Trekking Tuesday - it's back!

I haven't done Trekking Tuesday for a long while. I come across all sorts of information in my day, so this is my way of sharing. :D



JK Rowling will do a Harry Potter play

According to People, the play will be about Harry in his pre-Hogwarts years. Yep, living with his sucky relatives.




Ever wanted to know the difference between a geek and a nerd?
Well here it is...

source: Slackpropagation



A Space 2014 Calendar
A printable calendar brought to you by @chandraxray who is an observatory whose ongoing mission is to study the X-ray Universe.


Five amazing university libraries
Libraries continue to be the hub of academic life (thank goodness). Check out these amazing looking libraries.

Law Library at University of Zurich
Source: TimesHigherEducation

Amazing 3D printing
Wow, this is amazing - In the US, a teenage boy uses 3-D printer at a library to make a hand for a younger friend.



Education not what it used to be
School libraries closed for years in San Diego. This got to me - I lived at my school library growing up and for children not to have access, is such a shame.

source: Voice of San Diego

Librarians still needed
According to the NY Daily News, the Brooklyn library answered 3.5 million questions in 2013. We live in an information age, but it's not always easy for people to decipher the information out there. That's where librarians come in.


Long live libraries!

Stolen book stats
I can't believe how many books that were stolen or forgotten to be returned at the Brooklyn library in 2012. I've not returned one book in my lifetime and I did track down the person who I borrowed it from years later. I must admit I do hold a few books that I've borrowed from friends but it's that 'take your time'. Dangerous with me when my reading pile is a reading mountain range.




Bookmarks 
The Book Depository has a new batch of bookmarks that were chosen via a competition. They're all amazing and different. I love the imagination of this one...

and these two are cute...

 

and this one has an owl in it...

Images from the Book Depository site

Read a novel in 90 minutes

This new App apparently teaches your brain to do just that. We read at about 220 words per minute but this helps get your speed up to 500 wpm. I think you will need to look at the screen for way longer than I did. 250 was comfortable but a couple of words went past me, so 350 and 500 wpm - nope. See what you think. 

Gilmore Girls and books
This one made me laugh as I'm a GG fan. In the series, Rory reads a lot of books. Here's the list of ALL the 339 books mentioned during the series. I thought this would be a good challenge and if you read the article, someone has already started this! Go them. Alas, I have too many books to read but you know that this will be niggling at me to do, right?


Girl power! 
If you don't know about the Stella Awards? They are to help celebrate Australian Women's writing in both fiction and non-fiction. The prize is named after one of Australia’s iconic female authors, Stella Maria ‘Miles’ Franklin, and was awarded for the first time in 2013.

The Stella was to show that women writers can indeed write amazing books as as you will see from this link - reviewers on the whole are biased against women.

See the shortlist here.



Hope you enjoyed the first column back!

~yia~

Trekking Tuesday

Hi and welcome to another edition of Trekking Tuesday.



Booktopia's Top 50
The full list is here. Check out some of the romance writers and buddies, including Keri Arthur, Anna Campbell, and Rachael Johns (at No. 10!!)


Art

3D artwork by Tiago Hoisel

I love this one. The wolf look sooo happy. Too bad the Reds don't.

Fashion site

http://www.fashion-era.com/index.htm

Al Gore and his new book

Youtube link

The Big Bang Theory Flash Mob (thanks to Anita Joy)

Youtube link

GenreCon is Go!

Genrecon has early registrations.

Hubble Rules

Check out these great pictures from the Hubble Telescope. Amazing. 

Looks like an angel. 

This made me laugh - over at Bitten By Paranormal Romance, the P.Nis asks for a raise.

Star Wars news

Over on GeekyGirlsLoveSciFi, there's news that Disney plans 3 more Star Wars movies with J.J. Abrams at the healm. Cool! Fingers crossed it has a feeling of the first trilogy. 

Man of Steel

Apparently, the new film later out this year is going away from it's comic book roots. It'll be interesting to see as it's directed by Zack Snyder of 300 fame (who also did Sucker Punch, which storywise sucked but visually was amazing). Can't wait to see Henry Cavill in action.

Supanova

George R.R. Martin is coming to Adelaide! Hell, yeah. How cool is that?

And that's it for this week.

~yia~

Trekking Tuesday

Trekking Tuesday was meant to be last week but since I forgot to schedule, I'm posting it today.



Award nominations

The ARR(Australian Romance Reader) Award nominations are out and it's fantastic to so many of my buddies on the list, including ones who have visited this blog.

Congratulations to Christina Ashcroft, Annie Seaton, Kaz Delaney, Shona Husk, Tracey O'Hara, Kylie Griffin, M.J. Scott, Rebekah Turner, Erica Hayes, Paula Roe, Annie West, Amy Andrews, Barbara Hannay, Anne Gracie, Anne Stuart, Michelle Diener, Anna Campbell, Beverley Oakley....deep breath.... Cathryn Hein, Rachael Johns, Imelda Evans, Jess Dee, Melanie Milburne, Kelly Hunter, Sarah Mayberry, Keziah Hill, Mel Tescho, Lexxie Couper, Denise Rossetti, Helene Young, Bronwyn Parry, Caitlyn Nicholas, Nikki Logan, Bec McMaster, Christina Brooke, Fiona Lowe, Nicola Marsh, Danielle Lisle, and more....

(blue = DarkSiders ; green = bootcampers)



Blogs
Jim C Hines with another pose for Charity...

and the mega one...

Caricatures by Andre Carrilho at Inspire First. Here are just a couple of them.

All Things Urban Fantasy have the winners of their 2012 Cover Contest...

The overall winner....

Just love the typography of Iced and how the ice is used in the cover to reflect a barren world. As well as the remains of buildings. It's very cool! And yep, it had been in one of my cover posts late last year.


Booktopia will be announcing the Top 50 Australian authors as voted on their blog. So far 30-50 have been announced.



Other

I'm annoyed. Apparently, Alphas, a tv show on SciFi is not going to be renewed for a season 3. Way to go. I mean I don't want to know what happens to the characters do I. Sigh.


~yia~

Tuesday Trekking & Tuesday Tunes!

I'm back with another installment of Tuesday Trekking, but what's this a Tuesday Tune as well. Yes, I saw a clip on FB and had to share.


Cover poses for Charity
First up, Fantasy author, Jim C. Stines is raising money for charity by doing cover art poses.

Example:

You can find out more about why here (and at end see links to poses), and also see the pose off with John Scalzi. Great job, guys.


Websites, blogs, and all that jazz

Nikki Logan
The 12 Dogs...I mean, days, of Christmas has started on Nikki's blog.


Alexandra Sokoloff
Check out Alexandra's new website and blog - looks mega cool. (Alexandra was a guest speaker at Diamonds Are Forever this year, and is an all round cool lady).

Cornell Deville
Musa author, Cornell has a new Youtube channel where he will be uploading videos to help fellow authors along in their journey. You can find it here.

Here's the intro video.



Youtube link


Writing News...

Romance Writers of Australia have started up The Ella - the published novella competition. Details is on their website.

DarkSider Nicole Murphy will be doing Year of the Novel Courses. One in person at the ACT Writer's Centre. Details here. She is also be tutoring the Kim Wilkins developed course online thanks to the Queensland Writer's Centre. Details here.


Artwork links

http://www.inspirefirst.com/2011/08/29/oscar-ramos-illustrations/
Love the first few especially.

Artist: Oscar Ramos

And now for the Tune.... Led Zeppelin's Black Dog performed in 2007 (how I missed this concert at the time, I don't know).



Link


~yia~

Introducing.... Trekking Tuesday

What? I hear you ask. But isn't Tuesday for Tunes. Yes, there is Tuesday Tunes but there's room for more on Tuesdays.

What is Trekking Tuesday?

It's a trek of links I've found on the internet that I can share. The blog can get full with posts and so this way, I can let you know the cool stuff I've found.

Like....

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander (Cross Stitch) gets picked up.
Outlander will get the Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica fame) treatment. Well or at least get a look at. Let's hope it goes further and they do something incredible for this as they've done  with Game of Thrones. Maybe Game of Thrones is showing that complex books can be done.

Source: http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/11/diana-gabaldons-outlander-heads-to-starz/

Escape Publishing is launched ...
Escape Publishing is Harlequin Australia's digital imprint. It looks fresh and exciting.
http://www.escapepublishing.com.au

and here are a couple of the book covers by RWAus members

 

The Princess Bride movie turns 25 this year, and the book will turn 40. 
I watched the film only a few years back and I loved it. It's funny, cheesy, has great wit and tongue in cheek.

If you look at the movie poster, you can read the font 'The Princess Bride' upside down as well. I haven't read the book - another on the large of books to read.

Artwork
Yes, I know I have Stunning Saturday, but there so much more out there.

See more at: http://www.inspirefirst.com/2011/02/18/black-white-illustrations-nanami-cowdroy

See more at: http://www.cruzine.com/2012/06/18/cool-drawings-illustrations-stefan-zsaitsits

 

 See more at: http://www.cruzine.com/2012/02/24/super-heroes-illustrations

Blogs

Bootcamper Nikki Logan has interesting posts every day. 

This week there was one on the English language and those pesky silent letters.

http://www.nikkilogan.com.au/when-letters-go-silent

Check out writing buddy Helene Young's photos of the solar eclipse

http://www.heleneyoung.com/2012/11/solar-eclipse

Turn down that publishing contract

This great post at Writer's Beware reminds us to not just accept any publishing contract that comes our way. In the long run, you could be better off by turning that contract down.

http://accrispin.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/guest-blog-post-mustering-courage-to.html

Youtube

Movember: David's Big problem - LOL

http://youtu.be/scY6peTC6Rs

Social Media Revolution 2012 (was on fellow Wench, Dusty Crabtree's blog)

http://youtu.be/dA5Fn_Q10Tk

Okay, that's it for the first Trekking Tuesday. What do you think? Something to keep on with?

~yia~