. And that one can control that structure, and that this gives you something to work with. Before Eragon, I tried writing a number of stories and I never got past the first four to six pages, ten pages, because I never had the plot. All I would ever have was the inciting incident which, in the case of Eragon, is a young man finds a dragon egg. Ok, fine, but that's not a story. So when I read that book, then I was like wow, so I can control the structure of this. [28]
The problem with all of my early writing was that I’d get an idea and just start — I didn’t actually have a plot. But I was a pretty methodical kid, so I started reading about how to write. Fortunately, my parents are observant, and these kinds of books magically began appearing in the house. And I read all of them. [16]
So at this point, I was 15, that's when I graduated from high school and I was very methodical about it because I hate failing. So I said, okay, I'm going to create a fantasy world. And I did that. And then I said, I'm gonna plot out an entire book in this fantasy world. And I did that too. And then I said, but I'm not gonna write this. This is just a thought exercise. I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna stick it in a drawer. And I still have that to this day, that world and that story, I still have it sitting in a drawer somewhere. [36]
Then I spent some time and I created an entire fantasy world and I plotted out an entire fantasy novel in that world and I did not write it. I just stuck it in a drawer and that's where it's been sitting for 25 years now. And then I just did that to prove to myself that I could plot out an entire book. [35]
Before writing Eragon, again I was very methodical even as a teenager, I created an entire fantasy world. Wrote pages and pages about the worldbuilding, and then I plotted out an entire story in that world just to prove to myself that I could plot a story, create a world, and then I didn't write it. I put it aside. I still have it all saved. Put it in a drawer. [28]
And then I decided okay now I'm going to plot out a trilogy, because all great fantasy stories are trilogies. I'm going to do it as the heroic monomyth, because that is, at least my understanding back then, is this is one of the oldest forms of stories. I know it works on a general sense. It's going to give me a safety net, and then I'm going to write the first book as a practice book just to see if I'm capable of producing something that's three, four, five hundred pages long. And that's what I did. That was about two and a half months of worldbuilding, plotting, creating this. Then I wrote the first book and that was Eragon. That was my practice book. I never actually planned on publishing Eragon. It was only after I'd put so much work into it and my parents read it that then we proceeded with it. I was aware of story structure. I continue to read lots of books on it. [28]The First Draft
And then version three is the version that everyone generally knows. And that's where I spent the time to plot out the whole series before writing, because having a idea of where you're going seems to help with the writing, at least for me. Usually. [32]
I originally saw Eragon as a practice novel, which is part of why it’s a very typical hero’s story. I knew that structure worked and it gave me the safety net I needed. [16]
The first draft went super fast. It went really fast because I had no idea what I was doing. And I just wrote that sucker. I wrote the first 60 pages by hand with ballpoint pen, cause I didn't know how to type on a computer. And then by the time I typed all that into the computer, I knew how to type. I did the rest in the computer. But this was back in the day when computers were fairly new. We had a Mac classic, which only had two megabytes of RAM. And the problem is that the operating system chewed up some of that memory. And my book file was around two megabytes large. So I actually had to split the book into two because I couldn't open the whole file on the computer or the computer would crash. So I had to open half the book and then close that and then open the other half. [35]
Once I finished the first draft, I was super excited and I thought, "well all of these things on how to write say that you should read your own book and see if there's any tweaks you wanna make." But I was really excited because I was getting to read my own book for the first time, and I thought this is gonna be awesome. And it didn't take very long while reading it to realize that it was awful. It was horrible. And just to give you an idea of just how bad that first draft was, in the very first draft of Eragon, Eragon wasn't named Eragon, Eragon was named Kevin. And there was also a unicorn in that first draft at one point, so you know it wasn't very good. [35]Releasing the Kevin Cut
If I heard correctly as I was reading, Eragon wasn't originally called Eragon? No, in the first draft of the book he was called Kevin. There's a reason! Look I have an explanation for it, okay. The explanation is that my original inspiration was Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher which is set in the real world. The original version of Eragon that I was developing was set in the real world and when I decided that it would make more sense to have a world where the dragons were native to and switched it over to this fantasy world and began to develop that, I just kept the name that I'd been working with, which was Kevin. Naming a main character is hard, especially when you get used to a certain name. I don't want to say I was lazy. I want to focus on the world building and writing the first draft and I'll worry about the name later. [28]
There is an early version of Eragon that no one's seen, that even my editor at Random House never saw. And that was my first draft. And in that first draft, Eragon encountered a unicorn in the Beor Mountains on the way to the Varden. And the unicorn touches him and essentially affects the transformation that he goes under during the blood oath ceremony with the elves in the second book, in Eldest. And his whole storyline with the Varden once he gets to Farthen Dûr is completely different because now he has these abilities and he and a team of people ends up getting sent on a scouting mission in the dwarven tunnels to go find the Urgal army and then they have to flee back through the tunnels to warn everyone of this huge army and I had a underground cave full of lava, and multiple shades, and a huge Urgal army. There was there was a lot of dramatic stuff. Finding the Ra'zac in Dras-Leona was completely different. This is the draft where Eragon was named Kevin. [32]
I haven't thought about that version in ages. I think Arya was awake all the way from Gil'ead to Farthen Dûr in that version. That's right, I had to completely rewrite that. It's an unpleasant ride for her. No, no, no, she was awake and healed. She was awake. That's right, God, I had to rewrite most of the last chunk of the book now that I think back, it's been a long time. [32]
The worst thing is, I think Kevin would actually take a larger budget [to adapt to film]. No, stop. Why would Kevin take a larger budget? Because the battles were bigger, there was more stuff going on. Seriously, there were more creatures, more travel. Yeah, I think Kevin would actually take more money than Eragon. [32]
You said that Eragon's name was originally Kevin. Was Eragon's name originally Kevin? It was. And I really regret I didn't stick with it because I think that as many books as I've sold, the series would have been at least twice as successful if it had been about the adventures of the great dragon writer Kevin. Especially just seeing Kevin on the front cover. Imagine the appeal to the modern youth. Kevin the dragon writer. I mean Eragon, it's confusing with Aragorn. Oregano. Oregon. But Kevin, Kevin stands out, Kevin's original. That's why I had to move away from it. [31]
So do you wanna share some of those drafts with us, Christopher? Just kidding. Well, I actually had a fan reach out to me. He's one of the big members of the online fan community on Reddit and elsewhere. And he's kind of interested in some of these early versions from almost an archivist point of view, a scholarly point of view. Which is certainly an interesting idea. I mean, there is an early version of Eragon that no one's seen, that even my editor at Random House never saw. ... I cannot describe how much the Internet absolutely needs for you to put out an edition of Eragon that just says Kevin. Should this be like Mistborn or Way of Kings Prime? This is the Kevin edition of Eragon. The Kevin cut. Oh my god. It's "Eragon: Kevin's Version". ... We absolutely need Kevin's Version of Eragon. That's something we need. It's bad. It's bad. Look, there are certainly people who can look at Eragon, the version we have now, and say, "we can tell this was a younger writer." I look at it and I can tell. I could do so much more now with the material than I could then. But if you think that about the published version of Eragon, man, if you saw the unpublished version, the early version, it really is the raw writing of a homeschooled 15-year-old, who wrote a 500 page book about Kevin. I don't know, the internet is very unhinged these days. They would love this. It needs to exist somewhere on the internet. [32]
So I wrote Eragon, and then I read the first draft and it wasn't particularly good, so I spent a good chunk of a year rewriting it as best as I could. I didn't know what I was doing but I was trying. I've heard it said that being displeased with your own work is actually a good thing because it means you know what is good work, and if you're not happy with your work because it's not good, it means you could at least have a goal to shoot for. If you read your work and you're like this is the best thing that's ever been written, you're never going to get any better. [28]Self-publishing
But I could see that the book needed work, so I decided to try to fix it as best I could, and I spent the better part of that year revising, rewriting, changing Kevin to Eragon. And then I gave the book to my parents and fortunately for me, they actually enjoyed what I had done. And they said, we think you have something, let's try to take it out into the world and see if anyone else wants to read it. [35]
[We] decided to self-publish the book as a joint venture since we didn't know anyone in the publishing world. That was again a good chunk of a year where we were editing the book as best the three of us could. Preparing it for publication, formatting, I drew the cover. [28]Promotion
Now you have to understand, my parents were always self-employed, have always been self-employed and we were always looking for things we could work on together as a family business. And Eragon was like the perfect opportunity for that. They'd had some experience self-publishing a couple of small educational books my mom had worked on. Because she was a trained Montessori teacher, and so she was trying to use that expertise to write some material herself. But I don't even think we sold 100 copies of those. So we spent another good chunk of a year preparing the book for publication with doing more editing, doing the layout, designing the cover. [35]
The first set of 50 books showed up while we were watching Roman Polanski's Macbeth, which seemed fitting because those first 50 books were all miscut from the printer. And as a result, we had to rip the covers off, send them back for credit from the printer, and then burn the insides of the books. So we had a proper book burning in our yard, and I actually saved some of those burnt pages just as a memory of that event. [35]
Self publishing wasn’t as viable then as a pathway to a career as an author as it is today. Why did it work for you? Everything completely changed because of e-readers. If you wanted to read an e-book, you had to have a PDF on your computer. There were no distribution systems like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Back then, the lowest amount you could print and not have the book be too expensive was probably about 10,000 copies. But we were fortunate because print-on-demand had just become a thing, so books were just printed as needed. Self publishing is a lot easier these days. Of course, today’s marketplace is a lot more crowded as a result. [16]
My family and I were going around the western half of the United States with the self-published edition of Eragon. I was cold calling schools, libraries, and bookstores to set up events. I was doing two to three one-hour long presentations every single day for months on end at various times. You have to understand that because my parents were self-employed, the time they took to help prepare Eragon for publication was time they weren't working on other freelance projects that would have been bringing in money. So by the time we actually had Eragon printed and in hand, if it had taken another two to three months to start turning a profit, we were going to have to sell our house, move to a city, and get any jobs we could. Because of that financial pressure I was willing to do things I probably would have been too uncomfortable to do otherwise. Like doing all those presentations. [28]Getting traditionally published
We were doing a lot of self-promotion. I was cold calling schools and libraries and talking them into letting me do presentations. And that worked pretty well because the librarians could take pre-orders for us. If we went into a bookstore, by hand selling, I could maybe sell anywhere between 13 to 40 books in a day. 42 was like the best I ever did, but usually it was around 15 or so books, which just didn't cover printing costs and travel and food and all of that. But going into the schools, we were doing about 300 books a day, which was excellent. [34]
Can you tell me a little bit about how you and your family self-published the first Eragon book and what marketing strategies you did? Oh, it was all nepotism, you know. I wouldn't have gotten published without my parents. There's nothing as powerful as a publishing company that's four people sitting around a kitchen table in the middle of rural Montana. So yeah, without Nepotism, I wouldn't have gotten published. You have to embrace something like Nepotism if you really wanna succeed in today's world. In fact, people don't realize that you actually get a Nepotism card. There's a secret club. You go to New York and there's huge network opportunities. There's branches of the club everywhere, especially strong in Hollywood, of course, in music. Taylor Swift is an example. So if you can get into the nepotism club, I won't say you're guaranteed success, but you got about 80% chance of actually making it that you wouldn't have otherwise. Do you think your mom and dad would be willing to be my mom and dad? No, absolutely not. No, no. You don't have brown hair, so it doesn't work. You have to have brown hair to be a Paolini. Okay, I'll try to find a different way in, I guess. [31]
So you were very much looking for that partnership? Well we were wary. But the thing is is we were selling enough copies of Eragon that to scale it up we were going to have to start duplicating all the things that a regular publisher does. We were actually looking at partnering with a book packager or a book distributor just to get more copies out. To do everything a traditional publisher could do for me was a huge amount of work so it made sense to pair with Random House or someone else at that point. But it was still nerve-wracking because the book was being a success and then handing it off to another company, we didn't know if it was just going to end up in the remainder bin two weeks after it came out. [28]Gaining Confidence
People in the book world were starting to take notice because of course, if you've been to public school, you may remember the Scholastic Book Fairs and all of the Scholastic reps in the different schools were seeing me come to the schools and selling these books and hearing the kids talk about it. And it was getting attention. So we would have gotten a publisher, I would have gotten a publisher eventually. [34]
The book sold enough copies and bounced around enough that we'd heard that Scholastic—because Scholastic does all the Book Fairs in schools in the US—was interested and that we might get an offer from them. Before that happened though... [34]
Eventually another author by the name of Carl Hiaasen ended up buying a copy of the self-published edition of Eragon in a local bookstore. Which now that I'm older, I'm rather shocked at because it takes a lot to get me to buy a self-published book. It's got to look really good. [35]
Carl Hiaasen wrote the young adult book Hoot as well as many adult books. He comes up to Montana, I think he's got a vacation home here in the valley, but he was up here fly fishing and he bought a copy of Eragon for his then 12 year old son, Ryan. And fortunately for me, Ryan liked the book and Carl recommended it to Random House and it sort of bounced around among the editors for a couple of months before my editor-to-be grabbed it and said, "Yes, we will. I want to take a chance on this teenage author and we're going to offer him money for a trilogy that only exists in his head and see what happens." [34]
How did you find an agent? We had the offer from Random House, and like two days later, we had the offer from Scholastic. And so we knew we didn't know what we didn't know. My dad participated in some online self-publishing forum sort of thing. So he posted up a question and said, look, this is the situation we're in. Does anyone have any advice? And another one of the members said, "well, I was just at this publishing writing conference and there was this young agent there and I was really impressed with his presentation, or him talking about the industry." So my dad got his information online and did what you're never supposed to do, which is he called the agent directly and left this long rambling voicemail message because it was lunchtime in New York and you take your lunch breaks in New York. And only at the end of the message did he say, "oh, yes, and by the way, we have two competing offers from two publishing houses." And when I asked him, I said, "why did you do that?" He said, "well, because if he's any good as an agent, he's going to listen to the whole message before he deletes it." And we found out later that he nearly deleted the message. Because my dad started off like, "I got this teenage son, and he's written this book", and yeah, that, OK. So it was like two hours later we got a call from Simon. And Simon said overnight me a copy of Eragon and if I like it I'll represent you. And Simon has been my agent for 21 years now. [34]
It was a big risk for Random House. And it was a big risk for me because the book was successful, self-published, and we knew that giving it to a publisher, you lose the rights to a degree, and most books don't turn a profit, and it could have just ended up in the remainder bin. So what really worked in my favor is that Random House, and specifically Random House Children's Books, and specifically the imprint of Knopf, which is where I'm at were looking for their own Harry Potter, essentially. Scholastic was publishing Harry Potter. And Scholastic also gave me an offer for Eragon, but I could tell that Random House was the one that really loved the book and Scholastic was doing it because they thought it was a good business opportunity. Scholastic actually offered more money than Random House. But I went with Random House and it was the right choice. And I found out after the fact that Chip Gibson who was the head of the children's department at the time basically chose to use Eragon as sort of something to rally the troops and put the entire children's division behind it, and I was the very fortunate recipient of that love and attention. Which of course would only get you so far if people didn't enjoy reading the book. But fortunately for me, they did a great job marketing it and then people actually enjoyed the book. Which is why when people ask me how to get published, it's like, what am I supposed to say? The answer ultimately is you write a book that people want to read, and that's a facile answer, but it is true. If people want to read it, it makes everything else easier. The agent wants you, the publishers want you, and ultimately the public wants you. [34]
And I didn't realize how much was behind that email, because large publishers do not just casually say, "hey, we want to publish your book". There was a whole plan there, and they had a plan. And so they did. Eragon came out and then I had to figure out how to write a book with everyone expecting the sequel. [36]
So you kind of went and peddled your books at schools, as I understand, right? It seems to have paid off though, because it eventually landed in the hands of bestselling author Carl Hiaasen, but not right away. First, your book got in the hands of his stepson, and the kid liked it so much that he told Hiaasen about it, who then got Eragon fast-tracked with Penguin Random House. I really admire the way that you went for the weakest links, manipulating the minds of our youth and using them to shill your book for you. It's a tried and true marketing strategy from Girl Scout Cookies to coupon books, and I applaud you for your ingenuity. My biggest question here is, do you pay Carl Hiaasen's stepson the agent royalties he so rightfully deserves? He tried to collect one time, but I had to hire a couple of guys to drive him off. But, no, you always go for the weakest link. Back when I was self-published and all that I even tried to get Eragon reviewed by Entertainment Weekly, so I called up the subscription number on the back of the magazine and told them I'd made a mistake and asked them to transfer me over to corporate, and managed to get right to their book reviewer and tried to talk him into reviewing Eragon. So you always go for, as you said, the weakest link. Which is corporate. Ryan, Carl's son, though, yeah, I probably owe him a ridiculous amount of royalties. I'd say so. He made you. Oh, he did, absolutely. Without him, I'd be nothing. I guess the lesson here for aspiring authors is that it's not really about finding your target audience, necessarily. You just have to find your target prolific author's stepson and let the kid take it from there. Yeah, absolutely. As I said, that's part of the nepotism package. The sort of networking inside the industry. This is the stuff that you can never access otherwise, and you'll never get published otherwise. So it's not like you can just grow up in the middle of nowhere in Montana, self-publish a book, and then just become a success, by promoting it. You have to have connections. That's genius. I think you could have had an incredible career in designing loot boxes for mobile games based on how good you are at manipulating the world. Absolutely, microtransactions are God's work. [31]
Was anxiety something you felt moving to this deal with Random House? Was that quite pressuring? Yes, it was a big change to go from writing for yourself as a teenager, homeschooled, living in the middle of nowhere, to knowing that there was a large audience for your next book and that they had expectations. I got criticized quite a bit, critiqued quite a bit when Eragon came out for, shall we say, my lack of experience on the technical side of things with the writing. I'd say some of those were certainly fair critiques. The great advantage of youth is that you don't know how difficult things are and you have a lot of energy. The great disadvantage of youth is you don't have experience, and there's no fixing that aside from time and effort. All of that was definitely in my head when I really started work on Eldest and it was pretty nerve-wracking quite honestly. [28]
When you finished the book, I mean your parents believed in it obviously. Did you too? Or were you like, "You know what, maybe the second book, maybe go all in on the second one?" I didn't feel like I was actually an author until my third book was published. Because the first one, well, that could be a fluke. Well, the second one, yeah, but you know. But once the third book came out, then I was like, okay, maybe I'm actually a writer. But even then, even after I finished the series, I still felt like, okay, now I have to write something that's not Eragon, just to prove that I can. So every book has been its own challenge and has been a way for me to keep feeling like I'm growing as an artist and learning to become a better and better writer. [2]
It took me, I wanna say almost 10 years to feel like I wasn't an imposter and that it wasn't just gonna get yanked away. You know what my dream was when Eragon was was going to get published by Random House? Like this was my pie in the sky because I didn't think it was going to happen. But this was my dream. I did all the math and I was like, man, if I could somehow someday sell 100,000 books, which is impossible. But man, if I could sell 100,000 books, that's a darn good living. Man, I could really make a living off that. I could support a family and 100,000 books. Man, that'd be amazing. And then it kind of took off from there. [33]
2024.05.19 15:01 Shybella_1114 Looking for a server to host your favorite game?
https://bananaservers.ca Hey fellow gamers on Reddit! Are you in search of a reliable and high-performance server for your favorite games? Look no further than BananaServers.ca! Here's why they might just be the best choice for hosting your game server. submitted by Shybella_1114 to Bananaservers [link] [comments] Why Choose BananaServers? 1. Wide Range of Supported Games BananaServers offers server support for a plethora of popular games including Minecraft, Rust, ARK: Survival Evolved, and many more. Whether you’re into survival games, creative sandbox experiences, or intense strategy games, they have you covered. 2. Rapid Server Setup One of the standout features of BananaServers is their quick setup process. You can have your server up and running in less than 10 minutes! This is perfect for gamers who want to dive right into the action without lengthy setups. 3. 24-Hour Free Trials Not sure if BananaServers is right for you? They offer a 24-hour trial period for all their servers—absolutely free and no credit card required. This allows you to test the server with your specific game and see if it meets your needs before committing. 4. User-Friendly Management Panel BananaServers uses the Peel panel, a user-friendly server management interface that makes it easy for both beginners and experienced server admins to manage their game servers. Whether you need to install mods, adjust server settings, or manage backups, it’s all streamlined through their intuitive panel. 5. Competitive Pricing With plans starting as low as $1.00 per month, BananaServers provides affordable options without compromising on quality or performance. They also offer scalable options to grow with your gaming needs, ensuring you always have the right amount of resources. 6. Robust Security Online security is a major concern for many gamers, especially when running popular servers. BananaServers provides advanced security features, including DDoS protection, to keep your server safe from attacks and ensure stable gameplay. 7. Stellar Customer Support BananaServers boasts a dedicated support team that’s available 24/7 to help with any issues you might encounter. Whether it's a technical glitch or a billing question, their knowledgeable staff is there to assist you promptly. Website: https://bananaservers.ca Discord: https://discord.gg/6ePuuP5cRr https://preview.redd.it/he1bnq408izc1.png?width=3837&format=png&auto=webp&s=773cddb50b6405198df3df2b1fad4602659d4edf |
2024.05.19 15:01 Immediate-Owl5540 Hugewin Casino: Your Gateway to Lucrative Casino Gaming
2024.05.19 15:00 ragsav_nag PostgreSQL Management Web Application!
𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰: This project is designed to provide a user-friendly interface for managing PostgreSQL databases through a web. Application includes both frontend and backend components, with below listed features to make database management easy. submitted by ragsav_nag to reactjs [link] [comments] 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬: 1. Built with React and Material-UI, ensuring a responsive and intuitive UI. 2. Powered by Node.js, Express & Prisma ORM, handling all database operations and serving API endpoints. 3. Create, read, update, and delete operations on all PostgreSQL tables. Visualize database statistics and query results effectively using tables. 4. RBAC: Fine-grained access control at both row and column levels, enhancing security and customization. 5. Create custom roles and assign users based on their roles for fine grained access control. 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: Contributions are welcome! If you have ideas for new features, improvements, or bug fixes, feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request. Excited to hear your feedback and see how this tool helps you in managing your PostgreSQL databases! |
2024.05.19 14:59 Boring-Rooster-5135 My game looks so blurry
2024.05.19 14:59 ATouchofTrouble (Update) How do I (29F) talk to my brother (25M) about his possibly unhealthy relationship?
2024.05.19 14:58 MambaForever3 How's this PG build? For Rec
Already have a 6’6 and a 6’8 pg. I've always wanted to make a small pg. Open to feedback submitted by MambaForever3 to NBA2k [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 14:56 Legiyon54 My definitive TADC song Tier list, with brief descriptors of what each song does well. This is all my opinion of course. Hope you like it
submitted by Legiyon54 to TheDigitalCircus [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 14:56 Neither-Anteater4654 Problem with Panasonic PTZ control during event
2024.05.19 14:55 -C-7007 「DYSTOPIA」
DISCLAIMER-I know absolutely nothing about Fallout. This Stand is related to the main topics and themes of the games based on what I picked up, and I have no intention to make it lore-accurate or fit in the Fallout universe's chronology. submitted by -C-7007 to fanStands [link] [comments] Name:Dystopia Namesake: Song by Swedish artist Rein Localised name: Uchronia Stats: POWER-D (Despite being able to use heavy concrete plates, its movement limitations make it unfit to attack.) SPEED-E/A (The Stand can only move when no one except the user is looking at it. Cameras and animals are counted as persons. If it can move, then its movement are almost instantaneous.) RANGE-C (The Stand can cover a 10 squared metres area, the equivalent of a small room.) DURABILITY-A (The Stand's physical manifestations are incredibly durable and its ability is purely defensive.) PRECISION-D (Outside of the area selection, the User has no control over the specifics of the Stand's ability.) POTENTIAL-D (The Stand has reached its full development and is not very versatile.) Appearance: 「DYSTOPIA」is a colony Stand, composed of 3 instances. Each instance looks like a corroded, crash dummy with round green eyes. The Stand(s) constantly hold what seems to be a heavy plate of concrete over their head and are always seen kneeling down, imitating the mythical Titan Atlas holding the skies. The Stand can only move when no one (besides its user) is looking at it. https://preview.redd.it/68rkjrw9nd1d1.png?width=300&format=png&auto=webp&s=b0434b2a322511864dd1823ec8ed63f550387ee1 Ability: Complete Isolation 「DYSTOPIA」's ability is a purely defensive ability. Once the three instances have been dispatched to select a triangular area, the User can trigger their ability. When activated, the ground inside that area will take the appearance of concrete and walls will surround it. The concrete texture and walls can only be seen by Stand Users. As long as they remain inside the selected area, the User is completely isolated from the rest of the world. Light, sound, waves and radiations will not pass through the walls, making the area completely dark and silent, safe from the sound of clean air passing through. Although they are infinitely thin, the walls and ground have the solidity of a solid, 15cm thick concrete wall. They can be destroyed, but that would require a massive amount of effort. While Stand Users can see the walls, Non-Stand Users cannot, so the Stand influences them to ignore the area. The only things that can pass through 「DYSTOPIA」's walls are clean air and Time itself. Once locked in, the User cannot go in and out of the area without completely deactivating the Stand's ability. This means that the User must have everything needed for their survival before triggering their ability. The User has the ability to lock other people in with them. However, they cannot lock somebody in if they do not also enter the area, meaning that this Stand cannot be used as a portable jail. Once deactivated, the Stand has a 48 hours cooldown before it can be activated again. About the User: Acide Rein was born and raised in an underground shelter by her paranoid parents. As soon as they can remember, they were always told that the outside world was living hell and out to get them. One day, their parents left without an explanation. Acide was only 10. Despite that, they patiently waited for their parents to return, surviving alone in their home shelter. For the first time ever, they felt loneliness, Their parents never came back. After a while, they started feeling suspicion. What if the outside world was not as bad as they thought ? One day, they planned their escape and finally escaped outside. The shelter was under a quiet forest, so Acide Rein discovered the beauty and calm of nature first. They started wandering the world, looking for their parents. They appreciated this vibrant ecosystem they never saw before, and could not understand why their parents were so terrified. Until they entered a city. Lost, overwhelmed, harrassed for their strange behaviour, Acide Rein completely broke down in the middle of a street. Their breakdown manifested concrete walls, piercing through the ground. These walls were very real (unlike the ones their Stand would generate later). and people and cars crashed into it, causing multiple casualties. In this sudden shelter, Acide felt at home, calm once again. By unknown means, a door appeared. When the young person went out, the shelter was no more. Only three crash dummies, holding concrete plates, that faded away as the new Stand User collected their spirits. Now convinced that society was as awful as their parents described, Acide Rein had developped 「DYSTOPIA」, their own personal shelter they could manifest at will to escape the vices and stimulations of the human world. If I win, I would love to see the next contest be about Stands based on Kate Bush songs. I would also like to get the new flair. |
2024.05.19 14:53 PlusWindow557 Do the kids have ANYBODY on their side?
2024.05.19 14:53 Lord_PanDA_ 3+ Ways to Screen Mirror Mac to Samsung TV With Troubleshooting Tips
NOTE: If you’re looking for a more detailed step-by-step guide complete with demo images for each method, I recommend checking out the hyperlink under the method's name. submitted by Lord_PanDA_ to FixSamsungTVs [link] [comments] I had some trouble screen mirroring my Mac to my Samsung TV, but after a lot of self-tests with my MacBook Pro & Air, and the 43-inch Samsung TV, I found some effective solutions. Here are three ways to screen mirror from a Mac to a Samsung TV, plus a few troubleshooting tips. 1. Utilize the AirPlay 2 FeatureVerify if Your Samsung TV Supports AirPlay 2 First, check if your Samsung TV supports AirPlay 2. Most models from 2018 or later do. You can find your TV’s model number in the Settings menu.Enable AirPlay on Samsung TV Go to Settings > General > Apple AirPlay Settings and turn on AirPlay. Screen Mirroring a Mac Make sure your Mac and Samsung TV are on the same Wi-Fi network. On your Mac, open Control Center, select Screen Mirroring, and choose your Samsung TV from the list. 2. Use an HDMI CableConnect HDMI Cable Plug one end of the HDMI cable into your Mac and the other into your Samsung TV.Select HDMI Input on the TV Use your Samsung remote to press the Home button, go to Source, and select the HDMI input. 3. Use a Streaming DeviceApple TV, Roku, or Fire TV Stick If your Samsung TV doesn’t support AirPlay 2 or your Mac doesn’t have an HDMI port, use a streaming device. Ensure the device and your Mac are on the same Wi-Fi network, then follow the device-specific steps shown in the article to enable screen mirroring.Troubleshooting: Why Can’t I AirPlay From My MacBook to the Samsung TV?1. Basic Solutions
If you encounter any issues, check the troubleshooting tips and ensure your internet connection is stable. What’s your experience with screen mirroring your MacBook to a Samsung TV? Let me know in the comments below! https://preview.redd.it/zaj1asocrd1d1.jpg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b1c7750b7ce43639b3bf069bc2ccf83a74c6d20b |
2024.05.19 14:50 theswillmerchant The Great Serpent, The Formless Mother, and The Blood Star
“A heretical staff fashioned from a smoldering, withered sapling that turns the blood of sacrifices pierced by it into glintstone. Similar to hex magic.Alberich’s Set (specifically the robe) reads:
Sorceries are scaled with faith rather than intelligence when wielding this staff which enhances Thorn sorceries in particular.”
“Mad Tongue Alberich's robe.What we learn from these items is that Red Glintstone is a form of Glintstone created from the blood of sacrifices. This is an odd property for any type of Glintstone to possess, since all other sources of information surrounding Glintstone imply that it is heavily related to the Stars and the Primeval Current, not something as terrestrial as blood.
Set with red glintstones said to be formed by the blood of sacrifices. Strengthens thorn sorcery.
Alberich was an aloof yet disturbed heretical sorcerer said to have been driven mad by jeering tongues during his service to the Roundtable Hold long ago.”
“An aberrant sorcery discovered by exiled criminals. Theirs are the sorceries most reviled by the academy.So the Blood Star seems to be a celestial body that appears to the guilty after they are blinded. Again, SmoughTown’s video goes into great detail on this topic, but the brief summary is that it is an entity in and of itself, as many stars appear to be within Elden Ring’s cosmology. It is also the source of the astral properties necessary for a stone formed of blood to function as Glintstone. Through a combination of faith in this entity, bodily sacrifice, and this specific variant of Glintstone, aberrant magic can be wielded.
Wounds the caster with thorns of punishment, sending a trail of bloodthorns running over the ground to impale enemies from below…
The guilty, their eyes gouged by thorns, lived in eternal darkness. There, they discovered the blood star.”
“Huge bludgeon with three stars at the striking end. Though primarily a striking weapon, the stars' spikes cause blood loss.The phrasing of this “ill omen”, along with its ability to restore HP, will become relevant later.
A blood-stained star is an ill omen, a fact not lost upon those against whom this weapon is brought to bear. Landing attacks slightly restores HP.”
“Staff with a forked tip, embedded with red glintstones. Enhances lava sorceries.Once again we see Red Glintstone used in a spell catalyst, and again it imbues this tool with properties reliant on faith. For further detail, we need to look at some of the aforementioned Lava Sorceries that are enhanced by this staff.
The Man-Serpents of Mt. Gelmir draw from faith in addition to intelligence to enhance the potency of their sorcery.”
“One of the sorceries developed from the magma of Mt. Gelmir. …These sorceries are ancient, originally practiced by the adherents of a pagan religion that worshiped the Great Serpent of Mt. Gelmir. The timeline of events is not explicit, but it is a reasonable assumption that Rykard's incorporation of these hexes into modern sorcery was a component of his adoption of the ancient Gelmir religion, and his worship and great sacrifice to the Seprent.
After discovering the ancient hexes of Gelmir, Rykard, son of Queen Rennala, brought them back into practical use as new forms of sorcery.”
“Curved sword fashioned in the image of an ancient serpent deity and tool of a forgotten religion practiced on Mt. Gelmir.These sacrifices are likely the source of the Red Glintstone used to channel the magic of Mt. Gelmir.
Formerly used to offer up sacrifices, this sword restores HP upon slaying an enemy.”
“This legendary incantation is the most ancient of those that derive from the Erdtree.It’s worth noting here that a topic often discussed by lore enthusiasts is the voice of the narrator in item descriptions, and the fact that it seems to change between items and vary in its reliability. For instance, rather than saying anything with concrete certainty here, it reads “It is said…” implying there is something apocryphal about the information. It is also worth mentioning that this description in particular is infamous in the community for muddying the waters on the nature of the Elden Ring, inscriptions found in Farum Azula, the timeline of the Lands Between, and many other topics.
…
It is said that long ago, the Greater Will sent a golden star bearing a beast into the Lands Between, which would later become the Elden Ring.”
“Shield featuring a vividly painted twinbird.Once again a presumably physical beast, the Twinbird, is said to be the envoy of an unnamed Outer God. If these two items represent a trend, then we can assume that Outer Gods have the ability to install “Beasts” in the Lands Between. The reason for this is unclear. They may be sent as sentient weapons to fight in proxy wars. It’s also possible that they are intended to be physical manifestations of the Outer Gods to spur worship. Thanks to the existence of the Two and Three Fingers, the Fire Giant, and Malenia, there is no shortage of evidence that the Outer Gods either require avatars in the Lands Between to communicate for them and exert their will, or at the very least prefer an indirect relationship for unknowable reasons. Regardless, it leads me to propose a theory:
The twinbird is said to be the envoy of an outer god, and mother of the Deathbirds...”
2024.05.19 14:48 Accurate-Drag9188 I wanted to have private conversations with the freedom to express and share anything, so I created an app so that everyone can have that freedom!
https://preview.redd.it/ltoygztgqd1d1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3ed4215a20efe6e8eb050cbe1d56e00fea548a8b submitted by Accurate-Drag9188 to SideProject [link] [comments] Imagine: My friend, let's pretend his name is Alex, wanted to have a heartfelt conversation with his girlfriend about their future plans, but he was worried about the privacy of their discussion. He didn't want their intimate moments to be intercepted by prying eyes or data-hungry algorithms. That's when I introduced him to AtTweeter 𓅦 – a revolutionary social app designed with privacy as its cornerstone. With AtTweeter, Alex and his girlfriend were able to chat freely, knowing that their conversations were shielded from any unwanted surveillance. But that's not all! There is a section called Game Arena, where you and your friends can bond over nostalgic old games (remember the game called snake?) and challenge each other to climb the leaderboard. It's not just about socializing; it's about creating lasting memories together. With AtTweeter, you can:
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2024.05.19 14:48 ragsav_nag PostgreSQL Management Web Application!
2024.05.19 14:46 Revolutionary_Ad5835 AITA for not seeing parents or brothers perspective