Day: October 18, 2006

See, this is why I keep telling people that Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds is the secret king of online bookselling: He mentions that he received The Android’s Dream — just that it’s arrived in the mail, mind you — and the Amazon ranking shoots up to 1500 (or so) in three hours. Boing, there it goes. Damn, he’s good.

Update, 3:00pm: Now it’s at 699. All hail the Instabounce!

Update, 4:00pm: 542! Yes, now I’m just being obsessive-compulsive.

Update, 6:00pm: 515. I can quit anytime.

Update, 7:00pm: 504. Oh noes! I’m plateauing!

Update, 8:00pm: 451. Help me! It’s a sickness!

Update, 9:00pm: 442. Dude, I just totally passed a Star Wars novel on the Amazon SF bestsellers list. Hah!

Update, 10:00pm: 414. One thing I’ve noticed about the Amazon SF/F bestseller list, incidentally, is how 1984, Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World are always lurking about in the top 25. Dystopia never goes out of style.

Update, 11:00pm: 440. Clearly, the sales death spiral has begun. Off to bed before the black depression strikes.

Hey, if you’re not doing anything (and you’re not, otherwise why would you be here?), you should click through and catch this week’s Author Interview of the fabulous Cherie Priest, whose equally fabulous new novel Wings to the Kingdom officially hit the stores yesterday. I read it in galley — because I’m just that privileged — and I loved it; also, I’ve got Teh M4jur Crush00r on Eden Moore, Cherie’s heroine, and not just because my internal casting director has slotted Rosario Dawson into that role, although that doesn’t hurt. Mmmmm… Rosario Dawson.

In any event, check out the interview, because Cherie’s awesome and you want to get next to that awesomeness in your life. Also remember that Cherie and Subterranean Press are serializing Cherie’s novella “The Wreck of the Mary Byrd” online. Because you want to get next to that awesomeness, too.

Author Interviews coming in the next few weeks (in no particular order): Catherynne M. Valente, Sarah Hoyt, Karen Traviss, Charles Stross and Sean Williams. After that things are getting thin, so, authors, if you have books coming out in the the next four months or so, let me know (this is includes the authors who have already pinged me before but who I may have forgetten about. I guess the Mad Cow Disease is finally getting to me). You don’t have to be a science fiction/fantasy author, either; I’d love to have folks from other genres, including non-fiction, participate.

You know, there are very few things in life that beat a really crisp apple.

And I’m not even that much of an apple person.

This is the type of apple I’m eating, incidentally. On another note, I think it’s mildly disturbing that an apple variety has its own Web domain.

It seems that someone is challenging the residency of Ted Strickland, the Democratic candidate for the Governor’s seat here in Ohio. Apparently Strickland has more than one residence, one in Lisbon (Ohio) and one in Columbus, and he votes in Lisbon; however, the complaint says that Columbus is his real address, so he should be disqualified to vote in Lisbon. Thing is, as I understand it, if he’s not qualified to vote, then he can’t run for governor. The local voting board tied on party lines as to whether Strickland is qualified to vote in Lisbon, and in cases where there’s a tie on these matters, the issue gets booted upward to the Secretary of State’s office.

Who is the Secretary of State? Kenneth Blackwell, Republican candidate for Governor.

Bwa ha ha ha ha hah ha hah!

Ohio has a law barring Blackwell (or anyone in his seat with a similar situation) from personally adjuctating an issue which affects his campaign, so the issue was handled by one of Blackwell’s assistants. That assistant has sent the issue back to the county voting board, telling it that its members failed to conduct proper investigation into Strickland’s residency, so they have to do it again. That’s where it stands at the moment. Strickland’s campaign folks say he has voted in Lisbon before; presumably no one complained then. If after the investigation the voting board takes another 2-2 tie vote on the matter, off it goes again to Blackwell’s office, to the same appointee, who will then apparently have to make the call.

All of this, incidentally, transpiring after the deadline for Ohio voters to change their residency.

I can’t even imagine what’s going to happen if someone in Blackwell’s office, who Blackwell appointed, decides to throw Ted Strickland off the voter rolls and possibily disqualifing him from running for governor. Especially because Blackwell is trailing Strickland by double digits in most polls at the moment. Any Democratic spin doctor worth his or her salt would hold it up as a perfect example of how the GOP can’t win in the marketplace of ideas, so it has to resort to dirty tricks. The voters already have trust issues with the GOP this election year; this would be the feculent icing on that particular nasty cake, or, to torture another metaphor, the straw that breaks the elephant’s back.

To be clear, I deeply doubt Strickland’s going to get disqualified from the gubernatorial race here in Ohio. That just seems nuts. But there’s that little paranoid man in my brain, the one that goes Ken Blackwell tried to disallow voter registration cards in 2004 on the basis of paper weight! Of course one of his lackeys is going to do this!!! Anarchy!! Anarchy!!! I’m having a hard time shutting that guy up these days.