Fantasist's Scroll

This is National Novel Writing Month.
Or, if you’re one of the cool kids, NaNoWriMo. The idea, in a nutshell, is to write a book in thirty days or less. Or finish that monster that you’ve always meant to get around to again. Either way, the goal is a completed novel by the end of the month. Frankly, it seems impossible to me, but the guy who puts this on every year is also the author of No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days, so, maybe, just maybe it’s possible to accomlish.
Well, I won’t find out this year because I’m just in the wrong place to do that, but I may just get the book and read it so I’m ready for next year.
In any case, if you’re feeling up to it, it’s still not too late for you to start. You are a little behind, but you can still make it up. Hit the website and start writing! (And, yes, I wrote about this yesterday at my other blog, Diary of a Network Geek.)

“He has the heart of a small boy…
he keeps it in a jar on his desk!” Well, I don’t remember who to attribute that quote to, or who it’s about anymore, either, but it sure is fun. And so is DIY Head in a Jar! Yes, now, just in time for the freakiest holiday of all, you can have your very own head in a jar. If you have an old bottle, you’re halfway there already! So, hurry, it’s still not too late to …

get a head!

(Oh, c’mon, it’s the Friday before Halloween and I’ve got head jokes, what else were you expecting here?)

I know I’ve talked about this before, but not recently.
I love maps. I love looking at them. I love drawing them. Maps can make an otherwise confusing travel story clear or just spark my imagination to new ideas about how geography effects the world. As a result, I’m always looking for more ideas about making my own maps. I use a lot of different tools to make maps, but mainly I use Campaign Cartographer. Though, the tools don’t really matter as much as good technique. And, I know that my technique is pretty weak these days. So, when I saw Maldin’s Greyhawk – A Guide to Mapmaking, by Denis Tetreault, one of the main cartographers for Wizards of the Coast, publishers of Dungeons and Dragons, I got really excited.
Sure, much of the information is a rehash of things I’ve read elsewhere, but plenty of it is new stuff. And, what’s more, it gives a nice look into the mind of a professional fantasy cartographer. How often do you find that kind of information? Right, not very often. That’s why I linked to it and suggest that, if you have any interest in fantasy map making, you check it out.

Alas, too late for this year, but still…
For next Halloween, I might just get one of these freaky portraits. They’re “normal” from one angle, but, from another, they’re quite monsterous. It’s Cool!
As I mentioned, we’ve already passed the deadline for this year, but for next year you can get one. Why, if you have the scratch, you can even get one done from one of your very own photos. Now, that’s really ghoul, er, cool!

Anyway, it’s Friday, this is definately a freaky link, and I worked late last night, so cut me some slack and just click the link.

NASA’s gotten into the comics business.
No, really, according to Manga News, NASA scientists commissioned a “space comic book” to explain their new satellite program to school kids. It’s pretty neat, actually, that they’re reaching out to that kind of audience. Science has been neglected in school here in the States for a long time, so, anything they can do to raise awareness and make it fun is great. (Though, I’m not sure I would have gone with that dog-catcher theme…) Anyway, you can check “Cindi in Space” out for free here.

C’mon, it’s Friday, don’t you deserve to look at comics, too?

It’s a cool kid’s book!
And, a website called Gheehappy.com. The illustrations are really simple and cute, just like you’d expect from a kid’s book, but it’s also a neat, compact description of the traditional Hindu pantheon. Okay, sure, it’s simplistic, but, still it gets the message accross, eh? And, it *is* cute. Nice and harmless and safe to show the kids, even the illustration of Kali, Goddess of Death is cute.
Hey, what the heck, it’s a pretty painless way to show your kids a different belief system.

Today!
If you don’t know who J. K. Rowling is, well, you certainly haven’t been paying attention. She is, in short, the creator of Harry Potter and crew. As a divorced, single mother struggling to scrape by on public assistance, aka “the Dole”, in the UK, she wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone which she sold astonishingly quickly for a first time author. The book went on to become a wonderfully popular hit with adults and kids alike. At the same time she wrote the first book, she plotted out the rest of the series and started drafts of those books as well. Each year after that first release a new book in the series has come out, for a total of six, so far, with the seventh on it’s way.
I know many people who dislike the books for their simplicity or how they handle magic or any of a number of reasons, but, as far as I’m concerned, anything that can get so many kids reading books again, instead of suckling at the glass teat, is okay with me.
And, yes, I just recently finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but you can find a review at my other site, and I eagerly await the seventh, and last, installation of this series.
I was resistant at first, but once I started reading these books, I was hooked. I hope Ms. Rowling will keep writing after the series is done. She’s a good one, even if she does write kids books!
Happy Birthday, Ms. Rowling!

This is cute!
While looking for water gardening resources, or an old t-shirt that I can only half remember, or something, I found a fifth grade class’ creative writing assignment called The Island Project. The project was for the kids to imagine themselves stranded on an island and to describe the island on which they found themselves. Many of them also drew maps of their island. The project is from 1995-96, but, somehow, is still up on the web. It’s fun, actually.
And, not a bad way to get some creative juices flowing for a story setting, either. I have often gotten ideas for things to write by drawing maps first. So do Orson Scott Card and Holly Lisle, both successful writers, so it’s not just a fluke or a gimmick. It’s also a bit of fun.
So, if you’re stuck for something to write about, why not draw a map? Or, heck, if you’re not too full of yourself, why not just do the same exercise that the fifth-graders did? You might just be surprised at the results!