links

This is why legal documents are not equal to a marriage certificate

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Outrage.

Followup to Armbinder’s article

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Gretchen Reynolds writes about the latest research in exercise.

It’s interesting stuff, covering the differences between men and women and touching on the benefits of light vs. vigorous exercise. I can foresee the new weight loss trend just as the wave crests–Don’t go to the gym! Put your home computer on a countertop!–but it’s interesting how focussed the piece was on weight loss rather than health.

Randomness for 4/17

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1) Hire an evil clown to stalk your child! Does this scream “Media hoax!” to anyone else?

2) This only needs one word: iPie.

3) Short hair is the new long hair.

4) Deleted

5) Automated online blackmail.

6) The internet was made for this: Betty White in a Metal Bikini Wielding a Flaming Chainsaw While Riding a John Ritter Centaur

7) The trustworthiness of beards. via pnh’s Sidelights.

Child of Fire reviews, Part (lucky) 13

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Behind the cut, as always: Continue reading

Randomness for 4/14

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1) Hoarding TV shows cured my hoarding.

2) Old comic book Hostess and Twinkie ads repurposed for the KFC Double Down.

3) An old Randomness entry revisited: House made of Lego blocks destroyed.

4) Propaganda posters for 80’s arcade games.

5) 3D without the glasses. Not for folks who are drunk, hungover, or slightly queasy.

6) Ta Nahisi-Coates on “The Lost Cause.”

7) Electro’s secret identity revealed!

Don’t miss this one

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Andrew Wheeler went through Publishers Weekly’s list of best-selling books from 2009 and took out everything that wasn’t sf/f. The list of most popular sf/f books is here.

I don’t have a lot to say about the content of the books. You have to go pretty far down the list before you find science fiction. Fantasy and Horror dominate.

Another thing I notice at first glance is that there aren’t that many writers listed once on the list. Most of the slots are books from authors with at least one (usually more) other slot on the list. In Donald Maas’s The Career Novelist (there’s a free pdf of the book at the end of that link, btw) the agent took a look at which of his writers were earning six figures every year, and what they had in common.

He said the authors earning those big bucks weren’t getting it in advances. Most of it was coming from backlist sales, and they had to write about ten books before they reached that point. Interesting stuff.

And no, my book is not on the list. Yeah, I checked.

Randomness for 4/9

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1) Which is nerdier: Dr. Who or the X-Men? From the Extremely Bad Advice column.

2) Barack Obama looking at awesome things. via @Scalzi

3) Tricks for better Google searches.

4) Lawrence Watt-Evans tells how he became a published author without contacts, classes, networking, or family support.

5) How MMORPG designers keep you playing, even when you’re not having fun. More about this later, I think. via Kate Nepvue

6) An instance of Nerd Rage examined. –although this isn’t relegated to nerds (“geeks” whatever you want to call them). The Kindlegarteners dropping one-star reviews on Amazon.com because they can’t buy a Kindle edition in Australia, or because they think the price point is too high are no different than these bitterly angry LOTR fans.

7) 11 Tips for bookselling success at brick-and-mortar stores.

Randomness for 4/7

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1) The NYTimes (attempts to) compare the environmental impact of paper and electronic books.

2) Scrabble to allow proper nouns. Is this worse than the Designated Hitter rule? Save us Will Shorts!

3) How to write a stupid book review. “Once upon a time in a world far, far away, publishing was run by editors.” Also, it’s amazing how many people heap shit on urban fantasy because it’s perceived to be about women. I say this as an author who is uncomfortable when people praise my work as if it’s an antidote to UF about women and their sex lives.

4) Beautiful photos of the circus, circa 1910.

5) Picturesque old postcards with added alien invasion.

6) Spawn, GI Joe, Optimus Prime, and other figures done in Lego.

7) Forty-five My Little Pony mods.

Randomness for 4/5

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1) The Science of Newton’s Cradle. That’s NEWTON’S CRADLE the hard sf independent movie, not the actual toy.

2) How ten movies would be different if they came from Nicholas Sparks novels. via alg.

3) Opening a hotel room door by going under. Be sure to watch the video.

4) Leonardo DiCaprio as Travis McGee? I have to admit that I’m dubious, but maybe he can pull it off. The real question is why Hollywood continues to make crime/detective movies. Are the budgets low enough to balance low box office? Is it the DVD sales?

5) A Suvudu death match between a GRRM character from A Song of Ice and Fire and a Patrick Rothfuss character inspires this hilarious comment.

6) A Victorian-era sex scholar, and her research.

7) Students recreate “Starry Night” on large scale… in cereal. I wish I was this interesting.

Well, my day is already blown

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I overslept by two hours this morning, and those early morning hours are pretty much solid writing time. That makes me mutter curses and plan to abandon my kid to the Wii later today, but we’ll see.

So instead of posting something original, I’m going to cut and paste an email I sent to a friend. He asked (generally) for links to websites that would help an aspiring novelist FOAF. This is what I sent:

I’m only going to give four suggestions:

First, he should buy a copy of CHILD OF FIRE and study it closely. In fact, he should buy two in case the first copy disintegrates after multiple rereadings. And a third, to give away, I guess.

Second, he should read Slushkiller, along with *all* the comments:

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004641.html

It starts out as a discussion of rejections, and how professionals judge submitted work, but the conversation ranges over many topics (and even features a typically batty appearance by former WP-er Frank/Franchesca to defend self-publishing).

It’s long, though. Longer than many novels. He should stick with it and read the whole thing.

Third, check out the Learn Writing With Uncle Jim thread on Absolute Write:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6710

The first volume of that thread is 251 pages long, with 25 comments on each page. It’s so long, though, that it was sealed off and a second volume started in the same novel forum. Again, it’s long, but it’s full of useful information.

It’s also been running for seven years. A little of the information is outdated, but it’s corrected in later parts of the conversation.

Fourth and finally, he should be reading agents’ and editors’ blogs. Start here:

http://pubrants.blogspot.com/

And look at the sidebar. First of all, her numerous posts about the way publishing works are fabulous and full of detail. Second, her list of other agent blogs is terrific. The budding novelist should go through those blog rolls and find a few informative blogs to add to his RSS feed. It’ll be trial and error, but it’s important. While he’s working on his craft, he should also be studying the industry.

And that’s a lot of reading, no kidding. That’s a double shitload. But it’ll be fun to read, because writers should be interested in the industry, and doing interesting things is awesome.

And now, and anti-rec: Here’s a list of people the budding writer should not waste their time on:

Anyone who says that NY publishers are closed to new writers.
Anyone who says that editors only want to publish their friends.
Anyone who says that they can’t get published because of their politics.
Anyone who says that you have to write short fiction to break in to novels.
Anyone who says that writers shouldn’t bother with small presses.
Anyone who says that most of what’s published today is crap.
Anyone who says that the big publishers are “dinosaurs”.

Good luck.

Frankly, I think those few links provide a buttload of reading, but if anyone wants to post a link or two of their own, I’ll drop him a note–since I don’t think he reads my blog (melodramatic sigh)–to check out the blog and LiveJournal comments for his FOAF.

Have a productive day.