NPR has released its list of the top 100 science fiction and fantasy novels/series, as voted on by the public from a jury-curated list of 237 finalists, itself culled from public nominations of even more novels. Old Man’s War is on the list, which is pretty nifty. Thank you to those of you who voted for it.

By and large it’s a pretty good list of books, with some very conspicuous omissions that tell us more about the voters of the poll than the books under consideration. A list of the top 100 science fiction/fantasy novels without entries by Brin, Brunner, Butler, Cherryh, Delany or Silverberg (to name some obvious names; there are of course others) is going to have fans of various stripes shaking their heads. These sorts of lists exist as much to make people talk as much as to attempt to quantify the field. This list will certainly do that.

As a conversation starter, and to encourage others to do the same, allow me to list 10 books/series from the finalists list not on the NPR Top 100 list I’d have found room for on my personal Top 100 list. In no particular order:

The Acts of Caine series, Matthew Woodring Stover
Bridge of Birds, Barry Hughart
Grass, Sherri Tepper
Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
Lord Valentine’s Castle, Robert Silverberg
Earth, David Brin
The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi
Little Fuzzy, H. Beam Piper
The Vlad Taltos series, Steven Brust
Kindred, Octavia Butler

Your list from the finalists not in the final list? Put them in the comments.

I have completed and have had published (or definitively have had scheduled for publication) 16 books since November, 2000. This doesn’t include METAtropolis (which I edited and wrote one fifth of), The God Engines and The Sagan Diary; if you include them because they are stand-alone projects, it’s 19. That’s, you know. Not bad for a dozen years’ worth of work. And only one of them out of print! Which is even better.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: I like that I get to be what I wanted to be when I grew up. I’ll keep doing this as long as I can.

I just signed the contract and mailed it in, so I’ll go ahead and announce it: Next year I’ll have a new non-fiction book out, namely a collection of my AMC/FilmCritic.com columns. The book will be out from NESFA Press, in conjunction with my appearance as Guest of Honor at the Boskone 49 science fiction convention in Boston, in February. I’ve already turned in the manuscript, which is in the process of being whittled down to manageable length. No title yet; I’ll have to think of something clever. But I’m happy about this book; I’ve had a lot of fun writing the movie columns so it’ll be nice to have them down in a permanent form.

More details about the book as it goes through the process — which is to say: this is what I have to announce about the book now, if it’s not addressed here the answer to the question you’re going to ask is “I don’t know yet.” Trust me, I’ll tell you when I know things. I am happy to say, however, that it does mean 2012 is a two book year, one fiction and one non-fiction. I like years like that.

In this week’s FilmCritic.com column I write an open letter to the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. About what? About how it’s time they give Andy Serkis an Oscar, that’s what. My reasoning for this special Oscar is detailed there, so go and check it out, and always feel free to leave your own thoughts and comments in the thread.

At sunset, starting southeast and moving west.

It’s basically this: Whenever I start trying to encapsulate my general thoughts on the events of the week, at home and abroad, in a coherent and logical fashion, I end up having a ten second adrenaline spike, followed by a minute of spittle-flinging profanity, followed by about two hours of anomie, during which the only things I want to do are pet my cat, watch Looney Tunes and eat ice cream. It’s not a good way to spend the day, especially when one runs out of ice cream.

I’ll get over it. This is not the first instance of the “Gaah-FUCK-uuuunh” cycle in my lifetime experience, believe me. But, yeah. For the moment, taking a pass, folks.

If you are a member of SFWA, you may view my quarterly presidential report in our private forums here. Please have a look.

If you are not a member of SFWA, here’s David Bowie singing “Starman” back in 1973.

To be clear, SFWA members may also watch that video, if they wish.

(Comments here are turned off because of SFWA-related business; details on that here.)

They’ve added a Kaffeklatsch for me on Thursday morning, which is very cool because I enjoy doing those. I’ve added it to the total schedule here.

Lord knows I’m not a fan of Michelle Bachmann, whose politics I would best describe as “opportunistically insane,” nor have I avoided commenting on her crazy, crazy eyes in the past, because, damn, the lady brings the crazy eyes. For all of that, this particular picture of Ms. Bachmann on the cover of Newsweek seems a cheap shot to me. If it had been my magazine, I wouldn’t have used it. I might have chortled when someone suggested it, but then I would have said, yeah, okay, we’ve had our fun. Where’s the real picture? Because I’m not twelve, you see.

Thoughts?

For those of you hoping to meet me/stalk me/gaze adoringly into my eyes whilst you savor my every word at Renovation, this year’s Worldcon, here is my current schedule. Note please that it includes one item which will be on the published schedule that I will not be at, and one item that is not on the published schedule that I will be at.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17:

Wed 13:00 – 14:00, A Trip to the Creation Museum, A02 (RSCC)
John Scalzi shares photos and stories from his visit to “the very best monument to an enormous load of horseshit that you could possibly ever hope to see.” Hilarity ensues.
Notes: This program item was sort of sprung on me, but what the hell. I’ve already warned  the convention that they better have someone on hand to help me with the projector, because I know nothing about how to operate one.

Wed 17:00 – 18:00, The Online Community: Fans Love to Hate It A16 (RSCC)
It’s a fan place now; the online community can be considered a fannish subject, but why are people still beating it up, when it complements so much of what we do as fans?
Panelists: Chris Garcia, Claire Brialey, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, John Scalzi
Notes: People are still beating up the online world? That’s adorable.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 18

Thu 10:00 – 11:00, KaffeeKlatsch, KK1 (RSCC)
A conversation with me on whatever folks want to talk about, around a coffee table.
Notes: KaffeeKlatsches require one to sign up and the sign ups are first come, first served, so if you want to do this, it’s best if you find the sign up sheet early.

Thu 13:00 – 14:00, Autographing, Hall 2
Autographers: M. J. Locke, Steven Gould, Mary Robinette Kowal, Mary A. Turzillo, Adam-Troy Castro, Walter Jon Williams, John Scalzi, Steve Jackson
Notes: Bring books and other objects you wish to have signed. They will be signed! It’s that simple.

Thu 21:00 – 22:00, Pictures or It Didn’t Happen: Photography and Other Fan Art as Arbiters of Shared Experience, A01+6 (RSCC)
If a man tapes bacon to his cat and no one can see it, does anyone care? If a fan is drawn in a bikini and the picture is printed, is the speculative experience more real? How photos and illos affect how we share and form our concept of the fannish community, and how that is changing in the digital era.
Panelists: Maurine “Mo” Starkey, Ctein, Claire Brialey, John Scalzi
Notes: More proof I will be forever defined by Bacon Cat.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19

Fri 14:00 – 15:00, The Role of the Science Advisor (Dialog), A05 (RSCC)
Some SF TV shows and movies have science advisors. What do science advisors do?  How much say do they have?  Can they prevent mistakes or are they generally ignored?  Science advisors tell all (or at least some…)  John Scalzi, science advisor for Stargate: Universe and Kevin Grazier, science advisor for Battlestar Galactica and Eureka, discuss.
Panelists: Kevin R. Grazier, John Scalzi
Notes: I’ve done this panel with Kevin before, and it was fun then; I expect it will be fun now.

Fri 17:00 – 18:00, Seiun Awards:  An Introduction to Japanese Science Fiction, A04 (RSCC)
Panelists: Takayuki Tatsumi, Hirohide Hirai, Mari Kotani, John Scalzi, Michael F. Flynn
Notes: I suspect I am on this panel because I have won a Seiun Award, for my novel The Last Colony. Beyond that fact, I intend to be quiet and let people who actually know something about the subject speak to it. Occasionally I will nod, sagely.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 20

Sat 11:00 – 11:30, Reading: John Scalzi (Reading), A15 (RSCC)
Notes: I suspect I will read something new and never before heard by anyone. So, you know, be there.

Sat 13:00 – 15:00, SFWA Meeting, A02  (RSCC)
Panelists: Kate Baker (SFWA Office Manager), Bud Sparhawk, Mary Robinette Kowal, Lee Martindale, John Scalzi, Jim Fiscus (SFWA Board Members)
Notes: If you are a SFWA member, please plan to attend. We need 30 active or lifetime SFWA members for a quorum. We have the room for two hours but the last two business meetings took an hour, so we’re pretty good at getting you up to speed and taking member questions and comments in an efficient fashion. We’ve got lots to cover so I hope you can make it.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 21

Sun 11:00 – 12:00, Nooks and Crannies of the Business of Writing, A17 (RSCC)
Writers and business professionals discuss some of the odd nooks and crannies of the writing biz, including intellectual property, translation and taxation issues.
Panelists: Liz Gorinsky, Liz Zitzow, John Scalzi, Gay Haldeman, Howard M. Rosenblatt
Notes: Oh, boy! I get to wear my cranky business dude hat!

Sun 13:00 – 14:00, Chicon 7 – the Next Worldcon, A09 (RSCC)
Enjoying this year’s Worldcon? Learn all about next year’s Worldcon, which will be in Chicago, from Dave McCarty, the chair.
Panelists: Dave McCarty, Helen Montgomery, Peggy Rae Sapienza, Jane Frank, John Scalzi, Steven H Silver
Notes: YOU WILL BE IN CHICAGO IN 2012. At which I am Toastmaster. And which will be awesome. That is all.

Sun 14:00 – 15:00, What Happened to Stargate Universe?, A03 (RSCC)
Stargate Universe distanced itself in many ways from previous versions of the franchise.  Why?  Was this influenced by its creators’ exposure to SF and SF fandom, and the resulting desire to do something more meaningful? Was it that it was the first post-Battlestar Galactica Stargate series, and that shows tone impacted SGU? Did this contribute to its cancellation?
Panelists: John Scalzi, J. Steven York, John Coxon, Inge Heyer
Notes: I will not be on this panel, not because I have any objections to the subject of the panel but because there are a number of things about the subject I’m not at liberty to discuss because of contractual issues, etc. So a) I’ll be dead weight on the panel; b) I’ll frustrate people who come to the panel hoping I’ll be able to offer insider knowledge that I will not be able to. I’ve pinged the programming people to let them know; I probably should have done it earlier but lost track of this due to a writing deadline. Anyway, my fault. Sorry, folks.

Sun 15:00, Closing Ceremonies, RSCC C4
Notes: I was asked by Chicon7 head Dave McCarty to be part of the handing-over ceremony, so, hey, I’ll be here to say goodbye to Reno and hello to Chicago!

Where I will be when not at programming: Well, I’ll be at the Hugos, of course, and I imagine I will also spend a fair amount of time in the SFWA suite, hanging out with SFWA members there. There will also be a SFWA table in the dealers area which I will also very likely be spending some time at. And otherwise, you know, I’ll be around, hanging out at parties and visiting the bar and whatnot. I will not be difficult to locate, basically.

See you there!

Not exactly welcoming.

But we made it home anyway, from a very nice family reunion which wrapped up before these babies wandered in from the west. It’s nice when it works out that way; it wouldn’t have been fantastic to be out in the open at a park when these hit.

And you can read them here.

Yup, that’s all I have to say.

Go me!

* Lots of people e-mailed me yesterday to let me know Fuzzy Nation was featured on Unshelved, the comic strip about adventures in a library. Not only that, but Unshelved also featured a half-hour long audio interview of me! And yes, I knew about all of that. I was there for the interview, actually — it wasn’t just someone sounding like me. You should check out both the strip and the interview.

* Megan Rosalarian has an interesting take on The God Engines, the substance of which is a bit spoilery for those of you who have not read it, so take that under advisement before you link through (those of you who have read TGE will obviously not have a problem). I take her point, and I’d note that if there ever came a time where I expanded TGE to novel length, I could see a few places where there would be an opportunity to do what she’s asking after, in a way that serves the story. In the novella itself, there wasn’t really space to do it and keep the story at the length and with the pacing I wanted for it, outside a particular character whose qualities in this regard I left intentionally ambiguous.

(I suppose I’ll note now that if anyone comments on Ms. Rosalarian’s post in the comments, the comments themselves will also be spoilery. You are warned!)

In case you ever wondered what a walnut fruit looks like before it’s husked, shelled and the nutmeats turned into pies and such, here you go. This picture is from a young tree in our backyard that is producing fruit for the first time and as such I was deeply confused as to what sort of thing it might be, but as it turns out the Internets had the answer. Oh, Internets. You always have everything.

I reached 20,000 Twitter followers last night and I had mentioned a while back that when I reached that plateau I’d do something special for the folks over there to say thanks. So I wrote a short story and posted it over there, using TweetDeck’s “Deck.Ly” service.

Having done that, however, I want to also have a version of the story that is better formatted than Deck.Ly’s terrible default formatting, and also isn’t archived on a site over which I have absolutely no control, so I’m also posting it here. You’ll find it below. For people visiting the site’s front page, it’s behind a cut; for those of you following on RSS, well. Hi, have a huge block of text!

Fun fact: the story is just over 2,000 words long, but in a nod to Twitter, each individual sentence in the story is less than 140 characters. Which is to say it would have been entirely possible to tweet the whole thing, one sentence at a time. I didn’t, because that would have been vaguely obnoxious. But it’s the thought that counts. Also, the subject matter was taken from suggestions from my Twitter feed last night. Blame them.

So, with that said, enjoy “The Other Large Thing.”

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For no particular reason other than I think it would be interesting to do so, here’s a current ranking of where I do my social thing online and why:

1. Whatever: I mean, this should be fairly obvious; this blog is the largest repository of Scalzi Being Scalzi anywhere online. I think there’s a general belief that the Blog Moment has passed, and to be entirely honest I think that’s probably accurate; as I’ve said before, for most people the thing that blogs did for them — kept them connected with friends online in a casual and fun fashion — is better and more efficiently done by the Facebooks, Twitters and Google+s of the world. But Whatever isn’t just a place where I tell select friends about what’s going on with my family and pets; it’s where a large portion of my existence as a public figure is generated. For my own purposes, I want to be the one in control of the presence, and not have Mark Zuckerberg or Sergey Brin and Larry Page mediate it or be arbitrarily changing the manner in which I am online, or telling me the maximum number of people with whom I can connect. Also, to be blunt about it, the person I want to see the most benefit from the eyeballs on the site is me. Mark and Sergey and Larry are doing well enough as it is.

The site has also been around long enough that it has its own community of people, evident in the comments section, where there is (as the masthead of Mad magazine would put it) “the usual gang of idiots” who talk amongst each other on a usual basis. The composition of that gang changes slowly over the years — people come and go, depending on their own interests, time commitments and whether I’ve pissed them off sufficiently that they decide to stop talking to me and others — but overall there’s a day-to-day consistency which for me as the proprietor is both nice and useful. Nice because a gang of regulars means we’ve gotten out sitcom-like timing down, useful because by and large everyone understands the community standards and are willing and able to impart the knowledge to newcomers. It’s why Whatever gets noted elsewhere online as a place where people actually have conversations about contentious topics, rather than just yelling past each other as they bellow cue card talking points out into the cloud. It makes my job as Malleteer much easier.

As I’ve also noted before, maintaining the site turns out to be a lot of work, and there are days when a) I don’t feel clever and/or b) don’t want to post about some contentious topic because then, community standards to not it still means I will have to babysit a comment thread and/or c) I’m just tired and don’t want to do anything here. Running a site that gets as many visitors as this site does turns out to be an actual job, whether it was originally meant to be or not. But what I get in return is usually worth it. So this remains the place I am most online, and will likely continue to be for the foreseeable future.

2. Twitter: I really like Twitter now but I didn’t really get it when I first started using it, which I chalk up to blog tunnel vision, i.e., “if I want to post something short, I can just do it on my blog.” But the fact is I hardly ever post anything that short on my blog, other than to say something like “I’m not here today; see you tomorrow.” So it actually addresses an entirely different way for me to be online. It also, by and large, addresses a different audience; there are people who read Whatever who also subscribe to my Twitter feed, but my own anecdotal experience of it is that there are a large number of people who read the Twitter feed only and either don’t know about or have no interest in the blog. My feeling about this is: All right, read me however you like.

I do try to avoid having too much replication between what I blog and what I tweet, a philosophy that manifests primarily in two different ways. One, I don’t announce everything I blog in a tweet; I do it occasionally, usually for book-related things or for polls or entries I think my Twitter followers will find amusing, but by and large I don’t use the Twitter account as blog advertisement (I do, however, keep an entirely separate Twitter account for people who would like that). Two, I by intention keep my Twitter feed light and amusing, partly because I see it less as a “personal” and more of a “performance” space, which is to say I think people are there to read “John Scalzi, author,” rather than “John Scalzi, guy who blogs about what he wants,” and partly because  for me at least, 140 characters really isn’t near enough to convey thoughts of any complexity on substantive topics. That’s really what the blog is for. Likewise, unlike on Whatever, I try not argue with people; the few Twitterspats I’ve had were enough to convince me that 140 characters also isn’t enough space to get into it with someone. Arguing by haiku is a specialized skill and I’m not entirely sure I have it, or alternately, want to develop it.

Because it’s complementary to what I do on Whatever, and because it’s also fun, I’ve pretty much integrated my use of Twitter with what I do on the blog, and consider it a reasonable substitute way of keeping contact with folks when I’m traveling or otherwise away from Whatever. It’s one reason why I keep a feed of Twitter updates on the site itself.

3. Google+: This particular social network has been around, what? Less than a month? But even so it very rapidly became my preferred non-Twitter social network because of its esthetic, its functionality, and because (at least for now) it doesn’t do all the annoying things that Facebook does. Google+ is definitely getting some mileage out of the fact that it’s not Facebook, but, hey, you go with what works, and it’s Facebook’s fault that its product is go aggressively mediocre that Google could come along, do what it does slightly less obnoxiously, and have people fall over themselves rushing to get to it.

I have friends who have philosophical and practical objections to Google+’s “no pseudonyms” policy, which I can understand, and I’d agree that Google has done a poor job of justifying and executing on that policy — wiping out someone’s entire Google presence because they use an alternate name that they’ve used online for so long that it’s become part of their actual identity is very n00bish of Google, and you’d think someone in that nest of nerds would know better. But it’s not been enough for me to part ways with the service.

For me, functionally speaking, Google+ slots in between Whatever and Twitter, and I use it mostly for casual socializing with friends and fans. As with Twitter I’m not generally going to use it to post deep thoughts about politics or social issues, although I find I discuss a little bit about writing and technology there. Seems appropriate, being a Google product.

4. Facebook: I’ve detailed my kvetches about Facebook before, so there’s no need to go over them again. I recently switched my account there to a page, which has been positive in that now all the folks who wanted me to friend them there can just click the “Like” button and it accomplishes the same thing, but has been negative in that now I have actual friends over there with whom it’s become marginally more difficult to stay in direct contact with — if they want to send me a personal message, they’ll have to send an actual e-mail, not a Facebook message, etc. Enough of my friends are on Facebook that it’s worth it to be engaged there, but it’s a distant fourth compared to the top three.

5. Everything else: Because there’s only so much time in the day. I have accounts at LinkedIn, Goodreads and other places but aside from occasionally updating my profiles there to stay current and (usually belatedly) answering mail from their proprietary systems I don’t do much. It’s why each of my profiles on places there I usually note that if people really want to talk to me, they should visit this blog and/or send me actual e-mail.

Which, really, is always good advice: Hi, this is where I usually hang out online. Nice to see you.

I mentioned the other day that between the Mac Air I just bought and the Mini Cooper we brought home a few months ago, I was only a man bag away from complete hipster bastardry, so of course one of those arrived today, a “gift” from a Whatever reader. Fine: Here I am, resplendent in my hipster bastardy. I hope you’re all happy.

Also, to the person who sent me the man bag: Fuck you, you will get yours. Love, me.

An update of my public appearances in the US and Canada through 2012 is now up and available here. Most of my appearances will be in the east and midwest, which may cause some grumbling, but hey, my last book tour was mostly in the west. I’m trying to spread myself around.

What’s not on the schedule yet are my German appearances this October (I have them, I just need to look at them and put them in) and the places and times when I plan to go somewhere but not as a public entity. Sometimes I just go to conventions to see friends, you know. It happens.

As always, the schedule is subject to change, but it’s unlikely I’ve be adding any more Guest of Honor events in either 2011 or 2012. I do have a book coming in June of 2012, and it’s possible I may do some touring on it, but there’s nothing scheduled right now, nor do I imagine any possible tour would be like the three-week haul I did earlier this year.

Also, as a very early head’s up, I’m currently planning not to do very many public appearances in 2013, mostly because all the travel I’ve been doing the last couple of years is kind of exhausting. We’ll see if that sticks — I said I was going to take it easy in 2010 and ended traveling nearly every month of the year, so look where that got me — but for now that’s the plan.