Monthly Archives: December 2013

Whatever Top Posts, 2013 Plus Thoughts on 2014

And as the year winds down, it’s time to look at what the most popular posts on Whatever were for 2013. In order of visits, they are: To The Dudebro Who Thinks He’s Insulting Me by Calling Me a Feminist Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is Being Poor Solving My Racist Sexist […]

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2013: Year of the Asshole

It’ll be up to historians to decide whether 2013 actually reached a sort of Peak Asshole event, from which there had to be an inevitable decline, or whether it was simply another new high before year another new high, as Complete Asshole levels rise in correlation with global temperatures. Whatever the historians decide, however, from […]

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The Big Idea: Shannon Page

Oh, look at that, we have just enough time to get one more Big Idea in under the wire for 2013. The honor for the year’s final Big Idea goes to Shannon Page, with Eel River, which combines 70s communes with horror — one of which, at least, was experienced by the author directly… SHANNON […]

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What’s On Tap for 2014

You ask: So, John, what’s the plan for 2014? Well, since you’ve asked (“you” in this case being “the stand-in for actual people who lives inside my head”): THINGS THAT ARE DONE * Lock In, my eleventh novel, will be out on August 26 in US/Canada and 28 August in the UK/Commonwealth. * Midnight Star, the […]

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My 2013: A Quick Recap

So, barring me falling down some stairs in the next couple of days or some similar incident that drags down the curve of the year, I can say pretty authoritatively that 2013 was a very good year — a career year, in point of fact. Some highlights: 1. Well, obviously, winning the Hugo Award for […]

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The Big Idea: Jason Fry

Intergenerational family dynamics — in spaaaaace! This might sound like an odd combination at first blush, but with any idea, it’s the execution of the concept that matters. Author Jason Fry is here to tell you how he made it work in his new middle grade novel The Jupiter Pirates: Hunt for the Hydra. JASON […]

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End of the Year Thoughts on: NSA and Privacy

Aside from this one piece, I haven’t done a lot of public talking about the whole thing where the NSA ate the entire Internet and then seemed surprised that people were annoyed once it was discovered. So in the spirit of not leaving 2013 with it completely unobserved, a few thoughts. 1. First things first: […]

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Whatever Best of 2013

Christmas Eve is the time I take a look at my writing on Whatever to see what pieces I wrote that I liked, that others liked, and that had the most impact out there on the Intarweebs. For this year, this is the list, arranged chronologically. The State of a Genre Title, 2013 A Personal […]

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Midnight Star: Join the Site!

Midnight Star, which is the video game I wrote the story for, is getting closer to final release, and one of the milestones toward that release is a revamped Web site that features new information about the game and the graphic novel prequel (Midnight Rises, which I also wrote), and forums, where you can learn about […]

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The Big Idea: Timothy S. Johnston

Author Timothy S. Johnston has a thing for the “imposter” theme in science fiction, and yes, that pun was most definitely intended. Here he is to tell you why the theme intrigues him so, and how he uses it in his novel The Furnace. TIMOTHY S. JOHNSTON: In 1938 the Imposter theme made its first […]

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A Hallowed Tradition

Back when our daughter was very young we wouldn’t tell her when her birthday was; we’d spring it on her by waking her up with a cake with candles and singing “Happy Birthday” to her. As she got older, she figured out her actual birth date, but we’d still descend into her room in the […]

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What We Did With Our Saturday

A couple of months ago William Beckett, a favorite musician of mine, tweeted that he was available to do in-house concerts in December. Well, I thought, I have a house, and additionally, my daughter, who is also a fan of his music, has a birthday coming up. So I inquired to see if he might […]

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On Being the Best, Or Not

The other day I was reading an io9.com piece by Esther Ingliss-Arkell about why everybody thinks they’re better than everyone else, even if, in point of fact, everyone can’t be better than everyone else. While reading it, I had two thoughts: One, it was a nice day when I learned I didn’t have to be […]

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