Monthly Archives: September 2010

The Big Idea: J.K. Beck

Author J.K. Beck’s new paranormal Shadow Keepers series (of which When Blood Calls, above, is the first) is about law and order in the world of magic. It’s the kind of set-up that suggests that there’s not much there that could be derived from real life. Right? Well… as Beck explains here, it turns out […]

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News on Agent to the Stars, Android’s Dream and The God Engines

A quick housekeeping post here to tell you news about books and stuff: 1. If you follow the Twitter feed, you may have noticed me retweeting a Tweet from Wil Wheaton, in which he announced that he was currently busy performing the audio book version of Agent to the Stars. What he didn’t reveal, but […]

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25 Copies of Cherie Priest’s DREADNOUGHT to Give Away — Hurry!

UPDATE 10:05am — Giveaway is over! Thanks, everyone! Yes, the title of the entry says it all. Or does it? Actually it doesn’t, because Subterranean Press’ Bill Schafer is here to tell you more — namely, how to get one of those fabulous new Cherie Priest novels, and how to pick up a brand new […]

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Yes, It Was a Very Good Year

Over at Filmcritic.com, I go into detail about the five years that changed science fiction film forever — 1977 (being the one with Close Encounters, pictured above, plus some other science fiction film almost no one’s heard of) being arguably the most important of those. See what other four years made the list, and as […]

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Stargate: Universe Season 2 Debuts Tonight

Just a reminder to each of you that Stargate: Universe (aka That Show What Gives Me Money) is back for a new season of intergalactic wanderings, alien visitations, and other such drama, and on a new night: namely, tonight, moved from Friday night last season. That is, here in the United States; in Canada, it’s […]

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The Big Idea: Sam Sykes

Is the perfect protagonist perfect? Because we all love heroes: Chiseled of chin and muscle, right in act and deed, easy to admire, always there when the chips are down and the forces of good have their backs against the wall. But in writing his debut fantasy novel Tome of the Undergates, author Sam Sykes […]

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Interview of Me in Lightspeed Magazine

Lightspeed is a relatively new science fiction magazine edited by John Joseph Adams, and its fourth issue is out. Alongside fiction by Yoon Ha Lee and Geoff Landis and an appreciation of Robert Silverberg, you’ll also find an interview with me, in which I talk about the upcoming novel Fuzzy Nation, my gig as the […]

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Justin Coussoule Visits the Scalzi Compound

Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to introduce you to the Democratic candidate for the 8th District of Ohio, Justin Coussoule. As you know, last week Mr. Coussoule popped up in my discussion of the congressional race in my district and asked, since I noted I was planning to vote for him, if I would […]

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Just Arrived, 9/27/10

Spreading the love for some books that have showed up at my door: * Silly Rhymes for Belligerent Children, Trace Beaulieu and Len Peralta: My w00tstock buddies Len and Trace have joined forced with a very amusing book of delightfully gross rhymes which have given my daughter bad ideas — but the good kind of […]

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Tax Frenzies and How to Hose Them Down

A question in e-mail based on all the recent “rich people feeling not rich” nonsense, and the associated commentary online: Why is it that the people freaking out the most about taxes on the rich are the ones who don’t seem to know how the tax code works? The answer is in the question: Because […]

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The (Relative) Peace of OH-8

Election years are obnoxious times, with obnoxious people doing obnoxious things in order to get elected, but this year, at least, it’s a by-election year, which means that here in the 8th Congressional District of Ohio, things are pretty quiet. This is because after 1990, the first year he was elected, OH-8 Congressional Representative John […]

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Clash of the Geeks Updatery, 9/24/10

Some news for you about Clash of the Geeks: 1. First, so far we’ve raised roughly $12,500 for the Michigan/Indiana affliate of the Lupus Alliance of America. That is an awesome figure. You are awesome people. Thank you. But let’s not rest on our laurels, people — there’s still time to donate and make a […]

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The Big Idea: Nancy Werlin

Not every choice an author makes for his or her characters seems all that important when the choice is made — a small character note here, a little personality tic there — but as the story unfolds, the “small choice” made earlier can magnify in importance. Nancy Werlin encountered this fact in the writing of […]

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