Screenwriting is a complicated discipline -- you often serve two conflicting masters, and what is good on the page isn't always good on the screen, and vice-versa. The NYT has an article about Paddy Chayefsky's process for writing Network. This is interesting for prose and screen writers alike. Similarly, George R. R. Martin has a blog up about how his screenwriting experience serves the final steps in editing his upcoming novel.
There's been a lot of activity and discussion about the pros and cons of self-publishing and ebooks. Neal Pollack makes his case for self-publishing. Luc Sante has a review of Geoff Dyer's work and career, notable because he illuminates the problem of branding for eclectic writers. Paul Dugid has a review which chronicles several books that seek to foresee the future of books. The digital age has widened democracy and it has also blurred the lines between markets and producers. Victoria Strauss shows how some legitimate agencies are cutting out publishers and taking their books to market directly.
The future keeps catching up to Arcadian Park. I swear this book is going to be obsolete before it ever makes it to the public. DNA may replace chips as the engine of computers. The Economist has an article which describes how the military is using mathematical formulas to predict enemy activity based on previous actions. On the one hand, the sounds like Academy foolishness, on the other hand, it's a lot like what goes on in my own Security Administration. Look here, we've got stealth drones, stealth insertion choppers, but also stealth support copters. In more spook news, here's a profile of Blackbird, a private company which handles much of the war on terror's tracking needs. I mention it here because their smart tracker's ability to discover their own wireless access points is very similar to some of the AI I have in my book.
Another high-tech innovation. Space beer.
Finally, this is more relevant to my film work, but I cannot say how happy I am that a science fiction blog has connected the dots between dance, surrealism and fantastic filmmaking. Bravo, Genevieve Valentine!
