Posted on February 7, 2023 6 Comments
The world has systems. Systems have rules. Or are they more like guidelines? In today’s Big Idea for A Hacker’s Mind, security expert Bruce Schneier takes a look at systems, how they are vulnerable, and what that fact means for all of us. BRUCE SCHNEIER: Hacking isn’t limited to computer systems, or even technology. Any […]
Posted on July 20, 2023 1 Comment
Author Jennifer Estep is back with another Big Idea for the second installment in her Galactic Bonds series. Come along to see how writing the second book of a series is actually preferable for her, and how much she enjoyed the process of bringing us Only Good Enemies. JENNIFER ESTEP: Only Good Enemies was released earlier […]
Posted on July 11, 2023 2 Comments
As much as people love the classics, sometimes they need an update. Luckily, author Rachel Cantor is here to bring us a modernized look at the Brontës in her new novel, Half-Life of a Stolen Sister. Follow along in her Big Idea to see how she swapped out the 1800s for the modern era. RACHEL […]
Posted on June 26, 2023 4 Comments
When one is a writer, laziness can be a virtue. Skeptical? Here’s author Brenda W. Clough to explain how laziness was key to creating the story of A Door in His Head. BRENDA W. CLOUGH: The wise writer is efficient because she’s lazy. She puts a lot of work into cooking up a universe, and […]
Posted on July 14, 2022 1 Comment
Are the bad guys inherently bad, or did they choose to be bad? Author A. C. Wise takes us into the mind of one of literature’s most famous villains in her new novel, Hooked, in order to shed some light on this question. A. C. WISE: Part of me wants to be a little bit […]
Posted on June 2, 2023 2 Comments
In her Big Idea for her new novel A Killer’s Game, author Isabella Maldonado touches on popular party events, adrenaline, and your long-lost ancestor, Grog. How do they all fit together? Like a puzzle. ISABELLA MALDONADO: The big idea behind A Killer’s Game was the explosion in popularity of escape rooms, which provide the dopamine […]
Posted on May 25, 2023 4 Comments
Sometimes, it takes more than one try to really nail down a story. In author Jean Marie Ward’s case, the third time was the charm, resulting in her new novel, Siren Bridge. Read on to see how each iteration of this story came together to form this final novel. JEAN MARIE WARD: I stole the first […]
Posted on May 23, 2023 4 Comments
Don’t judge a book by its cover. Or in this case, don’t judge a monster by its mushrooms. Author William C. Tracy’s Big Idea brings us back into The Biomass Conflux series with his newest novel, To A Fungus Unknown. WILLIAM C. TRACY: Forty years after landing on Lida, the colony still isn’t finished. Agetha has survived […]
Posted on May 9, 2023 2 Comments
There’s no time like the present when it comes to making positive change. That’s certainly the case for author Lisa Brideau regarding policies on climate change. Follow along in her Big Idea to see how she crafts this changed world in her new novel, Adrift. LISA BRIDEAU: I work all day on climate policy. I am […]
Posted on May 8, 2023 8 Comments
Sometimes, a “big idea” is a collection of smaller ideas, which, when grouped together, are greater than the sum of their parts. Dorothy A. Winsor knows a little about this, and in this Big Idea for Glass Girl, she puts it all together for you. DOROTHY A. WINSOR: Big Ideas don’t always (often? ever?) leap […]
Posted on June 28, 2022 4 Comments
Few storytellers alive can spin a tale like Elizabeth Bear, and in this Big Idea for The Origin of Storms, the concluding novel of a trilogy, Bear digs just a little into the elements that make this particular story the one to tell right now. ELIZABETH BEAR: What if you inherited a broken world from […]
Posted on May 3, 2023 3 Comments
Dragons! Everybody loves them and they wing their way into all sorts of places in the fantasy genre. Author L.R. Lam was determined to find a fresh spin on the familiar creatures, however, and in Dragonfall, they may just have found one. L.R. LAM: For years, I’d really wanted to write myself a Big Ol’ […]
Posted on April 12, 2023 4 Comments
People are a mish-mash of where they or their ancestors have come from, and where they are now (among, of course, many other things). But as Piper J. Drake makes clear in this Big Idea for Wings at Once Cursed and Bound, these elements of who were are are often in unexpected combinations… and may […]
Posted on April 11, 2023 3 Comments
All too often, people can do the wrong things for what they think is the right reasons. In author Chika Unigwe’s Big Idea, she goes into detail about how things done out of “love” can end up hurting people, and how this sort of situation inspired her new novel, The Middle Daughter. CHIKA UNIGWE: The Middle […]
Posted on June 3, 2022
We are all part of some sort of fandom, and some fandoms are better known than others. In By Your Side, author Erica Friedman explores a vital, but possibly lesser-known, group of fans. ERICA FRIEDMAN: Every day someone discovers a new fandom. How awesome is that? Right away that new fan takes in all the […]
Posted on November 11, 2022 4 Comments
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but in author Lavie Tidhar’s case, a single image he thought of was worth a whole book. Read on to see how his newest novel, Neom, came to be. LAVIE TIDHAR: For Neom, my latest SF novel set in the wider world of my Central Station universe, all […]
Posted on August 7, 2023 8 Comments
For writer and editor Michael A. Burstein, an encounter with an anthology in his youth changed with way he looked at science fiction and its possibilities. Now, with his own anthology Jewish Futures, Burstein looks to that personal past to inform this collection of stories about what comes next. MICHAEL A. BURSTEIN: For me, it […]
Posted on November 4, 2022 1 Comment
Scalzi.com has been up and running since 1998, and I have been writing here for that long as well, and I think it’s pretty well verified that I am here and that I am the owner and I am entirely in control of it. This makes it a good place for me to officially verify […]
Posted on July 31, 2023 4 Comments
There are things in the world we wish we had the power to change, but as J.D. Blackrose explains in this Big Idea for Wish Magic, wishing for that power, and having it, are two different things entirely. J.D. BLACKROSE: What’s it like to be powerless when you’re used to being in control? And how […]
Posted on August 3, 2022 4 Comments
When events are on a precipice, where can we look for the support we need to help pull them back? Izzy Wasserstein has an idea, and in this Big Idea for All the Hometowns You Can’t Stay Away From, she’s ready to share with you what she thinks it might be. IZZY WASSERSTEIN: It all […]
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