Q2Q

While I was on Hackaday, having just completed a visit to check out a Gameport adapter project, I followed a link to a laser safety and radiological clean-up guy. Local, too. I did an archive binge on his blog and down in the last pages there were some comments on the mindset of a Q clearance.

Which was exactly the mindset I had been thinking of for the bad guy in Penny's upcoming desert adventure. It is something some of my father's friends had -- they were in similar circles, and I can't even swear that some of them might not have had that clearance.

The important part here is that the access may lapse but the clearance never leaves. As Phil explains it, most things have to be classified Secret, and that classification only lasts if regularly renewed. Nuclear weapons, and a few related things, are born classified, and that classification lasts unless specifically removed. According to Phil, when you've been DOE long enough to know about stuff most of us don't know about, you are capable of having thoughts which are inherently classified.

So basically exactly what I was after (and what I had observed); a lifetime of keeping those secrets, no matter how long ago the Cold War or how long you'd been a civilian. You didn't talk about that stuff. You didn't talk about your experiences, lest you accidentally reveal something.

A weird loyalty born out of how the job worked, what kind of people were in it. And I understand that part, too, and not from the Army. But then, this blogger has also spent a year at McMurdo and that's another set of highly-skilled people doing something that most people don't want to hear the details of, trapped together in a very small space under a lot of pressure. Heck...a theater tech can relate, if only in a small way. It isn't that strange a mental state.

So, dammit, stuff keeps showing up for the desert book. Despite that series not selling well enough to justify making that my life's work. (I don't care about the money -- I just want people to read it!)

It is possible that I could game Amazon's algorithms a little better. The key to a series is that a new book has a boosted ranking on Amazon, and if it is part of a series, the entire series gets a bit of that boost (plus, of course, if you have done your work properly the prospective reader can always click back through and discover your back catalog).

There's a slight risk that the book that is most visible is later in the series, meaning you have to choose between being friendly to readers who jump on in the middle, or take the chance that they will click through and read fast enough so you get the kick anyhow. (Because you might pay per click when you are using Amazon ads, but your ranking is based on actual sales).

Thing is, that boost phase is short. The only way to benefit is to keep the time between releases short. Really short. Like under a month, now (Amazon is always tweaking the algorithm, and they've progressively shortened the happy hour since people first discovered it).

And I don't think I could kick anything out in a month. Not even if I could afford to quit my day job.