Recently in Links Category

• Ivory Tower Defense. Brenda Braithwaite examines the academic-industry divide plaguing game studies in The Escapist.
• Frank Lloyd Wright LEGO sets. Oh, hells yes.
• Tangible Embedded and Embodied Interaction '10. Nifty conference coming up next year.
• 10 most puzzling ancient artifacts. I see my next 10 novels.
• Reforming Graduate Education. Jonathan Pfeiffer nails it.

• Sherlock Holmes trailer. Christmas!?
• Nicholas Basbane's library. Architecturally so-so, but look at 'em all!
• Q&A with Dave Grossman. The creative director at Telltale Games shares some more insight into writing for episodic games.
• John Cawelti on Firefly. "...The partnership between Mal and Zoë echoes the buddy relationship in countless Westerns -- they are a unisexual Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid of space."
• Hellboy vs. the Fremont troll! Nothing majorly new in this Q&A, but still interesting.
• Greg McElhatton on The Unwritten #1. Carey + Gross = Awesome.

I'm looking into a way to automate this using Delicious, but for the moment my copy of Safari is slowing down to a crawl and I need to close some tabs, so...

• Sherlock Holmes, obsessed nerds, and fan fiction. Ksenia and I got into a great conversation about Sherlockians a few weeks ago.
• Scott's ultimate man cave. Notes being taken for future studio space, oh yes.
• Center for Locative Media. An entire center for location-based media? Intriguing.
• Flare: Data Visualization for the Web. Where was this several years ago?
• James Patterson Q&A at the Guardian. You can argue with the man's practices, but you can't argue with his success.
• Cross-section Cinema. Reminds me a little of Jim Bizzochi's work on multi-panel film at MIT6.
• New FRINGE ARG! Apparently a new ARG for FRINGE was launched during last night's season finale (and the term 'alternate reality game' may have never been more fitting).
• STAR TREK Augmented Reality system. Now that's just damn cool.
• 2009 ITP highlights reel. Some really interesting stuff coming out of Tisch this year.
• Custom print-your-own Moleskine pages. Oh, this has potential.
• Toward better readability in adventure games. I'm not 100% sold on what the author is saying here, but it's still interesting.
• Making presentations in the TED style. I'd like to see a class structured this way every week.
• Power to the Pixel's 2009 London Forum Set for 14-16 October Damn, too close to the wedding!
• Four surprises in blog-based peer reviews. Don't skip this one if you're an academic interested in the future of publishing.
• ShareSomeCandy. It's nice to see another design portal pop up; my old favorites are largely all shuttered.
• 360 Illusion in larps and pervsive games. "We revisit Johanna Koljonen's Knudepunkt paper on the '360 degree illusion' as a larp design ideal, connect it with the TING illusion of alternate reality games and show how the cocktail has been applied in two pervasive games, Momentum and Interference."
• Ohio's Miami University considering new CMS major. The gospel is spreading!
• Ekaterina Sedia in LOCUS. I hadn't realized she had a history with MIT.
• John Crowley on interstitial/slipstream fiction. "I think the difficulty with slipstream and interstitial fiction and all those kinds of terms is that they tend to be used only by people who are in one of those sub-branches of fiction. They're used by genre writers who are interested in adopting mainstream techniques or adopting mainstream values or getting mainstream readers to read their books."
• Transmedia planning. Faris Yakob's oldie-but-goodie on how to staff and craft a transmedia franchise.
• Bring people together and give them something to do. Henry on Faris on Henry, in a nutshell.
• Joi Ito: Technology's Next Investment Opportunities. Global, expressive, from content to context. Got it.
• Old curse haunts New England forest. Alas, poor Dudleytown.
• LOST: a transmedia story. Syllabus for a course on transmedia storytelling, as read through LOST.
• Transmedia redefines viewing experience. Gerry Maravilla at Occidental College tells how he used transmedia and ARG elements to promote his student film "Patient 1221".
• 5 basic websites for cross-media storytellers. YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Google Friend Connect? Srsly?
• Bringing TV to the web. Some really cool SXSW presentations from the BBC and Six to Start on ARGs.
• Six easy ways to graph your life. Any other data junkies in the house?
• Transmedia activism and planning. Lina Srivastava's idea of transmedia activism is really compelling.

• Clive Cussler must pay $13.9M in legal fees over Sahara debacle. I wonder what he's actually worth?
• Inflatable Trans Am. Not what I normally think of when I read 'transmedia', but hey.
• Michelle Obama at Miriam's Kitchen. This is the soup kitchen I used to do design work for in DC. Cool!
• Delia Sherman on pitching novels. Good advice.
• The Cult of Done Manifesto. When you're overloaded, "done is the engine of more" sounds awful.
• Bob Rehak on Timeshifting. I've been wondering how TiVo affects Dollhouse's ratings, but the buzz is still weak. Next week's ep might be the turning point, though.
• The Onion on the Kindle. Heaving!
• Philip Pullman on a virtuous nation. Excellent stuff.
• Amber Benson on persistence. "Boobs McBooberton"?
• The Coraline Economy. How Laika saved Portland.
• Downturn is "a petri dish for innovation" for magazines. And other things, you betcha.
• How to write a Sci-Fi Channel original movie. Oldie but goodie.
• Jericho goes transmedia. Another case study, coming right up.
• NYT on crossing America in a train. Want.
• Salman Rushdie on adaptations. Filing this away for a future book...
• The New Yorker on David Foster Wallace. Still so damn heartbreaking.
• Pattie Maes at TED. The sixth sense indeed.

It's been a while since I've posted a links list here, and there's been a ton of interesting stuff popping up lately. So, without further ado...

zomg important stuff

• Henry Jenkins: If it doesn't spread, it's dead. HJ begins to outline the new platform for C3 and his general research.
• Timo Arnall on the Internet of Things. Go now: Inkblots alum doing amazing stuff.

generally awesome stuff

• NYT: What Convergence? Why it's taking so long to get the Web on our TVs.
• Agents in the Trades. Gotta find a copy of the Feb. 09 The Writer.
• HarperCollins' new format: video books. Bwuh?
• Underland Press. Fascinating new micropublishing house specializing in the New Weird.
• In defense of the MFA. "The only people impressed by an MFA in writing are those who don't write and never worked in publishing." Ouch.
• Digital ghost towns. More awesomeness from the Tomorrow Museum.
• The business of webcomics. J. Jacques does it again.
• Q&A with Mike Carey. I love the bits on adaptation.
• The laws of the thriller. "When popular novelists, stung by critical disregard while contemptuous of it, reject literariness and describe themselves as storytellers, they may often be wrong in all but the barest mechanical sense, but they raise some useful general points: rather wholehearted pulp than earnestness; rather economy than "weight"; and rather winter in a canning factory in Narvik than John Grisham."
• TIME: Content, once king, becomes a pauper. I prefer "once and future king".
• Announcing BigIdeaAuthors.com. April 20 can't arrive soon enough.
• Indigo's Shortcovers initiative. Interesting: physical books + e-books + iPhone.
• Marvel's motion comics, Vertigo's $1 first issues and 'literary' OGNs. Fun year for comics ahead.
• Sarah Weinman on O'Reilly's future of publishing conference. "We can dream of the future all we want, one where the reading experience is a marvel of social interaction and multiple communities and fresh ideas, and dreaming is good. But change is also slower and much faster than we can possibly anticipate - and in the end, experts and enthusiasts alike only know as much as what's right in front of them, nothing more."
• John Crowley on Giordano Bruno. RIP Giordano.
• BBC: Alien life may exist among us. Cats explained at last!
• Coraline fun facts. Sad truth: I still haven't seen it yet.
• Theodora Goss on the humor of Lord Dunsany. "Life is real, life is earnest..."
• Seven reasons why musicians anyone should use Twitter. Awesomesauce.
• How successful writers keep up their self-confidence. I'd add "not take classes from bad professors."
• Gwenda Bond on Bones of Faerie. I smell a must-read.
• Tor.com on Bones of Faerie. ""Nothing has been seen or heard from Faerie since, but the world is filled with the deadly magic the War left behind: trees that seek out human blood, glowing stones that burn with cold fire, forests whose shadows can swallow a person whole." Oh, hells yes.
• Uncle Warren on the $500 miniseries. He's right: the game, it is a-changin'.
• Trackmate. Intriguing: "Trackmate is an open source initiative to create an inexpensive, do-it-yourself tangible tracking system."
• Dmitri Orlov on social collapse. Grim. (From Bruce Sterling.)
• Starbucks announces instant coffee. Srsly, 'Via'? Via what?
• Bruce Sterling: 2009 will be a year of panic. It already is.
• Bruce Sterling: 2009 when the 21st Century really begins. It already has.
• Q&A with Gregory Frost. What are you hardwired for?

• Gaiman wins the Newbery. Still chuffed.
• Nike Coraline Dunks. Man, I want some of these.
• Vandermeer on strange noir. Next steampunk?
• VDM on strange noir II. New Miéville? Want!
• Eureka Unscripted returns. Now where's the show?
• Sterling on the Republic of Letters. Eerie, that is.
• Dora Goss on James and Wells. Post-Victorian lit vs. pop/pulp. Awesome.
• Brushes. Fingerpaint on your iPhone!
• Flickr: iPhone paintings. See above.
• Birds on a wire on a wall. I kinda want to do this.
• 25 good Twitter follows for writers. Gratz Kevin!
• How to publish in a recession. Interesting.
• Facebook page stats. Interesting.
• Diamond's minimum order increases dooming the direct market? Uh oh.
• Stanley Fish on academic isolationism. Not sure I buy this.
• Jaydiohead. Jay-Z + Radiohead = ???
• Transmediated comics. Good run-down of this summer's franchises.
• Comics in the Louvre for the first time. Mais oui!
• Watchmen game will be in canon with comic. O RLY?
• Tomorrow Museum on why Dodgeball failed. Bang on.
• Russell Davies on the postdigital. Awesome.
• Russell Davies on the postdigital II. Awesome II.
• Wattson. I wish this were available in the US.
• Shapeways. 3D printing for the masses.
• Ponoko. Fabrication for the masses.
• Magcloud. Magazine publishing for the masses.
• Derek's new lamp. Derek is of the masses.

• Cultural Studies sale. Oooh, the good stuff for cheap...
• Why magazines are useless. Courtesy of HarperStudio's 26th Story.
• A monetized Twitter feed? Interesting concept.
• An introduction to genre theory. Thanks, Julie!
• Doug Seibold on indie publishing. Really intriguing piece from Slate.
• Fiction reading increases for adults. Now there's something you don't hear very often.
• Clay Shirky's predictions for 2009. "2009 is going to be a bloodbath." Great.
• American Gods and London literary novelists. Amen.
• Pratchett knighted. Sir Terrence of Pratchett! Huzzah!
• Weird Tales appreciates Gaiman. Hear, hear.
• How Boccaccio would survive the credit crunch. Debauchery!
• How Twitter will change blog design in '09. On it, thanks.
• Tweetbacks? So it begins.
• Facebook vs. MySpace: the numbers. Mmm, chewy data.
• Steampunk dangerous to your health? Radioactive jewelry = HOT.
• Junot Diaz day? This is getting surreal.
• Goss & Barzak on "living life to the fullest." Me, I'm supersaturated.
• 462 books in 365 days. I wonder if I could do that.
• Eric Idle on John Cleese's writing style. Hysterical.
• The Atlantic on the end times of print. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
• London Review of Books on video games. Still parsing this one.
• Salon on Bittman. God, I love The Minimalist.
• Juggling work and writing. Well... Kinda.
• Kazu Kibuishi finishes Amulet 2. Woot!
• NYT: How to publish without perishing. "The book is like a hammer."
• Geektastic! Damn, what a lineup!
• Powazek: Ignore the content. The new Clute-less Sci-Fi Wire still sucks.
• RIP Ricardo Montalban. Khaaaan!
• Scalzi goes through the Stargate. Eeeeeen-teresting.
• TYBF&H is no more. Damn, first Endicott and now this.
• Rise and fall of the metal airship. See above re: steampunk.
• Fortune: Iger rocks Disney. I've been impressed so far.
• GENREALITY. Watch this space.
• Getting started with Arduino. Things to tinker with someday #522.
• Kleptoplasty. I need to remember this for rewriting Green.
• Viable Paradise writer's workshop. Damn, that could be fun.
• Y Kant Alice Read (Novels). I sympathize.
• Read it and weep. Man, this is getting depressing.
• Tachyon on slipstream, steampunk and Disch. "We're all about niche publishing."
• The curse/joy of academic interdisciplinarity. "Who's the future?"
• Finding value in author websites. Like this one?
• Doctorow on writing in the age of distraction. Huh? What was that?

I am having one of those days where my brain is being pulled a thousand different ways at once. Hence, a links list post.

First the stories closest to home:

• The Chronicle of Higher Education on Henry's departure for USC.
• Gamasutra on the same.
• The Chronicle on the Media Lab's Center for Future Storytelling.
• Sam Ford speaks with New Hampshire Radio.

And then further afield:

• Tor.com's Megan Messinger on Abrams' Star Trek. My jury's still out.
• Etsy books and zines. Now there's a business model for writers.
• Writing about writing about Gaiman. A biographer's work is never done... Until the subject is.
• Raising the bar for art museum sites. Dang.
• PBS' Mediashift: troubled pulp magazines in the 21st century. Still concerned about Weird Tales.
• Galleycat: Romance coming to the iPhone. Note the 'original content on Stanza' bit.
• Galleycat: Video Interview with Joshua Ferris and Matthew Eck. Seem like fun guys.
• Galleycat: Inside Simon & Schuster's digital studio. Great gig.
• NYT: Failing Home Economics. "Rational decisions are those you make and don't regret later."
• Cloud Cult. These guys are insane, and brilliant, full stop.
• Of author/illustrators and illustrators. Really insightful discussion of Lit Crit.
• NYT: Mitt Romney on letting Detroit go bankrupt. I think I might agree with him.
• NYT on the new novel by P.F. Kluge. Oh, man – I have to read this.

• NYT: Using Video Games as Bait to Hook Readers. I'm not sure how I feel about games as a 'gateway drug' for books, but hey, if it works.
• MTV: Gaiman on steampunk and Neverwhere. Yeah, I can see that.
• Gallery Nucleus: Jill Thompson's Up, Out. "If I had a million dollars..."
• Comics to console. Some interesting thoughts on adaptation here.

Yeah, these are sort of out of date, but they're still worth checking out.

I haven't done one of these in a while now, have I?

• The new Weird Tales website. Oh, there's neat stuff a-brewing here.
• Abney Park. The sound of steampunk.
• Myke Amend's The Rescue Unlimited. The art of steampunk.
• The Humanities Review: Why I write horror. Insightful piece, if occasionally off-base.
• Web posts earn deals for new authors. Interesting.
• Marvel announces five new online titles. More on this soon.
• Fringe: the hardcore / casual debate comes to prime time. My worlds collide, to interesting effect.
• Amazon buys game developer. PSP, DS, iPhone, Kindle...
• Mediabistro on the defense of free books. Still mulling over e-book ideas.
• Mediabistro on Barry Yourgrou, the txt-novelist. ZOMG GSEBMPS!
• Mediabistro on Ford, Chabon and genre-busting. Chabon's experience was mine at Kenyon.
• Mediabistro imagines a digital book review. Again, more to say about this very soon.
• Making Light on the getting of agents. A classic.
• Kameron Hurley on how to write a query letter. Dense and wordy, pfft. That letter is tight.
• The query project. Lots more on querying agents – with samples!
• Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak considers the humanities. "We think as we always have and this is where the humanities are still relevant." Similar arguments have been made about liberal arts in general, CMS at MIT...