Monthly Archives: June 2011

My Writer’s Digest Interview Now Online

And with the headline, “Science Fiction Author John Scalzi Explains How Not to Be Boring.” Usually the answer to that is “Spangles! And lots of them!”But this time I suggest something else instead. I know, spangles still are the way to go. Check out the interview anyway. In addition to not being boring I also […]

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In Which I Become the Face of (Computing) Evil

Attached below, a screenshot of an article today from Business Insider: The site evidently snurched it from my Wikipedia entry. It’s amusing to see it getting around, although, of course, I would like to specify that in fact I have no connection whatsoever to the malware described in the article, other than my Photoshopped face […]

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Various and Sundry, 6/30/11

Holy crap, the year’s half done already. On this day, some various things I’m thinking about: * I hate to keep linking to Andrew Sullivan and saying, “yes, this,” but regarding his essay on Obama and why he doesn’t just come out and say he’s for same-sex marriage, yes, this. Obama’s not only the president […]

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The Big Idea: Jacqueline Carey

Jacqueline Carey has a healthy respect for history — you have to know what you’re working with in order to change it so wildly, as she does in so many of her book. But as she learned in writing Naamah’s Blessing, her latest novel set in the world of her wildly popular Kushiel books, changing […]

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My Daughter, Professional Photographer

For the September issue of Writer’s Digest, the magazine is including me as part of its “The Big 10” feature, in which authors in ten different publishing genres talk about writing and publishing in their genre (I am, no surprise, slotted into the science fiction and fantasy category). The feature is interesting and I recommend […]

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The Curious Case of the Self Aware Cars

Over at FilmCritic.com, I take on what is perhaps the most important question of our age: Do the Cars films, filled as they are with talking, self-aware cars, count as science fiction or fantasy — or something else entirely? As it happens, in this case, initial conditions count. Come explore my conclusions and offer your […]

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The Big Idea: Lawrence M. Schoen

It’s no surprise that we enjoy the books we read — it’s the reason we read most of the books we do. But do we find joy in them? It’s a small but telling distinction, and one that Lawrence M. Schoen has thought about in the context of Buffalito Contingency, the second book in his […]

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Video Games Protected By the First Amendment; Still Open Season on Zombies

So says the Supreme Court in a 7-2 ruling (about the video games being protected speech, not the zombies part, to be clear). You can see the entire ruling here (pdf link). This isn’t a particularly surprising ruling, since the lower courts have generally held video games to be covered by the First Amendment (and […]

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BYOB As You’ve Never Experienced It Before

Via the estimable Greg van Eekhout (see his recent Big Idea piece here), a picture of how the Mysterious Galaxy bookstore in San Diego is promoting my upcoming author event there: Note: I will not be signing any bacon you might bring. It’s hard for the meat to take ink very well. Don’t ask me […]

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ALA 2011 Recap

I spent the weekend in New Orleans for the American Library Association’s annual meet-up, which means I got to hang about with librarians and other authors, two of my favorite categories of people. The big event of my attendance was the panel pictured above (by this person, whose picture I have shamelessly stolen), in which […]

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New York Puts a Ring On It

Congratulations to same-sex couples in New York: In 30 days you can get married there, if you want to be. No more schlepping to Massachusetts or Connecticut! And what a relief that will be. Not that those aren’t nice states. But there’s something to be said for getting hitched in your own back yard, so […]

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Twokulele

Athena was admiring my ukulele and enjoying playing it, so I figured, what the heck. Thus, we are now a two-ukulele family. No doubt soon we will go out on tour as a musical act. Krissy will be our manager. Daisy will work the merchandise table. And the cats, well. The cats will do whatever […]

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The Big Idea: Erin Hoffman

Do you feel our universe has its quota of rabble-rousers? If you do, you and Erin Hoffman will have to agree to disagree, because Hoffman is of the opinion that we’re not quite up to speed on that score — and she has some experience in the rabble-rousing field of things, in her former guise […]

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That’s My Soul Up There

Charlie Stross today has penned a thoughtful piece on why you shouldn’t be waiting up for The Singularity. It’s fun and interesting stuff, but I have a small quibble with his thoughts on the theological implications of uploading one’s brain into the network. Here’s what Charlie has to say on it: Uploading … is not […]

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Giving It a Rest

This week’s FilmCritic column is a plea for science fiction filmmakers to show a little originality by way of pointing out several all-too-familiar tropes that could use a rest, for, oh, a decade or so (and noting which recent films are running those tropes into the ground). As ever, the comment thread at FilmCritic.com yearns […]

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