It must still be Friday because I haven’t been to sleep yet, right? World Fantasy is a wonderful experience, with interesting panels, enjoyable readings, and fascinating people to talk to (including a discussion on overuse of adjectives ;)). Anyway, I haven’t had much time to read email, even less time to read online materials, so the showings are a little sparse, but I think some are worth it.

Science

You don’t have to be Superman anymore to have X-Ray vision:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18036-augmented-reality-system-lets-you-see-through-walls.html

Submitting

In the past couple weeks, I’ve posted Noah Lukeman’s query letter process and Colleen Lindsay’s unintended rebuttal. It must be something in the air, because many agents are taking the time to weigh in. Notice how what one completely rejects, another will request. Though this may make the process a mine field, if you research your agents before submitting you should be fine. Even more, if you submit a professional query that catches their eye, most agents will not quibble on their specific requirements.

Here’s Jennifer Jackson’s take:
http://arcaedia.livejournal.com/213850.html

From Janet Reid:
http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,d2d3d106-8d27-4698-aa25-3df73e67f73e.aspx

And Elaine Spencer’s tastes:
http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,14cc604d-a383-43ad-a1b0-0fb7277b0068.aspx

Caren Johnson explains what she’s looking for in a client:
http://www.johnsonliterary.com/blog/2009/10/27/make-me-a-match.html

Writing

Things change after that publishing contract, one of which is your writing patterns. Here’s a good look at how those will affect your ability to meet deadlines:
http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/10/deadlines.html

Highlights from a new book for how to survive being a writer:
http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2009/10/booklife-by-jeff-vandermeer-different.html

An alternate approach to the inner character arc:
http://www.plottopunctuation.com/blog/show/34

I am at heart a storyteller. You can see it in my early manuscripts where my writing skills were lousy, but the story is strong enough that I plan to mine many of them for ideas. This article speaks to that aspect in film, but especially the third page is applicable to written works as well.
http://www.awn.com/articles/secret-pixar-storytelling/page/1%2C1