I've Moved!

If you didn't already know, The World in the Satin Bag has moved to my new website.  If you want to see what I'm up to, head on over there!

Blog Move Begins: What Subscribers Need to Know (Plus, Important Info for Email Subs)

As you may recall, I've just opened up a brand new website for all my stuff.  Obviously, this means that I will be moving my blog to that site in the very near future.  That process begins now.  Here's what you need to know:

What's happening to your RSS feed?
I will be redirecting my Feedburner feed to my new site-controlled feed.  In theory, you shouldn't have to do anything.  Your feed reader should pick up the new feed and update your subscription.  That's how it's supposed to work.

If you want to manually change your subscription, you can find the new feed here.

How will we know if the feed redirected correctly?
Two ways:

1. You'll see lingering posts from this blog page suddenly appear in the other feed.  Since I haven't transferred the last 5 posts or so into my new site, they'll get pinged in the feed reader.
2. You'll see a Test Post on Sunday or Monday.
3. You'll see (maybe) a new regular post on Monday or Tuesday.

If you do not see either of these things by Tuesday of next week, then something went terribly wrong and you'll have to manually update your feed reader to the new feed.  My hope is that this doesn't occur.  But you never know...

What about email subscriptions?
This one is a bit tricky.  The most common option for email subscriptions is the one offered through JetPack.  Unfortunately, JetPack won't allow me to import my email subscribers list so I can avoid interruption in service or pinging all of you email subscribers with another subscription request. As such, I am strongly considering MailChimp as a replacement.

What that means for email subscribers is that one of two things will happen:

1. You most likely won't notice a darn thing, because I'll import your emails into MailChimp and service will resume as per usual.  At worst, you may get an email from MailChimp saying you've been signed up or something.
2. You'll get an email from me saying "if you'd like to stay an email subscriber, you'll need to resubscribe," followed by copious amounts of apologizing.

I don't want to go with option #2, but depending on how difficult it is to integrate MailChimp into Wordpress, I may have to.

So that's it.  In the next few days, things are going to change completely.  This blog will be "shut down" and my new website will take over.

Shaun's Rambles 004: Interviewing the Fans -- Paul Weimer

(Note:  I'm starting to move things over to my new website.  This shouldn't affect current feed subscribers, but do expect more announcements about the shift in the future.  For now, I'm crossposting so nobody misses anything.)

...in which I continue this podcast thing on my new website by talking to Paul Weimer about how he became an sf/f fan. In this episode:

• I interview Paul Weimer about his first books, his genre influences, and his development as a reader.

Enjoy the episode!  You can download the MP3 here or stream the file below.

Quick Note: New Website Incoming!

Dear Readers,

I'm currently at CONvergence, but I did want to let you all know that The World in the Satin Bag will be moving over to my new website, shaunduke.net.

No need to change feeds or anything like that.  In fact, you shouldn't have to do anything other than bookmark the new page in case you want to check it out.  The feeds should automatically shift over when the new page is complete (in about a week).

I'll say more about all this later.

A huge thanks to Dave Baxter for all his hard work on this.  He has been an enormous help!

Now back to the convention!

On Unofficial Blacklists: Why I Keep a Mental List of Authors I Won't Read

In April of this year, I posted a list of five reasons I won't read someone's work.  Whether it's because you don't write what I read or you're a giant turd nozzle on the Internet, there are a variety of reasons for why I skip on someone's work.  By implication, that means I keep a constantly changing list of authors I won't read -- a list I have begun calling my Do Not Read list.

My DNR list isn't particularly long, and it does change from time to time.  For the most part, the only people who show up on the DNR list are folks whose online (or in person) behavior is particularly nasty.  This usually comes in two forms:  an author whose politics I find repugnant (and who often openly talks about those politics in a way that suggests they would like it pushed on the rest of us as "normal") or an author whose behavior towards readers and/or reviewers suggests they will respond to negative criticism (or anything, really) in a way that will make me uncomfortable.  Most authors don't fit into either of these categories.  In fact, most authors know not to respond to negative reviews and most authors don't hold (or discuss) political views that are, to put it lightly, bigoted.

Shaun's Rambles 003: On Negative Reviews and Their Value

...in which I talk about things some people don't want to write.

In this edition:

• A discussion of the value of negative book reviews and why I think many people, including me, are hesitant to write them.

Enjoy the rambles!

You can download the mp3 directly from this link or stream the episode below.

Shaun's Rambles 002: The Value of Book Reviews and Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman

...in which I continue a podcast of random thoughts had while driving home from work.

In this edition:

• What is the value of book reviews (to me)?  Suggested by Jonah Sutton-Morse (Twitter / Cabbages and Kings Podcast)
• Some thoughts on Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman

Enjoy the rambles.

You can download the mp3 directly from this link or stream the episode below.