I don’t begrudge an actor a role–I realize it’s tough to find work–but Baby was supposed to be 14 in that movie, and Swayze was 34 when they filmed it.
Yeah, go ahead and say it. Yuck.
Of course, Jennifer Grey was 26 playing 14, but still, it was creepy.
1) Tron light cycles build out of Lego. Pretty cool, but it’s not something for my son–he’s never seen the movie.
2) Strange and spectacular sinks/wash basins. I expect you think I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel, link-wise, but these are pretty amazing. I want the Art Ceram, myself. via marthawells
3) Newsweek does a story called The Real Cause of Obesity: It’s not gluttony. It’s genetics. Why our moralizing misses the point. The comment section, as you might expect, is a disaster of dim-witted moralizing. “Mr. Friedman is not very well informed. Genetics is only a very small factor in obesity. The role that it plays is that as a person eats junk food, is sedentary in their overall activities, it weakens the genetic code and gets passed on. But not only do the genes get passed on, the bad habits get passed on to the offspring and the genetic code continues to get weaker. ”
4) Sexual assault prevention tips that are guaranteed to work when employed correctly. via james_nicoll and theweaselking
5) One thing I struggle with in my writing is how to show mental states of many characters in a first-person POV. This TED talk about the development of the part of the brain that recognizes other people’s mental states doesn’t address my struggles specifically, but it’s pretty interesting.
6) You know who wants more Americans to have government-run insurance? Doctors. Yeah, doctors complain about Medicare reimbursement rates, but private insurance is an even bigger headache.
Tomorrow, 9/15/09 at 7pm EST, Suvudu.com will be hosting a chat with John W. Campbell award winner David Anthony Durham.
Check it out.
1) Glenn Beck “doesn’t think the race thing works anymore.”
2) The Facebook Song. I know, you’ve probably already seen it, but I’m kinda new to Facebook, so I’m just catching up.
3) Animals with lightsabers. via matt_ruff
1) Toilet Birthdays. Because every blog needs a purpose. Or every purpose needs a blog.
2) You know that new show The Vampire Diaries? Well, it’s based on some very strange books. Very.
A chimpanzee could’ve finger-painted a better movie. A chimpanzee, somewhere in the world, probably has.
Attention, chimpanzee: Send your finger-painted screenplay to Tom Skerritt. He’ll sign on for it. He signed up for “Whiteout,” after all.
4) How to hide an airplane factory.
5) Writer Beware examines the myth that you have to know someone to get published. ::raises hand:: As a data point, I didn’t know my agent or my editor before I signed with them, and I didn’t have any connections, either. I did it by cold-query.
6) A Main Force Patrol T-shirt. I’m thinking my friend Mike would love this one, but check out the categories. The designs are really well done. via serialkarma
Is there an urban fantasy series featuring a much-older woman? I have a few UF novels on my to-read pile–and of course I see many in the stores–but the women on the covers seem to be in their thirties or younger.
Is there a Miss Marple (meaning, in her sixties or older) in urban fantasy, even a motorcycle-riding, katana-wielding Miss Marple?
So much for getting to bed early tonight.
At quarter after nine at night, no less!
It’s the real and final version of Child of Fire, fresh from the press!
I love that they added “A Twenty Palaces Novel” to the cover. Also, the top and right side of the letters in the title have a thin orange highlight to them. While I love the shadow behind my name, that orange highlight makes it look like you could cut your fingers on the corners.
Yay! (holy crap!) Yay!
Child of Fire will be getting a very nice review in Booklist. And, well, while I have no intention of discussing (or even linking to) every review I get–although the first few have been startling and noteworthy to me, no matter how routine others might find them–but there’s one thing in this review I really like.
As my editor said, this reviewer “got it.” A few of the early reviewers online were less than enchanted with the fact that Ray and Annalise (the two main characters) have a troubled backstory that is not explicitly described. Which is fine. I certainly understand being annoyed that there’s information you want or expect but don’t get.
But that’s how I wanted it. Child of Fire is structured like a mystery/thriller. It has scenes of physical danger (not all of them supernatural) mixed with scenes where people tell stories about their lives, or about the lives of their family or neighbors. Basically: magic, gossip, face-punching, to be glib about it.
The only major characters who do not tell their own stories are the two leads. They certainly have a difficult history, together and apart, but I didn’t want to write a story where the characters explored their pasts; I wanted one where tried to live with them.
And it’s nice to read a review that considered that a plus.
1) MightyGodKing offers an interesting take on secret identities for two of the most iconic superheroes in comics.
2) The browser on my work computer won’t let me comment there, but Genreville’s Josh Jasper draws the line and I am in complete agreement with him. That bullshit should never be tolerated.
3) A review of The Playboy Sheikh’s Virgin Stable Girl. (Weirdly, the URL has “playbot” instead of “playboy,” which is not a thought I needed to have right now.