It boils down to “really good idea”—but I haven’t the time or the braincells to spare to run the thing. I’d have to learn php, apparently, for which I have zip aptitude: it took me a while to learn basic html, and that’s in English. I look at the sites that explain php, and it’s a massive amount of reading from which I’m supposed to grasp what the heck planet they’re on, when I’ve got a completely different planet on which Bren has problems I’m tracking with just about all the brain cells I’ve got—besides the daily maintenance on the blog site and the conversions and artwork for Closed Circle, and the accounting and math and troubleshooting for that, plus I just shoved out the door a stack of boxes in excess of 6 feet tall—that’s taller than me—of books people send me to sign, many of which I can hardly lift—[please, people, no 40 lb boxes!] got back home and found two more boxes at the door, and I think tackling php would throw me into meltdown.
So has anybody got a notion how this could work without my learning php?
What about your original idea of a notebook? Would that be any easier for you to set up? Perhaps that would be the place to start and add the wiki when you have the leisure 😉 * uh-huh* . Could you corral some of your loyal readers to give you a hand with this?
This could be a case of ‘start with what you know’.
I think I am going to follow my original notion of cut-and-pasting interesting snippets of threads into notebooks, before they get altogether lost. Ideally this should save time and effort, because if it’s in a notebook that I can endlessly edit and enlarge, I don’t have to repeat myself every time somebody asks me what is the name of Morgaine’s horse.
Then if somebody finds a way to wiki the notebook contents, it will be at least collected.
People send you boxes of books to sign? Seriously? That seems sort of…presumptuous. I can maybe see bringing one book to a convention — maybe — but shipping 40 lb. boxes?
I wish I could help with the wiki thing, but I know nothing about it. It sounds like a prime project for delegation though. Surely there’s at least one rabid fan out there who’d be delighted to take it on, or at least get it up and running. Personally, I think the fact you’re running this site and creating your own ebooks is pretty mind-boggling already. I don’t think any of us want you getting hung up on creating supplementary material if it means getting fewer actual stories…
I use “dokuwiki” as a notebook for myself and as a notice-board for my friends.
I’ve found it very easy to install and maintain, so it may be good for you.
As far as I know it’s good for relatively small project (not like wikipedia with millions of users), but if you intend to edit everything I think it could be right for you.
http://www.dokuwiki.org/dokuwiki
I try to be obliging in that regard, and if people buy my books I don’t mind signing them, but when the boxes they send are barely lift-able or arrive in boxes that are falling apart from the first trip through the post, and I have to hunt down a box I think will survive to get to them, it gets onerous…particularly hard is the monster box that I just can’t lift, and that requires me to use the dolly just to get it to the car. Pasting the return postage onto the box is a problem, too. If the box is damaged, and I have to repackage it, I have no postage. This has happened. I have had people squeak through with inadequate postage, too, and I end up having to pay the difference. If it’s just a couple of books I can easily drop by the post office, no problem. But when the stack of boxes totally fills the back of my Forester with the seat down, that’s going a bit much: it takes 2 of us to mail that lot, because you can’t park near the building, and one of us has to drive up to the door, get out with the dolly and the boxes and stand there, then the other goes and parks, and then one of us stands with the boxes while one of us runs back and forth with the dolly to get them into the line of people waiting for a clerk.
And oh, the looks we get from people standing in line behind us.
I do ask that people write beforehand about shipping us a lot, because I don’t want these turning up on our front porch when we’re on the road, or when I’ve already agreed to sign somebody’s collection. I try to space these things out, and may ask that somebody wait a month before shipping. On this occasion several arrived together.
I am sorry, but that is so rude. When I met you in person, I thought that three books was really about the maximum that I could have you sign without pushing it. I still have those books, by the way.
Boy no kidding. I remember back in 1983 I met CJ at a Con in Phoenix and had my SFBC compilation of the Morgaine Trilology hoping for an autograph. Went to a panel with CJ, Alan Dean Foster and the brand-newly published Jeannete Roberson. Got my autograph — right behind a guy with about 20 loaded up on a dolly. I’m thrilled with my one autographed book. The rest seems overkill and, likely you said, so rude.
Lynn is back from her road trip, and she says wikis are do-able. I defer to the techno-genius of Closed Circle.
The reason I suggested it is that they seem to be fairly low maintenance once you get them up. I’m glad Lynn is back safe from her road trip!
C.J. You are such a sweetie.
If you send a book to someone like George R.R. Martin, you must include a nice crisp $20, and return postage, or you will never see it again.
I agree with HRH Spence, in thinking that just sending you books to sign out of the blue is more than a bit presumptuous. I hope they at least ask permission first.
Xeno, this seems to me ultimately reasonable (the sending of a token of esteem along with to-be-signed books, mit der return shipping und suitable packaging of course). I’ve thrown a few coins in the tip jar from time to time, and felt the better about it, but this would be more meaningful–and less presumptuous, about the politest term I can think of for someone sending books in quantities difficult to lift! Bu’ ana-inein, Melein or Niun would say, and no doubt I hosed the spelling, but I’m on the road and have to wing it.
Think something was lost in translation. I think author’s time and effort are valuable.CJ is definitely an exception to the status quo, and I think it shows great integrity on her part.
Personally, I don’t understand autographs at all and would never ask for one. I do have personalized items, but these are gifts for things I have done, given in unbidden gratitude.
As much as I love having books autographed, the idea of sending a box of books to an author out of the blue just sticks me as so – so – so wrong. I still feel guilty about sending a letter to a favourite author who lived in Oklahoma in the hope of getting an autograph in response in those days before the internet took over our lives.
Cherryh-ma – you are so kind to your readers. It is amazing to me. No wonder you are so loved…
😆 but they keep butter on the table. I am making a new Rule about books: the box must be under 20 lbs and the return postage must be adequate and loose, not stuck to anything.
Easiest if somebody mails me an envelope with bookplates, which I happily sign and pop back into the mail.
Oh, and good luck with the wiki-thingie – makes sense to me even though I don’t know the first thing about it;>
Our readers are very kind to us. It makes it a better world for everyone.
but they keep butter on the table” This is true, and I give you joy of it!
You obviously attract very nice people;>
A pity that you couldn’t sell the books signed via Closed Circle but somehow I suspect that would turn into a logistics nightmare – not to mention take you away from producing more of the wordcrack we all love so much.
I wish I knew how to do a wiki. Must look into it. — I wouldn’t expect a huge amount of coding other than markup tags of some kind, and even that would, I hope, have an editor program to make things easier.
Good grief. I was impressed just to know CJC would autograph books purchased or mailed. I, uh, …40 pound box… gods be feathered, that’s… why not do that in a few boxes over time, if someone wants their whole library autographed? Why not do one special book or a small series? Whew.
Re autographs, it seems entirely reasonable to ask for a SASE and bookplates, or an enclosed envelope with the required return postage, or a small fee for autographs. Sports figures and movie stars charge, well, exorbitant fees, but asking for a reasonable fee or a donation is…well, reasonable. (LOL at circular logic, there.) A limit of 5 books per session per person seems reasonable too. If a reader really wants more autographed, then send them in a reasonably-sized box.
Someone please buy CJC a drink or dinner of appropriately decadent deliciousness, please, for being so kind-hearted.
I only have one signed copy, thanks to Yarddog Press, a treasure that is better by being unique.
Unless of course you write a third book about Emory and make it available the same way…GRIN
I think, cut and paste into a series of threads based on series here. That will let you sort
out the material you want at a leisurely pace, Then it should be fairly simple to wiki it, since
wikis support lots of hypertext links as a basal design idea.
Check out Pan-Starrs, U of Hawaii has the scope site up, see if you can spot the artifacting in
the Hi-Res pictures. The zoom pic of M51 is fun to play with.
Bookplates would be a lot less like stevedore work and just as effective. Or make them come in
person to help you dig up grass roots and move them around while you do the signing.
Has to be real life: Anybody else catch the news item, Student in shorts moons Hells Angels,
throws a puppy at them and makes his escape on a bulldozer, later abandons it on highway.
The Germans seem to have entered the 21st century determined to shed their old image.
Pan-STARRS is just up the hill from me! 😀 The article name-checked a few people I know…
oh what a hoot! here’s a link for the article.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/17/student-hurls-puppy-at-he_n_615011.html
You might want to look into Wikispaces. They run the server for you and all you need to do is learn the little Wiki metalanguage. Thankfully, that’s very simple as far as these things go. Failing that, you can always create an unpaid internship position. I’m sure at least one unemployed programmer would step up just for bragging rights.
Let me add my recommendation for this. It is perhaps the simplest way of doing a wiki…
Oohhh! I just found this and had to share…
http://174.143.173.68/PTblackandwhite.pdf
Look at the top of the 6th column from the left:D
I’ve seen people create wiki’s but had never looked into how to create one. However I would say that if it takes time away from the writing you might want to think twice about it. The cutting and pasting plan might be the least time gobbling plan that would still yield some intersting results.
Brad
Speaking of autographed books and not wikis (about which I am ignorant) I am tickled PINK with my most recent autographed book.