This is for anyone who has ever doubted that there is magic in the world…
Amazing.
Posts Tagged ‘inspiration’
Magic
Posted in Likes, tagged awesome, Canada, Cape Breton, inspiration, lighthouses, Motivation, Nova Scotia, smile!, space, Thoughts, yay on March 18, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Sir Terry Pratchett, RIP
Posted in Writing, tagged artists, arts, creativity, death, Discworld, Fiction, genre fiction, inspiration, neil gaiman, persistence, RIP, speculative fiction, Terry Pratchett, Writers, writing on March 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld series, dies aged 66
The Guardian reports that Sir Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld series and many other books, has died at home “with his cat sleeping on his bed” and surrounded by family. His intellect, creative abilities and incisive sense of humor will be sorely missed.
I think I’ll read Good Omens next, to remind myself of Pratchett’s genius, the power of writing (and humor in the face of the apocalypse), and the pearls we can leave behind if we’re willing to keep pushing ahead.
Addendum: A lot of nice tributes are going up online but I thought I’d direct you to one in particular, Jo Walton’s “Reminiscence” at the Tor.com blog. She says it well: “The writing will live on. Death sucks.”
From Annihilation to Acceptance
Posted in Writing, tagged artists, books, creativity, Fiction, finishing, genre fiction, inspiration, Jeff VanderMeer, persistence, publishing, science fiction, sff, speculative fiction, work, Writers, writing on January 29, 2015| Leave a Comment »
This week there’s a fascinating piece in The Atlantic by Jeff VanderMeer, author and editor, on the experience of writing:
From Annihilation to Acceptance: A Writer’s Surreal Journey: The author agreed to publish three novels in one year—and then things got weird.
In it, the author details the terrors, trials and triumphs that went into the making of his latest series. Annihilation, Authority and Acceptance make up the Southern Reach trilogy, about “a dysfunctional secret agency called Southern Reach and its efforts to solve the mysteries behind Area X, a strange pristine wilderness.”
I’ve had this series on my books to read list and now plan to bump them up to the top. For more on the books, including sample chapters and links to retailers, or on the author, check out the links above.
Writers, If You Are Feeling Old…
Posted in Writing, tagged artists, creativity, Fiction, inspiration, j k rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, literature, Nora Roberts, persistence, publishing, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing on January 26, 2015| 1 Comment »
Here’s an encouraging article for writers via HuffPost:
New Authors, Fret Not. Most Successful Authors Made Their Mark After 30
The headline sums it up but if this topic interests you it’s worth checking out the attached infographic. It allows you to highlight author age at first published book, at their “breakthrough” book, and also shows a nice timeline of the number of books published before and after death. J.R.R. Tolkien was 46 when The Hobbit was published (also, Nora Roberts is a publishing machine, and I mean that in the best possible way).
So fret not, and keep at it. Because writing well is a skill, and skills take time.
Vacation on Beautiful Kepler-16b!
Posted in Likes, Science!, tagged awesome, inspiration, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Johannes Kepler, JPL, Kepler Space Telescope, Kepler-16b, NASA, PlanetQuest, quotes, science, vacation, WPA on January 16, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Considering a weekend getaway? Check out travel posters for these new destinations, courtesy of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Kepler Space Telescope.
NASA made travel posters for real exoplanets, and they’re superb
I love the WPA-style presentation and terrific design sense. Want high-resolution versions to call your own? Check out the linked images in the engadget article or go to the NASA PlanetQuest Exoplanet Travel Series and click away.
Kepler-16b, here I come! (Now, where did I put my spacesuit?)
… the ways by which men arrive at knowledge of the celestial things are hardly less wonderful than the nature of these things themselves.
— Johannes Kepler
Cleese on Creativity
Posted in Writing, tagged artists, boundaries, creativity, David Farland, Fiction, inspiration, John Cleese, Monty Python, persistence, that pesky muse, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing on January 13, 2015| 1 Comment »
There are a lot of books, essays, posts and (no doubt) scratchings on cave walls discussing ways to be more creative. One of the most useful and compact versions I’ve found so far is a talk (via David Farland) by John Cleese, Monty Python funny man and deep thinker on this and other topics.
The video is only ten minutes long but does a terrific job of summarizing the essential requirements one needs to be creative. You don’t have to quit your day job or win a year-long fellowship or even trap your very own Muse. It’s simple really, and not what one might guess when thinking about the problem. We don’t need “more,” we need less. We need boundaries. Specifically, boundaries of time and boundaries of space.
If you’d like to hear Cleese in a longer discussion on the topic, check out his speech from 1991 as well.
Enjoy!
Happy Holidays, and Some Reflections on Writing
Posted in Holidays, Writing, tagged artists, creativity, Fiction, inspiration, literature, persistence, The Atlantic, Thoughts, Writers, writing on December 25, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all. If you have time between the presents and the eggnog and family celebrations, consider spending a few moments with The Atlantic’s series on writers, writing and the creative process, “By Heart.” I spotlighted the By Heart interview with William Gibson a few weeks ago, but there are dozens of other perspectives on creativity here as well.
…we live so many lives, contain so much experience, that even the people who know us best don’t know.
Featured artists start with a favorite line from literature and go from there, discussing how that line shaped them, sharing practical advice on getting started, revision, productivity, genre fiction and more. Joe Fassler has a nice summary column called “How to Write: A Year in Advice from David Mitchell, Yiyun Li, and More” with highlights from the past year; the full series lives here.
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