Monthly Archives: December 2011
One Final 2011 Picture For the Fan Club
Posted on December 31, 2011 23 Comments
Ghlaghghee languidly fulfills her contractual obligations for the year and wishes you the best for the rest of 2011 and for all of 2012. Now, scoot. She’s got napping to do.
Whatever Stats 2011
Posted on December 31, 2011 15 Comments
It’s not precisely the very end of the year (we’ve still got several hours to go), but, inasmuch as holidays and weekends are slow around here anyway, and today is both, it’s close enough for me to wonk off about Whatever’s stats for the year. Here’s what I can report, with the usual caveats about […]
This Song’s Been In My Head For a While, Now I’m Giving it to You
Posted on December 30, 2011 20 Comments
Don’t worry. It’s lovely.
2011 in Review; Looking Ahead to 2012
Posted on December 30, 2011 28 Comments
Objectively speaking about the world at large, 2011 was about as crappy a year as I can remember existing in my entire adult life; a genuine clusterbang of monumental proportions. But on a personal and professional level, it was really good: Fuzzy Nation popped onto the New York Times best seller list and received some […]
Sunsets, 2011
Posted on December 29, 2011 29 Comments
First: Tonight’s sunset, with extra added American flag: Second: A selection of sunsets from 2011. Enjoy. Third, have a sunrise. Because you deserve it. In all, another good year for that great big ball of plasma in the sky.
The Big Idea: Adam Christopher
Posted on December 29, 2011 22 Comments
Adam Christopher’s debut novel Empire State isn’t just a novel — it’s the start of an interesting initiative by his publisher Angry Robot to let readers into the parallel New York Christopher has created. Christopher’s own journey to the Empire State was a long and twisting one itself, spanning continents and book genres in equal […]
Another Reason Why the Gradual De-White-Breadination of the US is Perfectly Okay With Me
Posted on December 29, 2011 79 Comments
Because it means I get churro-derived breakfast cereal. Athena and I both spotted this box in the store, said “Dude! Churro cereal!” almost simultaneously, and lunged for the box. I got it first because I still have the slightly longer reach. But I will share it with her, I promise. Regardless, it is truly an […]
The Big Idea: Sherwood Smith and Dave Trowbridge
Posted on December 28, 2011 50 Comments
Here’s a Big Idea piece full of the magic of living in the electronic age: authors Sherwood Smith and Dave Trowbridge saw an opportunity with the advent of DIY eBook publishing to resurrect their Exordium space opera series (of which Ruler of Naught is the second book) — but more than that, they saw an […]
Wrapping Up 2011
Posted on December 28, 2011
It’s my last FilmCritic.com column of the year this week, and so perhaps predictably I’ve put together some final thoughts on 2011 and film, the state of the film industry, and some of the lesser-seen indie science fiction films which are worth the time for viewing. Read my thoughts, and comment on them if you […]
Dear Readers: Publishers Think of You as Customers I SWEAR
Posted on December 27, 2011 361 Comments
A few days ago, Robin L., one of the bloggers of the Dear Author site, took exception, via Twitter, to my announcement that I would be deleting kvetching about eBook pricing on my Big Idea posts, that I consider such persistent ebook price kvetching as a symptom of a particular sort of entitlement, and that doing it […]
The Big Idea: Ryan David Jahn
Posted on December 27, 2011 9 Comments
This is another one for the “where do you get your ideas?” file: Ryan David Jahn was on the trail of a day job and found a novel instead. How did that happen? And what tweaks did he need to make to have his real life job hunt take the shape of The Dispatcher, the […]
All I Want For Christmas Are Some Deeply Stoned Cats
Posted on December 25, 2011 20 Comments
Whoa, man. Just, like, wow.
Training for the Hunger Games
Posted on December 25, 2011 50 Comments
Because you never know. How’s your Christmas?
Merry Christmas!
Posted on December 25, 2011 21 Comments
Here’s the holiday card we sent out this year. Now it’s for you. If you’re the Christmas type, I hope it is a good one. If you’re not the Christmas type, I hope you’re having a fantastic Sunday.
8 Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know About Your Favorite Holiday Music
Posted on December 24, 2011 57 Comments
Each year we hear them, we sing them, we love them: The holiday songs of our lives. But how much do we really know about the great music of the holidays? Probably not as much as we think. And thus, to celebrate the holiday season, I am delighted to present to you 8 Things You […]
Whatever Best of 2011
Posted on December 23, 2011 13 Comments
Well, if you were going to sleep through a year, 2011 was a really good one to do it in. And if you did, here are the twenty Whatever entries that I think best encapsulated the year around here. Presented in alphabetical rather than chronological order, they are: And Now, For No Particular Reason, A […]
Chicon 7 Membership Discounts + Hugo Base Competition Extended
Posted on December 23, 2011 8 Comments
Two notes for you regarding Chicon 7, the 2012 Worldcon, at which, most of you know, I will be the Toastmaster. The first is related to me by Chicon 7 head Dave McCarty: Chicon is having a “7 days of Chicon” sale, it is running now and ends on 12/26. Adult memberships are reduced $15 […]
Athenamas, 13th Edition
Posted on December 23, 2011 67 Comments
It’s a family tradition here at the Scalzi household to awaken our daughter on her birthday with a flaming pastry, usually a birthday cake. This year, however, she turns thirteen, and to celebrate the initial transformation into a teen, we changed things up a bit and presented her with a pie. And yes, because I […]
One From the Vaults: What It’s Like to Be a Movie Critic (Circa 1997)
Posted on December 22, 2011 23 Comments
Someone was asking me what it was like to have been a full-time movie critic back in the day, and I was going to go off and do a long blather about it, but then I remembered: I had already done a long blather about it! In 1997 or so! So I tracked down that […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying