- Sara Zarr contributes to Nova Ren Suma's series on inspiration, with a post about failure that's essential reading for all writers. Speaking of things that are not failures, I can't recommend Sara's new novel How to Save a Life highly enough; both first-person narrators are completely authentic and beautifully developed, and I just loved it. See also: an interview about the book at Matthew Quirk's site.
- An excellent post from Junot Díaz on character voice: "You want to write good characters with an unforgettable voice? In my experience it won't kill you if you first figure out the character's relationship with the telling, with the story, before you even think about what kind of words, what kind of languages, what kind of attitude these folks will be slinging."
- Jaw-dropping art from Alenka Sottler.
- Department of Huh: 'The Easter Island “Heads” Have Bodies."
- At the NYT, "Computer Experts Building 1830s Babbage Analytical Engine": "The Lovelace notes are remarkable both for her algorithm for calculating the sequence known as Bernoulli numbers and for what would become known as the “Lovelace objection.” In passing, she commented that the Babbage computer would not originate anything, but rather could do only what it had been instructed. The implication was that machines would not be creative, and thus not intelligent."
- Maud posts some thoughts about astrology and extras from her talk with Susan Miller.
- An interesting look at Amazon as publisher thus far by Laura Hazard Owen at Paid Content. Amazon is making some smart hires–like Ed Park—who are making some smart, interesting acquisitions. Yay Jenny D; the new book sounds fabulous.
- Laura Miller has a very smart piece on epic fantasy focusing on Nora Jemisin and David Anthony Durham. See also: Thoughtful follow-up at Nora's blog, and a good discussion in the comments (including an interesting contribution from Laura about the coziness of good vs. evil, which seems spot on).
- Some love from the NYT for Laurel Snyder's Bigger Than a Breadbox, which I'll recommend here again. And, as Monica points out, the children's special section as a whole is filled with wonderful things.