Monthly Archives: February 2022

The Big Idea: J.D. Blackrose

In this Big Idea post, JD Blackrose notes how a phenomenon in real life had an impact on the story she was trying to tell in her new novel (and series debut), Demon Kissed. JD BLACKROSE: I didn’t expect to write about balance. I didn’t know that I’d have to later search for the word […]

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“Go Fuck Yourself” and The World Today

By now, I probably don’t have to tell you about the Ukrainian soldiers on Snake Island, who, confronted with a Russian navy ship which demanded their surrender, told the ship to “go fuck yourself” and then died when the ship retaliated. But it is worth noting how the incident is a microcosm of how Russia […]

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The Big Idea: Rob Hart

Sometimes, to get a Big Idea, all you need is an instigating inspiration, a neat idea… and maybe a Google doc or two. Rob Hart shows us how it all comes together in this piece on his new novel, Paradox Hotel. ROB HART: “Time travel hotel.”  I wrote this into a Google Doc after seeing […]

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The Big Idea: Juliette Wade

Every society has systems it runs on. For Inheritors of Power, author Juliette Wade had to create systems that not only explain the culture, but show how every system binds those in it… for better or worse. JULIETTE WADE: Imagine a man (yes, let’s start there). He lives in a nation called Varin, in an […]

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The New Not Coolmobile

Faithful readers of Whatever will remember that in December, Athena totaled her car on Interstate 70 after running over debris from an accident involving two other cars. This was unfortunate, but she was unharmed (as were the two people who had the accident she came across), and really, as far as we were concerned, that […]

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The Big Idea: Michael Mammay

When does a novel need a Big Idea? Sometimes an author starts with one, but then other times, as Michael Mammay tells you regarding his new novel The Misfit Soldier, it arrives on its own schedule. MICHAEL MAMMAY: I didn’t start writing The Misfit Soldier with a big idea. I think part of that is […]

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The Big Idea: Richard Swan

What is justice? And who is it for? And how is it meted out? These questions and others like it are at the heart of The Justice of Kings, and author Richard Swan is here to explain why sometimes, these questions do not have easy answers. RICHARD SWAN: Did you ever watch The Revenge of […]

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Gale Scalzi, RIP

Last night my cousin Sarah let me know that my uncle Gale, my father’s brother, had passed away. This hit me pretty hard. Growing up, Gale was the closest of my non-immediate family, literally, as he and his family lived in a house that I walked by every day to and from school. I would […]

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On the Subject of Skin Thickness

I was the subject of some discussion last week in the comments of the site File 770, specifically on the matter of whether my occasional snarking on Twitter at the sad, attention-seeking dudes who regularly try to cut me down online is proof that I have “thin skin” regarding criticism, etc. And while I like […]

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The Big Idea: Scott Drakeford

Gods are complex characters in the best of times… and in Rise of the Mages, author Scott Drakeford wanted to see what gods might be like in not necessarily the best of times. Read along as he explains why. SCOTT DRAKEFORD: What if God were real? That’s the question – or the Big Idea, if […]

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