Linkee-poo is forever in debt to your priceless advice

Bid on having tea with Neil Gaiman. Also supports The Moth. Because you know you wanna. Open until Friday (if I've done my maths correctly).

Elizabeth Bear has some good things to say about characters.

For your world building edification, the turnspit dog.

Also for your world building, "The military may soon be deploying air-mobile hotspots so that troops operating in remote locations can communicate with support units."

The secret libraries of NYC. Many cities have smaller and/or private libraries, many run by various societies. Your local gardening club probably runs one. (Grokked from Tor.com)

A simulation of neutron stars colliding to form a black hole. (Grokked from Mary Robinette Kowal)

Hero cat saves boy from attacking dog. Our eldest cat once stared down a dog that was barking at her. (Grokked from Tobias Buckell)

Can you have plot without conflict? Well, yes. While the article mostly talks about Japanese Kishōtenketsu, Europe also has plot structures that don't require conflict. It's just that in the modern world, they don't get much play time. Also, while I agree that we should have more variety of story, as a beginning writer I would be wary of it. Sure, go and experiment, but unless you pen the master piece that changes the cultural paradigm, it's probably not going to be published as editors continue to look for conflict. Ouroboros bites its tail. (Grokked from Tor.com)

So, boy meets girl, girl breaks up with boy, boy broods for a year, boy attempts to reconnect, girl wants nothing to do with him, boy insists, girl says "go away", boy doesn't get it, girl threatens legal action. Same old story. Except this boy then writes a piece about how he's the victim and why won't she just talk to me. Uh, no. Look, I get it, breaking up is hard. I've been there, have the scars to prove it. Also, I've been a dick during a breakup. Yea, one of those moments when I woke up and said, "I don't wanna be THAT guy anymore." Wake up here is figurative and emotional. Dude, don't be that guy. (For the record, yes I've talked to that ex since then and apologized for said dickishness, she initiated contact - one more person I need to do that with, no, I'm not hunting for them because that would be dickishness on top of dickishness). (Grokked from John Scalzi)

The Konami Code. If you're a video gamer, you know what I'm talking about. (Grokked from Tor.com)

In case you may be wondering why the FAA is slow walking drone regulations this story of a commercial airliner almost hitting an illegally flown drone might help explain that.

Tweet of my heart: @ChuckWendig The thing about writing 'rules' is not to say, "This is forbidden" but rather, "This is hard to do well."