I’ve been kicking around the idea of blogging more often than the usual Sunday/Wednesday ROW80 check-ins.  I have a rather ambitious idea for daily themed blog posts, but given my very, very short attention span and notorious inability to follow-through on my most inspired and brilliant plans, it might all fall through.  But for the moment, I dub Mondays ‘Linkspam Mondays,’ where I share interesting articles and other sparkly bits gleaned from the interwebs.  Think of me as a particularly industrious spider, hoarding glittering gems of internet goodness, for your weekly enjoyment.  😀

So what’s on the list for today?

Edwardian interiors, from the wonderful Edwardian Promenade

Edwardian Promenade, a source for all things related to the Edwardian Era, posted a useful and interesting look at the period’s interior design.  One of the details that I find particularly interesting is how the decline in domestic labor (servants, particularly those working with a family for life) contributed to the need for ‘time-saving’ technologies, particularly because it ties in with patterns that I’ve noticed in etiquette books from the 1920s.  Writers like Emily Post highlighted the “servant problem,” and proposed potential solutions for to make the lives of servant-less women easier.

“The First Cyborg Horror Story,” from io9

I saw this on my twitter feed this morning and about died.  I’m in the midst of trying to brainstorm technology and gadgetry for my steampunk tale, tell me no lies, so seeing this English ballad about a man with a mechanical arm (published in the 1830s, no less) is really fascinating to check out.  The author’s discussion of 19th century fears and preoccupations with the impact of technology is thought-provoking as well.

“Improving Creativity: The Connect Brainset,” from Livia Blackburne

A look at the brain and how we can improve our creativity, which is useful not only for working on fiction, but any other endeavors that require a bendy, elastic sort of mind and the ability to engage in problem-solving (I’ve found that academic research is actually an incredibly creative endeavor, and requires many of the same skills as fiction-writing). The other 2 installments in Livia’s series on the creative mind are also really useful to check out: the Absorb and Envision mindsets.

“Writing the Killing: Managing the Threads with Scrivener,” from David Hewson

I LOVE Scrivener so very, very much.  In fact, I think it helped to rescue me from getting muddled in length word documents, and has made me a much better writer, both for fiction and my academic work (I’ve blogged about using Scrivener for academic writing here).  Anyway, author David Hewson blogged today about how he uses Scrivener to manage the different storylines in his novels.  He includes some excellent tips that I will have to utilize, especially as my WIPs grow more complex.