Yes, May is over, and I’m back to my old shenanigans. Friday is when I send you hopping all over the internet like happy little frogs.
Today’s recommendations are all about time. Not the kind of time Meeka (writer A. C. Flory) is writing about in Innerscape, just, you know, time time.
How about this, then? An artist made this wonderful … what would you call it? an experience? a tour? a museum? an installation? a sensory meditation? Whatever. If I ever get back to London, I’m going to the Dennis Severs House. As many times as possible. I mean — yeah!
So I wrote some stories during Story A Day May exploring the backstory of Mitch, the narrator of A DEAD GUY AT THE SUMMERHOUSE. He was born in 1950, and the novel takes place in 1968, so the backstory took place in the waypast, right? So I needed to know (okay, my inner Mr. Monk needed to know) what day of the week it was and what the weather was like and such.
Infoplease has a perpetual calendar and all sorts of resources for that kind of historical nonsense, including calendars of cultures other than the calendar of North America. So cool!
Here’s where you can look up the weather on your birthday in your state, or you can totally lie and enter any date and any state and find the weather for your character. Was it really a dark and stormy night? You can find out! If the link doesn’t work, go to a search engine and look up birthday weather and this or something similar should come up.
timeanddate.com has all this and more, and has it for more than just the United States. Calculate moonrise! Countdown to any date! Find the position of the sun at any date and time in any location! EVER!
And, oh, World History Project, I love you so! This date in history. SO useful in popping in a reference sort of off-hand in a historical piece.
Last but not least, the reference you’ve been waiting for since you read the post’s title, is a link suggested to me by Constant Reader Jane Peyton. Hi, Jane! Ars Technica informs us that humans and Neanderthals started having sex with each other much earlier in time than anyone thought. Oh, those crazy kids!
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Write a piece involving time.
MA
A.C.Flory
June 3, 2016 at 7:36amOh those neanderthals! Great references there Ms Allen! Btw there’s a show on Australian TV at the moment that traces the DNA of all humans by analysing the DNA of three Australian celebs. Apparently, most? all? of us have, on average, 1% neanderthal DNA. So those kids were definitely busier than we all thought. 😀
Marian Allen
June 3, 2016 at 8:57amHey, Meeka! Who knew Neanderthals were such playas? I’m gonna have to reread CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR.
Joey
June 3, 2016 at 12:49pmThose are great links, thanks!
Jane
June 4, 2016 at 9:06amSuch interesting times!
I would’ve slain dragons to get this look-up info when I was writing my old werewolf story. And i ADORE looking up what happened on this date stuff! Yay!
Marian Allen
June 4, 2016 at 10:30amIt’s really useful for fleshing out a historical, especially in times of more modern communication where you know what’s happening while it’s happening instead of having to wait for a packet ship to bring in the news.