About Mac
Mac' Chandler is supposedly retired. At the end of 2022 I moved from Rochester MI to the milder climate of North Carolina and a condo without steps much more suited to my age. (75 as I write this)
Writing is still fun and I intend to continue as long as my mind stays fresh. I'm not a expert on English or a skilled grammarian but I love to tell a story. I thank all the people who take a moment to tell me they enjoyed my work.
With all your email problems I’m not sure which is the best to contact you anymore, sadly.
Did the way things seem get pulled off of Kindle for some reason? Just went looking for it to reread it and couldn’t find it
Now that I have a new guy managing the site I got your mail just fine. I had relatives object one of my charters was identifiable and defaming. It was more trouble than the book’s income could justify.
Holy shit. Sorry to hear that. I enjoyed the book and would have loved a sequel. c’est la vie
I found an excellent example of the problems of weak AI (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weak_AI in contrast to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_general_intelligence):
https://twitter.com/klivdahl/status/1475655863289495559.
In this case, the AI did precisely what was asked of it. It found a new challenge on the internet:
The challenge is simple: plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs. The resulting sparks are supposed to be cool enough to win you instant internet fame. (Obviously, do NOT attempt this!)
from https://ourcommunitynow.com/news-national/watch-out-parentsthe-viral-outlet-challenge-has-kids-doing-the-unthinkable)
the AI then isolated the text describing the challenge to present it to the user as:
According to ourcommunitynow.com: The challenge is simple: Plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs.
This is an example of something that weak AI’s can never entirely avoid. Doing so requires abstract reasoning, such as picking up the fact that this site was actually warning about the danger or a viral challenge rather than recommending it.
While a weak AI could be given rules to apply, such as one that would pick up the “do NOT attempt this” from the site as an indication of hazard or danger, also the identification that “phone charger” and “wall outlet” together likely refer to electricity and thereby provide a warning about the electricity being dangerous and not something to play with. These are both very specific, and language is too complex to actually hope to teach the AI all possible combinations it should look out for.
This is not a simple case like the Safe Search Google provides to filter out adult content as that just flags websites that deal with such content, which is sufficient as other sites generally ban it. In this case, it is just a typical website and requires actually reasoning about the site’s content to determine meaning (which is impossible for weak AI)
Just read your cookbook and enjoyed it a great deal. Was hoping you might touch on how to pick a watermelon, but alas, no such luck. Like the Sovereign of Central, picking a good one seems to have been left out of my toolbox. I guess I’ll continue to depend on dumb luck.
I was told watermelons turn dull instead of shiny when ripe. All bets are off if they spray them with wax. Also this: https://www.thekitchn.com/the-best-way-to-pick-a-watermelon-172375
I’m deaf so you are on your own for the hollow booming sound.
There is a light colored patch on a large watermelon where it rested on the ground. The area should be as small as possible.
Was reading April again and found the following at the beginning of chapter ten. Didn’t have good flow to me.
.”Is there any chance you can explain how your generator works, so I could understand it? Or is so exotic and difficult I might as well not try?”
I would drop the comma and move the it from after understand to – Or is it exotic. It isn’t necessary in the first part and I don’t like it twice if you just add it to the second part.
Fresh eyes are looking at April soon. I’ll ask her.
Chapter 14
Do you think you can you can get me in there, where I can get some access to vacuum also? I need zero-g, vacuum, net access for them to report to me if they are done or locked up in mid-process, and a little bit of power. But we can set one of my generators up for power if you don’t have a place to plug in.”
You can repeats
Had to read that twice. My mind skipped right over the double. Just one more job this 85 year old shall not apply to do!
This is a couple books later in A depth of Understanding chapter ten.
“I think that good,” Deming agreed. “The software I have been using, they look sour and correct me when I say a word from it. They inform me the program speaks like an Earthie and they do things differently.”
“Differently, Faye corrected
Should be “They do things different.” Otherwise Faye wouldn’t need to correct. Although if she is correcting I think that good is bad english as well and should be I think that’s good.
Chapter 27. You can up the voltage and get a little increase, but pretty soon it failures from heating and need to very aggressively cool it to prevent failure.”
But pretty soon you need to aggressively cool it to prevent failure from overheating.
Decided to switch to family law for a bit. Long voyage of little fleet. Chapter 2.
With a planned absence of several years, the crew could not be left to choose their own kit. Cotton underwear and socks, popular and low cost, wore out too fast. Their crew members were required to buy extra longer lasting hemp, bamboo, or synthetics.
Their crew members were required is repetative to the sentence stating they could not be left to choose their own kit.
Extra longer lasting is also redundant.Extra durable or longer lasting would be better.
Chapter 12
he’d have rather the bourbon, but he didn’t want to try both.
He’d rather have
Chapter 18
I called them after we were attacked, they were not involved. I killed the Bills myself, after they wounded my companion, without help from the Badger.
Should be I killed the Biters.
What book? TLVOTLF has no chapter 27.
I believe A depth of understanding.
Mac it has been over a month any update?
Life has been interfering. Both my wife and I have been sick. It’s hard just getting laundry done and meals made. I’ll be back to a heavier writing schedule soon.
How are you doing? Need anything from us? Care packages sent to your PO Box or anything?
Things are going pretty good. Lots of minor health issues but nothing life threatening. At 74 you get aches and pains. My wife is doing better so she has required less help. I cook she loads the dishwasher – that sort of thing.
They said it would be Easy chapter 6
Drop the next on right on them,” April said. “How long until they transfer the stuff with Dionysus’ Chariot?”
Should be “Drop the next one right on them.”
Thanks will fix that. I got into deeper editing from these few. It will take a few days. I’m still on TSIWBE.
Chapter 12
You can buy you own soap and shampoo and so on.
your own soap
Deleted as spam maybe it was too short or looked repetative. Adding this to see If it makes it past.
Thanks Mr. Chandler. I started reading april not long after it was published and been following your work for some years. I’ve been very ill of late and I’ve read and re-read most of your books. I’m on my 5th time through the April books and I’m enjoying them as much or more than the first time. Ill read all the April books the start the family law series again to see how much the affects the story line.
Your work is something that really strikes a chord with me and I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you. So, thanks.
Thank you.
If you’re cleaning up the April series, there are a couple continuity issues that I couldn’t let go of the last time I read it:
Eric Pennington’s age and sleeping arrangements, which became plot significant. In Chapter one of _A Different Perspective_, there is an explanation of growing bodies requiring full-g, “until a person was twelve years old, or a hundred and fifty centimeters tall, whichever came first”, in chapter eighteen it is stated that “Eric is fourteen”, and in chapter twenty, Jeff tells Mo and Linda “I’ll have a sofa bed brought in so your boy can sleep in the big room.” In Chapter 8 of _Been There, Done That_, Linda “has to let him go to the full g sleeping barracks because of his age.” In short, at Eric’s first appearance, I knew he was not sleeping apart from his family. In a later book, that information was explicitly contradicted. I’m not sure when the character changed, but in _They Said it Would be Easy_ chapter fourteen has Eric discussing how he is no longer young enough to do ‘cute’ and how “they won’t let you start life extension early enough to keep it.” April had LET at thirteen. Eric at fourteen should have been too old to do cute, and definitely old enough for LET. His mourning for his youthful cuteness should be over by the time he reached Home. This makes me think that the change of character happened earlier, and it would easier to alter his introduction then adjust everything after to fourteen and older.
The other point is the numbering of Assemblies. I can ignore my uncertainty as to whether they should be on a specific number assembly. I can’t ignore chapter thirteen of _A Different Understanding_ specifying the Seventeenth Assembly, and chapter fourteen specifying the Eleventh Assembly, rather than the seventeenth or eighteenth. (There was an overnight break before the vote, which may or may not mean a new assembly).
I look forward to the next book.
You all need to quit pointing out all of the possible errors in the books for Mac to fix. Just let him write the new stuff. Not just you Elizabeth, all of these armchair authors or wanna-be editors.
The inference I made from a few comments here was that Mr. Chandler is/was reviewing the already published books in the April series- which makes it an appropriate time to offer copy-edit level concerns. If an author requests that readers not offer such concerns, we shouldn’t offer them. To my knowledge, Mr. Chandler has made no such request. I would say it is up to him to determine whether offering such concerns is helpful, harmful, or value neutral. And a short message on the website can make it clear if he doesn’t want such input.
Speaking as a reader, I prefer books without continuity errors, spelling errors, homonym mix ups, sounds like wrong words, mislabeled characters, punctuation errors, and all the other errors that a good copy editor is supposed to find. When these errors go undetected before publication of an ebook, after the fact copy editing can help.
The proper balance between any after the fact copy editing and writing new material is above my pay grade. However, reviewing previous works in a series can help the author maintain continuity and avoid dropping plot threads when writing the next book. There is no reason that a little copy editing can’t occur during that review.
Is it preferred to let Mackey know via this blog or reporting through say KU?
Will the KU route have negative repercussions due to errors being reported? I see a warning on some books of errors being reported.
Seriously just let the man write. If you look at many older titles, even from authors like Anne McCaffrey are full of errors.
Amazon shows there are disputes. It looks bad. I’d rather know here. If they judge it is a serious error they can suspend sales.
Mac,
I hope your feeling better from recent illness. Make sure you get your greens! I wish I lived closer so I could come over and do your laundry for you if its keeping your to occupied!
Hey you Nitt Pickers:
Mac is 74….If you want to waste his time on insignificant stuff that keeps him from working on new stuff please send him a concise email!
Encourage our friend!
Mac, I love your books and there are way fewer errors than many other self published authors. Even though I taught typing and business English among other things over a forty plus year career and have literally edited/proofread thousands of pages over the years (probably hundreds of thousands of pages actually) I do not find that what errors are in your books are at all distracting.
Just go on with what you do best and tell us your wonderful stories
Mac, Just wanted to express my enjoyment of your April series! I continue to enjoy the characters & situations you developed. As a lifelong (74 yrs) SF fan, your books rank up there with the best. Your in-depth detail and thoughtful descriptions of the many and varied situations and disciplines is amazing. Your real life experiences must be extensive, and/or you must have some very interesting friends and acquaintances! Anyway, thank you for providing me with my nightly escape to Home and beyond.
Thanks. I’m always happy people enjoy them. I’m at 88k words on the next. We’re busy getting my wife retired and she’s having a rough time with that. However it has just slowed my writing not stopped it.
Mac, Love your work. Just saw comments about KU corrections. I’ve been highlighting typos and word tense issues there. Is that OK or should I send them to you?
I just finished 13 and can’t wait for the rest of the tale. I’m 70 ? Don’t make me do the math…… Been reading since Jules Verne in third grade and think you’re up there with Heinlein and Grand Literature in stories full of ideas that are also Fun. Please keep it up!
Wife and daughter are nutritionists , get VITAL PROTEINS at Costco -best price – and put it in your coffee say or a smoothie everymorning. . Does Amazing things for your joints and aches. She has reco’s for vitamins and immune response as well..
Thanks I’m glad you like the stories.
I’d rather you send corrections to me because Amazon can halt my sales until I correct them and the process takes time.
I’ll try that as I shop at Costco and my joints could use some help.