Monthly Archives: December 2007
Soft Rock Gets a Little Sadder
Posted on December 16, 2007 20 Comments
Dan Fogelberg has died. The man was actually my favorite soft rocker. He just seemed nice, you know?
Athena Has an Idea
Posted on December 16, 2007 21 Comments
Athena has been busy inventing things, like you do when you’re eight-going-on-nine, and is allowing me to share with you the following invention, called the “Sleeperly 1000,” which is for children who have a difficult time getting to sleep at night. You start off with your standard kid-sized bed, which Athena has. But then under […]
On a Hugo for Lifetime Achievement
Posted on December 16, 2007 56 Comments
Author Jay Lake is mulling over proposing a Hugo for Lifetime Achievement, and has been asking for feedback on the idea. I’m personally skeptical that such a thing is needed, for the reasons that people in Jay’s comment thread have been pointing out: Worldcons are already able to provide special awards that take care of […]
Just In Case You Were Wondering
Posted on December 16, 2007 57 Comments
The secret to generating a huge number of comments on your blog: Write about Robert Heinlein and fanfic in the same week; each entry is at about 450 comments. By concatenation, this means writing an entry concerning fanfic about Heinlein books would come close to 1000 comments, and that writing erotic fanfic featuring Heinlein and […]
A Philly Moment
Posted on December 15, 2007 23 Comments
Seems like I just got here and I’m packing up again. Which is because, well. I was only supposed to be here for a day, anyway. Briefly: Had a lovely time at the PSFS meeting last night. The folks seemed happy to see me, and I got to do my stomping around the stage, one-damn-tangent-after-another […]
Off to Philly
Posted on December 14, 2007 14 Comments
If everything goes well, I won’t be updating again until I’m in the City of Brotherly Love. If everything doesn’t go well, I’m sure to post a tirade from the airport. Aren’t you excited to see which it will be?!? Anyway, play nice, and hopefully I’ll see some of you tonight.
A Month of Writers, Day Twelve: Naomi Kritzer
Posted on December 14, 2007 16 Comments
Hard as it may be to believe now, there once was a time in which I was not the giddy geek social butterfly you all know and adore (or, at least, tolerate). At one time I knew hardly any other science fiction and fantasy writers at all, and that time was actually not that long […]
A Month of Writers, Day Eleven: Cherie Priest
Posted on December 13, 2007 15 Comments
I think it’s well documented that I am almost insensibly a fan of Cherie Priest, both as a human and as a writer; the latter, at least, you can ascertain by looking at the cover of her latest, Not Flesh Nor Feathers, and seeing who her blurb is from. Yes, that means I think you […]
Let’s Get Transformative
Posted on December 13, 2007 623 Comments
Current Campbell Award winner Naomi Novik has founded and is the chair of a new organization, the Organization for Transformative Works, which has this as the first part of its mission statement: The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) is a nonprofit organization established by fans to serve the interests of fans by providing access to […]
In Case You’re Wondering
Posted on December 12, 2007 10 Comments
The writing on Zoe’s Tale is generally going quite smoothly, thanks, not counting yesterday when for unrelated reasons my brain had the consistency of tapioca. But today in particular things chugged along nicely. I still have far too much writing to do on the book before the end of the month, but there’s not much […]
The Shipping News
Posted on December 12, 2007 20 Comments
Quick Note: Those of you who ordered the second printing of Coffee Shop from Subterranean Press will be pleased to know it’s now been shipped (as, apparently, has their new Connie Willis book, All Seated on the Ground). The Subterranean folks also note: While we still have copies on hand, both books had very small […]
A Month of Writers, Day Ten: Wil Wheaton
Posted on December 12, 2007 49 Comments
This will be a longer intro for the Month of Writers piece than most. People ask me, “Do you really know Wil Wheaton?” and I respond one of two ways: “Well, no, not Biblically,” and “Why, yes. Yes I do.” Both statements are true. I think we’re all happy about that first one (and the […]
By the Power Vested in Me By, Er, Me…
Posted on December 11, 2007 66 Comments
… I declare today “National Get Your Wife Flowers For No Reason Day.” Why? Well, clearly, no reason. That’s right there on the label, people. Pay attention. If you have not a wife, consider getting your spouse/significant other/longtime object of non-stalkerish affections flowers. And yes, I participated. Can’t declare it without doing it, now, can […]
A Month of Writers, Day Nine: Scott Westerfeld
Posted on December 11, 2007 19 Comments
Speaking as a recent “New Heinlein,” allow me to express the opinion that if anyone should be called the “New Heinlein,” it’s Scott Westerfeld. Not because Scott writes like Heinlein, but because he’s filling a critical ecological niche Heinlein used to fill: Writing superior (and ridiculously well-selling) science fiction for young readers, some of whom […]
Looks Like I Picked the Wrong Day to Stop Huffing Freon
Posted on December 11, 2007 75 Comments
I’m getting this a lot today: Which is not good, because I have a book to write. However, even if the main computer melts down again, I am prepared: The novel is saved in folder shared across the home network and written to every time I save, so I can work on it off my […]
Testing Hulu Embedding
Posted on December 10, 2007 34 Comments
If this doesn’t work, I’ll delete it. If it does work, hey, have a legally cromulent Simpsons episode.
They’ll Call it “Scalzidelphia” For a Day
Posted on December 10, 2007 26 Comments
For those of you living in or near the city of Philadelphia, some appearance news: I’m the guest speaker at the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society this next Friday, December 14 at 9pm at The Routunda. Click on that link for more information and directions. Currently, this is my only scheduled public appearance on the eastern […]
A Month of Writers, Day Eight: Patrick Rothfuss
Posted on December 10, 2007 17 Comments
As a reader I made my acquaintance with Patrick Rothfuss after he left a signed copy of his book The Name of the Wind for me at Uncle Hugo’s book store in Minneapolis, where I had a stop on my book tour. I have to admit that while first looking at the book I felt […]
Video Interview (in France!)
Posted on December 10, 2007 5 Comments
Jeff VanderMeer has a gig blogging for Amazon, and while he and I were in France for the Utopiales festival, he went ahead and interviewed me on video, primarily about The Android’s Dream. The whole write-up (in which Jeff says some kind things about me) is here, but I’ve gone ahead and put the video […]
The Zombie Robert Heinlein Rises From the Grave Yet Again to Annoy the Politically Correct
Posted on December 10, 2007 476 Comments
Oh, look, another newspaper writer is digging a deep hole to shove Robert Heinlein’s reputation into, mostly by intimating that no one takes Heinlein seriously anymore anyway, trotting out a bookseller to intone about Heinlein being a fascist, and even hauling up the New York Times assessment of moi last year to wonder if being […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying