Interesting Links

As some of you already know, I back my files up nightly. Now before you suspect a huge calamity, I didn't lose anything exactly, but I thought I'd give you another example of the benefit to sending a Zip file to your Gmail account each night. I'm on the road. I thought I put my latest version of the interesting links file on my laptop mini, but I'd copied an older (and empty) file. So I just downloaded my last incremental backup and found that I'd made additions to the interesting links (because otherwise I would have had to move back a day to find it). Otherwise, you would have been out an interesting links for this week since I'm not at home. And I learned something else...I need to add a copy of the contents doc too because downloading and opening each one in hopes of finding a specific doc is a pain :).

Reading

An interesting follow up on the cover controversy I mentioned last week, with some more reactions from a broader audience and a fascinating comment from within the publisher's ranks.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6672790.html

An insightful look at the impact of Amazon's influence on the online book marketplace. Some things to think about.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ulin28-2009jul28,0,6189272.story

Writing

Lucienne Diver breaks down query letter do's and don'ts.
http://varkat.livejournal.com/21728.html

An excellent breakdown of the lessons fairytales offer to writers:
http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/2009/07/what-fairy-tales-have-taught-me-about.html

Grammar humor. Gotta love it.
http://www.terrencepost.net/images/postcard.jpg

And now vocabulary. I had to include this one if for nothing else but the Princess Bride reference. However, I only quibbled about one (I think) of his "absolutes," and overall the advice is solid.
http://www.copyblogger.com/commonly-misused-words/

When I started out, I was determined to be a science fiction writer/reader. I've mentioned on my blog before why that is, but also that fantasy as a genre has matured into something that captures my interest and even my heart. So when I see something like this, discrimination for the sake of making other people feel small, I just want to scream. But she said it much better than I would:
http://yuki-onna.livejournal.com/509086.html

Promotion

Tips on what to include on your author website
http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2009/07/guest-blog-week-top-7-things-every.html

Tips on how to promote a novel
http://shamelesspromoter.blogspot.com/2009/07/top-10-tips-to-help-authors.html

Science

And hope for a little yellow dog named Pluto. Umm, that would be a distant solar object of the same name ;).
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327181.600-is-pluto-a-planet-after-all.html

Algae as the newest source of crude oil?
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327186.000-craig-venter-programming-algae-to-pump-out-oil.html

New information on how the "hands" that stir the pot of the ocean.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327194.700-ocean-swimmers-stir-the-seas.html