Monthly Archives: January 2005
Another Confederate Smackdown
Posted on January 31, 2005 43 Comments
Right on, Instapundit: I have to say that while I understand, to a degree at least, people’s fascination with the Civil War, I’ve never understood the romanticization of the Confederacy. It didn’t last very long, it was horribly run and governed, it accomplished nothing but disaster and defeat, and it existed in the service of […]
Voting is Done
Posted on January 30, 2005 9 Comments
Now comes the hard part, which is a hell of a thing to say about Iraq, considering how hard everything has been for Iraqis for so long. Good luck to the Iraqis. They’re going to need it, and I don’t mean that in the dismissive sarcastic sense in which it’s usually meant. They’re actually going […]
SF Chronicle Appearance, and Men’s Packages (Largely Unrelated Topics)
Posted on January 30, 2005 9 Comments
Ooh, look, a review in today’s San Francisco Chronicle: Scalzi skillfully upends Robert A. Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers,” creating a cadre of old souls in young bodies who must learn to become killing machines. He sidesteps most of the clichés of military science fiction, delivers fast-paced scenes of combat and pays attention to the science underpinning […]
Interview and Signing/Appearance
Posted on January 30, 2005 12 Comments
One: Here’s an interview with me at the Fresno Bee, the newspaper at which some of you will recall I started my full-time professional writing career — they hired me as their film critic in 1991, when I was 22, and young-looking enough that I would get carded going into R-rated films. No joke. It’s […]
Entertainment Weekly Review for Old Man’s War
Posted on January 29, 2005 13 Comments
Yes, I’ve heard that Entertainment Weekly has run a review of Old Man’s War in the latest issue (thank you to everyone who sent e-mails and comment messages). No, I haven’t seen it. I subscribe but that particular issue hasn’t arrived yet, and they haven’t posted the review online. Yes, I’m curious as to what […]
Oscar Nominations
Posted on January 25, 2005 13 Comments
Damn it, I forget when I started my hiatus here that today was Oscar Nomination Day. My early Oscar predictions are over at By the Way. Feel free to comment there if you’ve got an AOL account or an AIM account, or here if you don’t. Hiatus is now back on.
A Musical Interlude
Posted on January 24, 2005 17 Comments
As part of the gradual and continuing process of returning to the Scalzi.com site all the crap I took down when I changed providers, I am happy to announce the return of Music for Headphones, my album of mostly instrumental electronic music that I banged together a couple of years ago. However, I am not […]
Biases
Posted on January 24, 2005 25 Comments
The Washington Post Magazine did a story this week on the Implicit Association Test, which purports to show whether people have an implicit bias for one group over another; for example, for white people over black people, or for fat over thin people. One of the things that it shows, or so the story reports, […]
Midnighters Down Under
Posted on January 24, 2005 7 Comments
Many congratulations to my pal Scott Westerfeld, whose most excellent YA novel Midnighters: The Secret Hour picked up the 2004 Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Novel. The Aurealis Awards, according to the site, “were established in 1995 by Chimaera Publications, the publishers of Aurealis Magazine, to recognize the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy […]
Confusion 31 Wrapup
Posted on January 23, 2005 10 Comments
I was in the middle of writing up a long and involved entry about my weekend at ConFusion 31, but then the power went out and I lost everything I’d written, so now you get the short version. Overall: Much fun, primarily for the bar chat, a comment which should not be understood to detract […]
Some Excellent OMW News
Posted on January 20, 2005 17 Comments
Two bits of good news for Old Man’s War: 1. The Science Fiction Book Club Winter 2005 magazine came today, and I’m delighted to see that they’ve devoted a full page to OMW, as you can see here (it’s page 11, in case you’re wondering). Hopefully it’ll entice some people who haven’t heard of me […]
The Last Voyage of Nemo
Posted on January 20, 2005 23 Comments
We bought Athena a fishtank recently, complete with two fish, which Athena named Gummy and Nemo. Gummy is still with us; Nemo, alas, is not. Athena was upset about this, naturally, but not so upset that she couldn’t memorialize the event on the white board. Here you see the entire final journey: There’s Nemo (top […]
ConFusion 31 Schedule
Posted on January 19, 2005 4 Comments
For those of you who are interested in finding me (or alternately, avoiding me) at the ConFusion 31 science fiction convention this weekend, here’s where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing: When: Friday, 10pm: Media Year in Review Where: DENN III/IV What: We discuss the movies, television, and comics of the past year. Who: […]
The Return of the Disclaimer
Posted on January 19, 2005
After a couple months in storage, I’ve restored the Whatever Disclaimer to its rightful position on the Whatever front screen. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it’s me admitting that I may in fact be a fatuous blowhole, but I can be a fatuous blowhole if I want, so there, nyah nyah nyah. If […]
Comment Spam
Posted on January 19, 2005 11 Comments
Google has announced that it and other blogging software companies will be implementing a new html attribute to reduce comment spam; this new attribute — rel=”nofollow” — will keep Google’s spiders from following urls left by people who comment on someone’s blog entry, thus reducing the motivation for spammers to leave comment spam for Google […]
Recent OMW Notices
Posted on January 19, 2005 5 Comments
Some Old Man’s War nuggets out there on that InterWeb thing that all the kids are talking about these days: Rick Kleffel of The Agony Column had nice things to say about Old Man’s War: ‘Old Man’s War’ by John Scalzi manages to set a particularly difficult but specific goal for itself and then achieves […]
OMW Availability Update, Plus Signings
Posted on January 18, 2005 13 Comments
A little birdie whispered in my ear about why Amazon currently has Old Man’s War available in 5 to 8 days rather than within 24 hours: Seems Amazon has burned through its initial shipment of the book and now needs to reload. I am of course immensely pleased; of all the excuses, that’s the best […]
Artwork for Agent
Posted on January 18, 2005 22 Comments
First, gaze, if you will, on my recent acquisition: Twisp and Catsby, the beloved surrealist characters from Penny Arcade. The PA guys made 500 of these cels, which sold at $80 a pop; they sold out in less than 12 hours. Let’s all have a hearty chuckle at the folks who are still wondering whether […]
Justine’s Site + OMW News
Posted on January 17, 2005 7 Comments
I won’t be updating any more today, on account of Athena doesn’t have school and we intend to go out and do something fun, so while I’m away, why not check out SF writer Justine Larbalestier’s updated site, which new includes a groovy new area for her excellent upcoming novel, Magic or Madness. She’s also […]
The Politics of SF
Posted on January 16, 2005 9 Comments
A question from the gallery (and more specifically, this guy): As someone who not only enjoys Charles Stross’s work, but who drools over intelligent SF in general (i.e., as someone who considers cutting-edge SF the equivalent of Ghirardelli chocolate), I’m very interested to learn more about the “real-world” political perspectives of the SF writers I […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying