What happens when you take public-domain classics and add a pop-culture inspired pulp cover to them? You get Pulp! The Classics. This is probably my favourite.
genre stuff
Comic book heroes with average body types
Comic superheroes aren’t exactly realistic in any way, let alone body type. But what if they were? There are loads of them that have been Photoshopped by Bulimia.com – it’s pretty interesting to see.
Game Soundtracks
Kotaku has a list of the best game soundtracks from last year. I think it’s always worth highlighting some of these, as they make for excellent writing music (especially the Destiny game, which they highlighted). I’ve written a couple of lists myself over the years, largely film-based, but I’ve recently been enjoying a mix of old and new computer game soundtracks.
The Elder Scrolls IV and V (Oblivion and Skyrim) are absolutely superb for writing fantasy fiction, as is the Dead Space franchise and Dragon Age. Assassins Creed knock out tons of soundtracks, but can feel a bit same-y after a while. Some of the old World of Warcraft soundtracks can be fun as well.
Anything good I’m missing out on?
Videogames & Mechanics
An interesting, ten-minute film by PBS about whether videogames are actually about their mechanics. Or not.
Busy, Meat, Whisky
Worldcon whizzed by at the weekend, hence the lack of activity here. There’s far too much to talk about, so I’ll simply say it was a lot of fun, good to meet new faces and catch up with grizzled old ones. The only thing to add is that, on my whisky site, I’ve written about the Iain Banks memorial whisky tasting, which was excellent.
And, whilst I stayed over in London, I found some time to talk about meat. Lovely meat.
Nine Worlds
That’s me on the ‘Food in Fantasy’ panel, alongside Esther Saxey, Ed Cox, and the especially entertaining Gail Carriger. (Photo stolen shamelessly from the J for Jetpack Twitter account.)
This was the first time I’d attended Nine Worlds, which is now in its second year. I have to say it was one of the most positive, inclusive and relaxed genre conventions I’ve ever been to. In fact, I’d say it was easily the most well-organised, thoughtful and well-planned conventions. It was great to see a new generation of SFF geeks in attendance, too.
I could only make it for one day, but next year I’ll almost certainly try to make it there for two days.
Next stop, Fantasy in the Court on Tuesday night, and then Worldcon next weekend.
Twitter Q&A
Just a heads-up that on Thursday, 6pm UK time, I’ll be doing a Twitter Q&A with the folk at Tor UK (and anyone else who wants to pitch in). The hashtag for the session will be #MarkAtTor. So if you’re online, do say hello!