AndrewLiptak

I'm pretty happy that they've started allowing a little more customization — I've changed up the colors on mine for the change of scenery. Hopefully, they'll roll out some additional features as well.

Everyone's headed back to work! I'm having trouble on my phone, but the web version seems fine to me.

As I noted on Twitter, I was really bummed to see this. His novel Mars was one of my favorites. https://twitter.com/AndrewLiptak/status/1333525488552308736

It might be worth scouring eBay for a replacement! I lost my iPod Nano years ago and ended up finding a newish one there to replace it. (Which reminds me... I need to find a new one.)

I write a lot of articles for a handful of sites, so in instances where I need to specifically invoice a project, I use Invoice Generator: https://invoice-generator.com/

Suuuuuuper simple, and it keeps track of the invoice number each time I download a new one. I just put in the right details, download it, and send it in.

To keep track of projects, I use Trello: I've got a bunch of columns that I have for "Approved" "In Progress" "Completed" "Invoiced" "Paid", which helps me remember where, what, when, and how much I need to send in. It's a little clunky, but I've got a good workflow with it.

It sounds like Watts was really into it, and helped guide some of the design process. But yeah, any adaptation will have differences between creator and adaptor.

I was just thinking this! Remember the days when this happened every other week?

Not working for me.

This is really interesting! I remember Joe Hill mentioning that he did something like this with some classics: he wanted to learn how to write like some other authors, and it's one of those things that's always stuck with me as something that would be really useful to do.

I've seen Richard Browning fly this in person — he did a demo a couple of years ago at San Diego Comic-Con. It's unreal to watch, but it's definitely something I can see not being all that widespread: it takes a lot of training to acclimate to it.

Browning's been doing a bunch of demos lately: it feels like they're trying to figure out the best use, whether that's military applications, rescue, or others. This isn't the first rescue demo, although this one looks like it's a bit more useful than the other one (which was disaster response, and which very much looked like a publicity stunt.)

I recently read Parable of the Sower for the first time (wrote about it here: https://andrewliptak.substack.com/p/three-novels-about-unbal...) and really was blown away by it.

Thanks! It's been fun to dive into the history of how the entire thing came together.

*Foreword

I absolutely love Jemisin's books. The City We Became is really fantastic.

Production is moving, but what struck me (and what made me think HN readers would be interested in it) was that the business seems to have fallen victim to a classic problem in business: being sold to people who don't understand the culture / product, and can't effectively sell it or continue it in a meaningful way. From the sounds of things, they're not selling all that well because of that.

Fortunately, the space is being taken up by another brewery, Zero Gravity (which produces really great beer), and I believe that they're picking up some of their employees.

I honestly don't think it's detrimental to the industry here: there are a TON of smaller breweries that are all doing really well.

A bunch of books: Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (as well as several of the sequels), American Gods by Neil Gaiman, The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, The Magicians by Lev Grossman, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, and a bunch of others.

In the last year, I wrote a nonfiction book (History of Cosplay, coming sometime next year, if all goes well), and spend much of last summer conducting research. When it came time to write, I kept stalling out. What I ended up doing was shifting the font to Comics Sans, and boom! I ended up writing quickly and efficiently.

I've found Duotrope is useful for tracking down science fiction and fantasy outlets if you're looking to place stories in a professional setting.

I've written a bunch of short stories over the years. Some I've trunked after they didn't go anywhere. In a couple of instances, I've published them on my newsletter (andrewliptak.substack.com), and then republished them at Curious Fictions.

Yeah! It's a really fascinating thing.

I've found much of the same problem: I'm someone who's easily distracted anyway, and it's frustrating not being able to read.

Here's what I've found works for me, for books and articles:

- For books, setting aside dedicated time to read is really useful. This means that I leave my phone in another place, out of reach, so I'm not tempted to pick it up and check Facebook/Twitter/etc. For me, this is somewhere away from other distractions, like my computer / workspace, etc. - Set aside a small amount of time to read without distraction in a setting like this, and grow that amount. Maybe that's 10-15 minutes? Start that out as a routine, and as you get more comfortable with it, add on a little more time. Block out that space and aggressively protect it. I've found that setting aside reading time in the morning, before I open up my computer and check social media, really helps.

Generally, I've found that the more I read, the better I get at it: practice, practice, practice. Treat it like an atrophied skill.

For longer articles, I have a bookmark set up for the newsletter I write (andrewliptak.substack.com), in which I have a short recommended articles section. I reserve this for longer-form pieces, and when I come across something that looks interesting, I bookmark it and come back to it when I'm in a good mindset to actually read the thing (see my above point.) I've set aside other parts of the day (usually at the end) to read these sorts of things.

Another thing that I'd recommend is Pocket.

Another good practice thing for reading is short stories. I typically save them via pocket, and read them when I've got smaller pockets of time to read something.