Good day, everyone, hope summer is treating you well. I’ve been nose to the grindstone this past month on my latest project, an urban fantasy novel called Redscale. Three weeks of character sketching and outlining has led to a story that’s moving much more smoothly from my fingers to the keyboard than other projects I’ve started in the last couple years. Turns out I’m not a ‘pantser’, no matter how easy it seems at the start to just start charging in on the writing.

So, from now on, I’ll not wear pants when I write. Lesson learned!

Here’s a few things that have caught my eye in the past month or so…

Author Jim C. HInes posted an essay by Elise Matthesen on , on reporting sexual harassment at science fiction conventions, based on her own experience. She talks about how she dealt with it, and tips should it happen to you.

Author and editor Bryan Thomas Schmidt needs some support through a difficult financial time. Help defray his expenses and get some good sci-fi books in the process via his GoFundMe page!

Speaking of fundables, there’s this Kickstarter for a movie adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s Radio Free Albemuth that’s shy of its goal with just two days left. As a longtime PKD fan, I’m really hoping this one makes it, and will be making a pledge this weekend.

Chuck Wendig posted this great bit of 50 Rantypants Snidbits of Random Writing and Storytelling Advice. If you’re a writer, read this… but only after you make your wordcount for the day, else bad things will happen. Baaaad things.

Microsoft’s robot touch screen lets you palpate a brain. I never thought I’d say this about a Microsoft thing, but this is kind of awesome. Now I can find if I’ve been doing it right.

Here’s a look at how the science of Jurassic Park has evolved. Simply put: we know more now than we do then, but we still like our dinosaurs more ‘then’ than ‘now.’

Here’s an online petition regarding ending the U.S. gubbermint’s NSA spying program. Not that a single online petition’s gonna do it, but if you’re interested in getting active on this, it’s someplace to start.

In the meantime, here’s a site with a handy list of tools and sites you can use to keep the NSA’s PRISM program from eyeballing you all the damn time. Get the tools. Use them.

It turns out it’s possible to turn an iPhone into a handheld biosensor. The future, we are in it.

Finally, it’s been confirmed that a star system with three potentially habitable planets has been found. Now how to get there…

Gary W. Olson is the author of the dark fantasy novel Brutal Light and a contributor to the dark fiction anthology Fading Light. His blog originates here. Photo: 3poD/Bigstock.com.

Happy Friday, folks. Hope those of you in the U.S. had a great Labor day weekend. I didn’t end up doing a whole lot, but managed to get in one more BBQ night, and saw a couple of movies. The Apparition was ‘meh,’ through and through, but The Possession was a pretty solid and gripping possession/exorcism chiller–not really groundbreaking in terms of plot, but well executed.

As far as writing goes, it’s been a bit slow. Well, not really, but instead of foraging ahead to new and exciting word counts, I’ve been revisiting past chapters of my Untitled Mad Science Novel and doing some large-scale revision, to bring events and characters and backstories in line with fixes I’ve come up with for things that weren’t working. Next week I should get to chug on along with new verbiage.

In the meantime, here are some random interesting links and things. (I’ve also got some Fading Light-specific stuff, but I’ll save that for a separate post.)

Here’s an article on some of the new ethical and political issues that are arising and will be arising from coming biotech advances. Biopolitics cuts across current ideological classifications, it turns out, and makes for some strange bedfellows. Interesting to me both on the face of it, and as a source for story ideas.

So, now people are making their own satellites to put into orbit. DIY science rocks.

IO9 reveals all you wanted to know about dinosaur cosplay in the 1930s. Because that was a thing then. Yes.

Driverless cars will be legal in California in a few years. The future, we are in you.

DMCA: An Author’s Best Friend. This links to a guide for writers on how to use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to get bogus copies of books on pirate sites taken down.

Here’s a car that runs on compressed air. Not really the speed and range I’d need, but cool nonetheless.

Science has determined that gibbons on helium sing like opera stars. I can only imagine what that grant proposal must have read like.

Great SF authors share their biggest writing setbacks – and how they triumphed. This should be of interest to any writer, not just SF writers.

Gary W. Olson is the author of the dark fantasy novel Brutal Light and a contributor to the dark fiction anthology Fading Light. His blog originates here. Photo: 3poD/Bigstock.com.

After a bit of time away from the social media maelstrom, for my grandmother’s funeral and other assorted bits of business, I’m back. But as I don’t have much to talk about at the moment (save for writing, which I think shall be another post altogether), it’s all going to be about the links this time. So, yay.

Here’s an IO9 article on the rocket rider who became a 19th century obsession. I find stuff like this endlessly fascinating, despite the likelihood of it being some form of hoax (on the part of 19th century sources, not io9).

How a conservative Republican lost her fear of universal health care. Even though I’m not a conservative, I appreciated the perspective.

Hold the presses! Booze may be good for old bones! (Yeah, yeah, I know. “In moderation.” That’s why I renamed my townhouse “Moderation, Michigan.”)

For writers: How not to be a clever writer. Some good advice I probably should take.

Robot swarms aim to bring buildings to life. Completely not a setup for a cheap-o SyFy movie. Really.

Okay, I’m not sure what battle knowing this would be half of, but here you go: Explained: why we wear pants. Because: REASONS.

Gary W. Olson is the author of the dark fantasy novel Brutal Light. His blog originates here. Photo: 3poD/Bigstock.com.