Fonts

Jonathan Lethem, Richard Posner, and others reveal their favorite fonts.

Jonathan Lethem, author, You Don't Love Me Yet: A Novel
I dislike the temptation of making a raw draft look like it's already typeset. Before computers, I wrote three novels on a typewriter, and there can never be anything but 12-point Courier (double-spaced) forever: I write on an eternal Selectric of the mind. I can even hear the rattle of the metal ball against the sheet of paper, I swear.

Ditto. What's the point of anything else, at least when I'm generating a manuscript? Although the labels on the folders of my GTD reference files at the day job are all typeset in Trebuchet MS.

Women in Cape Books

Pretty, Fizzy Paradise: I Want More Crimson Avenger, Please!:

I also like how essentially non-gendered her concept is. Her origin story could easily be a man's or a woman's.

This brings up all sorts of questions in my mind about the tale I wrote which BYZARIUM published, especially about the secondary character. I wonder how many mistakes I made or didn't make?

"To Light..."

Editing progress on version 2.1...

3,900 / 4,900 (79.6%)

You Know That Flash Argument About Attention Span?

warrenellis.com » Burst Culture:

Bursts aren’t contentless, nor do they denote the end of Attention Span. If attention span was dead, JK Rowling wouldn’t be selling paperbacks thick enough to choke a pig, and Neal Stephenson wouldn’t be making a living off books the size of the first bedsit I lived in.

Fanfiction

Whatever: My Policy on Fanfic and Other Adaptations of My Work:

"First: I do retain and reserve all rights to my work. I'm not very squishy about that fact. Just so you know. If you play in my universe, you implicitly accept I have the right to come around, say 'mine!' and then stomp off with all your pretty toys. Yeah, I know. I'm a dick. What can I say.

Second: As long as you can deal with that first point, as far as I'm concerned, you may play in my universe(s) as long as the emphasis is on 'play.' This means that nothing you do in my universes may:

a) Generate any sort of economic benefit for you, in any form;
b) Generate any sort of economic benefit for any third party;
c) Cause me economic detriment of any sort."

Not that I ever expect anyone to ever write fanfic about anything I create. Nor have I ever written any fanfic of any kind (unless you count a DOCTOR WHO story I wrote back in the 7th grade as an assignment).

Hail, Jaws

Shark's virgin birth stuns scientists | Earth News | Earth | Telegraph

"A female hammerhead shark has given birth without the help of a male, after genetic tests revealed that its baby shark had no paternal DNA.

An international team reports that the shark's 'virgin birth' was down to an unusual method of reproduction known as 'parthenogenesis', where an egg starts to divide without being fertilised."

Mundane-SF Stuff

Mundane-SF: Encyclopedia of Life:

"Recently I got an iPod which now allows me to listen to all kinds of interesting broadcasts from around the world that were previously unaccessed. The aggregator software, the citizen journalism, the interviews with scientists who speak about what they believe in without the need to be filtered through the boring style required of scientific papers -- all of this has appeared in the last couple of years as yet another phenomenon never mentioned in an SF story before it happened. Like most aspects of the internet."

Boundaries

Enforcing Boundaries: Making Sure Others Respect Your "Right to Write"

Heros Journey : Summary of Steps

Heros Journey : Summary of Steps

Scenes

OWW for SF, F, OWW SF & Famp; H Tips and Advice: Byrne:

"...each scene should have at least three purposes: to advance the story, reveal character, and create background/setting to underpin the first two."

My New Favorite Site

Paleo-Future: A look into the future that never was

Discussions abound right now about various sorts of "-punks," steam-, cyber-, clock-, punk-, but I've had things in mind for some time that this site is bound to help me kick out of my brain and onto paper.

EDIT: Here's the Google group

Ray Bradbury

This Way

Plug-Ins

From Dar Kush

"So I'm starting to create lists of 'plug-ins,' scenes in projects that are self-contained, from 100-2500 words, that I can write in a burst of flow. In that way, I can create one 'plug in' every day, minimum, no matter where I am or what I'm doing."