Monthly Archives: January 2006
Anecdotal Evidence of the Long Tail
Posted on January 31, 2006 21 Comments
The Ghost Brigades bumped up into the 2000s in the Amazon rankings today but as far as I could tell no one was actually talking about it — no new reviews, etc, so I wondered what was going on. I think I figured it out: Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds was pimping his own book An Army […]
Just Because You’re in Publishing Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Be a Moron
Posted on January 31, 2006 24 Comments
Here’s a headline, in the wake of James Frey: Publishers Say Fact-Checking Is Too Costly Yes, but is it more costly than fighting off a $10 million class-action suit? Personally, I’d guess “no.” Heck, even a lousy settlement will cost more than the salary of one poor bastard fact-checker, slaving away in the bowels of […]
Oh, Dear
Posted on January 31, 2006 16 Comments
John M Scalzi dies in head-on car accident. Clearly, not me. Nor my father, for that matter, as the age is wrong and he doesn’t live in Massachusetts. And as far as I know he’s no direct relation to me. Very sad nonetheless. Also, of course, disconcerting to discover that someone who has your name […]
Early Oscar Thoughts, 2006 Edition
Posted on January 31, 2006 28 Comments
There are a lot of things to say about this year’s Oscar picks. First, among the best picture contenders, this is the most worthy, challenging, intellectually satisfying field in years. Second, this year’s Oscar show may be the lowest-rated in the history of forever, because to date not a one of these worthy, challenging and […]
Out of Print
Posted on January 30, 2006 9 Comments
Teresa Nielsen Hayden muses on the life expectancies of books: We talk about immortal literature, but the vast majority of books are as mortal as we are. Who here has read John Cleveland? He was the most popular poet of his era, with numerous editions of his work published during his lifetime and just after. […]
Ahead of the Curve
Posted on January 30, 2006 11 Comments
One of the nice benefits of being an author and/or having a blog a few people visit is now I get advance reader copies of books I want before the rest of mass of humanity gets its grubby little paws on them; naturally I have to taunt the rest of you with them now. Here’s […]
TGB in My Hands
Posted on January 28, 2006 15 Comments
My author copy of The Ghost Brigades. Excellent. Got it right from the editor while I was at Tor, where I had lunch and spent time chatting with Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Irene Gallo and with Tom Doherty, and also had a long, useful chat with my publicist Dot Lin, who is super-cool. In […]
Philadelphia Feeling
Posted on January 27, 2006 6 Comments
Philadelphia was lovely. Well, actually the part of Philadelphia we were in, Fishtown, had “character.” I think that’s the appropriate euphemism. But I and Ron Hogan certainly had a lovely time while we were there, especially at the event, which was nicely attended and went off without a hitch. My compliments to the folks at […]
From Russia With Cats
Posted on January 26, 2006 10 Comments
My agent just sent me an e-mail letting me know we sold The Ghost Brigades in Russian. As they say: w00t! And to celebrate, I offer you this picture of a cat: The cat is not Russian (it is not even a Russian Blue), but its owner studied Russian in college — I know that […]
Title Change for Writing Book
Posted on January 25, 2006 25 Comments
Just as an FYI for all y’all, I’ve made a change to the title of the writing book. It is now: You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop: Scalzi on Writing Yes, it’s long. So what. I like it. Although I do like the runner-up, too: “Sailing the Ramen […]
Philadelphia (and New York), Here I Come
Posted on January 25, 2006 2 Comments
Just a reminder that tomorrow I and Ron Hogan descend on Philadelphia like a biblical plague of smart-ass movie book writers, for an event at the aptly-named Germ Books + Gallery (308 E. Girard, 215-423-5002) at 7pm in the evening. We’ll be talking specifically about science fiction films of the 70s (seeing as I’ve written […]
The Canadian Example
Posted on January 24, 2006 41 Comments
Knowing next to nothing about American politics has never stopped me from writing about that subject, so I don’t see why it should stop me from writing about Canadian politics, about which I know even less. Those of you who live in the Great White North elected a conservative government last night — bearing in […]
DragonPage Podcast Interview
Posted on January 23, 2006 5 Comments
For those of you who still haven’t heard what I sound like, I’m interviewed this week by Michael and Evo of DragonPage, on their weekly podcast. We’re discussing The Ghost Brigades, short stories and Internet stuff, and the other usual nonsense I blather on about. I show up around 7 minutes and 30 seconds in.
PW Review of The Ghost Brigades
Posted on January 23, 2006 15 Comments
Oh, look. The Publishers Weekly review of The Ghost Brigades is in and it’s not bad at all. The opening line: “This fast-paced interstellar military drama doesn’t quite meet the high expectations set by its predecessor, Scalzi’s acclaimed Old Man’s War (2005), but it comes impressively close.” That works just dandy for me. You can […]
ConFusion Writeup
Posted on January 23, 2006 14 Comments
As Samwise Gamgee once said, well, I’m back. Hope you enjoyed Nick and Eliani’s story — I see it’s been noted online in several places, almost all positively. I’m glad people liked it as much as I did. I spent the weekend up at ConFusion, where I did a reading, quite a few panels, more […]
Who Put the Bomp?
Posted on January 20, 2006 29 Comments
I’m away this weekend (I’ll be here), and in my absence I leave you this special treat: A short story written by Nick Mamatas and Eliani Torres that I bought from them to showcase here. Folks who read the site know the background on this already; if you’ve wandered in from elsewhere, you can read […]
Selected Creatures from the Athena Collection, With Artist Commentary
Posted on January 19, 2006 20 Comments
“He’s just a mixed up monster. Because he has crab arms, and an oval body and he has two ears that are, like, from an animal, I think? Is that right? Yeah. Probably a dog sticking up its ear, only it’s not pointy. He’s a monster, he destroys towns so his ears are always up […]
Subterranean Magazine Update Plus Reminder
Posted on January 19, 2006 4 Comments
For those of you with a vested interest in the Subterranean Magazine issue I’m editing, I’m happy to say that the stories have had their first round of copy edits and have been sequenced, I’ve written my editorial afterward and sent the whole wad — 59,300 words or so — to the Subterranean offices (which […]
The Oldination!
Posted on January 19, 2006 11 Comments
Small signs from above that you’re moving right along through the demographic python: Your seven-year-old wearing a twenty-year-old t-shirt that you wore when you were sixteen. Yup, that’ll do it. “Webb Day,” incidentally, being the inter-class competition my high school does every year. Our class won that year. Because we rock, you see. Indeed, our […]
Space Age Miracle Fiber Mattress
Posted on January 17, 2006 37 Comments
Our new mattress arrived today, and as advertised, it is filled with some sort of space age miracle material that conforms to your body when you lie down on it — it’s so form-fitting, in fact, that the effect of lying on it is just a little disconcerting, particularly when one tries to move out […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying