Tales from the Cellar

Thanks to my buddy Stewie, upgrading to 2.6 was a breeze. He suggested installing the automatic upgrade plugin, and it didn’t disappoint. The process couldn’t have been easier.  On the upgrade page, just click through each step, and after about 5 clicks (and two downloads–the site and database backups), you’re done. Wow!

Oh, and Stewie, Custom Smilies has been updated. The new version is here.

Welcome to talesfromthecellar.com.

The old domain will remain active for a while, and will resolve to the new one.  So it will mostly be invisible. But it’s a lot easier to say, “go to talesfromthecellar.com.” Don’t cha think?

I read a post on Blendernation, a cornerstone of the Blender 3D community, that I felt bared repeating–for two reasons.

First, Colin Levy (Peerless Productions), created a 30 second public service announcement (PSA) as an entry for PSAId, a contest sponsored by the Center for International Disaster Information (CIDI). It’s very impressive and has a strong message; no wonder it was a finalist. You can view his entry here.

Second, because he uploaded a video on how he used Blender 3D for camera mapping in order to create the proper setting for the scene. He also has a full camera mapping tutorial on his Web site.

Sean Lindsay over at 101 Reasons to Stop Writing has this to say about the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Hint: remember the Infinite Monkey Theory?

Thank God he didn’t get into NaBloPoMo.

Here are a few blogs I failed to mention in my previous post, Great Blogs for Writers.

Scriptwriting - Oscar-nominated Roger S. H. Schulman shares knowledge from his experiences writing for TV and film.

The Artful Writer - Craig Mazin, who wrote Scary Movie 3, talks about screenwriting, with a focus on the WGA.

Seriocity - TeeVee writer Kay Reindl (Haunted, Millennium, The Dead Zone) shares witticisms on genre writing for the boob tube. Block some time for these posts; they tend to be long.

The Rejecter - A literary agent’s advice to aspiring writers who want to get published. The bad news is about 95% of you won’t.

I frequent quite a few blogs, many of them posted by professional screenwriters, literary agents, and editors. While some are listed in my blogroll (left), I thought I’d post them and some others, along with commentary on why I read them regularly.

Screenwriters

John August - He’s written many successful films, including Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, Corpse Bride and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He also wrote one of my favorite dark comedies, Go. His blog is filled with useful, and very practical, information for screenwriters. Lately he’s been documenting his experiences as the director of The Nines, a film he also wrote. At the time of this writing, The Nines is in limited release.

Ken Levine - He was a head writer for M*A*S*H (one of my favorite shows), and has written for The Simpsons, Cheers, Frasier, and many more shows. While he mostly posts reviews (including a comprehensive recap of American Idol, which appears to be his favorite show), favorite clips of famous comedy shows, and personal anecdotes, he also occasionally shares script samples and great tips for screenwriters, particularly TV writers.

Alex Epstein (Complications Ensue) - A Canadian screenwriter and former development executive. He also wrote Crafty Screenwriting (which I read and found very informative) and Crafty TV Writing. He posts regularly, and often answers reader questions.

Jane Espenson (Jane In Progress) - A TV screenwriter/producer with credits like Buffy (she worked with Joss, how cool is that?), Battlestar Galactica, Tru Calling, and Eureka. She answers reader questions often, and offers a lot of great advice for aspiring TV writers.

Literary Agents

Pub Rants - One of the better blogging agents (the best, Miss Snark, is gone; more on that in a sec.) She answers publishing, querying, and writing questions, and offers insider advice on the publishing industry.

Miss Snark, the literary agent - Though she retired, her informative, witty, blunt, and, well… snarky blog remains available. This is a must read for any aspiring writer.

Editors

Evil Editor, why you don’t get published - A humorous look at the slush pile. With staples like New Beginning, which allows blog readers (minions) to finish someone’s opening page, and Face Lift, an amusing critique of submitted queries, this blog illustrates why most writing is unpublishable. But you definitely learn a lot as you laugh, and cry.

Flogging the quill - Home of the Flogometer. Ray Rhamey takes a more serious look at how hard it is to get published. He evaluates the first page of your novel, and explains in great detail why he would or wouldn’t turn the page. His editing comments are well worth the exercise.

Just Plain Funny

101 Reasons to Stop Writing - You might as well give up right now; it’s just not worth it. That’s the message of this site. This blog is a humorous look at how bad most writing is, and why you wouldn’t even want to be a writer in the first place. Not everyone finds it funny, as you will see in the comments, but the posts are often hilarious–and sometimes informative. And don’t forget to check out the worst cliche’ poll.

Stewie over at Incoherent Thoughts tagged me with a cultural assignment. Of course that was a month ago, which shows you how long I’ve been neglecting this blog. Did I just have a kid or something?

Anyway, here’s the assignment: Go to Wikipedia, type in your birthday (month and day) and list 3 events, 2 births, 1 holiday. The tagging has been played out. Besides, I don’t get enough readers to tag.

On June 30th, the following crap happened:

Events

1805 - The U.S. Congress organizes Michigan Territory. - so my Aunt would have somewhere to live.

1859 - French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope. - he forgot his barrel.

1997 - First Harry Potter book is published. - and, according to the religious right, the devil worshiping began.

Births

1286 - John de Warenne, 8th Earl of Surrey, English politician - no clue who this is, but he sounds important.

1934 - Harry Blackstone Jr., American magician - *poofed* into existence.

1959 - Vincent D’Onofrio, American actor - Star of Law & Order: CI. He’s older than I thought.

Deaths (not mentioned, but I wanted to check anyway)

2003 - Buddy Hackett, American comic - D’oh, Buddy Hacket died on my birthday. Not funny.

Holidays

Independence Day in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. - cool!

My buddy Stewie, from Incoherent Thoughts, mentioned ScribeFire in his latest post.

In a nutshell, ScribeFire is a Firefox extension that turns the bottom half of your browser into a blog editor. Once you set up a connection to your blog, you can pull this bad boy up and blog away, publishing directly to your blog — without logging in to your site.

The interface is simple, yet robust, and you can even work with images:

Powered by ScribeFire.