As someone who has done web serials before (and is going to kick off a new one in the near future), you'd be surprised about that point about publishers and chances -- often, providing the readership online hasn't been too pronounced, the agents and such simply won't care providing it's not online by the time they're getting ready to sell it (especially if you're going to make edits to it.) I enjoyed The Red, The Brown, The Green and it's actually what got me thinking about serializing a good-but-"unsellable" manuscript myself!
Have you considered making it available as a print on demand book? A friend of mine runs a small alternate history publishing house that does this and it's relatively easy.
Congrats! I enjoyed the beginning, but I couldn't remember details over the breaks so I decided to just wait and read it all at once. I'm glad it's finished so I can read it now.
That was a great piece at Sublation, and a great argument for abortion rights.
One intractable issue we’ll always run into us those who take the “rights given by God” angle. I can’t agree with it, but I also must respect it and engage with it. The conservatives will almost always ping the left for abortion and the left will ping the right for the death penalty with regards to inconsistency.
I’ve solved that problem by having a personal ethic of life: I’m pro choice through 16 weeks (even though I don’t LOVE the idea of abortion personally) and I accept the death penalty in only the most unassailable cases of heinous crime, like a serial killer (even though I don’t personally support the death penalty). My position is that I can accept that sometimes it’s ok to end a human life (a fetus is human even if it’s not yet endowed with personhood) though the circumstances should be highly prescribed.
Of course whatever my personal ethic is has no bearing on the law. But it does give me a clear foundation that’s already based on compromise from which to argue. While I find your argument about ownership of the body extremely compelling, there will be some people who can never accept that a fetus is NOT a person.
Aug 9, 2022·edited Aug 9, 2022Liked by Freddie deBoer
The novel was a great read! As an SF reader, I was particularly impressed with the world-building aspects: the world was both plausible and one I've not seen before.
I read your piece on abortion in the Sublation. A question that I ask in any abortion debate is at what point does an organism become an individual human member of society? In your terms, this would be the point at which it becomes the human body over which others should not have control. In all cases, this is an arbitrary line that could be anywhere from conception to birth. But those who want the unlimited right for a woman to abort need to accept that a two-week premature baby is somehow different from a 38-week fetus.
From Freddie's abortion essay: "the blood of every Confederate soldier became the ink that spelled out a great American principle that held that, indeed, each and every one of us is sovereign over our own selves, our own bodies."
The issue with this argument is that it can be used to reach precisely the opposite conclusion on abortion. If a new human life begins at conception, then that person (the fetus) is sovereign, and cannot have life taken away at the behest of another person.
So the argument now hinges (as all arguments about abortion do) on precisely when a new sovereign life begins.
I enjoyed the novel...a curious, mysterious, somewhat sad, unconventional pastiche of "Mad Max" and a bunch of other post-apoc settings. Plenty of plot hooks one could use for further writing or thought experiments. There was an annoying part of my brain that kept wanting to know "WHY?" in exacting detail, which I guess is a bad habit from mostly reading ratfic. But it's apropos, since technology has been lost and no one knows any of those answers anymore. A fine showing. Hope you write another one sometime, you've certainly got the chops for it.
And, yes, the illustrations were very on-point for the setting. Good pairing.
Congrats, Freddie! I haven’t had a chance to read the novel yet but I’m excited to.
Thanks for linking to your freelance page. I just finished your article on Hartford, man did you hit every point I was thinking of. It’s almost eerie how there are no people around in what ought to be a bustling downtown. Also some of the bleakest neighborhoods I’ve ever come across were in Hartford, the kind where every storefront has a cardboard sign and you wonder “am I still in the United States?” Sad.
When I was 18/19 years old, we used to go to some after hours clubs there and eat tons of ecstasy and dance. I think maybe once we didn’t get a car window smashed, lol. Good memories
Hey Freddie, thanks for the reminder and link to your professional webpage. Do you have a list somewhere of your podcast appearances? I enjoy hearing you at length and listen whenever you mention it in you’re newsletter. Am wondering if there’s a reference so I can see if I missed any.
One thing I’m curious about: since very few publishers accept unsolicited manuscripts, an agent is a virtual necessity. But what was your process for finding an agent? I’m finding it to be a slog.
As someone who has done web serials before (and is going to kick off a new one in the near future), you'd be surprised about that point about publishers and chances -- often, providing the readership online hasn't been too pronounced, the agents and such simply won't care providing it's not online by the time they're getting ready to sell it (especially if you're going to make edits to it.) I enjoyed The Red, The Brown, The Green and it's actually what got me thinking about serializing a good-but-"unsellable" manuscript myself!
Well bloody done! That is a huge achievement.
Have you considered making it available as a print on demand book? A friend of mine runs a small alternate history publishing house that does this and it's relatively easy.
Congrats!
I really enjoyed this and suspect the fun was partly in having to wait for the next episode. Very Dickensian!
Congrats! I enjoyed the beginning, but I couldn't remember details over the breaks so I decided to just wait and read it all at once. I'm glad it's finished so I can read it now.
That was a great piece at Sublation, and a great argument for abortion rights.
One intractable issue we’ll always run into us those who take the “rights given by God” angle. I can’t agree with it, but I also must respect it and engage with it. The conservatives will almost always ping the left for abortion and the left will ping the right for the death penalty with regards to inconsistency.
I’ve solved that problem by having a personal ethic of life: I’m pro choice through 16 weeks (even though I don’t LOVE the idea of abortion personally) and I accept the death penalty in only the most unassailable cases of heinous crime, like a serial killer (even though I don’t personally support the death penalty). My position is that I can accept that sometimes it’s ok to end a human life (a fetus is human even if it’s not yet endowed with personhood) though the circumstances should be highly prescribed.
Of course whatever my personal ethic is has no bearing on the law. But it does give me a clear foundation that’s already based on compromise from which to argue. While I find your argument about ownership of the body extremely compelling, there will be some people who can never accept that a fetus is NOT a person.
The novel was a great read! As an SF reader, I was particularly impressed with the world-building aspects: the world was both plausible and one I've not seen before.
I'm going to shill for Freddie and Vika and put up the tip-jar link: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/FredrikDeBoer "Tips will be split equally between the author and illustrator."
But one thing I was not able to figure out from the text was the meaning of the title. A search turned up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red–green–brown_alliance but I'm not sure if or how that relates.
I read your piece on abortion in the Sublation. A question that I ask in any abortion debate is at what point does an organism become an individual human member of society? In your terms, this would be the point at which it becomes the human body over which others should not have control. In all cases, this is an arbitrary line that could be anywhere from conception to birth. But those who want the unlimited right for a woman to abort need to accept that a two-week premature baby is somehow different from a 38-week fetus.
From Freddie's abortion essay: "the blood of every Confederate soldier became the ink that spelled out a great American principle that held that, indeed, each and every one of us is sovereign over our own selves, our own bodies."
The issue with this argument is that it can be used to reach precisely the opposite conclusion on abortion. If a new human life begins at conception, then that person (the fetus) is sovereign, and cannot have life taken away at the behest of another person.
So the argument now hinges (as all arguments about abortion do) on precisely when a new sovereign life begins.
EDIT: Ron Turley beat me to a similar comment.
I enjoyed the novel...a curious, mysterious, somewhat sad, unconventional pastiche of "Mad Max" and a bunch of other post-apoc settings. Plenty of plot hooks one could use for further writing or thought experiments. There was an annoying part of my brain that kept wanting to know "WHY?" in exacting detail, which I guess is a bad habit from mostly reading ratfic. But it's apropos, since technology has been lost and no one knows any of those answers anymore. A fine showing. Hope you write another one sometime, you've certainly got the chops for it.
And, yes, the illustrations were very on-point for the setting. Good pairing.
Congrats, Freddie! I haven’t had a chance to read the novel yet but I’m excited to.
Thanks for linking to your freelance page. I just finished your article on Hartford, man did you hit every point I was thinking of. It’s almost eerie how there are no people around in what ought to be a bustling downtown. Also some of the bleakest neighborhoods I’ve ever come across were in Hartford, the kind where every storefront has a cardboard sign and you wonder “am I still in the United States?” Sad.
When I was 18/19 years old, we used to go to some after hours clubs there and eat tons of ecstasy and dance. I think maybe once we didn’t get a car window smashed, lol. Good memories
Hey Freddie, thanks for the reminder and link to your professional webpage. Do you have a list somewhere of your podcast appearances? I enjoy hearing you at length and listen whenever you mention it in you’re newsletter. Am wondering if there’s a reference so I can see if I missed any.
Congrats, this is quite wonderful.
One thing I’m curious about: since very few publishers accept unsolicited manuscripts, an agent is a virtual necessity. But what was your process for finding an agent? I’m finding it to be a slog.