September Links & Things

This has been one of those days, one of those weeks, one of those months....for any concerned individuals, please see my earlier "Status" blog post.

This is my monthly wrap-up of September's Links & Things. You can receive these links in real time by following me on Twitter: @martyhalpern. Note, however, that not all of my tweeted links make it into these month-end posts. Previous month-end posts are accessible via the "Links and Things" tag in the right column.

• My friend, the New York Times Notable author Judith Moffett (about whom I have blogged on numerous occasions, two examples being here and here), has a newly revised website: judithmoffett.com. It's still "under construction," as they say, as Judith is currently in the midst of relocating from Kentucky to Pennsylvania.
• As we say good-bye and bemoan the loss of Borders Books & Music (chain store or not, the loss of any bookstore is sad), this poignant photo was taken by Reddit user "Jessers25" at a Borders going-out-of-business sale:
  
  
  
  
  
  The photo (with additional links) was originally posted on mediabistro.com/galleycat (@galleycat).
• The 2012 Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest has been announced; submissions are being accepted between October 1, 2011 and February 1, 2012. Only stories of no more than 8,000 words on the subject of near future (no more than 50 to 60 years out) manned space exploration are being considered. Please be sure to read the contest rules/guidelines. (via Cynthia Ward's Facebook page)
• Speaking of magazines, Steve Davidson -- of The Crotchety Old Fan and The Classic Science Fiction Channel fame -- has been granted the "Amazing Stories" trademark, and plans to resurrect the magazine. Here's the full Press Release. Steve is looking for feedback, suggestions, etc. on his website. (via Ernest Hogan's (@NestoHogan) Facebook page)
• Author Jaye Wells (@jayewells) has a very worthwhile post entitled "The Journeyman Writer." In this post she answers the question that her son posed to her one morning: “Mom, how do you write a book all the way to the end?” Ms. Wells writes: "The year I turned 30, I decided to finally stop nattering on about how I wanted to write a book and finally do the damned thing. I signed up for a writing class at the local community college and showed up with sweaty palms and a spiral notebook. Finally, I thought, I’ll find out the secret. The only secret the teacher revealed was that writing a book is hard work. And that, if it feels hard, you’re probably doing something right. It turns out this knowledge was incredibly freeing because it allowed me to finally give myself permission to be a novice...." (via @lilithsaintcrow)
• It's amazing what one can find online via Facebook and Twitter, as you can tell from my many entries in these monthly Links & Things. @Richard_Kadrey tweeted a link that I missed; the link was picked up (i.e. RT'd) by @AdviceToWriters, which I did catch. The link was to a blog post by Robert Bruce (@robertbruce76) who is reading and blogging his way through Time magazine's 100 Greatest Novels (at the time, he was on book #12). In this blog post, from March 2011, Robert is referencing a UK Guardian article that is nearly 2 years old, from February 19, 2010. Here's the article's header: "Ten rules for writing fiction: Get an accountant, abstain from sex and similes, cut, rewrite, then cut and rewrite again – if all else fails, pray. Inspired by Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing, we asked authors for their personal dos and don'ts." The 29 authors who provide these dos and don'ts include Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Franzen, Neil Gaiman, Joyce Carol Oates, Philip Pullman, Will Self, and Zadie Smith, to name but a few.
• Self-published author Pete Morin rants about the "stigma" of self-publishing by providing examples that prove the absurdity of it all. Morin writes: "The quality of someone else’s work doesn’t have any effect on mine. One might argue it makes it look even better. It certainly might make it harder to get eyes on the cover, but that’s a marketing challenge, not a 'stigma.'" (via @LeviMontgomery)
• And lastly, from BBC News comes this report: "NASA unveils Space Launch System vision" -- "The Space Launch System (SLS), as it is currently known, will be the most powerful launcher ever built -- more powerful even than the Saturn V rockets that put men on the Moon. On top of the SLS, Nasa plans to put its Orion astronaut capsule, which is already in development." (via @spacefuture)