Monthly Archives: April 2006

High Gear

I say stuff like this from time to time and then promptly ignore it; neverthless, here I go again: I’m to the point where I need to ramp up writing production on The Last Colony, which is the third book in the “Old Man” sequence, which means that there may be a corresponding reduction in […]

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Athena At Bat

Athena’s doing pretty well on her baseball team; she catches and throws pretty well and is good at the plate. She can switch-hit, which I suspect will be useful one day, although less so at the moment: she’s playing coach-pitch baseball, so it’s not like they’re really trying to get it past her. Still, not […]

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Androids and Zombies

A couple of things to get you through Friday: First, wondering what the cover of my next novel will look like? Wonder no more: No, that’s not the actual book the cover’s wrapped around; it’s on the SFBC version of The Ghost Brigades. The actual book for The Android’s Dream is still several months away […]

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10 Things Teenage Writers Should Know About Writing

Dear Teenage Writers: Hi there. I was once a teenage writer like you (see goofy picture to the right), although that was so long ago that between now and then, I could have been a teenager all over again. Nevertheless, recently I’ve been thinking about offering some thoughts and advice on being a teenage writer, […]

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Quick Hits, 4/26/06

Some more bits and pieces, because apparently that’s where my mind is at these days: * Two charitable things related to books: 1. Role-playing game publisher Palladium Books has hit a rough patch due to a combination of internal malfeasance and external issues and is scrambling to stay open long enough to get itself back […]

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My MySpace page

I made a crack about MySpace yesterday, but it also reminded me to let all y’all know that I actually have a MySpace profile, largely so I can stream a few of my music tracks. I made it in January but pretty much forgot about it until a couple of weeks ago, when people started […]

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Connie Willis, Cheap!

In the last entry I noted I’d be doing a pimp for Subterranean Books today. And here it is, in the form of an e-mail from Subterranean publisher Bill Schafer: “Hey there, “We sometimes get returns from distributors, and have received back from one a healthy handful of Connie Willis’s Hugo-nominated novella INSIDE JOB in […]

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Quick Hits, 4/25/06

Feel like I’m running about like a madman today, which I suspect has something to do with an orthodontist appointment this morning (for Athena, not for me, and yes, everything’s fine with her mouth; we’re juts making sure it’s big enough for her grown up teeth). So some quick hits: * Lori Jareo? She’s so […]

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And Now, Some Marketing Coverage

There’s an article up today at Online Media Daily about how Old Man’s War initially got its momentum online, particularly through Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds championing the book (along with Cory Doctorow, Stephen Bainbridge, Eugene Volokh, and Stephen Green). Among other things, it gives the impression that getting a mention of your book on Instapundit is […]

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OMW: Locus Award Finalist

I just found out that Old Man’s War is a finalist with the 2006 Locus Awards, in the category of Best First Novel. Other nominees in this category: Counting Heads, David Marusek Hammered/Scardown/Worldwired, Elizabeth Bear The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, Tim Pratt Vellum, Hal Duncan Vellum, incidentally, officially debuts here in the US tomorrow — […]

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Two Quick Self-Serving Links

One, just in case people are wondering if there are a lot fanficcers out there or not, I’ll note that according to BlogPulse, the Lori Jareo post from Friday is the #2 Top Blog Post on teh Intarweebs today. Neat. Two, a nice review of The Ghost Brigades in the Some Fantastic critzine, which you […]

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Tea Parties in Science Fiction

The estimable Tobias Buckell, who attended and recorded the “Tea Parties in Science Fiction” panel I mentioned here, has now posted the podcast here, and offers his own commentary here. The recording is in .wav form and is about 12MB and 50 minutes long. Be aware there’s some background noise, thanks to passing traffic. (For […]

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Copyright Squares

This fellow writes up a note about the Lori Jareo thing, and rather interestingly thinks the reason fanficcers are so outraged by what Ms. Jareo did is because they’re clueless slaves to the existing copyright paradigm. That should get a chuckle or two out of the fanficcers I know. I posted a rather lengthly response […]

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Penguicon Notes

I’m back from Penguicon 4.0, where I was a “nifty guest,” and indeed I had a nifty time; it was lovely to see a bunch of Michigan friends and writer friends (and, indeed, also the writer friends who live in Michigan). I keep forgetting how close Michigan actually is to me — the convention was […]

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The 2006 Stupidest FanFic Writer Award Gets Retired Early

Via Nick Mamatas, I learn of Lori Jareo, who has written up a Star Wars fanfic novel, published it without the expressed, written consent of George Lucas, and has it listed for sale on Amazon. Oh, but she’s not worried about the massive copyright violation; Indeed, let’s see what she has to say about it […]

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Coffee Shop on Amazon

The Amazon listing for You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop: Scalzi on Writing is now up, so if you’re interested in pre-ordering through your Amazon account, now you can. The release date is sometime in the August timeframe. You can also still pre-order it via the Subterranean Press […]

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A Quick Observation

Men, if you want to flummox a telemarketer, use the following words: “I’m sorry, you’re going to have to speak to my wife. She is the one who makes all the major financial decisions in the household.” I guarantee several seconds of silence as the telemarketer grinds his or her gears getting what passes for […]

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Penguicon 4.0 Schedule

Tomorrow I’m off to Penguicon 4.0, that mash up of science fiction and open source, in convention form. For those who are going, or are not going but just like to know what I’m doing at all times, here’s my panel schedule: Friday: No events scheduled. Which, you know, is groovy with me. Saturday: 1:00 […]

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Birthday Thanks

Krissy, about to perform atrocities on a poor defenseless birthday cake. For those of you who have not met her, this is also the look you get when you displease her. Don’t make Krissy angry. You wouldn’t like it when she’s angry. Krissy, however, did wish to extend a “thank you” to everyone who wished […]

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