Holy Mackrel, My First Cover Illustration

By John Brown | April 10, 2008 - 12:30 pm |September 10, 2009 News - updates on books, events, appearances, etc.

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And, Dude! Will ya look at this thing.

Read FROM THE CLAY OF HIS HEART at Orson Scott Card’s Intergalatic Medicine Show.

Read the story behind the story on Side-Show Freaks in the coming month.

Then read more about Scott Altmann, the marvelous illustrator.

Born on Long Island, New York, Scott was never far from a drawing tool and a surface to make a mark. The early years consisted of funny-looking beasts and asymmetrical faces. Years later Scott attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and graduated from the Illustration Department with his BFA.

He enjoys sushi, cerebral spelunking, playing guitar and painting in oils. He draws to escape, and tries to escape to draw. All other times he can be found with his wife and son, in Long Island, New York — laughing uncontrollably and causing mischief.

www.scottaltmann.com

Why crows are better than flying monkeys

By John Brown | April 10, 2008 - 9:02 am |April 10, 2008 Zing

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I’ve wanted a cool animal friend for some time. And I mean a friend, not a pet. Pets you have to take care. Friends come, delight you, then leave. And lest you think I’m a meanie, I’ve got five cats that came with the house we moved into a few years ago. Love ’em, but I don’t need any more pets.

But a friend, now that’s different. Up here in the sticks we’ve got lots of interesting candidates: foxes, coyotes, raccoons, neighbor dogs that get into your garage and abscond with nifty chew toys like your expensive new hiking boots.

I’ve always wanted a bird gang as friends (I think it’s an unfortunate Disney heroine-envy syndrome). We’ve got eagles and magpies up here. But we also have crows and ravens. And ravens, according to some sources, are as smart as wolves. In fact, I’m so taken with the bird gang idea that I’m using it in the series I’ve titled LORD OF BONES. The hero has two raven friends who will be characters in their own rights.

So you can imagine my delight when I read the article on NPR and saw this.

Gator Blood

By John Brown | April 9, 2008 - 8:48 am |October 19, 2008 Zing

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Crocodiles scare the crap out of me. In fact, I think they’re the scariest things on the planet. Gators make a close second. But they aren’t just monsters to humans. It appears gators have got blood that’s an infection’s worst nightmare.

Gator blood kills

So I predict right here that in the not too distant future we’re going to have a product called “Gator Cream” and it will rival the wonderful Neosporin.

Move over Internet, here comes the Grid

By John Brown | April 5, 2008 - 9:31 pm |April 5, 2008 Zing

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This geeked me out today.

THE internet could soon be made obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.

At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, “the grid” will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.

The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, the grid could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.

Can you imagine that game world? Can you imagine a world that’s an actual world? Where adventurers set out to find fortune and encounter all sorts of nasties being played by hundreds of thousands of other people around the globe?

Dude.

More here.

Zing, Baby!