February 26, 2014
Full disclosure first: I’ve been married to a very successful literary agent for decades, and I’ve seen her operate and grow a company, so I am burdened with insider knowledge and opinions.
One of the things her company has is a dictum that they will not represent friends or family. So I wasn’t going to get represented by her company and had to fight – just like anyone else – to find representation. Which I did. I have both a literary agent and a film agent.
But, in light of the massive changes to hit the publishing industry, my lit agent couldn’t sell my technothrillers to a NY publisher. My choice was to DIY or give up, and since I’d come so close to a deal so many times, I was sure there was the quality in my work that might yield me success in self-publishing.
Now, I decided to self-publish at the turn of this year and set myself a goal of publishing three of my works in series sequence this coming summer. I’d need a whole new set of skills. I know things regarding how publishing works, so crafting a budget and a schedule were easy. But, the rest – cover design, web site redesign, copyediting, publicity, social media – these were things writers tend to ignore until it’s too late. I’d have to learn them in a hurry.
My suggestion here is that if you are looking for a literary agent – regardless of whether you want a Trad Deal (contract with a large NYC publisher) or want to go Indie - you should find one who is an expert in the three four disciplines I mentioned in the previous paragraph.
In the distant past, literary agents were likely to have been editors at publishing house. They acted as guides for your manuscript, touring them through the editors working where they’d worked, hoping to find a home for our work. Since the really good ones had a wealth of experience at those publishing houses, they knew the publication process and could guide a writer from submission through book release. Today, unless you want a Trad Deal, this experience is worthless.
But, the new breed of literary agent still needs to know the publication process, even though it has assumed a totally new form. Self-published authors still need a guide. My advice to authors is, if you’re going to self-publish and you haven’t worked in Silicon Valley, you’ll need a literary agent who understands social media, so you can develop a willing audience desiring your content. Your agent should understand what makes a web site sticky, so you can treat Internet visitors to your blog entries and keep them happy. A good agent will understand that the book cover for both ebooks and print books is responsible for around 60% of the sales decision, and should have a cadre of cover design graphic designers who have been successful with your genre of book. Your agent should have worked with publicists who can offer their experience with publishing campaigns. With all this, your agent can be an effective guide through the new publishing process.
Oh, and one more. Know that you won’t receive an advance against revenues if you self-publish. It’ll all come out of your pocket. So you’d better have saved the cashish from your day job before you start. The good news is that you’ll gross 70% of the sales price (and on a $2.99 ebook that’s $2.21 per ebook) if you self-publish. With a Trad Deal, you’d net about 10% of net revenue (about $0.35 per ebook selling at $7.99)
In the past, literary agents earned 15% of your earnings. I believe your agent should still receive 15%. Some are charging a lot more. Caveat emptor!
So, remember, the opinions in this blog entry are mine alone. Stay safe if you can. No matter what you decide, happy writing!
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Monday, February 24, 2014
An Adventure in Self-Publishing - POST #3
February 24, 2014
I just received the proposal from the last publicist. Way too expensive. So now, I'm pretty sure I'll hirethe one I was leaning toward. As for the web site, Xuni.com looks reasonable. I have some concerns, but I'm running short of time.
When I've cast these last two decisions into stone, the only thing left will be to run the plan I've made.
Since there's lots at stake here, I'll hold off one more day so I can spend an hour talking with my wife, Andrea, She always gives good advice.
What I'll then have is:
It's everything a publisher would need. And that's what I'll be.
I just received the proposal from the last publicist. Way too expensive. So now, I'm pretty sure I'll hirethe one I was leaning toward. As for the web site, Xuni.com looks reasonable. I have some concerns, but I'm running short of time.
When I've cast these last two decisions into stone, the only thing left will be to run the plan I've made.
Since there's lots at stake here, I'll hold off one more day so I can spend an hour talking with my wife, Andrea, She always gives good advice.
What I'll then have is:
- a copyeditor
- a cover designer
- a publicist
- a web site designer
- and, a corporation for the endeavor.
It's everything a publisher would need. And that's what I'll be.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
An Adventure in Self-Publishing - POST #2
February 18, 2014
Okay, so now three weeks have passed since I posted on my great adventure. I now have a cover designer at work, and a copy editor fixing the first manuscript. My corporate attorney is forming a California "C" Corporation to handle revenues and expenses. And I'm about to select the publicist I need to help make my books a fungible commodity. I'll also need to revise my web site to make it look like that of an expert in the politics of the intelligence community; which I am.
Oh, and I'll need to revise my Excel spreadsheet with my budget and schedule in it. To download it for your own use, <click here: BLANK Publishing Schedule Events and Budget>.
Okay, so now three weeks have passed since I posted on my great adventure. I now have a cover designer at work, and a copy editor fixing the first manuscript. My corporate attorney is forming a California "C" Corporation to handle revenues and expenses. And I'm about to select the publicist I need to help make my books a fungible commodity. I'll also need to revise my web site to make it look like that of an expert in the politics of the intelligence community; which I am.
Oh, and I'll need to revise my Excel spreadsheet with my budget and schedule in it. To download it for your own use, <click here: BLANK Publishing Schedule Events and Budget>.
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
It Can’t Happen Here? Well, Maybe, But…
February 4, 2014
Anyone else see the economic, religious, political and cultural similarities between the United States today and Iran under the last days of the Shah?
In 1978, the Shah’s secret police, the Savak, had a death grip on the populations, fearing an uprising. They saw the uprising coming internally, but focused on military and political forces, and missed the entire cause of the unrest.
Iran in 1978 was emerging from a half-century of slow cultural diversification forced by the Shah. The country had a very small middle class. There was a growing religious right wing, whose power was deemed dangerous by the secret police. The military was clearly undecided regarding whose side they favored, and so were left out of the political equation.
The United States today is emerging from its most serious economic catastrophe in over seventy years. Our country’s middle class is swiftly growing smaller and more irrelevant as the gulf between rich and poor continues to leave the majority of Americans economically disenfranchised. The religious right wing is growing. The intelligence services – NSA, CIA, FBI, all see a growing threat within America from Americans. The political fringes – both right and left – are growing in power, leaving moderates and the military out of the “power” equation.
It’s a nightmare come true. And, we all remember how it ended up for Iran in 1979. As Frank Zappa sang with the Mothers of Invention so many decades ago, “It can’t happen here.” The song, by the way, was satire.
Was there anything that the Shah could have done to prevent his overthrow? What if he’d had a more open policy toward dissent? What if he’d gone even more the other way, and had the most repressive regime in human history? History seems to indicate that no given policy works forever, and many simply don’t work at all.
Is there a lesson here for us? Or has our regime begun to wind down? It’s an issue we should try to address, but I think it’s just too damn scary for anyone to ponder for very long, and no real answers are easy to come by.
Like global warming and the cigarettes-cause-cancer controversies, this one could play out for a long time. What comes to my mind is the old saw, ‘Nero fiddles while Rome burns.’
Anyone else see the economic, religious, political and cultural similarities between the United States today and Iran under the last days of the Shah?
In 1978, the Shah’s secret police, the Savak, had a death grip on the populations, fearing an uprising. They saw the uprising coming internally, but focused on military and political forces, and missed the entire cause of the unrest.
Iran in 1978 was emerging from a half-century of slow cultural diversification forced by the Shah. The country had a very small middle class. There was a growing religious right wing, whose power was deemed dangerous by the secret police. The military was clearly undecided regarding whose side they favored, and so were left out of the political equation.
The United States today is emerging from its most serious economic catastrophe in over seventy years. Our country’s middle class is swiftly growing smaller and more irrelevant as the gulf between rich and poor continues to leave the majority of Americans economically disenfranchised. The religious right wing is growing. The intelligence services – NSA, CIA, FBI, all see a growing threat within America from Americans. The political fringes – both right and left – are growing in power, leaving moderates and the military out of the “power” equation.
It’s a nightmare come true. And, we all remember how it ended up for Iran in 1979. As Frank Zappa sang with the Mothers of Invention so many decades ago, “It can’t happen here.” The song, by the way, was satire.
Was there anything that the Shah could have done to prevent his overthrow? What if he’d had a more open policy toward dissent? What if he’d gone even more the other way, and had the most repressive regime in human history? History seems to indicate that no given policy works forever, and many simply don’t work at all.
Is there a lesson here for us? Or has our regime begun to wind down? It’s an issue we should try to address, but I think it’s just too damn scary for anyone to ponder for very long, and no real answers are easy to come by.
Like global warming and the cigarettes-cause-cancer controversies, this one could play out for a long time. What comes to my mind is the old saw, ‘Nero fiddles while Rome burns.’
It Can’t Happen Here? Well, Maybe, But…
March 3, 2014
Anyone else see the economic, religious, political and cultural similarities between the United States today and Iran under the last days of the Shah?
In 1978, the Shah’s secret police, the Savak, had a death grip on the populations, fearing an uprising. They saw the uprising coming internally, but focused on military and political forces, and missed the entire cause of the unrest.
Iran in 1978 was emerging from a half-century of slow cultural diversification forced by the Shah. The country had a very small middle class. There was a growing religious right wing, whose power was deemed dangerous by the secret police. The military was clearly undecided regarding whose side they favored, and so were left out of the political equation.
The United States today is emerging from its most serious economic catastrophe in over seventy years. Our country’s middle class is swiftly growing smaller and more irrelevant as the gulf between rich and poor continues to leave the majority of Americans economically disenfranchised. The religious right wing is growing. The intelligence services – NSA, CIA, FBI, all see a growing threat within America from Americans. The political fringes – both right and left – are growing in power, leaving moderates and the military out of the “power” equation.
It’s a nightmare come true. And, we all remember how it ended up for Iran in 1979. As Frank Zappa sang with the Mothers of Invention so many decades ago, “It can’t happen here.” The song, by the way, was satire.
Was there anything that the Shah could have done to prevent his overthrow? What if he’d had a more open policy toward dissent? What if he’d gone even more the other way, and had the most repressive regime in human history? History seems to indicate that no given policy works forever, and many simply don’t work at all.
Is there a lesson here for us? Or has our regime begun to wind down? It’s an issue we should try to address, but I think it’s just too damn scary for anyone to ponder for very long, and no real answers are easy to come by.
Like global warming and the cigarettes-cause-cancer controversies, this one could play out for a long time. What comes to my mind is the old saw, ‘Nero fiddles while Rome burns.’
Anyone else see the economic, religious, political and cultural similarities between the United States today and Iran under the last days of the Shah?
In 1978, the Shah’s secret police, the Savak, had a death grip on the populations, fearing an uprising. They saw the uprising coming internally, but focused on military and political forces, and missed the entire cause of the unrest.
Iran in 1978 was emerging from a half-century of slow cultural diversification forced by the Shah. The country had a very small middle class. There was a growing religious right wing, whose power was deemed dangerous by the secret police. The military was clearly undecided regarding whose side they favored, and so were left out of the political equation.
The United States today is emerging from its most serious economic catastrophe in over seventy years. Our country’s middle class is swiftly growing smaller and more irrelevant as the gulf between rich and poor continues to leave the majority of Americans economically disenfranchised. The religious right wing is growing. The intelligence services – NSA, CIA, FBI, all see a growing threat within America from Americans. The political fringes – both right and left – are growing in power, leaving moderates and the military out of the “power” equation.
It’s a nightmare come true. And, we all remember how it ended up for Iran in 1979. As Frank Zappa sang with the Mothers of Invention so many decades ago, “It can’t happen here.” The song, by the way, was satire.
Was there anything that the Shah could have done to prevent his overthrow? What if he’d had a more open policy toward dissent? What if he’d gone even more the other way, and had the most repressive regime in human history? History seems to indicate that no given policy works forever, and many simply don’t work at all.
Is there a lesson here for us? Or has our regime begun to wind down? It’s an issue we should try to address, but I think it’s just too damn scary for anyone to ponder for very long, and no real answers are easy to come by.
Like global warming and the cigarettes-cause-cancer controversies, this one could play out for a long time. What comes to my mind is the old saw, ‘Nero fiddles while Rome burns.’
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
An Adventure in Self-Publishing – POST #1
January 29, 2014
I’m now in the process of self-publishing the first three novels listed on my fiction page. I invite you to follow with me as I progress toward publication. In June, I’ll publish Bloodridge. Then in July, I’ll publish DeathByte. And, I August, Swiftshadow. In 2015, I’ll publish two more, and then I’ll publish the final book (so far) in the series.
I’ll record brief messages containing my failures and successes as I get ready to release these as paper an ebooks. If you’re a writer, you might be able to learn – real-time – from me. If you aren’t a writer, well, it’s the comedy and tragedy of every project ever done.
Current status:
Started the process on January 1 after speaking with my literary agent. Created a budget and a schedule using Excel. Sent RFPs (Requests for Proposal) out to cover designers, publicists and copy-editors over the last two weeks. Now in the process of final selection. ETA for these events is the end of January.
More updates will follow soon.
I’m now in the process of self-publishing the first three novels listed on my fiction page. I invite you to follow with me as I progress toward publication. In June, I’ll publish Bloodridge. Then in July, I’ll publish DeathByte. And, I August, Swiftshadow. In 2015, I’ll publish two more, and then I’ll publish the final book (so far) in the series.
I’ll record brief messages containing my failures and successes as I get ready to release these as paper an ebooks. If you’re a writer, you might be able to learn – real-time – from me. If you aren’t a writer, well, it’s the comedy and tragedy of every project ever done.
Current status:
Started the process on January 1 after speaking with my literary agent. Created a budget and a schedule using Excel. Sent RFPs (Requests for Proposal) out to cover designers, publicists and copy-editors over the last two weeks. Now in the process of final selection. ETA for these events is the end of January.
More updates will follow soon.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Inside the movie “Inside Llewyn Davis”
January 21, 2014
Yesterday, my wife and I saw the movie and it brought back memories of Greenwich Village in the 1960s.
When I was 12, my mother insisted I learn to play a musical instrument. She wanted me to play piano, but I was hopelessly inept. Then she settled on trumpet, but once again, I wasn’t interested. But, after seeing an Elvis Presley movie and watching my female classmates react to him, I decided I would learn guitar. And, motivated by anticipating the stir I hoped to create in young women, I sought a guitar teacher.
Walking through Washington Square on a Sunday in April, I saw plenty of guitarists, playing blues and folk music and hoping for tips. One of these, a tall, heavy bearded man with a Louis Armstrong tone to his voice, was Dave Van Ronk. I listened for a few songs, then asked if he taught guitar. He said, “Yes, until my album is released. Two months. Six lessons, one per week.” He told me everything I needed to know, and I begged my parents for the cash.
In six weeks of hard work, I could fingerpick blues. On my first visit, I tripped over the sleeping body of Bob Dylan, who was crashing under the kitchen sink of Dave and Terry’s apartment that week. By the time I got to college, I could make enough money playing gigs to pay my way through school.
Dave Van Ronk visited Tufts University in 1966 for a gig at the Embroglio, the University’s large coffee house. I opened for him. It was a frosty night and he’d damaged his right hand when a car door closed on it. He pulled a bottle of Carmel Hoc wine from the guitar case and turned to the small group of us in the tiny room above the club, and said, “Gentlemen, to sing blues, you must feel pain.” He held up his damaged hand. “Real pain.”
I met and played with Chris Smither in front of over a thousand people at a concert at Boston University. Had I wanted, I could have had a similar struggle as my career. But I hadn’t the courage and settled instead for a career in business. I have no regrets, but the memories are wonderful.
The album “Inside Dave Van Ronk” is what is featured in the movie “Inside Llewyn Davis” as the precursor to the movie’s events. Dave became “the mayor of McDougal Street.” If you wanted to play a gig in Greenwich Village, you got the gig through him.
The last time I saw Dave was about ten years ago, at a club in San Francisco. He died of colon cancer a few years ago. All I have of him is every album he recorded and my memories of a grizzly bear of a man. I sorely miss him. The movie, “Inside Llewyn Davis,” accurately depicts the life of this folk hero.
Yesterday, my wife and I saw the movie and it brought back memories of Greenwich Village in the 1960s.
When I was 12, my mother insisted I learn to play a musical instrument. She wanted me to play piano, but I was hopelessly inept. Then she settled on trumpet, but once again, I wasn’t interested. But, after seeing an Elvis Presley movie and watching my female classmates react to him, I decided I would learn guitar. And, motivated by anticipating the stir I hoped to create in young women, I sought a guitar teacher.
Walking through Washington Square on a Sunday in April, I saw plenty of guitarists, playing blues and folk music and hoping for tips. One of these, a tall, heavy bearded man with a Louis Armstrong tone to his voice, was Dave Van Ronk. I listened for a few songs, then asked if he taught guitar. He said, “Yes, until my album is released. Two months. Six lessons, one per week.” He told me everything I needed to know, and I begged my parents for the cash.
In six weeks of hard work, I could fingerpick blues. On my first visit, I tripped over the sleeping body of Bob Dylan, who was crashing under the kitchen sink of Dave and Terry’s apartment that week. By the time I got to college, I could make enough money playing gigs to pay my way through school.
Dave Van Ronk visited Tufts University in 1966 for a gig at the Embroglio, the University’s large coffee house. I opened for him. It was a frosty night and he’d damaged his right hand when a car door closed on it. He pulled a bottle of Carmel Hoc wine from the guitar case and turned to the small group of us in the tiny room above the club, and said, “Gentlemen, to sing blues, you must feel pain.” He held up his damaged hand. “Real pain.”
I met and played with Chris Smither in front of over a thousand people at a concert at Boston University. Had I wanted, I could have had a similar struggle as my career. But I hadn’t the courage and settled instead for a career in business. I have no regrets, but the memories are wonderful.
The album “Inside Dave Van Ronk” is what is featured in the movie “Inside Llewyn Davis” as the precursor to the movie’s events. Dave became “the mayor of McDougal Street.” If you wanted to play a gig in Greenwich Village, you got the gig through him.
The last time I saw Dave was about ten years ago, at a club in San Francisco. He died of colon cancer a few years ago. All I have of him is every album he recorded and my memories of a grizzly bear of a man. I sorely miss him. The movie, “Inside Llewyn Davis,” accurately depicts the life of this folk hero.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Edward Snowden is Just The Tip of the Iceberg
October 6, 2013, D. S. Kane
For over a decade, the United States has waged war on hackers while it has simultaneously hacked into the lives of its own citizens "to protect us" from ourselves.
Since the beginning of the Snowden scandal, my friends have asked if I believe he is a hero or a traitor. For months, I've pondered an answer, since both answers have very little merit.
Snowden exposed the NSA' s despicable behavior, and for that, he is a hero. The best outcome would be a national debate leading to a national policy the majority of voters could approve (or reject). The worst outcome would be what has happened so far: Snowden is a wanted criminal, the NSA continues to hack into everyone's identities with impunity, and the hacker community is furious to the point where there will be many, many more Snowdens in our future.
In his thriller novel Black List, Brad Thor envisions a world where new technologies lead to the increasing loss of our personal privacy and inevitably leads to the total loss of our personal liberty.
It's a two-edged sword. Much that the government does for us is beneficial. My tolerance diminishes when it comes to personal privacy and liberty. Which is the sole province of our country's intelligence agencies and services. Those 1,200 organizations now number in excess of 1.4 million people. Way too much manpower unless you fear an uprising. And given the huge and expanding gulf in power and wealth between rich and poor, is that so far fetched?
So, maybe we've ignored the bigger issue. Washington is like an onion. Every scandal is a cover-up for a larger, more important issue:
This country is no longer a democracy, and hasn't been since we turned past the millennia. What we now have governing us is a group of idiots. And they control us using spy agencies and clandestine services. Maybe that's the bigger secret here. But if that's true, then I can only view Snowden as a hero.
For over a decade, the United States has waged war on hackers while it has simultaneously hacked into the lives of its own citizens "to protect us" from ourselves.
Since the beginning of the Snowden scandal, my friends have asked if I believe he is a hero or a traitor. For months, I've pondered an answer, since both answers have very little merit.
Snowden exposed the NSA' s despicable behavior, and for that, he is a hero. The best outcome would be a national debate leading to a national policy the majority of voters could approve (or reject). The worst outcome would be what has happened so far: Snowden is a wanted criminal, the NSA continues to hack into everyone's identities with impunity, and the hacker community is furious to the point where there will be many, many more Snowdens in our future.
In his thriller novel Black List, Brad Thor envisions a world where new technologies lead to the increasing loss of our personal privacy and inevitably leads to the total loss of our personal liberty.
It's a two-edged sword. Much that the government does for us is beneficial. My tolerance diminishes when it comes to personal privacy and liberty. Which is the sole province of our country's intelligence agencies and services. Those 1,200 organizations now number in excess of 1.4 million people. Way too much manpower unless you fear an uprising. And given the huge and expanding gulf in power and wealth between rich and poor, is that so far fetched?
So, maybe we've ignored the bigger issue. Washington is like an onion. Every scandal is a cover-up for a larger, more important issue:
This country is no longer a democracy, and hasn't been since we turned past the millennia. What we now have governing us is a group of idiots. And they control us using spy agencies and clandestine services. Maybe that's the bigger secret here. But if that's true, then I can only view Snowden as a hero.
Friday, February 22, 2013
3D Printing will Change Our World
February 22, 2013
One of the most interesting tech developments since nanotechnology, 3D printers may change the world faster than the personal computer did.
Imagine 3D printed body organs, crafted from 3D printed stem cells and transplanted lacroscopically. My guess is within five years. I've been following this one for a while. Kidney transplants, heart transplants, bypass surgery, pancreas transplants, breast reconstruction, dental tooth replacement, hip and knee replacement, might all be possible soon, by extractting an individual's stem cells or the cells from the actual organ within the body, copying them, and using the 3D software and printer to craft them into organs which won't be rejected. Read the entire article for a vision of this brave new world.
When I spoke with my friend Greg Koss about this, he responded:
The 3D printing idea might take some plausibly interesting turns.
Imagine you can take a picture of a key with your phone. An app will scan the image of the key, and then a 3D printer will make a copy.
Take that model a step further. Imagine using an app to quickly turn regular text into Braille to hide it from someone in plain sight.
The current media for 3D printers are restricted to plastic. But the plastic can be coated with any number of substances. Imagine using the plastic as essentially a lost wax process to create metal parts when needed. Now you can create fairly high tolerance metal parts from scratch or by photographing something.
Greg’s vision is spot on.
Let’s assume you’re working in an intelligence service and have to travel. You’ll need to change your identity and arm yourself when you arrive. How about using a 3D printer to produce a weapon? After you travel, take the photos of what you need to have to a cobbler and leave a few hours later with a gun, ammunition, a new passport, driver’s license, credit cards and other tradecraft necessities. Soon, very soon, this will be a nasty tradecraft reality.
One of the most interesting tech developments since nanotechnology, 3D printers may change the world faster than the personal computer did.
Imagine 3D printed body organs, crafted from 3D printed stem cells and transplanted lacroscopically. My guess is within five years. I've been following this one for a while. Kidney transplants, heart transplants, bypass surgery, pancreas transplants, breast reconstruction, dental tooth replacement, hip and knee replacement, might all be possible soon, by extractting an individual's stem cells or the cells from the actual organ within the body, copying them, and using the 3D software and printer to craft them into organs which won't be rejected. Read the entire article for a vision of this brave new world.
When I spoke with my friend Greg Koss about this, he responded:
The 3D printing idea might take some plausibly interesting turns.
Imagine you can take a picture of a key with your phone. An app will scan the image of the key, and then a 3D printer will make a copy.
Take that model a step further. Imagine using an app to quickly turn regular text into Braille to hide it from someone in plain sight.
The current media for 3D printers are restricted to plastic. But the plastic can be coated with any number of substances. Imagine using the plastic as essentially a lost wax process to create metal parts when needed. Now you can create fairly high tolerance metal parts from scratch or by photographing something.
Greg’s vision is spot on.
Let’s assume you’re working in an intelligence service and have to travel. You’ll need to change your identity and arm yourself when you arrive. How about using a 3D printer to produce a weapon? After you travel, take the photos of what you need to have to a cobbler and leave a few hours later with a gun, ammunition, a new passport, driver’s license, credit cards and other tradecraft necessities. Soon, very soon, this will be a nasty tradecraft reality.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Return of the Law of Unanticipated Consequences
December 19, 2012
A few months ago, my wife and I dined at a French
restaurant. We were in withdrawal concerning the law prohibiting the sale of
foie gras in California, where we live. I mentioned our unhappiness to the
waiter. He said, “True, we can’t sell it anymore. So, we give it away. The law
doesn’t prohibit free foie. There are dishes which aren’t on the menu, and when
you order them, for example a plain green salad, you can ask for it to be
topped with foie.”
I asked, “How would we know about them if they’re not on the
menu?”
He replied, “You just asked about them.” He smiled.
I asked how much the salad is and he replied, “It’s thirty
dollars.”
More expensive for a salad than for steak. But for someone
who wants the product and knows the “password,” it’s still available.
The moral for us all, is that capitalism always seeks to
find a way. You may find the work-around
difficult to find. You may find it to be nasty, but there will always be a
work-around.
Return of the Law of Unanticipated Consequences
December 19, 2012
A few months ago, my wife and I dined at a French restaurant. We were in withdrawal concerning the law prohibiting the sale of foie gras in California, where we live. I mentioned our unhappiness to the waiter. He said, “True, we can’t sell it anymore. So, we give it away. The law doesn’t prohibit free foie. There are dishes which aren’t on the menu, and when you order them, for example a plain green salad, you can ask for it to be topped with foie.”
I asked, “How would we know about them if they’re not on the menu?”
He replied, “You just asked about them.” He smiled.
I asked how much the salad is and he replied, “It’s thirty dollars.”
More expensive for a salad than for steak. But for someone who wants the product and knows the “password,” it’s still available.
The moral for us all, is that capitalism always seeks to find a way. You may find the work-around difficult to find. You may find it to be nasty, but there will always be a work-around.
A few months ago, my wife and I dined at a French restaurant. We were in withdrawal concerning the law prohibiting the sale of foie gras in California, where we live. I mentioned our unhappiness to the waiter. He said, “True, we can’t sell it anymore. So, we give it away. The law doesn’t prohibit free foie. There are dishes which aren’t on the menu, and when you order them, for example a plain green salad, you can ask for it to be topped with foie.”
I asked, “How would we know about them if they’re not on the menu?”
He replied, “You just asked about them.” He smiled.
I asked how much the salad is and he replied, “It’s thirty dollars.”
More expensive for a salad than for steak. But for someone who wants the product and knows the “password,” it’s still available.
The moral for us all, is that capitalism always seeks to find a way. You may find the work-around difficult to find. You may find it to be nasty, but there will always be a work-around.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
China (PRC) is a Puzzle-Box
September 5, 2012
My wife and I just returned from a visit to Hong Kong and PRC. It was a vacation trip for her, research for me. And it was eye-popping. As a result, I’ll have to revise about fifty pages of the settings in my novels. As my friend Barry Eisler says, "Nothing beats first-hand research for writing fiction."
We bookended our trip in Hong Kong, both starting and finishing it there. Hong Kong is Manhattan on steroids. One of the major fictional characters in my espionage thrillers, William Wing, lives there, in the New Territories. I decided to visit the location where I’d put his residence. So, yes, I’m a bit crazy. Go figure. We ate in Fook Lam Moon, downtown on Johnson Street, the restaurant where I’d had one of my major fictional character Cassandra Sashakovich, dine. The food was superb. We also ate dim sum at the Dim Sum Bar and at Super Star Seafood, both extraordinary. Between the huge throngs walking the streets, the tall apartments, and the fastastic dim sum, Hong Kong was a dream.
Hong Kong is a shopper’s paradise, and fills its tiny island with over 20 million people. Everywhere you look, they are building or have already built skyscraper apartment buildings. I believe the residences make Manhattan condos look like a bargain.
In the PRC, we visited Beijing, Guilin, Yangshou, Hangzhou and Shanghai. It was an amazing experience, one I had wanted for years. So, what were my impressions of the PRC?
Mainland China is a puzzle-box. They are still mostly a third world country, but slowly – faster than I thought possible – becoming a mature nation with all the opportunities and problems faced by any leading world force. The cities are huge; 20 million or more in Beijing and Shanghai, 7 million in Hangzhou and Guilin. We only saw these coastal gems.
We saw rampant poverty alongside magnificent villas. Too many cars to believe. PRC has the same problem with income redistribution that America has, with too many poor and too little opportunity for them to advance. But, in China, they’re trying to remedy the problem. In America, we’re making it worse. And soon, if we don’t watch out, we’ll be China and they’ll be us.
Beijing is both ancient and administratively oriented. The buildings – the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, all look similar and very old, even restored they are full of character and show off what is ancient about the places they inhabit. We saw the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and, way far away from the city, Andrea (my wife) walked the Great Wall while I took some of the over 1,000 photos of our trip. Our guide Jesse often would tell us a story about one of the sights and include the footnote, “This has a hidden meaning.” Seems, much of the history of China is filled with double meanings or hidden meanings.
As you move from central Beijing toward the outer ring roads, the city could be anyplace suburban. Tall apartments and factories dot the landscape. By the time you reach the airport, outside Ring Road Six, the city seems light years away. The high point of our visit to Beijing was when our guide pointed to a building in the heart of downtown Band said, “See that building? It’s the Chinese CIA.” Can’t fault him for not knowing that I write espionage thrillers, but I copied the street address so I can use it in my books. The best food we had in Beijing was at a vegetarian restaurant. Most of the rest can’t compete with the Chinese food we get in San Francisco.
Guilin was a remarkable contrast to Beijing. Country clubs with golf courses and villas filled the approach to the city from the airport. The city was almost entirely modern and middle class, with patches of poverty, but no major places where things looked sodden. We saw a cavern that was totally amazing and I took hundreds of photos in the caves. That’s when it hit me: China is now organized to look like Disneyland. It is entirely commercial. We visited a jade factory, a silk factory, a Chinese medicinal pharmacy, and bought an entire suitcase filled with functional, useable souvenirs.
Anyone visiting China should take the boat ride from Guilin to Yangshou. Our guide Warren helped take photos while we ate the dinner served on the boat. The needle-shaped mountains jutting out from the shoreline are both photo-worthy and eye-popping. As for the merchandizers in Yangshou, run away as fast as you can. Especially if you’ve already had to buy one new suitcase and fill it with stuff you bought.
Hangzhou Was pleasant enough, but after what we’d already seen, not that interesting. ‘Nuff said.
Shanghai, on the other hand, was the most impressive piece of real estate we saw in PRC. An amazing skyline. Our guide Cindy showed us a bake shop where almost a thousand people waited on line to buy their delicious Moon Cakes. We bought and ate many. Yum! And, after the tour finished, we had the best and most expensive meal we’d ever eaten, at Jean Georges, located on the fourth floor of Bund Number Three. Of the six courses, four had foie gras. Fatty but delicious. Our wait staff person, Olivia, was a marvel. We wanted to take her home.
So then, why is China a puzzle-box? The easy answer is that they have shown how fast a country can change from a closed dictatorship with a communist view toward life, to a capitalistic and materialistic society, where the entire country is on sale as a commercial enterprise. How can they manage such fast change when our society refuses to change? They are still the ancient society they always were, but with the patience of expert planners. Their long view rivals that of Japan. In the United States, we don’t even make short range plans, only annual budgets. And, in our Congress, even those never get approved anymore. This single difference gives the Chinese a major competitive advantage we cannot match. But, China has its own problems, like nothing we can understand. It appears to me from what I saw, that people living in the PRC and Hong Kong are left on their own without a government safety net to cushion against bad joss. In the USA, we have welfare, Social Security and Medicare. But we also have a very nasty financial system, where in China and Hong Kong at least their financial system isn’t nearly as corrupt. In the Far East, there is the threat of starvation motivating the poor and destitute. Here in the USA, we have a sense of entitlement that supersedes our desire to improve our lives and those of the next generation.
In Shanghai, Andrea got sick the last night we were there (after that amazing fatty meal at Jean Georges). It got worse our last night of the trip, in Hong Kong. So when we returned home, we had her see her doctor. She had her gall bladder duct blocked by a stone and we needed to rush her to the ER and get her gall bladder removed. Here’s the neat little irony: A life of eating fat food was the predisposing cause of her problem. But the precipitating cause was the dinner in Shanghai. Seems like no matter where we go, we remain constant. But, across the world, things have myriad shades of difference. And so it is between the USA and China. So similar, yet so different.
It was the vacation of a lifetime and a research opportunity that will continue to inform my fiction writing for the rest of my life. But, what it all comes down to at its end is, it’s good to be home.
My wife and I just returned from a visit to Hong Kong and PRC. It was a vacation trip for her, research for me. And it was eye-popping. As a result, I’ll have to revise about fifty pages of the settings in my novels. As my friend Barry Eisler says, "Nothing beats first-hand research for writing fiction."
We bookended our trip in Hong Kong, both starting and finishing it there. Hong Kong is Manhattan on steroids. One of the major fictional characters in my espionage thrillers, William Wing, lives there, in the New Territories. I decided to visit the location where I’d put his residence. So, yes, I’m a bit crazy. Go figure. We ate in Fook Lam Moon, downtown on Johnson Street, the restaurant where I’d had one of my major fictional character Cassandra Sashakovich, dine. The food was superb. We also ate dim sum at the Dim Sum Bar and at Super Star Seafood, both extraordinary. Between the huge throngs walking the streets, the tall apartments, and the fastastic dim sum, Hong Kong was a dream.
Hong Kong is a shopper’s paradise, and fills its tiny island with over 20 million people. Everywhere you look, they are building or have already built skyscraper apartment buildings. I believe the residences make Manhattan condos look like a bargain.
In the PRC, we visited Beijing, Guilin, Yangshou, Hangzhou and Shanghai. It was an amazing experience, one I had wanted for years. So, what were my impressions of the PRC?
Mainland China is a puzzle-box. They are still mostly a third world country, but slowly – faster than I thought possible – becoming a mature nation with all the opportunities and problems faced by any leading world force. The cities are huge; 20 million or more in Beijing and Shanghai, 7 million in Hangzhou and Guilin. We only saw these coastal gems.
We saw rampant poverty alongside magnificent villas. Too many cars to believe. PRC has the same problem with income redistribution that America has, with too many poor and too little opportunity for them to advance. But, in China, they’re trying to remedy the problem. In America, we’re making it worse. And soon, if we don’t watch out, we’ll be China and they’ll be us.
Beijing is both ancient and administratively oriented. The buildings – the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, all look similar and very old, even restored they are full of character and show off what is ancient about the places they inhabit. We saw the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and, way far away from the city, Andrea (my wife) walked the Great Wall while I took some of the over 1,000 photos of our trip. Our guide Jesse often would tell us a story about one of the sights and include the footnote, “This has a hidden meaning.” Seems, much of the history of China is filled with double meanings or hidden meanings.
As you move from central Beijing toward the outer ring roads, the city could be anyplace suburban. Tall apartments and factories dot the landscape. By the time you reach the airport, outside Ring Road Six, the city seems light years away. The high point of our visit to Beijing was when our guide pointed to a building in the heart of downtown Band said, “See that building? It’s the Chinese CIA.” Can’t fault him for not knowing that I write espionage thrillers, but I copied the street address so I can use it in my books. The best food we had in Beijing was at a vegetarian restaurant. Most of the rest can’t compete with the Chinese food we get in San Francisco.
Guilin was a remarkable contrast to Beijing. Country clubs with golf courses and villas filled the approach to the city from the airport. The city was almost entirely modern and middle class, with patches of poverty, but no major places where things looked sodden. We saw a cavern that was totally amazing and I took hundreds of photos in the caves. That’s when it hit me: China is now organized to look like Disneyland. It is entirely commercial. We visited a jade factory, a silk factory, a Chinese medicinal pharmacy, and bought an entire suitcase filled with functional, useable souvenirs.
Anyone visiting China should take the boat ride from Guilin to Yangshou. Our guide Warren helped take photos while we ate the dinner served on the boat. The needle-shaped mountains jutting out from the shoreline are both photo-worthy and eye-popping. As for the merchandizers in Yangshou, run away as fast as you can. Especially if you’ve already had to buy one new suitcase and fill it with stuff you bought.
Hangzhou Was pleasant enough, but after what we’d already seen, not that interesting. ‘Nuff said.
Shanghai, on the other hand, was the most impressive piece of real estate we saw in PRC. An amazing skyline. Our guide Cindy showed us a bake shop where almost a thousand people waited on line to buy their delicious Moon Cakes. We bought and ate many. Yum! And, after the tour finished, we had the best and most expensive meal we’d ever eaten, at Jean Georges, located on the fourth floor of Bund Number Three. Of the six courses, four had foie gras. Fatty but delicious. Our wait staff person, Olivia, was a marvel. We wanted to take her home.
So then, why is China a puzzle-box? The easy answer is that they have shown how fast a country can change from a closed dictatorship with a communist view toward life, to a capitalistic and materialistic society, where the entire country is on sale as a commercial enterprise. How can they manage such fast change when our society refuses to change? They are still the ancient society they always were, but with the patience of expert planners. Their long view rivals that of Japan. In the United States, we don’t even make short range plans, only annual budgets. And, in our Congress, even those never get approved anymore. This single difference gives the Chinese a major competitive advantage we cannot match. But, China has its own problems, like nothing we can understand. It appears to me from what I saw, that people living in the PRC and Hong Kong are left on their own without a government safety net to cushion against bad joss. In the USA, we have welfare, Social Security and Medicare. But we also have a very nasty financial system, where in China and Hong Kong at least their financial system isn’t nearly as corrupt. In the Far East, there is the threat of starvation motivating the poor and destitute. Here in the USA, we have a sense of entitlement that supersedes our desire to improve our lives and those of the next generation.
In Shanghai, Andrea got sick the last night we were there (after that amazing fatty meal at Jean Georges). It got worse our last night of the trip, in Hong Kong. So when we returned home, we had her see her doctor. She had her gall bladder duct blocked by a stone and we needed to rush her to the ER and get her gall bladder removed. Here’s the neat little irony: A life of eating fat food was the predisposing cause of her problem. But the precipitating cause was the dinner in Shanghai. Seems like no matter where we go, we remain constant. But, across the world, things have myriad shades of difference. And so it is between the USA and China. So similar, yet so different.
It was the vacation of a lifetime and a research opportunity that will continue to inform my fiction writing for the rest of my life. But, what it all comes down to at its end is, it’s good to be home.
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