The Swipe Volume 1 Chapter 41
December? Holy crap, it’s December! I suppose this is what happens when you spend a month indulging in self-absorbed literary activity, head buried up one’s own fundament. So, yes, Nanowrimo is over. I did not hit my goal, but I am relaxed about it and am continuing to work. Should have a first draft finished before X-Day (nothing to do with The Incompetant Landlord who does not, contrary to whatever addled notion bumbles through his flabby brain meat, own copyright on a letter of the bloody alphabet) so yay, go me.
Meanwhile the weather has closed in like an icy vise around us and once again I wonder why we don’t just make like bears and hibernate until the spring equinox. It would certainly make a good excuse to get some writing done.
Anyway. Running a bit short again this week, but hopefully there’s enough here to keep you entertained through the weekend. Stay warm, keep safe, have a mulled cider. You know it makes sense.
Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to The Swipe.
Rob is reading…
A brilliant online repository of SF writing from marginalised voices. The field has never been stronger since the community started to accept and enjoy work from people who aren’t just white and male. Go on, dive in. The water’s fine.
Rob is watching…
The fine folk at Fallow, one of the hippest restaurants in That London, are posting some great vids on the grunt work involved in back-of-house. Some great tips, tricks and tips from the chefs as well. Foody nerds, assemble. Your new obsession awaits.
Rob is listening…
To the scrape scrape of windscreens being cleared of frost by my half-awake neighbours. I’ll have to do the same soon enough but it’s so warm and cosy here. Five more minutes, mum.
Rob is eating…
At The Ivy in Marylebone, where I’m very likely to have the fish and chips, although most things on the menu look good. Some critics snark at the chain, but I have never had a bad meal at any of their restaurants. The welcome has always been warm, the service excellent. The Marylebone site is our favourite, cosy and comfy. It was also the place where I first fell in love with the Negroni so the joint and I have history.
Rob’s Low-Key Obsession Of The Week…
George Santos, the disgraced and, as of yesterday, ejected Republican representative for New York. The guy is so cartoonishly, absurdly villainous it’s frankly astonishing he ever got elected in the first place. Every day has seen a new revelation of wild behaviour, lies and cheating from a bloke who looks like a cross between Alan Carr and Chucky the killer doll. You think British politics is crazy…
Animation Obsessive has just released a free PDF collecting the concept and production art for Laika’s iconic film version of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. It’s gorgeous and we’re lucky to have it following an accidental DMCA takedown. Go enjoy this amazing example of the sketch-to-screen process while you can.
The Unofficial Art Of Coraline
This next link, on how self-published authors can use machine learning and avoid its many pitfalls, is as much a note to self as anything. But there’s some good insights into wider uses of the technology, and it’s not going away, so, well, here we are.
Machine Learning vs. self-publishing
Charlie Jane Anders posts their top ten SF/Fantasy books of 2023. I’m not the biggest fan of end-of-the-year lists, but this one is chock-full of goodness, and a great primer for the changing face of my favourite genres.
This made me chuckle. College applications from some very well known authors. It’s an honest wonder how any of us ever got anywhere.
Robin Sloan, as ever, comes up with the goodness. in a post for Snarkmarket he neatly describes the two kinds of output a writer spits out, especially those who put a lot of it online. I guess you could describe The Swipe as my flow and Excuses And Half Truths my stock? Anyway, read the piece, you’ll get the idea.
Video games concerning food seem a little ridiculous to me, as they can’t portray the most important elements of cooking. You can’t eat the end product. However, the connections to family and history that are brought to the table are subjects which can be movingly and strikingly portrayed. I’m no convert but can see how games like the ones described by Lewis Gordon in the NYT can have an impact.
Talking about connections, here’s that man Gaiman again, discussing the death of social media and the rediscovery of a gentler, wider web. You know how much I agree with the fella here. I’ve been tending this garden tirelessly for years.
There’s no other way to Outro this week. I guess we’ll all be hearing even more Fairytale Of New York this season, so I choose to up the pace and jump about in celebration of a life well lived. Did I ever tell you about the time my shoe ended up on stage at a Pogues gig?
So long, Shane.
See you in seven, true believers.
