smushbanana @smushbanana - Tumblr Blog

{ Dunnet Head, Scotland } x Roger Sharp

We made our way up to the twentieth floor, sharing the elevator with two suits that had men trapped inside them. The publisher's offices hogged the whole floor. The top of the receptionist's head asked if we had an appointment.

A Fraction of the Whole, Steve Toltz

#writing #books #bookworm #publishing #inspiration #author

bohogirl7-blog

nanowrimo

No Plot? No Problem!: Five Secret Steps to Story Building

September is officially the start of NaNo Prep! To celebrate, we’re excerpting what some might call the NaNoWriMo Bible: No Plot? No Problem! by founder Chris Baty. Today, he shares five ways to get your story roiling:

Once you have these steps down, you’ll be churning out books faster than Krispy Kreme churns out hot doughnuts.

Construct the Cannon. You might have already answered the question “What does your main character want more than anything else?” This question is so important that you’ll be answering it for all of your characters, including your villain. This will give you enough subplots for a trilogy!

romwe

observando

theparisreview

Faulkner and Hemingway had a famously snippy rapport—Will was all like, “He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary,” and Ernie was all like, “If you have to write the longest sentence in the world to give a book distinction, the next thing you should hire Bill Veek [sic] and use midgets”—which makes Faulkner’s one-paragraph review of The Old Man and the Sea all the more surprising in its candor and courteousness. “Time may show it to be the best single piece of any of us, I mean his and my contemporaries.”

For more of this morning’s roundup, click here.

givemeallthebaconandeggs

thegypsyhart

mothernaturenetwork

Elephant smashes house, then saves crying baby The infant’s parents watched in amazement as the pachyderm carefully removed rubble from their crying child before returning to the forest.

#elephant #animals #nature #children

thepoliticalnoteboo1deac

This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism. Subscribe here to receive this round-up by email.

Separatist rebels in Ukraine agreed to a ceasefire — and then broke it by shooting down an Mi-8 helicopter over Slovyansk.

Separatists are also distributing pro-Putin rap songs.

The UN estimates that 423 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine between April 15 and June 23.

More than 14,000 refugees have crossed the border into Russia.

Mali is urging a more aggressive UN mission.

Egypt convicted three Al Jazeera journalists of conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood to produce false broadcasts. Each was sentenced to at least seven years.

Four bombs exploded in Cairo metro stations, causing only a few injuries.

Gaza’s unemployed graduates.

Human Rights Watch says that ISIS has been recruiting Syrian children to their fight with the promise of a free education, and has found evidence that more moderate rebel groups like the Free Syrian Army have used children as well.

The Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons has announced that Syria finally shipped the last of its known chemical weapons out of the country — although the OPCW says it has not completed the verification work necessary to declare Syria free of the weapons.

Israel launched rocket attacks against Syria in retaliation for the death of an Israeli teen in Golan Heights.

The three Israeli teens have been missing for two weeks now, and the resulting crackdown and tensions have been the most serious in a decade.

Al Qaeda militants attacked Yemeni army base, airport and nearby agricultural plant, killing six soldiers and a civilian.

Syrian warplanes launched airstrikes inside Iraq.

Iraqi PM Nouri Al-Maliki rejected calls for the formation of some sort of emergency government.

Iran is supplying Iraq with military equipment and more in the fight against ISIS as well as directing surveillance drones from an airfield in Baghdad.

Rania Abouzeid on the Syrian roots of Iraq’s current crisis.

More than four dozen Iraqis will travel to Washington in the coming months to testify against Blackwater in the killing of 17 Iraqis in September 2007.

A week of fighting between Afghan forces and militants in the south has left more than 100 dead.

Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah has released tapes he says provide evidence of election fraud. The White House has called for an impartial review of all fraud claims.

Why Pakistan’s offensive against militants will fall short of its purpose.

Internal Pakistani refugees who have fled a government offensive in Waziristan protested food shortages.

Canada-based cleric Tahirul Qadri is returning to Pakistan with the promise to lead a nonviolent revolution.

Sgt. Ryan Pitts will receive the Medal of Honor for his actions in the costly battle of Wanat, which killed nine US soldiers and sparked investigations.

A bipartisan panel of former military and intelligence officials concluded that the targeted killing and armed drone program sets a dangerous precedent for endless war.

More than 400 large US military drones have crashed since 2001.

The FISA court has renewed the government’s application to continue collecting bulk telephone metadata — an approval which expires again in September.

Guantánamo Bay prisoner Abd al Hadi al Iraqi has requested a civilian lawyer.

On Tuesday a federal judge in Oregon declared the no-fly list unconstitutional because the Americans placed on it have no way to contest the inclusion.

A New York Times interactive on the 100-year legacy of the First World War.

Photo: Tuz Kurmatu, Iraq. Iraqi forces patrol a checkpoint near ISIS forces. Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty/

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#war #politics