We’re back baby! It’s time to share a few links I’ve found over the last few days. Some of these I mention on Twitter, if you’re not already following me there, please do! Have a link I should feature in the upcoming link pack? Click here to email me and let me know! All right, let’s get to it.

Writing:

10 Reasons Why Your Hero Needs Flaws
Good advice from Angela Ackerman regarding the writing of flawed heroes. No one likes a Mary/Gary Sue. Scuff ’em up.

Cognition as Ideology: A Dialectic of SF Theory
A few weeks ago I tweeted about this incredible talk from China Miéville regarding the importance of fantasy. I highly recommend it to anyone who reads or writes speculative fiction.

Ayn Rand Reviews Children’s Movies
Wasn’t sure where to put this, but writing seems like as good of place as any. It’s hilarious and in line with Rand’s crazy beliefs.

Ignore The Market. Tell The Story You Want To Tell.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of comparing yourself to others. It doesn’t matter if you’re traditionally published or an indie author. The good news is there’s an easy way to avoid this trap…

Art:

A Thousand Souls
I absolutely love this series of portraits by photographer Maciek Jasik. The colors and the subjects, the spot focus, everything. Haunting.

Bay Area By Air
Beautiful video of San Francisco and its surroundings shot by drone. Well, except for that whole Niner’s stadium bit. ;-)

Star Wars Concept Art
The original concept art for the original trilogy. I really dig some of the city shots. Coruscant and Cloud City in particular.

Random:

20 Maps That Never Happened
From war plans for the invasion of Canada to the fifty states redrawn with equal populations Vox explores twenty imaginary maps. You know, I’d be cool living in the states of Rainer.

A Secret Ballroom Built In The 1800s Lies Under A Lake, Guarded By Neptune
Amazing, if I was a wealthy and infamous swindler I’d totally do stuff like this… annnd now I have about a thousand new ideas for a story. (Thanks to Kevin for sharing this.)

The First True Color Photo Of Earth
Did you know most of the images we associate of our planet has been enhanced? Until recently we didn’t have a true color photo of earth. It’s a lot darker than you’d expect.

Lovecraft Story of the Week:

The Beast In The Cave
A man comes across a bizarre creature while exploring Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. A quick read, or… you can check out Jason Thompson’s comic about The Beast in the Cave.

Gif of the Week:

It's like this ya'll