Monthly Archives: January 2023
Ranking My RPG Stats
Posted on January 30, 2023 40 Comments
Over on Twitter last night, Gail Simone asked: This is a fun little exercise to consider, and while I answered this briefly over on that service (because everything on Twitter still needs to be brief), I thought it would be fun to rank them out over here in more detail. I won’t be offering a […]
The Kaiju Preservation Society Wins a 2023 Alex Award
Posted on January 30, 2023 21 Comments
Last week I was asked to participate in a Zoom meeting about PR stuff, but when I signed in what was really going on was a bunch of librarians telling me The Kaiju Preservation Society had won an Alex Award this year. Which, I’m not going to lie, was a much better Zoom meeting to […]
Black & White Concert Photos Are Totally the Best
Posted on January 29, 2023 11 Comments
When I was on the JoCo Cruise last year I took my usual literally thousands of photos and intended to post a curated selection of the ones that weren’t blurry, as I usually do. But I went straight from the 2022 cruise into my Kaiju Preservation Society book tour (seriously; I had one day at […]
Winter Meander
Posted on January 28, 2023 7 Comments
I downloaded a new synth and fiddled a bit with it today, and this is what came out. As the title implies, it’s a bit of a meander rather than a proper composition, but it was still fun to put together. At some point I’m going to some actual songs, with, like, lyrics and stuff. […]
A Gentle Reminder
Posted on January 28, 2023 22 Comments
There’s a current kerfuffle in the speculative fiction space and some folks are wondering why certain authors/notables in that space haven’t chimed in (this has not been directed at me, as I’m not in that particular space, but some others I know of). This is a good time to link back to this, which I […]
Where is My Mind
Posted on January 27, 2023 4 Comments
I’ve had a ridiculously good week this week, enough so that it’s done my brain in just a bit. Some of it you know, some of it you will know soon, and some of it I won’t be able to tell you for a while. Just know I’m happy but mildly discombobulated at the moment. […]
I Cleaned Out My Bathroom Today (Yes, That’s Really What This Post Is About)
Posted on January 25, 2023 42 Comments
I’ve mentioned on here a few times that I have a bit of a hoarding problem, and I really do mean that genuinely. My life is seriously impacted by it, and every once in a while I get a super strong urge to fix it. That feeling struck today, so, I took a big step […]
A Mildly Disappointing Snowpocalypse
Posted on January 25, 2023 28 Comments
We were told for the last couple of days that today we could expect anywhere from four to eight inches of snow, and that we should probably all just stay in our houses and hunker down while the stuff blanketed the earth (and roads, and electrical wires, etc). So we did — I mean, I […]
The Great Leveler
Posted on January 24, 2023 12 Comments
The house that we bought on the property adjacent to our church is no more; neither is the rubble of that house when it was torn down. What’s left now is dirt, laid over the former basement space of the house by the machinery you see here, and soon to be blanketed in snow thanks […]
HBO Max Subtitles Need To Get With the Program
Posted on January 24, 2023 43 Comments
I, like many others, have been watching The Last of Us on HBO Max. I have also been watching it with subtitles, and I’m shocked at how garbage they are. You would think that such a huge, expensive, and widely-anticipated show would cater better to its subtitle-using audience, but you’d be severely disappointed. What do I […]
Hey, Wanna Know Who Won This Year’s Robert A. Heinlein Award?
Posted on January 24, 2023 72 Comments
And as you might expect, I’m pretty damn happy about it. Not only because it’s an award named for Heinlein, who is an undeniable influence on me (you may recall that the Publishers Weekly review of Old Man’s War said “Though a lot of SF writers are more or less efficiently continuing the tradition of […]
“My Year of Dicks” an Oscar Nominee!!!
Posted on January 24, 2023 6 Comments
It had been on the shortlist (i.e., the step before actual nomination), but as of this morning’s Oscar nomination announcements, it’s officially a nominee. Which means Pamela Ribon, my friend who wrote its screenplay, is also an Oscar nominee! This is genuinely the best news of the day, as far as I’m concerned. It’s not […]
The Kaiju Preservation Society Out in Paperback Today
Posted on January 24, 2023 8 Comments
And what a lovely trade paperback it is, too. It doesn’t look too much different from the hardcover, with a only a few graphic design changes to push a review quote, and to announce the book’s NYT bestseller status (thanks for that, folks, by the way). If you want to pick up this version, it’s […]
Chengdu Worldcon Now Accepting Credit Cards
Posted on January 23, 2023 6 Comments
For those folks outside China who wanted to get a membership at this year’s Worldcon in Chengdu, but were stymied because the Worldcon site wasn’t accepting payments from outside China, there’s good news: The site now accepts credit card payments. I tried it myself and the site acknowledged my payment and membership (although, please note, […]
Happy Lunar New Year!
Posted on January 22, 2023 6 Comments
Hey, everyone! I just wanted to come on here real quick and wish y’all a happy Lunar New Year! Today, I celebrated with my friends by exchanging red envelopes, making paper lanterns out of construction paper, wrapping spring rolls, and I even tried making Tang Yuan for the first time! Specifically I made these black […]
Absconding With My Wife For the Weekend
Posted on January 19, 2023 6 Comments
Guess who is having a weekend off with his spouse? If you guess “Why, it would appear John Scalzi is,” then you are 100% correct. We’re off to see friends and hang about and enjoy each other’s company. Honestly, sounds ideal. I believe Athena will be posting something in the next couple of days, so […]
Jam-A-Rama: Part 1
Posted on January 18, 2023 38 Comments
A food influencer I follow on Instagram and Tik Tok has in fact influenced me. I have been thoroughly influenced into buying Bonne Maman’s Advent Calendar. If you have never heard of Bonne Maman, it is a jam/jelly brand that’s pretty common in most grocery stores. It’s like a nicer Smucker’s. When I went to […]
The Big Idea: James L. Cambias
Posted on January 17, 2023 4 Comments
One advantage writers get when they work in different fields of writing is more tools for their professional toolbox — but as James L. Cambias points out in this Big Idea for The Scarab Mission, not every skill is directly transferable from one medium to the next, and learning which tools this is true about […]
I Have A Strange Obsession With This Song So I’m Making You Listen To It
Posted on January 16, 2023 13 Comments
I heard this odd song in an animatic on Tik Tok, and I’ve been listening to it multiple times a day since I first heard it a few months ago. I have no idea what it’s about or really even from, but here it is: And here’s the animatic! I had been following this artist’s […]
Family Portrait, WWII Style
Posted on January 15, 2023 14 Comments
In this photo you will see, from left, my great uncle Roy, my grandmother Jean, and my grandfather Mike. This would have been taken during World War II so my grandmother and grandfather would have been in their early 20s, which makes this officially the youngest I’ve ever seen them in a photo. The photo […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying