Sidetracks - May 11, 2013

[helloladies]

Sidetracks is a collaborative project featuring various essays, videos, reviews, or other Internet content that we want to share with each other. All past and current links for the Sidetracks project can be found in our Sidetracks tag.

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➝ A great conversation about pronouncing words incorrectly because you've only ever seen them in writing, and English is a troll language. I still do this even now, because I read so much online and wander into places where the writing and vocabulary is beyond me, and therefore full of new to me words! I will say that the advent of the online dictionary that comes with the audio of each word? Super useful.

➝ The Locus Awards finalists are out and can I just say FUCK YEAH THE KILLING MOON.

➝ Iron Man 3 spoilers After watching Iron Man 3, I went meta hunting. I found Why The Mandarin needed to be portrayed as he was in Iron Man 3, and given what I new about the movie going in, this is a brilliant look at the decisions the writers made.

➝ The Defining Science Fiction Books of the 1990s. ...does this mean we'll get a version for 2000 - 2009? *hopeful*

➝ I find David Sedaris and his humor hit-or-miss, but I really liked this interview with Jon Stewart.

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➝ Female pro-athletes have been out for decades. Yes - this! I’m so glad Jason Collins has decided to come out while still playing, but female players have been coming out for a while and gotta say I don’t often see mainstream news stories about their courage, or the history of lesbian and bisexual players in female sports contests. I wonder why that is (maybe I’m not reading the right mainstream media).

➝ Cheryl Morgan lists some of the Top Women Science Fiction Writers at For Books Sake. This is a good resource for anyone who wants to read more SFF by women (and oh look, yet another recommendation for Suzy McKee Charnas — what a coincidence).

➝ Oo, oo Pushkin (a very swanky small publisher of translated books) is going to launch an imprint for children! I was raised on translated Asterix books and I bet there's tons of great books I missed out on because they weren't available in English. I wonder how it's going to do considering how little translated literature British people buy, but Pushkin are experienced sellers now so I'm sure they've got a great marketing plan.

➝ Chuck Wendig explains 'How to Maximise Your Word Count and Write More Every Day'. Look, some writing advice I might actually be able to use.

➝ And Richard Hackler provides another workable piece of writing advice in 'On Writing Things Not Very Many people Will Read'. He examines writing by relating his own creative experiences to those of a singer friend, who sings in a crowded bar where few people are really listening to her:

'She sang in spite of how small a thing it is to sing a song, in spite of how empty and sad the world sometimes seems. I’m stuck on this image—my friend moving her feet around on the floor, my friend’s hands pounding on her keyboard, my friend’s eyes fallen shut and her face coated in sweat—because I can’t think of a better answer to the ugliness of life than to bring your keyboard to the bar, to sing a song that no one will hear, to write a story that no one will read.'

Yeah, that's one to come back to when I'm feeling small and ineffective.

➝ Musings from the Sofa calls out Oxford restaurants sucky vegetarian offerings in a most amusing way. So much truth — shape up UK restaurants. I’m not vegetarian but quite often I want to have meat free days and eat a vegetarian option (plus I’m a finicky eater and only eat certain kinds of meat) and I am so over goats cheese.

➝ Yes, off course it's a good idea to put the homicidal maniac in a glass prison. It can never be unseen (and this probably amuses me more than it should).

Administrative Note: Sidetracks will be dropping to biweekly issues to allow LB editors focus on more media consumption and writing about aforementioned media consumption with appropriate levels of tl;dr. Sidetracks will resume on May 25, 2013!

Comments

[pretty_panther]

Some fabulous links here and great reading. Picked up a couple of the books mentioned in the link so that will keep me busy! :D

[bookgazing]

Thanks, hope you enjoy what you've picked up (care to share what that was?).

[thebaconfat]

Ohh, that is a great quote about writing things not many people will read.

I read so much online and wander into places where the writing and vocabulary is beyond me

That makes me think of something I read just a little while ago, about how reading non-fiction above your level is an important part of training your brain, expanding your horizons and learning new things. Let me dig it up: here.

Not really being familiar with pro sports, it's hard for me to relate to what's happening with Jason Collins, but this story about Glenn Burke, an openly gay pro baseball player in 1976 got me thinking about how censorship and sensibilities have changed.

[bookgazing]

That's really interesting (and wow do I want to see that film now). I wonder how hard the autobiography is to come by.

[theliteraryomnivore.wordpress.com]

Jodie, I love the idea of that Hackler piece. Acting in high school and college taught me that: nobody is watching. You have to do whatever it is that you do for yourself, first and foremost. It's terrifying, but I also find it liberating.

[bookgazing]

I think it's a good reminder in a world where it often seems like the arts is kind of saturated and people have so many choices of what to do with their free time that they're bound to miss things. It must be hard to take as a professional artist who needs money but still maybe a way of keeping yoruself going?