WWWednesday: September 12, 2018

Cummudge is “cosy and comfortable” according to Haggard Hawks. Definitely adding that one to my everyday vocabulary!

Books and Writing:

Tor.com is looking for bloggers. They pay by the article.

LitHub profiles the author of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.

“In the history of epic fantasy, following this analogy and paradigm, there has always been a voice in a minor key, a strain of fantasy with antiheroes, shades of dark grey and darkness, worlds where hope and optimism are not valued or are even punished. Violence is the name of the game, dystopic amorality the norm and the worlds are often the successor states or the ruins of another, brighter time.” Finally! A definition of grimdark! And an interesting discussion. (H/T to File 770.)

Comedians talk about jokes they’re embarrassed by now. Much of the conversations focus on two things; evolving with the times, and distinguishing a joke not because it might have been “politically incorrect,” but because it was lazy, going for an easy laugh rather than an authentic insight. Sounds like a writing comment.

Locus reports that Space and Time Magazine is closing. I’m embarrassed; I’d assumed they had closed years ago.

A peregrinating bookstore? And why not? Rita Collins named her mobile bookstore “St. Ritas’s” after the patoon saint of the impossible.

Janet Clark, a Scottish grandmother, cracks herself up reading The Wonky Donkey to her infant grandson. I’ll admit that 90% of the charm comes from her Scottish accent.

TV and Movies:

Entertainment Weekly looks at Sean Penn’s character-driven space opera The First, and gives it a B-.

Here’s the Doctor Who trailer. The show is scheduled for October 7^th on BBC America.

This article looks at box office winners and losers not merely by title but by category.

IO9 reviews this interesting-looking independent SF film.

Internet:

Thanks (again) to File 770 for this Weird Food item; clam-flavored candy canes, and Mac-‘n-cheese flavored ones, just in time for the winter holidays. Yum.

Kris Kathryn Rusch provides a cautionary tale for all self-employed people who have a website as part of their business.

Elon Musk is having a bad year. Smoking pot on camera (legal in the state where he did it; still illegal federally) isn’t even in his top five problems.

A University of Rochester associate professor used data to prove that, in the Star Wars fandom at least, females receive more (and more vicious) tweets than males. That’s amazing. Not that she can prove it, but that we have to keep saying it, and saying it and saying it. (The professor chose Star Wars because of the Kelly Marie Tran incident.)

Space:

The Keppler space telescope has had its share of issue and will soon be out of fuel, but currently it is keepin’ on keepin’ on.

Earth:

Did you know that Disney created a town? No, I don’t mean Main Street at the theme parks. I mean an actual town in Florida. The corporation did, and it’s called Celebration.

How about a nice dress made from pineapple-leaf fiber? This article introduces a Filipino fabric that has been coveted by European royalty as well as many others. It looks beautiful, and it’s a lot of hard, slow work to make.

Scientists exploring the Atacama Trench may have identified three new species of snailfish.