When the workload became too much, Dunlap discontinued Electroids in 2008 to focus on writing a science fiction novel.
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That was news to me. I wrote (and am currently rewriting) a Young Adult Conspiracy Action Suspense Thriller. No space aliens, no ray guns. Yeesh.
Further, the last few paragraphs make me sound like a jerk, somehow.
There’s kind of a running trope about newspapers in that everything they say is accurate, unless it’s regarding something you know about. I’m starting to believe it.
How does anything in that article make you sound like a jerk? I don’t see it. Do you really expect a journalist to say you’re writing a “Young Adult Conspiracy Action Suspense Thriller”? What IS that?
I want one of those chargers, btw. And it’s great that Altoids was human about it all. Of course, anyone who chooses to have John Cleese as a spokesman is cool by definition, so they’re not suing or getting pissy is kind of expected.
Maybe it was the use of the quote “A lot of them were inspired by me, so it was nice to be recognized for that.” That could be read as acting like everybody’s stealing my ideas and I finally get some recognition.
And naturally I wouldn’t expect them to call my book that, but it’s not science fiction by any stretch of the imagination. How about “to focus on writing a novel.”?
In fact, I purposely never mentioned my book when I was interviewed, because everybody has written a crappy book sometime in their life. Saying it was a scifi book makes it sound even more cliche. The writer must have found out about the book some other way.
Heh, must be the eye of the reader. I thought it was a rather nice local story lauding a local guy. I didn’t get the feeling that they were dissing you at all. Just remember; any publicity is good publicity.
Btw, I’m sure it goes without saying, but I hope you save all those articles and put them together into a little clippings book. When you are looking for a job they will be extremely useful. You’re just the kind of person employers are looking for - smart, inventive, sees a niche and fills it. Well done!
I’ve been interviewed a few times and I’ve been misquoted as many.
I also worked as a reporter and had to write everything down longhand while interviewing people. I fucked up via a combination of faulty memory + deciphering my notes, on numerous occasions.
Personally I’d be embarrassed to be quoted as saying “…there’s something cool about having a gizmo hidden inside it, like James Bond”. AFAIK James Bond has never had a gizmo hidden inside him.
It’s hard to not take it personally when you feel like you’ve been mischaracterized or misquoted. Especially when you`re not used to being interviewed and are understandably excited about it. Eventually you hopefully get better at communicating your point in a way that can’t get mixed up or at least care less when it happens.
I have no idea what the difference between science fiction novels and Young Adult Conspiracy Action Suspense Thriller novels is but I’m sure it’s very important to wierdaaron. Maybe he doesn`t like laser guns and resents that literally every single person in Detroit thinks he is writing one?
The very first time anyone wrote an article about me the reporter included a “direct quote” that was so mangled that it was completely incomprehensible. It wasn`t wrong, it was literally incoherent. I was so mortified that for weeks, to amuse myself, I would try to come up with similarly nonsensical sentences that nobody could actually follow except the vaguest idea behind them. On the upshot, I’m now incredible at mimicking Sarah Palin.
Dunlop, eh? So often I am accused of being one of you.
The purpose of this thread is, more or less, a joke. Outrage over claims that I wrote a scifi novel is feigned, though I do find it a bit humorous. I kind of over-defined the genre (young adult conspiracy action suspense thriller is about as precise as historical vampire horror romantic comedy) to insinuate I’m picky about generalizations.
It’s true, though, that every article I’ve ever read where I knew the facts has been off. A profile of my boss–lots of mischaracterizations and misquotes. A quick little story about my sons’ combination lemonade-stand/comic book store–mischaracterizations and their names misspelled. Not the kind of hard to spell last name, but their first names. BOTH of them.
Whenever I covered something for my weekly and read about the same event in the daily, it seemed like we were at different places entirely.
I always recorded my interviews — and when I asked spellings of names, I’d either show them what I’d written or spell it back to them, so I’d make sure it was spelled right. I did/do the same in television, and for the magazine I now write.
I’m not claiming infallibility, just pointing out that some of us try.
