Monthly Archives: May 2012
The Big Idea: Michelle Sagara
Posted on May 18, 2012 47 Comments
This Big Idea post made me tear up a little. It’s partly because I’m a parent. But it’s mostly because of how Michelle Sagara explains how the understanding and kindness of the very young informed her new book Silence. MICHELLE SAGARA: This book is about its dedication: This is for the girls: Callie Katie Caroline […]
Because It Is About To Be Forwarded To Me a Million Times
Posted on May 18, 2012 22 Comments
Yes, I’ve seen this. And while my own position isn’t as extreme, I certainly sympathize. From xkcd, of course. For those who need it or haven’t seen it, my own position on Klout.
“Lowest Difficulty Setting” Now on Kotaku
Posted on May 17, 2012
Hey there! Wanted to comment on “Lowest Difficulty Setting” but missed before I closed up the comments? You’re in luck! Kotaku has reprinted the post, and their comments are open! Fire away!
Journey to Planet JoCo at Tor.com
Posted on May 17, 2012 7 Comments
Over at Tor.com, I’m part of a two-week festival of all things Jonathan Coulton, in a feature called “Journey to Planet Joco.” JoCo is starting a tour starting on June 1, and so I sat down to talk with him about those songs of his with a science fictional bent to them, a journey that […]
“Lowest Difficulty Setting” Follow-Up
Posted on May 17, 2012 565 Comments
It’s been a couple of days since I’ve posted the “Lowest Difficulty Setting” piece, and it’s been fun and interesting watching the Intarweebs basically explode over it, especially the subclass of Straight White Males who cannot abide the idea that their lives play out on a fundamentally lower difficulty setting than everyone else’s, and have […]
Things That Pretty Much Suck
Posted on May 16, 2012 58 Comments
My absence from the Internet was a bit longer than I had anticipated today, for one genuinely depressing reason: I left my travel bag in the taxi that took me to my hotel from the airport, and that bag included my computer and some other stuff (including my car key). So my day was spent […]
Seriously, What the Hell
Posted on May 16, 2012 59 Comments
Over on Facebook, friends of mine from high school are taking pictures of this bumper sticker, which they allege to be finding out there in the world. The quote comes from something I said on the Alien Encounters TV show, about how even if we find out that aliens exist, we’re sooner or later going […]
A Child’s Treasury of Deletions
Posted on May 16, 2012 185 Comments
Yesterday’s post garnered 800 comments before I put it to bed and I ended up deleting a record number of comments out of it, largely from presumably straight white men enraged at the idea their life doesn’t necessarily suck as much as other folks’ and/or because they ate lead paint chips as children and have […]
Redshirts Back Cover, Library Journal Review, A Plea to Reviewers
Posted on May 15, 2012 27 Comments
We’re three weeks out from the release of Redshirts, and I just got my boxes o’ author copies, so now is a fine time, I think, to show you the back cover, which has lovely blurbs for the book from Joe Hill, Pat Rothfuss, Melinda Snodgrass and Lev Grossman. They are all very kind, and […]
Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is
Posted on May 15, 2012 801 Comments
I’ve been thinking of a way to explain to straight white men how life works for them, without invoking the dreaded word “privilege,” to which they react like vampires being fed a garlic tart at high noon. It’s not that the word “privilege” is incorrect, it’s that it’s not their word. When confronted with “privilege,” […]
The Big Idea: Garth Nix
Posted on May 15, 2012 5 Comments
Not every book has a predictable genesis. Indeed, A Confusion of Princes, the latest novel by Garth Nix, is one of those whose beginning is best described as a series of detours, resulting in a book. Come, walk with Nix as he retraces his steps to get to the published work. GARTH NIX: I’m not […]
BuzzFeed Catches Up With What I’ve Been Saying For a Couple of Years Now
Posted on May 14, 2012 21 Comments
Saladin Ahmed and Jonathan Coulton: Separated at birth. Seriously, I know them both, and it’s uncanny. Although Saladin is the slightly more compact version. Even so.
“Being Poor” Excerpted in “The Rich and the Rest of Us”
Posted on May 14, 2012 38 Comments
I completely forgot about this until I saw a Tavis Smiley tweet about it this morning: My Whatever post “Being Poor,” which I wrote in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, is excerpted in his and Cornel West’s new book The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto. Which is, as you might expect, […]
Happy Mother’s Day, 2012
Posted on May 13, 2012 18 Comments
Look, it’s a picture of me, my mother, my sister Heather and my niece Ashley, from (I would guess) 1986 or so, and probably from around Mother’s Day. Today, everyone else in this picture has equal or greater amounts of hair except for me. Seems horribly unfair. In any event, seems like a good picture […]
The Winner of My Non-US Redshirts ARC Giveaway
Posted on May 12, 2012 28 Comments
Is “A-Jay” from Norway, who was the first to correctly guess that the monument I was thinking of was “The Motherland Calls,” in Volgograd, Russia. Seriously, that’s a badass statue, y’all. A-Jay, send me your mailing address from the same e-mail address you used to comment from, and I’ll put your Redshirts ARC in the […]
The Big Idea: Joseph Nassise
Posted on May 11, 2012 9 Comments
Zombies are the chocolate. World War I is the peanut butter. In By the Blood of Heroes, Joseph Nassise is the guy who puts them together. How does it taste? JOSEPH NASSISE: I always swore I’d never write a zombie novel. I mean, come on, seriously. Rotting corpses with minimal intelligence endlessly wandering around with […]
Still Life With Cat, Fuzzy and Redshirts
Posted on May 11, 2012 15 Comments
This mostly to establish that my first finished hardcover copy of Redshirts has arrived at the house. It looks fantastic, I have to say. And no, you can’t have it. I only have the one. It goes to Krissy. Because she has First Copy Privileges. I think we can all agree that is how it […]
Best Mutant Cookies Ever
Posted on May 11, 2012 40 Comments
What was waiting for me when I got in at 1am: If you can’t read the note, it says: “Happy birthday!! We made you B-day cookies but mommy messed it up bad. The love is there. Mommy & Athena.” That’s right! The secret ingredient is love! And, uh, maybe too much milk. They still tasted […]
43
Posted on May 10, 2012 127 Comments
42 was a pretty good year for me, I have to say; I did some good work, made the acquaintance (or better acquaintance) of some excellent people, and got to see a bit of the world. Let’s see what 43 has in store. In other news, today is my birthday and I am also doing […]
I’m Wrong Again and Happily So
Posted on May 9, 2012 132 Comments
I thought Obama was going to keep his distance on same-sex marriage through November. I was wrong. I’m at the airport and catching up on this as it develops; when I’m done I’ll possibly check in with further thoughts. But for now, I’ll just say: Good for him. Glad he came out.
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying