Some Monday Morning Treasure

I keep hoarding things I want to show you all, and since none of them are quite worth a whole post, I thought I’d pile them up like treasure for you here. It’s like I’m your own personal dragon.

So come on, it’s Monday. Slack off for a few minutes and click around. I promise it will be fun. Like a little adventure from your desk, there and back again, as it were. It’s like I’m your own personal wizard.

(Can you tell I was reading The Lord of the Rings this weekend? Out loud to my kids outside on a beautiful fall day while they carved pumpkins. This was, incidentally, how LOTR was meant to be read.)

My hobbits taking a rest from their adventures and waiting for elevensies. And now I promise I’m done with the LOTR references.

Speaking of dragons (sorry! not really done with the references!), have you seen this? How awesome is that guy? I can’t decide if I like his artwork or his beard better.
Take the time this week to read Mark Twain’s “How to Tell a Story.” Not only will it make you laugh, you’ll get a great ghost story to use on your kids on Friday. (I don’t recommend using the accent. Twain was a man of his time.)
Icelanders haven’t totally given up their belief in fairies. I absolutely loved this article, most of all because there was no hint of mocking. We should all leave a little more room for the magical and mysterious.
The 22 rules of storytelling, as tweeted by Emma Coats, Pixar storyboard artist. These are pretty great. I particularly loved #4, #7, and #13.
Dooce shares a storytelling game you can play in the car. I am totally stealing this one.
This website is seriously cool. It lets you create your own comic book using predesigned features. I’m either going to show it to my kids and let them go crazy or lose several hours making my own. We’ll see how the week goes.
As proof that inspiration can come from anywhere, I want to write a story based on each and every one of these amazingly wonderful lamps. There would be some seriously creepy stories in that collection.