Thord D. Hedengren

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Month: October 2015

  • On newsletters

    On newsletters

    I love newsletters. Once upon a time, I started my professional online publishing career with one. It was called TVspel.nu and was about video games. I did a whole bunch of issues, but it didn’t take long until a website launched, and that made more sense to focus on. This was in 1997, pre-dotcom. I made some money, but didn’t get rich. It was the basis of my first business, alongside running the official site for Sega Dreamcast in Scandinavia. It was a nice way to make a living as an 18 year old. Incidentally, TVspel.nu ended up being one of the biggest gaming websites in Sweden.

    My next serious newsletter was Kong. It had been a site before, but I canned it, probably because I was bored. There were 30+ issues of the newsletter Kong Magazine, before I had some money issues. Selling ads in newsletters has always been hard, and it still is. The Holiday season was approaching, and I launched a site for Kong, sold all the ads, and could live to eat another day. As with TVspel.nu, the site flourished, priding itself on having great content, an editorial vision (not very common with video game sites back then), and a shitload of visitors. It sparked other sites. It made money, post-dotcom. In the end I sold it, because I’ve had it with video games and the Swedish media landscape for the time being. That’s when I started at The Blog Herald, but that’s another story.

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  • IAB goes LEAN, still clueless

    IAB, writing from an admittedly high horse, about how they messed up online ads, and manhandled the trust of their visitors, launches Light, Encrypted, Ad choice supported, Non-invasive ads – L.E.A.N. for short. It’s all somewhat positive, up until this load of bullshit:

    L.E.A.N. Ads do not replace the current advertising standards many consumers still enjoy and engage with while consuming content on our sites across all IP enabled devices. Rather, these principles will guide an alternative set of standards that provide choice for marketers, content providers, and consumers.

    Trust me, there’s no one in the world who enjoy your bloated ads. You can’t first point a finger at adblockers, then launch an ad program to remedy your faults, and then claim there are none. IAB just doesn’t get it, a global problem in the ad-driven online industry.

  • Your NaNoWriMo toolbox

    Your NaNoWriMo toolbox

    November is closing in, and so is National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo for short. With that in mind, I forbid you to read this post before your outline is done. Seriously, do you have your outline under control? Yes? Good, then you may read on. Otherwise, come on, October is rushing by, time really is limited, so get outlining already.

    Deal? Deal.

    Right. So, other than the outline, what do you need to complete NaNoWriMo? Not a lot, honestly. Like most writing, the only thing you need is what’s in your head, and some means of actually writing. That being said, it’s good to come prepared, so let’s take a look at something resembling a toolbox-cum-checklist for NaNoWriMo.

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  • What to wear in cold weather

    Comprehensive guide by Wes Siler on what to wear to stay warm and dry this winter.

    Everyone. Everyone can benefit from more a more effective approach to clothing, whether you’re just walking to dinner in New York in February, skiing at Aspen on a balmy afternoon in late March, or living in a snow cave above the arctic circle. The approach to dressing for cold weather is identical no matter how, when or where you’re wearing it, only the execution changes.

    Well, I’d say the guide is mostly for outdoorsy folks, but even if you’re not so inclined, there are some pointers.

  • Ashen Sky är min nästa bok

    Kortromanen/långnovellen Ashen Sky är min nästa bok. Den kommer publiceras digitalt, på engelska, under imprintet Pale Publishing. Omslaget följer:

    Ashen Sky
    Ashen Sky

    Det finns lite mer om omslaget på TDH.me, för den som är intresserad.

    Ashen Sky släpps i november.

  • Ashen Sky cover reveal

    If you’re a RE:THORD subscriber, you already know this. See how valuable that newsletter is? How can you not subscribe? Really?

    Anyway. I’ve written a novella (that’s a long short story, or a short novel, whichever you please – this one’s about a third of a novel) called Ashen Sky, and I’d like to show you its cover.

    Ashen Sky
    Ashen Sky

    The Ashen Sky cover was made by the talented Gábor Scigás, whom you should hire if you need this sort of thing. I’ll tell you more about Ashen Sky as soon as I have a release date for you. It’s going to be an ebook release through the Pale Publishing imprint. It’ll definitely be on Kindle, possibly on other platforms too.

    Related, but also devoid of additional information: The Ashen Sky book page.

  • Grattis Anton

    Anton Johansson:

    Idag fyller den här bloggen ”Fyra nyanser av brunt” 10 år. Det började som ett test av den då väldigt nya bloggplattformen wordpress.com (självhostade wordpressbloggar hade funnits lite längre), vilket var anledningen till att mitt 16-åriga jag tyckte att adressen ”bajsbrun.wordpress.com” var en bra idé. Det var ju bara ett test.

  • We agree on newsletters

    Yesterday say the first issue of RE:THORD, my newsletter. In it, among other things, is an essay about newsletters. I know, very meta, but I love newsletters, so it felt right. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks about these things at the moment. Warren Ellis publishes a newsletter called Orbital Operations, and yesterday he wrote this, regarding the newsletters’s state at the moment:

    I’ve been doing these since the 1990s. I’ll be still here after everyone once more decides that they’re crap.

    A few hours earlier, I wrote this in RE:THORD #1:

    I love the fact that newsletters are getting new wind, that they’re so hip that they can be launched with an editorial staff and everything (hi Lenny!). Newsletters are fun, they’re a way to open up the conversation with the audience in a way that might not become as infected as the comments on your blog. This – the new, fun, hip, thing – is probably a fad, though. It’ll blow over. When it has, there will still be great newsletters, and I’ll be just as fascinated by them. Hopefully you will be too.

    Quite the coincidence, and the testament that newsletters are really interesting right now. At least for us old folks that still thinks email is cool.

  • RE:THORD debuts later today

    The first issue of RE:THORD, my newsletter, will debut later today. There’s still time to subscribe, if you want to make sure you don’t miss out on the cover reveal of… Oh shit, I almost spoiled it, didn’t I?

    RE:THORD #1 preview

    I’ll see you later today, in your inbox. That’s (hopefully) not as creepy as it sounds.

  • "I don't know how to market this"

    Author Kameron Hurley, in an essay for Uncanny Magazine:

    I found the “I don’t know how to market this” thing to be a mind-boggling excuse, because I’d written the book I wanted to read. And if I wanted to read it, surely there were other people out there who wanted to read it too. What I would slowly come to realize over the years is that the people like me, who like the types of books I write – the wild, weird, punching and magic and genderbending books – were not the types of people who publishers were used to selling to. They had an Ideal Consumer in mind, and that Ideal Consumer seemed to be scared of women outside of prescribed roles, queer people who aren’t just sidekicks, and any setting weirder than something from Tolkien. Clearly, you know, the world is FULL of people who actually DO love to read books about and including all of those people and things.

    This is a must-read for writers, and people interested in book publishing.

  • Chuck Wendig declares NaPloYoNoMo

    Chuck Wendig, who must be wise because he gets to write Star Wars books, agrees with me in that October is for outlining. From his meaty post, which you definitely should read if you intend to write a book, be it for NaNoWriMo or not:

    Outlining fucking sucks. I fucking hate it. Every time I do it I have to grit my teeth and swig whiskey and engage in a movie montage where I ragefully punch frozen beef and run through snow. And it takes me like, a day or two — three, tops — and then it’s done and suddenly I don’t fucking hate it anymore. It’s probably like building a house and starting with the basement. Building the basement has to be super shit-ass boring. It’s a basement. It’s just a cinderblock prison. It’s a horizontal dirt cave. The house itself above it — oh, that’s fancy. You get to think about where doorways are and which room will be the living room and the dining room and the SEX TARP room. You get to place windows and floors. But the basement: Ugh, fuck the basement. And yet, you need the basement. You need the foundation.

  • Ett nyhetsbrev på gång

    Om du är nyfiken på vad jag pysslar med, fast på engelska, så kanske mitt nyhetsbrev RE:THORD kan intressera. Prenumerationen är gratis, och det första numret kommer snart, med en första titt på… någonting. Trevlig läsning!

  • Subscribe to the RE:THORD newsletter

    It’s been in the making for years and years… Introducing the RE:THORD newsletter, which will arrive moments after it’s being sent, and contain whatever I put in it. Things an issue might contain:

    • First look at book covers.
    • Pre-order discounts.
    • Links to interesting reading.
    • Short fiction.
    • Columns.
    • Free stuff. (Hey, who knows?)
    • Overall madness.

    In all seriousness, expect very infrequent issues of RE:THORD. There will be an inaugural issue soon though, so you might want to subscribe to not miss out. At least one of those bullet points above will be in there, quite possibly several.

  • The device chain

    The device chain

    Steven Levy has a really interesting piece, albeit perhaps somewhat fluffy, on Apple’s new iMacs, as well as the accompanied new keyboard, mouse, and trackpad. It’s well worth a read, and there are a ton of things to quote if one was so inclined.

    I’m picking this one, which is Levy’s take on Apple’s Phil Schiller’s view on how the company’s devices add up:

    Schiller, in fact, has a grand philosophical theory of the Apple product line that puts all products on a continuum. Ideally, you should be using the smallest possible gadget to do as much as possible before going to the next largest gizmo in line.

    Start at the Apple Watch to keep your phone at bay. Then, on your iPhone, you do all the things that makes sense. Too small? Go to the iPad (and soon the iPad Pro), then to the Macbook. Finally, wrap it up on a 27″ iMac, or possibly a Mac Pro, if Apple would be so kind to release a proper Thunderbolt display with retina screen.

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  • 87 percent of Android devices are vulnerable

    ZDNet, writing about Android vulnerabilities:

    Nearly 90 percent of Android devices are exposed to at least one critical vulnerability, because of Android handset makers’ failure to deliver patches, according to research from the UK’s University of Cambridge.

    Security is one of the reasons I stay clear of Android (snoopy business models is another one). If you want to know more, check out AndroidVulnerabilities.org, made by the researchers. There, Android devices are compared and graded accordingly.