What I Am Reading

I finished Infamous by Suzanne Brockmann. She manages to bring everything together in the thriller plot, paranormal plot, and romance plot for a satisfying and fun read.

I’m reading On the Edge by Ilona Andrews, another wonderful urban fantasy offering from this writing husband and wife team. This one focuses a little more on the romantic aspects than the early ones in the Magic series, but at the same time, it’s not the sum total of the book. There are many levels to the story, all of which I’m enjoying.

Grammar

A good list of many (but not all) the times it is appropriate to use commas, with a focus on the problem of comma overuse:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/commas.htm

Promoting

SCRIBD changes rules to charge even for free books (with no payment to the content holders):
http://pbackwriter.blogspot.com/2010/08/scribdcom-gets-greedy.html (Note: if you read through the comments, SCRIBD has come up with a compromise after the fact, but I don’t think it’s been validated yet.)

Because so many of us post book reviews on our blogs, I thought this summation of what to aim for would prove useful:
http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2010/08/writing-online-book-reviews.html

Science/History

A little history lesson about Nikola Tesla and electricity.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/nikola-tesla.htm#mkcpgn=twit1

Evidence mounts for the consciousness of cephalopods:
http://io9.com/5626679/

Why worry about nanites when basic bacteria can rebuild deteriorating building?
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19386-for-selfhealing-concrete-just-add-bacteria-and-food.html

Both the methodology and the discoveries because of it make this prehistoric bird research fascinating:
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100819_terror

Interesting People

Occasionally I run across an article about interesting people doing interesting things. I thought you all might find this out of the box approach worthwhile:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/science/31profile.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Life

A fun story with an important reminder to all of us:
http://trishaleigh.com/2010/09/01/256/

Research

Okay, this is a bit of a cheat cause it’s sort of a science article, but it actually is research for a story I’m editing:
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/silly-string.htm

For anyone writing world collapse or economic thrillers, this study on the countries capable of hindering the global economy should prove useful:
http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/100825_crisis

Writing

A clear-headed look at receiving and using critiques without eliminating what makes a story yours:
http://www.sfwa.org/2010/09/guest-post-leave-the-vomit-in-or-learning-to-trust-your-voice

Anthropology

Knowledge about human history is changing, and theories are being supported by hard evidence, like this sign of communal feasting at the very dawn of agriculture, proto-agriculture even:
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100830_feast