Kevin and Becky will teach you to write for $549

[Omphalos]

You think he's asked his friends like Mike Resnick to do him a "favor" and buy a ticket yet?

[lotek]

Keith twits :

TheKJA: Free Drawing for 3-Day pass to Superstars Writing Seminar. Contest ends Sunday: http://www.superstarswritingseminars.com/freeticket/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Second place winner will receive admission discounted to $549.

[Apjak]

Keith twits :

TheKJA: Free Drawing for 3-Day pass to Superstars Writing Seminar. Contest ends Sunday: http://www.superstarswritingseminars.com/freeticket/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Any Californian OHs out there gonna try for this and crash the thing? Pix?

[Ampoliros]

Crash it? Fuck, we should all enter and then not show up.

KJA should just pony up and cancel it.

[lotek]

that's probably what will happen anyway...

Well they should have had it in the Moab cabin, just about enough room in one of those

[Hunchback Jack]

Yeah, it's looking pretty grim for the seminar. I wonder if the contest winners will show up?

HBJ

[reverendmotherQ.]

And keep in mind that that is a huge savings over the regular price of $999:

This is unspeakable; proceed at your own peril

Some of my favorite parts:

• Keith says he wrote the new Dune books. Brian Herbert is mentioned in parentheses.
  
  Keith refers to himself as a "movie producer." Yes, for real. Despite the only movie he's ever been even tangentially involved with being delayed indefinitely.
  
  "How to flip a mental switch that turns your subconscious mind into an ingenious story-generating machine." Spoken like a true hack.
  
  The attempt to give Becky a serious biography. As if she's ever written a single thing that wasn't "co-authored" by that hack she married.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. This is just industrial-strength hackery. Boiled down, it all comes to: "write your shit quick, get a check, move onto the next one." I'll bet a million dollars the word "craft" is not mentioned once all weekend.

This Becky whore makes women look like the stereotype stamped on us before the advent of Mary Wollstonecraft. Unintelligent, and always needing a man to keep an eye on her and make sure shes doing it right.

And first of all, the subconscious must be processed by the conscious in a methodical, at times sudden, but always deliberate way. Even the inaccessible has to be unlocked by what is accessible.

What an idiot. Makes Frank Herbert sound like he just vomited on paper and didn't spend TEN years of his life to polish and refine his intellectual offspring, only to have KJA use it as second hand to become his "ingenious story generating machine.

Go to hell, KJA. You go to hell and you die.

[SandRider]

whether it's true or not, (and when has that ever stopped me ?)
I think we ought to propagate the idea that Rebecca Moesta is the actual physical author
of all of Keith's publications ... or that she's really George Elliot - that Keith doesn't
actually exist as a real person, and the guy playing the role in pix and and at StarWars conventions
is some out-of-work actor whose previous credits were DeadGuy#2 and FloatingBody#1 on CSI:Miami

Becky is Hyppo's spinster sister - it's just them and a public library computer.
it's easy enough to believe that Brian's been in an alcoholic coma since 1994 ...



jus' thinkin' out loud here ....

[lotek]

looking for an appropriate quote to mourn the passing of Frnak, I found this rubbish from the Butlerian Jihad...

* One can compare this new Jihad to a necessary editing process. We are disposing of the things that are destroying us as humans.
o Cogitor Kwyna

like dicthikers?

That twat just can't help it can he, "necessary editing" indeed!

I think he gets aroused by that word, considering how many times he mentions it(more than actual writing)...

[SandChigger]

One can compare this new Jihad to a necessary editing process. We are disposing of the things that are destroying us as humans.
-COGITOR KWYNA, City of Introspection Archives

He heard the voice clearly, knew his surroundings—a vast wooden hall with dark windows. Light came from sputtering flames. And his minister-companion said: "Our Jihad is a 'dump program.' We dump the things which destroy us as humans!"

I don't care that Brian Herbert has the copyright for his father's books and gave his blessing to the Hack, that's still stealing. And not even very facile theft at that.

[SandRider]

wait, what ?

I have to pay Becky $549 to learn to plagiarize ?

I thought I was going to learn about ghost-writing ...




{nice quote, myChigga - ought to repost in "Evidence Against Them"}

[lotek]

it's even worse than I thought...
taking words of wisdom and turn them into gibberish is way beyond my dumbest nightmares!

EDIT
he can't even claim his character's quote was some kind of in-universe distortion of past's sayings since the BJ happened before those times...
I'm sure he'd not be afraid of pretending in a schizophrenic trance that Frank's quote was in-universe inspired by that stoopd cogitor thing...
aaarrrgggghhh my head hurts make it stop!

[reverendmotherQ.]

it's even worse than I thought...
taking words of wisdom and turn them into gibberish is way beyond my dumbest nightmares!

EDIT
he can't even claim his character's quote was some kind of in-universe distortion of past's sayings since the BJ happened before those times...
I'm sure he'd not be afraid of pretending in a schizophrenic trance that Frank's quote was in-universe inspired by that stoopd cogitor thing...
aaarrrgggghhh my head hurts make it stop!

Don't waste precious thought on the stupid.
He shalll be tried for crimes against Herbert.

[Ampoliros]

His crimes against Herbert are between him and Frank. His writing however is a crime against literacy itself which is much more serious.

[SandRider]

I wouldn't go so far as to call it "crime" -
by all accounts, Brian likes the diapers ....

[SandChigger]

Mignon Fogarty!

Grammar Girl?

If that's really her, maybe this will turn into an exposé of veniality at the scifi industry "top"?!

[SandChigger]

Is this new?

For a limited time, we've even made a special arrangement with each of these bestselling writers to greatly reduce their fees for the first group of attendees to sign up for the event.

Therefore, we are temporarily able to reduce the tuition from $1,199 to only $749 as an Early Bird Special for those who sign up before February 28, 2010. Attendance is limited, so don't delay. Early Bird Special valid only while seating is available. When all the seats are full this offer will be pulled down without notice.

You save $450 off the price when you register before February 28, 2010. Or save even more by bringing a friend, and pay only $1199 for the two of you. That comes to only $599.50 per person—a 50% discount from regular tuition! So act now and save on your top writing education, with real pros in this unforgettable event.

"When all the seats are full this offer will be pulled down without notice." Right, like that's going to happen!

They still haven't advertised GrammarGirl on the website yet. Is anyone else wondering if this was an honest contest? Or did they go through the names of everyone who entered for the freebie and pick someone with a bit of name recognition value? You have to kinda wonder when these things aren't transparent.

[lotek]

Is this new?

For a limited time, we've even made a special arrangement with each of these bestselling writers to greatly reduce their fees for the first group of attendees to sign up for the event.

Therefore, we are temporarily able to reduce the tuition from $1,199 to only $749 as an Early Bird Special for those who sign up before February 28, 2010. Attendance is limited, so don't delay. Early Bird Special valid only while seating is available. When all the seats are full this offer will be pulled down without notice.

You save $450 off the price when you register before February 28, 2010. Or save even more by bringing a friend, and pay only $1199 for the two of you. That comes to only $599.50 per person—a 50% discount from regular tuition! So act now and save on your top writing education, with real pros in this unforgettable event.

"When all the seats are full this offer will be pulled down without notice." Right, like that's going to happen!

They still haven't advertised GrammarGirl on the website yet. Is anyone else wondering if this was an honest contest? Or did they go through the names of everyone who entered for the freebie and pick someone with a bit of name recognition value? You have to kinda wonder when these things aren't transparent.

now that's not the kind of thing you'd expect from an attention seeking useless dimwit would you?
...
hold on a sec'!
...
it is exactly what you could expect

[TheDukester]

Is this new?

I think so. Wow, that's like four various pricing structures they've announced. I hope Becky can keep all of this stuff straight when their seven attendees start comparing notes.

And, yes, I think Reno's own Grammar Girl might have been a rigged result. Gee, it's certainly convenient that a complete Twitter-whore got picked, isn't it? Also, she already is a bestselling author, so presumably she's at least vaguely familiar with navigating through agents, contracts, etc. I wonder what exactly Keith thinks he's going to teach her?

My guess is that she doesn't actually attend the damn thing.

[lotek]

For a limited time, we've even made a special arrangementwith each of these bestselling writers to greatly reduce their fees for the first group of attendees to sign up for the event.

yeah that's not a desperate move to get some schmuks interested. no sirree!

even the turn of the sentence: "we reduced our fees for the first group to sign up"

meaning no one has signed yet?

pfff...

[Hunchback Jack]

Yeah, that was my thought as well. "The first group to sign up" - like they haven't been advertising this thing for months.

Ah ... smell the desperation.

HBJ

[TheDukester]

Man, if I still lived in Southern California ...

Just picture it: me, with camera, stalking the events center. Sigh. It feels like a missed opportunity.

[SandChigger]

Do we know no one in that area?

Maybe we should run a contest of our own, like the old T-shirt pic with KJA one, tap into some as-yet-unknown OH supporters out there? "Document the Seminar attendance for an Amazon gift certificate!"

Non-confrontational, non-invasive, just shots snapped around the venue, through any gaps, showing how many people actually turn up? (Do they forbid photos in the Center, you think? Anti-terrorism kinda rules?) If you run afoul of security, you're on your own, the Chigretary will disavow any knowledge, etc. etc., that sort of thing.

What think ye?

[SandRider]

isn't this thing just in a side-room during some other kind of convention ?

where did I get that idea ?

if so, there may be no entry fee of any kind to get into the Center,
you could wander around, stumble off into the "seminar", act confused,
pull out your cell phone to confirm the room number - "no, we have
the Richard M. Nixon Memorial Meeting Room at noon - no, there's some
bald fat guy & a big redhead here .... I don't know, they draw coloring
books for children or something ... well, call the supervisor ....."

then just sit there for awhile ....

[Hunchback Jack]

I live up near SF, which isn't too far, but unfortunately I don't think I can make it down there.

HBJ