Category Archives: Writing

Totally confirming what I already knew…

Posted on October 27, 2009 | 3 comments

I adore reading non-fiction about how the brain works, and a couple of days ago I was browsing through a hugely oversized book called “The Human Brain” by Rita Carver.  The pictures were pretty to look at, but I wasn’t truly interested by the book until I came to page 168: “Creativity and Madness”.  Here’s a quote:

Creativity and certain types of insanity share certain features, such as intense imagination, a tendency to link things that may seem unconnected to others, and openess to ideas that others may swiftly discount.  The difference between highly creative people and those who tip into madness is that creative people maintain insight.  They recognize that their imaginings are not real and remain able to control any bizarre symptoms and channel them into their work.

I always knew I don’t think the way ‘normal’ people do – now I know what sort of people I do think like.  I guess I’m not kidding when I say I have an insane brain!

Local Data

Rita Carter continues that: Very creative people score highly on tests for mental disorders but rarely fill the diagnostic criteria for these conditions, so their mental states can be seen as somewhere between normal and insane.

Yup. That is me all over.  Then she includes a cool little graph that shows the results of those test scores.  Insane people, are, as you might imagine right there at the top, in the 90%.  Normal people are at about 30-40%.  Writers (and yes, she did chose writers as her ‘highly creative’) score in at about 65-70%.

All this made me interested enough to do a quick google search.  I came up with this article, called “Creative Genius or Psychotic?”  Here’s a quote from the article:

Those who are gifted with a high level of creativity, are also predisposed to certain forms of psychoses. Indeed, even some of the traits long since considered to be associated with certain forms of mental illness are shared by those who are inherently creative. What follows will be a breakdown of creativity, intelligence and psychoses, and how they all are interrelated.

Is is psychotic of me to think this is deeply cool?

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Me and Cool Stuff not Related to Me.

Posted on September 1, 2009 | 2 comments

Okay, so I was doing pretty good at this blog thing for a little while there.  I was posting regularly at least!  My only excuse for failing lately with the regular posting is that I was costuming like a crazed thing.  Yup.  And for all that, I actually only completely two costumes: Elizabeth Bennet, Zombie Slayer and a steampunk outfit.  We won’t discuss the projects still laying about in various stages of completion…at least not here.  The fire has burned through, I’m in a relatively sane, quiet phase of my costuming (which means no deadlines for finishing anything until Halloween).  If you want pictures, etc, they are on my other blog.

This not to say that I’m sane, however.  What fun would that be?  It’s just that my mad-doctor focus has shifted back to my doll-making and writing.  Where it properly should be, perhaps, giving that those are the things which actually bring in some funding for the costuming.  It’s a vicious circle.  Sigh.

The dollmaking will be spoken of later, when there are pictures.  The writing, well, okay, let’s talk about that.  I’m about 13,000 words into my new novel.  It’s set in a mad, poisonous Elizabethan court in a city much like Venice (except that the water in the canals is not exactly…normal).  There are two girls, one a Queen trying to keep her throne, and the other a girl just trying to hold onto her mother’s life.  There’s a serpent/dragon, and Six Very Dangerous Men and at least Six Very Dangerous Women.  To help myself keep on track, I’m posting it chapter by chapter on Goodreads.com, right here.  You can check it out, if you wish – I adore comments, suggestions, and all feedback.  I’m trying to put at least one new chapter up a week, as I write it.  Slightly scary proposition, since I could easily write myself into a corner I can’t get out of, but it worked out okay last time…and it was fun.  And it kept me focussed, since there’s nothing like a message in my inbox, begging for a new chapter, to inspire me to write another ten pages instead of just sitting down to watch t.v.

And in the wider world of Cool Things, my deeply beloved author Scott Lynch is back from his mysterious disappearance, and is regularly blogging on his livejournal account once more.  He says he’s deep in revisions of the next Locke Lamora book, so I can finally breathe once more.  And better still, he’s posted author notes to the first chapter of Red Seas Under Red Skies, AND a first chapter of his upcoming novel, The Republic of Thieves. Right here.  I’m so conflicted.  So far I haven’t read it, because I’m one of those people who don’t read advance chapters.  Ever.  I’d rather wait and sit down with the entire book – it just feels so much more special.  But part of me just wants to make an exception.  Because it’s Scott Lynch.

BUT.  And here’s where it gets so cool I just might be about to pee myself, Scott Lynch is also writing a different, non-Lamora novel, and he’s posting it chapter by chapter on his website. For free.  Because he loves us, (and maybe he’s just a little sorry he vanished for so long?).  Go here.  Go now.  I have yet to read it, because I’m savoring the anticipation just a little bit.

qmain

What else?  The glory of that has temporarily blocked all blood to my memory…

Oh yes.  Bloglovin’.  Ever had that feeling that you read too many blogs?  And while you keep checking your favorites over and over hoping they’ve blogged something new, other blogs just keep slipping through the tracks and you don’t remember to check them for 6 months?  Been there, done that, will never do it again: I’ve discovered Bloglovin’.  Thanks to a reader of my site who apparently has my very own blog saved to that site (the incoming address showed up, and I got curious), I’ve discovered how awesome this site is.  You simply save all the addresses of the blogs you like to this site, and it checks them for you.  As soon as one of those blogs updates, Bloglovin’ shows a link to it on your personal Bloglovin’ page.  You only have to visit one page for all your blogging needs!  And if there’s a particular blog entry you like and want to save, simply click the little red heart next to it, and Bloglovin’ saves that entry for you on a separate page.  So you will be able to find it easily and visit it whenever you wish.

Before I found this site, I was using MyYahoo to keep track of my favorite blogs, but it lists the last five posts for every blog you follow, no matter how long it’s been since the blog updated.  Bloglovin’ shows only the new posts, so you don’t have to remember if you’ve read a particular entry or not.  My most genuine thanks to the reader of this blog who inadvertantly led me to Bloglovin’!!!

And finally, here is what’s stuck inside my brain this week:

Too much eye make-up, dude, but the song’s friggin’ addictive!

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Book Snobbery

Posted on June 26, 2009 | 5 comments

Someone I know asked how I liked this YA book she knew I’d been reading.  When I shrugged and said that the plot had sounded really good, but the book hadn’t lived up to my hopes for it, she said:  “I bet you wish someone would re-write it for adults.”

At the time I let it go, but the more I think about it, the more this sort of “adult book snobbery” is starting to offend me.  I see examples of it all the time, people who come into the library and ask for a specific book, but when I lead them to the Young Adult section, say “Oh, I didn’t know it was a kid’s book” and leave without it, automatically assuming (like the woman in the first example) that books written with children in mind are somehow below par.   And sometimes they are, of course; there are sub-standard books written for children every day and an unfortunate number of them are published.  But there are also plenty of sub-standard books written for adults. A good, well-written story cannot be predicted by which side of the library it’s shelved on.

Thankfully, but gradually, this perception is beginning to change.  Look at the success of Harry Potter; whole families (including grandparents) all reading and loving the same series of books.  Lest the adults who shy away from “children’s fiction” be embarrassed to be caught reading them, the publishers even came out with an “adult version” of Harry Potter – the same book, only with a less childish cover!  And now there’s the success of The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman.  When he turned the manuscript in to his publishers, they didn’t know what to do with it; was it for children?  For adults?  Which side of the Great Divide was it to shelved on?  Finally, they came out with multiple versions of the exact same book, ones to be shelved with the adult books, and ones to be shelved with the children’s fiction.

One of my favorite quotes by C.S. Lewis states: “A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest,” and this is absolutely true.  No, I don’t wish that YA book I didn’t enjoy was ‘re-written for adults’.  I wish it had been written well, period.

“You have to write the book that wants to be written.  And if the book will be too difficult for grownups, then you write it for children.”

– Madeleine L’Engle

“Writing for children is bloody difficult; books for children are as complex as their adult counterparts, and they should therefore be accorded the same respect.”

– Mark Haddon

“You must write for children in the same way as you do for adults.  Only better.”

– Maxim Gorky

“There are good books which are only for adults, because their comprehension presupposes adult experiences, but there are no good books which are only for children.”

– W. H. Auden

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The Tweet of Disappearing Authors

Posted on May 14, 2009 | 3 comments

I was doing my daily check of author Neil Gaiman’s blog (for those of you who don’t know, he’s funny, witty, very down-to-earth, and his blog is frequently charming in a number of different ways), and discovered he’d answered an interesting letter from a fan.

The fan wanted to know if Neil thought that author George RR Martin was breaking faith with his fans by not publishing (as of yet) the next book in Martin’s epic series.  The fan wanted to know whether – in this age of Twitter, blogs, and Facebook – George RR Martin has a responsibility to keep his fans informed on his writing progress.

Neil’s answer (short version):  George R.R. Martin is not your bitch.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/05/entitlement-issues.html

Which made me laugh, because while I too am awaiting the next volume of A Song of Ice and Fire, I’m also a writer.  And I understand how these things go, how you can’t always put a noose around your muse’s neck and drag her to your laptop.  And I can only imagine how annoying all those rabid fan emails must be, baying for the blood of your next-born novel.

But still.  If an author has made the effort to reach out to his fans via a blog or tweets, and if he knows he’s waaaay past his publishing deadline, wouldn’t it be at least common courtesy to let the fans know what’s happening?  I haven’t been following George RR Martin’s blog all that much, so I really don’t know what he’s done to notify the fans, but I’m thinking of another author here: Scott Lynch (whose book I am honestly more excited about than Martin’s).  Scott built up a relationship with his fans, answered letters, replied to comments on his livejournal, and then missed two book deadlines and…dropped off the face of the earth.  Completely gone.  As in nothing left to Google.

I really, really, don’t think I’m asking him to be my bitch because I’d like to know whether he’s still alive.  If he’s got personal stuff going on, fine.  He doesn’t have to go into detail – or any sort of detail at all.  But a brief note saying he’s alive would be nice.  Which, yes, he finally did – two years after his infamous hungover livejournal post (which led to all sorts of speculation that he had dropped of alcohol poisoning, that he had fallen to WarCrack, and all sorts of even more outlandish fates).

So please, to you authors out there with personal traumas, stubborn muses, or general visibility issues….just a little tweet next time before you disappear?

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Of Seagulls

Posted on April 21, 2009 | 2 comments

I had a conversation with a friend about my favorite birds.

#1 Ducks.  The way you feel when you see a human baby?  That’s the way I feel when I see a duck.  That makes me weird, I know, but I grew up handraising ducklings and taking walks in my garden with my Indian Runner, Sebastien, him heeling perfectly beside me, while we discussed the flowers and the work that needed to be done.  He had a lot of very insightful things to say.  If I’d understood Quack, I’d have picked up a lot of helpful tips.

#2 Crows.  How can anyone not like crows?  They’re so gothic and clever and interesting and opinionated – more like people than a few people I know.

#3 Seagulls.  And here’s where my friend stopped believing I was telling the truth.  He simply couldn’t believe that anyone would choose seagulls over something like, say, a meadowlark.

So partly for George, here’s a list of why:

1) Seagulls are art on the wing.  It fills me with pure wild happiness to watch them soaring and balancing on the wind, their long and delicate wings tipped to catch the blue of the sky.  No other bird flies with such grace.  I could watch them for hours – and I have.

2) Songbirds may have prettier songs, but the cry of a seagull is melancholy given voice.  It tears into me and sends shivers through me.  I count the seagull’s call as one of my favorite sounds – and not just measured against other birds’ songs, but against the world itself.

3) Seagulls have such personality.  Sit and throw french fries to a group of them, and after twenty minutes you’ll be able to tell each bird apart just by its personality.  Some are bullies, some shy, but even the shyest has a brashness, a bold belief that, yes, he is a marvelous bird, and deserving of respect.  We humans could learn from that.

Seagulls are a glory in this world, and people who think of them merely as “garbage birds” miss out on seeing so much.  People are conditioned, I think, to love songbirds, admire eagles, respect owls, and be charmed by chickadees and hummingbirds, but none of those birds are any more marvelous than a seagull.  It’s just that seagulls are so common that we overlook them, the way we overlook the reflection of mud puddles, and the magic of every ‘commonly’ exquisite thing.  That’s a great pity, and our great loss.

For myself, I never fail to look up in parking lots and parks, beside the water, and over the asphalt, seeking the glint of a soaring white wing, and listening for the shivering lonely cry.

If I could be any bird in the world for a single hour, I’d choose to be a seagull.  They fly the way my soul flies.

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Pebbles, Cabbage, Writing, and Rice.

Posted on March 22, 2009 | Leave a comment

Whew.  It’s done, the last chapter of the first draft of Arassa is posted on Goodreads.  I feel so light and floaty!

Writing is like this: the first word on the first page is a single pebble that was so shiny you had to pick it up and put it in your pocket.  But with every word, every pebble that followed, your load got heavier and heavier, until all your pockets were filled and you were staggering.  You carried this story around with you all the time, not only when you were actually writing.  Those characters, those images, those words, those stones; they’re always with you, and they are an actual, physical weight.  So when you get throw that off, it feels giddy.  Suddenly you’re not touched by gravity, and you could do anything, be anyone.  Feelings like this must be why other people do illegal drugs.

stacked-stones-for-web

121,000 words, and that’s just the first draft.  It’ll get longer in the second, because I have an entirely new viewpoint character to add.  Revision though, is anxiety-free fun.  All of the stress of connecting with your characters, of learning to listen to them so deeply that you can feel your way through the story as it needs to be, not necessarily the way you wished you could write it is gone.  Both of you are free.  You can finger-paint with words now, you can dance in mud puddles, you can throw back your head and drink the rain, because, whatever you do or don’t do, the Story is already there, tied into paper and words with the substance and weight of 121,000 pieces of stone.  Now you can look on it in wonder and delight, and realize that it isn’t yours, and it never was; it possesses a soul of its own.

But however good it feels to lay down that weight, I know it won’t be long until I’m eager to pick up the first pebble of something new.  I need to write, and revision, like I said, isn’t really writing.  Soon I’ll start feeling irritable and a little blue, and I’ll wander around the house in a glowering funk for a few days wondering how it is that I don’t seem to want to do anything.  And then I’ll think: Ah.  It’s been weeks. An it’s time.

I pick up the pen, and an hour later, I’m back to being me.  It’s not because it’s my ‘creative outlet’ – I have dozens of those.  My costuming, my doll-making – all of those I do because I can.  Writing is what I do because I have to, because it’s a physical requirement, like eating or sleeping.  I might be able to survive without it, like I’d be able to survive if I ate only cabbage and rice, but you could hardly say I’d be living.

And huh.  Who knew?  I googled “cabbage rice” to see if I’d come up with a good image to end this with, and I discovered there’s an actual recipe for “Cabbage Rice”.

cabbagerice

Ingredients

2 cups cooked rice
1/2 cup finely cut cabbage
Salt to taste
2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp bengalgram dal
1/2 tsp blackgram dal
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
Bit of asafoetida
1 tsp vangi bath powder
Few roasted cashews
Finely cut coriander leaves

In a microwave safe bowl, add the oil, mustard seeds, bengalgram dal and blackgram dal. Micro high for a minute. Now add the cabbage, mix well and micro high for a minute. Add a little water to it and cook covered on high for 3 to 4 minutes. Check if the cabbage is cooked well or else cook for another minute or so.

Now add turmeric powder, salt and vangi bath powder and micro high for 1 minute. See to it that it becomes dry.

Now add the cooked rice, roasted cashews, coriander leaves and mix well.

It calls for “Vangi Bath Powder”.  Hmmm.  They probably meant “Bhath Powder”, but I think I’ll still stick to writing!

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Thoughts on Arassa at 100,000 words

Posted on February 17, 2009 | 2 comments

Those of you following this blog probably know that I am writing a pseudo-historical fantasy novel set in pseudo-Ancient Rome.  (All the pseudos are because I’m far too lazy to write a straight-up historical novel, and even if I weren’t, my brain’s too crazy not to invent things like magic systems that use ink written into flesh.)

But what I wanted to talk about today was the Priest.  You’ve met him, you people currently reading my chapters-in-progress on Goodreads; he’s the guy who showed up rather suddenly seeming as though he should have had more history than he did.  The reason for that is, he does.  He has lots of history, you just don’t know it.  And you should, and I’m sorry, but that’s the thing about reading this writer’s first drafts – you don’t get the whole story, because often I don’t have it all until toward the end.

I’ve known since the beginning that I wanted another viewpoint character besides Arassa.  It was suggested to me that I use Pullo, and I really thought I would….except that Pullo never really popped into my head that way.  He never seemed interested in talking to me, the mere author, he’s too busy saving that frustrating woman he’s in love with.  So I let him be, and was content with writing only from Arassa’s POV.

But about a month ago, I discovered there was someone new inside my imagination, who did want to talk to me.  His name’s Warre, and he’s a Priest of Minos, and Arassa’s sworn enemy.  He’s a little peeved with how I’ve been representing his homeland, and wants to set the record straight.  What’s more, he knows what happened in Minos when Pullo went there to reclaim the royal treasury, and he knows what’s really going on with the gods and Arassa’s new powers…he even knows what’s been happening with Sulili while she was in the Minosan camp.  He’s perfect as a viewpoint character, because he knows the exact opposite of what Arassa knows, and he believes exactly the opposite things.

But, unfortunately, we’re already in the homestretch of the first draft, and I don’t feel I can stop the story dead while I go back and rewrite all the previous chapters and insert his POV.  My readers (who are still waiting for that kiss), might send a few brutal little gods after me.

First drafts are strange that way, when you write completely out of the right side of your brain, like I do.  No outlines, only a few grand ideas for what’s coming a few scenes ahead of where I’m currently writing, and few more scribbled notes of cool dialogue, character names, and description.  If I’m really, really lucky, I know the ending before I begin, or at least have a feeling for it.  For Arassa, I had nothing but the beginning, and that scene where Pullo kneels to Arassa and cuts his hands on his sword as a sign of fealty.  I had nothing else. I didn’t know about the Arcane, the magic system, the secondary characters like Micah or Aenius, or what would happen at the end.  Luckily, everything’s been pulling together pretty well, and luckier still (since I’m writing chapter-by-chapter and posting each one as I finish), I haven’t written myself into any plot dead ends or serious technical difficulties.  It’s been great fun, if constantly a bit nerve-wracking, and the feedback and comments from my readers (besides being helpful in content) has really helped keep my nose to the grindstone.  I feel an obligation to those readers now, and I feel really bad if I can’t get a new chapter posted at least once a week.

The worse thing about writing chapter by chapter and inventing as I go, is that the story isn’t as cohesive as it should be.  Since I often only find out important plot points as I write them down, I can’t fore-shadow as well as I should, and I leave dangling sub-plots longer than I should because I don’t know all the answers yet myself.  The perfect example being Sulili’s sudden return from the Minosan camp.  She went, she returned, and there wasn’t much said about it, because everything that happened, happened between her and the priest.  Arassa doesn’t know, so the readers (at this point) don’t get to know either. If it’s any consolation, I don’t really know what happened yet myself.  The priest and I are going to have to sit down with a cup of tea and have that long talk, one of these days!

The good news, overall, is that I can feel the ending to Arassa’s story quite close now.  I’ve written over 100,000 words – longer than I thought this one was going to be.  Silly me.  I thought this one was going to be a short book, maybe even a novella.

If you’re reading this and don’t know who the heck “Arassa” is, and would like to, feel free to check out my novel in progress on goodreads.

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1090425

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Doors and Dreams

Posted on February 13, 2009 | 2 comments

I’m annoyed at my sleeping self right now.  I dreamed last night that I was tearing down a brick wall and found a fabulous old door that had been covered over and hidden for perhaps hundreds of years.  It looked something like this:

door

One of those really old wood and metal ones.  It was covered in torn cobwebs, and I knew that there quite possibly something eerie or wicked behind it.  Why else would you barricade a door with iron and then bury it behind a wall of bricks?

And while I was dreaming this, I knew I was dreaming it, yet the Othermind still chose to walk away and not open it.  Come on, Othermind!  Here was a chance for free adventure, of the sort not frequently found in our waking life, and you walk us away from it?

Please.  We might have been scared, had a zombie or monster jumped out at us in the dark, but we would have lived.  And now we’re having to live with our infernal curiousity about what might have lain behind it.  How is that better?

My Othermind does this sort of wimping out on me far too often when we’re asleep.

But on the more contented side of things, there’s definitely the nucleus of a story there….

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Regency Zombies

Posted on February 6, 2009 | Leave a comment

Um…oh my gosh…what to say? A quarter of me thinks I should be outraged, the other three-quarters is insanely giggling, and then there’s the very small uncounted minority of me that is throwing her fist in the air and screaming “Finally! This is the best idea ever!”

What am I talking about?  This:

zombiejane

Written by a guy called Seth Grahame-Smith, it’s a novel that contains Jane Austen’s original text, with all-new scenes of zombie mayhem.  Before you jane-purists get too much up in arms, ready to slaughter the author much in the way that…oh…Elizabeth Bennet apparently slaughters zombies in this book, here’s a few words from the author that I yanked off his blog:

“For the record, I love Jane Austen.  She wrote comedies.  She was subversive and snarky and wore bonnets.  Good qualities, all.  And I love Pride and Prejudice.  I’d wager I read it cover-to-cover thirty times while writing P&P&Z.  It was the most fun I’ve ever had writing.  Seriously.”

So why would anyone who claims to like Austen write this clearly dispicable book of Austen-loathing?  From the author’s blog, again:

“Well, I’ll tell you why: because it’s funny.  Because the idea of uptight, early 19th Century aristocrats parading around in their finery, attending stuffy dances and taking tea in the midst of an all-out war with the undead struck me as really, really funny.  And because the thought of Elizabeth Bennet striking down hordes of zombies with a Katana sword struck me as awesome.  That’s the best answer I’ve got.”

I myself adore Jane Austen, always have and always will, but I think there’s room in my love for a few zombies.  And I have to say, I’m very curious how he managed to do it.  How does one take the original text, and work in zombies and Katana swords?  How does one even get the idea?

I think I like this Seth Grahame-Smith.

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Cool things of Sundry Description

Posted on January 28, 2009 | Leave a comment

Okay…cool things…what have I got?

Well, thanks to my friend Bonnie (who I hope is feeling better!), I have this mindboggling youtube timewaster.  Yup, that’s my favorite sort of internet thingee!

BarackPaperScissors:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2mcdS6ioo8

Go there.  You’ll love it.

I’m currently obsessed with genealogy, but even before I became obsessed with Ancestry.com, I wanted to know more about my Great-Grandmother Merritt.  I’ve always felt a sort of affinity with her, even though she died before I was born.  I’ve collected several family heirlooms that were hers.  But I was never able to find out more about the Merritt family’s origins – the only thing I had was the name of her father, and I could find out nothing about him.  It was deeply frustrating.

But then I was cruising ebay, and I found this guy:

http://myworld.ebay.com/boba216/

He offers 2 hours of professional genealogy research for a starting bid of $3.  You can’t beat that!  So I won my auction, and put him to work.  So far, he’s worked one hour, and traced the Merritts back five generations!  Very, very cool.  I may have to purchase some time later at his normal wage of $12 an hour and have him solve another problem that’s been bugging me.

In my own genealogy research, I’ve found I’m direct-blood related to King John I of England (he of Robin Hood infamy), King Duncan I of Scotland (he who was murdered by MacBeth), and Charlemagne.  I’ve also got a family line of Stuarts, and it turns out I’m some sort of cousin to Robert the Bruce (his daughter married my ancestor’s brother….)

What else is cool?  Oh yes.  I’m past the 100,000 word mark in Arassa!  Now I can only hope I reach the The End soon.  I don’t want to write another massive book after the last one I wrote (which was so huge I broke it up into two novels, and they were still on the longish side!)  This is the stage where I’m using lots and lots of pure determination and stubbornness.  Arassa is still fun to write, but it’s so tempting to put it aside and work on something new and different.  The Othermind isn’t helping, either, because lately I’ve been positively bombarded with images and ideas for the next book.  They sneak up on me, these ideas.  It’s a good sign that I’m reaching the end of Arassa, though.

This costumer’s blog is awesome (and cool).

http://theartofclothes.blogspot.com/

She’s one of the people I want to grow up to be.  I’m so bloody envious of her hand-sewn eyelets on her new corset-in-the-making, that I am probably going to attempt some on my new corset.  And look!  I’ve got the boning for that corset!

4e04_1_b

It’s basically 5mm lengths of wooden sticks.  Technically, they’re used for basket-making, but if you want to make a really, really authentic corset…well, they didn’t have plastic boning in the 1700s, did they?

I’ll leave you with this image of two indian runner ducks…

250px-runner-ducks

….because let’s face it.

Ducks are basically the coolest things on the planet.

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