Okay, these two things aren’t actually related. Or maybe they are in some metaphorical way that I could figure out if I thought about it for a while, but mostly I wanted to share these two links.

Seventy five ancient whale fossils were found in a Chilean desert, which all seem to have died at the same time. Other creatures, including a dolphin with tusks and a sea-sloth were also found. Fascinating! As a kid I wanted to be a whale trainer at a park like Sea World or a marine biologist, and I still love this stuff. Whales are awesome.

And, here is some helpful advice from Jane Friedman: learn to copywrite. It’s not just about grammar—though it’s good if you know the difference between your and you’re—but persuasive, attention-grabbing writing is important for authors, and she’s right, no one seems to teach it. I was “lucky” enough to have copywriting jobs, where I learned to manage word count, use SEO (search engine optimization), and how to sell. Not fun necessarily, but helpful for the career I actually wanted: being a writer. My query letters were pretty good, my description of the book was used for part of the catalog copy, and hopefully I’m not boring you all with my social media updates. Meaning, essentially, knowing how to copywrite is very helpful, even if I learned it by writing three hundred articles about eye health and travel guides for places I’d never been. It’s worth practicing, and the end of the article offers resources.

Bonus! Here’s an extra resource for writing tips: an article I wrote last year on why good writing matters, inspired by a coworker who asked how to spell sawl. She said, “You know, like I sawl it yesterday at the store.” Yes, seriously. But since it’s not a real word, I’m not sure I spelled it correctly.