Engadget RSS Feed https://www.engadget.com/tag/author/rss.xml https://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif?cachebust=true Engadget RSS Feed https://www.engadget.com/tag/author/rss.xml en-us Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics Copyright 2017 AOL Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. <![CDATA[Computers are ranking the world's important authors]]>https://www.engadget.com/2014/11/19/author-ranking-algorithm/https://www.engadget.com/2014/11/19/author-ranking-algorithm/https://www.engadget.com/2014/11/19/author-ranking-algorithm/#comments
TS Eliot's 'Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock'

Trying to rate the world's literary giants is tricky at best. Do you go by the number of books sold? The long-term cultural impact? If you're Dartmouth College researcher Allen Riddell, you make computers decide. As part of an effort to determine which books would be most valuable in the public domain, Riddell has developed an author ranking algorithm that determines the most important authors who died in a given year. The system ranks writers based on the age, length and popularity of their Wikipedia articles, along with the number of titles they have in the public domain. If an author gets a lot of attention but doesn't have many freely available works, that person climbs the charts and is more likely to have titles published on free literature sites like Project Gutenberg.

Via: MIT Technology Review

Source: Public Domain Rank Browser

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algorithm author authors dartmouthcollege internet projectgutenberg publicdomain ranking wikipedia Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:25:00 -0500 21|20996372
<![CDATA[TUAW One to One: Author Michael David Anderson]]>https://www.tuaw.com/2014/04/22/tuaw-one-to-one-author-michael-david-anderson/https://www.tuaw.com/2014/04/22/tuaw-one-to-one-author-michael-david-anderson/https://www.tuaw.com/2014/04/22/tuaw-one-to-one-author-michael-david-anderson/#comments

tuaw one to one podcastTUAW One to One is a monthly podcast where I take a variety of people, sit them in front of a mic and have a conversation. It won't always be about Apple, but it will often deal with the intersection of liberal arts and technology.

You've probably never heard of Michael David Anderson, but that's because his newest novel, Teddy, hasn't been published yet. He's using Pubslush to crowdfund the first print, although you can also order a digital version. I spoke to Michael about the creative process he uses, what it's been like using Pubslush, and how he's marketing his work himself.

Believe it or not, Anderson isn't even a Mac guy! In the interest of speaking to a wide variety of guests here on TUAW One to One, I wanted to talk to Michael about writing, and focus less on the tools he uses. As it turns out, Teddy started as a NaNoWriMo exercise, then grew from there. He also avoids cloud services, so he's not a Live365 guy, either. Listen in to hear what a young author just getting started has to do to get noticed in the crowded book space of today.

If you've ever wondered what it's like to start a writing career, especially in fiction, check out this episode. You can subscribe to this podcast here.

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author interview interviews michael david anderson one to one podcast podcasts writing Tue, 22 Apr 2014 16:00:00 -0400 16|20873100
<![CDATA[Tom Clancy passes away at 66]]>https://www.joystiq.com/2013/10/02/tom-clancy-passes-away-at-66/https://www.joystiq.com/2013/10/02/tom-clancy-passes-away-at-66/https://www.joystiq.com/2013/10/02/tom-clancy-passes-away-at-66/#comments Best-selling author Tom Clancy passed away last night in a Baltimore hospital at age 66, The New York Times confirmed via Twitter. No cause of death has been reported at this time.

Clancy penned many military-themed novels, several adapted to video games including the popular Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell series. He co-founded Red Storm Entertainment in 1996, which was later purchased by Ubisoft in August 2000.

The latest game to feature the author's name is Tom Clancy's: The Division, which is slated to launch in late 2014.

Source: Twitter (1), (2), Business Insider

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author red-storm red-storm-entertainment the-division tom-clancy ubisoft ubisoft-red-storm Wed, 02 Oct 2013 11:15:00 -0400 11|20735894
<![CDATA[Barnes & Noble relabels PubIt! as Nook Press, adds web-based publishing tool]]>https://www.engadget.com/2013/04/09/barnes-and-noble-relabels-pubit-as-nook-press/https://www.engadget.com/2013/04/09/barnes-and-noble-relabels-pubit-as-nook-press/https://www.engadget.com/2013/04/09/barnes-and-noble-relabels-pubit-as-nook-press/#comments

Barnes & Noble relabels PubIt! as Nook Press, adds webbased publishing and Nook HD channel

Barnes & Noble's PubIt! self-publishing conduit has been active for well over two years, but you'd be forgiven for overlooking it with that somewhat forgettable (if very emphatic) name. The company might just know what you're thinking, as it's giving the service a considerably more memorable title, Nook Press, while upgrading features at the same time. Although the royalty structure remains the same, Nook Press now incorporates a web-based authoring tool: would-be Hemingways can write and preview their work through one online hub, sharing their drafts with others in a secure space. Those who commit should also get more exposure through an upcoming Nook Press channel on Nook HD and Nook HD+ tablets. There's no guarantee that the rebranding will lure potential bestselling authors away from Amazon, but they may have a better sense of their options.

Via: PaidContent

Source: Barnes & Noble

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author barnesandnoble e book e-book e-books e-bookstore e-reader e-readers nook nookpress publishing self-publishing Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:32:00 -0400 21|20535282
<![CDATA[WoW adds uniting element to YA novel about a transsexual teen]]>https://wow.joystiq.com/2012/11/22/wow-adds-uniting-element-to-ya-novel-about-a-transsexual-teen/https://wow.joystiq.com/2012/11/22/wow-adds-uniting-element-to-ya-novel-about-a-transsexual-teen/https://wow.joystiq.com/2012/11/22/wow-adds-uniting-element-to-ya-novel-about-a-transsexual-teen/#comments
WoW adds uniting element to YA novel about a transgender teen
"Look! Look! Someone wrote something and actually mentioned World of Warcraft!" That used to be A Thing, a Really Big Thing. After eight years and millions and millions of players, though, it's much less of A Thing. Everybody knows WoW. In fact, the last time a group tried to make a big deal out of the fact that someone played WoW, the outcome didn't turn out in their favor.

So WoW has evolved from A Weird Thing to An Everybody Thing, sort of like the latest hot TV show or book. It's something people talk about over coffee. And that's why author Rachel Gold chose to have the teenage protagonists of her young adult novel Being Emily play WoW -- that, and the opportunity WoW provides to try on different gender roles by playing characters of the opposite sex. You see, Being Emily is the first YA novel to tell the story of a transsexual girl from her perspective.

"I've been playing WoW since its first weekend, and although I'm not transsexual myself, I know that a lot of my trans friends who game found relief in the ability to play a character that matched the gender they know themselves to be, regardless of what body they were born into," Gold observes. "I included that feature of gaming in the novel by having the main character and her girlfriend both play WoW (casually, since they're in high school)."

Since Being Emily arrived in bookstores at the end of June, it's hit #2 on Amazon.com's Hot New Releases in Teen Fiction & Literature. Gold talks with us about why the book resonates with teens and how WoW is helping open doors for people searching for new identities and places to be accepted for themselves. ]]>
15 minutes of fame author being-emily facebookfeed featured fiction gay glbt interviews novel rachel-gold transgender transsexual world-of-warcraft-interviews wow-community wow-interviews wow-people Thu, 22 Nov 2012 14:00:00 -0500 99|20384939
<![CDATA[Behind the bookshelves and keyboards of WI's published authors]]>https://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/18/behind-the-bookshelves-and-keyboards-of-wis-published-authors/https://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/18/behind-the-bookshelves-and-keyboards-of-wis-published-authors/https://wow.joystiq.com/2012/10/18/behind-the-bookshelves-and-keyboards-of-wis-published-authors/#comments
Behind the bookshelves and keyboards of WI's published authors
If anything's got the power to pull a dyed-in-the-wool WoW player away from Azeroth for an extended period of time, it's a good read. Is there anything more tantalizing than cocooning with a good book you've just discovered? I've recently discovered GoodReads, my daughter's into the lowbie version at EpicReads, and we've made our city library and local Half-Price Books our home away from home. And when we're not reading, we're writing. When the sixth-graders had to turn in their first big compositions for the year, my little bookworm's study mate managed two pages on a funny time her foot got stuck in her shoe; my daughter demonstrated her speculative bent by cranking out 2,000 words on "The End of Humankind." Reading and writing, we just can't quit you.

Like a good meal and a bottle of wine, good books are best when shared, so I thought you all might like to meet two published authors from WoW Insider's own staff of bloggers. Matt Rossi's collections are the kind of anthologies you find yourself still flipping through at 2 a.m. -- "Ooh, what's this one about? Just one more essay before I turn out the light..." Scott Andrews' guide to leading an MMO guild offers the same straight talk and smart strategies as his Officers' Quarters column here at WI.

We peeked beyond the pages of WoW Insider to discover the speculative worlds crafted by Scott and Matt. They told us how they got published, what they're writing now -- and an extra bonus, what's feeding their imaginations in their personal reading piles. ]]>
15 minutes of fame author books bottled-demon facebookfeed featured ghosts-of-christmas interviews matt-rossi matthew-rossi scott-andrews the-guild-leaders-handbook things-that-never-were world-of-warcraft-interviews wow-community wow-interviews wow-people writer Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:00:00 -0400 99|20353070
<![CDATA[Alt-week 9.15.12: The ultimate wind machine, Egyptian Lego and the office of our dreams]]>https://www.engadget.com/2012/09/15/alt-week-9-15-12-the-ultimate-wind-machine-egyptian-lego/https://www.engadget.com/2012/09/15/alt-week-9-15-12-the-ultimate-wind-machine-egyptian-lego/https://www.engadget.com/2012/09/15/alt-week-9-15-12-the-ultimate-wind-machine-egyptian-lego/#comments

Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days.

Alt-week 9.15.12: The ultimate wind machine, Egyptian Lego and the office of our dreams

Sometimes we wonder, what would we have ended up doing if we didn't spend our time trawling the web for the week's best alternative tech stories? We could have been paleontologists, novelists, engineers, or if we were really lucky, worked for Google. Instead, here we are bringing you some of the more colorful tech-tales from the last seven days, which we're really not complaining about. That said though, at least on this occasion, we got to taste a bit of all the above. This is alt-week.

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alt alt week alt weekly alt-week altweek altweekly ancient egypt ancientegypt author egyptian mummy egyptianmummy google google docs google offices googledocs googleoffices hor hurricane lego live novelling livenovelling misc mummy national science foundation nationalsciencefoundation novelist nyc science video wind machine windmachine writing Sat, 15 Sep 2012 19:00:00 -0400 21|20323849
<![CDATA[Ray Bradbury dies at 91, our world is that much poorer]]>https://www.engadget.com/2012/06/06/ray-bradbury-dies-at-91/https://www.engadget.com/2012/06/06/ray-bradbury-dies-at-91/https://www.engadget.com/2012/06/06/ray-bradbury-dies-at-91/#comments

Ray Bradbury dies at 91, our world is that much poorer

It's a sad day for science fiction fans everywhere, as Ray Bradbury has passed on at the age of 91. We'll always know him best as the author of Fahrenheit 451, but it's really massive legacy in short stories that defined his role in technology. Collections like The Illustrated Man and The Martian Chronicles made it a point to illustrate technology's impact and to never let our gadgetry trample human nature. Appropriately, for all of his ability to envision the future, he was actually rather cautious about embracing it: he only reluctantly allowed e-books and was worried the world was rushing too quickly towards devices. The irony of paying tribute on a technology website to this trepidation isn't lost on us, but we sincerely appreciate Bradbury's literary legacy -- he kept us honest (and entertained) in an industry that sometimes needs a reality check. He'll be missed.

[Image credit: Alan Light, Flickr]

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alt author authors books e-book e-books fahrenheit 451 fahrenheit451 fantasy novels obituaries obituary ray bradbury raybradbury sci fi sci-fi science science fiction sciencefiction scifi the illustrated man the martian chronicles theillustratedman themartianchronicles Wed, 06 Jun 2012 11:17:00 -0400 21|20252811
<![CDATA[Novelist suing over Assassin's Creed has his lawyer respond to gamer rage]]>https://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/09/novelist-suing-over-assassins-creed-has-his-lawyer-respond-to-g/https://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/09/novelist-suing-over-assassins-creed-has-his-lawyer-respond-to-g/https://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/09/novelist-suing-over-assassins-creed-has-his-lawyer-respond-to-g/#comments
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Author John Beiswenger poked the sleeping dragon that is the Internet when he filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft, claiming the Assassin's Creed franchise infringes on copyrights in his novel, Link. Namely, Beiswenger says Assassin's Creed stole themes such as "assassinations," "spiritual and biblical tones" and a battle between good and evil from Link, which was published five years prior to the first Assassin's Creed title.

Beiswenger is seeking up to $5.25 million in damages. The lawsuit could also delay the release of Assassin's Creed 3, a fact that wiped the grins from many a gamer's face and set a few (hundred) to review-bombing Beiswenger's Amazon pages.

Beiswenger's lawyer, Kelley Keller, has now responded to Eurogamer on the negative reaction and her client's claims:
"We understand that many gamers are upset about the litigation and potential for delay in the release of the next Assassin's Creed video game, and as a result of that anger have been posting negative comments on Amazon - and other forums - about our client and his novel Link. However, copyright laws exist to protect authors and creators from others who copy or create works that are, under the law, substantially similar; failure to enforce copyright laws renders them meaningless.

"The Amazon 'bombing,' storm of negative comments and threats to our client have no bearing on the appropriateness, merits or outcome of this suit. They have no material effect on the legal claims."
Keller says she believes the similarities in Link and Assassin's Creed are more than coincidence and that despite the five-year delay in filing charges, the lawsuit was brought within an applicable time period.

We don't know about you guys, but the only applicable time periods we see here are the American Revolution, and October 2012. ]]>
assassins-creed-3 author copyright john-beiswenger lawsuit lawyer microsoft novelist pc playstation ps3 sue ubisoft xbox Wed, 09 May 2012 19:15:00 -0400 11|20235066
<![CDATA[iBooks Author gets new EULA, aims to clear writer's block]]>https://www.engadget.com/2012/02/06/ibooks-author-gets-new-eula/https://www.engadget.com/2012/02/06/ibooks-author-gets-new-eula/https://www.engadget.com/2012/02/06/ibooks-author-gets-new-eula/#comments
We've waxed lyrical about iBooks Author at the technological level, but a good self-publishing platform counts for nothing if authors are put off by its terms and conditions. A particular source of antagonism so far has been the notion that, if an author decides to charge a fee for their iBook, then Apple will claim exclusive distribution rights and prevent them from publishing their work anywhere else. Check out the More Coverage links below and you'll see that a number of writers tore up Apple's licensing agreement and flung it into the proverbial overflowing trash can. Now though, Cupertino has done some re-writing of its own and come up with a new EULA. It clarifies that Apple will only demand exclusive distribution rights over .ibooks files that are created with iBooks Author, rather than the book's content itself. It states that "this restriction will not apply to the content of the work when distributed in [another] form." So, there it is -- writers everywhere can happily go back to tearing up their own work again. ]]>
anger apple author books contract distribution ebooks eula ibooks ibooks 2 ibooks author ibooks2 ibooksauthor ios licensing agreement licensingagreement publishing rights self-publishing terms and conditions termsandconditions writer writing Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:03:00 -0500 21|20164691
<![CDATA[Apple's iBooks Author hands-on (update: video!)]]>https://www.engadget.com/2012/01/19/apples-ibooks-author-hands-on/https://www.engadget.com/2012/01/19/apples-ibooks-author-hands-on/https://www.engadget.com/2012/01/19/apples-ibooks-author-hands-on/#comments
Inside every frustrated journalist is an even more frustrated author, and self-publishing is an evil that many of us have succumbed to over the years. Still, much as we may want to resist it, we couldn't help ourselves when it came time to test Apple's iBooks Author app, designed for educators to push out textbooks to students for a fraction of the cost, time and energy it would traditionally take.

So, how does it feel when you're working inside the software? Could you use it to prepare seminar materials for the class of 2015 or, more importantly, launch your own career as Stephanie Meyer's successor? Head past the break to find out!
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apple author hands on hands-on handson ibooks ibooks 2 ibooks author ibooks2 ibooksauthor ios ios 5 ios5 video Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:36:00 -0500 21|20152123
<![CDATA[Apple announces free iBooks Author OS X app for publishing books to the App Store]]>https://www.engadget.com/2012/01/19/apple-announces-ibooks-author-app-for-os-x/https://www.engadget.com/2012/01/19/apple-announces-ibooks-author-app-for-os-x/https://www.engadget.com/2012/01/19/apple-announces-ibooks-author-app-for-os-x/#comments
We're here at Apple's education-themed event at the Guggenheim museum in New York City, and the company's just followed up its long-awaited textbook announcement with something unexpected: iBooks Author, a free OS X program for creating books. The intent is really for teachers and other educators to produce educational materials, but Apple says the format can apply to any genre. Aside from the free part, the real story here is ease of use, with the ability to drag and drop photos, videos and even Microsoft Word files into various templates. If you use Apple's own suite of office apps, in particular, you can drag and drop a Keynote presentation into the doc, and it'll live on as an interactive widget. (You can whip up other widgets, too, though you'll need to know Javascript or HTML.)

Moving beyond the main text, authors can also arrange glossaries by highlighting and clicking words, and clicking again to add a definition. In a surprise move, Apple also said authors can publish straight to the store, though we're waiting for clarification that textbook writers and other scribes are actually exempt from Cupertino's notorious approval process. In any case, the app is available now in the App Store (for OS X Lion only, sadly) so you can cracking on that definitive Kurt Vonnegut glossary you never knew you had in you.

Update: We've got our hands-on up!

Update 2: Apple has confirmed some key approval and revenue-sharing details. First, authors will be subject to the same App Store approval process as developers. Writers can offer their books for free, or for as much as $14.99 -- the same price cap for textbooks sold in the store. And, like developers, authors must agree to a 70/30 revenue split, with writers pocketing 70 percent after Apple takes its share.
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app store apple appstore author authors education education event educationevent educator educators free free app free apps freeapp freeapps lion new york newyork os x os x app os x lion osx osxapp osxlion publishing self-publish self-publishing teacher teachers textbook textbooks video writer writers Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:21:00 -0500 21|20152033
<![CDATA[Google wants you to add writers on Google+, so do writers]]>https://www.engadget.com/2011/10/24/google-wants-you-to-add-writers-on-google-so-do-writers/https://www.engadget.com/2011/10/24/google-wants-you-to-add-writers-on-google-so-do-writers/https://www.engadget.com/2011/10/24/google-wants-you-to-add-writers-on-google-so-do-writers/#comments
Find an interesting article, add its author. That's the very simple idea behind a very simple feature that Google has just begun testing. As TechCrunch recently noticed, Big G has started rolling out a new "add to Circles" button within some search results, allowing readers to more easily and instantaneously follow their favorite web authors on Google+. Writer profiles have already been integrated within search pages, but until now, users had to actually click on author pages before following them. This new circle button, on the other hand, cuts out that middle click and seems like a logical next step in Google's ongoing integration. It also seems like a great way to help writers feel better about themselves, which we always support. And if you're not seeing it, you're not going crazy -- Google's just rolling it out to only a few users.
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add to circle button addtocirclebutton author button circle content follow google google plus google+ googleplus media minipost news social network social networking socialnetwork socialnetworking web writer Mon, 24 Oct 2011 05:00:00 -0400 21|20087949
<![CDATA[Amazon's @author lets you tweet, pester your favorite writers via Kindle]]>https://www.engadget.com/2011/09/01/amazons-author-lets-you-tweet-pester-your-favorite-writers-vi/https://www.engadget.com/2011/09/01/amazons-author-lets-you-tweet-pester-your-favorite-writers-vi/https://www.engadget.com/2011/09/01/amazons-author-lets-you-tweet-pester-your-favorite-writers-vi/#comments
If the Amazon Kindle's passage-sharing Twitter integration wasn't social enough for you, the outfit just unleashed a new option: @author. The new feature uses Twitter as a springboard to connect writers to their fans, giving users a chance to nitpick their favorite authors line-by-line. If you've ever shared a quote using the Kindle, you know the drill: highlight some text and type out your tweet -- just make sure you preface it with the @author marker. This limited beta is launching with only a handful of writers, but between Robert "Rich Dad" Kiyosaki and Brad "Identity Crisis" Meltzer, we're sure you can find something to ask. ]]>
amazon amazon author amazon kindle amazonauthor amazonkindle author e book e books e reader e readers e-book e-books e-reader e-readers ebook ebooks ereader ereaders kindle minipost twitter twitter integration twitterintegration Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:40:00 -0400 21|20032054
<![CDATA[Self-published Kindle author breaks one million in sales, legs might have something to do with it]]>https://www.engadget.com/2011/06/21/self-published-kindle-author-breaks-one-million-in-sales-legs-m/https://www.engadget.com/2011/06/21/self-published-kindle-author-breaks-one-million-in-sales-legs-m/https://www.engadget.com/2011/06/21/self-published-kindle-author-breaks-one-million-in-sales-legs-m/#comments
Our big, bad digital era's been caught red-handed overturning media industry business models before, so it comes as no surprise that publishing houses have a new headache on-hand. Straight outta sunny Seattle comes word that Amazon has welcomed its first self-published author to the "Kindle Million Club." John Locke (so this is where he wound up after going to that quasi-'heaven') is the lucky dude who gets to claim the prize, and that's not all -- Mr. independent-author-from-Kentucky now shares bold-face status with the likes of Stieg Larsson and Nora Roberts. By churning out action / adventure novels on the $0.99 cheap and making heavy use of some leggy lady models, Locke easily blew past the one million mark, and even has a book to tell you how he did it. Take that evil publishing overlords. Hit the break for Amazon's official PR spiel. ]]>
alt amazon amazon kindle amazon kindle 2 amazon kindle 3 amazonkindle amazonkindle2 amazonkindle3 author authors e book e books e reader e readers e-book e-books e-reader e-readers kindle kindle direct publishing kindle self publishing kindle2 kindle3 kindledirectpublishing kindleselfpublishing self-publishing Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:46:00 -0400 21|19972756
<![CDATA[Switched On: E-readers drive to digital distraction]]>https://www.engadget.com/2011/06/19/switched-on-e-readers-drive-to-digital-distraction/https://www.engadget.com/2011/06/19/switched-on-e-readers-drive-to-digital-distraction/https://www.engadget.com/2011/06/19/switched-on-e-readers-drive-to-digital-distraction/#comments Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Spring proved cruel for the sparse population of products that combine e-paper and LCD displays. Startup Entourage announced that it was discontinuing its Edge dual-screen e-reader / tablet combo. And then Barnes & Noble closed the book on the original Nook to introduce a successor that had only one screen and one button. In doing so, it leaped over (or is that under?) even the Kindle's minimalism.

E-readers have followed an unusual demographic adoption curve for a consumer electronics product. The first buyers were, like those of many other tech products, more affluent, but the majority of them were also older and female in keeping with the book-buying habits of physical books. They were attracted to the crisp display and high contrast of e-paper displays. And many were (and continue to be) attracted by a focused product that allowed them to concentrate on the text without distraction of other media type, the Web or thousands of apps. ]]>
author book column e book e books e reader e readers e-book e-books e-reader e-readers read reading switched on switchedon tablet Sun, 19 Jun 2011 18:15:00 -0400 21|19970610
<![CDATA[15 Minutes of Fame: Vampire Empire novelist duo writes, games as one]]>https://wow.joystiq.com/2011/05/19/15-minutes-of-fame-vampire-empire-novelist-duo-writes-games-as/https://wow.joystiq.com/2011/05/19/15-minutes-of-fame-vampire-empire-novelist-duo-writes-games-as/https://wow.joystiq.com/2011/05/19/15-minutes-of-fame-vampire-empire-novelist-duo-writes-games-as/#comments
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame.

Talking about Clay and Susan Griffith means talking about partnerships. Clay and Susan are husband and wife, WoW partners and co-GMs, and authors of The Greyfriar: Vampire Empire Book 1 -- "married in all things, for better or for worse," as they put it. Together, they've worked on comics and prose with such pop culture icons as The Tick, Kolchak the Night Stalker, The Phantom, Allan Quatermain, and Disney characters, too. "Granted, we are casual WoW players due to time constraints, but we both have level 85s," says Susan. "We enjoy questing and the lore of the game, as well as a fair amount of RPing. When time and fair winds permit, we even have a family raid group."

What the Griffiths have learned from collaborating on the page, they say translates directly to playing WoW as a group: trust, respect, and distribution of power and roles. From the Vampire Empire to Azeroth? According to this couple -- absolutely. ]]>
15 minutes of fame author authors clay-griffith couples deanna-hoak facebookfeed featured griffith interviews susan-griffith the-greyfriar the-greyfriar-vampire-empire-book-1 vampire-empire world-of-warcraft-interviews wow-community wow-interviews wow-people writer writers Thu, 19 May 2011 13:00:00 -0400 99|19943236
<![CDATA[Captain's Log: The Foundry and you]]>https://massively.joystiq.com/2011/03/31/captains-log-the-foundry-and-you/https://massively.joystiq.com/2011/03/31/captains-log-the-foundry-and-you/https://massively.joystiq.com/2011/03/31/captains-log-the-foundry-and-you/#comments
Captain's Log, Stardate 64750.3...

Hello, computer (and players)! "Ceeeeelebrate good times, come on!" That's right, captains -- it's time to let the good times roll and the never-ending content stream to begin. Earlier this week, Larry Everett helped break Star Trek Online's news drought with his post about the Foundry being moved from the test server, nicknamed Tribble, to the live server, aka Holodeck. (I've always thought the test server should have been called Holodeck, but that is a discussion for another day.) For those of you who do not know by now, the Foundry is a user-generated content (UGC) toolset that allows players to create their own missions and episodes.

Since late last year, volunteer testers have been creating hundreds of missions and pushing them out for captains of all ranks to try. Co-developed by Cryptic devs who are working at implementing the system in the upcoming Neverwinter game, the Foundry has gone through extensive changes since its inception -- the evolution of the toolset has actually provided a platform for some UGC episodes that rival those made by Cryptic. But what does this really mean for STO players?

Ensign, warp 10! Let's talk about STO's "saving grace." ]]>
author captain's log captains-log featured game mechanics holodeck opinion roleplaying sci-fi st-online star trek online star-trek star-trek-mmo star-trek-online star-trek-online-foundry star-trek-online-foundry-beta sto sto-foundry sto-foundry-beginners sto-foundry-beta-walkthrough sto-foundry-forums tribble ugc Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:00:00 -0400 319|19897788
<![CDATA[Choose Your Own Adventure available for iPhone as U-Ventures]]>https://www.tuaw.com/2010/08/19/choose-your-own-adventure-available-for-iphone-as-u-ventures/https://www.tuaw.com/2010/08/19/choose-your-own-adventure-available-for-iphone-as-u-ventures/https://www.tuaw.com/2010/08/19/choose-your-own-adventure-available-for-iphone-as-u-ventures/#comments If you, like me, were a big scifi/fantasy reader at a young age, you probably remember the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series. It was a series of books in which, every chapter or so, you could make a choice that affected the story, and you were then prompted to turn to a certain page to continue the story after that choice. Edward Packard was the original author of that series, and he's now teamed up with an iPhone app company to create U-Ventures, a throwback iPhone application that works as an interactive, e-book style Choose You Own Adventure. The first book is called "Return to the Cave of Time" (after the first book in the original series), and just like the old series, it offers up a set of second-person branching paths.

Unfortunately, at US$3.99, the app is pretty expensive. Reviews say that there are only about 15 minutes of content to go through here, and while the old books were short, there are a lot of other interactive storytelling options on the App Store in the form of games and other e-books. But as a retro return to the old form, it's a nice taste of what's possible. I'm hoping that Packard will update the idea a little bit and make it a little more iPhone-friendly next time.

Or, ... you could just roll your own. Our own Victor Agreda wrote about iPod-friendly CYOA books a long time ago. Download some of those onto your iPod, and you could be right back in those old pre-video game days of interactive storytelling.

[via Slashdot] ]]>
author choose-your-own-adventure cyoa edward packard edward-packard edwardpackard interactive iphone ipod npr retro storytelling throwback uventures Thu, 19 Aug 2010 11:00:00 -0400 16|19598951
<![CDATA[How to publish an Apple iBook]]>https://www.tuaw.com/2010/08/12/how-to-publish-an-apple-ibook/https://www.tuaw.com/2010/08/12/how-to-publish-an-apple-ibook/https://www.tuaw.com/2010/08/12/how-to-publish-an-apple-ibook/#comments We've covered the issue tangentially before, but in case our guides on EPUB and the process itself haven't been enough to inspire you would-be authors to self-publish your book in iBooks, Greg Mills has a step-by-step guide just for you. Of course, the hardest part may be actually writing the book, but once you've gotten that out of the way, you're just a format check, a registration, and an upload away from becoming an e-published author.

It's really not complicated, and while there are a few hoops to jump through (you need to make sure that your files match up exactly to the store's format, and then, of course, you need to let Apple know that you're legit and responsible), Mills' steps make the process almost completely transparent. The toughest part (besides the technical tweaking and forms to fill out) might be going through the ISBN application process, but even that's just standard bureaucracy.

It's pretty amazing that with just a standard Mac, a little patience, and the right information, almost anybody can publish on Apple's iBooks store. If you go through the whole process and get a title published, send us a tip, and let us know how it went. ]]>
apple author epub government greg mills greg-mills gregmills ibooks isbn mac patience publishing us Thu, 12 Aug 2010 09:00:00 -0400 16|19590017
<![CDATA[Stieg Larsson becomes the first author to sell a million Kindle e-books]]>https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/27/stieg-larsson-becomes-the-first-author-to-sell-a-million-kindle/https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/27/stieg-larsson-becomes-the-first-author-to-sell-a-million-kindle/https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/27/stieg-larsson-becomes-the-first-author-to-sell-a-million-kindle/#comments
Given the lovingly detailed descriptions of early-2000s computers and technology the late Stieg Larsson peppered into The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, we're pretty sure he'd love to know that he's just become the first author to sell over a million Amazon Kindle e-books -- and we can only imagine what kind of trouble Larsson's Lisbeth Salander would have gotten into with a Droid X or an iPad. Considering the dominance of Amazon's platform and company's recent announcement that Kindle titles are now outselling hardcovers we'd guess that also makes him the first author to sell a million e-books period, which is fairly notable -- and with the upcoming Hollywood adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, we'd guess these numbers aren't going to slow down any time soon. Too bad we don't know the breakdown of where these million books went -- we'd love to know if Kindle devices are as popular as the Kindle apps on various other platforms. ]]>
alt amazon author e book e books e reader e readers e-book e-books e-reader e-readers kindle kindle million club kindlemillionclub larsson lisbeth salander lisbethsalander millennium trilogy millenniumtrilogy million stieg larsson stieglarsson the girl who kicked the hornets nest the girl who played with fire the girl with the dragon tattoo thegirlwhokickedthehornetsnest thegirlwhoplayedwithfire thegirlwiththedragontattoo Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:53:00 -0400 21|19570266
<![CDATA[15 Minutes of Fame: Caitlin R. Kiernan]]>https://wow.joystiq.com/2009/11/04/15-minutes-of-fame-caitlin-r-kiernan/https://wow.joystiq.com/2009/11/04/15-minutes-of-fame-caitlin-r-kiernan/https://wow.joystiq.com/2009/11/04/15-minutes-of-fame-caitlin-r-kiernan/#comments
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.

I've wandered around inside the fiction of Caitlín R. Kiernan, and I'm not at all certain I'd feel safe wandering around in her version of WoW. As it turns out, though, Kiernan plays WoW much like many of the rest of us do - smacking the "brain off" button at the end of a long day, tooling around various zones with a significant other, and somehow finding ourselves utterly embroiled in the microcosms that are the lives of the characters we spend so much time with. So an interview with Kiernan turned out to be a long, WoW-centric turn that she attacked with relish. "Truthfully, I think it's one of the most interesting interviews I've done lately, if only because I spend so little of it talking about writing," she blogged. We think it's pretty darn interesting, too. ]]>
15 minutes of fame author caitlin-r-kiernan featured features interviews world-of-warcraft-interviews world-of-warcraft-people wow-community wow-interviews wow-people writer Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0500 99|19219552
<![CDATA[Video of Christie Golden's Long Island reading]]>https://wow.joystiq.com/2009/06/16/video-of-christie-goldens-long-island-reading/https://wow.joystiq.com/2009/06/16/video-of-christie-goldens-long-island-reading/https://wow.joystiq.com/2009/06/16/video-of-christie-goldens-long-island-reading/#comments I wasn't anywhere near Huntington, NY on Saturday, but our friend Medievaldragon from BlizzPlanet was, and he did stop by the Christie Golden reading at the Book Revue bookstore. He even brought videos back with him, and so if you're a Golden fan (she is a New York Times-bestselling author, after all) and want to see her reading from Arthas, there you go.

Apparently the reading was a pretty full house, too, and you can see from the video that there were all kinds of people there. Golden also says early in the video that Arthas is Blizzard's first big bestseller, and she repeats what we've heard before: that Blizzard loves having her write for them and she loves coming up with stories from their settings. The only big bit of news for fans from the reading is that while Blizzard is producing three different Warcraft books (of which Arthas is the first), they won't be a trilogy at all, just stand-alone stories. Big thanks to Medievaldragon once again for stopping by the event and grabbing video for those of us who couldn't go. ]]>
analysis / opinion arthas author blizzplanet bookstore christie-golden fan stuff lore medievaldragon novels odds and ends reading rise-of-the-lich-king settings starcraft video virtual selves warcraft world-of-warcraft-novel wow-novel Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:00:00 -0400 99|19067542
<![CDATA[Smoking Gun, Cyberia author Rushkoff partner for games, books]]>https://www.joystiq.com/2009/05/28/smoking-gun-cyberia-author-rushkoff-partner-for-games-books/https://www.joystiq.com/2009/05/28/smoking-gun-cyberia-author-rushkoff-partner-for-games-books/https://www.joystiq.com/2009/05/28/smoking-gun-cyberia-author-rushkoff-partner-for-games-books/#comments
Smoking Gun, an independent studio formed in 2007 by Relic Entertainment vets, has landed a new deal with tech evangelist Douglas Rushkoff, with the award-winning author set to pen the story for an as-yet-unannounced property. Details remain light, though Rushkoff notes his narrative will be used in multiple games as well as related books.

If that's not enough to interest you, consider that Rushkoff, whose works include cyber culture novel Cyberia and the DC comic series Testament, is set to lend words to an entire range of titles "across a range of media formats that can feed off one another and exist concurrently." Honestly, we're just as confused as you are, but once the headache stops and the Advil kicks in we'll reach out to Smoking Gun for more. ]]>
author company-of-heroes cyberia douglas-rushkoff relic relic-entertainment smoking-gun Thu, 28 May 2009 17:45:00 -0400 11|19050367
<![CDATA[Christie Golden talks about Arthas, Rise of the Lich King]]>https://wow.joystiq.com/2008/10/17/christie-golden-talks-about-arthas-rise-of-the-lich-king/https://wow.joystiq.com/2008/10/17/christie-golden-talks-about-arthas-rise-of-the-lich-king/https://wow.joystiq.com/2008/10/17/christie-golden-talks-about-arthas-rise-of-the-lich-king/#comments Our friend Medievaldragon (of Blizzplanet, who's now posting occasionally over on World of War) got a chance to talk to author Christie Golden at BlizzCon last weekend. She's working on a book about Arthas (which has a title now: "Rise of the Lich King"), and she chatted with MD about what kind of lore fun is going to be in those pages.

The book starts with Arthas as a ten-year-old prince, and then obviously follows his path through what we saw in Warcraft III, including all of that bad business at Quel'Thalas, and Arthas' past with Jaina and Kael'thas (you don't think Blizzard would bring KT back again in WotLK, do you?). Golden promises some good looks as the High Elves, too -- "two very pivotal characters are elven," she says. Including Sylvanas? We can only hope.

The book's due out in April, sounds like it'll be a good read, for Arthas fans especially. ]]>
analysis / opinion author blizzcon blizzplanet christie-golden interview jaina kael-thas lore novels rise-of-the-lich-king virtual selves world-of-war wrath of the lich king Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:30:00 -0400 99|1345283
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