Barry Lyga's Blog: The BLog, page 54

Here’s what I posted recently on Tumblr…

How photographing events stops us living them

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Here’s what I posted recently on Tumblr…

My First Book On Sale…Cheap!

Bunnies Have a Tea Party

Daily Bunny, dailybunny.org

Thanks,…

"The light from the oncoming train focuses the mind."

"GAME is sort of my way of saying, “Remember how scary and bloody the first book was? Yeah, that was…"

Memory Monday: Men

"Don’t assume that anybody above you actually knows what they’re doing. And if you find somebody who…"

This Week in Rejection!: The Subourbon Press

hodgman:

my new bedroom set

superseventies:

1970s bedroom…

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Hey, there, gang!

So, the various etailers of the world have gone a little nuts this holiday season. You can now (for however long “now” happens to last…) buy my very first novel as an ebook for the obscenely low price of just $1.99 at these major ebook sellers:

Amazon/Kindle
B&N/Nook
iBooks

And hey, the sequel, Goth Girl Rising, is pretty cheap, too, at just $5.99 on Amazon and iBooks.

Then, as if that’s not enough, if you’re curious as to what Fanboy might be like as an adult if he’d never met Goth Girl — and if you’re an adult yourself — check out my latest novel, Unsoul’d, which is pretty damn inexpensive itself at just $3.99!

Wow. That was almost like a commercial!

As I indicated above, I have no idea how long this sale will last, so go get it while it’s hot!

GAME is sort of my way of saying, “Remember how scary and bloody the first book was? Yeah, that was me playing nice.” You have to ramp things up in the second book, otherwise people think you’re going soft on them.

Aussie writer Ellie Marney interview me about Killers, life, and whether or not teenagers make good detectives. Check it out!

At first glance, you might think this panel was the beginning of an eighties-era anti-sexism dialogue. But she’s actually talking about the Holocaust.

(From Supergirl #15, January 1984. Written by Paul Kupperberg, art by Carmine Infantino and Bob Oksner.)

No idea if this came before or after my other rejection from The Subourbon Press. This one isn’t personal, but it retains that torn-paper look we’ve come to know and love.

Here’s what I posted recently on Tumblr…

chrisisoninfiniteearths:

kierongillen:

the-time-lord-of-the-rin…

"They will cringe at my approach and bow in my presence, and they will do it in fear for their very…"

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An Apology for Books — Barry Lyga Dot Com

Unsoul'd: A "Great Read for Less"

"I would like to apologize to the world of New Media on behalf of the Old Media. For lingering and…"

"Everyone thinks I’m a genius. And I will be, as long as I don’t do anything that…"

Memory Monday: "Don't Go In There!"

Yeah, no kidding, HuffPo…

This Week in Rejection!: The Journal

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You probably know that, recently, social media service Snapchat was offered a $3 billion buy-out from Facebook. The founders rejected the offer, and the media went slightly batshit, unable to comprehend why and how someone could turn down so much money.

If you were wondering why the Snapchatters turned the money down, the answer is actually pretty simple: They think the company is worth more than $3 billion. Why do they think this?

The New Yorker does an excellent job explaining in this piece: Why Did Snapchat Turn Down Three Billion Dollars?. But if you don’t want to read it, I can boil it down to you this way:

Attention is more valuable than money. Or, as the article puts it: “Attention is the real currency of social-media companies, and it can be mercilessly capricious, particularly among the most coveted demographic of all, youth.” And: “ephemeral social media [is] destined to become a fundamental, lasting phenomenon.”

Let’s repeat that: Attention is more valuable than money. You would think and hope, then, that books — which command your attention — would be hella valuable. But for the most part, no — the world seems to be in a rush to de-value books, with complaints that ebooks are “too expensive” and that books and authors need to “adapt” to the digital world and so on. The key word above is “ephemeral.” As in “not lasting.”

Snapchat lasts ten seconds. And that ten seconds is worth so much money that $3 billion can’t buy it.

With that in mind, then, I would like to apologize to the world of New Media on behalf of the Old Media. For lingering and sticking around and delaying the onset of the Edenic world of omnipresent, instantaneous, effortless communication. I’m really, truly sorry for books, for all these reasons:

I’m sorry it takes longer than ten seconds to read a book.
I’m sorry they are longer than 140 characters.
I’m sorry that they don’t get pushed conveniently to your phone in bite-sized morsels.
I’m sorry sometimes there are words you don’t understand that you have to look up. (Or, even worse, interpret through context.)
I’m sorry that sometimes you have to consider a sentence two or three times to really get it.
I’m sorry that not every question you have is easily, explicitly answered for you, leaving you to ponder it for days, weeks, months, or even years.
I’m sorry that you have to read between the lines. (And there are so many lines.)
I’m sorry books don’t move, beep, flash, and change every so often in order to hold your interest.
I’m sorry they might make you uncomfortable or make you question something you’ve always believed to be true.
I’m sorry you have to wait for them to be written and published.
I’m sorry they cost money.

 

 

 

(I’m actually not sorry at all.)

You’d think super-heroes would learn…

(From Infinity Inc. #3, June 1984. Written by Roy Thomas. Art by Jerry Ordway and Mike Machlan.)