Monthly Archives: November 2021

Whatever Holiday Gift Guide 2021, Day Two: Non-Traditionally Published Books

Today is Day Two of the Whatever Holiday Gift Guide 2021, and today the focus is on Non-Traditionally Published Books: Self-published works, electronically-exclusive books, books from micro presses, books released outside the usual environs of the publishing world, and so on. Hey, I put my first novel up on this very Web site years ago and told people to […]

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The Big Idea: Ian Douglas

How to get readers to accept the impossible — or, at least, the wildly implausible? Author Ian Douglas has a technique for that, and in this Big Idea for Solar Warden: Alien Hostiles, he’s come to lay it out for you. IAN DOUGLAS: Solar Warden: Alien Hostiles is the second book in an SF trilogy, […]

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Whatever Holiday Gift Guide 2021, Day One: Traditionally Published Books

Welcome to the first day of the Whatever Shopping Guide 2021 — Our way of helping you folks learn about cool creative gifts for the holidays, straight from the folks who have created them. Today’s featured products are traditionally published books (including graphic novels and audiobooks); that is, books put out by publishers who ship books to stores […]

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The Big Idea: Jeremy Szal

Authors often see themselves in their work. But sometimes, it takes a while for that to happen. This is a thing Jeremy Szal discovered while writing Blindspace. Here he is to delve further into that personal discovery. JEREMY SZAL: I’ve always infused intensely personal material into my work. If you know me well, you’ll see […]

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Whatever Holiday Gift Guide 2021 Starts Monday!

Every year as the holiday season begins I run a gift guide for the holidays, and over the years it’s been quite successful: Lots of people have found out about excellent books and crafts and charities and what have you, making for excellent gift-giving opportunities during the holiday season. I’ve decided to do it again this […]

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Happy Consume All the Calories Day

Here’s the spread at the Scalzi Compound today: Turkey, ham, two types of cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potato soufflé, green bean casserole, sage stuffing, deviled eggs, dinner rolls. That doesn’t count the opening round of appetizers, or the desserts (pumpkin and pecan pies, ice cream, sugar cookies). I can’t imagine I ate less than […]

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Things I Am Thankful For, 2021 Edition

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the United States, and while I think a lot of people these days see that holiday mostly as a turkey-spangled speedbump in front of the unstoppable juggernaut that is Christmas, I do think it’s useful to take a moment and reflect on the things that one has to be thankful […]

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The Big Idea: Patricia A. Jackson

Authors often put a little bit of themselves into their characters. And Patricia A. Jackson is not different in her novel Forging a Nightmare. But what parts and into which character and why… therein, folks, is the Big Idea. PATRICIA A. JACKSON: As a Black woman I carry my own unique baggage. Even as I […]

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Mermaids Monthly: Back For Year Two

Around this time last year I gave a little space to let my pal Meg Frank talk about the Kickstarter for Mermaids Monthly. This year, I’m doing the same, but with new editors and spokespeople: Miyuki Jane Pinckard and Noelle Singh. Here they are to explain why year two of Mermaids Monthly is worth your […]

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My Appearance Schedule Through The Kaiju Preservation Society’s Release Date

Hey, remember back when people used to go to science fiction conventions and hang out, and go to panels and get autographs and do all those things? Well, I do! And it turns out I’ll be doing that again, actually sooner than later. Attending DragonCon over Labor Day weekend convinced me it was possible to […]

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Boosted!

The CDC and the USDA opened up COVID booster shots to everyone over the age of 18 yesterday, so guess what I did this morning? If you guessed “thought deeply about your mortality and your place in the universe,” then yes, in an rather abstract sense, I suppose I might have, but more specifically, I […]

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Back From Cleveland

Krissy, Athena and I went to Cleveland to see the multimedia Van Gogh exhibit (it was lovely) and while we were there for that, decided to take a short family holiday. It was delightful and I really do recommend taking a short holiday with your own family now and then if you can manage it […]

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Cake for Breakfast? Cake for Breakfast!

Because don’t I deserve breakfast cake? Yes I do! And so do you! Probably. I mean, you could have been a real shit to someone recently, in which case, no cake for you. But otherwise: Cake away! I’m doing a family thing for the rest of the day so I’ll see you all here tomorrow. […]

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Archiving an Answer From Reddit

From a deleted post on r/explainlikeimfive that asked, “What makes a book a New York Times Best Seller and how does almost every book I read have this award?” The answers there were not, shall we say, entirely informed, so I chimed in. The post was deleted because the person who posted it did not […]

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The Big Idea: Patrick Swenson

Music inspires us, moves us, and in some ways inhabits us and has the power to change our lives. It’s this power that Patrick Swenson draws upon for his new novel Rain Music — that, and something else as well. PATRICK SWENSON: When I began teaching over thirty years ago, it was to teach music. […]

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Sunset, 11/16/21 + Quick Status Check

It feels like it’s been a while since I’ve posted a sunset picture here, so, hey! Look! It’s a sunset! And a lovely one, too, with orange clouds and the sun through branches and everything. You’re welcome. I’ll try to get in a few more before we finally roll 2021 up and chuck it out […]

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The Big Idea: Cat Rambo

Writing a novel is often a journey, and in writing You Sexy Thing, author Cat Rambo discovered that their journey was taking them to some surprising but welcome places. Let’s retrace the journey, shall we? CAT RAMBO: For me one of the big ideas behind You Sexy Thing is its genre. I started it as […]

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