Panel Discussion: Guns and Butter - Part 1

[Gary Oswald]

Discuss this article here.

So this is something new. It's an experiment, I'm delighted to put it up and hopeful we'll do more like this in the future, but let me know how it works. It's a convention panel essentially between 5 AH authors, only done digitally, and without an audience.

It was organised and hosted by @SpanishSpy and the panellists were @Coiler, @SenatorChickpea and two authors who aren't on these forums but we interviewed recently (Alison Morton and Arturo Serrano).

I have tried to make it clear who is speaking by colour coding everyone but let me know how that works and if you'd prefer another format. This is an experiment, like I said. I worry I've not done Liam favours with the choice of colour I've given him.

Part 2 will go up on Friday.

 

[I Saw A Red Sky]

Maybe just color the name instead of the text.

 

[Coiler]

I have no issue with the color choice.

(Also, this was a lot of fun to participate in).

 

[SenatorChickpea]

I really enjoyed this, though I want to note that I only voted for the Lib Dems once, that colour is uncalled for.

 

[Thande]

Cool experiment, sorry I wasn't able to get it up on twitter before now as I was very busy at work this morning.

 

[Talwar]

I look forward to the remainder of the conversation on Friday.

The discussion about less violent/less sexy/less marketable feels very true to life, and certainly extends beyond AH. I feel I've encountered it with some of my short story submissions over the years, where the products often seem contrary to the expectations of whatever genre is involved. It's frustrating to deal with.

 

[Charles EP M.]

There's one bit that sticks out for me, which is @Coiler saying early on:

Trying to force it, well-just look at the political scenes in Tom Clancy novels to see what that would probably be like…

because the points on publishing demand and everything, all valid, but if the indie AH scene is full of wargamers and war buffs, you'll inevitable get a lot of war and other stuff may not work if written by the same people, and of course that scene is also who buys a lot of indie AH. What you'd want is different writers/readers to start with (who are obviously out there because Roma Nova's selling to them)

 

[Time Enough]

The mention of Len Deighton reminds me that out of all the scenes from SS-GB that live rent free in my brain it’s not the action sequences but a scene in which the main character complains about how German’s drink Tea and how there slowly getting rid of the solid British brew.

Love that the quiet scene which showcases the subtle ways that the Nazi’s are colonising the culture of Britain but also showcases the main character’s reaction to that fairly well.