I'll begin by noting that Terminator: Dark Fate director Tim Miller is a friend of mine, and that we've worked together on Love Death and Robots, so you'll have to filter the following through that fact. Hey, disclosure is fun! With that said, I was happy with this movie, which i … | Continue reading
Back around my birthday, I ran a fundraiser for RIP Medical Debt, which buys up the medical debt of Americans for pennies on the dollar, and having done so, erases it -- meaning those people, previously despairing of the cost of their medical care, just didn't have to worry about … | Continue reading
New month, new books and ARCs! What in this stack of very fine titles is something you like to start your month with? Share in the comments -- | Continue reading
Now that it's done, and because I think it's useful and interesting for people, let's talk a little about the process of writing The Last Emperox, and other things about the book. The following thoughts are in no particular order because, well, my brain is still a little mushy. * … | Continue reading
At 4:35pm today, Halloween, 2019. And it's no trick, this book is a treat. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I'm putting some acknowledgements on it now, and then off it goes to Tor. Wheeeeee! | Continue reading
She tells me I got this thing. We will see. Okay, folks. The next time you'll hear from me is when this book is done. Wish me luck today. | Continue reading
It's going well. I'm at the point where the writing is done and all that's left is the typing, but there's a lot of typing to be done between now and Friday. I'm also at the stage where the issue is not the plot, but the sequencing; I wrote a chapter last night and then… | Continue reading
In this I talk about writing The Last Emperox, I read my short story "Automated Customer Service" and then I answer a whole bunch of questions. All told, about 45 minutes of me doing my thing. Enjoy. Update: Also, I'm adding in the transcript of the main portion of my talk, just … | Continue reading
From this morning. (Writing is going well, by the way. About to get back to it.) | Continue reading
This stack features extra added Sugar! (That's the cat.) And is otherwise a very very fine stack of new books and ARCs. What here is calling to you? Tell us all in the comments! | Continue reading
I'm still not done with The Last Emperox, and it absolutely has to be done by the end of the month, so... probably not going to be around a lot in the next couple of weeks, folks. Don't worry, I'm not dead, but by the time I write "The End" I may wish I was.… | Continue reading
A Twitter thread I wrote on what Marvel films are, in the wake of both Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola dumping on them (and Coppola in particular calling them "despicable"). Archived here for posterity and conversation. 1. Since we're on the subject, here's my opinion of … | Continue reading
Autumn at the Scalzi Compound looks good in faux-watercolors! (which is to say I didn't really paint this, I have a Photoshop add-on that does it for me. But it looks nice anyway.) Hope you're having a lovely weekend, folks. | Continue reading
Today's stack is a double, because that's just how much booky goodness has come to the Scalzi Compound recently. What here is calling to you? Share in the comments! | Continue reading
Artist Lee Moyer, along with three other artists, is currently doing an exhibition at the Keep Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. For Lee's part in the exhibition, he's done science fiction and fantasy writers as tarot cards, using such luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Madeleine L'Engle, … | Continue reading
Bored, or content? With cats it's hard to tell. That's all I got for you today, sorry. I will try to brain better tomorrow. | Continue reading
I have a non-trivial case of tendonitis in my left shoulder and my doctor's advice for it is mild stretching, Aleve for the inflammation, and an ice pack to deal with swelling. The ice pack I've been using: A bag of frozen peas, because it's conveniently sized for my shoulder and … | Continue reading
Around this time 11 years ago, I switched Whatever to hosting on WordPress, after a couple of years of struggling to keep the site up and running on days when lots of people came to it to read what I had to say. I made the switchover, and guess what happened? Nothing! Which is to … | Continue reading
My daughter asked me if I wanted to go see Gemini Man with her last night, and I did, not because I thought it would be gripping action film with just a tinge of science fiction (which is what it's promoted as), but because I'm a cinema nerd and director Ang Lee shot the film… | Continue reading
Hey, remember all those snacks I was given when I was in Australia? Athena and I tried them all (well, most of them) and made a video of us doing it and reviewing the snacks we had. It's 17 minutes of your life you'll never get back! Enjoy. https://youtu.be/ne5zMD-PRKs | Continue reading
The fast food franchise Hothead Burritos has an interactive nutrition information form, which allows you plug in the ingredients from the burrito (or burrito bowl) you ordered and then get a calorie count and other information. I noted it on Twitter a couple of weeks ago, and how … | Continue reading
Actually, these arrived before I left for Australia, so I'm catching up by posting them now. Nevertheless: A good stack! What here calls to you? Tell us in the comments. | Continue reading
Not quite a full moon. Sorry, incipient werewolves. But pretty anyway. | Continue reading
These were a gift from the folks at Conflux, and prefaced with the admission that this was all junk. As someone whose first purchase in Australia was a Violet Crumble, this delighted me. And indeed there is a bunch of questionable stuff here, down to and including the Vegemite-fl … | Continue reading
Late, after the pilot of last night's flight from Houston apparently sublimated directly into the air and the trip was rescheduled to this morning. I'm going to take a nap, I think, and then try to catch up on a few things. But yes -- back at home and it's nice to be here. | Continue reading
The trip home began yesterday with a jaunt from Canberra to Melbourne, with a stay in the Qantas Airport lounge preceding the flight. An overnight stay at a hotel here at the airport, and now I'm loitering in the Melbourne Airport Centurion Lounge, awaiting a flight a 3 hour 45 m … | Continue reading
"Floriade" being the Australian flower festival that happens here in Canberra. I took a walk over and took some pictures. Enjoy. | Continue reading
Here's me finishing up my keynote address yesterday, looking for all the world like I'm a politician at a town hall meeting. I am not a state senator, my friends. I am but a humble science fiction writer. | Continue reading
It's a nice view. I'm here for the "Science Fiction and the Future of War" seminar, at which I'll be giving the keynote address in a couple of hours. Canberra and Australia are enjoying the beginning of their spring, and apparently there is a flower festival going on, so tomorrow … | Continue reading
I'm more than a day into my travel and currently in the Air New Zealand lounge in the Auckland airport. The flight arrived at 4:45 and it's still dark here. My next flight takes me to Melbourne, from whence I will connect to Canberra. I slept reasonably well on the plane from Hou … | Continue reading
Tomorrow I start on a week-long trip to Australia, the itinerary of which goes as such: Dayton to Houston to Auckland to Melbourne to Canberra. It will take over 40 hours, and includes an epic 11-hour layover in Houston because, well, that's just how these things work sometimes. … | Continue reading
After the week we've all had, we deserve a good one. | Continue reading
As we head into the final weekend of September, here's a stack of new books and ARCs for you to consider. What here would you like to close out the month with? As always, share in the comments. | Continue reading
The first look is one I like to call "Newly Divorced Suburban Dad Makes His First Tinder Profile": The second is "Man Wrongly Convicted is Finally Released, But Prison Has Changed Him": I don't know, maybe I have them reversed. It's so confusing. Also: Hello, in addition to getti … | Continue reading
So, apropos of nothing in particular, let's say you wish to communicate privately with someone you've not communicated with privately before, for whatever reason you might have. And, wanting to stand out from the crowd, you decide to try to be clever about it, because, hey, you a … | Continue reading
The working day started off with Boris Johnson's proroguing of parliament called unconstitutional in an 11-0 decision by the UK's Supreme Court, and finished off with Speaker Pelosi announcing a formal impeachment inquiry against President Trump, because it appears he tried to bl … | Continue reading
Time Travel! Annalee Newitz is playing with it in her new novel The Future of Another Timeline! Or, perhaps, has been playing with it already, or will have been playing with it at some unspecified point in what might have been the future! Maybe! They're here now to sort all the t … | Continue reading
Posted here for posterity: 1. Looking at a conversation of some crankybottoms dissing me (among others) as a postmodern scribbler who has no time for the great writers of western civilization and therefore has no knowledge of the "deep norms" of genre and therefore my writing su … | Continue reading
Here's what I did! 1. Wrote more in The Last Emperox. It was good, you're going to like it, I think. Still have more to do, expect me to keep focusing on that until it's done. 2. Went out and saw friends on several different occasions. This involved a lot of driving, so I drove… | Continue reading
Why? One, to get work done on the book. Two, because I feel like it. I'm also going to take a week off Twitter, too. Aaaaand probably won't read news or otherwise see what the outside world is up to during that time either. I figure the planet can get along without me for seven… | Continue reading
It's Friday the 13th, and here's a very lucky collection of new books and ARCs that have arrived at the Scalzi Compound. What here would you feel lucky to have? Share in the comments! | Continue reading
Oh, hey! Whatever is now old enough to go drinking. It probably won't go drinking, because I don't drink, and also the blog is not an actual person, but I admit it's amusing to think of my blog suddenly ditching me to go out on a bender, then coming back and drunkenly slurring ou … | Continue reading
So, I'm waaaaaaay behind on The Last Emperox (it's my own damn fault), and as a result I'm now clacking away furiously and also, as it happens, very happily employing my nanny software during the day until I get my writing quota done. What this means is that when I sign back on t … | Continue reading
Many years ago, writer Jim Macdonald postulated "Yog's Law," a handy rule of thumb for writers about the direction money is meant to flow in publishing: "Money flows toward the writer." This is handy because it will give the writer pause when she has a publisher (or agent, or edi … | Continue reading
I've been aware of the "Many Worlds" interpretation of physics for some time -- longtime readers of mine know it's intimately connected with space travel in my "Old Man's War" series of novels. But in the real world, how does it connect to the actual physics we know and (profess … | Continue reading
Tulips, bitcoin, fantasy worlds -- how to each relate to the other? Alexandra Rowland knows, and in their Big Idea for A Choir of Lies, they are happy to lay it all out for you. ALEXANDRA ROWLAND: Do you like coincidences? Here's a cool one: From November of 1636 to February of 1 … | Continue reading
And it looks like it's going to be a merry Christmas for my little book, as it's gotten positive reviews in Publishers Weekly, Booklist and Kirkus. And what do they say? From Publishers Weekly: “Scalzi (The Consuming Fire) unleashes his wicked wit in this stocking stuffer miscell … | Continue reading
Oh, hey, look at the time: It's "A stack of new books and ARCs" o'clock! As it often is on Fridays afternoons. What here looks enticing to you? Share in the comments. | Continue reading