Monthly Archives: November 2019
Reader Request Week 2019 #1: Strange Experiences
Posted on November 18, 2019 35 Comments
It’s Monday and it’s time for this year’s Reader Request Week! Let’s start this one off on a slightly spooky note, with this question from Mar: I’d be curious to know, if you’re comfortable talking about it, whether you’ve ever had a “strange”, or for lack of a better term, what we might call “paranormal” […]
Krissy, As of Yesterday
Posted on November 17, 2019 7 Comments
She’s pretty great. We like to joke that she doesn’t age; well, she does, in fact, age (the gray hair is a giveaway). She just does it gracefully. More gracefully than I do, in any event, which to be fair is a low bar. I don’t mind. She digs me anyway.
How to Have Time For a Life
Posted on November 16, 2019 19 Comments
On Twitter this morning, the following tweet: genuinely curious HOW does any adult have the time/energy to do all the following: 🤔 maintain a good social life🤔 do well at a career🤔 exercise daily🤔 eat right daily 🤔 get 8+ hours sleep each night🤔 have hobbies it's like that dril tweet about budgeting — ✨ […]
New Books and ARCs, 11/15/19
Posted on November 15, 2019 23 Comments
Hey, you look like you could use a nice big stack of new books and ARCs to peruse. So here one is! What here is drawing your eye? Tell us all in the comments.
How to Get Signed and Personalized Books From Me For the Holidays, 2019
Posted on November 15, 2019 6 Comments
It’s that time of the year again, and once again I am teaming up with Jay & Mary’s Book Center, my local independent bookseller, to offer signed and personalized books for gift-giving. It’s a great way to get a unique gift for someone you love (even yourself!) while at the same time supporting a fabulous local business […]
Photos From New Orleans
Posted on November 14, 2019 3 Comments
During my sojourn into the South, I spent a couple of days in New Orleans, visiting my pal Monica Byrne, who was there learning guitar, and taking in the sights. Naturally, I took a bunch of pictures. Some of them are now up over on Flickr. Go have a look, if you like!
Reader Request Week 2019: Get Your Questions In!
Posted on November 14, 2019 158 Comments
It’s rather later in the year than when I usually do this (I usually get to it in March or April, and I just got busy this year), but nevertheless: It’s time for the annual Reader Request Week, in which you pick the topics I write about for the next week here at Whatever. Always […]
Back Home
Posted on November 14, 2019 11 Comments
When I left Ohio for my week-long journey around the American South, my yard was still green and most of the trees in it still had leaves. When I returned, neither of these things were broadly true. What a change a week can make. My trip, incidentally, was really enjoyable. It had a couple of […]
Time For an Occasional Reminder re: How to Pay For My Books
Posted on November 10, 2019 30 Comments
This morning I got a nice letter from someone who enjoyed one of my books and wanted to send money to me directly for it rather than to get the book through my publisher, on the idea that I as the author should get most of the money because I wrote the book. This gives […]
New Books and ARCs, 11/8/19
Posted on November 8, 2019 28 Comments
Another week, another very fine stack of new books and ARCs at the Scalzi Compound. What here is grabbing your attention? Share in the comments!
View From a Hotel Window, 11/7/19: Knoxville
Posted on November 7, 2019 19 Comments
Honestly this may be one of the finest hotel parking lot pictures yet, as it encompasses not only the hotel parking lot, but the parking lot of a McDonalds and a Verizon Store. This trip may have peaked early. We’ll have to see. In town here overnight, am seeing friends and then will be off […]
On the Road, Again
Posted on November 7, 2019 11 Comments
Wait, what? I thought you said you were done with travel for the year, Scalzi! I am, indeed, done with travel for public purposes — I have no more events scheduled for 2019. But now that The Last Emperox is finished, and I have a free moment or two, I’ve decided to take a week […]
Election Day 2019 Thoughts
Posted on November 6, 2019 37 Comments
In no particular order: * First and most importantly, the only thing I could vote for this year that was competitive — a levy for a local career center — passed, so I feel pretty good about that. Also on the ballot were a couple of uncontested races for township representative and school board, both […]
The Big Idea: Cynthia Hand
Posted on November 5, 2019 4 Comments
In this Big Idea for her new novel The How & The Why, author Cynthia Hand looks into what makes us “family” — whether it’s genetics, blood, love, care or… more than that. CYNTHIA HAND: I’ve always had a hard time with the way adoption is portrayed in television and film. My central complaint, speaking […]
So, Scalzi, Now That You’re Done With the Book Are You Gonna Write About Politics More?
Posted on November 5, 2019 46 Comments
Eeeeeeeh, probably? But maybe not? Essentially, the problem I’ve been having writing about politics in the Trump era is the same problem I’ve had since it’s begun, which that it’s so obvious that Trump’s a corrupt, incompetent, bigoted tool that I find it difficult to find much new to say about him. Likewise, not too […]
Bwwuuuuhhhh
Posted on November 4, 2019 18 Comments
Post-novel-writing brain truly hit today and I feel fine, just so long as you don’t expect me to think. How are you?
What Authorial Agitation Looks Like, Scalzi Edition
Posted on November 3, 2019 16 Comments
A tale in three tweets: And now comes that time in the book making process where one's brain says THE EDITOR HAS HAD THE NOVEL FOR 12 WHOLE HOURS NOW WHY HASN'T HE EMAILED TO TELL ME IT'S BRILLIANT YET which to be fair is a totally valid question — John Scalzi (@scalzi) November 1, […]
Terminator: Dark Fate Review
Posted on November 3, 2019 22 Comments
I’ll begin by noting that Terminator: Dark Fate director Tim Miller is a friend of mine, and that we’ve worked together on Love Death and Robots, so you’ll have to filter the following through that fact. Hey, disclosure is fun! With that said, I was happy with this movie, which is what I wanted it […]
And Now, A New Short Story: The Origin of the Flow
Posted on November 2, 2019 35 Comments
Back around my birthday, I ran a fundraiser for RIP Medical Debt, which buys up the medical debt of Americans for pennies on the dollar, and having done so, erases it — meaning those people, previously despairing of the cost of their medical care, just didn’t have to worry about it anymore. I noted that […]
New Books and ARCs, 1/11/19
Posted on November 1, 2019 18 Comments
New month, new books and ARCs! What in this stack of very fine titles is something you like to start your month with? Share in the comments —
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