Monthly Archives: July 2014

Relevant to Recent Discussions

FTC alleges Amazon unlawfully billed parents for millions of dollars in children’s unauthorized In-App charges. To quote myself: “[B]usinesses and corporations are not your friends. They will seek to extract the maximum benefit from you that they can, and from others with whom they engage in business, consistent with their current set of business goals. This does not […]

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My First Job and What it Paid

Via Jim Romenesko, a question from The Billfold Web site about what people’s first jobs were and what they paid, and what that particular job pays now. Romenesko’s spin on the question involves journalism (because his site is focused on that field) and as it happens, that’s where my first post-college job was. My first […]

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The Big Idea: D.B. Jackson

There’s a system to things — especially magic. Why is there a system, and what is its function in telling a story? D.B. Jackson has a few thoughts on the matter, and how it matters to his latest colonial-era fantasy novel, A Plunder of Souls. D.B. JACKSON: Creating magic systems is to writing fantasy what […]

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The Big Idea: Mary E. Pearson

The Beatles once said that love is all you need. This may or may not be the truth, but Mary E. Pearson certainly found love useful and applicable when writing her latest novel, The Kiss of Deception. She’s here now to tell you how love made this particular world go ’round. MARY E. PEARSON: I’ll […]

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The Big Idea: Tobias S. Buckell

As the first named hurricane of the season wanders along off the east coast of the US, it’s perhaps fitting that today’s Big Idea book is Hurricane Fever, by Tobias Buckell. But the hurricanes of this novel take place further south, in the Caribbean — and that’s where its hero comes from, too. Buckell explains […]

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San Diego Update

So, a quick update about my presence at San Diego Comic-con this year, in the form of a dialogue: Hey, Scalzi, are you going to be at San Diego Comic-con this year? Sort of. Define “sort of.” I’ll be at various off-site events, including a reading at the Grand Horton Theater on Thursday afternoon (July […]

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