Game of Cages is officially on the bookstore shelves (or in your hot little hands) and I can move on with my life. Maybe.
For instance, my father-in-law took one glance at the Lego guns my son has been building, and he insisted my wife take photos of them. Like this:
or
There’s more at the Flickr set.
Needless to say, I suspect we’ll be visiting Brickcon this fall.
1) This is one excellent ad for a pen. Large images, but no video. I’d show these to my son, but then I’d have to buy him a couple. I especially love the UF heroine.
2) Have a spare million dollars? Maybe you can come up with story ideas as good as J.D. Salinger’s if you sit where he sat.
3) Have you been seeing computer folks talking about “P=NP” lately? Have you wondered what it is? Here’s your explanation.
4) An article featuring several writers who are also parents, and how they manage it. One of them happens to be me. Give it a read if you like.
5) INCEPTION… starring Dora the Explorer. Video.
6) “Can you tell me who the author of Shakespeare is?” and “What kind of bookstore doesn’t have anything on BAYWATCH?”
Last weekend my wife, son and I drove out of the city (in a rented car! Luxury!) to see a natural formation that’s unique in the world: The Channelled scablands of central Washington. Great name, huh? For those of you who don’t know about the scablands, Dry Falls and Lake Missoula, here’s a quick ‘n’ dirty explanation: Thirteen thousand years ago during the end of the last ice age, much of Montana was covered by a body of water we now call Lake Missoula. Ice dammed a river valley in Idaho, creating a body of fresh water larger than several of the Great Lakes.
You won’t be surprised to hear that eventually, the ice melted, the water broke through the dam, and the largest flood ever in the history of our planet was unleashed. Over the course of three days, a 300-ft-deep flood raced across Idaho, Washington and into Oregon as it raced to the sea. The effects of this flood are still most prevalent in the central Washington area near Grand Coulee. There was a Nova program that covered this: Mystery of the Megaflood, but it doesn’t appear to be one of the shows they offer for free online. Maybe you can borrow it from the library, like we did.
What this means is that, out in the desert of central WA, are the effects of floods of water writ large. You know the ripples you see in sand when waves flow over them? Well, look at the land formation above this small town:
Those gigantic humps are marks of the flood. Crazy, isn’t it?
More below the cut, including Dry Falls, an ice age waterfall ten times larger than Niagra Falls. Continue reading
For those who missed the first one on Monday, these comics are 100% made by my son, to illustrate (with humor) his science lessons.
As part of my son’s homeschooling, I’m asking him to create fun, funny, instructional science comics. He wrote, shot, and put together the comic below all by his lonesome. I offered to help, but he didn’t need it!
What do you think?
It’s awfully cute, hanging there, and I supposed I could take plotty inspiration from the complexity and interconnectedness of its web, but it’s also anchored to my reading materials. I’ll have to sweep it up and dump it outside eventually, but I’m willing to wait until it warms up out there.
Besides, it may help keep my son off YouTube for a little while.
I’m trying to get a package together for my agent (sample chapters and selling synopsis, basically) and sweet mole sauce, have I been struggling. The last couple of months have been stressful–I don’t need to review, do I? Good.–and my daily word counts have been small. Now that I’m in the revision phase, I’m finding all sorts of repetitive and contradictory stuff in there. Characters are introduced twice, the protagonist discusses a clue with a character then decides to hide the info from him 50 pages later, the protagonist is confused by changes to a building he said he’d never seen before.
It’s a damn dirty mess. I really need to work faster on these early drafts, if only to save myself time and effort during revisions.
Anyway, I picked up a bunch of weird books at a yard sale today, and I’ll be slipping out of the library as soon as I dig up a movie for the family to watch tonight. We have a big afternoon of de-cluttering planned, although it remains to be seen which family members will be willing to get rid of some of their belongings (me) and which will not (them). Wish me luck.
Remember the Scalzi/Wheaton benefit anthology, with the fan fiction contest? You may have noticed that I posted my son’s (non)entry? Of course you do. Well, I thought I would post my losing entry.
No, the winning story hasn’t been chosen. I’m just assuming.
Anyway, I dropped my son off at the day camp and have a few extra hours to myself. Of course it’s gorgeous weather out there, but I’m going to spend it on The Buried King. I doubt I’ll have something ready to send to my agent by the end of the day, but I should be able to take a big bite out of it. Especially when I turn off my modem, as I’m about to do.
Then I get to vacuum.
Anyway, here’s the story (about 800-words worth), behind the cut. Continue reading
1) Can you spot the endangered species in this photo?
2) Want your kid to do well in college? Take them out of school! via Jen Busiek.
3) A book marketing idea I’m going to steal. For Child of Fire, I’m thinking flame-proof kiddie pajamas. For Game of Cages, I’m not sure. Doggie sweaters?
4) Slate discovers BBB is worthless. The rest of America says “DUH!”
5) Last time I linked to a funny post by Josh Freidman. This time I’m linking to a post that is just as true and wrenched tears out of me. Incredibly powerful writing. Jesus.
6) And, to move from the sublime to the ridiculous: How to pay for a Death Star.
7) Science fiction writer profiled in NY Times. I hope it gets him new readers.
My family is reading the Harry Potter series right now. We’re on the second book, and we’re reading it aloud to each other.
I did not remember how funny these books are. Maybe it’s just the difference between hearing them aloud and in my head, but we have been laughing and laughing throughout. Rowling really has a feel for broad characters and light comedy.
It’s fun!