Happy holidays, everyone! Thanks for an awesome 2008
It's been a fantastic year, thanks to you folks. It's been an especially great year for me, writing-wise. The UK edition of Little Brother, my first young adult novel, is selling briskly, and the US edition is doing spectacularly, having just gone on to an eighth hardcover printing (the hardcover's selling so well that my publisher's delayed the paperback for a year!). The book's made just about everyone's best-of lists for 2008: the New York Times, the LA Times, the Washington Post, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Review, School Library Journal, Amazon Editors' Picks, Amazon top teen books, Richie's Picks, Book Sense, VOYA, TeenReads, Texas Library Association, io9 -- not to mention a whopping haul of awards and award-nominations: Emperor Norton Award, ALA's YALSA Award, Cybils Award, Prometheus Award, Ontario Library Association White Pine Award, the ALA Printz Award and the Nebula Award! My agents are doing some serious talking with a film studio (though nothing's ever final until it's signed and delivered), and there are more overseas publishers signing up every month to do their own editions.
Best of all is all the fan-stuff -- videos, art, readings, translations, adaptations... All the stuff that takes advantage of the Creative Commons license to remake Little Brother to better suit the readers (and man, do I get awesome email from readers, from security researchers at Microsoft to activist students in rural schools). And of course, I was floored by the generosity of the donors who sent hundreds of copies of the book to libraries, schools, halfway houses, and shelters as a way of saying thanks for the CC license.
Who the hell knows what'll happen in 2009? It's definitely the most uncertain new year I can remember. One thing I'm sure of, though, is that whatever happens, we'll all figure it out together, that the Internet will make it possible for us to bug-in and help each other here at home, rather than heading for a defensive position in the hills. Crappy economies are often the home of wonderful Bohemias. Two recessions ago, I dropped out of school to become a computer programmer. In the last one, I quit the company I'd co-founded and went to work for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Now that I'm a parent -- and now that I'm a little older -- I feel the risk a lot more keenly than I did then. But I just keep on remembering that we live in the best time in the history of the world to have a worst time: the time when collective action is cheaper and easier than ever, the time when more information and better access to tools, ideas and communities are at our fingertips than they've ever been.
Have a fantastic holiday. Remind the people who matter to you of that fact. Ring in the new year with a big grin, and I'll see you all in 2009.
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Thanks to you for the great writing, Cory. Looking forward to more in 2009!
As someone who is in approximately the same position as you were 'two recessions ago' this was very inspiring. Best of luck in the next year Cory, not sure how 2009 could possibly top a wedding and a birth, but I wish you all the best.
Great post, even more than usual, Cory. Uplifting, cheerful, thoughtful.
What you said is right, this is the best of the times for having a bad time... if you are a connected westerner. Hopefully, some day not so far, this will be truth for pretty much everybody.
No; thank you.
I loved little brother and you are wearing a shirt one of my friends made BTW! Awesome.
Thanks for your awesomeness, Cory. The kids of tomorrow will read you. And tomorrow, and tomorrow. Wintry Goodness to you & yours.
Hey Cory, "long time listener, first time caller".
babies are great. wives are great. good job!
if you're ever on the east coast, western MA to be precise, there's lots of great places for some one you're mind to speak. get out here and spread the good word! i'd be happy to help out.
Was that in 3D Cory? I had to climb to get my 3D specs, I feel you could've lunged more...
Super Happy Mutants Holdidays Cory!
2009 will be a great trip for sure... the 2012 is approching!
Joyeux Noel :)
Thanks for Little Brother - it's one of my favourite books of the year. All the best to you and yours over the holidays.
Happy Holidays Cory!
Thanks for the great books and your contributions to the BB.
I've said it before, and been quoted on it:
Cory Doctorow: The gift that keeps on giving.
Cheers to 2009, it can be worse but at least we are all smiling on the way...
Happy Holidays!
Happy holidays to you and your family!
Enjoy your holiday and thanks to you and the rest at BB.
Question: What is the definition of a bachelor?
Answer: A man who hasn't made the same mistake once.
I hope you married the right woman all three times, and I hope all three of them work out, otherwise you will be paying a lot of alimony. What was the motivation for marring her three times? Do you love her that much, or do you just like to get gifts?
Question: What is the perfect husband?
Answer: A man who can earn more than his wife can spend.
Question: What is the perfect wife?
Answer: A woman who has married a man who earns more than she can spend.
Merry Christmas, Cory, and a Happy New Year. ;)
Thanks to Corey and fellow BB contributors for attracting such an interesting comment crowd.
As far as change goes, 2009 is shaping up nicely, whether good or bad.
All the best Cory!
hi Cory and many thanks, your posting of my art stuff earlier in the year realy got things going for me i was a little unprepared for the sheer volume of interest created, havent gotten round to reading little brother yet but it sounds like im going to like it, all the best chap and thanks again.
I've intended to write a novel for a long time and haven't been able to get myself to finish anything, I'd like to say thanks for planting the idea of the creative commons license in my head in regard to books. It's something I hadn't thought of, and obviously it seems to be working well for you in terms of the hype it generates (I haven't read the book yet but I'd bet it also has something to do with it being well written). I'm not sure if my ideas would be well suited to being "remixed" but it's an inspiring success story and it leads me to want to take the same route with anything I might create.
Like many others, I hadn't exactly thought of creative commons outside of the realm of music, but it makes perfect sense for it to be applied to any medium, and the culture of people who will pay for things simply to reward the person who gave it to them for free is so refreshing next to the fearful and creatively stifling one that exists now.
I'm imagining a major hollywood blockbuster, complete with special effects, released under creative commons, with the original cut available for download on the internet, being edited and reedited by nerds with iMovie everywhere, sent back to the studio with improvements included, or removed. Maybe someday we'll be getting remixed versions of films released in theatres alongside the originals. I can only imagine what it would've done for the call and response crowd of the Rocky Horror Picture Show to have had that film released under creative commons.
Okay, tangential thought process is over now. I'm late for work and my car is snowed in. Congratulations on everything, my year was pretty good too, all things considered.
Happy Holidays Cory
Round these parts, we don't shine to a fancy book writin city feller marryin a girl 3 times. Might be best if you were to get yourself scarce for a few weeks.
Three weddings! Reminds me of a limerick:
There was an old fellow of Lime,
who had married three wives at one time.
When asked "Why the third?"
He replied "One's absurd,
and bigamy, sir, is a crime."
Happiest hols to you and yours, Cory.
I'll be celebrating New Year's Eve Eve with
the traditional pot of glogg (you will have
to imagine the umlaut).
Little Brother changed my son's life. An ADD kid, a rabid videogame player, he never read for pleasure. Ever. I preordered a copy of Little Brother and read it through in one sitting outside in my backyard over one amazing Sunday afternoon. It got inside me and sparked my imagination, recaptured a vibe from science fiction that I had not felt in a very long time.
Cory embarked on his tour supporting the book, and I had the great privilege of attending the signing near Milwaukee. I stayed after the reading and was able to spend some time there. We talked about the Scribd vs. SFWA flap, and Cory signed my copy of the hardcover. But in the spirit of the protagonist of the book, I asked Cory to sign it for my then 14 year old geek son who never read for pleasure.
I took the book home and gave it to my son, who accepted it an promptly ignored it. The summer arrived and he spent his nights online and his days sleeping. I woke early one morning to play racquetball before work, and my son rushed out of his room. "Dad, I started that book you gave me, and it's freakin' awesome!" He finished it the following night and in a burst of passion, wrote
a message to Cory on the small whiteboard we keep in the kitchen. Since then E has shared his copy of the book with his buddies and has shown an interest in things he wasn't interested in before; the political process, personal rights and freedoms, how technology rubs shoulders with all that, and so on. He's also been more open to reading, although he's having a hard time finding books like Little Brother. There was a vibe there that resonated with him, and I daresay a message, and he's looking for more of that.
We're both looking forward to "For The Win," (which I hope is spelled FTW).
My daughter just wrote a paper based on LB for school. When I proof read it for her it took tremendous restraint to avoid embarrassing her with my pride!
It's been too long a time since I was as passionate and enthusiastic about a book as I was over 'Little Brother'. Thanks again, Cory, and Happy New Year!
cory, bestofluck in the new year! as far as i am concerned, it is already better than '08. enjoy the holidaze, but get back here soon, as we will be missin ya! may the solstice bring all the happiness and joy that you can stand. peace to you and yours-the Rev. Min T. Phresh
Merry Christmas, Cory! Thanks for all the help; I'll toss you a copy of the paper when it's done.
Cory, thanks for sharing Little Brother with us, especially for my daughter.
Congrats and keep up the good work! Keep that Skeletool CX handy and protect it well from the delusional fangs of the TSA:)
Very well said Cory. I think your book very well deserves all this praise and success. It would be great to let some indie movie studio adapt it to the screen provided they would flesh out the DHS a bit more, because imho in your book they are too much depicted as the USA's "axis of evil" :D without showing the grey shades of their dark endeavours.
And full Kudos on your remark on 2009, you are soo right :). Couldn't have said that better, I'm so glad to be born in this time and this place (Europe) :). I don't know how I would and could even live without the Internet and the connections that are only possible via it :).
Happy Holidays, and hope you get some new goggles and a cape for 2009! ;-)
Rejoice and squeeze every drop, this is the summer of your life.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year, Cory!
Hey Cory - I don't know you personally, but I'd like to send you my best and congratulate you on your amazing year. You're an inspiration... bit gushing to say it, but it's true. Have a good one.
Cory, I can honestly say that I really discovered your writing this year. I followed you for a long time but never picked up anything. I was skeptical. This year, I found you have written some stuff that reaches directly into me. Thanks.
Happy Holidays, Cory and the rest of the BoingBoing crew. Can I leave a little holiday music for you? Lets see.... http://ian.coastpedalboards.com/sounds/silent-night.mp3 -- does that work? Enjoy.
I was in the book shop getting a couple of books for the kids for chrimbo and they were in a 3 for 2 offer, so I scouted the shop for something for me (the true spirit of christmas) Little Brother jumped out at me, and Neil Gaimans comment sold it to me as soon as I read it.
The Bus journey on the way home seemed to fly by, as did the first few chapters. I have never read anything which seemed so much like it was written for me. From the digs at M$ to the worries about our freedom. Thank you Cory for what will probably be my best chrimbo present... even though I bought it myself.
Merry Chrimbo from the UK, may your presents be free of tracking devices.
2008 has sucked donkey privates for me, but it's nice to hear someone had a good year.
happy xmas cory, keep it up. Your books are always an inspiration
Here's to an equally great 2009.
I'm glad that, throughout all this success, you continue to contribute to BoingBoing. Your posts are always worth reading, and I think I'll give Little Brother a look, too.
Cory,
It was a pleasure to do readings of your stories which were full of imagination and humor.
I won't blow your reader demographics by saying hold old I am. I'll just say that some of the Sci-Fi in my library has 25 or 35 cents on the cover.
Have a great 2009.
Roy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg1bj-6HmWQ
Ah, I recognize the "bad TV" filter for Final Cut Pro anywhere!
Enjoy your holidays, Cory, and keep up the great work!
hi Cory,
A couple of sentences at the end of your post really capture the realism+optimism that I think is needed today. Quoted them and linked back here:
http://www.realitysandwich.com/podcast_alembic_13
And the comment above on Little Brother from JOHNE COOK was moving.
peace & insight in 2009 -
Andy