September blog round-up

Okay, that’s a boring title. Maybe I should have recycled some previous hits, like BLOGS: THREAT OR MENACE?, or something tongue-in-buttcheek like HELL COMES TO BLOGTOWN.

But it’s been a long week at the day job, and my imagination banks are wrung dry and would really appreciate being topped up with bourbon and sleep. So, since this is a light mid-week post and I want to save my A-grade material for the paid bigger post on Sunday, I thought I might work my way through my Google Reader blogroll and point y’all at much better blog posts than this one that were written in September (and early October, just ‘cos I can).

(PS I know I was supposed to post this earlier in the week. I got distracted. THIS IS WHY I CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS.)

• At Wait Here For Further Instructions, Cam Rogers has a nice one-two punch looking at zombies – the first post looking at why the trope appeals to us, and the second building on that by interpreting Fight Club as a zombie movie. It’s clever stuff, and points out why zombies have this sticking power in our imagination despite their lack of sexiness or basic hygiene.
• At Corporate Cannibal, Dmetri Kakmi does an excellent analysis of how Hamlet fits the parameters of Nietzsche’s ‘Dionysiac Man’, which is a really intelligent breakdown of my favourite play.
• At Shattersnipe, Foz Meadows has done a series of posts criticising the use of female characters in the last few episodes of Doctor Who. I haven’t read those, ‘cos I haven’t seen past Season One of the new Who yet (I know, I know, shut up). But she also wrote two posts I really enjoyed – one on the way social bigotry gets imprinted on children, and the other on how the left destroys minority leaders through unrealistic expectations. Foz is writing some very smart stuff right now, and you should be reading it.
• Jay Kristoff (Literary Giant) talks about the process of editing a manuscript and taking in editor’s notes. Oh, and why he stopped following you on Twitter.
• Over at If You Must Write, Louise Cusack discusses the ways in which bottlenecked creativity expresses itself in odd places. Also, congrats to Louise on the news that her Shadow Through Time trilogy is being internationally republished by Macmillan in ebook form!
• The Conflux 7 convention was held in Sydney last weekend. Alan Baxter gives a good overview of the event, while Talie Helene found herself in the odd position of explaining that there are other female genre writers in Melbourne besides Kirstyn McDermott.
• Paul Burnam talks about the power of the events around you and how sudden crises can inspire writers – and inspire regret.
• Jason Nahrung has some interesting thoughts on the market value of writing (especially short fiction) and what kinds of payment/rewards are worth pursuing. I’m not 100% sure I agree with him – I like getting cold hard cash for my brilliant wordplay whenever possible – but he’s got me thinking more about it.
• Finally, Chuck Wendig has pushed out a metric shit-tonne of blog posts at Terrible Minds, as usual, and if we could harness his relentless and manic energy we’d never need to drill for oil again. But his most recent post is the most interesting to me, in which he asks whether the focus on self-publishing and authorial control over publication is overshadowing the importance of craft – in other words, does it matter if you keep control over your work if your work isn’t that good? I would have thought that was a fairly straightforward and sensible position, but e-publishing success story Joe Konrath has come out swinging in the comments and suddenly shit is getting crazy. Must-read stuff.

As for me, well, I keep on keeping on. I plan to get back into the sweary polemics this weekend, which should make for a more interesting read.

(Incidentally, if this kind of overview post is interesting to you, let me know in the comments. For that matter, tell me if it sucks possum ringpiece. Just talk to me. I’m so lonely.)