Monthly Archives: April 2008
Pre-Release Fun: Cloverfield, Sly Mongoose
Posted on April 7, 2008 30 Comments
I haven’t done DVD reviews regularly for more than a year now, so it’s been a while since I got a crafty little promotional package like this: The publicity pack for Cloverfield, in which the DVD and its attendant publicity materials come in a plastic case designed for archival video tape. It doesn’t top my […]
Reader Request Week 2008 Wrap-up
Posted on April 7, 2008 4 Comments
In case you missed any of last week’s Reader Request pieces, here’s a handy link farm for you: Reader Request Week 2008 #1: Homeschooling Reader Request Week 2008 #2: Technological Gifts Reader Request Week 2008 #3: Sex and Video Games Reader Request Week 2008 #4: Where I Am Now Reader Request Week 2008 #5: Professional […]
In Today’s Shocking News, Bloggers Are Revealed to Be Unhealthy Obsessive Nerds
Posted on April 7, 2008 16 Comments
The New York Times, full of schadenfreude and concern, runs a story about pro bloggers and their unhealthy lifestyles, which may have contributed to the death of two prominent (if older) tech bloggers and the heart attack of Om Malik. It also reveals that pro bloggers often get paid crap and have pay tied to […]
Seiun Nomination
Posted on April 6, 2008 13 Comments
Oh, hey. Thanks to Science Fiction Awards Watch, I discover Old Man’s War has been nominated for the Seiun Award, the big SF award in Japan. Neat. Here’s the list of all the nominees, which includes fellow current Best Novel Hugo nominee Charlie Stross (he’s actually nominated twice, for novel and for short story).
My Blathering Self
Posted on April 6, 2008 7 Comments
Like a chipmunk fed a caffeine pill, I do chatter incessantly, and some folks have caught this chattering on recordings. First, Tor has a podcast of me and children’s author (and Athena fave) David Lubar talking about, well, books, kids and publicists in weenie costumes. You know you don’t want to miss that. Here’s the […]
Get Your Paws Off Me, You Damn Dirty Reaper
Posted on April 6, 2008 35 Comments
A banner on MSNBC says that Charleton Heston has died. I really enjoyed him as an actor, and those of us of a science fictional bent should remember he was really one of the first true A-list stars who did serious work in the field, not just with one film, but with several, building a […]
Reader Request Week 2008 #15: Quick Hits, Volume II
Posted on April 6, 2008 25 Comments
What? You don’t want Reader Request Week 2008 to stop? Well, I know how you feel — but all good things must come to an end, and hopefully before I get bored with them. But remember: You don’t actually have to wait for Reader Request Week to send me a question you want me to […]
WordPress Geekery
Posted on April 5, 2008 19 Comments
The more I work with WordPress the more I like it (although I still wish I could generate permanent static pages for archive purposes, hint, hint), and I have to say that I like the 2.5 update quite a bit. After the initial couple of days shakeout to figure out where they moved everything around […]
Reader Request Week 2008 #14: Quick Hits, Volume I
Posted on April 5, 2008 21 Comments
Well, I pretty much completely failed at making shorter answers to reader requests this week, although I did do more of them. Be that as it may, we’re coming to the close of Reader Request Week, which I traditionally end by doing an entry or two of short replies to questions I didn’t get to […]
Reader Request Week 2008 #13: Diminishing Returns
Posted on April 4, 2008 48 Comments
Mike Lyon is concerned about: The Law of Diminishing Returns in Series Science Fiction & Fantasy. Don’t tell me it hasn’t come up before. And no disrespect to you, Scalzi, since thus far the three Old Man’s War novels have been of a uniformly excellent quality, but everyone from Orson Scott Card to Frank Herbert […]
Interesting Cover
Posted on April 4, 2008 15 Comments
John Legend covering “Pride (In the Name of Love).” Quite obviously, there’s a reason I’m noting the video today.
Reader Request Week 2008 #12: Soldiers and Support
Posted on April 4, 2008 87 Comments
Chris asks: At what point does or should personal distaste of the War in Iraq translate into disdain or disapproval for the Service members fighting in that fight? Is it possible to support the Soldier but not the War? If not, is it ‘unpatriotic’? In general I think it’s perfectly possible to support the soldier […]
Reader Request Week 2008 #11: Athena and Whatever
Posted on April 3, 2008 49 Comments
First, a photo essay, a dramatic tale of desire achieved and denied, entitled “LOLAthena”: And now, a question, from Michelle Sagara: If, when Athena is older, she asks you to remove all pictures of her, and all comments about things she’s done, will you comply? As it happens, this is something that Athena and I […]
Multiverses
Posted on April 3, 2008 29 Comments
Rough Guides sent along my author copies of the second edition of The Rough Guide to the Universe, which you see here to the right of a poster of the cover of the 2003 first edition. The new edition looks lovely and has all the latest on Mars, Pluto, Saturn and so and so forth, […]
Reader Request Week 2008 #10: Meeting Authors (and Me)
Posted on April 3, 2008 107 Comments
James asks: I have bought tickets to Denvention and I am looking forward to seeing all of my favorite authors. My question is what is the appropriate way to approach an author? Ignore (or not) behavior like stalking and such (knocking on hotel door at 2am) but how would you like to be approached? I’m […]
Starting Your Morning With a Blatant Plug (For a Good Cause)
Posted on April 3, 2008 4 Comments
Bill Schaefer of Subterranean Press writes: We’re doing a limited edition of the delightful YA novel, Interworld, that Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves published last year. As you may have heard, Michael is having some serious health problems related to Parkinson’s. He’s recently had one surgery and is slated for a second. All of the […]
Taking Bacon Just a Bit Too Far
Posted on April 2, 2008 28 Comments
It’s… well, just click through to see. May be not safe for work, although there’s no nudity, just wrongness.
Reader Request Week 2008 #9: Polygamy
Posted on April 2, 2008 74 Comments
Not everyone sends reader requests through the comments (although you should, hint, hint); some send them through e-mail. Here’s one of the e-mailed ones, from Tristan: You’ve been very vocal about your support for gay marriage. Do you also support polyamory? To start, I think we might have a bit of term confusion. I suspect […]
Reader Request Week 2008 #8: Politics and the Olympics
Posted on April 2, 2008 27 Comments
Ohako asks: Are the Olympics purely a sports contest, or do international politics enter into the equation at some level? Should a country boycott the Olympics because China is mean to Tibet? Clearly international politics enter into the equation, and have for some time. In 1976 a bunch of African countries boycotted the Olympics to […]
Whateveresque Registration Open
Posted on April 2, 2008 3 Comments
For those of you wanting to join the conversations over at Whateveresque, the Whatever reader forum, registration is now open through midnight. We may crack 1,000 members today, which I find exciting. As always, help an administrator out in approving your membership request by choosing a member name that is recognizably NOT a spambot name […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying