Write That Bad Novel Your Bad Self

Want to Write a Novel Badly? Here's How!

32 Tips on Writing a Crappy Novel- or Not!

"Do you want to write a novel? Most people try to write a good novel and fail. Dare to be different. Try writing a bad novel instead. If you finish, you will have either succeeded in writing a bad novel or failed and written a good novel. It’s a win/win situation. Here’s a guide to writing an absolutely terrible novel. The path is clear. All you have to do is follow it."

I especially like rule # 22:

"Don’t start your novel with an interesting event. Take a few dozen pages to explain everything that would lead up to that interesting event. The reader will gladly hand around until you get to the point."

Homeless Solutions

Web Urbanist »Creative Urban Furniture:
Convertible, Inflatable & Portable Homeless Shelters

"Helping the homeless means more than handing out food or coins on the street. The urban landscape of most major cities is unfriendly to the homeless population. Urban centers discourage homeless people from sleeping public spaces - without necessarily providing alternatives. However, some activist artists, designers and architects have developed clever solutions to this problem."

Check out the Unfriendly Vs. the Friendly solutions to this urban problem. Pretending that the homeless don't exist doesn't make the problem go away, contrary to what many urban planners think!

Powered by ScribeFire.

Japan's Unique Art Form

Japanese Version of Crop Circles-
But More Highbrow



Rice field art --

Pimp my rice paddy ::: Pink Tentacle

Japanese farmers in Inakadate make crop art every year, this time based on Hokusai's 36 Views of Mt. Fuji. They use purple and green kodaimai rice along with their regular seedlings to create these show-stoppers.

God Gets More Bang For His/Her Buck

This site plays on the now-familiar God billboards in a way that really makes you think, "Hey, I bet He/She DOES feel like that!"

"And it came to pass that God visited the earth, and He did behold a series of billboard ads attributing to Him utterances of such banality that they would never pass His lips in a billion years. And it came to pass that God in His wrath considered a libel suit, but in the end opted simply to mount a cantankerous, self-contradictory ad campaign of His own. . . ."


I never said, "Thou shalt not think." —God

If you seek to know my ways, read a damn science book. —God

Six days? Yeah, right. I'm a scientist, not a magician. —God

E=mc². Yeah, that's one of mine. —God

I like to kick things off with a bang. A Big Bang. —God

Powered by ScribeFire.

Books, Gotta Love 'Em

This drawing by illustrator and author Colin Thompson sums up what I feel about books.

They are my windows on other mysterious worlds I'd otherwise never be able to visit and explore, tickets to new experiences which, although vicarious, are none the less valuable.

They're my magic carpet ride to foreign lands and other cultures, helping me understand this human experience. And maybe, just maybe, that lets me build some bridges in my own fiction that will lead a reader on their own voyage of exploration. Books, gotta love 'em.

Bloomin' Dahlias!

I think this is the most astonishing video of a Dahlia blooming (thanks friend Duchie!) that I simply had to share it.

I raised dozens of these beauties, all sizes and color combinations, from seed one summer. I had little brown peat pots (available at any garden center) everywhere with seedlings growing in them. Then I transplanted them to the flower bed outside.




The garden was filled with these glamorous blossoms all the way through the fall. Neighbors were coming to me for cut flowers for their dinner parties. All from a 59 cent packet of seed! (Prices have gone up since then- it was long ago!) I recommend you try it sometime.

Click on the animation for more information on the art of growing these lovely flowers.

COPD YouTube Video Goodies

Today I spent some time strolling through YouTube for some COPD goodies. Here are the best of the bunch for your viewing pleasure and eddymacation:

COPD from Campbell Teaching
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HttxNPQ6SzM



COPD II from Campbell Teaching
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqdE1Mh2PC0



Living With COPD with Michael Riser
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5EfAmGeEqg



Living WIth COPD Part 2 Pursed Lip Breathing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFqrWVeskR0



Cured Meat Danger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ_-2MFCHFs