Yesterday I posted a picture of my current music composition setup here and on Bluesky, which prompted requests by music nerds to go into detail about the hardware and software I’m currently using. All right, then, fellow obsessives, strap in, we’re gonna geek out for a bit. If y … | Continue reading
I mentioned earlier today that I had incorporated the new MacBook into the basement music studio, and having done so, I decided to run it through its paces by doing a quick cover. And thus: “I’m On Fire,” written and rather more famously performed by Bruce Springsteen. Among any … | Continue reading
I finally got around to bringing the new MacBook down to the basement to get it set up to make music, and took the opportunity to update a couple of other things, namely the USB-C hub, and connecting the iPad to the Mac to act as a command surface for Logic Pro. It’s very colorfu … | Continue reading
This is the first piece of music I’ve put together on my new Mac, and it’s a long, gentle ambient piece which feels (to me, anyway) as if it’s in the continual process of lifting; thus the name. Perfect for spacing out and staring into the night sky. Enjoy. (Photo credit: Interna … | Continue reading
A groundhog poked its head out of a hole and declared that there was at least six more weeks of reading, and then presented me with this stack of new books and ARCs. Which of these books would you like to take with you into February? Share in the comments! — JS | Continue reading
Yesterday Vox published a piece by Rebecca Jennings entitled “Everyone’s a Sellout Now,” about the nature of the marketing and promotion creators are required to do these days to get their work out into the public sphere, in a world where creative work makes less for nearly every … | Continue reading
“I’m not eating the dog food because the dog food tastes good. It’s dog food. It’s complete trash. I’m eating the dog food because the dog needs to learn her place.” Yes, Smudge eats the dog food from time to time. Yes, the dog seems confused about this. But she also doesn’t get … | Continue reading
It was a pleasant thing to wake up this morning and discover that Starter Villain is part of the Locus 2023 Recommended Reading List, the magazine’s annual list of what it considers to have been the best published work in the fields of science fiction/fantasy/horror in the last c … | Continue reading
On New Year’s Day, my local Cinemark was showing a 6 o’clock viewing of the extended edition of the first Lord of the Rings movie. I’m not sure why it was, but it was and I decided that I should see it. I’ve heard a good thing or two about it, so I figured it was […] | Continue reading
Is it a seed pod? An alien ship? Will I go to sleep and whatever was in here will hatch and take my place in the universe? I took this picture a couple of days ago and honestly it’s been haunting me ever since. I’m open to guesses, is what I’m saying. — JS | Continue reading
The folks at the Glasgow Worldcon, which is this year’s Worldcon, have officially opened up the nomination process for this year’s Hugo Awards, and in the emailed press release announcing the opening of the process (mirrored on social media), it has tucked in this paragraph, with … | Continue reading
Which is not the name of my next band but is a problem people have noticed with the RSS feed when they use Feedly, which is that for whatever reason posts from here arrived not in a timely fashion but in bunches. Why? I have no idea why, and for the moment at least it […] | Continue reading
January is heading toward the door, but there’s still time for another stack of new books and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound. Any titles here you would like to take into February? Share in the comments! — JS | Continue reading
In the last week or so I have received five queries about showing up to online book clubs and four requests for podcast appearances, and while it is genuinely delightful to be wanted — thank you! — my schedule for the first few months of 2024 is already packed with real world/onl … | Continue reading
Today is apparently the 40th anniversary of the debut of the Macintosh computer, which is interesting in itself, of course (all the tech sites have their “what does it all mean” articles about it up, here’s one of them), but the anniversary of the Mac also means that this year is … | Continue reading
I’ve lived with my new MacBook Pro M3 Max 16-inch laptop for a week now, and have been using it about the house for various things, so now is a good time to note thoughts about it, its performance and its overall value. Spoiler: It’s lovely, but there are a couple of things I do … | Continue reading
When I saw The Lion King (2019) in theaters, I could not for the life of me explain to others why I hated it so much. I couldn’t even really figure out just for myself what about it irked me so badly. I kind of defaulted to the usual remake complaint, which is that it’s a soulles … | Continue reading
This literally just happened, the above is a screen capture from the actual awards ceremony. For those who don’t know, the Alex Awards are given yearly by the American Library Association to ten books written for adults that they feel are excellent for teen readers as well. And t … | Continue reading
There’s a new controversy with this last year’s Hugo Awards, involving, among other things, a number of potential nominees declared ineligible for not-at-all-clear reasons, including R.F. Kuang’s novel Babel, which was a presumed front runner before the finalist lists came out. R … | Continue reading
Well, this certainly looks frosty, doesn’t it. I am here in Michigan for my first convention of the year, the Confusion convention. It’s the one I consider my “home” convention, despite the fact it’s three hours away, in no small part because it’s the first non-Worldcon conventio … | Continue reading
As many of you know, Old Man’s War at one point was optioned for television at Syfy. What you might not know is what happened while it was optioned there and why it never made it to the small screen. Well, screenwriter Jake Thornton, who was half of the writing team on one take o … | Continue reading
I’ve mentioned this before, but when I was a very small kid, my mom looked enough like Janis Joplin on the cover of this album that I thought it was her. It was not, but inasmuch as Joplin was my mom’s favorite singer at the time, I think she was flattered. It’s my mom’s birthday … | Continue reading
It’s a Macbook Pro, and it arrives at a confluence of a few events. The first is that the Mac Mini I bought a couple of years ago for music production turns out to be more than a little underspecced for what I’ve been doing; I keep bumping up on processing limitations and am also … | Continue reading
A murder of crows, a clowder of cats… a collaboration of quislings? In Scum of the Earth, author Alexander C. Kane takes a hard look at the sort of person who works for the invader, and in this Big Idea, explains why these turncoats were the perfect subject for his tale. ALEXANDE … | Continue reading
I’m very curious to know what you think Smudge is saying, here. — JS | Continue reading
Because as we all know, the only way to get rid of an earworm is to pass it on. Fortunately it’s a good song! It’s a story song about a loser who deserves to be a loser (doing a stint for non-support? Loser), but who laments being a loser nonetheless. And by Jim Croce, who […] | Continue reading
Which is: They’ve been missing the last couple of months, primarily because I dropped the former Twitter, which was once of the primary outlets for me talking about the new books and ARCs that have been coming in, and I have to figure which, if any, of the other various social me … | Continue reading
True story: When the publicist for Gone for Good? Negotiating the Coming Wave of Church Property Transition contacted me about the possibility of doing a Big Idea, I asked “So, did you know I recently bought an old church?” The publicist had not, but we both agreed the fact I had … | Continue reading
Here’s his obit at Locus. A sad day for science fiction. — JS | Continue reading
Hungry for a fantasy heroine that’s as relatable as she is badass? Look no farther than Beth Cato’s newest novel, A Feast for Starving Stone. Come along in her Big Idea as she shares a bit about the story she’s cooked up. BETH CATO: I sometimes joke that people can tell I write f … | Continue reading
To be clear, among the cats in the house, it’s usually Smudge who is the real butthead of the three, probably because he’s a dude cat, and because of all three cats, he’s the one who is most proudly a chaos engine. However, every now and again Sugar sheds her pretty princess pers … | Continue reading
Because it’s a wistful, beautiful song which fits the moment. Have a happy Sunday evening, y’all. (PS: I don’t regret playing video games all day. Sometimes you need a “play video games all day” day.) — JS | Continue reading
Not quite enough to completely blanket the lawn, but more than enough to make the roads slightly hazardous. Winter is finally, without a doubt, here in Ohio. We’ll get a slight uptick in the temperature for the next week, but then down to the 20s. It’s January. Seems fair. I unde … | Continue reading
More accurately, the first sunset visible from my house so far this year. The other days had setting suns, but they were obscured by a thick batting of clouds. Today was the first day the sun was visible on the horizon. And it looks good. I will take it. — JS | Continue reading
In 2007 my friend Norm Carnick decided to make a fantasy football league and asked me if I wanted to join in. Despite having very little interest in professional football or indeed most professional sports at all, I said sure, because why not. 16 years later, I’m still in it. Eve … | Continue reading
This year, it’s two things: Best Novel: Starter Villain, Tor Books, September 2023, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, editor; Best Novelette: Slow Time Between the Stars, Amazon Original Stories, June 2023, John Joseph Adams, editor. Oh, and technically my EP of music Between the Stars is … | Continue reading
I’m writing a column on science fiction and fantasy films at Uncanny magazine, and my new column is up. Tangentially it’s on The Marvels, the most recent film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Less tangentially, it’s about the problems of widely expansive entertainment universes, … | Continue reading
World powers rise, and world powers fall, and in between, as editor Sean Patrick Hazlett explains in this big idea for Weird World War: China, there are opportunities to tell some stories. SEAN PATRICK HAZLETT: In global affairs, the term “Thucydides’ Trap” has often been used to … | Continue reading
To clarify because the nitpickers will pick nits: If you are a US citizen aged 18 or above (OR, will be 18 at the time of the next US presidential election, on November 5, 2024), are you registered to vote? And if you are registered to vote, are you sure your registration is upda … | Continue reading
Not exactly a surprise in terms of expression, I’d say. As I’ve noted before, 2023 was pretty good for me, and I have reasonable personal expectations for 2024 even as I realize that we’re heading into another election year and that is likely to be a mess. Let’s all look for good … | Continue reading
The Princess Bride is possibly the ultimate in comfort watches, so much so that even the framing device of the film is about the story being beloved and comfortable — it’s the story a loving grandfather tells his (slightly) ill grandson, even if the grandson would rather play his … | Continue reading
Because I am a shallow and terrible person of poor breeding and low station, I am not much for the written works of Jane Austen. To be clear, I am not singling out just Jane Austen here; most of 19th century English language literature is a rough ride for me because it jars my br … | Continue reading
Shane Black writes like cocaine feels. Nervy, twitchy, moving quick, with a lot of words coming out at once, which while entertaining, may or may not be directly relevant to the discussion at hand. He also writes about the sort of scenarios where cocaine (at the very least) might … | Continue reading
If you’re lucky, you get to look back at some years and go, “yup, that was a career year.” 2023 was one of those years for me. In no particular order: 1. The Kaiju Preservation Society won Locus, Alex and Ohioana awards, and was a finalist for the Hugo award (and the Dragon award … | Continue reading
Return to Me may be the gentlest romantic comedy I have ever seen. There is not a single sharp edge to it, nor does it want one. This film delights in the coziness it’s created for itself. The movie has very little risk to it; at no time in the whole of the movie are […] | Continue reading
Here’s a fun fact: Pacific Rim is Guillermo del Toro’s rebound relationship. In the early 2010s, del Toro was meant to direct a film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness for Universal Pictures, with James Cameron producing and Tom Cruise as the star. Madness … | Continue reading
It is late June 1993, and you are me, and you are about to go on the third date in two weeks with this impossibly out-of-your-league woman you’ve somehow managed to attract to yourself. You don’t know much of anything when it comes to romance (trust me on this one), but you know … | Continue reading
It’s Christmas Day, the presents are unwrapped, the kids are off playing with their new toys and/or video games, you had your big family gathering on Christmas Eve so today consists of leftovers and a long empty stretch of time, and you’re a nerd. What will you do? You will lie o … | Continue reading