Monthly Archives: May 2016

The Big Idea: Manu Saadia

In the future, we will have space travel and transporters and tribbles… but will we have a robust and coherent economic system? And if so, what will it look like and how will it actually function? These are the questions that Manu Saadia has asked, and in his book Trekonomics, attempts to answer. MANU SAADIA: […]

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The Big Idea: Camille Griep

For today’s Big Idea, Camille Griep goes all the way back to the Trojan War for inspiration with her new novel New Charity Blues — and picks up the story of two characters you might not expect. CAMILLE GRIEP: “The danger on the rocks has surely past,” sang Steely Dan’s Becker and Fagen in “Home […]

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Wiscon; Extending Semi-Hiatus into June; Other Things

Things! About me! 1. This weekend I’m at Wiscon in Madison, Wisconsin. However, aside from “Sign Out,” the mass signing event the convention holds, I’m not on any programming. Why not? Because I didn’t want to be and didn’t volunteer for any. Sometimes I just hang out! So, if you’re going to Wiscon this weekend […]

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The Big Idea: Kat Howard

“What price fame?” You’ve heard the phrase before, no doubt, but with her novel Roses and Rot, author Kat Howard puts a spin on it that you’ve probably not experienced before. Here she is to explain it. KAT HOWARD: My debut novel, Roses and Rot, is an extremely loose retelling of the “Tam Lin” ballad. […]

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Cover for The Collapsing Empire, My New Book, Out on March 21, 2017

All the details are over on Tor.com, right now. “But Scaaaaaaalzzzi, clicking through is sooooooooo much woooooooooork!” Oh, fine. Here. Cover artist? Sparth, aka Nicolas Bouvier, whose work will be familiar to you if you, you know, play video games at all. But seriously, go over to that Tor.com link for more details.

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And Now, a Quick Check-In With the Hugos

Question in email: You’ve been pretty quiet about the Hugos this year so far. Now that voting is open on the finalist list, do you have anything to add? Not really? I mean, after the initial bit of freakout, everything seems to have settled down, hasn’t it? The Puppy attempt to troll the Hugos this […]

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Last Day of School, 2016

Here is Athena looking toward the future (and, more prosaically, in the direction of our mailbox, but even so). This end of the school year will bring some pretty big changes for Athena. Today is the last day of school, so technically speaking, Athena is now what they call a “rising senior.” But practically speaking, […]

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It’s Over, Bernie Sanders Fans. Let it Go.

Bernie Sanders is not going to be president, nor is he going to be the Democratic candidate for President of the United States. To date, he has won fewer electoral contests, pledged delegates and total votes than Hillary Clinton, and in each of these cases the margins aren’t close. While it is technically possible for […]

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The Big Idea: Paul Cornell

Sure, Arthur Conan Doyle once killed off Sherlock Holmes, but it took Paul Cornell to do terrible things to his ghost. He does it in Who Killed Sherlock Holmes? and today in his Big Idea, he explains why he thought this might be such a great plan. PAUL CORNELL: The big idea behind Who Killed Sherlock […]

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How I Spent My Afternoon

Today I received the 2016 Governor’s Award for Arts in Ohio, in the category of Individual Artist (along with Janice Lessman Moss, who is a fiber artist), and the award came in the form of some very striking prints of flowers, made by Paula Wilmot Kraus, each chosen with specific intent for the particular recipient. […]

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Qwerkywriter Keyboard First Impressions

For my birthday my excellent friend Regan procured for me a Qwerkywriter keyboard, which is designed to mimic the look and clicky-clicky feel of an old school typewriter keyboard while still giving you the functionality of a modern computer keyboard. People have asked me to give a report on the thing, and I’ve been using it […]

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The Big Idea: Madeline Ashby

Madeline Ashby takes a while to summarize her work, including her latest novel, Company Town. But as you’ll see in this big idea, this isn’t (just) because she’s not great at making a fast pitch. It’s because there’s a whole lot going on in what she writes. MADELINE ASHBY: Veronica Mars versus The Terminator. That’s […]

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Pictures from the 2016 Nebula Awards Reception and Ceremony

I attended the 2016 Nebula Weekend and its concurrent awards ceremony, hosted by John Hodgman (shown here with friend) and I took about 800 pictures of the reception and ceremony. The best 9% or so of these pictures is now available for your perusal at this Flickr album of the event. It’s just like being there! […]

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