interesting things

Randomness for 11/27

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1) The 30 most amazingly terrible VHS boxes of all time. Like Chris Sims, the only one of these I’ve seen is HAWK THE SLAYER, and my god it was awful. Still, I’d think anyone could take two of these boxes and come up with a pretty awesome story idea.

2) And as a palate-cleanser, check this huge, beautiful artwork.

3) Reasoning with vampires: Annotated excerpts from the Twilight novels.

4) Archetizer on the top ten libraries in the world. Seattle’s downtown branch makes the list, as well it should. via email from my sister-in-law.

5) Also from my s-i-l, Nathan Sawaya makes art from Legos. More here.

6) TSA agents do not know their own rules. Video. And this description of the event from the victim’s point of view.

7) In the libertarian paradise, “justice” can be hired down at the local bar.

Book advances in convenient graph form

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Over at SFNovelists.com, Jim C. Hines makes a graph of his advances to show how they’ve grown. I say good for him that they have grown, especially in this difficult economy; the man must be doing something right.

And it reminded me of a section in one of Donald Maass’s books (this one, I believe, which he’s offering online for free) in which he goes through his own client list to see which writers are earning six-figure incomes. This was back in the nineties (and the numbers need to be updated) but to make six figures through royalties on their backlist, one of the things the writers had to do was be writing for at least ten years already.

Instead of an overnight success, it’s an overdecade success.

Stop interrupting!

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Jason Fried gives a TEDtalk about productivity, offices, and why involuntary interruptions are the enemy of work.

This is why, even though I’m a full-time writer now, I still have to go to the coffee shop to meet my daily word count goals.

Randomness for 11/22

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1) 10 Great Time-Lapse Construction videos.

2) 10 Great Animated Gifs from Detroit Metal City.

3) Tardis socks, with a link to the knitting pattern included.

4) Tintin in the Lovecraft world.

5) Grandmas discover PhotoBooth. Video.

6) “Not much between the temples.” Thank you, Not Always Right, for documenting the Awful.

7) Speaking of independent movies with super-awesome special effects: BIRDEMIC: The Most Epic Scene Ever Filmed! Video. Wyrd folks, don’t miss this inspirational video!

Randomness for 11/15

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1) Wow. Monsters drawn on post-it notes. via tor.com

2) 10 Things the New Batman Live! Show should include. I mean, duh! As if they wouldn’t include a bit where Batman fights a gorilla.

3) “Is there anything worse than not being able to fit your giant fist into a tall glass of milk, yearning for one last Oreo dunk? No. There is literally nothing worse. But the Dipr cookie peripheral will make dips easy.”

4) The United States of Movies. For Americans, which movie do you want to represent your state? I’m surprised PA isn’t ROCKY.

5) Battles won with unusual weapons.

6) Ten centuries of change in five minutes: Changes to European nation-states from the year 1000. Video. Pretty cool, but what it really needs is a counter giving the year.

7) Quidditch for Muggles. Video.

Randomness for 11/9

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1) I haven’t even seen this movie, just the trailer, and I already have my two word review: “Hot mess.” Video.

2) An insider’s take on AFM and the “shadow film industry.”

3) Meritocracy: it doesn’t work the way you expect. via James Nicoll

4) An 8-month old baby’s reaction to his cochlear implant. Video.

5) Teaching equality via the Socratic Method. Video. Gotta tell you, I love this one.

6) The Big List of RPG Plots.

7) This. Is. Hilarious. Our Valued Customers. (NSFW Language). No kidding, I keep going page after page through those comics and I can’t stop laughing. via Seattle Geekly.

Special bonus 8th thing! Watch this high school football play. Video. Jeez, there’s a whole self-help book in that somewhere, and it’s freaking hilarious.

Randomness for 11/5

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1) Tired of arguing about science on Twitter? Let a computer program do it for you. via Jay Lake

2) “It was just a wasp, Dad.”

3) Popping corn in super slow-motion. Video.

4) Least popular monsters.

5) The many types of author panels.

6) This is one awesome mom.

7) Wasteland the movie trailer. Video, but it doesn’t auto-start. This is a documentary I’ll be watching when I get a chance.

Book survey and other writing links.

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I’m reposting this because it didn’t cross post. Sorry

Here’s a bunch of links for books and writing. For starters: NPR is conducting an online survey about how they can improve their book coverage.. If you’re a listener, please do fill this out to let them know what you want.

Personally, I suggested they set aside a segment on weekend mornings for genre fiction, and have an expert in different genres (romance, mystery, sf, etc) rotate through to discuss the latest trends, awards, and best-sellers. I also reminded them that many of their readers are big nerds, and they should take notice of that.

Doing NaNoWriMo? Gosh, if only someone would write an article of writing advice for you! And if only someone else say, Laura Miller at Salon, would express some kind of disapproval of the way it’s run. Because then someone else could jump in with a misguided but completely understandable misreading of Miller’s article. And after that, Miller could write the clarification in the way she should have written the original article.

Skip Miller’s original article and jump right to the response, I say. She makes a fine point. [Update: stupid LATimes website won’t let me link directly to Laura Millers response in the comments of the Book Jacket post. You can skim through and find it at November 03, 2010 at 02:41 PM, though.]

Next, I’ll bet you thought the ebook pricing debate had already been found dead in its stable, but the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers wants to take the whip to it all the same. He’s convinced me, but I’m not a Kindle person.

What does Jim Butcher read? Watch the video to the end to find out. Also: spoilers for his latest book, CHANGES, in that interview. (For those who don’t want to watch the video, he mentions me as an author to watch for.)

And finally, Nick Mamatas points to an editor who snatched content off the web and published it without permission in her magazine. When the writer contacted the magazine about it, the editor replied with the most amazing email fail ever. Really, it has to be seen to be believed.

This one is spreading around blogs and Twitter like a wildfire, and the magazine’s Facebook page is currently being barraged by outraged comments. Awesome.

Quote of the day

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There was a period in the 90s where I was writing a lot of science fiction screenplays because it was a popular genre. For the most part, a science fiction movie is really just an action movie that takes place in the future. Sure, there are exceptions like GATACA, but mostly you have TOTAL RECALL and JUDGE DREDD and TERMINATOR and I ROBOT and MINORITY REPORT. In a science fiction script you start with what one big thing makes the world different – Apes have taken over? Food shortage plus population boom so we all eat Soylent Green? The Zombie Apocalypse happened and now you are the Last Man On Earth? There are psychics who tell the police who to arrest before they commit the crime? There is one big change, which is tied to the theme (point) of your story.

–Bill Martell, screenwriter (and practical man)

Randomness for Halloween

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1) Can self-replicated Lego Robots be far behind? via Rose Fox.

2) Explain the internet to a 19th century British street urchin. Flow charts are funny. also via Rose Fox.

3) A Halloween edition of Great Comics that Never Happened! I love this one.

4) Heeeeeelllllllo, teddy bear! Who know Charlie Sheen could set his own eyes on fire in real life! Video.

5) 11 Awesome skiffy-themed animated gifs. I can’t decide if my favorite is Khan finding Waldo or Picard tommy-gunning Chunk.

6) This is how I’ve always imagined an agent’s office would be run.

7) Baby Powerhouse Remix. Video. This is a nice antidote to all the Halloween creepy grossness. Unless babies freak you out.