Reading fiction ‘improves empathy’, study finds
The psychology of fiction is a small but growing area of research, according to Keith Oatley, a professor in the department of human development and applied psychology at the University of Toronto and a published novelist himself, who details the latest findings in the area in his [...]

Fascinating stuff (via):
Vivisecting Verses – DARPA Investigates the Neurobiology of Narratives
DARPA’s current interest in narratives is an interesting development at an agency known for unique scientific inquiries. On April 25 and 26th DARPA held a conference called Narrative Networks (N2): The Neurobiology of Narratives. The purpose of this conference was to follow up a Feburary [...]

Book news: a nice, thorough review of TABOTD went up yesterday, on the very good site, Future Fire. The review gets to what I was getting at (and not just b/c it’s a good review):
Baum portrays protagonist Myers as a genuine human being, filled with the sort of traits we all share, even the [...]

The completed pages of The American Book Part II are now up on Scribd.  I’ll be replacing this document with new pages as they’re written.
Update: This is nice from Marc Horne.  Check out his books.
Update II: Thanks too to Todd Keisling.  Check out his Kickstarter project.  Love the Self-Published Generation™.
The American Book of the Dead [...]

The American Book Part II is up and running.  Only two chapters up right now, but several others written.  I’ve never posted a novel in real time before.  Way I’m doing it – write the first draft in Pages on the iPad, revise on the desktop.  Took me a week to revise these two chapters.  [...]