Monthly Archives: October 2018

Win a Signed, Personalized Copy of The Consuming Fire

I got my author copies of The Consuming Fire! So now I’m going to give one away! Specifically, the one behind Smudge there. Also, I will sign it and personalize it to the winner or whomever they choose. You want it? Here’s what you have to do: I’m thinking of a city, in North America, […]

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The Big Idea: D.B. Jackson

Think time travel is disorienting for the characters who use it? Think about the poor author who has to plot it! D.B. Jackson knows, and explains all the nitty-gritty details about it in this Big idea for Time’s Children. D.B. JACKSON: Anyone who has written a time travel novel knows that they can send an […]

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Acrobat at the Renaissance Festival, 10/7/18

Yes, the world is a flaming dumpster, but forget that for a tenth of a second and enjoy this picture of a talented acrobat performing on silks at a renaissance festival. It’s nice to appreciate someone who is good at their work, and sharing that work with a crowd. What thing(s) did you take a […]

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The Big Idea: Julie E. Czerneda

Today in The Big Idea, Julie E. Czerneda tackles the subjects of time, memory, intelligence, friendship.. and slime. They all have a role in her novel, Search Image.  JULIE E. CZERNEDA: Twenty years ago, when my host, John Scalzi, started this amazing blog of his, my second novel was published by DAW Books. It concerned […]

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The Big Idea: J. Lincoln Fenn

Living on an island means a different way of thinking about life — and death. J. Lincoln Fenn explains why, and how it made a difference for her latest novel, The Nightmarchers. J. LINCOLN FENN: I was driving the long, flat road from Kihei to Kahului, sugarcane fields and the distant rainforest mountains of Iao […]

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Meanwhile, This Song

From the movie A Star is Born, which comes out tomorrow. The song is surprisingly good — which seems like I’m damning Lady Gaga (who co-wrote it) with slight praise. I’m not meaning to minimize her talents at all (they’re pretty obvious at this point), but songs written for movies are often about something else […]

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The Big Idea: Marshall Ryan Maresca

Are the old, and even quaint, ways the best? Marshall Ryan Maresca has thoughts on this, and how they affected the creation and development of The Way of the Shield. MARSHALL RYAN MARESCA: Somewhere archived away in a box in my house, there’s a piece of paper with scribbled notes that I wrote in 2007: […]

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The Big Idea: Charlie Jane Anders

Comedy! The Internet! Incipient fascism! Charlie Jane Anders has got it all in her latest, Rock Manning Goes For Broke. She’s here to explain it. There are footnotes! CHARLIE JANE ANDERS: What happens when Comedy goes TOO FAR (and then just keeps going)? Supposedly some famous dude said on his death bed, “Dying is easy. […]

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Sugar Watches You From Above

Here’s Sugar, in one of her favorite perches, above the sliding glass door in our living room. Sugar’s been spending a lot of time outdoors recently, because Smudge annoys the crap out of her, so it’s nice when she’s inside and relaxing, instead of looking at Smudge like he’s an insect. This is what I […]

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The Big Idea: Ashley and Leslie Saunders

They say write what you know, and thus twins Ashley and Leslie Saunders and have written The Rule of One, a novel about twins. But there’s so much more to writing than writing what you know. Here’s how the Saunders imagined in stereo. ASHLEY AND LESLIE SAUNDERS: What would make a country like the United […]

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