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Interview with Piers Anthony. Writing Fantasy in Linux.

10 points by powerbase 15y ago

driverdan 15y ago
Good and interesting interview but your site's layout is horrible. 7 pages for that? It should have been 1 page. No print / single page view either.
- powerbase 15y ago
  I know... When that was published, by sidebar was half the height that it is now. I'll edit it tonight to reflect the new layout. Thanks for the criticism.
  - obtu 15y ago
    It's not that accessibility is something you should add, it's that you're actively mucking it up with about a hundred text links, glossy buttons, social junk on all sides, and the page splits. I'm guessing you're driving away enough visitors to hurt your apparent dedication to making money off page views.
    - powerbase 15y ago
      Possibly. Criticism is accepted. We are new to this and have no clue what we are doing to be perfectly honest. We just want to bring quality content, and if presentation is holding it back then it needs to be addressed. Thank you.
rkalla 15y ago
Did anybody else read Piers Anthony growing up? I must have gone through 20 of his Xanth books when I was younger. That was one of the reasons I wanted to be rouge adventurer with magical partners. I got a degree in CS instead =/
- ktsmith 15y ago
  I read just about every book of his I could get my hands on when I was growing up. About the time the puns of Xanth got old I had moved on to the Incarnations of Immortality books, Bio of a Space Tyrant and my favorites the Apprentice Adept series. They don't hold up nearly as well to me as an adult but I still have a giant dusty box of his books in my attic that I can't seem to part with.
- dugmartin 15y ago
  Yes and he was 1 of 2 authors that wrote back to me when I sent a bunch of fan letters to fantasy authors around 1984 or so. I just looked and I still have it - a perforated postcard printed using a dot matrix printer. David Eddings was the other author - he sent the full syllabus to his college writing course plus some photocopied short stories in response to the statement I was thinking of becoming an author.
  - rkalla 15y ago
    Curious, did Eddings's reply to you actually help steer you towards authorhood or did your life take a different journey?
bryanlarsen 15y ago
Warning: You will really have to want to read the article to click through. It's a small article split amongst 7 pages, and if you get distracted and leave it up for a bit, it switches away to an ad. Evil.
jws 15y ago
Piers: Yes, I can’t print in Linux on my current system. Well, we've only had 20 years. Ah the hours and ink I wasted trying in vain to get acceptable color results out of ink jet printers on linux. It's networked Postscript laser printers for me from now on and I'll just print photos other ways.
- powerbase 15y ago
  I've tried to help him with it, but he doesn't keep his machine online so it is difficult. He still has dialup and refuses to upgrade.
gwern 15y ago
I haven't read a Xanth in years, so this was interesting to catch up; I hadn't even realized he was still alive. (Wikipedia says he's 77!)
- powerbase 15y ago
  He still runs 2 miles a day. He will be around until he's 150 I'm sure. I read in his most recent newsletter that his updated bibliography is 150 books.

10 points by powerbase 15y ago

Good and interesting interview but your site's layout is horrible. 7 pages for that? It should have been 1 page. No print / single page view either.

powerbase 15y ago
I know... When that was published, by sidebar was half the height that it is now. I'll edit it tonight to reflect the new layout. Thanks for the criticism.
- obtu 15y ago
  It's not that accessibility is something you should add, it's that you're actively mucking it up with about a hundred text links, glossy buttons, social junk on all sides, and the page splits. I'm guessing you're driving away enough visitors to hurt your apparent dedication to making money off page views.
  - powerbase 15y ago
    Possibly. Criticism is accepted. We are new to this and have no clue what we are doing to be perfectly honest. We just want to bring quality content, and if presentation is holding it back then it needs to be addressed. Thank you.

rkalla 15y ago

Did anybody else read Piers Anthony growing up? I must have gone through 20 of his Xanth books when I was younger. That was one of the reasons I wanted to be rouge adventurer with magical partners. I got a degree in CS instead =/

ktsmith 15y ago
I read just about every book of his I could get my hands on when I was growing up. About the time the puns of Xanth got old I had moved on to the Incarnations of Immortality books, Bio of a Space Tyrant and my favorites the Apprentice Adept series. They don't hold up nearly as well to me as an adult but I still have a giant dusty box of his books in my attic that I can't seem to part with.
dugmartin 15y ago
Yes and he was 1 of 2 authors that wrote back to me when I sent a bunch of fan letters to fantasy authors around 1984 or so. I just looked and I still have it - a perforated postcard printed using a dot matrix printer. David Eddings was the other author - he sent the full syllabus to his college writing course plus some photocopied short stories in response to the statement I was thinking of becoming an author.
- rkalla 15y ago
  Curious, did Eddings's reply to you actually help steer you towards authorhood or did your life take a different journey?

bryanlarsen 15y ago

Warning: You will really have to want to read the article to click through. It's a small article split amongst 7 pages, and if you get distracted and leave it up for a bit, it switches away to an ad. Evil.

jws 15y ago

Piers: Yes, I can’t print in Linux on my current system. Well, we've only had 20 years. Ah the hours and ink I wasted trying in vain to get acceptable color results out of ink jet printers on linux. It's networked Postscript laser printers for me from now on and I'll just print photos other ways.

powerbase 15y ago
I've tried to help him with it, but he doesn't keep his machine online so it is difficult. He still has dialup and refuses to upgrade.

gwern 15y ago

I haven't read a Xanth in years, so this was interesting to catch up; I hadn't even realized he was still alive. (Wikipedia says he's 77!)

powerbase 15y ago
He still runs 2 miles a day. He will be around until he's 150 I'm sure. I read in his most recent newsletter that his updated bibliography is 150 books.