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Good things are in the air in Smash Cake Ville and its outlying sister cities. Good, groovy things.

Among them this week are Matt Bell’s experiment at Everyday Genius, wherein he writes a story LIVE, we watch in real time, and a great time is had by all. (Click the link for specifics and a much better explanation.) Though the composition round has ended, editing rounds are just beginning. This is your chance to come play.

HTMLGIANT has been more than a little entertaining the last few days, too. Personal favorite controversy? Check out “Tyra Banks is Going to Write The Best Book Ever”. And then comment. And then duck like hell.

Another blip that caught my personal attention was an article by Ziggy Kinsella, horror writer and blogger at The Feckless Goblin. There is tons of good marketing advice out there in the world for writers, but this article struck me as covering the most basic tenets, and some that often swim by unnoticed. Check it out here: How to win friends and influence people – 10 tips for online authors. (Also, there is only one guy in the accompanying picture who catches my eye. One. He would be the person I stared at from above the lectern, and attractiveness plays no role. Can you guess where he is?)

Grasping for the Wind pointed out that Bull Spec, a new litmag which we’ve been dying to get a glimpse of, is currently offering a PDF of their entire first issue in a “Pay What You Want Sale”, as we’ve seen previously done at GUD Magazine. (And we heard it worked, so go Bull Spec!) By “pay what you want”, folks, they also very much mean that you can pay zero. It’s perfectly acceptable practice in these situations, so don’t feel weird listening to them and reading the awesomeness that lies inside the covers. Of course, if you are capable of adding a little something to the hat, I’m sure that’s preferred–but don’t let the money stop you. Go get a copy. Now. It’s free. You’ve no good reason not to.

While you’re shopping for free stuff, listen to Finnegan Flawnt’s podcasts as I’ve been doing for the past few days. I’ll bet you can’t stop. Like audio potato chips, these.

Special thanks goes out to the Philippine Online Chronicles, who made mention of Smash Cake in Wednesday’s article, “Online Publications: Who Benefits?” We have no idea how they heard of us, but much bouncing, squealing, and cat-frightening ensued upon reading our very first international press nod. (No, really. Lots of bouncing. It was a little embarrassing.)

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More to come, ladies and gents. If you know of something we missed and shouldn’t have,
email us at info deletethis at smashcakemagazine deletethis dotcom, or leave us a note
in the comment trail below. We’ll look. We promise.

Fun and/or educational and/or crazy publishing stuff we’ve stumbled across in the last few days:

The wonderful Zoe Winters, indie publisher extreme, pointed out this video on the future of publishing via her Twitter feed. (Before you turn away in disgust and eyerolls, be sure to watch the end. It gets better. Honestly, it does.)

If you’re trying to get into publishing in the full-time sense, check out mediabistro and Bookjobs, which we’re a little ashamed to say we’d never heard of until this afternoon. The mediabistro site is a little confusing because of the search terms stacking, but if you know that going in, you’ll likely find something of interest. Many of the jobs are entry-level and quite accessible if you happen to live in the right area of the country and have a little publishing experience and/or desire. Even the top-end jobs at major houses in NYC are listed, with requirements, job descriptions, and occasionally a salary amount that makes our heads spin. Ah, well. It’s fun to dream, right?

The nod for best quirky article of the day (well, so far, anyway) goes to NPR’s ‘And He Didn’t Say Fargo’: How To Say The F Word Without Saying The F Word, a smart little collection of the funniest things that came out of the white-rice-and-vanilla, family news networks’ coverage of Biden’s little expletive incident.

And, as one Trick with a Knife blogger so succinctly pointed out, “One Ded Cow looks like it might be insane.” Couldn’t have put it better ourselves.