Little Brother signing tonight in Mequon, WI
Tonight, I'm giving a talk, reading and signing for my book Little Brother in Mequon, WI, outside of Milwaukee -- hope to see you there:
HARRY W. SCHWARTZ BOOKSHOP
10976 N. Port Washington Rd.
Mequon, WI 53092
PH: 262-241-6220
7PM-8:30PM
Link to tour schedule
the latest
latest episodes
H Cry. ws wndrng f y cld d m fvr n th ftr. rspct th rght tht y s BngBng.nt s plc t dvrts yr bk, nd blv tht y hv vry rght t d tht.
hv hwvr ntcd n ncrsng trnd n yr psts bcmng tbgrphcl, tht s t sy tht vr th yrs 'v bn rdng bngbng, 'v ntcd mr nd mr f yr psts thr bt yr bk sgnngs, nstrctbls bsd n yr bk(whch prsnlly fnd vr th ln), bt thngs y'v wrttn, r psts cntnng lnks t yr thr wbsts. 'm nt gng t crtcz y fr ths, t's tgh gttng n's wrk t nt th mnstrm, nd Bngbng sms t b th prfct tl fr y t d tht.
Tht sd, wld hp tht y cn rcgnz tht m nt gng t b byng yr bk, nd th cnstnt psts bt t r gttng mldly nnyng. ws thnkng, tht f y cld d th ntrnt fvr, nd tg/ctgrz ll yr pst lttl mr thrghly nd cnsstntly (, tggng ll psts bt Lttl Brthr 'Lttlbrthr') t wld mk my lf sr s cn crt yh pp r sm thr fltrtn mthd whrby cn kp myslf nfrmd bt th cpy fght, whl nt bng nndtd by vry sngl nstrctbls prjct nsprd by yr bk.
By prvdng ddtnl mtdt n th frm f tgs r ctgrs, y cn tk dvntg f crrnt tchnlgy nd mk t sr fr yr rdrs t gt nly th nws tht thy r ntrstd n.
T rcp, thnk yr prbbly vry gd wrtr, jst dn't rd yr prtclr brnd f fctn, nd (nd mny thr cmmntrs) wld b ncrdbly grtfl f y cknwldgd r vwpnt nd md t slghtly sr t gt th nws w wnt wtht fltrng ll f yr psts, r vry pst n th ctgry "bk."
Thnk y fr yr tm nd kp p th gd wrk.
Finally we Wisconsinites get something geeky-cool besides the Oshkosh EAA stuff
Hmmm... it's the only comment ever posted on BoingBoing by this commenter, and it's one telling Cory what he should and shouldn't post about.
In the drinking game, doesn't that mean taking a double shot?
I'm also highly amused by the chutzpah of saying By providing additional metadata in the form of tags or categories, you can take advantage of current technology and make it easier for your readers to get only the news that they are interested in.
Because, of course, we all know that Cory is an incompetent techno n00b who's never heard of tags or metadata.
To recap, I think your probably a very good writer, I just don't read your particular brand of fiction, and I (and many other commenters) would be incredibly grateful if you acknowledged our viewpoint and made it slightly easier to get the news we want without filtering all of your posts, or every post in the category "book."
The sense of entitlement is breathtaking.
Cory,
Keep pluggin' away. If I don't care about what you're selling I'll skip to the next article.
Folks - It's. just. that. easy.
MY criticism is that you won't be in Milwaukee Proper for this tour. Would love to treat you to a fish fry, purely on the meritss of Boing Boing and 'Down & out in the Magic Kingdom'.
How much beer can you drink, anyway?
I appreciate the book updates. I only met Cory Wednesday night because he posted his tour schedule here. I'd never attended a book event before and wasn't sure what to expect. The reading was lovely, but my favorite part was Cory talking about his work. Listening to artists talk about their craft inspires me. I still have an extra buzz of happy from participating.
If you are on the fence about attending a reading, just go. If you aren't sure what to expect, call the bookstore and ask. Now that I've gone to a reading, I'm on the lookout for more to attend.
Cory, thanks for answering all my questions. You were great!
Kelly
In the drinking game, doesn't that mean taking a double shot?
That is an excellent question. I will survey the group. I'm also thinking that a comment that says "to recap" might also require a shot.
Lexica, that looked like a reasonably polite request to me, not the sort of whiney demand that I associate with a strong sense of entitlement.
Avram, I've seen Teresa say more than once that telling the BBers what they should and shouldn't post about is not an acceptable topic for commenting, and that people who do so can expect to get disemvoweled. My remark about the sense of entitlement may well be coming from my cumulative annoyance at having seen comment after comment after comment telling Cory to stop posting about Little Brother. However, I'm at work and don't have time to track down one of the comments where Teresa said so right now — if someone else can provide a pointer, that would be most appreciated. (Antinous? Takuan? One of y'all who are in every thread?) Otherwise, I'll have to follow up on that later today.
Whether the tone of the comment is whiny or not, I think telling a blogger what they should or shouldn't post about on their own blog is out of line and unwelcome.
Mequon is a bit more north than just "outside of Milwaukee." I Google mapped it and decided it was too far from northern Illinois, especially with having to deal with traffic driving through Milwaukee.
Shouldda caught ya in Naperville, Cory.
Another person bothering to tell us he won't be buying Cory's book means I'm buying another free book for some library or teacher. This time I'll send a couple to Minneapolis in memory of John M. Ford, who I never met but miss anyway.
I think telling a blogger what they should or shouldn't post about on their own blog is out of line and unwelcome.
I concur. I extra-specially concur because he's asking for subject tags which are specially designed for his likes and dislikes. Having a 'littlebrother' tag might make his life more convenient (under the 'scrolling is onerous' doctrine), but it would complicate other peoples', particularly the Boingers. One of the reasons that this blog is lively is that the Boingers cast their nets wide and fast. Everything isn't carefully fact-checked, things are spelled wrong, stuff gets reposted. Asking the Boingers to take on extra work, for free, seems like a pretty fat sense of entitlement to me.
Asking the Boingers to take on extra work, for free, seems like a pretty fat sense of entitlement to me.
If politely asking someone to type one extra word on certain posts demonstrates "a pretty fat sense of entitlement", then how do you describe the people who rudely demand that Cory stop posting about his books (or steampunk, or whatever)?
I'm from Mequon (though live in NYC now) - and seeing it on BoinBoing gave me a double take. I wish I could go! I think Cory's doing at Schwartz's Bookstore in the 'Quon because it's one of the last independent books stores left in the area.
how do you describe the people who rudely demand that Cory stop posting about his books
Motherfuckers? Think about it. I want you to provide me with the information that I want, but I'm unwilling to pay any attention to anything that might benefit you. I want my content to be free, but I refuse to experience any of the advertising that pays for the free content. So who pays for the user experience? It's profoundly selfish.
Not to mention that the time he spent typing it up was probably longer than the time it would have taken to just scroll past the posts he didn't want to read.
No one is holding a gun to your head to read every single word on the site.
Some very capable and savvy people suggest where to hold events like this. The Mequon event was really fun, and this was a great venue for this kind of thing.
There was a good turnout and a nice cross-section of fans, from young to seasoned. Cory led with the 'Schenectady' saw in reply to the 'where to you get your ideas from' question. I love that bit. But then he talked about writing a page or two per day, setting rough milestones, how ideas were like bits of yarn or a treasured junk drawer, and how BoingBoing was like his junk drawer, a place to post ideas to come back and mine later.
I wrote down a bunch of things he said during the Q&A, tidbits like how Alice came up with the idea for the title of the book, how the focus for "Little Brother" was 'clearly YA' from the beginning, and how writing in the voice of the 17 year old was altogether too easy.
I met an engineer named Erik who asked about the RealID thing here in America. Cory talked about how that leads to a data retention problem, and related a chilling anedote about Denmark. He said he was speaking to a group of danes about data retention and the problems that spring from there, and they said they knew all about it. They said they used to keep comprehensive records about their people so they could 'provide more comprehensive social programs,' which was all well and good in the hands of a responsible government. But in WWII, when invaders rolled through the country and appropriated those filing cabinets of data, that information was used to identify who to put on train cars. He said they don't do that anymore. That could be the understatement of the century.
The passage Cory read from was perfect for the purpose - amusing, fast-moving, dramatic in places, with a sobering climax at a social gathering. He took questions before and after the reading, and signed books and posed for pictures. The time went too fast.
It was a fun evening, and I recommend turning out to see Cory if he's ever within driving distance - it's a smart, thought-provoking, fast-moving experience. Cory is a natural speaker, a formidable thinker, and a storyteller whose powers are still increasing. Don't miss out.
I most enjoyed hearing about what he's working on next, an expansion of one of my favorite Doctorow short stories. I can't wait.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28473049@N00/sets/72157605095888252/
ha @ #1
Does Freddy's Frozen Custard still exist in Mequon? It was basically like Kopps.
#9 I would say Mequon is 10 miles north of Milwaukee, close enough.
traffic in Milwaukee is nothing compared to driving the Chicago Loop. I live on Milwaukee's south side (Bay View!) and can get anywhere in Milwaukee within 15 minutes. It's not bad as long as you don't drive during rush hour. In which case it takes up to 30 minutes, assuming you're not dealing with the gridlock that comes from the exurban sprawl that lays west on I-94.
That said, I share #4's criticism of this being in Mequon rather than "Milwaukee Proper." I don't know how much of a sympathetic audience you'd get in Mequon. But then it is at Harry Schwartz Books. As one of the last independent bookstores (and places) in Mequon, I imagine it might draw a decent audience. Though it'd be better at Schwartz's Downer Street location in Milwaukee. ;->
Ww, crtnly nt th rspns ws xpctng.
@Lxc: Yr rspns t m s, n my rdng, ncrdbly rd, nd mks m wndr why y bthrd t rply t my pst t ll. Yr vry frst rmrk s tht m ttmptng t tll Cry wht h cn nd cn nt pst bt, nd wld chllng y t shw m whr xctly sy nythng lk tht.
t pprs tht w bth hv ntcd th sm prblm, lts nd lts f cmmnts pst by th frqncy f Lttl Brthr psts. Hwvr, y'v ssmd tht my cmmnt ttmpts t rstrct Cry's pstng hbts whn n fct m smply sggstng tht by tggng ll hs Lttl Brthr pst ccrdngly, cn fltr th nws wnt. ndrstnd tht m skng smn ls t d mr wrk, bt hvng blg f my wn prsnlly dn't thnk tht ddng n ddtnl tg t crtn psts wll ncnvnnc nyn fmlr wth th Mvbl Typ blggng pltfrm.
rlly dn't thnk tht my rqst ws nrsnbl r "nttld" bt f cld pst t gn, mght rphrs s cn ndrstnd hw my dscssn f mtdt my ppr cndscndng.
ltmtly, Lxc, blv yr rspns t m ws mtvtd nt by wht sd, bt by th mny prvs cmmnts tht hv ttmptd t dctt wht Cry cn nd cn't pst bt. Yr rspns t my vry frst cmmnt n BngBng mks m ncrdbly dsppntd wth th mdrtn systm, nd wht 'd hpd ws wy fr srs t cmmnct wth "bngbng" s, t lst n my mnd, smply wy fr mdrtrs t crtcz nyn wh dsgrs r ffrs sggstns fr mprvmnts. Thnks fr yr tm.
JdiBoise -- Lexica is not (as far as I know) a moderator. Teresa Nielsen Hayden is the official moderator here, and last I heard, Antinous and myself were her only two assistants.
I want to say thanks to Cory for the post. I was able to make the reading/signing because it was very close for me (I was the one who mentioned the CN tower). Cory, you are a great speaker. Keep up the good work.
ps, my bd, 'm srry, mstknly ssctd th lnk cn fllwng hr nm fr mdrtr ndctr, pls gnr my gnrnc :)
I suppose to be fair we must assume there is certain amount of innocent "calling the Librarian a monkey". That won't change the results but it does explain a few.
Avram, Antinous, Cory, check your mail.
...
The disemvowelling of JDIBoise was vox populi. One seldom sees a non-spam comment get that many bad eyeballs.
Carl Rigney: Me too.
What would I call these people that keep bitching about Little Brother? Thick as two short planks, would be one way to put it. Not very observant. They claim that they've gotten tired of reading all these posts about Little Brother, but they don't seem to have come into contact with any of the previous comment-thread replies to nearly identical questions.
Reasons to talk about Little Brother:
1. Many Boing Boing readers have expressed a strong interest in hearing reports on what's up with it.
2. Cory is touring in support of this book, and he's giving people information about his personal appearances and other goings-on connected with the book.
3. The book's been getting extraordinary reviews and attention, and it just made the NYTimes Bestseller List.
4. The book is part of Cory's long-term engagement with some very important political issues that are frequently discussed at Boing Boing.
...
Nevertheless, they go on complaining.
Are they all just being dumb? Alas, no. There are also people who feel personally put down when they hear someone else talk about good stuff that's happening to them -- as though good stuff were a zero-sum game. (See also: "Harrison Bergeron".) People who see the world that way tend to have it in for Cory. Near as I can tell, his genuinely benevolent enthusiasm is beyond their imagination.
Johne Cook @16:
True! Some very capable and savvy people started strategizing and planning this tour a year ago, and have been running themselves ragged to make sure it all goes off smoothly. I wonder whether DOT LIN will find this thread if I give her a namecheck?JDIBoise, I doubt you know what motivated Lexica -- or do you want to have a go at explaining all the other Boing Boing readers who flagged your comments as questionable or troublesome?
By the pricking of my ears, you're a troll. You bring far too much enthusiasm to being offended.
Remember Star Jones...
How do I find the rules for the drinking game?