Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

The newest Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians annotation covers chapter two and talks about how The Simpsons already did everything.

In this week's Writing Excuses podcast episode, Dan, Howard, Mary, and I cover these questions from Twitter in a rapid-fire fashion:

* What do you do if you don't like your characters?
* How do you keep your plot on track?
* Is it better to use real locations in an Urban Fantasy?
* What do you do about plot holes?
* How do you know if you should abandon a story and move on to something else?
* How do you ensure the answers to mysteries are satisfying?
* What are some language-level mistakes that mark writing as amateurish?
* What should a scene consist of?
* What kind of bacon is best?
* Why is Schlock, who looks like a pile of poo, lovable instead of disgusting?

InkWing announced the results of their Bridge Four T-shirt contest that I talked about last week. Designs #1 and #3B had the most votes, so both of those are now available for preorder.

There's also some Wheel of Time T-shirt news. Ta'veren Tees has a new Aiel by Jeremy shirt available for preorder:

The Aiel illustration was created by WoT comic book artist Jeremy Saliba. Anyone who preorders this shirt is entered to win one of three signed pieces of art by Jeremy (see here for details):

Also, March marks Ta'veren Tees' one-year anniversary, so they're having a customer-appreciation month. There's a monthlong clearance sale on several of their older tees, as well as a chance for people to win free shirts. Each Friday in March they'll make a Free Shirt Friday post on their Facebook page; "like" them on Facebook and comment on that post to be entered to win.