Monthly Archives: September 2015
Why Is This Woman Smiling
Posted on September 18, 2015 76 Comments
Possibly because she’s holding the last mortgage check she’ll ever write. And no, I’m not taking over the mortgage-check-writing responsibilities. It’s the last mortgage check. Wheee! When people ask me what inspires me to write, I frequently say “my mortgage.” I’ll have to think of some new smart-ass response. In any event, if you’ve ever […]
Where I Will Be in October
Posted on September 18, 2015 9 Comments
October is a busy month for me! Here are the places you can see me then. Oct 2-3: Iowa City Book Festival, Iowa City. I arrive on Friday and will be loitering about, but my events will be on Saturday. I’m doing a reading and (I think!) a signing. More details soon. Nevertheless — I’ll […]
The Big Idea: Seth Dickinson
Posted on September 18, 2015 24 Comments
In this Big Idea for The Traitor Baru Cormorant, author Seth Dickinson wants you to give up a cheer for the villain. Will you? I’ll let him try to convince you. SETH DICKINSON: My master plan would’ve changed the course of history! I put my life into this — I leveraged politicians, I conjured up shell corporations, I […]
When I Became a Fan
Posted on September 17, 2015 57 Comments
Over in the comments section of this entry at File770, there is a minor discussion of when it was I considered myself a “fan,” and whether it was before I made my formal entry into the world of science fiction fandom (at Torcon 3, the 2003 Worldcon in Toronto) or not. Well, I know the answer […]
How Many Books You Should Write In a Year
Posted on September 17, 2015 54 Comments
Folks have pointed me toward this Huffington Post piece, begging self-published authors not to write four books a year, because the author (Lorraine Devon Wilke) maintains that no mere human can write four books a year and have them be any good. This has apparently earned her the wrath of a number of people, including writer Larry […]
The Big Idea: Pamela Sargent
Posted on September 17, 2015 10 Comments
It’s no surprise that writers live in their own worlds, and occasionally let you see those worlds in our books. But as Pamela Sargent explains, with regard to her novel Season of the Cats, sometimes before we can let you visit our worlds, we have to… tidy up a bit. PAMELA SARGENT: By the time […]
In Which We Achieve Maximum Giving Tree
Posted on September 16, 2015 47 Comments
At the front of our property stood four ash trees, which were lovely but over the last few years became diseased, in no small part because of emerald ash borers, which landed in Ohio in 2003, apparently, and have taken out a substantial number of trees. Including ours; three of the four were basically dead […]
The Big Idea: Greg Van Eekhout
Posted on September 16, 2015 8 Comments
Oh look, Here’s Greg Van Eekhout, wrapping up his terrific Daniel Blackland trilogy with Dragon Coast. Perhaps it will have dragons in it? And possibly a coast? Seems likely on both counts. Let’s have Greg give you a couple more specifics on it. GREG VAN EEKHOUT: Look, the title is Dragon Coast, there’s a dragon […]
Here’s a Quarter
Posted on September 15, 2015 60 Comments
Many years ago — actually about a quarter of a century ago — I had applied for the job of Student Ombudsperson at the University of Chicago. The job of the Ombudsperson was to help students navigate the bureaucracy of the university, and to help them get their concerns heard when the usual channels weren’t […]
The Big Idea: Sarah Prineas
Posted on September 15, 2015 12 Comments
Happily Ever After… but why? And to ultimately what end? Author Sarah Prineas considers this in Ash & Bramble, and she’s not the only one who asks. SARAH PRINEAS: The story of Ash & Bramble, which is more an exploded fairytale than a retelling, arose out of two Big Idea questions. The first question came […]
Blurbs, Conventions and 2017
Posted on September 14, 2015 20 Comments
A couple of things to announce re: blurbs, conventions and 2017: Blurbs: I am done considering books for blurbs for 2015 and will not be considering any new books until January at least. I’m swamped at the moment and need to clear out the works I’m currently considering for blurbs. I’m really far behind on some. I can’t in good […]
In Which Patrick Rothfuss Gets All Bunned Up For Charity
Posted on September 14, 2015 18 Comments
Earlier today I noted that Patrick Rothfuss was getting close to a milestone: So, @PatrickRothfuss is less than a thousand followers away from surpassing my followers number. Go follow him AND END THIS CHARADE — John Scalzi (@scalzi) September 14, 2015 This prompted the following comment: @scalzi Maybe pics of @patrickrothfuss with his hair in […]
The Big Idea: Max Gladstone
Posted on September 14, 2015 10 Comments
There’s a new publisher called Serial Box, which has this wacky idea that maybe, just maybe, you’ll enjoy fiction in serialized form — stories with new, regular installments that keep you on the edge of your seat, waiting to find out what happens next. It’s an idea that goes back to the times of Dickens […]
The Privileged Poor
Posted on September 13, 2015 69 Comments
A (to me) fascinating article in the New York Times today, talking about “the privileged poor,” which in this case means poor students who were fortunate enough to attend elite high schools, and the advantages they have over other poor students when both groups went on to college. The article was fascinating to me because […]
My Almost Certainly Ill-Advised Proposed Award Voting Process
Posted on September 13, 2015 57 Comments
In light of recent events and posts, I’ve been asked, if it fell to me to create a literary award, how I might work the voting process. My response is, first, I think I would rather pull out my own teeth with pliers than to take on the work and aggravation of helming an award, […]
17 Years
Posted on September 13, 2015 30 Comments
On this day seventeen years ago I sat down and wrote the first-ever blog post on Whatever (or “the Whatever”; the disposition about the indefinite article was not resolved for a number of years). I’m still doing it, on a more or less daily basis. It’s the longest amount of time that I’ve ever kept […]
Kristine, 9/12/15
Posted on September 12, 2015 11 Comments
Because she’s lovely. And because the fact she’s lovely is absolutely the least fantastic thing about her.
Today’s Twitter Rant, 9/12/15
Posted on September 12, 2015 209 Comments
For Reasons. How fucked-up is your image of SF/F fandom when you have to posit that it should include "even" me and David Gerrold? pic.twitter.com/RUfDUyR4yt — John Scalzi (@scalzi) September 12, 2015 (Even more specifically, how fucked-up is your idea of an SF/F award, when you have to make that same formulation for us to […]
New Books and ARCs, 9/11/15
Posted on September 11, 2015 29 Comments
As we once again head into the weekend, here’s a new stack of book and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound this week. What speaks to you in this stack? Tell me in the comments!
The Big Idea: Fran Wilde
Posted on September 11, 2015 10 Comments
Updraft is a world of cloud and bone, songs and silence, where danger hides on the wind and secrets bind a city. Author Fran Wilde is here to talk about the book, and about finding her voice in a wind tunnel. FRAN WILDE: Voice. At its heart, Updraft is about speaking, about being heard, and […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying