Then I noticed something in my inbox.  It was from Google.  It had come in overnight, and at first glance I thought it was spam that had slipped through the filter.  Instead it was accusing this blog of being spam.  The second line read, in part, “As a result of your site having pure spam, Google has applied a manual spam action…”

Excuse me!?!

I’m not sure what is going on here.  Google’s Webmaster Guidelines say that if I post a lot of content from other sites with links back to those site but don’t provide original content, then the site is a spam site.  Reviews of products with links back to other sites are not considered spam sites by the terms of the Guidelines.

Yes, I include links to a book’s page, publisher’s page, author’s page, and vendors (Amazon, etc.) as well as a copy of the cover.  I do this as a courtesy to anyone who might be interested in the book.  But there will always be plenty of original content.  I also post rants and opinion pieces, news items if I hear about them soon enough, trip reports, and the occasional obituary or tribute.  And while I am an Amazon associate, as duly noted at the bottom of the page, I’ve never made enough money ($10, cummulative) from it for Amazon to pay me.  In other words, to the best of my knowledge I am not nor ever have been in violation of Google’s Guidelines.

I’m not sure how this blog got flagged as a “pure spam” since there are (at a guess) hundreds, if not thousands, of book related blogs out there that do essentially what I do in pretty much the same way I do it.  Futures Past and Present wasn’t included in the spam classification.  Just Adventures Fantastic. 

So either something at Google flagged as spam or else someone reported this site as spam.  Frankly, I can’t imagine who would do that or why.  I have intentionally stayed out of most of the controversies in the field at the moment.  I don’t usually write totally negative reviews.  My intention isn’t to trash someone’s work.  If I absolutely hate something, I usually don’t review it, assuming I even finish reading it in the first place.  In my post at Amazing Stories this week, I did write a pretty negative review.  (Okay, yeah, I pretty much trashed the book, but it was a biography, not fiction, and the standards of quality are different.)

I submitted a reconsideration request.  The response I got was that it would take a few weeks before they changed anything, if they did. 

I’m not going to wait that long.  I bought a domain name earlier this year with the intention of self publishing some of my own work.  Being a creature of inertia, I’ve not made the time to get up the learning curve on that yet, I’m about to.  I’ll still review the items I listed a few posts ago, but August may be pretty sparse. I’m going to be switching blogging platforms and transferring everything from here and Futures over there as well as getting some things up for sale.  If anyone has some suggestions about the best way to go about that, I’d appreciate hearing them.  I want to move all 500+ blog posts over.  I’m familiar with WordPress, but I don’t know if it will let me do that.

Once the site is up, I’ll post a notice here.  At that point everything will move over to the new site.

I’m not going to get much time off.  As lab director, I work all year because we have summer classes.  I’m not teaching this summer, so I should have some time for fun before things get hectic in the fall when I’ve got another overload.  In the meantime, I’m going to get some rest, get caught up on reading, increase my blog output, and get back to writing my own fiction.  Hopefully, I’ll have some of my own fiction up for sale within a few weeks.

A couple of ARCs from Pyr were waiting for me when I got home this evening that I’m looking forward to diving into, I want to read some of the Nightshade titles I’ve not gotten to in an effort to show support for them with all they’ve gone through lately, and I have some eARCs from Angry Robot to read.  Plus a couple of indie titles. 

Does it sound like I’m going to be busy?  I got tired just thinking about it.  I’m probably not going to dive into any of that until next week sometime.  I’m going to read for my own pleasure for the rest of the week, something along the lines of noir and/or space opera and let my mental batteries recharge.  (There’s a blog post in there that ties in with something Tobias Buckell wrote the other day.)  I’ll probably blog about whatever I choose to read, but for now I want to relax.

So that’s how things stand with me.  What’s up with you?

What’s that?  No, I’m not going to the beach. 

What I am going to do is try to get caught up on work, and that includes blogging as well the things She Who Must Be Obeyed has decreed be completed.  For one thing, I’ll be catching up on grading, writing some reference letters, and trying to get ahead on some course preparation.

But you want to know about what will be happening here.  First, a review of Allen Steele’s Apollo’s Outcasts for Futures Past and Present and a review for this blog of Jack the Giant Slayer.  I saw the film last weekend, and I finished Apollo’s Outcasts a couple of days ago, but I haven’t had time to write either review.  I’ve got another Northwest Smith story, “Dust of Gods”, to look at.  Plus, there’s the next item for my blog at Amazing Stories (TM) followed up by a review of a novel that I’ve been looking forward to reading that’s had an interesting publishing history over the last few weeks.  The book won’t be out for a bit, but I managed to score an  advance copy.

As far as writing goes, I’m going to try to carve out enough time to get a couple of things finished.  Plus, I’m going to try something new and publish some of my own fiction and see if any of it sells.  This will be a completely new venture for me, and I’m not sure how steep the learning curve will be.  I also bought a domain name over the Christmas break, and if time allows, I’ll work on getting a web site going.  More on that at a later date. 

My day job is in academia.  Normally, the first part of January is a little hectic as things gear up for the new semester.  When I came back from the break, I discovered I had a new class to teach in addition to my regular class and supervisory duties.  One of our faculty was awarded an endowed chair at another institution, and he and his wife, also a faculty member, are in the process of relocating even as I type this.  I was assigned one of her classes.  It’s intro planetary astronomy, a course I’ve taught before, but it’s been a few years, and I don’t have lecture notes ready.  Classes just started, so once I get the holes filled in the TA teaching schedule, things should fall into a routine.

Also, my in-laws are celebrating their 50th anniversary, and we’re traveling this weekend for the dinner.  I hope to get some reading and writing done while I’m gone.  We’ll see.

Anyway, I’ve spent three weeks trying to finish two books, one for review at Futures Past and Present, and one for Amazing Stories (TM).  Normally, I would finish both within a week.  I think I can finish them this weekend.  Then I’ll dive into the stack waiting for me that just keeps getting larger.

I’ll try to get a short fiction review or two up here in the next few days as well.  As well as writing some of my own.

Anyway, that’s why I’ve been kinda quiet except for a couple of news items.  Thanks for your patience.

I’m almost done with The Dead of Winter by Lee Collins, which will be the next novel I review.  This is one of the best novels I’ve read all year.  If you’re a fan of westerns, especially weird westerns, this is one you’ll want to read.  (I’m looking at you, David and Charles.)  The book is an excellent example of misdirection.  When I hit the big twist, I had to admit that all the clues were there, I’d picked up on them, and still didn’t put things together.  That review probably won’t go live until Saturday. 

And speaking of Christmas, I’ll be writing about some seasonal short stories.  That should be up by the end of the weekend.

After that, it’ll probably be short fiction reviews and commentary on this site for next week, with at least one novel review over at Futures Past and Present.

And speaking of plans, I thought I’d lay out my plans for the rest of the year.  I’m in the middle of David Tallerman’s Crown Thief, having passed the halfway point last night.  After that it will probably be Black God’s War by Moses Siregar III.  I’ve got several Angry Robot eARCs I’d downloaded in the summer before I realized I’d be moving.  I’m going to try to get to them, but not before I’ve read The Dead of Winter by Lee Collins.  I’ve got several anthologies and a Pathfinder novel an agent sent me, plus a handful of other books I’ve agreed to review.  More than enough to keep me busy.  I’ll be traveling for work in a couple of weeks, just a quick trip to Houston and back, so I should be able to get plenty of reading done on the plane and during my layover in Dallas.

That’s on top of the things I’ve bought just because they’re what I want to read, not because someone asked me to.  Or to put it another way, I’m not going to be accepting any new books to review until after the first of next year, with one or two exceptions.  If I’ve promised to review your book, I will.  I won’t guarantee a date the review will go up, but I will get to it as soon as I can.

Also, I’ve decided not to participate in NaNoWriMo this year.  I want to ramp up my own fiction writing, and things are starting to settle into a enough of a routine that I think I can.  I doubt I can hit the 50k mark for NaNoWriMo and still meet some other obligations, but I am trying to get some things finished. 

The deciding factor for not doing NaNoWriMo was a Seekret Project I’ve become involved with.  I’m not at liberty to discuss it yet, but I can say it will involve a number of other people and be fairly high profile.  I’ll post an announcement when I get the green light.  That should be within the next few weeks.

Anyway, that’s how things are shaping up for the rest of the year and probably into next year.