Monthly Archives: April 2008

The Scalzi/Doctorow Mashup You’ve All Been Waiting For

Update: video is down. I expect they’re fixing the sound/video disconnect in the last part. I’ll repost when it’s fixed. Fixed! Last month Cory Doctorow and I met in Chicago — to fight crime! — and also to sit down and interview each other about our respective upcoming books, Little Brother and Zoe’s Tale. And […]

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Another One From the “People Who Really Should Know Better” File

University of Florida English professor James Twitchell caught plagiarizing others in his books. His is excuse? “Fluke acts of sloppiness.” Well, yes, it is sloppy to lift whole paragraphs of other people’s work without attribution, but as the linked article suggests, when you do a lot of it, it’s not really a fluke. Writers should […]

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The Return of Ghlaghghee

Those of you who live for the appearances of my pets on Whatever will note that it’s been a while, relatively speaking, since Ghlaghghee was last seen here. The reason for this is pretty simple: Ghlaghghee, being a longhair cat, has had some serious matting issues, which have required some serious and, shall we say, […]

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Pronouning Your Hermaphrodite

Here’s a writing issue I suspect is largely confined to the realm of speculative fiction: I’m editing page proofs of Zoe’s Tale at the moment and catching a significant number of errors — why is why we edit page proofs, so we see them, but you don’t. The largest class of errors? Me calling either […]

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The Stupidly Obvious Phrase of the Day

“The Poor Suffer the Most” Used, for example, in this news header today in a story about food shortages: “As a brutal convergence of events hits an unprepared global market, and grain prices go sky high, the world’s poor suffer most.” Really? The poor suffering the most? It’s hard to imagine. Because, you know, usually […]

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This Year’s Nebula Winners

They are: Novel: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon Novella: “Fountain of Age” by Nancy Kress Novelette: “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” by Ted Chiang Short Story: “Always” by Karen Joy Fowler Script: Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro The winner of this year’s Norton Award for best young adult novel is Harry […]

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SFWA Passes Its Gut Check Moment

Greetings, gentlebeings! Little birdies flying to Ohio from down Austin, Texas way tell me that the incoming president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America is Russell Davis, who won the position by a rather substantial margin over Andrew Burt. Also on the upcoming SFWA board: Elizabeth Moon as vice president, Mary Robinette […]

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Going Sidewise

This is neat: A short story of mine has been nominated for the Sidewise Award, which annually honors the best alternate history stories and novels. Here are the full list of nominees for this year: Best Short Form: Elizabeth Bear, “Les Innocents/Lumiere” (in New Amsterdam, Subterranean Press) Michael Flynn, “Quaestiones Super Caelo Et Mundo” (in […]

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The Closeted Cat

Here’s a funny thing about Lopsided Cat: He’s a closet affection whore. When the other cats are around he hates being touched or picked up; you reach down to pet him when the other cats are around and he literally flattens himself down the floor to avoid being touched. Because being petted around the other […]

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