Monthly Archives: January 2012
Presenting the Legendary Licked Book of Epic Confusion
Posted on January 22, 2012 61 Comments
I’ll get to a more general wrap-up of this year’s edition of the Confusion science fiction and fantasy convention later on, but I wanted to call your attention to a particular book and why it is, in its almost-certainly-unique way, the most epic book in all of science fiction and fantasy right at this moment. […]
Back From Confusion
Posted on January 22, 2012 8 Comments
We made it home alive, or if we died we have excellent momentum. This year’s edition of the Confusion convention was, as promised, epic. More details to come, when I’ve unpacked, caught up on e-mail and seen my kid.
An Enigmatic Update For You to Puzzle Over
Posted on January 21, 2012 21 Comments
One day, songs will be sung about the legendary Licked Book of Epic Confusion. That is all.
Your “I’m Traveling, So Fill My Site With Content” Thread (i.e., Promote Yourself and/or Others)
Posted on January 20, 2012 95 Comments
I’m off to the Epic Confusion convention this weekend to hang out with friends, sign lots and lots of books and cause the sort of mischief that I will need for an interesting autobiography a quarter of a century from now. So I won’t be around here much. But! My absence is your opportunity! Because […]
I’d Rather Listen to This Than the Original
Posted on January 19, 2012 34 Comments
And I’m not exactly an Elmo fan. At all.
It’s My Fault For Reading It But Then the Writer is Not Blameless Either
Posted on January 19, 2012 94 Comments
The literature articles of Salon.com should come with a warning which states “Best read after jamming an ice pick into your frontal lobe, the better to blunt the pain of screaming entitlement,” and I know that, so really, I’m the asshole here for not having such a tool handy, to employ immediately after linking through […]
Quick Political Notes, 1/19/12
Posted on January 19, 2012 74 Comments
Some stuff: * Bye, Rick Perry! It’s been fun. Now you’re just Texas’ problem again, which, of course, is just fine. I also thank you for putting the rest of the US off Texas governors for a while. I think we need a fallow period there. Something along the lines of 40 years should do […]
Today’s Cool Thing
Posted on January 18, 2012 7 Comments
Not the two different versions of the French cover of Agent to the Stars by Paul Kidby — although, come on, how cool are those, right? Pretty damn cool — but the personalized-to-my-daughter sketch of The Kids Next Door, from the show’s creator, Mr. Warburton, which we naturally also had framed, along with the Kidby […]
In What I’m Sure Will Be Considered an Ironic Act By Some
Posted on January 18, 2012 32 Comments
One of the first things I did after the SOPA/PIPA blackout page here came down? Sent information to lawyers about a file sharing site illegally offering up my work for download. It’s not actually ironic, as I noted I’m all for the right of creators to be able to defend their copyrights online (and I’m […]
Athena Encounters the Technology of the Ancients
Posted on January 18, 2012 168 Comments
As I noted to people on Twitter who reported feeling old after watching this, it’s not you’re so old, it’s that she’s so young. Update, 1/25: Athena responds to accusations that her reaction here was staged.
On SOPA/PIPA (For the People Who Aren’t Blacked Out)
Posted on January 18, 2012 10 Comments
I’m using WordPress’ “blackout” function today, so most people are seeing the site blacked out through 8pm tonight, but some folks can see it (it seems mostly in countries other than the US, but also some in the US). For those not being blacked out, here’s what I wrote on the blackout page. I am […]
You Know, For Kids
Posted on January 18, 2012
If you were wanting to introduce a young kid to science fiction film, what films would you use to start that education? Over at FilmCritic.com today, I tackle that question and come up with five films to help kids fall in love with science fiction. Find out what they are and why I chose them. […]
Something on Which George Lucas and I Agree
Posted on January 17, 2012 32 Comments
In a long New York Times feature about George Lucas, the producer and director talks about his relationship with his current girlfriend: If you’re more beautiful than I am and smarter than I am and you’ll put up with me, that’s all it takes. I’m there. Boy, do I hear him. (And yes, before anyone […]
Five Easy Steps to Enjoying Starship Troopers, The Movie
Posted on January 17, 2012 1 Comment
Over at Tor.com, I’m writing about Starship Troopers, the movie, and why I enjoy it, and how you can enjoy it too. It only requires five steps! You know you want to know about those five steps are. Because not only will they allow you to enjoy the movie, they might change the way you […]
The Big Idea: Michele Lang
Posted on January 17, 2012 11 Comments
In the course of human events, the actual individual humans can matter. At the very least Michele Lang seems to think so; in today’s Big Idea about her latest novel Dark Victory, Lang looks at how individual people have made a difference to others in the tale of their own lives, and how that point […]
Andrew Sullivan Posits a Hypothesis To Make Everyone Of Every Political Stripe Hate Him
Posted on January 16, 2012 207 Comments
Which is that everyone who is foamy about Obama, on the right and on the left, is hopelessly and dishonestly obtuse, and that eventually Obama is going to rope-a-dope everyone with his masterful mastery and long-term planning. Oh, Andrew. No hugs for you, my friend. That said, I think Sullivan isn’t wrong, at least on […]
In Which I Read Something Well In Advance and Then Tease You With It
Posted on January 16, 2012 29 Comments
Don’t ask me how (but know that many Bothans died to get me the information), but I laid my hands upon the spec script for The Magicians, the proposed television series based on Lev Grossman’s “Magicians” series of books. What’s more, I read it. And without revealing anything about it, because I don’t believe in […]
Connie Willis: Grand Master
Posted on January 16, 2012 1 Comment
Yes, it’s true: Connie Willis has been given the 2011 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (of which, as most of you know, I am the current president). It was a tremendous thing to call her and let her know, and now it’s a tremendous thing […]
The Sagan Diary Giveaway at Epic Confusion + My Epic Confusion Schedule
Posted on January 16, 2012 8 Comments
This next weekend I’m going to be at the Epic Confusion science fiction/fantasy convention in Troy, Michigan, along with Patrick Rothfuss, Jim C. Hines, Joe Abercombie, Brent Weeks, Elizabeth Bear, Saladin Ahmed, Tobias Buckell, Robin Hobb and so many other fabulous writers that your brain will just assplode from excitement. And if all those super […]
Huntsman Done
Posted on January 16, 2012 25 Comments
Given my endorsement (such as it was) of Jon Huntsman, I’m getting e-mail and tweets from people who want to know what my thoughts are about the man dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing Romney. Well, neither is exactly a surprise, now, are they. Huntsman, conservative but pragmatic and willing to work with […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying