Monthly Archives: March 2020
The Strategic Reserve
Posted on March 31, 2020 82 Comments
Last Thursday Krissy, who has been appointed the Person Who Leaves The House to Shop, reported that once again she had been unable to find toilet paper, or paper towels, while she was out shopping. We had been back from vacation for nearly two weeks at that point, and the Great Toilet Paper Panic of […]
Gah! Cat!
Posted on March 30, 2020 27 Comments
Sometimes you wake up from a nap and a cat is right there, being all, like, “hey, what’s up.” And it is disconcerting. So naturally you take a picture.
The Two Week Quarantine Report
Posted on March 29, 2020 25 Comments
We got back from the JoCo Cruise on March 14, and March 15 was our first full day back in the world, so today marks two full weeks since I’ve basically holed myself up in my house. In the first week back I had two trips out to the grocery store, both observing full social […]
The Last Best Time
Posted on March 28, 2020 48 Comments
Three fridays ago I was lying in bed on the Nieuw Amsterdam, the cruise ship that the JoCo Cruise was sailing on this year, trying to decide whether or not I wanted to bother to get my ass up, head down to the tender boats and go over to Half Moon Cay, our current stop […]
New Books and ARCs, 3/27/20
Posted on March 27, 2020 15 Comments
As we round the bend toward April, we have one more stack of new books and ARCs for March! What here is getting your attention as a possible Spring Read? Share in the comments!
Distance and Patience and This Moment of Time
Posted on March 27, 2020 62 Comments
The frustrating thing for me during this moment of time that we’re in is that I don’t think it’s quite sunk in to some folks that this virus doesn’t care about politics, or the economy, or in fact any human concern at all. It doesn’t care about anything. It just wants to spread, and will […]
Try to Get a Message to Her: (Another) LP-Length Playlist
Posted on March 26, 2020 17 Comments
Hey, I made another playlist! Enjoy. Here’s the Spotify link, or follow along with the videos below.
The Big Idea: Robert Mitchell Evans
Posted on March 26, 2020 5 Comments
Science fiction writers don’t only grow up on science fiction. Their influences can be all over the map in terms of genre and medium. Just ask Robert Mitchell Evans, who for his novel Vulcan’s Forge has tapped into another rich vein of storytelling entirely. ROBERT MITCHELL EVANS: “I killed him for money and for a […]
RIP, WIlliam Dufris
Posted on March 25, 2020 7 Comments
We are heartbroken to announce that the co-founder of @pocketplot and the director of “EC Comics Presents… The Vault of Horror”, William Dufris, has died from cancer. There is a hole in a lot of people’s hearts right now. We will have more to say later. Bless you, Bill. pic.twitter.com/QHrZ69i6ti — Pocket Universe Productions is […]
Nothing But Blue Sky
Posted on March 25, 2020 38 Comments
So, here’s a thing I never expected to see again in my lifetime: A sky entirely devoid of contrails, and the planes that make them. This is a 360-degree “photosphere” panorama from my yard, so the entire sky is here, and not altered from the photo that came out of my camera (I did photoshop […]
The Big Idea: Ilana C. Myer
Posted on March 25, 2020
Where some people end their books is where Ilana C. Myer, in her new novel The Poet King, begins hers. Why does she do it that way? She’s here to explain. ILANA C. MYER: Power is something we talk about a lot in fantasy—from rings of power to the One Power to the sword that […]
CoNZealand Goes Virtual
Posted on March 25, 2020 27 Comments
CoNZealand is making history, as it becomes the first ever ‘virtual Worldcon’, in response to the global pandemic. For more details, please see our website: https://t.co/7nwfoQFbnH #conzealand #worldcon2020 pic.twitter.com/MNqquHEaIe — CoNZealand (@CoNZealand) March 25, 2020 This year’s Worldcon is going virtual, because we’re currently living in a global pandemic, and despite what some clueless politicians […]
News Books and ARCs, 3/24/20
Posted on March 24, 2020 12 Comments
I’ve got two — yes! two! — new book stacks for you this week, to catch up from when I was away earlier in the month. And this is the first one! What here in this group is calling to you? The comments are waiting for your input.
The Big Idea: Christopher Swiedler
Posted on March 24, 2020 6 Comments
What kind of book is In The Red? As author Christopher Swiedler relates, this seemingly simple question turned out to have a more complex answer than one might assume. CHRISTOPHER SWIEDLER: Many years ago, an instructor in a writing workshop asked me whether my sci-fi novel In the Red was for middle grade or young […]
Advice to Myself (and Others) About The Great Pause
Posted on March 23, 2020 42 Comments
Dear creative folks (and the people who love and/or buy their work): Like many of you, I am looking at our current situation — which it seems were are moving toward calling The Great Pause — and wondering what this means, both in the long and short terms, for our careers and livelihoods. This is […]
JoCo Cruise Concert Photos 2020
Posted on March 21, 2020 8 Comments
Each year I go on the JoCo Cruise I post up photos I take at the concerts I go to (or, at least, the ones I bring a camera for). This year’s collection is now up on Flickr, and you can look at it here. If you’re a Seamonkey, then you’ll know what I mean […]
New Books and ARCs, 3/20/20
Posted on March 20, 2020 8 Comments
Seems like now is a fine time to return to one of the favorite features of Whatever — and accounting of the new books and ARCs that have come to Scalzi Compound! What here is calling to you this weekend? Tell us all in the comments.
After the Pandemic
Posted on March 20, 2020 31 Comments
The folks over at the Washington Post have put together a piece on how the world will change after this pandemic — not in the huge ways, but in the smaller, day-to-day ways — and they asked me to write something for it. I did a piece on personal greetings, because, as it happens, it […]
The Big Idea: Eeleen Lee
Posted on March 19, 2020
Travel delays are rarely the raw material for novels, but as Eeleen Lee found out, sometimes a little time — and a new obsession — can lead to inspiration, and eventually a novel, in this case, Liquid Crystal Nightingale. EELEEN LEE: In late 2005 I was stuck in transit at Charles de Gaulle airport, and […]
Till the Heart Caves In: An LP-length Mixtape Playlist
Posted on March 18, 2020 8 Comments
I felt like making a mixtape today! Which I did, and it turned out exactly as long as an LP, with five songs on each side. Here it is, in YouTube video form. I also have it on Spotify, here. SIDE ONE SIDE TWO
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying