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    The Dead Hand of Mrs. Stifle
    The Dead Hand of Mrs. Stifle
    The Dead Hand of Mrs. Stifle
    Ebook41 pages38 minutes

    The Dead Hand of Mrs. Stifle

    By David Dvorkin

    ()

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    About this ebook

    In the long run, the important change brought about by e–books won’t be their availability, their price, their convenience, or the destruction of the publishing industry. E–books will cause a revolution in the very nature of published fiction. Fiction will change in unpredictable ways, and it will keep on changing. The excitement and vitality connected with this change will be enduring.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDavid Dvorkin
    Release dateMar 21, 2011
    ISBN9781458131362
    The Dead Hand of Mrs. Stifle
    Author

    David Dvorkin

    David Dvorkin was born in 1943 in England. His family moved to South Africa after World War Two and then to the United States when David was a teenager. After attending college in Indiana, he worked in Houston at NASA on the Apollo program and then in Denver as an aerospace engineer, software developer, and technical writer. He and his wife, Leonore, have lived in Denver since 1971.David has published a number of science fiction, horror, and mystery novels. He has also coauthored two science fiction novels with his son, Daniel. For details, as well as quite a bit of non-fiction reading material, please see David and Leonore’s Web site, http://www.dvorkin.com.

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      Book preview

      The Dead Hand of Mrs. Stifle - David Dvorkin

      THE DEAD HAND OF MRS. STIFLE

      HAS BEEN STRANGLING FICTION FOR GENERATIONS

      by

      David Dvorkin

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2011 by David Dvorkin

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      * * * * *

      Visit David’s author page at Smashwords.

      * * * * *

      INTRODUCTION

      The world is abuzz with talk of e–books and about the upheaval the e–book revolution is causing in the business of publishing. The Internet is becoming a vast bookstore and its shelves are full of cheap self–published books. The old structure of publishing houses, distributors, and bookstores is crumbling and fading away.

      This is the revolutionary change everyone is talking about. It is revolutionary, but it’s also self–limiting. The new business model that is now developing will eventually stabilize and endure. It will become the way things are and the excitement will dissipate.

      I think that a different, more lasting, and much more important revolution is underway. In the long term, self-published e–books will bring about a far more important and fundamental change. The very nature of published fiction will change, in unpredictable ways, and it will keep on changing. The excitement and vitality connected with this change will be enduring.

      E–books published by traditional publishing companies are limited, constricted in the same way that printed books are. Self–published e–books are the burgeoning, unstoppable force that will finally liberate fiction from Mrs. Stifle’s dead hand.

      * * * * *

      GATEBLOCKERS

      As far as I can remember, my first encounter with a gateblocker took place when I was around nine years old. Give or take a year.

      When I was eight, we moved from a small town in South Africa to Chicago (culture shock!). Two years later, we moved back to South Africa, to another small town (culture shock!). During those two years in Chicago, Mrs. Stifle was one of my teachers in public school. (That’s not her real name, which I don’t remember. I’ll call her Mrs. Stifle because it’s so descriptive.)

      Mrs. Stifle’s class was English. At one point, she gave us an assignment to write a short story. Before we began writing, we had to hand in a synopsis of our proposed story. Mrs. Stifle would then approve or disapprove of the synopsis, or suggest changes to make it acceptable.

      My synopsis had something to do with two boys trespassing on the grounds of a scary house, upsetting its owner, who screamed that he was Napoleon, the Emperor of the Universe. Much zany and fantastical stuff ensued, which I thought was hilarious and had a ball writing. I think the synopsis was quite long and had a lot of dialog and action and weird happenings

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