Skipping around in the requests some this week. Mainly because burger_eater requested "A riverboat gambler who is somewhere other than a riverboat." ...dude, GREATEST PROMPT EVER. Well, my friend, I'm a riverboat gambler. And at gambling I sure ain't subpar. No stranger to winnin', my pockets were brimmin'. I had cheap women, cheaper cigars. Then one day I met her -- I'll never forget...

Courtesy of burger_eater  , is a link to an article on how Raiders of the Lost Ark resulted from brainstorming, tinkering, and fiddling, shaping the whole top down, but pinned to pluggable cool bits . This is more or less how I write, but with only myself to brainstorm with... oh and cairmen  , from time to time. There's more to say in defence of outlining as an artistic mode of creation...

via burger_eater , I give you a brilliant new romance novel: KNIGHT MOVES, by Jessica Layne . Wow. I mean, WOW. I have Actual Romance Novelists on my flist, so I feel obliged to just tell you guys: now that Jessica Layne has broken onto the scene to offer you competition... YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. “Everything you see and feel is real, milady,” my knight says, caressing...

Here are the author bios I have so far. Please check to see if yours is here, and if so, if you want to amend the wording. *********** ( anywherebeyond A screenwriter and author, Saundra Mitchell has penned over 300 short films for Fresh Films and Girls in the Director's Chair. Her short story "Ready to Wear" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her debut novel "Shadowed Summer" was...

Via burger_eater  :

- From the Typewriter To The Bookstore: A Publishing Story" (YouTube video, via burger_eater ). Very funny. So *that's* how it works! - Robert Sawyer's Notes for the Copyeditor . How a pro does it. I guess he gives it to all eighteen copywriters (see above video). - 100 Cereal Box Covers (at 'from the aeron', via jay_lake ). I have eaten much cereal from many of those boxes....

Apparently i need to be more interesting if so many people are only commenting once, if at all. Total comments: 1842 1 onyxhawke 458 2 Anonymous 72 3 archangelbeth 57 4 sartorias 44 5 amandatkd 44 6 mrmeval 41 7 melissajm 40 8 robert_gage 39 9 cordova829...

Charles Stross apparently started an interesting meme in an f-locked post, taken up by jaylake ( here ) and burger_eater ( here ). The idea is for interested pro-writers to answer the questions concisely, giving the reader a quick timeline of their career. "If I were a professional writer," I thought, "I would do that, even though--" I interrupted myself to point out, "You are now...

I have a Husqvarna riding mower. You hay be more familiar with their chain saws. It's an Okay machine for grass. It Mulches leaves pretty well. But maybe Sweden doesn't have deciduous trees? They put the muffler between the front wheels ahead of the axle! Bulldozed some leaves ahead of the machine, and I started smelling smoke. It began to billow up from the front of the mower. When I backed out...