Mind Sieve 4/30/12

It's Monday!!!! (Yeah, I know. Sad news. Let us mourn for a moment.) :P

Saw this trailer at the theater. Looks Awesome!!! Loopers a time travel tale. Hee!

Just when you thought they couldn't cram more testosterone - Expendables 2. Chck Norris! Van Damme! Schwarzenegger! Dang!

Cosmopolis - looks funky! Lots of great actors in it. Wonder if it will be a modern interpretation of Metropolis?

From the History Blog - Lost Portrait of Cross-dressing Chevalier d'Eon Found. The Chevalier's story is fascinating!

Weyland Industries has posted a video of David 8. Disturbing. Heh heh heh. The whole site is fascinating. Ties to the movie Prometheus.

Designing From Bones - Troglodyte Housing from Gene Lempp. So that's where Tatooine got their home styles from. Heh~!

Picture Perfect - The Importance of Images in Social Media Marketing. This is for companies, but the facts still work for us author types.

What Publishers Do That Authors Can't from Books & Such Literary Agency. Gives one hope! :)

Jeff Goins - One Sure Sign You're A Professional.

Chuck (NSFW) Wendig discusses his writing journey in 25 Things I Learned While Writing Blackbirds.

10 Ways To Boost Your Odds Of An Acceptance from Write It Sideways.

Prepping For The Publishing Doomsday more wise words from Chuck (NSFW) Wendig.

The Key Ingredient For Dramatic Tension - Understanding the Antagonist from Kristen Lamb.

Till next time! Have a great week!

Mind Sieve 1/16/12

This will probably be a very poor showing for a Mind Sieve post. Was out sick all last week and aside from sleeping and sitting on the recliner like a mummified vegetable, I didn't do much. Let's see what I can dig up anyway.

Since Supernatural has actually been getting decent again, figured I'd plug this week's episode. :P

Really neat recap of all things Gak! (Need to make time to look these all up! Oooo!)

Designing From Bones - The Stone Giant and Escalating Tension (The Cardiff Man!) by Gene Lempp. Greed, Fraud, PT Barnum! (Sucker - I fit that description. Doh!)

This one looks insanely fun - Moonlight Kingdom.

How To Self-Publish So It Benefits The Readers? by Chuck (NSFW) Wendig. Great stuff!

Don't Eat The Butt - Lies That Can Poison Our Writing Careers #1 by Kristen Lamb. Amen Sistah!

Here There Be Blog Trolls - How To Spot Them And What To Do by Kristen Lamb. Oh very helpful! Blogger/writer's worst nightmare. Eek!

25 Things Writers Should Know About Finding Their Voice from Chuck (NSFW) Wendig. Good (and mind bending) stuff as always. :)

From Kristen Lamb - What "Star Wars: A New Hope" Can Teach Us About In Media Res. Very nice!

Yes, mighty thin pickings but what AWESOME pickings they are! Heh heh.
Have an awesome week, ya'll!

Mind Sieve 11/14/11

Have a huge list to sift through this week. Everyone has been really pumping out the blog posts! lol. Time is even shorter than usual though with the Austin Comic Con over the weekend, so no telling how far I will get. (Also my browser keeps dying every 5 minutes, so Murphy is working against me! Argh!)

Shared by ZombiesSchool - "Now that Halloween is over, how will we incorporate the zombie horde into the upcoming holiday season?" One answer is here.

A weird preview of a movie called Warhouse. Stars Joseph Morgan, of late, Krauss in the Vampire Diaries.

Over at Mashable Tech - Touchscreen Makes Its Way Onto Keyboard of the Future.  I think this looks awesome. Would love to try it to see if I liked it. Ooo!

From Petapixel - Stop Motion Music Video Shot Over Two Years with 288,000 Jelly Beans!!! DANG! Pretty spiffy too!

The Face of My Father - a lovely post by Chuck (NSFW) Wendig about past and future generations. Might need a hanky!

From AJ Walker - Medieval Mondays - The kettle hat, humble helm of the medieval soldier. Wish he'd been able to add more info, but still pretty interesting for a quickie. :P

From Discover Magazine - Stone-cutter Finds Fossil Whale In Marble Slabs. Definitely NOT where I would have thought you'd find some! And it's a prehistoric whale of all things!

SoonerCon shared this - Nyan Cat is So Yesterday - the NyAT NyAT is where it's AT. Heh heh. Go Darth Baby!

Designing From Bones by Gene Lempp. This week - The Iceman Plot! Dum dum DUMMM!

An interesting take on blogging - Susan Bischoff - 3 Tips on Using Fiction Skills to Craft More Engaging Blog Posts.

From Evo Terra - Google + Pages for Authors. Instantly went on my To Do List. lol. Now just need TIME! (Set one up, but need to do more and add the other books as well. Ugh!)

Okay looks like this is as far as I'm going to get this week. Sigh.
Happy Reading!

Mind Sieve 9/19/11

More Mind Sieve Madness!

Per the Examiner.com Warehouse 13 has been given the green light for a fourth season! YAY! You can read the full skinny in this article.

Gene Lempp shared a link to an interesting article on the Top 5 Most Used Recreational Drugs by Manon Eileen. Some nice data here.

From GeekChicDaily comes a video with John Barrowman (Capt Jack Harkness) singing about Dr Who.  The Doctor and I (From a tune from the muscial Wicked.) He's got some good pipes on him!

Passed on by Stana Katic from Jessica Ross: Castleblanca. Too cute!

Castleblanca from Jessica Ross on Vimeo.


From CBS we get a peek at NCIS's Ducky's new flame! Was so surprised! Hadn't seen her in a while. She still looks awesome! Can't wait to see her and Ducky together. (No I'm not spoiling it for you, you'll have to click. Heh heh)

Lee Unkrich shared a link to a cool story - Urban Archeology: Sleeping Beauty's Paris Apartment Discovered.  Untouched treasures from the 1940's! Really neat surreal find.

From Examiner.com a story about a 310 Million Year Old Virus by Paul Hamaker.

In Gene Lempp's Designing From Bones series we get Kitchen of Time. Who knew cooking was this important!

A Lee Martinez shares his review of the kaiju themed dice game called King of Tokyo.  Sounds rather fun!

And here is the coolest Cat Pole EVER!  How to Build Your Cat a Tardis fort. Ooooo!!! So totally cool! Wait till you see the inside!

Per Clever Movies, JJ Abrams has been signed on to direct Star Trek 2~! Now if the script shows better Space Fu than the last, we might get something worthwhile here! Heh heh.

Here is the latest in Kristen Lamb's Dr Twuth series titled: Bots Make Me Bonkers. (Hah! Bots? You want Bots? Come join me in an MMO and then you can really see the spam fly! lol)

Writers Relief wrote a pretty nifty article on Eleven Deadly Sins of Online Promotion for Writers. All very good points!

Abby Larson did a guest blog at Pro Blogger and shared Six Proven Secrets to Blogging Success. All great tips!

Social Butterflies Trump Worker Bees on Social Media - Meet the Connector by Kristen Lamb. (Hm, wonder if I can set out a sugar water dish to attract some. heh heh.) (And, yes, Gene, you are one! You rock!)

Chuck (NSFW) Wendig speaks about The Twenty-Sided Troubadours: Why Writers Should Play Role Playing Games. (Interesting premise. I know it didn't hurt me any to be a playah! And if you get a DM who has a clue, it can be priceless! Hubbins is the BOMB.) :)

Ooo! We get to see things from the OTHER SIDE!  Advice for Agents by Rachelle Gardner. 

Janice Hardy states I Had To Do This: Clarifying Ambiguous Pronouns. And there's examples!

Totally FAB post on What Your Characters Eyes Tell the Reader, guest post by Steven Aitchison. Applying it to your actual writing will take some work, but the info itself is invaluable.

Claudia Gray does a great post over at The Other Side of the Story Blog on I Said, He Said: First vs Third Person. Good stuff!

From Chuck (NSFW) Wendig comes 25 Ways to Plot, Plan and Prep Your Story. Great list!

And Janice Hardy has a nice follow up to her Pronouns post called Oh, Now I Made It Worse: When Editing Goes Astray. Wow, Gary and Bob got a big workout. lol.

Jennifer Laughran explains how It's Not ALL About the Benjamins. Matters from the agent's perspective.

PW Creighton gives examples and walks us through Contrast, Detail, Emotion. Definite food for thought for staging our scenes.

5 Basics of Dialogue You Need to Know by Marcy Kennedy. Oooo! Learned some new terms I did! (Hey, just cause I know how to do something doesn't mean I know what it's called! :P)  

Oh yeah, that should keep you occupied for a bit. Heh heh heh

Mind Sieve 9/12/11

All righty then! *cracks knuckles* Let's see how much I can find from the last two weeks.

Will Wheaton post on the episode "This One Time at Space Camp" for Eureka and his feelings about the end of the series. So cute!

EW.com did an article on a delete scene in the "Empire Strikes Back" between Han and Leia.I don't personally think it's better. What do you all think?

GeekChicDaily shared a link to Burning Man 2011: Dalek Art Car. The Dalek's were lighting up and swinging to Disco! Booyah!

Gene Lempp shared a neat blog post by Kate Wood on Druids! Some nice tidbits of info.

MangaCurr shared an article from BBC News called "In pictures: Manga meets contemporary dance in TeZukA".  Looks pretty weird. lol. 

Deb Delorme sent me this link to the latest Simon's Cat. For anyone with pets, and especially for writers, this one is for you! Heh - kills me!

Gene Lempp shares his knowledge on Zoo Arcane: Pterodactyl, Luck Owl, Elder Phoenix. Ooo birdies with burst of nocturnal luminescence for the WIN! :)

Dr Twuth! from Kristen Lamb - Are Writers Related to Ferrets? ADD and Social Media. Yes, those EVIL Shinys! Noooo!

Kristen Lamb shares The Secret to Selling Books Part I - Let's Get Sticky! (Uhm no, no that kind! Get your mind out of the gutter. For shame! :P)

Harrison Painter gives us 5 Things People Want From Blogs.  He's got some valid points here.

Dr Twuth again this time to discuss Conquering the Fear of Public Tweeting! Oddly enough, while I have issues initiating conversations face to face, I find it super easy to shout out congrats, hugs, or encouragement to others on Social Media. Hmmm.

Stacey O'Neal has a nice little post about How To Get Book Bloggers To Review YOUR Book. It's amazing how with bloggers, publishers, authors, agents, actors, whoever, people forget they might not be the only one requesting attention!

From the Steve Laube Agency blog - Writers Beware! Protect Yourself! Kinda scary really. Good, sensible advice though.

Maximizing Our Social Media Impact - Having the "Right" Friends by Kristen Lamb. Ack, I see her point and yet, and YET...sigh... lol. I just like to be nice cause I can. Don't get to do it as often as I'd like, but still. So many dimensions of being an author are so hard! Doh!

From Harrison Painter 7 Simple Success Strategies That Make A Difference. These are for small business but apply just as well to authors. :)

Nice little article from the Paper Hangover Blog - Writing 101: Don't Over Think It. I think developing the gut feelings and listening to them is the hardest part. I can edit others all day, but my own stuff, I'm blind! lol.

Roni Loren gives us The Anti-Procrastination Diet. Good rules to live by!

Good post on The Changing Landscape of Publishing by Bob Mayer. The one point he makes that loads of people jumping into the self-publishing bandwagon miss is that he ALREADY had a massive following before putting some of his books out himself. If the following is not already there for you, it won't make much difference and the $$ will not be there. This is a HARD business!

The blog Plot to Punctuation gives us Forty-Five More Flaws That Expose Your Lack of Story Telling Experience Part 1. They only list 9 in part 1 so it's not a huge post. And they've picked some zingers too!

Deadly Sin of Writing #6 - Drifting in the Doldrums by Kristen Lamb. Conflict, conflict, conflict! Bwahahahahahaha!

Nathan Bransford has a nice eye opening blog post on By The Time A Self-Published Author Hits It Big, Do They Really Need a Publisher? Great info and things to consider here.

Awesome blog post by Chuck (NSFW) Wendig - 25 Things You Should Know About Self-Publishing. Hear, hear!

Lucienne Diver did a cool post from an agents POV on Query vs Critique. Eye opening!

Candace Havens blogged about Forest and Trees - critique partners. Some nice insights! (I know I can get carried away. lol. I have people who FEAR ME! Bwahahaha - ah, erm, that's not a good thing though... *cry*)

The Devil's In The Details - 3 Ways to Make Your Writing Shine by Kristen Lamb. I fight with some of these to this day! Argh! Will I never be free?

From the Steve Laube Agency - The Slush Pile: Enter at Your Own Risk. Great insight into aspects of the bizz. :)

They also shared Ten Commandments for Working With Your Agent. Heh heh heh.

More Publish America dirt passed on by PN Elrod - Book Festival Organizers Refute US Publisher's Claims of Access. Amazing that they think they can do this stuff. Wow.

Okay that's it for this week. Happy reading!

Mind Sieve 9/5/11

A ton of stuff to sift through this week. Let's see how far I get. heh. (Also, warning! Blogger just changed their interface and it was acting wonky when I was putting this together. Already botched one piece (which I think I fixed). Hopefully there aren't more!

        

 I've heard this name battered around all over the place - The Hunger Games. Looks like there's going to be a movie. Here's a peek.

For "Supernatural" Fans, the author of the upcoming Mythology of Supernatural, Nathan Robert Brown, answers a question about the tattoo the brother's wear as of Season 3.  Interesting!

This super cool video of time lapse photography by Randy Halverson is totally breathtaking!

Fans of Movies shared a link to The Hollywood Reported and a story about the 'Phineas and Ferb' Duo Developing Feature Film. Like we get another season of 'Phineas and Ferb' and a new pilot! Sweet!  (If you've never watched 'Phineas and Ferb' go NOW! You won't be sorry. What's not to like about a Spy Platypus?!?! Go!)

Jan from One Minute Book Reviews shares a growing list of tongue-in-cheek definitions for 40 Publishing Buzzwords. Too cute!

Amy Wilkins shares the Geek Zodiac! (I was born in the Year of the Undead! Brains, Brains! Or maybe, Blood! Blood! heh heh.)

Total Film shares the 3rd Trailer for Apollo 18. Has the gentleman from Alphas in it. Looks creepy!

 12 Things Happy People Do Differently by Jacob Sokol is a nice little list of how we can improve our own happiness quotient. Some nice tips on the list. (Let's be Happy!)

Way cool article called Computers Get Under Our Skin by Laura Sanders. Science is just mind boggling.

           

Kristen Lamb dips her toes into the waters of Marketing Fiction - Branching Out to Fresh Blood & Bringing New Readers into the Family. I hope she gives us thoughts on HOW to do this and WHERE to do this soon! (Come on Kristen!!!) :P

   

         

Tobias Buckell has a very interesting post called Writers and Pellets, which discusses the difference and importance of milestones and goals. Quite fascinating!

   

          My plans were defeated by fate so this is all you're going to get for this week. :(  Hopefully there's enough to keep you mildly occupied for a bit. :)

MInd Sieve 6/13/11

Two conventions in two weeks means another rushed Mind Sieve. lol. (Thank goodness for pre-prepping!)

So cool! From Wizard World Got 10,000 Legos? Let's Build a Star Wars Sandcrawler.

AJ Walker speaks about Vampirism in Ancient Egypt. What fun!

This is totally cool! One less hurdle for long term space exploration and living. Rubbish-Dump Worms. Now they need to tackle bone density degradation. Woot!

FansOfMovies shared this article from Total Films on 50 Greatest Kung Fu Movies.

FanOfMovies shares the latest preview for Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Looks fantastic!



Super 8 Clip for How To Be A Zombie.  She's really quite good! lol. Very much looking forward to this one as well!




Geek Furious not only gives us definitions for Nerd and Geek but also a Top 10 Geek Shows You Should Watch. (I don't agree with all these and some I've never heard of. But to each Geek his own!) :P

 Sacred Cow-Tipping: Why Writers Blogging About Writing is Bad by Kristen Lamb.

Tony Eldrige gives us 10 Truths About Self Marketing, Like It or Not. He's pretty much dead on the money as far as I can tell. This stuff is not for the faint of heart. :)

Jull Keremer shares 17 Simple Steps to Build a Fiction Platform.  Good stuff!

Kristem Lamb tackles the Power of Positive Tweeting on Twitter Tuesday!

Chuck Wendig talks about Why YA Rocks!  Which it does. :) (As always with Chuck - NSFW!)

25 Things You Should Know About Character by Chuck Wendig (NSFW - I think it might be a Chuck Sweep this week!)

Jenny Hansen shares a ton of books to help with writing on More Cowbell Monday! I've read two or three of these, but she way has me beat!

And Chuck Wendig puts it on the line when he spouts Six Signs It's High Time To Quit That Whole 'Writing' Thing. Big truths here, peeps - WORD.  (And still NSFW) :P

Till next time!
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