Networking 2014: Putting SDN To The Test [Portfolio]

/ Gary Hilson

Network ComputingIncreased data center virtualization will drive enterprises to develop software-defined networking pilot projects in 2014, and network security will remain a priority as organizations grapple with the BYOD trend, experts said.

Infonetics Research’s “2013 Data Center and SDN Strategies: North American Enterprise Survey” found that respondents expect more than half of the servers in their data centers will be virtualized by 2015, and this uptake of virtual servers as well as switches will pave the way for SDN. Read my full article on Network Computing.

Weekly Roundup: Franzen Draws Flack for Views on Online Self-Promotion and more…

/ Gary Hilson

Author Jonathan Franzen has ticked off the Twittersphere as well as some in the publishing world for criticizing the notion that young writers must have at least a few hundred followers on the social media platform before a publisher will even look at their manuscript.

During a recent interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today program, the award-novelist said budding writers should focus on developing their craft rather than spending time promoting themselves online. His statement drew the ire of some publishers; one even dismissed Franzen’s position as nonsense.

But Franzen is right. The number of followers an author has on Twitter is not an indicator of talent or a barometer of how well their next book might sell, especially if it’s their first. And if you’re struggling to even finish your first manuscript, wasting time on Twitter won’t help you. And finally, why would anyone want to follow someone who has yet to be published? Social media is already full of people making a big deal of what they intend to do.

Does it make sense for more established authors to engage with followers on social media? Certainly, especially if authoring books is their primary source of income. Science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer was on the Internet early and engages with readers through Facebook and Twitter. He understands the importance of marketing himself because making sure his books sell is his livelihood, but if his books weren’t any good, no amount of promotion online or anywhere else would help his cause in the long run.

I follow a number of authors as well as comic book writers on Twitter, but that doesn’t mean I’ve bought any of their books. I enjoy reading John Scalzi’s blog, but I’ve only read Redshirts. I loved Ron Marz’s run on Green Lantern, but despite following him on Twitter I couldn’t tell you what he’s working on right now; I’m more interested in his thoughts on writing and the creative process.

Popularity on social media, whether it’s Facebook likes, Twitter followers or a high Klout score, is ultimately a meaningless metric; even the social media market gurus will tell you that, and it’s disheartening that agents or publishers might not consider a first manuscript just because a young author hasn’t already developed an online following.

A Tale of War, Science and Philosophy

Brave Genius by Sean B. CarrollThe first annual Toronto Science Festival was held at the University of Toronto last weekend. Following keynote speaker and Canadian astronaut Julie Payette, writer Sean B. Carroll took the stage to tell the compelling story of French biologist Jacques Monod, who was one of the most important players in 20th century science as well as the resistance movement in German-occupied France. The life of Monod and his friendship with philosopher Albert Camus is the subject of Carroll’s latest book, Brave Genius.

How to Collect Books the Proper Way

Amassing a large number of books (as well as comic books, in my case) isn’t that difficult, but true collectors must have a strategy that goes beyond simply hoarding. I parted with a large number of books, including Star Trek novels, when moved a couple of years ago; my criteria was keep the ones by my favorite authors rather than being a completest. My comic book collecting is guided by the availability of the singles issues in trade paperback compilations. Of course my Lego collection strategy is a whole other story…

Publicists Raise Funds for Diversity Grant

Two publicists are running in the 2013 NYC Marathon as a way of raising funds to start a Diverse Worlds Grant, which would be administered by the Speculative Literature Foundation, to help writers from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the science fiction and fantasy genre to start and continue publishing. On a related note, October has been dubbed African American Speculative Fiction Month by a group of online enthusiasts.

Don’t Be Afraid to Freelance

I’ve been laid off three times in 15 years; each time I dabbled in part-time, freelance work while looking for my next full-time gig. Friends and industry peers kept suggesting I freelance full-time, but I didn’t think I had it in me. After just over a year of freelancing out of necessity and feeling that it’s a long-term and even a life-long path, I’m wondering why I didn’t try it sooner. Actually I do know why: it was these three myths that keep many people from going out on their own.

The Art of Writing for Academic Journals

One of my recent client engagements was working with academics to help write magazine articles. While technical, the publications weren’t academic journals. Writing for an academic journal has its own rules, writes Rowena Murray in the Guardian, and what seems like common sense isn’t common practice.

Gary Hilson is a Toronto-based freelance writer, editor and content strategist storyteller.

 

 

Remembering a Writer’s Writer: Ann Crispin

/ Gary Hilson

IMG_1083Science fiction author A.C. Crispin passed away Friday after a year-long battle with cancer.

Crispin’s first novel, published in 1983, was also one of the first original Star Trek novels I read upon discovering the iconic TV series in the mid-80s: Yesterday’s Son is a follow up to the third season episode “All of Our Yesterdays.” It would be followed by a sequel, Time for Yesterday. I still own both novels, as well as a hardcover edition of her novel Sarek.

Crispin would go on to write a great deal of media tie-in novels for sci-fi franchises such as Star Wars, Alien and V, and was named a Grandmaster by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers in 2013. Her first original novel, Starbridge, debuted in 1989 and would be followed by six sequels.

In addition to being a prolific author, Crispin also put a great deal of time and energy into helping other writers.  In 1998, she co-founded Writers Beware with Victoria Strauss to alert authors of scams and provide them with information on publishing houses, agents and contracts. Strauss wrote Friday that Writers Beware is here for the long the haul.

Author John Scalzi wrote on his blog Friday that “No one I know worked harder than she and WB co-head Victoria Strauss did to make sure that writers were aware of scams and shady characters out there in the world. She was also a heck of a writer, and a hell of a good person.”

Tor blogger Ryan Britt wrote that Crispin “will be missed for her vigilant devotion to sticking up for writers, her wonderful candor, her thoughtful and exciting writing, and most of all, for giving the fans of various fictional worlds sweet and unforgettable gifts.”

Ann Crispin was 63.

Remembering Frederik Pohl: A True Grandmaster of Science Fiction

/ Gary Hilson

pohl-future-wasFrederik Pohl passed away this weekend just as the 73rd annual WorldCon was coming to a close – his granddaughter Emily Pohl-Weary broke the news Monday afternoon via Twitter.

Pohl blogged regularly until his death; his blog won a Hugo in 2010 for Best Fan Writer, one of four Hugo awards he won over the course of his lengthy career; he also won three Nebula Awards.

Pohl grew up in Brooklyn, New York and served with the US Army in the Second World War. His first published work was a poem in1937, but he is probably best known for his 1977 science fiction novel Gateway, the story of a space station hidden in an asteroid. It won the Hugo, Locus, Nebula and John W Campbell awards and was adapted into a computer game.

The Science Fiction Writers of America named Pohl its 12th recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award in 1993 and he was inducted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1998.

Upon hearing the news of Pohl’s death, Canadian science fiction and fantasy author Jo Walton blogged that “it’s impossible to over-estimate the importance of Frederik Pohl to the science fiction genre…. He wrote stories and novels that were absolutely essential to the genre, and he kept on writing them, from his early stories in the 1930s to his most recent novel in 2011.”

I must confess I’ve only read a few of Pohl’s novels and particularly enjoyed the quirky Narabedla as a teenager; I wish I still owned a copy.

Frederik Pohl was 93.

What’s Wrong with this Picture?

/ Gary Hilson

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A Facebook friend of mine, a woman, posted this on Facebook and at first glance it’s clever. I myself found it funny. But if a man had posted the photo and it depicted a man, would it be criticized for tolerating violence against women, possibly even advocating for it? Something to think about.

The Painful Art of Accepting Life’s Stalemates

/ Gary Hilson

Recently I was inspired start a series of posts drawing on wisdom from Star Trek, particularly the series I grew up with, Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Although many consider TNG to be nowhere near as groundbreaking or topical as the original series, I find it rife with life lessons that are timeless and speak to the human condition. Many of these  helped me grapple with young adulthood and the solitude of being unpopular in high school.

The point of this blog series is not to highlight the better-known quotes from either series, but to focus on those buried a little deeper within an episode. There is no set schedule as my paying client work comes first, but hopefully I will manage two per month.

Rather than post the second in the series here, however,  I’ve opted to post it to an up and coming site called Medium. After blogging about my impressions of the site and its content, I received an invitation to contribute, so click here for “The Painful Art of Accepting Life’s Stalemates” on Medium; the first installment, “Variations on a Program: You Can’t Go Back” can be found here.

Gary Hilson is a Toronto-based freelance writer, editor and content strategist storyteller.

What message should I take from Medium?

/ Gary Hilson

Because there’s not enough places for people to be published without getting paid, we now have Medium, “a better place to read and write things that matter.”

Medium has been on my radar for a while thanks to the occasional mention in my Twitter feed, but it was only recently that I visited the site to read an article written by an industry peer.

I really enjoyed what she wrote because it was personal and original, but otherwise I wonder how Medium is different or better than any other online platform. After perusing some recent Editor’s Picks, I can’t say the content is any more compelling than what I’ve read on other digital-first / digital-only media outlets or on traditional, main stream media sites. Much of it reminds me of the link bait I come across on Twitter.

Contributing content to Medium is limited right now, even if you do register. What the criteria is for being allowed to publish on the site is a mystery to me; it’s certainly not quality of writing because with rare exception, of the 10 articles I read, most were either  self-indulgent, pointless ramblings or poorly written grammatically and structurally. Overall they lacked depth.

I also encountered the same voices from elsewhere. I’m not sure why Facebook’s product design director needs another platform to post a profanity-laced and ultimately empty rant about design. I don’t want to read another blog by Jeff Jarvis. He gets enough attention already. And I definitely don’t need yet another blog post by a self-described entrepreneur giving advice about growing a startup.

It’s not that I didn’t enjoy any articles because I did find one or two, but even those were on topics or concepts I’d read about plenty of times before and these just provided someone’s personal perspective, not new knowledge. One could argue that’s valuable in and of itself, but to me it represents a larger frustration I have with online content: for every one real article that delves into something in a meaningful manner there’s at least a dozen articles or blog posts that have summarized it or “curated” it. I suppose that’s better than an opinionated blog masquerading as a news article by a writer who thinks linking out to other articles is an adequate substitute for picking up the phone and interviewing a source.

What also struck me about Medium is that I’m not sure who the target audience is. “A better place to read and write things that matter” is nebulous and ultimately meaningless. When I was in journalism school we were always reminded by professors to remember who the audience was when pitching and writing stories for the student newspaper. That rule has stayed with me to this day. Who is supposed to be reading Medium? Entrepreneurs? Artists? Application developers? I have no idea and I’m unclear if I should be taking the time to browse through it.

Online content is a lot like cable TV, which I recently cancelled: there’s hundreds of channels but nothing on, and Medium strikes me as just one more place that adds to the noise I have to “channel surf” through to find the occasional gem. Unless it really defines what it is, and soon, Medium could easily find itself the flavour of the month in a sea of online soapboxes.

Gary Hilson is a Toronto-based freelance writer, editor and content strategist storyteller.