Monthly Archives: February 2010

View From the Getty

The rain stopped Saturday just after I and my friend Natasha arrived at the Getty Museum to wander about. It was the first time there for the both of us, and I think both of us had the same reaction: What a lovely museum, and what a lovely place for a museum, too. I snapped […]

Read More

In Other News, I’m Old

Via Andrew Sullivan, I learn that Kids These Days are less likely to start blogging, and that the form is increasingly the purview of the ancients, they being defined as people over the age of 30. This doesn’t surprise me terribly. For the vast majority of what people (not just teens, but teens also) used […]

Read More

Oh, and About The God Engines

Some folks noticed that Amazon has a fairly large delay on delivery for The God Engines, and wondered if that was somehow related to what was going on with Macmillan. No, quite the opposite: The darn thing sold so quickly that additional printings had to be made and those are now working their way towards […]

Read More

The Big Idea: James Knapp

When is a zombie not quite exactly a zombie? For James Knapp, and his new novel State of Decay, it’s when you you take the idea of the undead and give it a whole new socio-political spin — a spin that incorporates free will, social castes, an unending war, and other such fun things. I […]

Read More

A Technical Thing re: Amazon and My Tor Books

Every couple of hours someone sends an e-mail or post saying “Your book is back up on Amazon!” and point to the same thing, so I want to post this to clear up the confusion. The one physical version of Old Man’s War that’s up on Amazon is “Bargain Price Paperback,” which is to say […]

Read More

Mission Accomplished

My In-N-Out Double-Double from earlier this evening, before I consumed the hell out of it. You would not have wanted me to take a picture of it after I had done so. In other news, yes, I’m in California. LA to be precise. Doesn’t my typing look three hours later to you than it normally […]

Read More

Why In Fact Publishing Will Not Go Away Anytime Soon: A Deeply Slanted Play in Three Acts

CHARACTERS: ELTON P. STRAÜMANN, a modern-thinking man with exciting ideas JOHN SCALZI, a humble writer KRISTINE SCALZI, the wife of a humble writer ACT I SCENE OPENS ON STRAÜMANN and SCALZI, standing. STRAÜMANN: The publishing world is changing! In the future, authors will no longer need those fat cat middle men known as “publishers” to […]

Read More

The Big Idea: Katharine Beutner

People in myths live forever — or do they? For every Apollo or Persephone, there are the women and men whose lives these famous deities intersect in the telling of the tale — but who otherwise fall from the page, and from thought. Can they be resurrected? Katharine Beutner thinks it’s possible, and sets to […]

Read More

A Note Re: Amazon Links in Big Idea Pieces

Some of you may note that despite my being annoyed with Amazon in the last week, Amazon links have not been pulled from previous Big Idea pieces, and I added an Amazon link to the latest Big Idea piece as well. The reasoning here is simple: Unlike some large online retailers I could name, I […]

Read More

Just Arrived, 2/2/10

A little groundhog showed up at the house today and said “sorry about the six extra weeks of winter. Maybe these will make up for it.” What did he bring? * Coyote Destiny, by Allen Steele (Ace): True fact: My very first author fan letter was to Allen Steele. I found his e-mail and gushed […]

Read More

Initial Oscar Thoughts, 2010

As I do every year (except last year, when WordPress ate my entry, BOO), I’m giving you my thoughts on the Oscar nominee field and who, at first blush, I suspect will win their categories. Because I want to keep today’s previous entry near the top of the Whatever front page, I’ll put these thoughts […]

Read More

%d bloggers like this: