Link roundup

1. Fascinating article on Full Fathom Five, James Frey's effort to generate books that can be turned into movies aimed at tweens. The article is written by Suzanne Mozes, and I'm a lot more interested in reading more by her than by anything that comes out from Frey and his ghost writers.

2. Nintendo sold half the number of copies of Metroid: Other M that it had expected to sell.

3. Fight Club soap on sale at Etsy.

*Buy Metroid toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Matt Fraction in a long, very interesting interview:

But Casanova I know for a fact I've not made a penny on. It's all gone back to the twins, to try to pay back their page rate and get them to a point where they've not been working for free. But, I mean, Gabriel drew all of his volume without seeing a dime and Fabio did his. Now those checks drib and drab in, call them minor at best, it's no way to make a living. People do, people get lucky, but we're not those guys. We did not catch that lightning in a bottle.

Seriously, read the whole thing. The interviewer explains why Josh Hartnett was his worst ever interview. Via.

2. Very high-res poster featuring the various mysteries of Lost.

3. Vonda McIntyre talks about writing Star Trek novels:

The only potential glitch in the Star Trek books came about because I couldn't figure out how to write a love scene where the protagonists called each other by their surnames. So I gave Mr. Sulu a first name, "Hikaru," which is from The Tale of Genji. I was blissfully unaware of the glitch till long after the fact; someone at Paramount objected to the idea of the character's having a given name, for reasons unclear to me.

*Buy Casanova at Amazon (it's very good).

Domo stars in a Star Wars commercial (link roundup)

Domo stars in a commercial for the Clone Wars cartoon in Japan. (And by "cartoon," I mean weekly animated toy commercial.)

And a few more links:

1. Scott Turow on the importance of persistence in becoming a writer:

"Presumed Innocent was written over a six to seven year period with intervals in between where I was figuring out the end of the book and writing other stuff ... My life as a writer was carried on against the odds. I had written four unpublished novels by then.

Via.

2. Relatedly, Malcolm Gladwell says:

I see storytelling like a puzzle: you arrange details for people until you get them in just the right order.

3. And speaking of authors, Neil Gaman's stance on public speaking is pretty funny:

Q. How can I get Neil Gaiman to make an appearance at my school/convention/event?
A. Contact Lisa Bransdorf at the Greater Talent Network. Tell her you want Neil to appear somewhere. Have her tell you how much it costs. Have her say it again in case you misheard it the first time. Tell her you could get Bill Clinton for that money. Have her tell you that you couldn't even get ten minutes of Bill Clinton for that money but it's true, he's not cheap.

On the other hand, I'm really busy, and I ought to be writing, so pricing appearances somewhere between ridiculously high and obscenely high helps to discourage most of the people who want me to come and talk to them. Which I could make a full time profession, if I didn't say 'no' a lot.

His appearance fee was the scandal of the day earlier this week.

*Previously: Domo/Jaws mashup.

*Buy Domo toys at eBay.

Lisa Black's clockwork taxidermy (link roundup)

A few of Lisa Black's modified taxidermied creatures.

And a few more links:

1. Painting giant Easter eggs.

2. How to write an episode of Law & Order. Via.

3. Operators of the Standard Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles pled guilty to negligent discharge of pollutants. In January, a maintenance worker poured chlorine and muriatic acid into a storm drain on top of the hotel. The chemicals created a cloud of noxious gas that entered the nearby Metro station on the following morning and made people ill.

*Previously: Taxidermy fantasy creatures.

*Buy taxidermy at eBay.

Found metal chicken sculpture

Found metal chicken sculpture by Scottoons.

Here's a few more random links:

1. Mario Puzo wrote the Godfather because he was "tired of being an artist." And he had an ugly encounter with Frank Sinatra due to the Johnny Fontane character. More interesting anecdotes here. Via.


2. Go figure, scientists think space elevators might not be realistic after all. Relatedly, I just learned that AMC is turning Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars into a tv series.


3. Forum thread filled with accusations against Shocker Toys and responses by a Shocker Toys rep. Via.


4. Andre Agassi's former manager (and former close friend) has filed a lawsuit against Steffi Graf, alleging she owes him $50k.


*Previously: Organization against space elevators.

*Buy Marvel Legends toys at eBay.

Best haiku ever

I received an email advertising 826LA's summer writing courses for kids. It includes this haiku by Anthony Vasquez, age 6:

Wolf

Wolves like to AH-OOOOOH
They like to eat people and
Play guitar softly

The summer courses sound great. For example:

Write Your Own Detective Series

Students ages 8 to 11 will collectively create one adventurous main character and then write their own detective mystery stories for the series. At the end of 4 weeks, we'll have a detective series filled with all those important mystery elements: clues, plot twists, and more! If you've got a closetful of red herrings to share, please, do tell and sign up to help.

Best haiku ever

I received an email advertising 826LA's summer writing courses for kids. It includes this haiku by Anthony Vasquez, age 6:

Wolf

Wolves like to AH-OOOOOH
They like to eat people and
Play guitar softly

The summer courses sound great. For example:

Write Your Own Detective Series

Students ages 8 to 11 will collectively create one adventurous main character and then write their own detective mystery stories for the series. At the end of 4 weeks, we'll have a detective series filled with all those important mystery elements: clues, plot twists, and more! If you've got a closetful of red herrings to share, please, do tell and sign up to help.

Photo: The room Roald Dahl wrote in

Link. Via.

*Previously: Photos of Robyn Miller's Grandfather's Workshop.