Monthly Archives: December 2012
So, 2012
Posted on December 31, 2012 88 Comments
I think there are a lot of people who will be happy to see the tail end of 2012. For me, I’ll say it was a year with dynamic range. On the business side, it’s not overstating it to say it was a career year: A New York Times bestseller in Redshirts plus a profile […]
The Offer on Old Man’s War: A Ten-Year Retrospective
Posted on December 30, 2012 120 Comments
Today is a notable day in my personal history: Ten years ago today, I sold Old Man’s War to Tor Books. People who have been following me for any amount of time know how this happened, but might not know the full story, and the newer folks might not know about it at all. So […]
The Sunsets of 2012
Posted on December 29, 2012 10 Comments
A brief review. Not a sunset, but moody and cloudlicious in a sunset-y way: As always, we have one sunrise: And as a bonus this year only, what was on the other side of the sky from that sunrise: That’s not bad. As one personal comment, I think I may have gone a bit overboard […]
Most Trafficked Whatever Posts of 2012
Posted on December 29, 2012 18 Comments
It seems unlikely that in the next two and half days the numbers will change all that much, so without further ado, here are the most visited entires of Whatever for 2012, in order of highest number of views. 1. Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is 2. Guest Post: A Doctor on […]
Getting Ahead of the E-Mails
Posted on December 28, 2012 30 Comments
Yes, yes. I know “Whatever” was chosen as the most annoying word this year. Again. As it is many years, apparently. You don’t need to tell me. For clarity’s sake I will note yet again that “Whatever” in the the context of this blog is used as “I write about whatever I want to write about […]
On Transfolk
Posted on December 28, 2012 161 Comments
A question in e-mail: You recently said you were supportive of transsexuals. Could you expand on what you mean by that? Sure. First off, the quote my correspondent is talking about is probably the one here, in which I say “I am generally trans-positive because I believe people should be who they are, and they […]
Book Editing Update
Posted on December 27, 2012 15 Comments
And there we go: Another book in. The Mallet of Loving Correction: Selected Writing from Whatever 2008 – 2012 is now off to Subterranean Press, to have done to it all the groovy things publishers do. The end result will be available to you on September 13, 2013 — not coincidentally the fifteenth anniversary of […]
Editing a Book Today
Posted on December 27, 2012 13 Comments
Because it’s due in January, and I’m basically encased in a wall of snow anyway. The book, incidentally, is The Mallet of Loving Correction, the second Whatever compilation, which will be out on September 15. I’m arranging the entries, removing some (the book needs to get down to 120,000 words, from an initial selection set […]
More Boxing Day Blizzard Photos
Posted on December 26, 2012 15 Comments
Athena and I braved the frozen expanses of the outside world to photodocument the results of the blizzard earlier today. Come along and see it in all its frozen whiteitude in this Flickr set.
Boxing Day Blizzard Update
Posted on December 26, 2012 31 Comments
Yup, it’s getting there. It’s supposed to continue to snow pretty heavily for at least a couple more hours, and then snow more lightly for the rest of the day. But it doesn’t look like we’ll have too much problem getting the expected eight to ten inches by the time it’s all been said and […]
Here Comes the Blizzard
Posted on December 26, 2012 39 Comments
We’re supposed to get eight to ten inches of snow in the next, like, four hours, with high winds and the possibility of power outages, and I have a project I’m a little bit late on, so now I will ignore the rest of you until I have finished it and/or the power goes out […]
Three Views of My Wife on Christmas
Posted on December 25, 2012 19 Comments
Pensive. Muffled. Musical.
Pose-Off with Jim C Hines, Round Two
Posted on December 25, 2012 48 Comments
The (never unseeable) pictures await you here. I’ll note that as the pose is supposed to be of the person falling, I originally decided to try get the picture while lying on my stairwell. After I slid down most of the stairs and totally rug-burned my backside, I moved to another piece of furniture entirely. […]
Eight Million Views for 2012
Posted on December 25, 2012 8 Comments
Just passed the number. Thanks to Hacker News for the assist; someone there linked to “A Self-Made Man Looks at How He Made It,” sending a flood of programmers over to read it. You can follow their own discussion of the article here. I’ll note again that this is just the views recorded by WordPress’ […]
Christmas on Mars
Posted on December 25, 2012 21 Comments
My pal, astronomer, educator and science fiction writer Diane Turnshek, is spending Christmas in a most unusual place. Here she is to tell you what it’s like to have the holidays on (nearly) another planet. DIANE TURNSHEK: I’m out at the Mars Desert Research Station north of Hanksville, Utah. I’ve been in training for […]
Having Constructed the Chocolate House, Athena and Cecilia Now Terrorize the Poor Candy-Based Residents Within
Posted on December 24, 2012 9 Comments
For they are the cruel gods. Fear their sweet vengeance! And this concludes the Whatever broadcast day. See you on Christmas.
Dear Internets: My Wife Has Made Dessert for Christmas Eve Dinner
Posted on December 24, 2012 33 Comments
Two types of pie, three types of muffins. The deliciousness quotient is off the charts, people. Bet you can’t wait for dessert! Oh, wait. Right, you won’t be there. Well, don’t worry, I will have a little bit of each and give you a first-hand report. Yes, it will be an extreme caloric sacrifice on […]
Whatever Best of 2012
Posted on December 24, 2012 10 Comments
Hold up there, Daisy! Before we get to 2013, here’s my hand-picked selection of the best of Whatever through 2012, a year filled to the brim with politics, geekery, and of course, straight white men. They’re presented to you today in alphabetical order: Amanda Palmer, Kickstarter, and Everything Athena Encounters the Technology of the Ancients […]
Athena at 14
Posted on December 23, 2012 89 Comments
There’s been some speculation at the Scalzi Compound about whether Athena would be taller than me or not at her 14th birthday. Well, today’s the day, and as you can see, it’s a very close thing. Krissy (who took this picture) tells me that whether I’m taller than my daughter or not depends almost entirely […]
Old Man’s War Tops Locus Online’s 21st Century SF Novel Poll
Posted on December 22, 2012 53 Comments
Well, this is a nice thing to wake up to on the first day of the new baktun: Locus Online polled the Internet to find out what the best science fiction and fantasy works of the 20th and 21st century (to date) have been. The novel results are in, and Old Man’s War is on […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying