Happy Monday!
It’s Christmas Eve Eve! I really like having festivities that involve bright lights during the cold, dark months. If we had it my way, Christmas/Hanukkah/Saturnalia/Deepavali would go on until mid-February.
This past week, I’ve been focusing more on books and long reads than on links, because it’s more exciting to research the India House book than it is to write the ending of San Francisco Serial, but I have some fun links for you!
In China, a pig farmer’s anti-drone jammers started affecting the navigation systems of planes flying overhead! He installed these jammers, because apparently gangs were infecting pig farms with African Swine Fever, by airdropping infected items using drones! I find this very interesting, because the first adopters of technology are technically savvy nerds, but the most exciting uses of technology tend to be in crime.
ICYMI my Thursday piece on the basics of being a writer. This piece cuts through the crap, and doesn’t give in to the mystical woo-woo that a lot of pieces about writing contain. I also focus on traditional publishing as one option instead of the only option, and talk about self-publishing as a real avenue instead of a weird, but interesting thing. Please share it with any friends who are trying to break in to the writing and publishing industry.
M*A*S*H, with Indians. An Indian commanding officer has been named a war hero in South Korea, for his work during the Korean War. Lt. Col. Rangaraj led a MASH unit (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) during the war, and is now being feted for it. Now I haven’t watched M*A*S*H with Alan Alda, and didn’t know it was about army doctors, but given one of my main characters in San Francisco Serial is an Indian army doctor, maybe I ought to give it a watch!
They found a giant dinosaur femur in a vineyard in France. It’s massive!
I’ve been replotting my novel according to the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet. The books are great too! Next time you watch a movie, look for all of these beats in it, it makes it more fun. It’s helped me realize what was lacking in my novel - high stakes, and the lead character hitting low lows.
GIF of the week: Winter in Switzerland. I just have it playing on infinite loop for the rest of the week.