World class fantasy author HARLAN ELLISON isn't happy about the current
market for writers, reports the LA TIMES. "1998 has been one of the worst
years for virtually every writer I know," he says. Ellison attributes the
writer's current plight to the dumbing down of America, in large part
because of television; the sorry, and increasingly consolidated, state of
publishing; the rise of the bookstore superpowers, and the Internet
explosion. He is brutal on the subject of the cultural impact of
cyberspace and the techies who love it: "The Internet has turned every
idiot with a PC into an opinion maker," he snaps, then goes on to lament,
"Since I made my bones, I've never made less than $200,000 a year. I'm
down to about 120 grand."