Happy Veterans Day!
It’s the second week of NaNoWriMo, and my novel-in-progress has acquired a new corpse, a couple of spies, and a spy-in-training! At 19,000 words, it’s chugging along well, though I’m struggling with being productive more than two days in a row.
Inspire me. What are your must-haves in novels you read?
A Canadian startup has teamed with the Maritime Launch Services (Canadian space transport company) to recycle space junk. It would like to build space hotels with the reclaimed junk, but it isn’t sure the materials are good for humans. So, as a consolation prize, Nanoracks will try to build refuelling stations in space, so we can fly to Mars without having to wait for the right time of the planetary cycle.
It has been recently discovered that rice was domesticated in India independently. It was previously assumed that rice came to India from China. It’s also interesting that in India, they practiced crop rotation, with rice being a summer crop, and wheat a winter crop. And I particularly find it so cool that urad dal (black gram) was one of the first crops grown in India. Well, then, isn’t it annoying that it took us several thousand more years to come up with dosa and idli?
ICYMI: My Confessional Essay To End All Confessional Essays. I am SO tired of Modern Love in its many varied forms, and I think that’s becoming a prevalent view.
Scientists discovered evidence of a cataclysmic climate change event from animal fat on pottery. So they were analyzing animal fat residues on pottery shards, and found that the fat on pottery that was 8000 years old had a different quality, that indicated drier conditions (which occurred because the climate suddenly cooled). Further research indicates people ate all their cattle, and kept more goats, because they survive better in drought. Next time you decide not to do your dishes, maybe you’re helping a future archaeologist understand climate change.
The girl behind the parody Twitter account, @GuyInYourMFA, has written a piece on things she learned in five years of running the account. The point about how gatekeeping arises from insecurity really strikes a chord in me - I experienced that a bunch in college when I was rejected by the writing club, started my own blog, which then got trashed by people in the writing club. I was too inexperienced to feel bad about it, and I just used that drama to get more clicks and views. Now I realize they, too, were just insecure teenagers trying to keep up an identity. I try to never be anything less than encouraging to other creators; I’ve seen how practice makes people go from cringey to kickass, and it’s no longer a zero-sum game, thanks to the open internet.
GIF of the week: Here’s a Viking ship getting built.