Monday Links: Xbox One, Propaganda at the British Library, and Racism at Harvard

I have found two articles of note from The Economist this week, one of which is sure to be close to gamers’ hearts. Or perhaps not: the article notes that Microsoft’s Xbox One announcement heavily de-emphasizes games, ostensibly due to falling console sales. Time will tell whether the device will garner any appeal for its more conventional multimedia use.

The second article form The Economist addresses the more sobering topic of propaganda. An exhibition at the British Library, called “Propaganda: Power and Persuasion,” aims to expose the subtlety and prevalence of propaganda, as used by governments, businesses and individuals. The subject of propaganda, and the Propaganda Model of mass media, have been the focus of some of my earlier posts on this blog, and the matter remains as relevant as ever. I highly recommend you check out The Economist’s article.

Lastly, for the strong of stomach, ThinkProgress delves into the case of how a Harvard doctoral candidate, Dr. Jason Richwine, earned his degree through a sloppily composed and blatantly racist dissertation, to the shock of many. The article is long, and the sheer illogic it reveals in Dr. Richwine’s dissertation made me throw up my hands in disgust. Nonetheless, the ThinkProgress exposé itself is a worthwhile read, if you have the patience.

With the Rosaria of Venice Kickstarter campaign launch last Friday, we now return to full updates. You can see what’s in store for this week here. So please stay tuned! And also please consider backing Rosaria of Venice, my forthcoming alt-history steampunk novel of the Italian Renaissance, on Kickstarter.com. Thank you!

Runicfire Recap: April 25 – May 6

I've been crunching for finals the past few weeks, and have slipped on my Google+ and Facebook announcements. My apologies. I have, however, been continuing to pump out content here on Runicfire, and I'd like to catch up any readers who follow me on Facebook or Google+ on what they might have missed. Recap begins beneath the jump:

Rosaria of Venice -- Choosing a Cover, and the May 24th Kickstarter

I'll be Kickstarting Rosaria of Venice, the alternate history steampunk Renaissance novel I wrote and am now revising, this month on May 25. The proceeds are to pay for cover illustrations (front and inside) as well as editing and proofreading.

While I won't be commissioning the final works until the Kickstarter campaign finishes, I have already been working with illustrators on concepts for the front and inside covers. The illustrator I hired to do the front, Amelia Davis, has finished color mock-ups of three possible covers:

I'm really liking how they turned out. In fact, I can't decide which one I want to use as the final. So I'm going to let the backers decide. When I run the Rosaria of Venice Kickstarter campaign from May 24th to June 14th, everyone who backs the project will get to vote which thumbnail becomes the final cover. 

So please save the date, and consider pledging if the book strikes your fancy. (If you want a taste of what the book itself is like, you can read the opening chapter here.) I will be posting more information here over the next few weeks, so please check back or subscribe to the Runicfire RSS feed for updates!

SFWC, Self-Publishing and the Second Renaissance

I just returned from the San Francisco Writer’s Conference. This is my first year in attendance, and in the aftermath I have so much to say that my thoughts render me mute. What do I feel? I think I feel like I have finally come home.

The conference is of too great a scope for me to sum up in one post, but I discovered a common refrain: e-books are changing everything. One of the first panels I attended was about digital publishing. Guy Kawasaki spoke at Saturday morning’s keynote about—yes—digital publishing, and Friday’s afternoon keynote featured romance author Bella Andre, who discussed how she earned a spot on the New York Times Bestseller’s list as a self-published author.