Monthly Archives: March 2005
Seeking Submissions For SF Magazine — Please Read The Whole Entry
Posted on March 21, 2005 88 Comments
I’m going to do a short form for the benefit of people getting the RSS feed, followed by a longer, more detailed version for everyone else. Short Version: I’m editing the Spring 2006 edition of Subterranean Magazine (it’s new), seeking fiction and non-fiction submissions on the theme of Science Fiction Clichés. SF only (no fantasy). […]
Magic Or Madness
Posted on March 20, 2005
It gives me an unreasonable amount of pleasure to note that my friend Justine Larbalestier’s first novel, Magic or Madness, has now hit the stores, and is ready for you to buy. It gives me unreasonable amount of pleasure because Justine’s a faboo human being, but more importantly, this is a really excellent novel — […]
Magic Or Madness
Posted on March 20, 2005 4 Comments
It gives me an unreasonable amount of pleasure to note that my friend Justine Larbalestier’s first novel, Magic or Madness, has now hit the stores, and is ready for you to buy. It gives me unreasonable amount of pleasure because Justine’s a faboo human being, but more importantly, this is a really excellent novel — […]
Priming the Pump
Posted on March 18, 2005 51 Comments
The Whatever will be quiet over the weekend, but before I go I want to encourage all of you who write science fiction short stories — or who want to write science fiction short stories, or know someone who fits into either category above — to come around here on Monday, because I will have […]
What SF is Great Literature?
Posted on March 18, 2005 108 Comments
Question from Jim Millen in the comment thread of the previous post: Just out of curiosity, John, are there any SF books in particular that you would say are great literature? Obviously I guess this is going to be hugely subjective, but I’d be interested in what you, or anyone else for that matter, thinks. […]
What Publishing Is
Posted on March 18, 2005 12 Comments
As there has been recent confusion on the matter, let’s talk about what publishing is. Ready? Here it is: Publishing is an engine for the production of competent writing. That’s it. Now the details: What is competent writing? Competent writing is writing that efficiently describes ideas and concepts to an audience, using a grammar that […]
What Publishing Is
Posted on March 18, 2005 30 Comments
As there has been recent confusion on the matter, let’s talk about what publishing is. Ready? Here it is: Publishing is an engine for the production of competent writing. That’s it. Now the details: What is competent writing? Competent writing is writing that efficiently describes ideas and concepts to an audience, using a grammar that […]
The Greatest Athena Picture Yet
Posted on March 17, 2005 12 Comments
Athena celebrating her victory on Dance Dance Revolution (800×600 image pop-up).
Class Act
Posted on March 17, 2005 9 Comments
One more reason to be glad Tor is one of my publishers, via this online obit of Andre Norton: Her last complete novel, “Three Hands of Scorpio,” is set to be released in April. Norton’s publisher, Tor Books, rushed to have one copy printed so that the author, who had been sick for almost a […]
An Earned-Out Universe
Posted on March 17, 2005 3 Comments
Good news from my non-fiction agent: The Rough Guide to the Universe has earned out its advance, making it officially the first of my books to do so (For Book of the Dumb I was paid a flat fee plus bonuses when the book hits certain sales points; under a more conventional contract I would […]
Hate Mail Entries
Posted on March 17, 2005 7 Comments
I had a request to repost the “How to send me hate mail” entries from 2002 — which surprised me since I though I had already reposted them. Apparently not. I will eventually repost them in their appropriate archived month, but for now, here they are in one omnibus edition. You’ll find them behind the […]
Hate Mail Entries
Posted on March 17, 2005 15 Comments
I had a request to repost the “How to send me hate mail” entries from 2002 — which surprised me since I though I had already reposted them. Apparently not. I will eventually repost them in their appropriate archived month, but for now, here they are in one omnibus edition. You’ll find them behind the […]
Quick Basement Update
Posted on March 17, 2005 10 Comments
For those of you wondering: It was a busted sump pump, not an actual busted pipe. Which is good because a busted sump pump is easy to fix, whereas a busted pipe (depending on where it is), not so much. We broomed out much of the standing water ourselves and then let the pros come […]
James Valvis at it Again
Posted on March 16, 2005 103 Comments
Lest one thinks that I only give space to those who would praise my work, I present another installment of James Valvis’ long-simmering hatred of everything I do, this one off the message boards of the Thunder Sandwich E-zine. James writes, in part: Scalzi is a shitty writer, plain and simple. No matter how many […]
Glub, Glub
Posted on March 16, 2005 1 Comment
Happiness isn’t: Two inches of standing water in your basement from a broken pipe. Consequently, this is all you get today. Enjoy!
Glub, Glub
Posted on March 16, 2005 9 Comments
Happiness isn’t: Two inches of standing water in your basement from a broken pipe. Consequently, this is all you get today. Enjoy!
Irrationalists
Posted on March 15, 2005 46 Comments
I was all geared up to write a long think piece about the gay marriage decision in California and its implications and blah blah blah barf, but then I decided that even the thought of typing that out made me want to bathe my eyeballs in lye. And if I don’t even want to type […]
The Most Sensible Damn Thing Anyone’s Said About Same Sex Marriage
Posted on March 15, 2005 3 Comments
“The State’s protracted denial of equal protection cannot be justified simply because such constitutional violation has become traditional.” — Judge Richard Kramer, in ruling that California barring same-sex marriages is unconstitutional. Kramer, incidentally, appointed by a Republican governor. I’ll have more to say on this later, but right now, I’m on a deadline. For the […]
The Most Sensible Damn Thing Anyone’s Said About Same Sex Marriage
Posted on March 15, 2005 17 Comments
“The State’s protracted denial of equal protection cannot be justified simply because such constitutional violation has become traditional.” — Judge Richard Kramer, in ruling that California barring same-sex marriages is unconstitutional. Kramer, incidentally, appointed by a Republican governor. I’ll have more to say on this later, but right now, I’m on a deadline. For the […]
I For One Welcome Our New Storage Overlords
Posted on March 13, 2005
Aieeee! Behold the mighty Max-Tor, avatar of the Storage Gods! In its capacious guts are 250 GB of file-encompassing void, designed to swallow the vast mass of mp3s, jpgs, wav and mov files that so recently threatened to swamp my computer’s hard drives. No more! Bow down, foolish multimedia! Thou art foiled, yea verily, I […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying