Monthly Archives: September 2021
The Big Idea: Lee Matthew Goldberg
Posted on September 17, 2021
Sometimes, the killer hook for a thriller isn’t a plot point, or even the first line of the novel, but something else… something that comes even before that. Lee Matthew Goldberg explains in this Big Idea for his latest story, The Stalker Stalked. LEE MATTHEW GOLDBERG: The first germ of a Big Idea I had […]
Hibiscus, 9/16/21
Posted on September 16, 2021 10 Comments
Our hibiscus plant nearly died because after keeping it in a heated garage all winter, we replanted it too early in the spring and it got snowed on, so the hibiscus flowers this year have been few and far between. It just makes me appreciate the ones we have gotten. Here’s today’s. — JS
The Big Idea: Monica Byrne
Posted on September 16, 2021 7 Comments
Travel broadens the mind, or so they say, but for Monica Byrne, travel to a particular Central American country did much more than that — and the result was her novel The Actual Star, which (disclosure!) I liked so much I gave it a blurb, and participated into an author Q&A, which you can view […]
Signs of the Season
Posted on September 16, 2021 31 Comments
The annual reappearance of these particular cereals has arrived. Krissy saw these in a three-pack and assumed I would want them because I eat like a sugar-amped child, and she is not wrong! I do want them. But as it happens when I was an actual sugar-amped child, I don’t think I ever partook in […]
The Big Idea: Amanda Jayatissa
Posted on September 15, 2021 3 Comments
Ideas come out of anywhere, and for Amanda Jayatissa, the motivating spark of the novel My Sweet Girl came out of being really, really, really annoyed. Hey, whatever works. Here’s Jayatissa to fill you in on the circumstances and what came out of that moment. AMANDA JAYATISSA: If there’s anything this blog has shown me, […]
The Unrecalled Governor
Posted on September 15, 2021 32 Comments
I woke this morning to the news that California governor Gavin Newsom has defeated the recall initiative against him, and apparently by a margin large enough that even committed conspiracists can’t make a claim that the vote was tainted with a straight face. Oh, some of them will, because they can’t not, but every time […]
The Big Idea: Calder Szewczak
Posted on September 14, 2021 12 Comments
Want a kid? Okay, but it’s gonna cost you. And before you say, “Yes, I know, I’ve seen college tuition these days,” read Calder Szewczak’s big idea for The Offset. The cost is something else entirely, here. CALDER SZEWCZAK: Having children might be one of the most cruel things a human can do. No one […]
23 Years
Posted on September 13, 2021 21 Comments
Another September 13, and another year of Whatever in the (virtual, electronic) books. For the site, an unusual year, in that I was not the sole writer here — through most of it Athena wrote nearly as much as I did (more accurately, I had more posts, but more of my posts were cat pictures […]
Thoughts on the “Debarkle”
Posted on September 12, 2021 69 Comments
Australian blogger and science fiction genre commentator Camestros Felapton (not their real name, the pen name is taken from logical syllogisms) has taken it upon themselves to write a fairly exhaustive history of the Sad/Rabid Puppy mess in science fiction lit, calling it “Debarkle” and posting it up on their site on a chapter by […]
30 Years of Being a Professional Writer
Posted on September 11, 2021 25 Comments
On the same day that “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was officially released as the first single off of Nirvana’s Nevermind album, September 10, 1991, I started my first post-college job: Film critic and feature writer for the entertainment section of the Fresno Bee. I had done freelance work before — indeed, I paid for a […]
20 Years of 9/11
Posted on September 11, 2021 34 Comments
In point of fact, these days on 9/11 I don’t tend to think about it much at all, which is I think a healthy thing. It was a national shock and tragedy, and we are still living with many of the things it set into motion. But the day itself was twenty years ago now, […]
New Books and ARCs, 9/10/21
Posted on September 10, 2021 15 Comments
A confession: I meant to post this stack of new books and ARCs last Friday, but then I was at Dragon Con, and I was… busy. So: Here they are now! What here in the stack looks interesting to you? Tell us all in the comments. — JS
An Actual Party of Death, Now
Posted on September 10, 2021 90 Comments
Bluntly, I blame this on (of course) Donald Trump. The GOP has been a mess for years — decades, really — but allow me to suggest that had any other Republican been president when COVID hit, that person would likely have been reasonably sensible about things like masks and vaccines and taking advice from the […]
Gas vs. Electric Road Trip
Posted on September 9, 2021 30 Comments
Three weeks ago I talked about why, although I was excited to be getting a Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck, I was also glad that at the moment we still will have a gas-powered car for longer trips, because the powering infrastructure for electric vehicles (particularly non-Tesla vehicles) isn’t quite where it should be. Day […]
The Big Idea: Cassandra Khaw
Posted on September 9, 2021 2 Comments
For the Big Idea for their novel The All-Consuming World, author Cassandra Khaw looks at life lessons, and how the reasons for them can be and frequently are different than we’ve been led to expect. CASSANDRA KHAW: There are lessons that you are lucky to learn if you have the right friends at the worst […]
Charlie in the Back Yard, 9/8/21
Posted on September 8, 2021 6 Comments
It’s a lovely day to be a dog. Or, honestly, pretty much anything. Hope the same for you, wherever you are. — JS
The Big Idea: Kelly Jennings
Posted on September 8, 2021 2 Comments
“Nature versus nurture” is a question that humans all through the years have weighed in on, and it seems likely in the future they will continue to do so. Or at least, in the future of Kelly Jennings’ new novel In the Deep, that question, or more accurately a unique spin on it, comes into […]
And Now, My Dragon Con 2021 Report
Posted on September 7, 2021 25 Comments
I had fun! Thank you, that is all. Okay, I’ll add just a few more comments. 1. The first is that I was surprised and happy I was asked to be the Literary Guest of Honor this year. I had been asked to be so for 2020 and had accepted, and then COVID happened and […]
The Big Idea: David Liss
Posted on September 7, 2021 4 Comments
Many years ago, television interviewer Barbara Walters rather infamously asked Katharine Hepburn, “If you could be a tree, what kind of tree would you be?” I don’t know whether author David Liss remembers that particular media moment, but in The Peculiarities, at least, he presents us with at least one character who might have an […]
Labor Day Check-In
Posted on September 6, 2021 4 Comments
Last day of Dragon Con, which for me has been a terrific experience about which I will write about more later, and also a travel day as we head home from Atlanta. While my Labor Day will be busy, I hope yours is relaxing and fun. See you on the other side of the day. […]
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