5 things, many though not all of them horse-related

1. (via @bethmeacham over on Twitter) Another candidate for a very special hell is whoever stole a six-year-old's horse.

2. Congratulations to this year's Nebula winners, and also to the new SFWA officers!

3. Judith Tarr on 10 Ways To Prove You Didn't Do Your Horse Homework and Things Horse People Take For Granted.

4. This is a Trakehner stallion named Rubinesque *Pb*. I don't know who his rider is, or who the photographer is, but this is seriously one of the best portrait photos I think I've ever seen.

5. (via brisingamen) Videos of sloths and a very happy slow loris. (Also, please do follow the links from the sloth video back to the Amphibian Avenger's fascinating blog.)

another thought on writer's block

Another thing that doesn't work with writer's block? Punishing yourself.

This one is tricky, because there are times when what looks like writer's block is really a screaming howling toddler temper tantrum case of the Don't Wannas. In that instance, the right thing to do is to sit yourself down in front of the manuscript and be firm about the fact that you have to work on it. Even if you'd rather poke pencils in your eyes or tow the African Queen through a leech-infested swamp.

But it's easy--at least, it's easy for me--for "discipline" to slide over into "punishment." Case in point: I've been staring at a scene in the wolf book for the best part of a week, stuck like a thing that is never going to move again, and all the while, I knew that I knew what happened in the next scene. But, no. This was the scene I was stuck on; therefore, this was the scene I had to write Finally, last night, I caught up to myself, said, "Dude, stop being an idiot," and skipped ahead to the scene I knew. And wrote a page and a half. Which isn't, you know, a lot, but in comparison to the parched and barren misery of the previous several days, it's beautiful.

Stubbornness is one of the most valuable character traits a writer can have, but you have to be mindful about it. Be sure you're channeling it constructively, and not just using it to hurt yourself with. And I point to myself as Exhibit A.

psa re: bread pans, plus some good old fashioned skiffy sensawunda from the real world

If you are thinking about the Chantal bread pans, as I know some of you are, I can report that they do make very nice bread, but it is essential to the success of the enterprise that you use a non-stick cooking spray (e.g., PAM). Just FYI.

And if you couldn't care less about bread pans, have this COMPLETELY AWESOME PHOTOGRAPH of the ISS and Atlantis transiting the Sun. (Yes, our Sun.) And, as Phil Plait says, the big version is so totally worth the click.