Amazon Will Publish Vonnegut Fanfiction

No.  Really.

Obviously the estate approved this.  I’m not sure what to think.  Come to think of it I’m not sure what Vonnegut would think.

So a few thoughts

I really didn’t see this coming.  Really.

I’m not sure Vonnegut is well known enough to be a big draw, I wonder if people who read Vonnegut will be that big on this,

Could this also introduce more people to Vonnegut?

I wonder how many properties owned by estates realize – or are realizing – that this could be big money.  Or authors who are “done” could find additional monetization.

Did I mentioned this weirded me out?  Yeah.

– Steven

 

How To Create a BAD Crime Fiction Series With Jackie Speel

(In the grand tradition ofJohn Van Sickle’s Grand list of Overused Science Fiction Clichés, the Grand list of SF clichés, Things I learnt at the Movies, and Not So Grand Cliché List, Jackie Speel is here to make her own contributions to literature – and what not to do – at MuseHack)

This is an attempt to create a list of clichés and tropes to be avoided in crime fiction, whether written or onscreen. As with other such lists it is the way in which the cliché is handled that is the key factor. Even middling to good series are likely to have the occasional episode which ‘ticks several of the boxes.’

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