Two quick writing links

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First, I’m sure Nick Mamatas will mock this article as soon as he hears about it. I haven’t finished it yet (I’m at work) but so far it looks interesting.

This Letter to an MFA is a very interesting little treatise on creating a story. It’s short, too. Check it out.

Both links above are from here. You’re welcome.

And, because I know you’re all dying to know, I received my notes on the book three proposal today. They’re good, too, and not at all what I was expecting. I can’t respond to them here, though, so I have a lot to do tonight.

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I was planning to write a post about the fast, and about what I learned about myself in that day and a half, but I suddenly don’t care and think it would be crazy boring.

Instead, check out CC Finlay’s new novel! His new novel comes out in April, but you can download the whole thing right here as a .pdf. It’s historical fantasy, set during the American Revolution.

You know you want to read it. Check it out.

Side effects of reading this post may include: dismay, fury, or despair

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Ugh. I was going to collect a couple of links to post together, but this one is so ugly that I’m going to let it stand on its own.

Anyway, I’m not sure how I missed this story about a ten-year-old Yemeni girl who filed for divorce from her abusive husband. One thing that stood out for me in this story, aside from the genuine awfullness of human animals, was that the girl wanted to cut her trip to Paris short so she could go back to school. At first, I thought it was sad that she was going to miss out on seeing more of the city, but then I read the last sentence in the article and I thought “Oh, fuck, I’d want to get away from those assholes, too.”

We learn more from failure than success

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That ten-day fast I was on? It turned out to be a one and a half day fast. Excuse-making, rationalizations and other specious pseudo-arguments will be made later. Meanwhile… Look! People who are crazy about cats!

For all you MST3K fans out there…

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And fans of Rifftrax, too, might want to bow your heads for a moment of silence.

Show favorite Mike Nelson has decided to end his life, a rasher at a time.

Oh, and if anyone plays the game I mentioned in my earlier post, lemme know what you think. Okay?

Dial up users need not apply

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Superbowl=fun. However, in two weeks I’ll have forgotten about the game and won’t be able to tell you who played. I’ll still be able to tell you about the fresh lemon/limeade we enjoyed, burning out my decade-old juicer in the making. Those are my priorities and I’m sticking with them.

Now that that is done with, let me offer something fun to take the place of all those football games you barely cared about:

It’s 1754, Covent Gardens, London. John Fielding has just hired you as his newest Bow Street Runner–in a city filled with crime of every sort, Fielding and his now-deceased brother Henry are trying to form a police force of sorts. It’s a dangerous job, and no one believes it’ll work, but if you can solve crimes and bring criminals to justice, you just might institute a new social order.

Such is the setup for Bow Street Runner, a free online flash game created as a companion to the TV series City of Vice. And where most flash games are goofy animation of one sort or another, this is a live-action mystery game, with real actors and excellent costuming. Hell, they even have professional lighting.

You, as the newest runner, are given a murder to solve. Is it a simple robbery or is it something more? You click around the screen to find clues, interview bystanders and defeat simple puzzles (mainly by clicking a tracing shapes on screen to represent feats of dexterity like picking locks or pockets).

It’s not perfect. You can’t leave a scene until you’ve collected all the necessary evidence, and the game environment is so rich that it can take a while to load (note the subject header of this post). It’s tremendously fun, though, even if it is a little grim ‘n’ gritty. If you get stuck, though, you can find a walkthrough here.

Really, this is impressive in many different ways.

Caution: not kid-safe. If you want kid-safe, play Aether, which is beautiful and fun.

And now I’m off to stimulate the economy. Also, still waiting to get notes about my proposal.

There’s still time!

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Superbowl Sunday is tomorrow, but there’s still time to make this epic snack!

The picture has to be seen to be believed.

Writing and my everyday life

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First, a link: Donald Maas’s The Career Novelist is now available as a free download. I’ve only skimmed it so far, but it looks pretty interesting, despite being from 1996.

Second, my editor asked me to hold off working on Man Bites World until we can straighten out the proposal. She has some concerns with it. Which is fair and, you know, that’s why she reads the proposal. She wants to make sure that the fantasy thriller I’m supposed to write isn’t going to be a daring homage to my two favorite movies, PORKY’S 2 and THE BICYCLE THIEF.*

But I worked on it anyway. It was just a few hundred words, but I couldn’t leave it alone.

And, because I’m not trying to meet a daily or weekly goal at the moment, I took some time to finish the book I’m reading. After three or four false starts, I dug into Murder Among Children by Tucker Coe (a pseudonym for Donald Westlake). It’s a mystery novel written in the mid-sixties, with all the racial and gender issues that implies, but the writing was appealingly bleak and the protagonist engaging. I’m tempted to dig up the rest of the books (I know there are only five, with a personal closure of sorts) to see if and how he deals with his personal demons.

And now I have to sign off, do some research here at the library (my wife found some green mold growing on the wall behind a piece of furniture, and I need to research the best way to deal with it. Seattle, you annoy me.) and then hit a couple of stores. I need to buy a couple of things for the Superbowl/Puppybowl party my son and I will have tomorrow, but not so much that I leave a bunch of food lying around the place.

See, on the Monday after the game, my wife and I will be doing a fast. It’s not one of those crazy lemon juice and cayenne fasts I used to do (she hates those); it’s this thing with specific foods you’re supposed to eat and so on. Anyway, I don’t do these to lose weight (although that happens). I do them because it’s a stark way to look at the way I eat and my emotional connections to food. The first fast I ever did was a revelation, and I’m curious to see what insights I’ll get this time.

I plan to write about it over the next week and a half, though, so be ready to skim if that sort of thing doesn’t interest you.

Off to the reference shelves. Hope you guys are having a nice day.

* Quick note: I haven’t actually seen either of these movies.

Four things

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A routine traffic stop in Florida turned up a man who faked his own death in 1989. He isn’t being charged with a crime and claims to have abandoned a fiancee and a child twenty years ago because he has grown paranoid about his “narcotics-related activity.”

Two men in New Zealand, after being convicted and sentenced, were being taken to jail when they made a break for it. Handcuffed together, the men fled across a parking lot, only stopping when the men tried to run on opposite sides of a light pole.

There’s video at that site.

The men had been pepper sprayed in their escape attempt, so I’m guessing they were running blind.

And, watching SUPERNATURAL, I realize I have no interest in seeing Sam and Dean’s high school years.

Finally, I just listened to Michael Pollan talk about healthy food and healthy eating. Interesting stuff, and not the usual “low carb/low fat” dumbosity.

“Bullets… My one weakness!”

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Chris Sims writes The Internet Writes Batman.