Weekend Linkee-poo needs to get back to work

Miranda Suri on what works when it comes to writing retreats.

Neil Gaiman shares his top 10 mythical characters. At least a third of them are tricksters, plus the Lilith.

"I think it is because, in fiction, if you like the person telling you the story—which is to say the voice, not the author—you generally will let them tell you a story." Ta-Nehisi Coates on the importance of voice. Some people don't understand voice, what it is and how you develop it. Think of two people. One person could tell you how to make a thousand dollars a day, but the way they tell it makes you feel like listening to nails on a chalkboard (is that an idiom that should be going away?) and at the same time wanting to go to sleep. The other person can tell you about snails crossing the sidewalk and they have you laughing and interested in what happens next. Find out how to be that second person. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Where do you get your ideas? Well, going out an living while keeping your eyes and brain open is a real easy way to develop them.

Jay Lake's advice on titling.

Lisa Chron on why the hero's journey is claptrap. When it's looked at as a formula, yep. But I disagree on some points. For instance, the whole Hero's Journey is about the change of the character, it's all about the internal of the hero, unlike what she states. But I can see her point in how the HJ is often talked about. The HJ is a metastory, not the story itself. If you use the HJ like a check list ("Hero must deny call to action… check!") then you're missing the point of both the structure and what Joseph Campbell was all about. Also, the HJ is about myth, not story. It would be like saying, "I'll use Jung's archetypes as a cookbook to create my characters." You're doing it wrong.

"Don’t you dare TELL me that crap." On showing not telling.

So, you now have an offer of representation. What now?

Okay, then you have your novel published in English. Now what? Looking at my friends careers, selling foreign publication rights is where the money is at.

Chuck Wendig demolishes the standard trolling comment lines when it comes to talking about sexism and misogyny. I've never quite understood the Real Man Woman Haters Club stupidity. Even when it was on the Little Rascals. Just always seemed to be the stupidest world view evar.

Creating a Mjölnir that really shoots lighting. Ah, geeks with soldering irons. (Grokked from Tor.com)

A military compass hidden with a dagger. I remember reading a treatise somewhere that said something like for an item with the only intent of using the point at close range, a dagger with a long blade seems to be an awful waste of steel. (Grokked from Jay Lake) The Jony Ive Redesigns Things tumblr. Hahahahaha (Pointed to by Dan)

How could you make a job of tagging all inventory with RFID tags a whole lot simpler? Well, if you weed out 70% of the stock, that'll make it easier. It'll also save employee time and pay, not to mention all those expensive, pesky stickers you would have needed to use up. Just wow. (Grokked from Elizabeth Stack)

Signal boost (oh what little I have). Get your novel professionally critiqued by Saladin Ahmed.

In Ann Arbor (waves at friends there) they have a subculture of tiny doors. (Grokked from Tor.com)

The return of the cougar. Here in NE Ohio are seeing an increase in bear sightings. And while they still remain invisible to the general public, bob cats have also returned (coming in in the DNA sweeps mentioned in the links and by wildlife management cameras). (Grokked from Jay Lake)

"(Sgt Jerome Moran, based at Solihull police station) told (a john that called Britain's version of 911 to complain about a prostitute's looks) that she'd not committed any offences and that it was his actions, in soliciting for sex, that were in fact illegal." Ah, it's good to know it isn't only Americans who call 911 services for totally insane purposes. (Pointed to by Dan)

The monsters in your (well, the hospital's) sink. Lately I've been seeing a lot of stories like this where researchers gather up a whole soulful of DNA and then sift through the data to identify what species are in the area. This works for both micro and macro fauna. "Perhaps the most striking thing about (TM6) is the fact that fully 43 percent of the genes appear to encode proteins that we've never seen before. Typically, due to a combination of common descent and gene transfer, many of the genes in new species are familiar. This one is so far out, most of them don't look like anything we know about. Which, of course, makes it hard to predict what they might do." And doesn't that just make you all comfy and cosy. The word you're thinking of is "nosocomial". (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Rent-a-drone.

If you are not around people who will look at you like you are crazy when you make stupid claims about other people's experiences, then you tend to keep saying stupid things about other people's experiences." If you want to stop being known as stupid, the best path is to stop being stupid about things. (Grokked from Jay Lake)