Today I have mostly been... meeting Karen Traviss

Post by **NecronLord** » 2007-03-31 08:55am

She was as an autograph signing in this place, which is just down the road from me, so I went along (though, to be fair, I didn't know she'd be there, or I'd probably have bought one of her books in advance and put it on ebay, mercenary git that I am). I asked her breifly about her Mandalorian conlang, which was actually rather interesting.

Then I asked her about her 'hate society.' Apparently there's about five people (to which I said "a dozen surely" I can definately name more than five people who're anti-Traviss-numbers) who send her death-threats. 'Everyone Gets Them.' And I mentioned the name Wayne Poe, which got an disturbingly virulent reaction, I don't quite recall what she said, but I think the gist of it was 'he's a proper loony, him.'

She also claims that her brief said that those were the numbers to work with. Or words to that effect.

I think, on reflection, that her greatest mistake was probably trying to defend her numbers online. She's hardly the only minimalist, but she seems most prominent because she's accessible about them - which is a laudable trait - and that her OOB article is egegiously contrastable with the RotS ICS.

Behold, a completely pointless thread! But I thought it might be of interest - she seems, to my reconing, genuinely convinced that there's a handful of people out there who want to kill her...

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2007-03-31 11:35am

Was she...pleasant?

Jim Raynor · Post by **Jim Raynor** » 2007-03-31 11:55am

NecronLord wrote:I think, on reflection, that her greatest mistake was probably trying to defend her numbers online. She's hardly the only minimalist, but she seems most prominent because she's accessible about them - which is a laudable trait - and that her OOB article is egegiously contrastable with the RotS ICS.

I've said it before: If Traviss had just written her minimalist guide and left it at that, the issue would have been forgotten relatively quickly. We all criticize the WEG sourcebooks, but how many of you can even name their authors without looking?

Furthermore, even if the books had small numbers in them, they didn't actually use those small numbers. The Empire was still supposed to be a huge military dictatorship, even if WEG claimed that it could only put a million or so troops in each sector (which is still thousands and thousands of times more than Traviss's 3 million total). But Traviss embraced her numbers in-universe, wanking up the clones into uber special forces who can kill 200 droids each. Then she wrote the ridiculous and blatantly self-serving Odds.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2007-03-31 11:55am

Yes. Actually. She had perfectly good manners. She was only unpleasant when I mentioned Wayne Poe. And then, only briefly.

PainRack · Post by **PainRack** » 2007-03-31 04:04pm

To be honest, the entire issue has been overblown. What has been conviently ignored is the fact that the fans didn't blow it up. It was the authors, and then the mods of two fan forums, who dragged it off the respective threads and plastered it over the SW and livejournal blogs, flogging it on other forums and etc etc etc.

Methinks without her escalation via the noble 3 million blog entry, this storm in a teacup would had stayed entirely "rational", with just another minor fan gripe about miminalisation. Nobody vilify Kube for saying Coruscant isn't a city planet after all. Just a discussion, his counter-response on the web and that's about it......

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2007-04-01 02:10am

NecronLord wrote:Yes. Actually. She had perfectly good manners. She was only unpleasant when I mentioned Wayne Poe. And then, only briefly.

I wonder if I should introduce myself at C4? Now that would be a great video for Youtube!

I wonder what's she's pissed off at more; "Talifan!" or the articles I wrote completely outing who the "looney" truly is?

Fingolfin_Noldor · Post by **Fingolfin_Noldor** » 2007-04-01 02:20am

Lord Poe wrote:
NecronLord wrote:Yes. Actually. She had perfectly good manners. She was only unpleasant when I mentioned Wayne Poe. And then, only briefly.
I wonder if I should introduce myself at C4? Now that would be a great video for Youtube!

I wonder what's she's pissed off at more; "Talifan!" or the articles I wrote completely outing who the "looney" truly is?

You ought to have a t-shirt identifying yourself and bring a book to have her autograph it.

Please have a video please.

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2007-04-01 02:35am

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote: You ought to have a t-shirt identifying yourself and bring a book to have her autograph it.

Please have a video please.

Rosie will be going with me. I doubt she'd be in the same building if I pulled a stunt like that. I'd have to hold the video camera myself!

Fingolfin_Noldor · Post by **Fingolfin_Noldor** » 2007-04-01 02:36am

Lord Poe wrote:
Fingolfin_Noldor wrote: You ought to have a t-shirt identifying yourself and bring a book to have her autograph it.

Please have a video please.
Rosie will be going with me. I doubt she'd be in the same building if I pulled a stunt like that. I'd have to hold the video camera myself!

If you get her in trouble, it will be an added plus

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2007-04-01 03:19am

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:If you get her in trouble, it will be an added plus

No, I was talking about my girl! She'd have nothing to do with such a stunt!

I'd be a perfect gentleman to Ms. Cun... I mean, Ms Traviss. She's the one that would probably need the straight jacket.

Vehrec · Post by **Vehrec** » 2007-04-01 12:57pm

If you two do meet, I think you should propose that she arm wrestle you for the right to decide how many clones there were. Of course, the winner must defend that right against GL.
And I agree that it's been overblown, mostly by her defense of her figures, but I can't shake the feeling that the tone that some SD.net influenced debate tactics might have been seen as cause Belli(sp?)

Darth Fanboy · Post by **Darth Fanboy** » 2007-04-01 10:19pm

Lord Poe wrote:
NecronLord wrote:Yes. Actually. She had perfectly good manners. She was only unpleasant when I mentioned Wayne Poe. And then, only briefly.
I wonder if I should introduce myself at C4? Now that would be a great video for Youtube!

I wonder what's she's pissed off at more; "Talifan!" or the articles I wrote completely outing who the "looney" truly is?

What you should do is find a way to get hundreds of people identifying themselves as haters of her works, so that you can directly contradict her "dozen or so Talifans" statement.

Galvatron · Post by **Galvatron** » 2007-04-01 11:33pm

I think Karen Traviss is kinda hot.

Ritterin Sophia · Post by **Ritterin Sophia** » 2007-04-02 12:10am

Galvatron wrote:I think Karen Traviss is kinda hot.

So I'm guessing it's not yet midnight where you are?

Fingolfin_Noldor · Post by **Fingolfin_Noldor** » 2007-04-02 12:21am

General Schatten wrote:
Galvatron wrote:I think Karen Traviss is kinda hot.
So I'm guessing it's not yet midnight where you are?

He posted it at 2333 hr Eastern.

Galvatron · Post by **Galvatron** » 2007-04-02 12:51am

I'll be sure to post it again at 0001PDT.

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Today I have mostly been... meeting Karen Traviss

Today I have mostly been... meeting Karen Traviss

Re: Today I have mostly been... meeting Karen Traviss