Jumbo J
esters! We, in western civilization, are affected by them. The big companies. Microsoft, Amazon. Apple et al.
They seem to want to control a part of our lives, and the bigger part the better. As a writer who was very much satisfied with Windows 7, and who has just purchased a little Notebook endowed with Windows 8.1, I shudder at the thought of the overbearing antics of some of these manufacturers.
I bought the Notebook so that I could write while on a trip to the wondrous, natural reception-free Washington coast. I had visions of sitting on the beach watching the waves roll lazily to shore while writing my innermost thoughts. It would have been perfect, since my latest novel is about mermaids and dolphins. Unfortunately it didn’t work. I couldn’t see the Notebook’s screen in the sun. None the less, I did get a fair amount written when I returned to the cabin.
I would have written much more if I hadn’t had to fight with Windows 8.1.
Evidently, Microsoft wants you to have three hundred and twenty two apps at your fingertips, raring to go at touch…no wait…at breath. No wait, where did that other app go, the one I wanted? Start over…Before I knew it I had 15 apps open. How? I don’t know but when the Notebook started taking a video of me that’s when I knew I’d crossed over into dystopia land.
I akin Window 8.1 to the current Ebook circus at Amazon. The latest invention that the world’s biggest book seller has just come up with is Ebook subscription and there is hot talk all around Author World. Predictions abound. What is going to happen to publishing now?
When I was a child, the publishers behind science fiction, fantasy and horror (and any other book) stayed in the background. Only people in the industry talked about them. Seldom did the public hear news about a publisher’s marketing strategies and business deals. Not so today. With technology of 2014 and beyond, everyone knows the business and the Jumbo Jesters make headlines as fluently as the war in the Middle East. And with an equal (or greater) impact.
Why?
Because they are sneaking into your living room, den, study, studio, yes, even your bedroom with their apps that can take pictures of you if you so much as breath too 
hard or too hot.
So how is Amazon like Windows 8.1?
From cave walls, to parchment scrolls and tablets, to the first printing press the act of reading has gone through a wondrous evolution. Now our words are literally written on air, flying though unseen channels to pop up on your Kindles, Nooks and other readers. And with one quick payment, which happens with a twitch of the finger on the mouse, you own downloadable, synchronized stories that will follow you into your living room, den, study, studio, yes, even your bedroom.
Just be real careful when Amazon slips webcams into their Kindles! Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
