Day 25: Mils to Bludenz

The started off beautifully, but the forecast this afternoon was for rain. We hopped back onto the bike path towards Landeck, well aware that we would have to choose between Silvretta and Arlberg pass once we got to Landeck. We were now short of cash, with no more than 18 Euros between the two of us after paying for the hotel, and so had to look for a bank as well.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Austrian bike paths are second to none as far as facilities are concerned: drinking fountains dot the bike paths as do ads for lodging that are tastefully and discretely placed, since cyclists traveling at 10mph do not need loud and garish ads, unlike car drivers at 75mph. We rolled along the beautiful path, set a good distance away from the main highway, going in and out of forests into farmland.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Sooner I was expected we were in Landeck, but on a Sunday could not find anything open, not even a bank. I noted that the bike path sign had switched to Pfunds. Looking around we decided that Arlberg would be a safer path, since avoiding Silvretta would buy us some time in case of poor weather. We rode along the bike path to Pfunds but after half an hour looked at the map and realized that Pfunds was in the direction of Ofenpass, not what we wanted at all!

From Tour of the Alps 2011

We turned around and rode back to Landeck and this time, found our way to Pian and then rode our towards the Panoramic highway to Arlberg. The road was mostly flat and not too exciting, but had relatively little traffic. Clouds started gathering overhead, which justified our earlier decision to avoid Silvretta.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

We stopped for lunch at a small town, using up all of our available cash, and then rode into the town where the pass started. To our dismay, the freeway had an exit in this town, and a steady stream of car traffic went up the Arlberg highway! It started drizzling as we started the climb, but even for Californians this wasn't considered rain yet. The grade steepened to 10%, and the constant traffic was annoying. Silvretta would have been better as the top part of Silvretta was a toll road, eliminating all but the most enthusiastic of tourists. The fog, however, thickened, and anything that looked bad on the Arlberg would be worse on the Silvretta. Fortunately, the final tunnel leading to the pass summit had a bike bypass, which turned out to be a gravel maintenance road leading alongside the tunnel. We could hear the sound of traffic coming from tunnel vents and were pleased that we had views truncated by fog instead.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

We arrived at the Arlberg pass in fog that did not let us see more than 10 meters ahead. We quickly put on everything we owned and started the descent.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

The steep part of the descent went by quickly, once again with several bike path bypasses for the big tunnels, which made it a lot less scary than expected. Visibility got a bit better after we descended to 1500m, but once we got down to 1000m the rain came down in earnest! At first it wasn't too bad, but the lower we got the harder the rain came. The rain pants and the jacket only kept me from being soaked through --- my shoes started making the squishy noise on every pedal stroke, and all parts of my body was damp.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Once the route flattened out the bike paths became useless. We found ourselves riding in muddy gravel paths in the forests and the paved roads seemed like a much better bet. Having passed the intersection with the freeway, the main road also had a lot less traffic. We made it into Bludenz. Not wanting to waste time with looking for the tourist information center, we ended up at Hotel Rossli, where we had stayed last year, also in the rain. "Every impression I have in Austria is rain." said Phil. I assured him that I had had good weather in Austria, but maybe Austria was to Phil what Italy was to Mike Samuel.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

The hotel was manned by an old woman who didn't know how to give us an internet password, or even where the bike storage was, forcing us to leave our bikes outside in the rain. We took a shower, dried out our shoes using hairdryers, and went out looking for food. This time, we found a Chinese all-you-can-eat buffett which for a relatively low price gave each of us three dinners and three desserts. By the time we came back to the hotel, it was manned by someone who knew what he was doing and had our bikes stowed away and gave us an internet password.

I used the internet to call Doktor Stefan Burkhardt, an outdoors person who was living in Zurich. Stefan had done me the favor of scouting out Tannalp back in 2007. We made plans to have lunch some time when Phil and I were back in Zurich, but in the mean time he looked into the weather radar for us and reported back bad news. It looked like the mountains would be cold and rainy or fogged in, with Wednesday being the worst. "Your best bet is to head to the Bodensee and do some riding there. If the weather sucks, the Bodensee will probably suck the least and might even have good sun." That put paid to any plans to ride the high mountains. I thanked him and we turned in for the night.
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Day 24: Moos to Mils

So far, every day had brought us a forecast for rain, but instead we've gotten clear weather instead, and today was no exception. We woke up to a glorious day, with not a cloud in the sky. From the early climbing, the view down into Moos was nothing short of breath-taking.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

In 2007, Robert complained that he climbed most of Timmelsjoch from St. Leonhardt without a single drop of water en-route. Since today was likely to be just as hot, I warned Phil to be on an extra careful lookout for water, and to fill up the water bottles at every opportunity.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Starting from Moos turned out to be a great idea, as the climb started in the shade and the temperature stayed cool even when we emerged into the sun at 1600m, where we refilled at a water fountain near a hotel. Soon after that, however, I spotted two more water fountains on the right side, set into crevices in the wall next to the road, so I have no idea how Roberto managed to pass all those water fountains and not recognize them for what they were.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

As I approached the top, I saw megaphone type tubes set in the mountain side. After a while I realized what they were: since the area had high winds, they were a shelter for car drivers to pull over, walk into the tube and gaze at the valley below without being blown about. Of course, cyclists are used to being blown about, so it was not a problem. Near one of the megaphones, I met a couple from the Netherlands who were on a driving tour. I seemed to be meeting a lot of Dutch people on this trip!

From Tour of the Alps 2011

It took a little bit of riding, but I got to the 16th tunnel, which for the purposes of riding a bike was the summit tunnel for Timmelsjoch and just a hop skip and a jump into Austria. I turned off the data plan on my phone (it wasn't getting any data anyway), and after a bit of rest, rode through the tunnel with absolutely no symptoms of altitude sickness whatsoever.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

The section of road between what I consider the summit tunnel to the Austrian border is just a couple of kilometers, but it's very pretty, wild and desolate with sheer drop offs and high mountains all around. In all the alps there's nothing quite like it. At the pass proper it got really windy and I walked into a viewing gallery so I could admire the scenery. I could see my bike from the viewing gallery, and saw also the myriad cyclists stopping to put on clothing as the temperatures had dropped quite a bit.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

After taking the obligatory pass photo, I rode over to the restaurant to wait for Phil. I had harbored thoughts of getting a hot lunch, but walking through the restaurant made me realize that they were so busy that I was unlikely to get service for at least an hour. Phil showed up and when I told him about it, agreed to descend to Solden for lunch.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

The descent on the Austrian side was wild and pretty, with lots of well banked turns and two retro grades. I remember being surprised by them during my last visit (and Roberto apparently cursed my name quite a bit), but this time we were prepared for them and while the headwind was annoying, they were over soon enough. We stopped for photos once or twice, but were soon in Solden and getting lunch at the supermarket. I tried to get a Sim card but had no luck. We would be back in Switzerland soon enough anyway.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

The descent from Solden down towards Imst was pretty in places, but flat enough that the afternoon headwind really annoyed me and slowed me down quite a bit. Once out of the Otztal Valley the weather warmed up and we found ourselves climbing towards the Inn river valley during the hottest time of the day under the hot sun. Fortunately, the climb wasn't terribly long and soon I found myself following the instructions I remembered clearly from Jobst Brandt to find the bike path: down towards the train station (Bahnof), past the water rafting put in. To my surprise I ended up at the train station instead, having ridden past the put in. Phil wanted to use the rest room anyway, so I was left scratching my head. Eventually, as we rode back out to look for the bike path to Landeck, I realized what had changed: the water rafting put in was closed and the office for it had been removed, leading me to ride right past it.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Well, we found the bike path to Landeck, and for the third time in my life started riding on it. The weather had turned by this time and the sky was overcast. Off in the distance towards Landeck we saw rain in the mountains.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

It didn't take a long time before the rain hit us, but it turned out to be a light drizzle, just enough to make us prioritize looking for lodging. I'm normally a worry-wort on weekends, but I figured that the Inn River Valley had plenty of lodging. Indeed at the very next small town of Mils we found a clean hotel at a somewhat reasonable price, and took a double room. After cleaning up, we walked down to dinner and was treated to a gorgeous rainbow seen right from the hotel. It was a nice reward for riding what would turn out to be the Queen stage of the tour.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

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Day 23: Fondo to Moos

After the previous day's unpredictable weather, we woke up to some fairly good weather and a quiet climb up to Passo Palade, which did not boast very steep grades but did grant us great views of the valley below us.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

From Passo Palade, we descended towards Merano, which was one of the smoothest descents you could imagine. While not very fast in terms of absolute speed, the curves were well controlled and the road mostly straight, so you could go at terminal velocity almost all the way down to Merano. We stopped a few times because the view of Merano Valley was so clear that it would have been a shame not to take a picture.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

By the time we got to Lana, our quiet road had turned into an incredibly busy road. While navigating the streets I spotted a bike path signed for Merano. The bike path started in a narrow alley that I would not have spotted if it had not been prominently marked.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Fortunately, the bike path quickly turned into a proper path (though with a few under-signed sections that caused us to scratch our heads a little bit). Soon we were rolling into Merano and then saw one of the largest supermarkets we seen. Phil went in and bought lunch, which was an entire chicken which we devoured in half an hour.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

After lunch, we left town heading towards Timmelsjoch. The traffic leading out of town was busy and on a two lane highway. The sun beat down on us and there was no shade, but after a few rollers I saw a bike path sign and immediately went for it. The bike path was shaded and right along the river which took the sting out of most of the ride as we headed towards St. Leonhard.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

High above St. Leonhardt we could see the descent from Jaufenpass come into town. We could also see high clouds and fog rolling in over the mountain. Europeans don't always wear helmets, and Italy is no exception. In many places, bicycles were also used as multi-person vehicles, even if they only had one seat. I was very amused to see a couple treat cycling as a cooperative process, with the man pedaling and the woman steering the bars, sans helmets!

From Tour of the Alps 2011

The town of Leonhardt was at 700m, and it was smoking hot when we arrived. Phil looked a little cooked and asked if we shouldn't check out the tourist information center. At the tourist information, we found that there was another town 300m higher and just 7km away. We made reservations at Maria's Cafe, and decided that this would be our destination for the day.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Climbing 300m on a hot day in the open with no shade is definitely only for the masochistic. The only reason I did so was I wanted a shorter climb the next day and cooler evenings so we could sleep. It turned out that I had mis-timed everything, since once we arrived and checked into Maria's Cafe, it started pouring! On second thought, maybe that was fine, since it meant we'd maximized the amount of time riding. Maria's Cafe was very adequate for cyclists, and included a bike shop. The owner said, "There's no bike shop in town, so I decided to make my workshop a bike shop as well."

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Moos was a town that made the most of its name. The supermarket was called "Konsumoos", and the bunker museum in town called itself the "Mooseum". We had arrived a little to explore the "Mooseum", but the supermarket had ice cream and that was much needed after the ride.
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Day 22: St. Caterina to Fondo

From Tour of the Alps 2011

We woke up to clear blue skies which made me feel like the decision to wait for better was justified. The climb out of St. Caterina proved to be no problems, and for the rest of our trip we wouldn't get any more flats or other mechanicals. A group of mountain bikers had headed up Gavia just before we left, but I passed them easily as they were a large group and had to stop often to let the slower members catch up.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

As we approached 2400m, however, clouds started rolling in and it became misty, nearly foggy. By the time I got to the summit it was cold, around 46F, and visibility was poor. Gavia was famous for poor weather, and it looked like I wasn't going to get any luck this time around, either. It was so cold that I put on everything I brought, including my long fingered gloves. I used the bathroom at the summit and got out just in time to see Phil come by for a summit shot.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

The descent of the Gavia was scary at the top, with misty clouds coming up the mountain as well as extremely low visibility. The tunnel was scary as well, since it was unlit.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Once past the tunnel, however, the views cleared up a bit. It looked like the clouds were high above us, but we also had plenty of misty fog blowing up the valley, which lent the place a surreal feel, as though we were in a remote place far away from civilization, as opposed to just being 10 miles away from reasonably sized villages. I made a video, just in case the photos weren't sufficient. The sound of cowbells filled the air and I enjoyed the scenery.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Gavia is a steep and dangerous descent by anybody's standards, but this time we weren't riding it on a weekend so I could make reasonable time, and soon I was warm and having to stop to take off everything I had put on at the summit. Phil rolled up right after that and we discussed our options. We were too early to stop in Ponte di Legno, and I had gotten a bad case of bed bugs the last time I was there anyway, so we agreed to bypass the town. I had originally thought to stay high on the other side of Passo Tonale, so we decided to ride in that direction and see how things went.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Tonale is one of the least interesting passes you can ride in the Alps. The top of it is a ski resort and crammed full of tourist traps, shops. I got there in pretty good time as the climb wasn't steep, and then had to wait for a bit as Phil had to help someone else fix a flat tire and hence was delayed on the climb.

It was way too early to stop, so we pressed on with the descent and decided to switch our destination to somewhere near Fondo. The last time I had done this ride, I had stuck with the main road for fear that the bike path would dead end or lead us somewhere we didn't want to go. This time, however, I knew that the bike path would lead us in the correct direction, and I even knew how to spot the bike path sign and so we got onto the beautiful Italian bike path along the valley.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Most bike paths along rivers do a pretty good job of sticking to them, so we rolled down the river at a good clip, stopping only to take the obligatory picture pun indicating Phil's gender correctly.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

As we approached Cles, the bike path started doing strange things and we opted to rejoin the main road just in time for beautiful views of the lake.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Despite the overcast skies it was hot and humid, but when we finally stopped for water about 10km away from Fondo, it started drizzling. We met a German tourist and he told us he was planning to stop in Fondo. Since I was feeling fine, we decided we could follow suit. Once past the lake, the road climbs towards Fondo in a series of stair step grades, the flat part of which hosts little villages or towns. Phil asked me if I was worried about the tourist information office closing, but I pointed out that many hotels and restaurants weren't even open till 5pm, which meant we had plenty of time.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Thus it was we pulled into Fondo on damp roads that were not wet, and indeed discovered that the tourist information office was open till 6:00pm. The local hotel looked expensive, but the tourist information office pointed me at a farm B&B that was nearby. Riding there, I expected to have to sleep in a barn but found myself in a brand new B&B! It even featured air conditioning, which considering the humidity and the heat, we were very pleased with. At 28EUR per person, we were very pleased and took it. After the shower and laundry, the talk to town for dinner granted us a beautiful peaceful evening scene.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

This stay in Italy was turning out to be far better than my previous stays. Between getting cheap internet, good lodging, great food, and a bike path which bypassed the nasty traffic, I started feeling rather optimistic for the coming days.
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Day 21: Bormio to St. Caterina

We woke up to cloudy, foreboding skies, but by the time we left the clouds hadn't gotten any worse so we thought we could make it up Gavia.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

I got a headstart on Phil, since I didn't know if I was going to have another bad day. There were plenty of cyclists riding up the Gavia that day, but none of them were carrying a load. Every one looked like they were up for just a day ride.

Past St. Caterina, I negotiated a few corners with some sharp glass on the road, picking my way carefully to avoid puncture. 200 vertical meters later, a bunch of day riders passed me and said that my buddy had gotten a flat. I pressed on but it started raining quite hard, so I called Phil to see how he was doing. He said it would take at least 15 minutes to fix his flat. Gavia didn't have the best of weather at the best of times, and in the rain would have no visibility at all, so I offered to ride back down to St. Caterina, get some lodging, and try again tomorrow. Since it started raining where Phil was, he agreed.

I rode down to the tourist information center, and found Hotel Park, a well appointed hotel which offered a half pension for around 40EUR/person. Phil showed up half an hour later, and we ate lunch in our room, reading and finishing at least a book each. Unfortunately, my Kindle slipped out of my hands and broke, so I would be stuck without reading material for the rest of the trip.

It poured heavily that day, making us glad about our decision to stop early. The forecast didn't look any better for the next day, however, so we started worrying about whether we would be stuck for a few days here. We looked over the map, and I asked Phil whether he wanted to do more time in Italy and then ride over to Austria for the Grossglockner, or whether he'd like to bail early and do Timmelsjoch. His preference was to ride more in Switzerland, so we agreed to go over to Timmelsjoch via Passo Palade, a pass I had never done before.

We went to bed with the sound of rain and thunder coming from outside the room.

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Day 20: Glorenza to Bormio

We woke up once again to sunny skies and a very small breakfast where we nevertheless met Leo Verhoeven from the Netherlands. Leo was a fast rider who nevertheless was glad to show us the way to Stelvio via the bike path, so we agreed to meet with him. He was riding unloaded, and had made it to the 22nd hairpin the day before in an attempt to get acclimated.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

With Leo's help, we made it quickly to the next village where due to a computer crash, we were unable to buy sim cards for our phones. There was nothing to do but to ride the Stelvio, along the rushing river. The day quickly warmed up, making the riding inside the gallery at the foot of the mountain a welcome cool.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

At the first turn at the bottom of the hill (marked turn #47), I started feeling as though I was going to have a bad day. There wasn't a snap in my legs the way there was one the day before, and I found myself falling behind my companions. Nevertheless, they were happy to wait every so often while I caught up, and I decided to just take it easy.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Stelvio is easily one of the prettiest climbs in the Alps, with views of the Marmolada glacier all through the climb, the only large glacier in the Dolomites. Taking it easy, I snapped picture after picture, but after a while had so much sweat on me that my camera lens fogged up!

From Tour of the Alps 2011

At the 22nd hairpin, it was only 11:45am, but I was beat. Phil and I sat down and had an ice cream while Leo pushed on ahead since he had plans for the afternoon that didn't include baby-sitting a couple of tourists. The ice cream felt good but didn't do much for the emptiness I felt in my legs. I took it easy for the rest of the climb. At around hairpin number 9, a motor cyclist heading the other way took a spill and dropped his bike. Another motorcyclist and a car driver stopped to help him, as did I, but as I stopped, I realized I was too tired to help anyone lift a 300 pound bike! All I could do was to push on ahead.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

By the time I got to hair pin number 5, I was reduced to stopping and resting at every hairpin turn so I could catch my breath. I realized then that I was probably suffering from altitude sickness, which was really strange, as I had none of those effects at 2500m while at St. Moritz and hiking hard, while Stelvio was at most 2800m. By all rights I should have had all altitude sickness out of my system by this time in the tour.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

This time, the summit was sunny and beautiful, so Phil and I put on our jackets and got photos at the summit sign before starting the descent. My last descent of the Stelvio was during an impending storm, so I didn't think the other side was pretty, as it looked pretty much just like an open cast mine. This time, with more time to enjoy it, I could truly appreciate the beauty of the pass.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Coming into Bormio, we got a hotel reserved in our name and then set off to find phone stores that could sell us Sim cards. After 2 failures we finally found the Tim store, which sold us prepaid phone cards for 17 Euros each, including free unlimited 3G internet access until the end of September!

We got to our hotel, took showers, and hung out our clothes as a storm blew in, raining hard right after dinner. The forecast tomorrow was pretty bad, but we were still optimistic.

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Day 19: St. Moritz Bad to Glorenza

We woke up to beautiful sunshine that led us to believe that staying the extra day was the right thing to do. We eat a quick breakfast, rode out to the post office and then mailed all our hiking clothes back to our hotel in Zurich. That meant shoes, hiking pants, GPS wrist-band, and cotton shirts (which had all been laundered the day before). This left us with the lightest possible cycling load as we set off towards Zernez.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

We first used the main road to get to Zernez but after a while found the bike path and followed it. Since we had time, I didn't mind too much when the bike path zig'd off the main road and then headed up into the mountains on an unpaved road. We passed a few interesting places, including what looked like a summer military camp for boys. By the time we got sick of the bike path we were within 5km of Zernez, and rolled into the tourist information center. In the 2007 Tour of the Alps, I had wanted to stay at Il Fourn, a hotel set in the Swiss National Park just before the summit of Ofenpass. We discovered that the hotel had plenty of availability and so we didn't need to make a reservation.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

We ate lunch at the coop in Zernez, which was next to a shop that sold wallets and flip-flops. I found a Swiss wallet which had separate pockets for two currencies (including coin pockets). I bought that. Then I found a pair of flip flops on sale at a good price, so I bought that as well.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

It was warm as we headed up Ofenpass, but clouds came over after we climbed a few hundred meters and we soon had a nice breeze that cooled us off. Ofenpass was multiple climbs and we got to 1200m several times before finally getting to the National Park Hotel at 2:30pm. Since we were fresh, it was too early to stop and we decided to head into Italy if time permitted. Ofenpass was not long after the hotel, and we zipped down quickly under blue skies to the Italian Border.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

I gave Phil a run down of all the options: we could climb Stelvio from the East or over the Umbrail pass. The East side is the pretty side, so he opted for that, which meant running down to Glorenza.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

By the time we'd gotten to Glorenza it was well after 5:00pm. The tourist information center was a bit hard to find as it was hidden away in the corner of the castle town's entrance, but once we found it the lady running it was very helpful. It turned out all the hotels in town were taken, but there was one just outside town that was available. We found it but nobody answered the doorbell. Upon returning to the tourist information center, she called them and they said they were present if we would just barge in like guests instead of knocking at the door like visitors. The information office also informed us that there was no place to buy a SIM card in town, but Prato, the next town on the way to Stelvio would have a place to buy one.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

We checked in on the second try, getting a room for 29 EUR/person, and then getting a nice fancy dinner in town. It was so warm that everything dried over night.
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Review: Monster Hunter International

Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International is what John Steakley's classic Vampire$ would have been if it had been written by a gun nut instead of a war weary soldier. While both novels feature mercenaries out to kill monsters for money (contract dollars in the case of the latter, government bounties in the case of the former), Vampire$ has a gritty, brooding feel while Monster Hunter International seems written by someone who'd never been shot at in anger.

This is not to say that Monster Hunter International isn't a fun novel. It's a lot of fun, especially if you're a gun lover. Every detail about guns is lovingly described. There are lots of opportunities to use them---the amount of fire power brought out by these folks are only barely enough to put down minor vampires, let alone the more fearsome types.

There's an occult sub-plot, as well as a romantic sub-plot, but both of those are trite and predictable, put in there so that the reader has a break between awesome gunfights, bombings, and of course, the occasional tactical nuke. The villain of the piece is a cartoon cut-out, and the prophecy was predictable from a mile away.

If this was the kind of competition Lev Grossman's Magicians faced, no wonder Grossman won the Campbell award. Recommended for gun nuts and a long flight where you're too tired to think. Otherwise, read Vampire$ instead. Heck, even if you're too tired to think Vampire$ is a far better novel.

Worldcon Notes: Discussion with Bill Willingham

Fables is by far one of the most interesting comic books today. One of the big draw of WorldCon was the chance to meet author and creator Bill Willingham. I met him on multiple occasions, and since I did not take notes, I wanted to write down various bits while they are fresh on my mind. Note that I very likely paraphrased him, so don't take this as literal quotes.

On Long Story Arcs

One of the things I learned was that you cannot write long story arcs without owning the characters. I got addicted to long story arcs when I wrote Elementals. One of the big villains was a shape shifter, and basically showed up as the boyfriend of one of the characters. When the big revealed happened, I got so much fan mail that I decided that this was my schtick. I tried this again when I wrote Batman. I was going to do this long story arc where Robin's father (we had a female Robin at that time) would slowly pierce together that she was Robin and then they'd have a confrontation about it. But then DC had this crossover where Robin was going to die, so I had to compress that story arc into 3 issues, which was really lame. I got all sorts of mail saying how Robin wouldn't be so stupid, but I couldn't defend myself. Now as owner of Fables I get to do long story plotting again and I love it.

One reason that I'm doing the Fables spin-off is I'd like new writers to get a chance to do this as well.

On the Fables Movie

DC has tried to sell rights to Fables movies/TV series for a while. It's a very frustrating process, because what happens is we'd get it all but approved by a TV executive, and then he'd switch jobs and the new executive would come in and kill everything approved by the previous guy. That's because if he's successful in the series, the success would be credited to the prior executive, but if he fails, he'd get the blame.

For the movies, DC set it up so that I wouldn't have approval over any Fables movies. But when I read the scripts proposed, it always seems like the script writer has never read any issue of Fables or understood the story. It might very well be that it's easier for me to learn how to write a movie than to wait for someone else to write a decent Fables movie.

Elementals

There's no chance of Elementals getting reprinted any time soon. The guy who owns it is basically a douchebag. I sold the rights at a time in my life when I really needed the money and this guy was willing to pay me. Every time someone else would want to buy the rights from him, he'd counter with a doubling of the price, and even if that person agreed, he'd immediately back off and decide that he wanted even more money. He's just proven himself to be too hard to work with.

How many Fables comic book readers are female?

I'd like to think that it was 50/50, but to be honest we don't have the money to do proper demographic analysis. At this point, the collected published printings have outsold the individual issues. What happens is that as each new book comes out, the previous books all sell, while the sales of the individual issues have held steady.

Why is it so hard to get a subscription to the individual issues? They used to have a subscription service but what happened was that so many series got cancelled, and each time you'd have to refund the subscriber. So at this point, individual issues are the province of the comic book store.

I found Fables at my local library

Isn't it wonderful that libraries have turned around? It used to be that librarians hated comic books. Now, the big metric that libraries are measured on is circulation. So some guy said, why don't we have a shelf for comic books and a brave librarian finally did it and discovered lo and behold, that comic books circulate like crazy! That's why libraries have finally gotten around to stocking comic books.

The ending of the first long arc looked kind of rush. Were you pressured by the publisher to keep the page count down?

No, we did this silly thing where we tried to do something special for issue #75, which was pretty arbitrary. Given the chance to do it all over again, I would have just let the story run out at the natural pace and then it would have ended on issue #77, which was just as good an ending issue. We learned from this and for issue #100, I asked for 100 pages, which solved the problem of the story arc length nicely.

Worldcon Notes: Publishing in the Age of Ebooks

The two most useful panels/seminars I attended at WorldCon were "How to give an effective reading", and "Publishing in the age of ebooks". Here's the notes from the latter. I apologize for not writing in sentence fragments, but I don't have time to do more editing, nor do I remember who said what. Note that below were notes taken from what the panel was saying, not my opinion. If you think this is good and want my notes from "How to give an effective reading", please drop me a note or leave a comment on this page.

Publishing in the Age of E-books

• Kindle shock-wave eliminated the marketing/publicity problem
  
• $3 in Kindle sales for every $1 from Barnes and Noble (paper books!)
  
• 3X in ebook sales on Baen Website, which are tied to the paper edition of the book.
  
• Ebooks will dominate paper books the way automatic transmission replaced manual transmission.
  
• Publishing is currently dominated by a small number of big corporations. The rise of small presses over the last 10 years was driven by Print on Demand and will be further accelerated by ebooks.
  
• Magazine subscriptions are going up for the first time: Ratio is 10:1 selling subscriptions versus individual issues. This compounds every month because of new subscribers.
  
• Color is not optional.
  
• Textbook industry is a monopoly.
  
• 14% of book sales are now ebooks. This is the beginning of the end for paper: once kids are using them in schools, there'll be a generation of kids growing up who will view paper books the way we view vinyl records and cassette tapes
  
• Transition to ebook will happen a lot faster than publishers believe.
  
• People sample books a lot electronically. You can use ebook as a promotion for paperbooks.
  
• Eric Flint: 20-25% of sales are electronic. Displaced paperback income, but not hardcover income.
  
• Mike Resnick: huge back list generating $2300/month on Kindle store (self-publishing by an established writer)
  
• International distribution of ebooks means greater opportunity to reach wider audience.
  
• Too many new books/authors. This is a temporary problem as no one has figured out how to market ebooks yet. Over time, people have learned to effectively used print on demand, and will eventually learn to effectively use ebooks.
  
• There will be gatekeepers for content serving the current roles that publishers do, but we don't know who it's going to be. The same goes for reviewers. Some will be the new gatekeepers/editors.
  
• Publishers are not a service for authors. They're a service for readers in providing a selection filter. This was a historical accident because it cost lots of money to print books. The problem isn't the horrible stories that are obvious within a paragraph or two. It's the ones that are good enough for you to keep reading but go nowhere and burn a lot of time. "Like oatmeal."
  
• Most major publishers are deciding to price the ebook at the same price or higher than the paperback price. A recent series by the Bertelsman Group was put up at $7.99 for the paperback and $8.99 on the Kindle. 2 back list titles were put up by the publisher at $5.99, and sold much better than the new books. You should definitely make ebooks cheaper than the hardcovers.
  
• Del Rey put up ebooks for $16 each. Sales were pathetic. At $7.99, the sales became something approaching reasonable.
  
• Piracy/Spillage: all through the history of books, 5-6 readings of a book were free for every paid copy. During the Korean War/Vietname War, the ratio was probably 10:1. 1 book would go through an entire infantry company during the war! In otherwords, don't worry about piracy, used book sales, etc.
  
• Difference between music and books. Big dominant format in music is short songs. In fiction, dominant format is novel, not short fiction. Short fiction is less than 2% of the market. Hard to use music industry as a model because those people were so stupid and so greedy that I live for the day when they're wiped out and are standing on the street holding up signs saying, "Will gouge for food!"
  
• More publishers are moving away from DRM. Amazon is easy to deal with compared to Apple. They provide you with the world’s biggest online bookstore. The catch is: you can’t sell on better terms anywhere else than you’re selling on Amazon.
  
• The thing that kills small press is the returns. Book distribution is not a consignment system. If distributors and big bookstore chains can’t sell it, you’re absorbing the cost when they return the books to you. Traditional publishers take 52% discount. American laws on bankruptcy mean that the burden of bankruptcy falls disproportionately on publishers. Borders closing: Penguin lost $41M. Hachette $36.9M. Those executives who declared bankruptcy awarded themselves $8.1M in incentive bonuses. Ebooks are a haven compared to paper books in this situation.
  

Trip Report WorldCon

This year, I decided that since I no longer have a day job and can in fact take as much time off as I wanted to, I would do a really geeky thing that I'd never prioritized before, which was to go to a Science Fiction Convention. I picked WorldCon in its guise as Renovation because it's the site of the Hugo Awards, one of the two prestigious awards in Science Fiction. I avoided ComicCon San Diego because it could have conflicted with the Tour of the Alps, and GenCon required flying while Reno was within a day's drive of us. XiaoQin decided to come along (bravely) even though she didn't really know any of the authors there.

Worldcon 2011

The big thing that I didn't expect was that the WorldCon is small, about 3000 people or so. What this means if you're a fan is access! You've got access to nearly every author who shows up, including some small group meetings (called "Kaffee Klatsches" or Literary Beer") that approach a small intimate experience. I signed up for Bill Willingham, Alastair Reynolds, Glen Cook, Michael Swanwick, and David Brin. I got to ask Willingham how far ahead he plotted (24 months!), discussed the Drake equation with David Brin. Reynolds gave us a preview of his next book (not a Revelation Space novel). Glen Cook told us stories about how he wrote. He worked on the assembly line and had a one minute thirty second cycle, could complete his task in 45 seconds, and wrote in the other 45 seconds, because it was all muscle memory and he had all that time to think about wha the wanted to write. (Incidentally, the Black Company RPG rights sold for $8,000) This was by far the best part of the con for me. One Kaffee Klatcsh was with Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden, who provided some insights as to how editors and publishers think.

Secondarily, I got to attend several panels, and since this was a multi-track program, I actually had to triage. As a self-publisher, I attended several panels on publishing, writing, pitching, and contracts. Some were useful, others not so. By far the most helpful one was a panel on publishing. There turned out to be another self-publisher on the panel, Sandra Tayler of Schlock Mercenary. Everyone else on the panel was either an author who had gone through the traditional process or was a literary agent. Tayler was a lot more diplomatic than I would have been. Essentially, she was the only one who'd ever run a business, and actually understood what authors were giving up by going with a traditional publisher. "You have to decide what your goals are. Do you want to be read and put food on the table, or is it more important for you to see your books in a bookstore and do author signings an so on." Afterwards she gave me some time and helped out by providing numbers for color printing a book very similar to Independent Cycle Touring, and gave me an idea for an experiment that I should run. I also used the time to make contact with several other self-publishers. Fundamentally, we're at an interesting point where the large traditional publishers still have no clue about the ebook tidal wave and think that they can make it go away by over-pricing ebooks. An independent, self-published author has a window of about another year or two to make a splash by not making those mistakes, and it was gratifying to see that the ebook panels at least were composed of people who understood that.

I was surprised by how accessible the "big-name" authors were. Gardner Dozois, Robert Silverberg, Lois Bujold, Jo Walton, and John Scalzi were all walking around without entourages and you could easily grab a person to sign your book, take a photo, or even chat. Many of these authors did start out as fans.

The big ceremonies like the Hugo Awards or the Masquerade were OK, but also the lease personal part of the con. In any case, time management was crucial, as at any given point I had to triage my time and figure out what to do, where to go, who to meet, or whether to actually go get something to eat.

I'm not sure if I'd go to another con any time soon. I suspect that something like once a decade is about the right interval for these, but if you've never been to one and are thinking of going, I'd recommend at least going to one, and the WorldCon is exactly the right size. Small enough that your favorite authors would be accessible, but large enough to have plenty of choices as to what to do and what interests you. My friend Ellie, for instance, turned it into essentially a long seminar about costumes and costume making, while I made it into a seminar about self-publishing/publishing/contracts, with a little bit about ancillary fields like comic books and fiction. If you enjoy reading, and like science fiction or fantasy, maybe 5 days of it might be a bit much, but 3 or 4 days would be just about right. Recommended.

P.S. None of my votes for the Hugo awards panned out. I guess my tastes are very different from anyone else's!

I'll be busy the next few days working on my next book, but expect the Tour of the Alps trip reports to continue after that.