Friday Link Pack 05/15/2015

The weekend looms on the horizon. That means it’s Friday! 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! (Include a website so I can link to you as well.) Let’s get to it…

Writing:

The Daily Word Counts of 39 Famous Authors
I love seeing links like this. So often new writers get depressed about the amount of words they write vs. the fact that they actually wrote. It’s that latter than truly matters. Somedays (usually the weekends) I’m a Michael Chrichton other days I’m a Shelby Foote. That’s okay. The important thing is you’re writing. [Thanks to Claudia Bradshaw for sharing this.]

How Publishers Could Get More Of My Money (And Make Me Happy To Give It)
Old industries often move at a glacial pace when reacting to changes within a marketplace. Stephanie Leary discusses several simple ideas to make it easier to sell her books. It’s good advice. Big publishing should be listening.

Which Lost Twists Were Planned Vs. Improvised
I always find it fascinating to get an inside look in the process of any writing endeavor. This article from Vox goes into the show Lost and how the writers planned and wrote the series.

Red Litten World Cover Reveal Is Coming June 4th
Hold on to your butts. The cover for the third installment of my Bell Forging Cycle is being revealed in a few weeks. Those readers who subscribe to my newsletter will get to see it a few days before it’s posted. Make sure you sign up today →

Random:

Where The Wine Glass Came From
I was watching a movie this week and was struck by the shape of the wine glass. As an object its sort of atypical for its purpose, right? (I know the stem keeps the wine from being warmed by the hand but work with me here.) So I did some research on how the wine glass evolved and found this handy article. Some interesting info.

15 Islands Overrun by Cute Animals
I just got a new rabbit. She’s an English Lop which Kari-Lise and I have named Willa. [See a video of Willa here.] Anyway, since you might not have a new and adorable rabbit terrorizing you. I figured it’d be fun to share this article from Mental Floss of 15 places overrun with cuteness. Now you know your next vacation destination.

The Heart of Dudeness
Bro, buddy, dude, fella, pal… across America we have different terms for our friends. The Big Think assembles a map showing where these terms are most commonly used. Thankfully the PNW is listed on none of these.

F&%@ Yeah Fictional Maps
I love maps especially fictional maps, so a blog dedicated to sharing some of the best fictional maps immediately piques my interest. Some really great and quite varied work on this blog. I got a chuckle out of The Land of Clichéa.

Random Wikipedia Article of the Week:

Fnord
Fnord is a word used in newsgroup and hacker culture to indicate that someone is being ironic, humorous or surreal. Often placed at the end of a statement in brackets (fnord) to make the ironic purpose clear, it is a label that may be applied to any random or surreal sentence, coercive subtext, or anything jarringly out of context (intentionally or not).

Lovecraft Story of the Week:

The Horror at Red Hook
I hate this story. On one hand, I should love it. It’s urban. It involves a detective. But as Peter Cannon once said, “racism makes a poor premise for a horror story.”