speechless with geeker joy

Neil Gaiman has this link in his blog:

The mummy's curse: historical cohort study

It's a statistical analysis of the effects of the alleged curse on the tomb of Tutankhamen. It's short, and you don't have to know even an iota of statistics (I sure don't) to follow the argument.

And it's worth the read.

metaphors for writing

Most creative people have metaphors for their process, and I think those metaphors are one of the most interesting things about creativity: how our brains conceptualize what's going on when we make up a story or a poem, a picture, a necklace, a song, a quilt pattern, an academic argument ...

My metaphor for writing is the Great Grimpen Mire from The Hound of the Baskervilles. It's a trackless quagmire; you can only find your way safely through it by following the flags; put a foot wrong and you start sinking. And, oh yeah, there's these gigantic red-eyed Hounds (and I mean that capital "H") out there, roaming around, walking on top of the quicksand the way Legolas walks on top of snow, watching, drooling a little, waiting for you to become weak and helpless, so they can stand and laugh at you while you sink. Because they know, and you know, that biting your head off would just make things too easy for you.

So, in my metaphor, writers' block is when you reach a safe tussock, look around, and can't see the next flag, just endless vistas of green-gray, oozing sludge, each foot of which may or may not be safe to walk on.

And the hardest and most necessary thing in the world is to make that leap of faith, to say to yourself, I know where the next flag is, even if I can't see it, and to start walking.