Damian Robb

I thought I’d give myself and the rest of you a break from me banging on about my views on writing and simply share with you some cool stuff the internet spewed up today.

First up is the potential news that we could well have a ninth planet…again. Poor Pluto. Coincidentally the guy who led to the demotion of Pluto to a dwarf planet, Mike Brown, is one of two people who have published a paper on this supposed new planet. I say supposed because that’s exactly what it is for now. The possible planet in question has yet to be sighted and is instead inferred by the observed movement of objects in the outer solar system caused by, what they think, is the gravitational pull of a giant planet. If true, this is huge news. Well, sort of. For us, the only known species capable of space travel in this solar system. There are obviously millions of planets out there and and any one planet has about as much relevance as one grain of sand on a beach. But for us it’s huge! It’s all about perspective, isn’t it?

Second is this surgeon’s claim that he has performed a head transplant on a monkey. Not for the faint hearted, but interesting for any one who likes head transplants and/or the movie Face/Off.

Third is actually somewhat writing based. I know, I promised, but, well, it is my blog. Anyway it’s more aimed at my screenwriting friends. That sounds like I’m bragging doesn’t it? But, yeah, I’ve got a lot of friends. The thing is a script for a comic written by the talented Kelly Sue DeConnick. I had a read of this today and I was inspired. Her writing is great. She not only starts by writing a thoughtful and entertaining letter to her artist, but also shares links to images throughout the script as a way of showing what she’s trying to describe. Brilliant. It cuts right to the chase and makes what’s in her head get into our heads as easily as possible. While sharing links in a screenplay is probably frowned upon, it does remind me to use quick real life examples of known things in my writing as descriptions, rather than try to describe it all in detail.

The fourth thing I have to share you’ve already seen. It’s the photo up above that I took of my friend Kath’s dog, Ben. He is beautiful, not only in appearance but also in nature.

Day done, blog done.

Talk soon.

Damian