February 2010
10 posts
7 tags
“Since businesses are obliged by zoning restrictions to locate far away from...”
– Why Conservatives Should Care About Transit, a really wonderful list of the myriad reasons why car-dependency weakens families, entrepreneurship, and the bonds within a community. Walkable neighborhoods aren’t just for hippies and enviro-nerds! (via marco)
4 tags
“I can’t imagine what it will be like for future generations not to experience...”
– thebronzemedal, in reaction to Kevin Hartnett’s article on bookshelves
3 tags
“A chief virtue of digital books is said to be their economical size—they take up...”
– Kevin Hartnett, writing in In Our Parent’s Bookshelves for The Millions (via thebronzemedal)
4 tags
Long Live Fiction: A Guide to Fiction Online →
The internet isn’t killing fiction! While it may be shrinking attention spans, it’s also giving new writers a change to grow and learn from one another. David Backer takes a look at several such communities for The Millions.
One of the sites he mentions is Fictionaut, which is invitation-only. I really like it. I received an invitation a little while ago and already have a story up:...
5 tags
“The deadly power of rushing about wherever I pleased had not been given me. I...”
– C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy. This is one of the reasons I love biking and walking places, even for short distances: without a car, travel is a conscious choice, and requires a degree of planning and forethought that car-based transportation lacks. (via beenthinking, via mills)
4 tags
February reading list
January was slow going, and February’s not looking too good, either. It’s been a busy time at work, and I’ve been trying (not so successfully, sadly) to get more writing done. That being said, here’s where I stand:
Fiction
Annabel Scheme — finished!
Tainaron — finished!
NEW The Things They Carried — in progress
The Yiddish Policeman’s Union
...
3 tags
Ten rules, an edited list →
The Guardian has published a list of various writers’ own personal rules of writing. Via bobulate, who’s taken the time to further distill the Guardian’s list into a very brief and helpful form.
3 tags
Genres of Fiction, and Why They Aren’t Discrete... →
Rachel Swirsky, guestblogging for Jeff VanderMeer, explains a common problem for SF fans and writers: any SF that is also good literature gets reassigned away from the category of SF — leaving only the “bad stuff” as true SF. (On the other hand, this goes both ways: many SF fans won’t touch literary fiction. It’s too “boring.”)
The comments are very...
3 tags
“We’re returning to an era when we get news from more than one source again,...”
– Paul Bass, “one of the most watched exemplars of scrappy, low-budget, high-impact local journalism — based on reporting, not attitude and opinion — through his New Haven Independent and Valley Independent Sentinel in the Naugatuck Valley.” Both sites are very well designed. Quoted in a...
4 tags
“I simply want to celebrate the fact that right near your home, year in and year...”
– Kay Ryan (via austinkleon)