Posts
Writing
Breakdown of a real royalty statements by Lynn Viehl, and followup comments by Jenny Rae Rappaport (not Viehl's agent):
http://www.genreality.net/the-reality-of-a-times-bestseller
http://litsoup.blogspot.com/2009/04/royalty-statement-anatomy.html
Deciding when a glorp really is a chicken in disguise is difficult, but this laugh makes it worth it.
http://xkcd.com/483/
A good breakdown of how to add meat to a novel without padding:
http://e-moon60.livejournal.com/169460.html
A dictionary of publishing terms that might prove helpful. Tongue in cheek, but meaning is there:
http://editorialanonymous.blogspot.com/search/label/publishing%20dictionary
An interesting, and workable, answer to the question of how long to query a book. It does leave folks like me who wrote many before they focused on editing and subbing out in the cold, but with a little tweaking the lesson holds.
http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-long-to-query.html
A clear answer to the "money or love" question for writers...it must be for love:
http://www.brendahiatt.com/id2.html
And odd to be calling out a link to...well...me, but I posted this article on my writing blog and it's thought provoking so belongs here:
http://marfisk.livejournal.com/41141.html
Reading
This article just scares me. It's about how Kindle and the like will change how we read and write. If the author is correct, storytelling may be dead for the future, and that hurts:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123980920727621353.html
Publishers reach out to bloggers (Though it's interesting, I think the article fails to account for Early Reader programs like EOS who made the transition from returned reviews to returned and posted a while back):
http://followthereader.wordpress.com/2009/04/23/publisher-outreach-to-bloggers-new-models/
Science
The road to Jurrasic Park is a slippy one...that we've apparently started down. But still fascinating:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29537188/
Video of the archeologist who believes he has found Mark Antony and Cleopatra's tomb:
http://www.sciam.com/video.cfm?id=20168976001
Has grammar gone to the dogs? Looking at how the brain forms sentences:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=memory-for-grammar
Pickled baby mammoth:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2009-04-20-baby-mammoth_N.htm?csp=DailyBriefing
Could cooking, not fire, be the root of human evolution?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/science/21conv.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
And you thought all that coffee was only good for waking you up. Scientists find answers to the universe in a coffee cup:
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/090416_coffee
Social
Funny 50s video about Facebook ettiquite:
http://theharperstudio.com/2009/04/facebook-manners-and-you/
Twitter may bring communication to physically paralyzed people with active brains:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/22/twitter.locked.in/index.html
Okay, social may be stretching it for this one, but it's the social folks who keep asking so... For those of you who'd prefer to choose your own colors and maybe use a heavier fleece, here is a relatively simple pattern to make a Snuglet (as they call it) blanket with arms. I made one for a friend, doing two for my family first as test versions. My oldest son lives in his, my husband watches TV with his, and when the days turned cold again, I finally got my own made and I have used it both on the couch and at the computer. My friend's cats even take advantage of hers.
http://www.sissonfamily.com/Sewingroom/images/2006projects/thesnuglet.pdf
2 comments:
The one about the Kindle - part of it's true, definitely. I read paper books and I read on my Palm, and they're totally different. I read 1-4 books a day in paper. I've been reading Lord Darcy (admittedly a large book - but still it would be a one-day, maybe 2-day book in paper) for...um, two months now. I read it when I get a minute, and occasionally sit down and read a chunk (it's a bunch of short stories and short novels in an omnibus). But I'm a heck of a lot more distractable when I'm reading electronically.
As to the other - the 'every page is linked' bit - I think it highly unlikely, even in the medium-term future, to seriously change the way books are viewed. Long-term I'm not venturing even a guess. But while _finding_ books would be a lot easier with all the text searchable (especially finding "that book about...you know, when he said..."), there are very few book quotes that are as much fun in isolation as in context.
"Some people give their wives flowers." That makes me laugh every time I think of it - but that's because I know the context of the story (it's from Plan B, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Great book). In isolation, it's - boring, a trifle nasty-sounding (tone of voice doesn't carry in text), definitely not something to catch the attention and make you want to read the book. Sharing bits, yes, possibly. But not without reading the books first, in my opinion.
BTW - these links are great. You do find interesting stuff!
Glad you think so. It's been a challenge to actually read everything I open (I can't tell you how many tbr folders I have. I start a new one when it gets too intimidating), so I thought posting those links might make me more...motivated.
BTW, the way you read ebooks is how I read books. I like ones with short scenes or chapters especially because I hate leaving something mid chapter, though I've had to before and survived. I can't remember the last time I just sat down and read a book.
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