Featured blog
My journal will be one of the featured blogs on the featured blogs page on the Asimov's site and the similar page on the Analog site, starting soon and running for a month or so.
So: welcome, Asimov's and Analog readers!
It's an interesting approach: in addition to their page of links to blogs (that's the Asimov's page; there's another copy of the same page on the Analog site), they also provide an inline view of two featured blogs per month (at the pages I linked to above), a process known as transclusion. (When it's done with images or other media files, it's called inline linking.) They're using a relatively little-used HTML tag called <iframe> which lets you transclude/embed another page within your page without using the HTML frames system. So a visitor to their page will see the whole main page of my journal embedded there, and clicking links from my main page will show my individual entries, still embedded in the Asimov's or Analog featured-blogs page.
The current featured blogs as I write this are Rudy Rucker's and Mark Kelly's.
When Willie from Dell first contacted me about this a couple weeks ago, I didn't know about their transclusion page; I thought he was just asking for permission to link to my blog. So I wrote back and said no need to ask, this is the web, link away. But once I understood what he was really asking, I agreed that it's something one should get permission for. I'm happy to grant such permission; it'll be interesting to see what happens.
My other uncertainty in the otherwise smooth permission-requesting and -granting process was that the agreement Dell asked me to sign indicates that they'd like me to provide links in my blogroll to the Asimov's and Analog sites. It wasn't initially clear whether they were saying that I would have to provide such links as a prerequisite for their featuring my journal, or whether they were saying that it would be cool if I would provide such links. After some email discussion, in which I explained that I don't have a blogroll per se and that I'm uncomfortable with being required to provide links in exchange for some benefit to me, Willie explained that it's just a request, not a requirement, so I said fine. I'll probably be a little self-conscious about when and whether I link to either of those magazines' sites this month; I assume that any of my readers who are at all into science fiction are aware of those magazines, so I don't normally link to those sites (other than to specific pages on those sites), so in some sense any such links I provide in this context wouldn't be "organic" (as Google puts it). On the other hand, I do want to support those magazines, and in cases where it seems natural to link to one of the sites, I'll be happy to do it.
And there'll probably be opportunities, 'cause I think I'm going to try to focus a little more on sf this month than I might normally do. Some forthcoming entries may include: notes on the Singularity; long-delayed discussion of inappropriate behavior at conventions; and perhaps some thoughts on why you should consider submitting science fiction to Analog even if you don't think you're an Analog writer.
Of course, I'll also have the usual mix of other stuff; in particular, any day now I'll finish writing up my Boston trip and my trip to the SWIL reunion. I may as well mention that both trips were most enjoyable, and that I've now returned safely home, though my suitcase is still at the airport.
