Monthly Archives: August 2021
Never Fear, Smudge Is Here to Help You Bid Adieu to August
Posted on August 31, 2021 5 Comments
I know you were worried you were going to have to head into September alone. Nah, bro. Smudge has got you. My own “I’m not doing a whole lot of anything” time, I will note, extends to next Tuesday (this is not actually true, as I will be working at DragonCon this weekend, my first […]
The Big Idea: Elayne Audrey Becker
Posted on August 31, 2021
A picture, they say is worth a thousand words. But as Elayne Audrey Becker is about to tell you in this Big Idea for her novel Forestborn, two pictures may be worth an entire book. ELYANE AUDREY BECKER: The idea for Forestborn began, not with words, but with two pictures in my mind. The first: […]
Whoops
Posted on August 30, 2021 10 Comments
Today was a day full of prepping for Dragon Con and having phone meetings about things I can’t talk about yet. So, uhhhhh, hello? I’m late updating? And have nothing particularly interesting to say? Here’s an Olivia Rodrigo video. Teens being snotty to exes! What’s not to like? — JS
Today’s Deep Thought of the Day for Today
Posted on August 29, 2021 33 Comments
There are many ways to voluntarily turn one’s brain into a pudding, but for true mental discombobulation, you can’t beat a two-hour nap in the middle of a Sunday afternoon. I woke up barely able to remember my own name, which is, to be clear, Joe Piscopo. How are you? — JP
These Sticky Buns Were Fire
Posted on August 28, 2021 14 Comments
The short story of the event here was that some of the sugar glaze of the sticky buns escaped the pan and fell to the bottom of the oven, where it started to burn and scorch; this necessitated the evacuation of the buns from the oven and opening up all the windows in the lower […]
Today’s Distraction From the Internet
Posted on August 27, 2021 16 Comments
A friend who is visiting has brought boxes of Lebanese food and desserts, and so I’ll be spending the day hanging out with them and utterly destroying my normal daily calorie count with these very delicious foods, and not being online. While it seems unlikely you will be having the same specific events transpiring for […]
“Automated Customer Service” Gets an Emmy (and LD+R Gets Four)
Posted on August 26, 2021 7 Comments
Specifically, “Automated Customer Service” won an Emmy Juried Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation, going to ACS character designer Laurent Nicolas. Love Death + Robots got three other juried Emmys as well, going to Robert Valley, Patricio Betteo (both for “Ice”) and Dan Gill (for “All Through the House”). Four Emmys is a nice […]
The Big Idea: Cassie Hart
Posted on August 25, 2021 2 Comments
As a madeleine was to Proust, so was a video game to Cassie Hart: A thing which spurred something inside, which then became art — the novel Butcherbird. CASSIE HART: It started in Minecraft. Glancing up from the water between two rows of wheat I was thrown back into my childhood when we used to […]
Charlie Watts, RIP
Posted on August 24, 2021 19 Comments
Here’s an obit from Variety. I’m sure in the next few days we’ll see many more. He was one of the best drummers, in rock or outside it, and equally, the coolest drummer in rock by far. He dressed for the job he wanted, and the job he had. And while there are any number […]
The Big Idea: R.W.W. Greene
Posted on August 24, 2021
Author R.W.W. Greene has someone he wants you to meet. It’s a person — well, entity — you’ve met before. And for Greene’s new novel Twenty Five to Life, it’s someone who was very important in setting the stage for the events detailed therein. R.W.W. GREENE: Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood […]
Administrative Notes and an Editorial Comment, 8/23/21
Posted on August 23, 2021 30 Comments
As noted in the day’s previous entry from Athena, today’s post from her marks her last contribution to the site for a bit, as she starts up school again and focuses on classes. I am, of course, 100% in support of this plan, but it does mean a few changes around here, which I will […]
The Truth About My Time At Miami University And Why This Is My Last Post (For Now)
Posted on August 23, 2021 182 Comments
Hello, everyone, and welcome to what will be (spoiler) my last post for a while. There have been several times I have wanted to talk about my time at Miami University on here, but I have such complicated feelings towards the whole thing that I always shy away from it. I don’t just avoid talking […]
The Dragon Curse
Posted on August 22, 2021 19 Comments
Krissy and I went to a Dayton Dragons game today (the Dragons being Dayton’s minor league baseball team), and something happened that always happens whenever I come to see a Dayton Dragons game at the field: They lost. And, this time, not by just a little. The final score was 8-3, after a particularly disastrous […]
Someone Wants In
Posted on August 21, 2021 13 Comments
And to be fair, it’s warm and humid outside. I want to be inside, too. However, if I let this critter in, the chances that it’ll be hugged by one of the cats’ teeth in the very near future approaches certainty. It’s probably better where it is. Pretty specimen, though. Hope you’re having a fine […]
Sunset, 8/20/21
Posted on August 20, 2021 5 Comments
Cradled in clouds. Have a great weekend, everyone. — JS
New Books and ARCs, 8/20/21
Posted on August 20, 2021 16 Comments
Another Friday, another hefty stack of new books and ARCs sent to the Scalzi Compound. What here is catching your eye? Share in the comments! — JS
Trying Out A New Recipe: Claire Saffitz’s Malted “Forever” Brownies
Posted on August 19, 2021 41 Comments
Welcome to another installment of me trying out recipes I saw on YouTube! Today we have Claire Saffitz’s brownie recipe. Not just any brownies, though. These are malted brownies! I wasn’t sure what that meant at first, but after reading the ingredient list, it turns out it just has some malted milk powder in the […]
The Big Idea: Adrian Goldsworthy
Posted on August 19, 2021 5 Comments
The past is another country — especially when you are trying to write a novel in it. Historian Adrian Goldsworthy had the skills and expertise to write about the Roman-era military encampment that is at the heart of his novel The Fort… but how to bring that place and time alive? Goldsworthy talks about it […]
The Interdependency Series on NPR’s List of Favorite SF/F of the Last Decade
Posted on August 18, 2021 15 Comments
Which, you know, is nice. Here’s the whole list, in case you’re curious. I think it’s a pretty darn defensible list of choices for the last decade in SF/F. It reflects both the current state of the art in the genre, and what’s been commercial and buzzy, concepts that sometimes but not always overlap. And […]
The Big Idea: Richard Kadrey
Posted on August 18, 2021 6 Comments
It’s the end of an era: with King Bullet, New York Times Bestselling Author Richard Kadrey puts a capper on the long-running and fabulous Sandman Slim series of fantasy novels. In today’s Big Idea, Kadrey tells us how it all came to this, and how one faces the end of a thing both the author and […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying