Monthly Archives: January 2007
When Dairy Products Tragically Overestimate Their Offensive Power
Posted on January 17, 2007 32 Comments
Slowly, two members of LRF (La Révolution de Fromage) approach their feline target, hoping to take it by stealth and cunning. Sadly for them, the dairy-loving beast has already caught their scent. What happened next is too terrible to relate. Curse Kraft for making such ineffective cellophane armor! Yesterday’s responses to the “Cats or Cheese” […]
Cats or Cheese: A Reader Participation Entry
Posted on January 16, 2007 313 Comments
I’m off to the bowels of Cincinnati today, to do an in-studio radio appearance, so who knows when I’ll get back from that. But I wouldn’t want you to be bored while I am away, so here’s a topic for you to ponder: Cats or cheese! There can be only one! You must choose! Yes, […]
Questions Answered
Posted on January 15, 2007 30 Comments
And now, an audio file of me answering questions posted by Whatever readers. It’s 16 minutes and 14 seconds long, and 3.7MB. You can download it here. Enjoy and feel free to comment.
Questions?
Posted on January 15, 2007 29 Comments
I want to try out some new audio software I have (it’s the Adobe Soundbooth Beta), so ask me some questions, and I’ll answer them and post the audio later on. No, this doesn’t mean I’ll be podcasting regularly. But this might be fun anyway.
Blasts From the Past
Posted on January 14, 2007 32 Comments
Further proof that the Internet exists to drag all parts of your life into the present: I got an e-mail today on my MySpace account from Stacey, the girl who lived two houses down from me when I was in 4th grade. She saw one of the books in the bookstore and wondered if the […]
Hey! Your Truth Got Into My Book!
Posted on January 14, 2007 61 Comments
Novelist Zadie Smith thinks harder about writing novels than I do; of course “thinking about writing novels” is what she’s being paid to do in this article. Pay me to blather on about the topic, and I imagine I could go a couple thousand words on it as well. Writers are like that. I think […]
High Up There on the List of Truly Unexpected Award Nominations
Posted on January 13, 2007 25 Comments
The Android’s Dream has notched its first award nomination, for Best Science Fiction Novel of 2006 from — wait for it — the Romantic Times BOOKreviews Career Achievement and Reviewer’s Choice Awards. Romantic Times BOOKreviews gave TAD a very nice review last year, so it’s nice to see it’s made the cut for the magazine’s […]
Fans: What Do We Owe Them?
Posted on January 13, 2007 81 Comments
Hal Duncan has some thoughts on the recent Laurell K. Hamilton asstardery, and it turns out he’s not entirely unsympathetic to Hamilton’s reaction to fans who buy her books and then seek her out to say how much they suck (yet still want their book signed): Now, in the LKH rant, she talks about readers […]
“Alien Sex” Artwork; TSD Release Date; TAD at Revolution SF
Posted on January 13, 2007 8 Comments
I thought I’d show off a nifty illustration for you: This is the cover (by the fabulous Bob Eggleton) of the chapbook of “How I Proposed to My Wife: An Alien Sex Story,” which is a short story I wrote up to be a premium for the folks who shelled out for the hardcover edition […]
Thanks for Delurking!
Posted on January 13, 2007 6 Comments
At the end of the delurking day (which was 5am, Eastern time) I had 408 people delurking in the “Delurk for a Dime” thread, and then there were a couple of stragglers which I went ahead and counted. So that would have made my contribution to Reading is Fundamental $41. I went ahead and rounded […]
Comment Thread for the Usual Gang
Posted on January 12, 2007 81 Comments
As promised, the follow-up entry to “Delurk for a Dime,” so the folks who are not lurkers (and those who were lurkers up until a few moments ago) can have a place to discuss the previous entry. Please, if you’re a regular commenter here at the Whatever, comment here, not in the “Delurk for a […]
Delurk for a Dime
Posted on January 12, 2007 421 Comments
Nobody told me this, but apparently it’s National Delurking Week, in which blog lurkers everywhere are encouraged to delurk and say hello. I think this is a fine idea because I have to admit I wonder about the lurkers here. Whatever gets between 20k and 25k unique visitors on a daily basis, but the commenters […]
Why, Yes, I Am Fiddling With the Background Again
Posted on January 11, 2007 55 Comments
Because I’m just that way, that’s why. Feel free to comment if you like.
Snack Time is Truly Disturbing at the Wintersons
Posted on January 11, 2007 8 Comments
I wrote it. My friend Richard Polt drew it. It’s from way way way back in the timestream.
Newspaper Headline: “Scalzi Back in Custody After Drink Binge”
Posted on January 11, 2007 30 Comments
No, it’s not me; I don’t even drink alcohol. It’s some Australian fellow who is more than a bit bonkers: Apparently he stabbed his neighbors because they were “evil clones.” Despite this, he was allowed to be detained at home rather than in mental institution or a jail; to celebrate this, he went out for […]
Bush’s Speech on Iraq
Posted on January 11, 2007 74 Comments
I didn’t watch it, for the same reason I don’t watch any of Bush’s speeches anymore, which is that the man is simply painful to watch when he tries to form vowels and consonants with his lips and tongue. My understanding from reading the analysis is that Bush managed to be even less persuasive than […]
OMW in Chinese
Posted on January 11, 2007 28 Comments
From a correspondent in China: Just noticed last night that the Chinese translation of Old Man’s War is out… Turns out that it’s the main selection in the January installment of the Science Fiction World Translations edition. You share the issue with Invisible Universe by Gregory Christiano and short stories by Chouhei Kanbayashi and Masaki […]
From the Department of Reaping What You Sow, Adorable Sarcasm Division
Posted on January 10, 2007 23 Comments
Athena: (on my computer, playing a video game) Daddy, I left my pineapple juice in my room. Could you get it for me? Me: (retrieving the pineapple juice and handing it to her) You are unbelievably spoiled, you know. Athena: I was hoping you’d say that. That’s the image I’m going for.
Wednesday Author Interview: Duane Swierczynski
Posted on January 10, 2007 3 Comments
Over at By The Way, the 2007 series of Author Interviews kicks off with a fun interview with Duane Swierczynski, whose latest crime novel The Blonde I enjoyed the hell out of (as you may recall). Come find out how Duane avoids crime fiction cliches, what being the editor-in-chief of the Philadelphia City Paper brings […]
What’s Fun
Posted on January 10, 2007 21 Comments
You know what’s fun? Reading the 10-Qs of cereal manufacturing companies. That’s fun. Crispy, golden flakes of fun. Yum. Having said that, apparently you can make a lot of money selling corn flakes (and other cereals). Maybe it’s not a cutting-edge industry, but hey. People gotta eat. I’m reading the 10-Qs as research for a […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying