{"id":3045,"date":"2008-09-16T08:24:23","date_gmt":"2008-09-16T02:32:53","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-09-16T08:32:59","modified_gmt":"2008-09-16T02:32:59","slug":"a-blurb-from-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/kevinkelly\/a-blurb-from-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"A Blurb From the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nMy first book Out of Control<\/a> was not widely reviewed. I was an unknown first-time author. My huge sprawling book was too big to scan quickly and frustrating to summarize. It got only a very few mentions in the press. Some friends wrote blurbs for it, but that was all for publicity. The book also debuted at a very hectic time right after the launch of Wired, when I and the whole world were running dizzy at internet speed.\n<\/p>\n

\nScience fiction legend Aruthur C. Clarke was, naturally, a boyhood hero. What kid was not impressed by his imagination and scientific sensibilities? I sent him a manuscript not expecting any reply. He simply was the smartest author I could think of. Sometime during the Wired startup chaos, I got a letter from Clarke, which included a standard form stating his inability to blurb books.  I received his note just after the book reached bookstores. I put it aside in a pile of papers on my very messy Wired desk and somehow forgot about it. When I left Wired in 1999, I dumped all my papers into a box, which I finally got around to cleaning out from the garage last weekend. Somehow I had not noticed his letter (I think I focused on his form letter) and while reading it this time I found a blurb for Out of Control <\/em>that I don’t remember seeing before.\n<\/p>\n

\n\"Acclarke-Ooc-Lg\"\n<\/p>\n

\n“An amazing achievement.” — Arthur C. Clarke. I’ll take that one! Wish I had used it back then.\n<\/p>\n

\nClarke was exactly the kind of person I want to write for. Someone who reads a lot, knows a lot, is easily bored, and wants to hear something new. His praise means a lot. I’ll keep aiming high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first book Out of Control was not widely reviewed. I was an unknown first-time author. My huge sprawling book was too big to scan quickly and frustrating to summarize. It got only a very few mentions in the press. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"0","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[167],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/kevinkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3045"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/kevinkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/kevinkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/kevinkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/kevinkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/kevinkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/kevinkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/kevinkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/kevinkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}