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Friday Link Pack 12/13/13

The First Track of Footprints, 1960 Chao Mei (晁楣), b. 1931, Heze, Shandong
The First Track of Footprints,1960 — Chao Mei (晁楣)

It’s time to share a few interesting links I have found throughout the week. Some of these I mention on Twitter, if you’re not already following me there, please do! Have any suggestions, let me know.

Writing:

SIGNED copies of The Stars Were Right are now available!
Check it out at my new store: store.kmalexander.com – also there is still have time to enter the Goodread’s Book Giveaway and win a copy! It’s also available on Amazon as well… while it will arrive faster (and be slightly cheaper) it won’t be signed.

Dr. Seuss’ lesser know The Seven Lady Godivas
This look at an early Seuss book follows the story of seven nudist sisters who swore to postpone their marriage when their father died from being thrown off a horse.

Ten More Gifts for Writers (2013 Edition)
Chuck Wendig suggests ten items to get for the writer on your gift list. There is some good stuff on here. I have more than half the stuff on this list and I use ’em all daily.

Art:

Kari-Lise Alexander featured on Google’s Open Gallery
This week Google launched their Open Gallery, and my wife Kari-Lise was one of the artists featured for the launch. The site is cool allowing you to flip around and zoom up really really close. It’s the next best thing to actually being in front of an original.

The Revolving Moon: 25 Prints from China
50 Watts posts a collection of 25 prints collected between 1950 and 2006. Quite beautiful work. What’s your favorite?

E21 Washington Topo
Designer Erik Hedberg‘s abstract take on the topography of the state of Washington. It’s a limited run and only 30 are available. Make sure you check out the making of video.

Random:

Do “Digital Natives” Exist?
PBS Idea Channel explores the concept of “Digital Natives” and “Digital Immigrants“.

There is a tunnel-boring machine currently stuck below Seattle
Just sayin’.

Puddles—the sad clown with the golden voice—covers “Another Tear Falls”
…and, like his cover of Lorde’s “Royals“, it’s fantastic.

Lovecraft Story of the Week:

The Terrible Old Man
“He is, in truth, a very strange person, believed to have been a captain of East India clipper ships in his day; so old that no one can remember when he was young, and so taciturn that few know his real name.”

Farewell Gif(s) of the Week:

'Fake' sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela memorial provokes anger

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Friday Link Pack

The Innsmouth Look by Kari-Lise Alexander
It’s time to share a few interesting links I have found throughout the week. Some of these I mention on Twitter, if you’re not already following me there, please do! I’m always looking for new links if you have any suggestions, let me know.

Writing:

A bookstore inside a gothic cathedral
Only in the Netherlands.

Analysis of ISBN numbers shows self-publishing jumped 59% last year
Some interesting data from ISBN marketplace Bowkers surrounding the ever growing marketplace of indie publishing. Almost 60% is an enormous leap forward.

Art:

“The Innsmouth Look” by Kari-Lise Alexander
I am loving this new piece my wife is finishing up for a group show. (Also shown cropped up above.) It’s an elegant take on Lovecraft’s fishy Innsmouth residents and the “peaked diadem” described in the story.

The Sultan’s Elephant
This is incredible. It’s part installation and part performance art involving a huge moving mechanical elephant, a giant marionette of a girl and other art installations. You can see a video of The Sultan’s Elephant in action here.

Submarine in Milan
Speaking of installation art…this submarine “surfacing” in the streets of Milan is equally cool. I don’t even care if it is for an ad campaign. Bonus points if they repeat this in Venice.

Random:

Russian Insults (NSFW)
I’d be a moodeela if I didn’t share this with you all. Some of the characters in “Deep” are Russian, so I was happy when I found this list of Russian language curses and insults. I wonder about the accuracy. If anyone is a native Russian speaker and can confirm…let me know.

Migaloo the Albino Humpback Whale
“What the white whale was to Ahab, has been hinted; what, at times, he was to me, as yet remains unsaid.” —Herman Melville, Moby Dick
Migaloo also has his own website over here.

Lovecraft Story of the Week:

The Shadow Over Innsmouth
Since I mentioned Kari-Lise’s current work in progress why not feature my favorite of Lovecraft’s stories. The Shadow Over Innsmouth includes some of Lovecraft’s best: a lurking evil, a strange esoteric cult, a surly New England drunk, a cool chase scene, and a lot of observations on architecture.

Farewell Gif(s) of the Week:

What if we're all actually mastodons?

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A Stars Were Right Christmas

The Stars Were Right Cast

My wife is awesome. How awesome? Well this awesome: for Christmas this year she commissioned one of my best friends and beta reader – comic book artist Josh Montreuil – to draw the characters from my latest manuscript, “The Stars Were Right!”

He out did himself. The result is the amazing image you see above. (Click to embiggen.)  The characters are (left to right) : Protagonist Waldo “Wal” Bell, Detective Carl Bouchard, Priestess Samantha Dubois, her brother Hagen Dubois, Peter Black, Zilla, Wensem dal Ibble, and his son Waldo dal Wensem.

It’s incredible, and the first time I have ever had anyone render a creation of mine. As writer it’s amazing to see how people interpret these characters and just gets me that much more excited to keep working with them.

There’s a few details I really liked:

  • Wal’s tattoos – wagon wheels on each forearm- are a lot more stylized than I had pictured in my head.
  • Wensem dal Ibble has kind of a Solomon Grundy look to him which is good as I sorta leave his race up to a lot of interpretation.
  • I also really like the casualness of Samantha’s robes. She’s more of a professor than a priest. So it makes a lot of sense.
  • There is also the entire construction of Lovat (the multilevel city Stars is set in) in the background and the crowded nature Josh brings to it that I really love.
  • He nailed the look of Bouchard, the determined gruff cop a little worse for ware but determined to get his man.

There’s really not enough adjectives to describe how much this piece touches me and if anything it lit a fire under me to get The Stars Were Right out there for public consumption.

Here’s hoping for some big news in 2013.

…and thanks Kari-Lise, and thanks Josh, truly. You couldn’t have given me a better gift.