Friday's Interesting Links

It's still Friday, so I made it. This has been a crazy week with a major software release as my highest priority. Everything else fell by the wayside. Not sure where the time to find links came from, but they're in my file, so I guess I did:).

Writing

A wonderful summation of the writer life. Be sure to read the linked posts as well as they are also illuminating.
http://www.deadlinedames.com/?p=1118

A Publishing Dictionary that highlights common terms and offers clear definitions.
http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/06/publishing-dictionary-expanded.html

Holly Lisle has put out a new non-fiction series on dialogue that has a lot of useful tips. Check it out here:
Holly Lisle's The Writing Craft: Dialogue and Subtext

Top 10 querying mistakes. These probably aren't all new, and some are a matter of opinion, but it's a nice summation. It hurts that I'm already violating the one on length, but sometimes the book requires. And yes, it is edited down as low as I can go, even with help :D.
http://www.wsherman.com/blog/2009/06/top-ten-querying-mistakes.html

Advice about agents from a RWA panel:
http://www.johnsonliterary.com/blog/2009/6/9/advice-for-writers-from-the-nyc-rwa-panel.html

Stephen King's suggestions on how to be a published writer. Two interesting things came out of this essay. First of all, the site where I discovered it (creative commons license so available for reprint) is not the site I'm linking below. Why? Because the background color was too dark and too little contrast with the text color so I had to highlight to read it. But the content was good enough to search out another posting. And a word of warning about essays like these: times change. In 1988, his comment about when to get an agent was spot on. Now, the waters are much more muddied. Several agents have recently commented about preferring manuscripts that have not been shopped around to publishers because then the field is wide open, and more publishers are closed to non-agented submissions than in 1988.
http://mikeshea.net/Everything_You_Need_to_Kn.html

Science

I have an odd feeling a rammed earth structure might show up in a story of mine some day. Who knew all those years spent kneeling on the beach were actually research :D.
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/090604-sandcastle

Twistable memory chips. Fascinating. We're not so far from the SF concept of monitoring people in the field so we know when the aliens have eaten them!
http://www.livescience.com/common/media/video/player.php?videoRef=LS_090603_bendable-memory

Is this science, social, or what? Not sure, but a fascinating case. Spain is making a historical artifact argument against a shipwreck recovered in international waters, claiming prior ownership. This opens a huge kettle of worms and takes the financial incentive out of both treasure hunting and archeological exploration, something that has (despite controversies) often replaced limited funding for such expeditions. Who took all the risks, both physical and financial, to recover these historical artifacts? Hmm, I guess I'm starting to come down on a side :D. Whoever you think has the claim though, for certain finds to be exempt from long-standing salvage precedents is going to shake things up for sure.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=treasure-hunter-odyssey-ordered-to-2009-06-08

Social

Why yes, I am a Trekkie. How did you guess? Oh, I can't say that until AFTER you read the link ;).
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/06/passing-the-phaser-10-tips-for-turning-your-kids-into-trekkies/