Tag Archives: Friday Links

This week we have…

Writing Links

An interview with Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are. “I refuse to lie to children. I refuse to cater to the bullshit of innocence.”

This article is called 6 So-Called Rules for the Badass Creative Woman. I’m linking to it mainly for this quote: “Mistakes and failures provide you with the data you need for success. That’s it and that’s all.”

If you’ve never heard of the blog Zen Habits, you might want to check it out. It has nothing to do with actual Zen, but it provides a steady stream of good advice about conquering mediocrity.

So it turns out that Bruce Lee wrote poetry, and they’ve got several samples. I’m not as impressed as the author of that article seems to be, but it’s still kind of cool.

I’ve never read any of the Dresden Files books, but still thought this was interesting. Apparently the author of the series, Jim Butcher, honed his skills writing for computer games.

Yesterday the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to one Tomas Tranströmer. Mr. Tranströmer is notable “because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality.” You can read an example of this fresh access right here.

Non-Writing Links

David Brooks discusses the limits of empathy and suggests a better strategy for improving the world.

And finally, video gamers do in three weeks what scientists failed to do for a decade.

Have a good Friday and an even better weekend.

Just two links this Friday, and they’re both writing-ish. You don’t have to click either of them, but then, you don’t have to wear clothes in public, and you do that. (Presumably.) So, you know, ipso facto, QED.

Amidst all the gloomy prophecies of the End of the Book, it’s good to see a study suggest – for once – that Americans are actually reading more. The article says specifically “more literature,” and they apparently define literature as “novels and short stories, plays, or poems.” The article goes on to mention that “Cultural decline is not inevitable.” Fingers crossed!

And from Veronica Roth, a good post about the gift of upheaval, the growth that comes from difficult change.

Them’s the links. As for me, I finished Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother and now I’m on to The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. So far it’s pretty prodigious.

What are y’all up to this weekend?

My wife and I are heading to Colorado for a week, meaning no new posts and no replies to comments till Monday, September 26. I trust y’all will manage without me somehow. It’ll be hard, I’m sure, but slog through that Buckley-less wilderness the best you can; it’ll build character in the end.

In the meantime, Friday Links!

First, I got some good answers to my question yesterday about why people like zombies. So if you’re interested, go check it out and find out how smart y’all are.

Next up: as a prize for winning her short story contest, Agent Courtney critiques my query letter. Righteous! (And the contest-winning story is here, if you’re into that sort of thing.)

We now move on from the Flagrant Self-Promotion portion of our post…

Writing Links

GalleyCat reports that some companies are using computer-generated stories to avoid paying the astronomical salaries writers normally command. *snort* This is interesting, but until A.I. improves dramatically, I don’t see it as much of a threat. (And if A.I. does improve dramatically, we’ll have bigger and more interesting problems anyway.)

Post-revolution, what’s the literary scene looking like in Egypt? The New York Times is on it. (Update: weird, it’s asking for a login now. It wasn’t doing that ten minutes ago. Not sure what’s going on.)

People everywhere are reading less, and everyone’s worried about the future of publishing. This photo captures the sadness and the fear.

NaNoWriMo is for wusses. Anyone can write a novel in 30 days. How about writing a novel in 3 days?

NEW TRAILER FOR THE MUPPETS MOVIE. Prodigious! (And yes, it’s book-related…you’ll see.)

Non-Writing Links

If My Little Ponies were superheroes. Disturbing and fascinating in equal measure.

There are two types of people in this world: people who like Star Trek and people who don’t. The latter group can move along. For the former group: this. Click through all fourteen comics for utterly inexplicable goodness.

I’m fleeing the state, you’re fleeing the blog, we’ll meet back here in a week. Everyone remember where we parked. Y’all have fun, now. Bye!

You hear that? There – that long, low rumbling in the distance?

Yep. Links a-comin’.

Writing Links

At Writer Unboxed this week is a good article on what makes readers decide to buy your book. More specifically, it’s about what doesn’t work: telling people to buy it. “So here’s how to solve that, easily: never, ever tell anyone to buy your book.” Makes sense to me.

This one’s about literary authors coming to the Dark Side – and writing genre fiction.

I don’t normally link to fiction, but Jo Eberhardt’s written a story this week that is worth your time. In this case, “your time” is only about thirty seconds, since she was working under the same 100-word limit as my story earlier this week. It’s like a bite-sized sample of literary flavor!

Apparently the Kansas City Library is made out of giant books. Outstanding!

Non-Writing Links

An electric motor made out of a single molecule? Yes please.

Penny Arcade nails it: this comic sums up my my one thought about the Justice League.

And have you heard about Trenches? It’s by the guys behind Penny Arcade and PvP, which was all the enticement I needed to start reading. This comic is my favorite one so far.

That’s it for me. Do something fun this weekend! See you on Monday.

A light week for links, hypothetical reader, but the few we’ve got are quality!

Writing Links

From Publisher’s Weekly comes the search for the world’s most literary graveyard. Seems they dug up (ha!) a cemetery with Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathanial Hawthorne, and a few other notable names, all in the same place. Best part, though? Even the name is literary: Sleepy Hollow!

Next up is a fantastic article that puts you inside the mind of a literary magazine editor, helping you understand what they want and what gets rejected. Highly recommended. (Found via Kristan Hoffman.)

Non-Writing Links

Ken Jennings, the guy who’s crazy good at Jeopardy, is also crazy good at – er – another sort of endeavor. Look, just click this link, okay? I can almost guarantee you’ll regret it.

And finally, remember earlier this week when I suggested 28 words to use instead of “awesome”? Well, Natalia Sylvester commented with a hilarious (and very relevant) video, and I have to share. I think you’ll enjoy it, it’s pretty aweso – er, outstanding.

For those in the States, have a wonderful three-day weekend. Everyone else, if you sneak a little happiness into your job on Monday, I won’t tell anyone. See you later!

Ciao, amici! Let’s link it up.

Writing Links

James Patterson is the world’s highest-paid author, taking in $82 million last year. The average author makes only about $14 million per year so Mr. Patterson is doing very well for himself.

A Pixar artist writes an open letter to artists everywhere. “The important thing is to slog diligently through the quagmire of discouragement and despair.” Sure, you’ve seen this “never surrender” advice before, but have you seen it decorated with a sketch of the kid from Up?

Read four letters by four famous authors: Jack Kerouac, Kurt Vonnegut, J.R.R. Tolkien, and John Keats. Vonnegut writes about his P.O.W. experience, Tolkien shows love to a fan. All four taken from Letters of Note.

They’re coming out with a documentary about Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Or rather, a documentary about a certain road trip in particular. I’ve never even read the book, but for some reason this movie intrigues me. Maybe I’m just a sucker for stories with LSD as a plot element?

Non-Writing Links

What’s this, you ask? Oh, nothing special. Just a woman PLAYING FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEE ON AN ACCORDION.

You’re welcome.

Hope your weekend is trippy and your drugs are legal. Failing that, if you start a counterculture revolution, make it a good one. See you on Monday!

As seems to be the trend lately, we’ve got many, many succulent links this week. I’ll run through them quickly.

Writing Links

Two good articles from Slate: authors discuss the most overrated books (Catcher in the Rye catches some heat) and a book about the Periodic Table of Elements inexplicably gets some sexy ladies on the cover of its Chinese edition.

Chuck Wendig offers Top Sekrit Writing Advice, and he’s in rare form. “I don’t care what you’re writing — a novel series, a film script, a freelance RPG, a television show, a web-comic — you damn well better love what you do.” Amen, Chuck.

Did you know Herman Melville has a whale name after him? Learn about six strange things named after writers.

Is there a book whose title you can’t remember? Reddit may be able to help you out. I actually want to try this – there’s a book I read over a decade ago that I can describe reasonably well, though I’ve never been able to come up with the title.

Here’s a list of every book Obama’s read since before taking office. He got around to Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom quicker than I did – my copy’s still sitting on the shelf.

How about a list of the top ten books that influenced J.R.R. Tolkien? Fascinating if you’re a LotR geek – not that, ahem, I know any such people. Beowulf is the obvious one, but this list digs quite a bit deeper.

And finally, just had to share this great quote from Tom Robbins: “Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.” (Source.)

Non-Writing Links

10 ways you can help right now with the famine in Somalia. I’ll point out #4 in particular: “Text SOMALIA to 80000 to donate $10 to USA for UNHCR – the UN Refugee Agency.”

Check out a photo gallery of World Beard Champion Jack Passion.

And finally, the Onion reports that the apocalypse actually occurred three years ago. As my mother-in-law would say: “This is my shocked face.”

That’s a wrap, bambinos. This weekend I plan to eat ice cream, watch a movie, go on a road trip, and maybe even start on my next short story (I finally came up with a good idea). How ’bout you?

No time for chitchat, folks! We’ve got a lot of links today and not a lot of time. Better buckle your seatbelts while I search for a less cliched metaphor!

Writing Links

A three-way Venn diagram of writers. Probably quicker to look at than to explain.

Bulgaria is working on some pretty ridiculous legislation. “The use of foreign language and even dialects of Bulgarian is banned at public events such as meetings, rallies and marches.” One hopes that nonsense like this will spark a few rallies.

Amber Gardner composes a letter to herself, from her future self. It says, in essence: shape up or ship out! Good reading.

Wendig fires up another 25 Ways post, this time on clearing out exposition clutter from your stories. One of his better ones IMO.

Philip Levine is the new United States Poet Laureate.

A list of six writers who died never knowing they’d become literary superstars.

A study shows (allegedly) that knowing spoilers doesn’t ruin a story for you. According to the study, people had slightly higher “happiness levels” after reading a spoiled story, versus the same story unspoiled. I’d venture that if you’re reading stories only to increase your “happiness level,” you may be missing the point.

Non-Writing Links

This comic is funny and also a little profound. (You like that? “A little profound”? Like, slightly deep?)

Here’s a URL that sells itself: SnailMailMyEmail.org. It only lasts till August 15, though, so if you want to try it you’d better send those e-mails quick.

This is cool.

However, I’m gonna have to say, this is even cooler.

And we’re done! Have a superlative weekend. No, I mean it. Listen: I’ll find out if you don’t.

Happy Friday, hypothetical reader! I was crazy tired yesterday but I think I’m a little better this morning. Coffee will help. Mmm, sweet, sweeeeeet legal addictive drugs…

First up this week is Blake Butler, with 22 Things I Learned From Submitting Writing. He’s talking mainly about the short story market, about the long grind of gradually turning rejection into acceptance. The whole post is great, but I really love #9: “If you really want to publish a book one day you will publish a book. The time that you spend getting there is kind of wonderful. Don’t cut it short. The emotional range is valuable.” Listen up, peeps: I really want to publish a book!

We all know Harry Potter is a little punk. Magician David Copperfield finally calls him out, accusing J.K. Rowling of stealing his own life story for her books. Which is pretty funny, considering Copperfield himself stole his name from a Dickens character. (The video’s a joke, of course. Er – I hope. Gulp!)

Send a lot of text messages? Ha! That’s so mainstream. Back in 1890, they were text messaging before it sold out and got all popular.

INTERN has an insightful post about the meaning of success as a writer. Success is a slippery thing; you can feel like you’ve made it (or are failing to make it) at any level from unpublished to Nobel laureate. If you believe you’re unsuccessful, ask yourself if you really are. Think about what you’ve accomplished instead of just what’s next, because there will always, always be a Next Thing.

Finally, not related to writing, but if you like Star Trek (or just general epicness) then I implore you, I beseech you, watch this Lazy Song music video featuring Leonard Nimoy. I simply cannot imagine you will be disappointed.

Truly, I have no more to give you. Go forth and hit that weekend like it was looking at your sister!

Welcome, hypothetical reader! Take your shoes off, this is a holy place. What? No, I’m kidding. Track in the mud. Can’t get any dirtier than it already is. This is about to get real, people. It’s link time.

First, a quick update on Chuck Wendig’s weekly writing prompts. I’m excited to report that Chuck picked my story “Scissors With Running” as one of the top five stories for the Uncharted Apocalypse challenge (no, really!) and he is graciously giving me a copy of his eBook “250 Things You Should Know About Writing” as a prize. Awesome – thanks, Chuck! This week’s challenge is The Flea Market, and I plan to give it a shot.

In other news, amid all the tearful eulogies on Borders, here’s one author who isn’t sorry to see them go.

A great post on dealing with rejection. I tend to think of rejection as something that happens to writers who haven’t “made it” yet, but James Moran reminds us that established, successful writers can be rejected even more than newbies. If writing is the life you want, you’re going to get rejected, full stop. Embrace the chaos.

I’m OCD about grammar, and this comic totally calls me out on it. Love it.

Okay, this is kind of crazy: I’ve actually considered making this website myself, and today I found out someone else has done it for me. A list of all the books with titles that come from lines in Hamlet? Yes please. David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest is probably the most famous of these.

Stephen King explains how Lord of the Flies influenced him as a kid. When King talks about writing, I listen, and this was fascinating reading for me.

Check out the worst sentence of 2011.

Here’s a list of the best authors by state in the U.S.A. Very interesting stuff. I didn’t know Lois Lowry is from Hawaii!

That’s all I have for writing links. In the non-writing-related category we have…

Like all the best Onion articles, this one is funny and sad and true: “Last Male Heir To Bloodline Watches Movie Alone On Laptop.”

Want an interactive panoramic view of the Space Shuttle Discovery’s flight deck? Of course you do.

NPR says a Denver newspaper has hired a professional marijuana critic. NPR would say that. Those commies!

And finally, courtesy of Nathan Bransford: this photo from ComicCon is perhaps the most awesome picture I have ever seen. That is all.

Have a terrific weekend; failing that, don’t burn your house down; failing that, toast some marshmallows on the smoldering ruins of your homestead. Mmm…s’mores.

See you on Monday!