The Shakedown
October 11, 2000
7:22 a.m.
"Give me ten dollars and I'll get Mama out." Brigid leaned into the open car door and held out her palm. She was pretending her mother was being held hostage inside the school gym. I was picking them up after a class they are taking together at night. "I don't think so," I said. "But they won't let her out." "I suggest you go back in and negotiate." "Well," she thought for a minute. "I don't think they'll take less than five." She extended a flat palm once again. "It's going to be awfully lonely around the house if you can't talk them down any better than that." "Come on, Daddy. Don't you want to see Mama again?" I smiled. Lisa came around the corner and approached the car. Brigid saw my gaze shift to space behind her, and turned to see Lisa coming. "Well ..." she climbed into the back seat. "I guess we can always try to jump in and make a frantic get away." And you wonder where I get my imagination?   I'm debating a new procedure. I reserve the right to not do this. However. When I was at Worldcon, I did a panel with David Brin. He uses a procedure that intrigues me, in that he has many, many readers (50-100) look at early drafts of his work and tell him a bit about their thoughts. This approach appeals to my sense of quality systems. I've almost always used a small collection of people to look at my stuff before it's sent to the market, but I've never really done a "mass" survey. The idea intrigues me. So, I'm wondering. Let me take a poll. How many of you would be willing to spend a few hours reading a 13-14,000 word story and answering a half-page or so questionnaire? This would not be the in-depth, Clarion-style critique of every nuance of the story. I think the questionnaire (which exists only in my imagination at present) would be higher-ordered questions around user payoff and technique abstractions (is that a proper term? [grin]). You could always, of course, go further. But if I do this, I would expect a certain minimal effort from anyone who signs up. You would also be expected to finish within a moderately short period of time. Not to be pushy or anything... Again, no promises. I may decide not to act on this at all. But if you're interested in the idea, please drop me a note. For my side, assuming the input was classifiable, I would be willing to compile a small report and put it on-line or mail it to any of the participants. This, assuming you kept your response handy, would let you see where you came out in relation to all other inputters. Have a great day.  You're always up to something stupid, aren't you? :) Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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Doing lots of detail work on "Parchment in Glass" |
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