Here are some shiny things that caught my eye recently:
♦ Michael Cunningham is one of my favorite authors (I have not read By Nightfall yet, so don’t tell me about it), and when I saw a link to a post titled “My Library: Michael Cunningham” on the Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux blog, Work in Progress, I was, of course, intrigued. Imagine my surprise to discover that his home library is in his bathroom! Granted, the space is gorgeous, but I can’t help but wonder about the humidity…. Below is one of eight images taken by photography Joshua Simpson—do check out the link for more images.
♦ Roberto Ferri is an Italian artist who specializes in gorgeous mythic art in the tradition of Renaissance painters like Caravaggio (his blog is here). I found out about him via a post on Neil Gaiman’s tumblr (do click through; Gaiman quotes an insightful reading of Ferri’s work). I hope I can find a book of his work or even some prints soon! Some artistic nudity behind the cut:
Tristezze della luna by Roberto Ferri
That hand surprises me every time!
Facilis Descensus Averno by Roberto Ferri
♦ Book Nook.
My friend Will Ludwigsen shared a new Postcard Story on his website: “Man of the Hour,” which I just love.
The Economist had a good article about how the threat of the internet has forced magazines to get smarter (magazines having a better chance of surviving than print newspapers for a number of reasons). Via.
This past week AlphaBooks, an alphabetical tumblr exploration of fictional characters curated by Ben Towle, has moved to the D’s. So far my favorite is “D is for Dr. Dillamond” from Gregory Maguire’s Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (sorry, I couldn’t find the artist’s name):
Longtime readers may remember that I was taken by Dylan Meconis’ webcomic Outfoxed, so you can imagine how thrilled I am about her Kickstarter project, where one of the rewards is a print copy of Outfoxed.
Who knew there was an ARG (alternate reality game) based on Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 (my favorite Pynchon—and, admittedly, my only Pynchon). Via.
Jo Walton gives a very good reading of Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (one of my favorite science-fiction novels) at Tor.com.
Great, great interview with the awesome Elizabeth Hand—lots of questions I’m always curious about.
♦ Great Scott!—I’m around the sun over this business card for Clark&Kent, “the ad agency with headquarters in a phone booth in New York” (via).
♦ I was disappointed—but not surprised—to learn that HGTV’s House Hunters is partially staged. I just didn’t realize how staged. Good thing I stopped watching it because it was too depressing: how do these people afford those houses? (House Hunters International was even worse.) Via.
♦ This image from Christopher Boffoli‘s “Disparity” series is fun, especially for someone who loves peanut butter cups (via):
Check out more images from the series, which combine miniatures and food, in this post at DesignSwan. Really enjoyable stuff.
♦ Check out Neal Patrick Harris’ charming Tony Awards opening number. It’s a lot of fun.
♦ If you’ve ever wondered why a honeybee dies after it stings, check out this photograph by Kathy Keatley Garvey (click the link to read more), who won first place in the Association for Communication Excellence awards. Click to see it even larger! (via):
♦ Writers’ Corner.
LitReactor’s running a multi-part essay about writing comics titled “Don’t Write Comics.” The first installment lays out some basic information (given how long I’ve been reading comics, I forget how unfamiliar the terminology might be to a novice) and also points would-be comics writers towards Scott McCloud‘s work, so you know it’s got some cred.
LitReactor also posted about the difference between brand and platform and why every author needs both.
Over at SF Signal, Robert Jackson Bennett writes about the danger of cool ideas in writing science fiction and fantasy.
Chuck Wendig lays down 25 reasons this is the best time to be a storyteller.
For those of you writing YA novels (you know who you are), here’s a post about how to write a killer query letter for your YA manuscript.
♦ One more piece of art—I love Miss Aniela’s melding of photography and painting into a beautiful collage (via):
Leda’s Dance by Miss Aniela
♦ For your listening pleasure, Benedict Cumberbatch reads Kafka’s Metamorphosis (via):
Nice! Lovely images, as ever – it’s coincidental that I”m read “Horns” (still) by Joe Hill and the Facilis Descensus Averno by Roberto Ferri is a lovely image to associate with it. (Nice images, regardless). Excellent business card, too. Someone’s sharp.
I may never look at a peanutbutter cup the same way again. Though I will, of course, look at a peanutbutter cup. In fact, that picture is making me think of looking at one very soon . . .
Enjoy a peanut butter cup for me!