As those of you who follow me on Twitter may already know, I've been working on my house all week. Okay, let's be real: I've been working on it off and on for years. But this past week has been constant.
It's been... Interesting.
Don't get me wrong: I like DIY. There is something satisfying about starting with an ugly wall and finishing with a beautiful backsplash and knowing that that backsplash will possibly still be there, looking beautiful and catching kitchen messes, in fifty or a hundred years. (If humans manage to survive that long.)
But that in-between part? It's pretty messy. A lot like writing, actually.
But that's a topic for another blog post.
Today, because it's Friday and the week was long, I want to talk about a couple great people whose work has kept me company while the ceiling of my office rained plaster dust down onto my head.*
The first person is Tim Blais, creator of AcapellaScience, which is exactly what it sounds like: he takes popular songs, writes new sciencey lyrics for them, converts the background instrumentals into a capella parts, records himself singing the whole thing, and puts it on YouTube for the rest of the world to enjoy. His videos are excellent and educational and hella complicated to make, and I basically want to just throw money at him because what he is doing is simultaneously useful and brilliant and FUN. His videos are so, so much fun, you guys. You will be dancing to gravitational waves and evolutionary theory All. Night. Long.
The other person I want you to check out -- and this is really for the writers in the room -- is literary agent Jennifer Laughran, aka Literaticat on twitter, and her podcast series, LiteratiCast. She invites guests from the publishing industry (editors, other agents, authors, other knowledgeable people) to chat and answer questions about their specific area of expertise, and it is really, really, REALLY helpful! As in: if you are or want to be an author, you Need To Know These Things! They come out weekly (I think? Maybe bi-weekly -- I don't know, because I've been binge-listening), and they are another thing I have been throwing my money at this week.
Who have you discovered lately? What's your jam?
*My leveling the ceiling by nailing fiberboard panels to it possibly had something to do with this.