Prexels.

I’m leaving now.  For Russia. I’ll spend one day in London with Caitlin, where I’ll wallow briefly in the musk of a myriad peers and pals converging for Worldcon— and then it’s on to St Petersberg for the weekend (or maybe somewhere less picturesque, if they think I’m trying to smuggle sanctioned pork across the border).

But I haven’t just been whining and falling behind on my emails these past few weeks. I’ve been working with a very talented dude over in Poland to try and drag rifters.com kicking and screaming into the 21rst century. Maybe we’ll be able to unveil the upgrade in time for Echopraxia’s official release date; or maybe we’re not going to make it quite in under that wire. But the prototypes are advanced, and almost ready for prime time— so I thought I’d leave you with some lo-rez screen grabs to whet your appetites. And maybe, depending on how things go, leave you with something to remember me by.

Wish me luck.

  prexel2  

prexel4

 prexel3

 prexel1


This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2014 at 12:37 pm and is filed under ink on art, On the Road, public interface. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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ken
Guest
ken
9 years ago

Awww yissss. Fresh pixels. I can smell ’em cooking all the way from here.

Looking real good, Peter. If you want to beta-test the site, you might hand-pick a few folks and direct them to a password-protected instance. They can run it through its paces, test different browser configurations (plug-ins can be a bitch) and identify problem areas before you go wide.

Also, I’d strongly recommend that you make every effort to get the site live in time for the Echopraxia release. I suspect that the marketing and buzz for the book will be strongest in the few days flanking the actual release. You’ll want potential readers to come across an article or Amazon suggestion and ultimately visit the new site. One look at your new online brand and they’ll be rushing to get their own copies of Echopraxia.

cromercrox
Guest
9 years ago

Hey Peter – did you get the Sigil Omnibus? Could be a great cure for insomnia on that long flight.

whoever
Guest
whoever
9 years ago

Jaw dropping and uber cool.

Mr Non-Entity
Guest
Mr Non-Entity
9 years ago

Yep. That’s the good stuff.

My how the WWW has advanced since the days of inspirationally bad Gothic sites with spinning screaming skulls and dripping blood-bars. 😉

I somehow suspect someone over in Poland might be asked about maybe some Blender-created animagick and if it was possible, and they’ll say “Oh yes, I recode makehuman.org very stiff, first fiblet from Valerie, what, two years then. She is here with how you say, prognathous? And the teeth. Eyes rhodopsin, all that stuff, everything. One problem, nobody can do proper motion capture for rigging. Always falling off table after gymnastics. Here, look.”

Jeff B
Guest
Jeff B
9 years ago

Na zdorovye, Pete! (“Good luck!” and/or “To your health!” in Russian).

Bastien
Guest
Bastien
9 years ago

Oh my does that ever look nice.

Mr Non-Entity
Guest
Mr Non-Entity
9 years ago

@Jeff B: On their first visit to Mother Russia, SF people are often amazed to discover that their ability to understand Russian is directly proportional to the number of times they’ve read “A Clockwork Orange”. Peter Watts should be fine.

01
Guest
01
9 years ago

Heh, too bad I’m not in Russia anymore 🙂

Have a nice trip, Peter!

Mr Non-Entity
Guest
Mr Non-Entity
9 years ago

Assuming he doesn’t become the first-ever SF author to be banned by both sides of the Cold War (II), here is Google Translation of the Programme.

One has to wonder about these translations. It seem he is notable in part because he “blew up the brain to the Russian community of fans of science fiction”.

After the events, he should greatly enjoy St Petersburg, where because of the very northerly location, the summer sun barely sets on the truly cosmopolitan party scene. We can only hope that he comes back with a travelogue even cooler/weirder than DJ Smash’s video of “Ya Volna”. From what I hear, it’s almost impossible that he won’t. 😉

MX
Guest
MX
9 years ago

Счастливого пути, мистер Уоттс.

gregm
Guest
9 years ago

ken,

“One look at your new online brand and they’ll be rushing to get their own copies of Echopraxia.”

Waitaminute. You based that on some low-res screen shots? ‘new online brand’ etc., sounds like generic Web marketing-speak, as heard for at least 10 years. What would a new site really offer, over what is already there?

Commentary? Got that, limited by the authors time.
Downloads? Got that, and Watts has been extremely generous.
Art? Got that too.

Seems to me that the site might benefit from a bit of re-org, but in terms of content, it is already way ahead of what most writers put up. If there’s a back-end that makes it easier for him to publish posts, that’s a whole other thing; that’s a possibly major productivity win. Though I suspect he can write HTML just fine, just as he probably used to write LaTeX. But possibly more posts, from a better back-end–great! Other programmatic methods–he already offers an RSS feed. Huge win from my perspective.

But
“One look at your new online brand and they’ll be rushing to get their own copies of Echopraxia.”
seems a bit excessive. I expect Echopraxia to do quite well no matter what is, or is not, done to rifters.com.

V
Guest
V
9 years ago

I’m really sorry to bring this up but, and it’s quite off-topic, but was your mother also a psychopath? I realize this could be triggering.

V
Guest
V
9 years ago

I gave your eulogy about your mother as an example to my therapist about how I feel about my mother.

V
Guest
V
9 years ago

I almost wrote a defense of sociopaths at Charlie Stross’ blog because he seems biased against them.

Leona
Guest
Leona
9 years ago

Yay – so it all worked out. 🙂

Though, more meetings (of ever-escalating snafuciousness) with the Russians at their consulate/embassy thingy would’ve been kind of funny. Glad they have found you worthy of admittance! 😀

ken
Guest
ken
9 years ago

gregm,

My last line was poorly chosen and rushed. I agree that it does seem a bit excessive. Let me attempt to rephrase…

The existing website is looking a little dated and I think that a fresh, new website – one with compelling features like a 3D model of the Theseus or Crown of Thorns (I think Peter mentioned that) – is going to go a long way in building Peter Watts as an A-List author. The internet is a integral part of everyone’s lives now and people have a tendency to make judgements on a product or service based on its online presence.

I agree that sounds like a load of marketing gobbledygook, but authors have alot of competition these days and self-marketing is becoming more of a reality. There’s no doubt that Peter is a spectacular science fiction author, but just being good is no longer enough anymore. There needs to be an act of persuasion that convinces the potential reader that this is going to be worth the trip. The best way to do that is through the web.

It’s the same reason that you shave, comb your hair and wear a tie to a job interview. You’re asking a potential employer to take you seriously in this conversation. You may never wear a suit and tie in your everyday life, but you acknowledge that for THIS part of your life – the part that needs to take a career seriously – you’ll look your best to make it happen.

Anyway, I hope this is a little clearer. It’s my hope that we’ll see Echopraxia on next year’s Hugo ballot.

Jan B
Guest
Jan B
9 years ago

So, mr Watts, why not finally visit Poland?

Bahumat
Guest
Bahumat
9 years ago

Just got my heads-up from Amazon to expect Echopraxia first week of September. AW YISS.

Bastien
Guest
Bastien
9 years ago

Bahumat:
Just got my heads-up from Amazon to expect Echopraxia first week of September. AW YISS.

Same here. I am a very happy man as a direct result of this news.

Jordan
Guest
Jordan
9 years ago

The new design looks snazzy! But I hope you’ll keep the legacy pages in some form. I’m writing a big post about your work this weekend for a high-profile public blog and have a lot of links to your site — PDF stories, Theseus crew profiles, Crawl blog posts, the vampire flash presentation, etc. It would really hurt to have all those links go 404 after just a few days (not to mention all the other pages that link to your stuff).

PS: I shot you an email inviting you to participate in the discussion on the post when it goes up; let me know if you’re interested!

ken
Guest
ken
9 years ago

ECHOPRAXIA IS OUT!

Hey all – I was just cruising my local Barnes and Noble, here in the Northeastern U.S. and stumbled across fresh copies of Echopraxia! I guess that August 26th release date is a soft date or something.

Anyway, I’ve already pre-ordered my copy from Amazon, so I had to fight the urge to grab a copy right then and there.

Has anyone else found that their local bookstores already have copies for sale too?

By the way – the hardcover edition looks really slick. A worthy addition to anyone’s bookcase.

whoever
Guest
whoever
9 years ago

“She’s alive!”

New site is up.