Monthly Archives: May 2008
Rough Guide to the Universe 2nd Edition is Out!
Posted on May 5, 2008 14 Comments
I’m absolutely delighted to say that today is the day that my astronomy book, The Rough Guide to the Universe, comes out in a second, updated edition. In it you’ll find the latest on Pluto, Saturn, Mars and other astronomical entities about whom we’ve learned more since the first edition of the book hit stores […]
Today’s “Why Does This Even Need to Be Asked” Question of the Day
Posted on May 4, 2008 59 Comments
It is: Should a multimillionaire Yale Law grad who’s lived in the White House and hadn’t pumped her own gas in years before a recent Potemkin pit stop be allowed call anyone else “elitist” without being laughed at in open derision?
Before & After
Posted on May 4, 2008 44 Comments
Before: After: Or, why people often don’t recognize me despite having seen lots of pictures of me. Also, I think I’m using the “before” picture as my next author photo.
An Amusing Bit of Unnecessary Encouragement
Posted on May 4, 2008 40 Comments
Royalty check yesterday afternoon, for Old Man’s War and The Android’s Dream, from Tor/Macmillan (I handled that deal myself; all the other novels are handled through my agent, who in fact e-mailed me today with news of other royalties to be sent my way. It’s been a nice weekend). In the royalty package, a note, […]
The Subtle Difference Between Professional and Psychotic Hosebag
Posted on May 4, 2008 17 Comments
La Gringa with a sample letter from someone who apparently doesn’t want an agent as much as he thinks he does. Folks, this is simple. As far as writers go, the difference between a professional and a psychotic hosebag is not that psychotic hosebags take rejection personally and professionals don’t. The difference is that even […]
Some Editing Will Be in Order
Posted on May 3, 2008 10 Comments
I need to send the updated manuscript for Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded to Subterranean in the next couple of weeks in order to make our September release date, which means integrating new material into the original manuscript, which I compiled in early 2006, which covered Whatever during the years 1998 through 2005. That […]
Making Light’s Out
Posted on May 3, 2008 4 Comments
Those of you who are fans of Making Light, the blog from Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden and friends, might note that you’ve been having trouble reaching it today. That’s because it imploded, and they’re in the process of trying to reconstruct it. Patrick has the details at his LiveJournal, and a temporary home for […]
Your Dream Life
Posted on May 3, 2008 45 Comments
My friend Meeka has a general question for you dreamers out there in Whateverland: In conversations with friends, it seems some dream in a manner similar to me, in which dreams have their own logic, which is not necessarily correlated with reality, while others have dreams that are very pragmatic and tied to reality. Also, […]
Business Note Re: Anthologies
Posted on May 3, 2008 7 Comments
I’m getting a fair number of invitations to write for short story anthologies these days, which is very gratifying to the ego. But I’ve plotted out my writing obligations for the next year (actually 15 months) and what I’ve discovered is that I actually have absolutely no more bandwidth. If I try to jam any […]
John Scalzis Everywhere!
Posted on May 3, 2008 38 Comments
Look! It’s John Scalzi, interviewing some lady on the beach in Sarasota, Florida. When was I in Sarasota, you ask? Answer: I never was. So how could John Scalzi be interviewing someone on the beach there? Because not everyone named John Scalzi is me: As it happens, I’ll in Florida in a couple of weeks, […]
Why YA
Posted on May 2, 2008 104 Comments
Cory Doctorow takes a moment to remind folks going into the bookstore to get his book Little Brother that they need to go into the Young Adult section, not the science fiction section, and then talks about the YA section of the bookstore being something of an undiscovered country, where cool things happen because no […]
Yes, Seen It
Posted on May 2, 2008 29 Comments
From xkcd. The really funny thing was that last night I had a hankerin’ for bacon, and was fixin’ to fry me up some, but then I discovered we were out of bacon. It was terrible. Terrible, I tell you.
Spinning Away
Posted on May 2, 2008 18 Comments
Ooh, look. I found “Spinning Away” by Eno/Cale on YouTube: Video: odd. Song: good. There’s a cover version of this, by the mid-90s party band Sugar Ray, but this version is to that, as Shakespeare might say, as Hyperion to a satyr. I give Sugar Ray credit for good taste, but otherwise, yeeech. My strongest […]
Today’s Public Service Announcement
Posted on May 1, 2008 13 Comments
Why Jay Lake wants you to have something put up your ass.
A Historic Moment, Of A Sort
Posted on May 1, 2008 74 Comments
More people disapprove of George Bush today than disapproved of Richard Nixon when he resigned from the presidency: A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Thursday indicates that 71 percent of the American public disapprove of how Bush is handling his job as president. “No president has ever had a higher disapproval rating in any CNN […]
MRK’s Site Down
Posted on May 1, 2008 11 Comments
I figure there’s a fair amount of overlap between the people who read Whatever and those who read Mary Robinette Kowal’s blog, so I’m passing along this note from her, regarding her site: Around noon today, someone decided that it would be fun to hack my website. They’ve installed some code that is taking down […]
The Once and Future Self-Publisher
Posted on May 1, 2008 39 Comments
A question from e-mail: You originally published Old Man’s War and Agent to the Stars on your Web site, and you just recently put up a short story as shareware. Do you think you’ll publish another novel this way? Well, in the short term, definitely not. I have two more novels under contract to Tor […]
Whateveresque Registration Open Until 10pm
Posted on May 1, 2008 2 Comments
For those of you wanting to join in with the fun over at Whateveresque, the Whatever reader forum, registration is now open through 10 pm Eastern time. Hurry, hurry, like quick little bunnies. As always, help an administrator out in approving your membership request by choosing a member name that is recognizably NOT a spambot […]
Coming Home, One Last Time
Posted on May 1, 2008 34 Comments
The Things That Carried Him I read this Esquire piece, about a fallen soldier’s final homecoming, last month when I got the magazine. They’ve posted it online now. You should read it.
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying