“I wanted to use the idea of a biotech-mediated apocalypse and its afterworld to test some personal hypotheses.”

Howard V. Hendrix
Empty Cities of
the Full Moon

What's New

06.08.2008 New Photos added to the Gallery

New Photos, from the 'Chronicling Mars' conference at UC Riverside, have been added to the Gallery page under Meet the Author.

02.07.2008 Time for a Planetary User-Fee for Humanity?

Now online in the writing Section. Click here to Read.

02.05.07 The Million Year Romance

Now online in the writing Section. Click here to Read.

01.20.2008 Webscabs Response, Again

(The following was written 1/20/08 in response to an email from a writer in Oklahoma.)

Ah, yes — about the "webscab" controversy.  The only time I ever blogged, and it caused quite the firestorm.  Much disinformation, libel and slander put out about me, which I have largely chosen to ignore.

What I objected to was the free posting of entire novels on the web.  I felt, and still feel, that it's shortsighted to give away what you desire to be paid for.  The crux was the issue of authors' rights/authors' responsibilities.  There is a naive economic libertarian strain in the science fiction community (folks who, unfortunately, often proclaim themselves to be the heirs of Heinlein) who strongly separate what they do as individual authors (say, putting their entire novels on the web for "promotional purposes" in order to further their careers) and what effect such individual actions might have on authors as a category or collectivity.  So, while freeposting whole novels might be good for individual authors in the short term, I felt it was a bad idea for authors as a class in the long term.

My comments were seen as an attack on authors' rights to do as they pleased with their texts, when what I was actually warning about was this whole "promotional purposes" argument.  Curiously enough, this is one of the sticking points in the current Writers Guild of America strike.  The corporations argue that they are posting shows to the web for "promotional purposes" and not for profit, so they therefore don't have to pay the writers for those shows.  In the science fiction community, the writers didn't even wait for the corporations to exploit them — they went ahead and did it to themselves, again under the guise of "promotional purposes."

Clearly, my comments have not been helpful to my career.  A few of the initial email death-threats were laughable, but now I find I have not been so much "blacklisted" in the industry as "pixel-listed."  

There's more at stake here, in the long run, however, than just my career or those of a few other authors.  Intellectual property rights and copyright, despite their flaws, have helped a lot of creators over the last couple of centuries.  What is now happening with MySpace and YouTube and blogs and free online posting is the dawning of the Great Age of the Readily Exploitable Amateur — a situation that is shifting power away from creators and toward the media corporations, among whose ranks I include MySpace, YouTube, Google, and Yahoo, among others.

The idea that new media are somehow freer is a canard the Right has exploited and the Left has fallen for.  In the end, the corporations are running it, and what they're interested in is "monetizing the eyeballs" (their term) and selling us what they want us to believe we want to buy (this of course also includes politicians).

11.15.07 Episode 12 of Dragon in the Land is online

Howard has posted the final episode of twelve installments from his latest online serial: What To Do Before The Nightmare Comes True—Again. Read episode twelve of the prognostic Dragon in the Land: People and Mega-fire in California and bring closure to the acclaimed serial.

11.01.07 Episode 11 of Dragon in the Land is online

Howard has posted episode eleven of twelve installments from his latest online serial. Smart Work, Dumb Luck. Read episode eleven of Dragon in the Land: People and Mega-fire in California.

10.11.07 Episode 10 of Dragon in the Land is online

The tenth installment of Howard's online serial — Percent Contained — concerning wild fires in California continues in the writing section with episode ten of Dragon in the Land: People and Mega-fire in California.

10.03.07 Episode 9 of Dragon in the Land is online

The nineth installment — Man-dragon — of Howard's online serial — Dragon in the Land: People and Mega-fire in California — concerning wild fires in California continues in the writing section.

09.17.07 Episode 8 of Dragon in the Land is online

Fire Camp is now online in the writing section. Episode eight of Dragon in the Land: People and Mega-fire in California — Howard's online serial that is concurrently published in a half dozen local newspapers in the foothills and mountains of Central California.

08.30.07 Episode 7 of Dragon in the Land is online

The Dragon in the West Village — Episode seven of Dragon in the Land: People and Mega-fire in California is now online in the writing section, continuing Howard's wild fire serial.

08.22.07 Episode 6 of Dragon in the Land is online

Maze of Chaos — Episode six of Dragon in the Land: People and Mega-fire in California is now online in the writing section, continuing Howard's wild fire serial.

08.08.07 Episode 5 of Dragon in the Land is online

Evacuations and Destinations is now online in the writing section. Episode five of Dragon in the Land: People and Mega-fire in California is the latest installment of Howard's online serial that is concurrently published in a half dozen local newspapers in the foothills and mountains of Central California.

07.25.07 New Fan Photos Uploaded

A Canadian fan — Geordie H. — visited with Howard at the recent LA CON IV and has sent us a few photos to post. View Geordie's shots added to the Gallery section of Meet the Author. And don't forget to send in your own snaps of Howard to when you see him out and about. We'll post those as well.

07.24.07 Episode 4 of Dragon in the Land is online

Episode four of Howard's online wild fire serial continues in the writing section with The Running Battle— Episode four of Dragon in the Land: People and Mega-fire in California.

07.10.07 Episode 3 of Dragon in the Land is online

Howard's online serial continues in the writing section with episode three of Dragon in the Land: People and Mega-fire in California: Red Ball Sun. Don't miss the new installment.

06.27.07 Episode 2 of Dragon in the Land is online

The second installment of Howard's online serial — Remembrance of Fires Past — concerning wild fires in California continues in the writing section with episode two of Dragon in the Land: People and Mega-fire in California.

06.18.07 Episode 1 of Dragon in the Land is online

Howard introduces the first of twelve installments of a new online serial. Lightning and Smoke. The story is being published in half a dozen local newspapers in the foothills and mountains of Central California. Click here to read episode one of Dragon in the Land: People and Mega-fire in California.

04.20.07 Webscabs Clarification

Thanks to those writers who have emailed me thoughtful comments. As I have said elsewhere,"webscabs" was perhaps too incendiary a term. Several authors (the names most frequently mentioned by my email correspondents are Sigler, Hutchins, Doctorow, and Flint) have undoubtedly benefited as individuals from free online posting of their full text novels for promotional purposes.

I think the jury is still very much out, however, on whether such free online full text offerings will prove to be salutary or deleterious to the writing profession as a whole. We're still in the early stages of this transition, and data remains insufficient.

My initial analysis of this trend is that it sets a bad precedent and will contribute to what is already being seen in other areas of media — a deprofessionalization associated with the dawning of a Great Age of the (Readily Exploitable) Amateur, a change that will benefit the media conglomerates at the expense of "content producers" as a class.

I hope I am wrong about this, but the goals of my LiveJournal rant were to open up debate (accomplished) and to suggest we follow the precautionary principle in this matter. Widespread free online posting of fulltext novels seems as likely to lead to "harms of aggregation" as not. That term, from sociology and the history of technology, may prove very applicable in this area.

For those who would like to learn how a seemingly innocuous digital technology can have unintended and powerful (even fatal) negative consequences, I refer you to Edward R. Tufte’s wonderful essay, “The Cognitive Style of Power Point.” The essay is found in _Beautiful Evidence_. It's available on Amazon as well for $5.18: http://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Style-Power-Point/dp/0961392150 Tufte's web site is chock full of other interesting stuff as well: http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/index

Just as the historical Luddites were not opposed to technology per se (only those technologies which they found harmful or potentially harmful to their employment, communities, and way of life), I'm not opposed to blogs, wikis, chatrooms, etc. per se either — just when they invade my fiction-writing time, while the reading of them is simultaneously presented as somehow required or mandatory (as has become the trend for us SFWA officers — volunteers — lately).

Again, thanks to those of you who have provided truly thoughtful comments.

Best,
Howard V. Hendrix

11.17.06 Starting a Gallery Section

Howard will be adding a photo gallery section to this site, but we need your photos. The page is already online (view the Gallery page), but it is in dire need of photos. Send in what you have to and we'll post what we get—within reason of course.

09.12.06 Spears of God

Spears of God will be on the stands on November 28, 2006

WARNING TO REVIEWERS, COLLECTORS, SCHOLARS, AND CRITICS:

A WORD ON THE ADVANCE UNCORRECTED PROOFS OF /SPEARS OF GOD/

Although nearly all advance uncorrected proofs bear the warning "Please do not quote for publication without checking against the finished book," this admonition is particularly appropriate in regard to the advance uncorrected proofs of Spears of God. I made significant changes at the galley phase—at about the same time my publisher was already mailing out the advance uncorrected proofs. My thanks to my editors for their patience with my late final editing. For collectors, the differences between the advance uncorrected proofs and finished book may be a windfall, but reviewers, critics, and scholars would do well to proceed with caution regarding any comments on or quotations taken from the proofs. Please check against the finished book if at all possible.

Online Resellers:

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