Alchemy Ink

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz May 18-24, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila / 4 Comments

A fascinating article from The Smithsonian Magazine on the microscopic structure of dried human tears.

This article on and video of the fungus cordyceps in action creeped me out. I fucking love science.

Discovery presents the top ten species of 2014.

Part of me cringed at the wanton destruction. The other part drooled a little. Book art by Brian Dettmer.

Web Urbanist presents 15 of the world’s most magical lodgings. Bucket list!

I love dogs. LOVE. So, of course, I could resist sharing these pups with gorgeous coats.

Here are two videos from a crazy Finnish magician, who figured it would be fun to make dogs’ treats disappear. It’s funny. Also a little mean. Dogs NEED their treats. Mind you, the dogs take it well. A testament to their species and a confusing commentary on ours. (I’m including myself in this indictment – I laughed.)

 

 

The Pentatonix, Love Again:

 

I just can’t get enough of their lovely harmonies 🙂

Images of Earth captured from the International Space Station. The Atlantic.

National Geographic contributing photographer Peter Essick pays homage to Ansel Adams.

Worried about using unlicensed images on your blog? Here are some alternatives to stock imagery.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has just made images of their collection and archives free to access (!) Talk about an alternative to stock imagery 🙂

________________________________________________________________________

And … this deserves a category all its own. Thanks to Jenny Hansen for this.

A hilarious guide to pooping at work:

Thoughty Thursday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz May 18-24, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila / 3 Comments

Tipsday

Roz Morris responded to a writer in a bind. The result was this post.

If you’ve read Lifeform Three, you’ll find this Roz Morris post on the inspiration of the Surrey landscape interesting. If you haven’t read the novel, you’d better get cracking!

The Geeks’ Guide to the Galaxy interviews Mary Robinette Kowal. Listen to the podcast.

Speaking of podcasts, listen to K.M. Weiland’s fourteenth instalment in the Creating Stunning Character Arcs series. Or read the post. As you wish, dear reader.

The draws and drawbacks of success as an author from The New York Times.

Jan O’Hara tells us why our characters need to make tough choices. Writer Unboxed.

And yes! Now WU has its web issues sorted, here’s Lisa Cron’s wonderful post: What kindergarten got (and still gets) really, really wrong.

Three more things you need to know about exposition and telling by Victoria A. Mixon.

Agent Carly Watters has some advice for when you start comparing yourself to other writers.

Maggie Stiefvater writes about how her characters are not based on her experiences, but they answer the questions she asks in her head.

Tech Crunch interviews Hugh Howey.

The Paris Review resurrects their interview with John Steinbeck.

Anne Lamott on how to handle the haters. Brainpickings.

Two of my favourite Neils talk about genius. More Brainpickings brilliance.

Writers’ Relief offers five techniques to help turn short stories into novels.

The Bookbaby blog presents this interesting infographic about 24 books that predicted the future.

Enjoy, my writerly peeps 🙂

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz May 4-17, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

A.K.A. Catching up on the catching up.

Just a little of the thoughty today. Far more fun.

How a bacterium was engineered to use two ‘alien’ bases, from Nature.

How an autistic boy’s love of wind chimes grew into something wonderful. Upworthy.

A Psychiatric Times article on creativity and mental illness. Interesting stuff about writers in particular.

Kevin Briggs’s TED talk on suicide.

 

Look up. Spoken word awesome by Gary Turk.

 

What you see in the mirror. A comic by The Oatmeal.

How one little letter can raise your IQ. Really?

Love these fantastic children’s rooms. In fact, I want the Narnia one!

Mary Robinette Kowal sings “Roxanne” in a puppet voice, while dressed in a Regency gown (which she made herself). Brilliant!

Another cover of Pharell’s “Happy.” A bunch of dogs and a cat frolic on the beach.

Cows like jazz. Who knew?

Carly Rae Jepson’s “Call Me Maybe” a la Star Wars. Just fun.

 

The kakapo is a rare, flightless parrot. Watch this hilarious video to find out what it did to a photographer. Plus, Stephen Fry 🙂

Enjoy, my writerly friends.

Thoughty Thursday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the Interwebz May 4-17, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila

Yes, you read that date correctly. It’s a double shot of Tipsday this week (since I missed out on last week).

A writer friend actually called me the queen of curation this past week 🙂 I think that title belongs to Elizabeth Spann Craig, but I was duly flattered, nonetheless.

Part 12 and Part 13 of K.M. Weiland’s Creating Stunning Character Arcs series.

Lisa Cron’s TEDx lecture, Wired for Story:

 

I would have posted Lisa Cron’s Writer Unboxed: What kindergarten got (and still gets) really, really wrong, but WU is having some technical difficulties right now. I’ll try to keep it in mind for next week. It’s an excellent post. Heart Lisa Cron.

A little more brain science for you here. Frank Bruni encourages kids to read, kids, read.

Anne Ursu examines the phenomenon of ‘Greenlit.’ Contemporary realism in MG and YA.

Jami Gold asks the question, when should we skip a scene in our stories? And she answers it too, clever lady.

Janice Hardy makes a case for prologues: not as evil as you think.

Victoria Mixon’s three things you should know about exposition and telling.

6 tips to modernize your prose for the 21st century reader from Anne R. Allen’s blog. This one generated a few comments. Who should be more accommodating, the writer or the reader?

Roz Morris’s tips for using Amazons keywords and categories intelligently.

Joanna Penn interviews Jane Friedman on money, writing, and life.

Publishing industry news: Pay equity and gender parity are still issues. Why Jill Abramson was fired.

Carly Watters offers 5 easy steps for formatting your next query.

Laura Pepper Wu write a guest post for Catherine Ryan Howard about 11 inspiring quotes from the world’s best writers.

10 more inspiring quotes from the Procrastiwriter.

And even more inspirational quotes from Jane Friedman:

 

George Saunders on the power of kindness, animated, from Brainpickings.

You may remember I posted the Rolling Stone interview with George R.R. Martin a couple of weeks ago. Well, here are the “outtakes.”

And, I know it’s been everywhere, but I love this clip about George R.R. Martin’s secret weapon.

See you all on Thoughty Thursday!

Tipsday

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz April 27-May 3, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila

Thoughty ThursdayThis week, a recipe for inspiration. For your consideration.

A pinch of introspection. How we know who we are. Joshua Knobe on BrainPickings.

A spoonful of introversion. 30 Problems only introverts will understand from Tickld.

A wee tipple of a comic on what to do when you’re feeling overwhelmed.

A taste of Neil Gaiman’s anti-bullying sentiments. Difference is magic.

A little edumacation on autism. What we know, and what we don’t know. Wendy Chung’s TED talk.

 

A smidgen of imagery. The 2014 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest. The Atlantic.

A fair bit of travel. Distractify’s 25 cities your should visit in your lifetime.

Too much of one place I wouldn’t want to go. The forecast calls for spiders, from I fucking love science.

Some physical activity. Walking leads to increased creativity. The American Psychological Association.

A heaping serving of mortality. I guess I was feeling a little morbid this week.

And … to make it all better, and because I love you, a sweet bit of PUPPY STAMPEDE!

Mix it all together and what do we have? You tell me, folks 😉

It’s all Writerly Goodness.

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz April 27-May 3, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila

Tipsday

As I compile this, I’m listening to “Hall of Heads” by They Might be Giants. Just to let you know where I’m at tonight 😉

Last week was a treasure trove of writerly goodies!

Publishing dish of the week: HarperCollins to buy Harlequin, from Publisher’s Weekly.

George R.R. Martin’s Rolling Stone interview.

Brent Weeks: New writing advice. This is really about process, and you know how much I lurve that stuff! Plus, he has a standing desk with a treadmill.

Mel’s note: I’ve finally placed my order for a standing desk (goodbye tax refund). I won’t have a treadmill, but it could be a future consideration. Good to know I’m in such distinguished company. Jane Friedman uses a standing desk and treadmill, too.

Elizabeth Gilbert on Success, failure, and the drive to keep creating.

 

K.M. Weiland’s back with part 11 of her creating stunning character arcs series: The second half of the second act. As with all instalments of her series, you can read the post, or listen to the podcast.

Are your plot points too weak? Also from Katie.

And here’s another, just for good measure: Why you should bully your protagonist.

Roz Morris on the long and the short of writing novels.

 

And … she shares her experiences creating My Memories of a Future Life audio books with ACX.

Then, Laura Pepper Wu interviewed Roz for The Write Life.

The root of prolific by Julianna Baggott on Writer Unboxed.

What are you doing to improve? All about continuous learning from Liz Michalski, also on Writer Unboxed.

One of my Australian writer friends, Gemma Hawdon, did a guest post for The Write Practice blog on emotional conflict.

Marcy Kennedy’s entry in the writing process blog hop.

Dialog tags of doom on Query Quagmire.

Chuck Wendig ‘splains why he speaks up about diveristy, direct from heteronormative white dude mountain.

Jim C. Hines, also on diversity and cultural appropriation. They were part of the same panel at Pikes Peak Writers’ Conference. Go figure 😉

Then Sword & Laser interviewed Mr. Hines. I met him at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference last year. Such a genuine, sweet man.

 

Kristen Lamb’s series on Flashbacks: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Felicia Day’s Vaginal Fantasy Hangout on Juliet Marillier’s Daughter of the Forest. Not only was this irresistible because DotF is one of my favourite books, but the discussion about rape scenes in fiction was also fierce. Very worthwhile.

 

Then Felicia got a tweet. This video was her response:

 

She just posted today that she watched her own video for inspiration 😉

Carly Watters offers her top 8 writing craft books. I’m proud to say I own and have read several of them 🙂

19 jokes only grammar nerds will get.

Gravitas. For the word nerd from Daily Writing Tips.

Enjoy!

Sundog snippets: Roz Morris online workshop, part the second

/ Melanie Marttila

So. In case you missed last month’s post, the @M2the5th Google Plus community has had the privilege of Roz Morris’s expertise for monthly online workshops.

Yesterday’s was entirely on Twitter as the participants requested.

Here’s the storify for your edification.

May workshop storify

Next month’s will be on Saturday, June 7, 2014, on Twitter, using the hashtag #mto5. If you want to know more about how to participate in a Tweet chat, please read this post. If you want to find out even more, please join the G+ community linked above.

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the Interwebz April 20-26, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila

Thoughty Thursday

This week is video heavy. I think it just reflects my state of mind. Make of that what you will. *sits in corner drooling*

The ideal length for everything online from Buffer.

Hootsuite’s Game of Social Thrones.

Lindsey Stirling’s new video, Shatter Me, featuring Lzzy Hale of Halestorm.

Four Cats (as in Caterpillar heavy machines) playing Jenga from Boing Boing.

Cats + water = epic fun.

The 2013 Barkley dog family Subaru commercials. Giving the goggies equal time.

Thoughy? Meh. Inspirational? Not so much. Entertaining? I sure hope so 🙂

Every once in a while, you have to succumb to the brain candy.

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz April 20-26, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

TipsdayLinking has won the day, if not the poll.

Got yourself a Franken-draft? There may be hope. Dianne K. Salerni on Writer Unboxed.

K.M. Weiland’s Creating Stunning Character Arcs series, part 10: The Midpoint.

9 tips to entice readers to your author blog from Anne R. Allen.

Everybody Arcs! How it all comes down to character. Kristen Lamb.

Carly Watters with 6 reasons you need an agent now more than ever.

12 realizations every writer must come to from 12 Most.

The Atlantic. The appeal of science fiction. A.K.A. why do people look down at the genre of Orwell and Atwood?

Is literary fiction just good marketing? The Guardian. More on the literary/genre debate.

Time. 21 women authors you should be reading.

And that’s it this week. Linking certainly makes for a shorter post!

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz April 13-19, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila / 3 Comments

Thoughty ThursdayI’m going to try something just a touch different this week. I’m not just dropping links, but hyperlinking text. Experts say readers prefer it.

Let me know what you think, will you?

What students really need to hear from Chase Mielke. Affective Living.

How social media has affected our reading habits. From the Washington Post.

Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty posted this fascinating article on the language of the minions. My interest in languages drew me in right away. LOVE.

Mindy Kaling featured on Upworthy. Backhanded compliments are so not.

Communication presented this bit of reverse psychology: 15 things highly confident people don’t do.

This post by Brenda Knowles on her introvert blog Space2Live was surprisingly controversial. At its core, it’s about the difference between being lonely, and being alone, but it sparked a small flurry of responses. Some people took exception to her association of decision-making with her masculine side and shopping with her feminine side. What do you think?

Upworthy presented Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s thoughts on marginalization in the sciences.

An amazing time-lapse video: the mountain.

Petflow.com share what a reporter discovered while filming beavers close to his house.

ViralNova’s 28 happy-making pictures.

Trending Monkey. Puppies cuddling stuffies. And get your mind out of the gutter! This is CUTE.

And that’s it for this week.

Off to watch Vikings—Rawr!