Having just spent the weekend in a writing workshop with the wonderful Mary Robinette Kowal, I could have filled the next couple of months of Five Things posts with things I learned from her. But I won’t. That would be cheating. I will say you should check out her books and, if you’re a writer, her intensive short story workshop is well worth the price of admission.

• Author, Candace Mountain, is posting a picture of a cat every day this year. And she has to take them all herself.
• Tom Hanks has released an typewriter app – HanxWriter – I’m not convinced he wrote it himself.
• Montreal is using shipping containers to create ‘Parklets‘ – temporary parks that convert parking spots into public spaces during the summer months. Apparently, there’s also some in Vancouver somewhere.
• John Scalzi (and a bunch of other authors) has a very short story on the Popular Science website.
• The DoubleClicks have recorded a cover of The Cure’s Friday I’m in Love. And they’re currently on tour and have a new album you can buy here.

[Five Things I Learned Last Week by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 1st September 2014]