Mark A. Rayner's Blog: Mark A. Rayner's Goodreads Blog, page 143

The power of a great story – fun Canal + ad

I think there may be a few holes in the plot, but overall, this story works really well:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Try YouTube here if the embedded thingy doesn't work.

Alltop and humor-blogs.com are in the closet too.

Ask General Kang: How much time should I be spending on Social Media every day?

None.

Next question.

No, seriously, what is the right amount?

It depends. Do you have other things to do? Like, I don't know, a job? Let's assume yes, and let's assume it's about eight hours a day. Okay, so that leaves you 17.

17?

Sorry, I keep forgetting your stupid Earth day only has 24 hours. So, yes, 16 hours. Let's book eight for sleep, which is average, so we're down to eight. I'm going to assume you have an hour of commuting to get to work, because that's the average here in...

Why do lit-ah-rary types look down on SF

So what is it about science fiction that causes "literary" types to look down upon it? Like any genre, SF has its bad and good. No scratch that, like any writing, there is both bad and good. I've read plenty of unreadable "literary" fiction. But SF seems to get more derision than other forms of genre writing, perhaps unfairly. Many important books are SF.

Yet, try to get Margaret Atwood to admit she writes it; yes, she writes SF (though anti-technological, like Michael Crichton) and...

Understanding the Facebook generation (at least, its males)

So how often do you leave comments, or are you just one of those friendly lurkers? (As opposed to the kind who go through your garbage and watch you at night….)

Alltop and humor-blogs.com also think this chart is hot. Via I Am Bored

Understanding the Facebook generation (at least, the males)

So how often do you leave comments, or are you just one of those friendly lurkers? (As opposed to the kind who go through your garbage and watch you at night….)

Alltop and humor-blogs.com also think this chart is hot. Via I Am Bored

I'm Thankful for Kurt Vonnegut

I have to say, it does occasionally strike me as deeply wrong that Kurt Vonnegut is no longer in this world, even if he still has a palpable presence. Vonnegut is one of the reasons why I became a writer, and some of his novels had an early and lasting influence on the way that I see the world. Thankfully, a new collection of unpublished shorts is now available, and Vanity Fair is previewing one of them on their website.

Here is an excerpt from a short story by Vonnegut, about a...

Forty-Seven Signs of the Apocalypse (#36)

From the Book of Ruth

In the far-off heathen in the Land of Sinim, there shall be a Great Rumour. And it shall cause a Perturbation and Excitement amongst the man-children of Sinim.

Lo! They shall have a perverse desire to beget only the Male Child, and the girl children shall be scorned, and unwanted. And they shall bind the feet of those who are born. Truly, the male children will grow and become men, and they shall be desirous of the females. And they shall cast about and say, "where a...

A family affair

Most people tend to forget that the founder of Juggernaut Business Mechanicals, Dr. Malifico had a younger brother, Reginald Spiney "Fist-Face-Smash" Malifico.

It was Reggie who took over JBM after his elder brother's demise in a tragic misfire of the company's first death ray.

They are pictured here, right before Reggie's second birthday.

(Off camera: their body guard, an early prototype destruction bot, and their terrified nanny.)

Alltop and humor-blogs.com have an entire fleet of red...

Where Have All the Readers Gone?

I spend a lot of time thinking about the death of print, the digital revolution and the massive changes we're in the midst of, but sometimes it pays to remember that media shifts have happened before. So, I've taken a page out of Mad Kane's book, and tried my hand at a song parody. You should know that I also tried to record this, but I have decided to spare you my ham-fisted attempts to sound like the Kingston Trio. Probably for the best. I already feel badly about mauling Pete Seeger's ...

The pleasures of the pod

Rather than share more video of perverted parrots, I thought I'd share a few pertinent links for your listening, reading and web-surfing pleasure.

First off, the next episode of the Marvellous Hairy Podcasts is available today. You can find Episode Ten on my writer's blog here. And while we're talking about Marvellous Hairy, don't forget to enter the Go Tuck (erize) Yourself contest — you can win one of 10 copies of the book, or immortalize yourself by becoming a character in my next novel. ...