Zing

Nethermore cover art reviews

ByJohn Brown April 24, 2008

A huge part of science fiction and fantasy is the art. I’m always amazed at how powerful a cover can be. In fact, I remember buying the Thomas Covenant series because of those covers. I hated the hero. He drove me nuts. But those covers (and the other cool things) made up for it. So when I saw Isaac Stewart’s cover reviews, I had one of those V-8 moments. Of course, there should be reviews of cover art. There must be. And these are the most insightful AND funny reviews of cover art I’ve ever seen.

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TED
ByJohn Brown April 20, 2008May 10, 2008

I LOVE TED.

No, I’m not coming out of any closet. I’m talking the annual Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) forum. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

For example, here’s Richard Dawkins’ “Queerer than we can suppose: the strangeness of science.”

Or here’s Hans Rosling’s “Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you’ve ever seen” and his New insights on poverty and life around the world.

Or how about Howard Rheingold’s “Way-new collaboration”There is, if done well, very few things as stimulating as an excellent speech. Thank you TED for providing a way to revive this marvelous genre by sharing it on the internet.

Go to TED. But beware: you may end up unable to stop listening to one fascinating idea after another.

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On Writing | Zing

Story zing method: fiddling with knobs
ByJohn Brown April 29, 2009April 29, 2009

One of the most basic way of coming up with story ideas is to take a familiar story or thing, list out what’s commonly associated with it, then start changing some of those elements.

For example, you list out all the normal things for vampires–the coffins, black, bats, sucking blood, etc.–then you begin to twist. What if the vampire wears, instead of black, some styling plaid? What if it isn’t a person but a rabbit (whoops, that one’s been done)? What if instead of gothic places like catherals you find him in a trailer park? What if instead of being dangerously suave, he’s a drunk?

Do you see? You can do this with anything.

In this interview, Matthew Sturges talks about how he did just that with the movie The Dirty Dozen and ended up with with Midwinter, a novel about prisoners given another chance. According to Sturges, “In the case of Midwinter, the beginning of the story was, ‘What is prison like in Faery?'”

Read the whole interview. I think you’ll find it enlightening.

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On Writing | Zing

“The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination” by J.K. Rowling
ByJohn Brown February 20, 2010March 4, 2020

This is J. K. Rowling’s 2008 Harvard commencement speech, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination.” It’s one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard. Watch and then watch again. Read the full text here.

Two quotes that in no way can do justice to the whole thing.

And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
. . .
Though I personally will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.
One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books.

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Frisbees of Death
ByJohn Brown May 16, 2008

Yes, a weapon in development. Add this to the fart bomb, the scream, and The Rods from God and you’ll see where the future of the military is going to be very interesting. Here’s a list of interesting weapons.

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Australian Uses Oil Background to Harness the Seas
ByJohn Brown September 29, 2008October 19, 2008

This is a fantastic article summarizing some key issues with wave energy and the solution Alan Burns, an oil bloke from Australia, has come up with. It appears he’s taking lessons from his expertise in off-shore drilling (it’s safer to work on the bottom of the sea) and applying it to wave energy. It’s a must read.

http://www.popsci.com/kalee-thompson/article/2008-09/burning-tide

No ideas yet on how to use this in a story. If you have any, post in the comments section.

Wait, what if our hero is an inventor like Mr. Burns? Naw, what if we actually do go to the seas? It seems like a no-brainer. So we go to the seas. And our hero is the guy who is replacing parts. Humm, maybe. Of course, if our power generation is out there in the sea, then a perfect target for a terrorist is the pipe pumping the water in. Or what if they find a sea wreck while installing a huge one of these? And would the ocean floor suddenly become real estate? What kind of agent would sell it? Hummm

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Why cows are important to Servant of a Dark God
ByJohn Brown October 12, 2009August 25, 2010

BSCreviews just published my guest blog “How to Get Ideas: Talk to Cows.” For those of you unfamiliar with the genesis of Servant of a Dark God, you’ll want to check it out.

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