So, here I am. Remember this?

DEADLINE HELL.



UGH.

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Norman Mailer has died. Here's a Q&A he did with Vanity Fair last January, and when asked about his idea of perfect happiness, said this: A fool draws a road map to his magic city.

Amen.

Here, too, is a 1963 interview with the man, though it's only available as a .PDF file:



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This is extremely helpful, whether you are NaNo-ing or not.

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This very interesting post on pacing and the passage of time from Jim Van Pelt.

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1996 interview with director, Michael Bay: "Optimism is what being a photographer is about," he said. "You look through the lens at the ugliness in this world, and there's always some beauty to find."

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Open casting call for the next Star Trek movie: Especially seeking talent with interesting and unique facial features, such as: long necks, small heads, extremely large heads, wide-set eyes, bug eyes, close-set eyes, large forehead, short upper lip, pronounced cheekbones, over or under sized ears and/or nose, facial deformities, ultra plain looking people, ultra perfect looking people, pure wholesome looks, twins, triplets, emaciated talent in addition to regally poised and postured talent.

Wow. Not picky at all.

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This, from Contributing Editor, Barbara Vey, at PW, who rants (and rightly so) about the case of the little girl who got detention for hugging her friend: http://www.publishersweekly.com/blog/880000288/post/640017064.html

In my family we hug all the time, so how could I explain to the children that it is only to be done in the privacy of our homes. That makes it sound like something nasty is going on.

Man, if I was still in high school, my goose would be cooked. Not because I was ever into public displays of affection -- I'm not much of a hugger -- but just that my friends and I were always wrestling around, throwing insults at each other, making threats that would end in pranks, and so on. Kid stuff. The kind of kid stuff that comes when your friends are mostly guys who are into role-playing, paint ball, karate, and computer games. I still remember the time we put the Barney patch into Quake, and ran around (virtually) tearing the heads off singing purple dinosaurs. Good times!

Rock on, people. Go NaNo.