Tonight’s my last night in San Francisco on my Homeland tour. I’ll be at Borderlands books at 7PM. Tomorrow I’ll be at the Leonardo in Salt Lake City; and on Sunday I’ll be at Changing Hands in Tempe, AZ. Come on down (and thanks to everyone who came by the Booksmith last night!).
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Little Brother
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I’m still revving up my tour for Homeland, the sequel to Little Brother, and tonight I’ll be at Booksmith in San Francisco. I’m lucky enough to get two days in SFO and tomorrow I’ll be at Borderlands, before I head to Salt Lake City for an appearance at The Leonardo on Saturday. From there, it’s off to Tempe, AZ for a gig at Changing Hands on Sunday, and then off to many more cities (here’s the list). Last night’s event in Portland at the Beaverton Powell’s was amazing, with more than a hundred lovely folks in attendance, a lively Q&A and the swell atmosphere of one of the world’s great bookstores.
Last night, I kicked off the tour for Homeland (the sequel to Little Brother) with an amazing event at the Seattle Public Library, and now I’m hitting the road! I’ll be in Portland tonight, at the Powell’s in Beaverton at 7PM. Tomorrow I hit San Francisco with a stop at Booksmith on the 7th, then another at Borderlands on the 8th. From there, I’m off to Salt Lake City’s Leonardo museum for an event on Feb 9. There’s 22 cities in all — here’s the list!
Hey, Seattle! Just a reminder that I’ll be at the Seattle Public Library tonight at 7PM with my new novel Homeland. Come on down (and bring the kids!)! Portland, you’re next, then San Francisco (and again!). Here’s the whole schedule — 20+ cities!.
Correction: The Borderlands event is on Feb 7, not Feb 8.
In a couple of hours, I’m getting on a plane from London to Seattle to kick off the tour for Homeland, the sequel to Little Brother. My first stop is tomorrow (Feb 5) night, at the Seattle Public Library, and then I head to Portland for Feb 6, where I’ll be at Powell’s in Beaverton. Then it’s off to San Francisco, where I’ll be at Booksmith on Feb 7, and Borderlands on Feb 8.
There’s a lot more cities on this US tour, mostly in the warm spots (we’re trying to minimize weather delays, because the schedule is so tight). And though it’s not on the calendar yet, I’ll be Lawrence, KS on Feb 28 at the Kansas Union’s Alderson Auditorium at 7:30 and in Toronto on Mar 1 for a presentation at the Merril Collection at 7PM.
If you’re wondering what the book’s all about, The Oregonian ran an interview with me this weekend about the book:
A couple of years ago, it occurred to me that the emergency had become permanent. Declaring war on an abstract noun like “terror” meant that we would forever be on a war footing, where any dissent was characterized as treason, where justice was rough and unaccountable, where the relationship of the state to its citizens would grow ever more militarized.
But this permanent emergency didn’t have any visible battlefront — it was a series of largely invisible crises in the form of brutal prosecutorial overreach, police crackdowns, ubiquitous surveillance, merciless debt-hounding and repossession.
I wanted to write a story that helped kids see this invisible, all-powerful crisis unfolding around them, and helped them see that it didn’t have to be that way, that they could push back.
I’ve heard from thousands and thousands of kids who were influenced by “Little Brother,” kids for whom it was an inspiration to become makers, programmers and activists. I wanted to reach these kids again, and their little sisters and brothers, and show them that the fight goes on and it needs them.
I did a Q&A with The Oregonian to help publicize my stop at the Powell’s Books in Beaverton, OR on Feb 6 at 7PM. It’s the second stop in my 22 city tour.
What prompted you to write “Homeland,” the sequel to “Little Brother,” and what’s the impact of “Little Brother” been, especially among younger readers?
A couple of years ago, it occurred to me that the emergency had become permanent. Declaring war on an abstract noun like “terror” meant that we would forever be on a war footing, where any dissent was characterized as treason, where justice was rough and unaccountable, where the relationship of the state to its citizens would grow ever more militarized.
But this permanent emergency didn’t have any visible battlefront — it was a series of largely invisible crises in the form of brutal prosecutorial overreach, police crackdowns, ubiquitous surveillance, merciless debt-hounding and repossession.
I wanted to write a story that helped kids see this invisible, all-powerful crisis unfolding around them, and helped them see that it didn’t have to be that way, that they could push back.
I’ve heard from thousands and thousands of kids who were influenced by “Little Brother,” kids for whom it was an inspiration to become makers, programmers and activists. I wanted to reach these kids again, and their little sisters and brothers, and show them that the fight goes on and it needs them.
Bookmarks: Q&A with Cory Doctorow, science fiction and Internet activist
I’m excited to see the folks at Law and the Multiverse (a blog that considers legal questions through the lens of comics, movies and fiction) having a look at the legal issues raised in Little Brother. It’s very timely, what with the sequel, Homeland, coming out on Tuesday!
A large portion of the book’s plot rests on the intersection of law and technology. Bruce Schneier thought the technology was handled pretty well, which is a strong endorsement. But what about the law? There are a couple of minor errors (e.g. referring to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals as the “9th Circuit Appellate Division Court”) that make one wonder about the larger issues. Was it illegal for Marcus and his friends to have been imprisoned at “Gitmo-by-the-Bay” without access to an attorney and without being charged with a crime? And what about the waterboarding? Could the Bay Area Department of Homeland Security be headed by a Major General and staffed by other members of the military? Could the State Troopers have saved the day?
The Law and the Multiverse people wrote a great book that runs through all the high points of US law by examining how it applies to superheros in comic books.
Next Tuesday marks the publication of my latest YA novel, Homeland, and I’ll be kicking off a month-long tour across the US on February 5 with a stop in Seattle, followed by Portland and San Francisco.
From there, I swing to the southwest — a region I’ve never toured! — with stops in Salt Lake City and Tempe. Then it’s northeast to NYC, south to Cincinnati, Miami, Chapel Hill, Decatur, Oxford, MS, Memphis, and New Orleans.
Then I do two stops in Texas: Austin and Houston, before crossing northeast again to Portsmouth and Concord, NH; down to DC, over to Boston, then Albuquerque.
There’s also a couple stops I’ll be making after the tour proper: Lawrence, KS and Toronto.
I’ll be reading from the book, talking about the themes and my inspiration for writing it, and about how Aaron Swartz contributed to it. I’m hoping that the public appearances turn into a chance to brainstorm about how to keep Aaron’s work going. The events are all-ages and kid-friendly, and I’ll be happy to sign your books, ereaders, floppy discs, laptops, or whatever.
I don’t think that there are going to be any more cities added — pretty much every day is a travel-day already. But there is some time for press interviews, podcasts, and so forth, so if that’s your thing feel free to mail me and I’ll forward you on to my publicist to see if we can schedule it in.
Touring is hard work, but I love it. Everywhere I go, I meet happy mutants — young and old — and get to talk with them about their passions and hopes. It’s what keeps me going through the year. I really hope you’ll come out and join the fun!
Here’s the full schedule:
Homeland Tour/Cory Doctorow/February 5 – 26, 2013
Here’s a long excerpt:
And here’s some things the critics are saying:
“Outstanding for its target audience, and even those outside Doctorow’s traditional reach may find themselves moved by its call to action” – Kirkus
“Fans of Little Brother and the author’s other stories of technophiliac hacktivism ought to love this book” – Publishers Weekly
* Assuming your town is one of the ones I’m coming to, of course. Alert readers will have already noticed that there’s not much action in the midwest, Rockies, or northeast, which is a deliberate decision in the hopes of minimizing weather delays during a jam-packed tour schedule. Sorry! I got to as much of the northeast and midwest as I could back on the Pirate Cinema tour in November.
Here’s a reading from my upcoming novel, Homeland, the sequel to Little Brother. It’s a rehearsal for the readings I’ll be giving at schools and libraries when I leave for my 22-city US tour next week.
He fitted me with a blood pressure cuff — yeah, it was a tactical cuff, which clearly made this guy as happy as a pig in shit — and then started in with the electrodes. He had a lot of electrodes and he was going to use ’em all, that much was clear. Each one went in over a smear of conductive jelly that came out of a disposable packet, like the ketchup packets you get at McDonald’s. These, at least, were non-tactical, emblazoned instead with German writing and an unfamiliar logo.That was when I started puckering and unpuckering my anus.
Yes, you read that right. Here’s the thing about lie detectors: they work by measuring the signs of nervousness, like increases in pulse, respiration, and yeah, sweatiness. The theory is that people get more nervous when they’re lying, and that nervousness can be measured by the gadget.
This doesn’t work so well. There’s plenty of cool customers who’re capable of lying without any outward signs of anxiety, because they’re not feeling any anxiety. That’s pretty much the definition of a sociopath, in fact: someone who doesn’t have any reaction to a lie. So lie detectors work great, except when it comes to the most dangerous liars in the world. That’s the “It’s better than nothing” stupidity I mentioned before, remember?
But there’re plenty of people who start off nervous — say, people who’re nervous because they’re taking a lie detector test on which depends their job or their freedom. Or someone who’s been kidnapped by a couple of private mercenaries who’ve threatened to take him to their hideout if he doesn’t cooperate.
But sometimes, lie detectors can tell the difference between normal nervousness and lying nervousness. Which is why it’s useful to inject a few little extra signs of anxiety into the process. There are lots of ways to do this. Supposedly, spies used to keep a thumbtack in their shoe and they could wiggle their toes against it to make their nervous systems do the Charleston at just the right moment to make their “calm” state seem pretty damned nervous. So when they told a lie, any additional nervousness would be swamped by the crazy parasympathetic nervous system jitterbug their bodies were jangling through.
Thumbtacks in your shoe are overkill, though. They’re fine for super-macho super-spies for whom a punctured toe is a badge of honor. But if you ever need to beat a polygraph, just pucker up — your butt, that is.
Squeezing and releasing your butt-hole recruits many major muscle- and nerve groups, gets a lot of blood flowing, and makes you look like you’re at least as nervous as a liar, when all you’re doing are some rhythmic bum-squeezes. As a side bonus, do it enough and you will have BUNS OF STEEL.
Mastering by John Taylor Williams: wryneckstudio@gmail.com
John Taylor Williams is a audiovisual and multimedia producer based in Washington, DC and the co-host of the Living Proof Brew Cast. Hear him wax poetic over a pint or two of beer by visiting livingproofbrewcast.com. In his free time he makes “Beer Jewelry” and “Odd Musical Furniture.” He often “meditates while reading cookbooks.”
The Atlantic‘s book club, 1book140, is asking for votes on its book for February. I’m surprised and delighted to see my novel Little Brother on that list, and the timing couldn’t be better, what with the sequel, Homeland, coming out on Feb 5.
It’s also in great company: “Wonderstruck” by Brian Selznick; “Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret” and “Just As Long as We’re Together” by Judy Blume; “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier; and “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green.
