Monthly Archives: October 2016
Zombie Scalzi Wishes You Happy Halloween
Posted on October 31, 2016 22 Comments
And also, of course, this is my new top contender for profile photo should I ever get a Tinder account.
I Was Going to Write Another Piece About the Election But Then a Wave of Ennui Hit Me, So Please Enjoy These Pictures of My Daughter Instead
Posted on October 30, 2016 36 Comments
Taken as she was prepping for a Halloween party last night. A much better posting decision, I think. At least for the moment.
Putting These Here For Archival Purposes
Posted on October 29, 2016 36 Comments
I apologize in advance. One time a king thought to ask a paladin named Tristan to perform a quest, but Tristan was already gone. He was Tristan, the knight, away. — John Scalzi (@scalzi) October 29, 2016 I could do a worse pun than "Tristan, the knight, away," featuring his paramour. But I won't, because […]
New Books and ARCs, 10/28/16
Posted on October 28, 2016 17 Comments
Enough time left in October to get in one last stack of new books and ARCs that have arrived at the Scalzi Compound. Which of these do you think will be a treat? Tell us in the comments!
Begun, The Yard Wars Have
Posted on October 28, 2016 67 Comments
We’re pretty close to our neighbors Karen and Bob — not just because they live next door to us, but because they’re good friends of ours as well. Nevertheless, this election we’ll not be voting for the same presidential candidate, and we all know it, and that’s fine. It does mean that we rib each […]
The Big Idea: Patrick Sheane Duncan
Posted on October 28, 2016 13 Comments
A title like Dracula vs. Hitler kind of explains itself, but even so, author and screenwriter Patrick Sheane Duncan had his reasons for bringing these two villains of the past together for a nefarious confrontation in WWII-era Transylvania. What was it? Read on! PATRICK SHEANE DUNCAN: I’ve always been fascinated by the way that popular […]
This Week My Brain Apparently Has No Enthusiasm For Writing Long Whatever Entries, So, Here, Have a Kitten
Posted on October 27, 2016 40 Comments
Which, at the standard 1 pic = 1k words rate, means I just wrote a fairly long entry here. Well done, me!
Re: Blurb Requests For the Remainder of 2016
Posted on October 26, 2016 8 Comments
This is going up for editors/publicists/etc who are contacting me for blurbs for upcoming books, where the blurbs need to be turned in before the end of 2016: Sorry, I’m already full up on books to consider for the remainder of the year. If I have not already agreed to consider the book in question […]
RIP, Sheri Tepper
Posted on October 24, 2016 113 Comments
This is genuinely upsetting news for me: Locus is reporting the death of Sheri S. Tepper, who wrote the Hugo-nominated novel Grass among many others, and who was given a lifetime achievement award by the World Fantasy Convention just last year. Tepper was in her late 80s, and had an accomplished life outside of her […]
The Election and Productivity
Posted on October 24, 2016 270 Comments
I was a couple of months late in turning in The Collapsing Empire; I originally planned to have it to Tor before Worldcon this year (which was mid-August) and ended up sending it to my editor literally the day I left for New York Comic Con, which was the first week of October. Some of that […]
If You Were Ever Wondering What Krissy’s “I’m Humoring You” Look Is Like
Posted on October 22, 2016 16 Comments
This picture offers a very good approximation. Happy Saturday, folks. I hope it’s doing well for you.
Today’s New Books and ARCs, 10/21/16
Posted on October 21, 2016 17 Comments
Look! Many fine new books and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound this week. What here tickles your fancy? Tell us all in the comments!
Redshirts Wins the Geffen Award
Posted on October 20, 2016 13 Comments
Happy to say that the Hebrew edition of Redshirts (translated by Zafrir Grossman) won this year’s Geffen Award — Israel’s most notable SF/F award — in the category of Best Translated Science Fiction Novel. A fine honor! This is my second Geffen (the first was for the Old Man’s War back in 2007), and it’s […]
White Dudes, Trump, and America
Posted on October 20, 2016 155 Comments
Dear other white dudes: Last night on the Las Vegas debate stage Donald Trump, for whom statistically speaking most us white dudes are planning to vote for, refused to say whether he would concede the election if it went against him, as it almost certainly will. He says he’s doing that because he believes the election […]
Why Clinton is Winning (One Reason, Anyway)
Posted on October 20, 2016 80 Comments
The third presidential debate is in the books, and while the noisiest news coming out of it is about a petulant white nationalist blustering on stage about whether or not he’ll concede the election if he loses, as if that matters for the legal transfer of power (it doesn’t; it’s just that if he doesn’t, […]
Voting and Churros
Posted on October 19, 2016 69 Comments
Today I got my voting done, and to celebrate: Churros! It’s been a good day, folks. A reminder to you to get your voting done too — if you want to do it early as I did, great; if not, make sure you make time on November 8. It’s only possibly the most consequential election […]
Reporting in From Trump Country
Posted on October 18, 2016 155 Comments
I live in Darke county, Ohio. In 2004, Darke county voted for Bush, who got 69.5% of the vote. In 2008, it voted for McCain, who got 66.9% of the vote. In 2012, it voted for Romney, who got 71%. So you may not be surprised when I tell you the area in which I […]
The Big Idea: Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe
Posted on October 18, 2016 5 Comments
We live in an age of technological miracles and wonders, but do the humans underneath that tech still need the fairy tales that animated their ancestors? The editors of The Starlit Wood, an anthology of new fairy tales, say “yes.” And here’s why. NAVAH WOLFE and DOMINIK PARISIEN: We are children of starlit woods. From […]
Further Thoughts on The Collapsing Empire
Posted on October 17, 2016 49 Comments
I finished The Collapsing Empire two Thursdays ago, but then I had to travel first to New York and then to Minneapolis for conventions, so today was the first time that I had a chance to go through the finished manuscript with a fine-toothed comb in order to do fiddly things like standardize how names […]
Email Notice, 10/17/16
Posted on October 17, 2016 2 Comments
I got behind on emails while I was finishing the book and then traveling the last two weeks, so: 1. I’ve returned emails on everything that I’m going to return emails on, for the last three weeks or so. 2. Everything else I archived. 3. If you sent email in the last couple of months, […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying