Inspiration

Pieces and links that might kickstart ideas

Inspiration

Well done, humans

Sometimes, just sometimes, it's possible to set aside all the terrible things that are happening in the world and just take a few minutes to marvel at what human beings are capable of. Here are three of those minutes:

Inspiration

John McPhee - Editors and Publisher

I'm currently nursing a small obsession with John McPhee, a non-fiction writer of countless books and longread magazine pieces. His "Draft No.4" is one of the best books on writing I've ever read. It's a collection of New Yorker pieces, of

Stuff

On Capacities, 2024

A catch-up with Capacities

Inspiration

Giving Fifty Percent

The merits of not going all-in.

Inspiration

RIP Robert Gottlieb

As newsletter readers and Development Hell subscribers will know, I recently watched and loved the documentary "Turn Every Page", which was about the decades-long working relationship of writer Robert Caro ("The Power Broker") and editor extraordinaire Robert Gottlieb. Gottlieb passed away yesterday at the age of

Newsletter

Pleasant Green website now live

Excuse two e-mails in two days (what is this, Substack?!), but I thought it might be of passing interest to some of you that there is now a Pleasant Green website. This is an experiment in fiction, as well as an opportunity to expand the Pleasant Green universe into a

Inspiration

Cartoon Gravity 18 - On Superman

You've got me. Who's got you?

Inspiration

Tuesday Stuff

Modesty Blaise on Kindle, Lovecraft Investigations, Aldrich Kemp, Da Vinci's flat for sale...

Inspiration

Wednesday Inspiration

A host of links to prompt something (anything!) on a snowy Wednesday morning.

Inspiration

Tuesday Inspiration

A few nuggets of inspiration for a Tuesday morning.

Inspiration

Wednesday Inspiration

Some mid-week inspiration.

Inspiration

Writing Prompts and Inspiration

Some links to get the brain working.

Inspiration

Rabbit Holes

Where to look when you need to turn away... Some ideas for much-needed distraction.

Inspiration

The Scarecrow - Jim McKenzie

A really great process-video.

Inspiration

Solarpunk

On the excellent Messy Nessy Chic [https://www.messynessychic.com] website (go there, you will not be disappointed), I found this great article [https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/06/10/inside-the-imaginarium-of-a-solarpunk-architect/] on the concept of "Solarpunk".

Inspiration

School Report

I received an e-mail today, letting me know that my English teacher, Frank Craven, has died at the grand old age of 91. I didn't have any contact with him after I left school, which seems a terrible shame now. I loved his classes and would absolutely credit

Inspiration

Listening to Books

This is a really great piece by Maggie Gram [https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/listening-to-books/], defending the use of audiobooks and exploring their history.

Inspiration

Time Travel - solved!

This would seem to be a useful piece for anyone exploring time travel in any of their writing. If only they had cracked this before we had created an entire time travel podcast series, it would have saved a lot of headaches in the writers room. The Paradox of Time

Inspiration

Americans In Paris

This American Life has released some episodes from its archives and made them available as podcasts. Americans In Paris apparently features David Sedaris. I have bookmarked and am excited to listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/americans-in-paris/id201671138?i=1000444994669

Inspiration

Strange times...

In which I ponder what to do about my social media feeds...

Inspiration

The Strange Tale of the Oldest Science Fiction Novel

The Strange Tale of the Oldest Science Fiction Novel | Mysterious UniverseA text from way back in the 2nd century has become regarded as perhaps the fist science fiction novel ever made.Mysterious UniverseBrent Swancer [https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2020/08/the-strange-tale-of-the-oldest-science-fiction-novel/]

Inspiration

The Fayum Portraits

Funery painting of ancient Roman Egypt - a Met Museum film

Inspiration

Time Lapse: The sun over ten years

This is mesmerising; NASA has made a high-res video of the sun, wherein each second represents one day.

Inspiration

QAnon

A really fascinating long read from this month's Atlantic

Inspiration

The Lovecraftian Bundle

Dark ambient music with a Lovecraft theme.