Astute blog readers will have noticed a slight dip in blogging activity of late. Why is this?
1: Some personal/family/veterinary issues.
2: Twitter, now that it’s no longer controlled by whackaloons, has become a more useful platform, and has taken a lot of the load.
3: I now have cyanotype blueprints regularly, commercially available. Check them out HERE.
4: Annnnd… I have a contract for Book Five, and I’ve been working on that. Book Five is similar in concept to “US Supersonic Bomber Projects Volumes 1 and 2;” it’s a stand-alone volume, but will, if it sells well, result in Book Six.
Working on a diagram (dated 1968), but it has some stores I can’t quite make out. This blunt “bomb” is about 83 inches long, with a main body diameter of about 25 inches. Maybe it’s a nuke, maybe its a cluster bomb, maybe it’s a chemical warfare bomb… dunno. Does it look familiar to anyone?
The short form: an author wanders into a bookstore (“Waterstones”) and asks the staff on hand if he can sign a couple of his books sitting on the shelf. The staff asks him for his ID to make sure it’s actually him. THAT’S IT. That’s the outrage. Waterstones has issued a groveling apology for their staff having the temerity, the gall, the outright *racism* to try to make sure that some rando who wandered in the door isn’t going to just scribble all over some books and ruin them.
As I’m sure I’ve made abundantly clear, I’ve had a book of mine on the shelves at Barnes & Noble. It was kind of a thrill the first time I saw them sitting there (rather less of a thrill when I saw them still sitting there months later… sigh…). But it did not occur to me to just start scrawling in them. And now that the idea has been brought to my attention, if I *did* decided to enscribble books on a shelf I’d *want* the staff to make sure I am who I say I am.
a spokesperson for Waterstones said: “We are incredulous and dismayed that any bookseller would ask an author for their ID when they have offered to sign their books. Of course, rogue individuals will, from time to time, want to sign books of which they are not the author. Any sensible bookseller can discretely and easily compare the author photo – present on almost every book – and, if there is an obvious mismatch, make a joke of it.”
Make a joke of it? For frak’s sake. Not every author is JK Rowling, with a bagrillion copies of their books on the shelves. Some of us have books printed in numbers that are relatively tiny, and having even a few ruined is kinda painful to contemplate. And no, there are no photos of me in or on “SR-71,” B-47/B-52,” or probably *any* book that may come down the line. Ain’t nobody need to know what I look like (is your life better knowing what Steven King looks like? Does it make the experience of reading “Cujo” better?). But if I go into a place of business to mark up the merchandise, I’d *want* them to check on things like ID.
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Which reminds me. This is hardly the only news story of late regarding morons getting PO’ed about the idea of being asked to show their ID. the current decrepit President of the United States has been telling some whoppers lately to rile up the ignoratti about how terrible it is that they might need to prove that they are who they say they are before they vote:
A few boxes of books finally showed up, shipped from Britain. Not as many as I’d planned on getting; with luck, one or two more boxes are simply working their way through the system slower than the others.UPDATE: the rest showed up. However, I can only make firm plans for the books I actually have on hand.
I plan on selling signed, numbered and dated copies for $55 each plus shipping (cheap in the US, but doubtless ridiculously expensive elsewhere… international postage is nuts these days). To sweeten the deal, these will all come with three 18X24 signed, numbered and dated prints of the B-47 and B-52.
To start off, I will auction off the first five copies. To sweeten *that* deal, numbers 3,4 and 5 will have a fourth 18X24 print… from the currently in-progress Book 3. Numbers 1 and 2 will have an additional 18X24, also from Book 3. The subject of Book 3 has not been made public yet, but I trust that it and the diagrams will be of considerable interest to anyone who has purchased “SR-71” and “B-47/B-52.”
The auction will be simple: send me your bid (in excess of $55) and the highest bid gets #1, second highest gets #2, and so on. Send your bid to scottlowther@up-ship.com before the end of the day Sunday.
After that I will sell off the other signed copies, starting with those who signed up. Hopefully more will arrive by that point, but for right now it looks like There will be a grand total of only 18 23 signed and numbered copies on the entire planet. So… who knows. Collectors items.
Yesterday some boxes from Britain showed up with some copies of my new book:
I will be selling these as signed copies for $55 plus postage. My plan at this time is to sell a very limited number (I currently have a grand total of 18 copies on hand; I have hopes for a *few* more to show up) with three 18X24 prints. all singed and numbered. However, fiver copies, #’s 1 through 5, will be auctioned: the idea is that the highest bid gets #1, second highest gets #2, etc. As a bonus, #’s 3,4,5 will get one extra 18X24, which will be a diagram from the currently in-progress Book 3. #’s 1 and 2 will get *two* prints from Book 3. Pretty sure that these extra diagrams will be of considerable interest to anyone who bought my SR-71 book and the B-47/B-52 book. I will contact the list of folks who signed on in a day or two.
The Lockheed Skunk Works A-12 was the immediate predecessor of the SR-71, a single seat recon vehicle in some ways a bit superior to the SR-71, in others not as good. One of the odder ideas put forward was to use the A-12 to carry a modified Polaris missile with a recon satellite on a once-around mission… a way to turn the Mach 3+ A-12 into a global range hypersonic, nearly orbit-capable recon platform. It was bonkers, but the math checked out; nevertheless it was not built. It is described in greater detail in:
Who knows for how long, but Amazon has my SR-71 bookazine in stock again with free shipping and for low cost. Buy now! Buy often! Consume in mass quantities!!!
I hear tell that some copies of the book are to be shipped my way in the next few days, taking however long it takes to cross the Atlantic ocean. I would assume that customers who ordered directly from Mortons will get their copies shipped soon. Not sure about Amazon orders, though the listing currently says Feb 7.
I will have a limited number for signed copies (around 20). As with the SR-71 bookazine, I will include 18X24 prints made specifically for these signed copies; all copies will be signed and numbered. I expect that these will be $55 plus shipping, though I intend to auction #’s 1 through 5.
