Authors Electric

Terrifying -- lives with witches and has knives in its feet.  If you didn't watch 'Our Flag Means Death' , then please find it on iPlayer and watch it there As Soon As. I was slow to catch onto it myself, but after being urged to watch it by people who laugh at the same things as I do, I watched the whole series on BBC iPlayer. It's an original, playful, laugh-out-loud, gender-bending, pirate sit-com and there aren't many of those, so we have to grab them when we find them. One of the main characters is Stede Bonnet, a wealthy Barbadian land-owner, circa 1700, who suffers a mid-life crisis. Fearing that he'll never be more than 'a little rich boy,' he builds himself a ship, deserts his wife and family and takes to the high-seas to be a pirate, despite knowing nothing about ships or piracy. His crew are baffled by his lack of pirating skills, as well as the way he treats them like children in a remedial class, occupying their time and expanding their im...

That the internet has had a profound effect on our world is so obvious that it barely needs stating. In terms of its ability to create long-term social change it's on a par with the printing press, or indeed just about any major technological and scientific development you care to mention. But what effect will all of this have on the arts, and on literature specifically? The internet has, possibly, changed the old buyer-seller dynamic forever, though the impact on certain industries has been greater than on others. Those selling straightforwardly physical objects, such as socks or furniture, have perhaps been less affected (such, at least, is my guess). Others, such as the music or film industries, have been deeply (some would say mortally) wounded by these developments. Piracy and file-sharing are rampant, with many consumers reluctant to pay for an album or film that they can get for free. A pirate, back in the days when pirates had such style. And, where the film and ...

I'm not a Pirate - really I'm not! This week I found a message from KDP in my 'in-box'.  This is an portion of what it said: "We contacted you recently regarding Kindle books you have published which contain content that is freely available on the web.  We haven’t received documentation confirming that you have the necessary rights to publish these books. Please be advised that we take copyright violations very seriously and, as stated in our previous email, a lack of a response or failure to prove you have the exclusive rights to these books may result in the termination of your account.  As a result, we have temporarily suspended your ability to publish or change the books in this account. If you have already responded to our inquiry and we somehow missed your response, or you wrote in to Customer Service about it, please reply directly to this message and let us know. Please be advised that we won’t accept content that is freely available on ...