People with a familiarity with time travel tropes may have heard of the "grandfather paradox." But now, author Wendy Nikel proposes a corollary for her newest, The Grandmother Paradox. WENDY NIKEL: As an author, I struggle with titles, and I don't normally settle on one until a s … | Continue reading
Hello everyone! Today I'm going to tell you about this awesome comic that a reader of this blog told me about (when I posted about Death as a character). It is a comic about the personification of death, otherwise known as Dee, befriending a teenage girl named Emily! They become … | Continue reading
In other words, Smudge update! This little guy has been living it up here in the Scalzi compound and is being an adorable pain in the neck! He is the most playful kitten we've ever had, Sugar and Spice as kittens don't even compare to how crazy this dude is. He loves chewing on c … | Continue reading
Friday the 13th is a lucky day here at the Scalzi Compound, because I get to show off all these new books and ARCs to you. What here would you consider yourself lucky to read? Tell us all in the comments! | Continue reading
My first personal awareness of Hayao Miyazaki didn't occur until I was well into adulthood, but for Raz Greenberg, his journey with the great animator started much earlier, and led him to write a book on the filmmaker, Hayao Miyazaki: Exploring the Early Work of Japan's Greatest … | Continue reading
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of "What You Should Be Watching"! Today I'll be telling you about Final Space, a TBS original adult cartoon. It's a sci-fi that takes place in an Earth where aliens are totally normal, and the Earth has a military-style organization … | Continue reading
What is best in life? If you are, say, Conan the Barbarian, you have one sort of answer. If you are Jay Schiffman, or one of his characters in his novel Game of the Gods, your answer might be very different indeed. JAY SCHIFFMAN: There are two aspects of my life that have signifi … | Continue reading
It began innocently enough. https://twitter.com/scalzi/status/1016843177335119872 https://twitter.com/ChuckWendig/status/1016845194044506113 https://twitter.com/SamSykesSwears/status/1016845999036219392 https://twitter.com/scalzi/status/1016846470178369536 https://twitter.com/Chu … | Continue reading
Community matters, even when or if your community is something... eldritch. As Ruthanna Emrys explains in her Big Idea for her newest novel, Deep Roots. RUTHANNA EMRYS: I’ve never lived among my own people. This was obvious to me, growing up, and I came to the logical conclusion … | Continue reading
Hey, everyone! I'm writing a story that has Death as a main character, and it's been really fun coming up with what I think Death looks like, what Death wears and sounds like, and basically Death's personality overall. In my head, Death is a guy with pale skin who wears pretty mu … | Continue reading
Writer Ella Dawson posted a piece on her blog (subsequently posted to Vox) entitled "We Are All Public Figures Now," in which she tackles what she sees as the erosion of personal privacy due to social media and other factors, and what she thinks it all means. It's an interesting … | Continue reading
https://youtu.be/Dy7JkZ7m8wM Athena and I are back at it again with another dive into the cinema's sequel-mad summer, this time visiting Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom to see what we think about dinosaurs this time around. We talk about the movie, the differences between the Jura … | Continue reading
It's very green. And yes, maples are generally best photographed in the fall, when they're all blazed up in yellows and oranges, but I think there's something to be said for the moment when they're in the height of their green as well. It's been a beautiful summer around here so … | Continue reading
He's all kittened out. Hope your Saturday is going well. | Continue reading
I fucking love soup, man. Soup is the greatest food known to mankind. There's so many different types, so many different flavors and endless possibilities as to what can be created. Some soups have grains, some have meat, some have cheese, it all depends. Some are chunky, some ar … | Continue reading
I've been a fan of Alexandra Petri for a while now -- she's possibly the funniest person in newspapers today -- but I think she went above and beyond with "Keep Scott Pruitt Moist," a column that went up mere hours before the man resigned his position as head of the EPA, and whic … | Continue reading
I hope you like books, because this week we've got a very fine stack of new books and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound. What here would you be loving to read right now? Tell us all in the comments. | Continue reading
You don't need me to tell you that Nanette, a new Netflix comedy special by Hannah Gadsby, is an unexpected landmark in stand-up performance, because so many others will tell you that. But I'm going to anyway (before I go on to make a tangential point): For the first fifteen minu … | Continue reading
Elsewhere online I've been talking about how The Calculating Stars is one of my favorite science fiction novels of the year, and how I expect it's likely to be remembered when "best of" lists and award nominations crop up. But here, today, author Mary Robinette Kowal is here to t … | Continue reading
This picture pretty much sums up their relationship at this point. In general the rest of the cats are slowly learning to tolerate Smudge, who to be fair does not make it easy for them by running right up them and getting into their respective furry faces, which they do not like … | Continue reading
Forgiveness: A complicated topic in any piece of literature, and one that doesn't necessarily come up that often in science fiction. But it's in T.J. Berry's new novel Space Unicorn Blues, and the author is here today to explain why it's integral to what goes down in the book. T. … | Continue reading
Hey, guys! Welcome to another edition of "What You Should Be Watching". Today I'm going to be talking about another Netflix original cartoon, The Hollow. This show is so easy to binge, with only ten episodes and each one being twenty-two minutes, I'll be surprised if you don't fl … | Continue reading
https://youtu.be/pC1A18ZLDxE In, one assumes, a patriotic fashion. | Continue reading
Ohio is known for its theme parks, Cedar Point and Kings Island. We're kind of the king of roller coasters around these parts, to be honest. So if you love coasters and various smaller, but still fun, rides, I would recommend going to Kings Island or Cedar Point, however I have n … | Continue reading
(Looks on the Internet) Huh, seems some Harlan Ellison fans are very angry about this addendum to my piece in the Los Angeles Times about his passing. Well, fair enough; so, let me offer up some further points about it. 1. Why is it an addendum here rather than in the LA Times pi … | Continue reading
Friendship, magic and a sense of place: All of these are important to Francesco Dimitri, and are the foundation of The Book of Hidden Things, the author's first book written in English. He's here to discuss all three, and his novel. FRANCESCO DIMITRI: We live in a world full of d … | Continue reading
https://youtu.be/w-xXspUh1ro This is the best hour and one minute of music you will ever hear (not guaranteed, do not sue if this is not the best 61 and a half minutes of music ever). It's intense, it's dramatic, it's got everything you could want from a score of music. If you've … | Continue reading
Nothing is sweeter than your favorite childhood candy. Mary Janes, candy cigarettes, Necco Wafers, Bottle Caps, Abba-Zabas, or those horrific wax bottles than I cannot fathom why anyone would enjoy. Candies from the past that aren't really around anymore are a true treasure. So w … | Continue reading
Eight years ago I wrote a piece on the subject of things about the past that I didn't miss today. Since then I've thought of a few more things I'm sincerely glad we've cosigned to the trash heap of history. Here they are. 1. Having to remember to save documents I'm writing. Like … | Continue reading
Do you have any idea what this picture means just by looking at it? Yes, it's some guy claiming there is free real estate to be had, but what does it all mean? This is something that can only be understood by someone well-versed in the language of memes. There are many memes that … | Continue reading
And it is: Smudge, aka Lord Aloysious Smudgington III, aka Smudge the Mighty Toe Hunter, aka Smoooooooge. Please update all relevant records. Thank you for your attention. | Continue reading
As we come to the end of another June, here is a substantial stack of new books and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound, calling out to be read and appreciated. What here is calling to you, specifically? Tell us in the comments! | Continue reading
Yeah, we're gonna keep him. | Continue reading
Hello, everybody and welcome to another YouTube edition of "What You Should Be Watching"! Today I'll be talking about this awesome thing called "Movies With Mikey". It is not a channel, rather a set of videos on a channel called FilmJoy. If you like movie reviews, "Movies With Mi … | Continue reading
https://youtu.be/mj5IV23g-fE I have a piece on his passing over at the Los Angeles Times site. I should note an addendum here: I was in the audience at the 2006 Hugos when Harlan groped Connie Willis, and laughed because I thought it was a set piece between them. I later learned … | Continue reading
Okay, so, you may or may not have noticed I haven't posted lately. This is due to laziness and to me managing my time poorly, both of which I got from my father. I have no excuse for the first couple days, but for the last week I've been busy in San Diego! So today… | Continue reading
Enjoy! I figure you might need it. | Continue reading
Those of you who follow the Twitter feed know that a couple of days ago, just before we left for San Diego, in fact, Athena and her boyfriend Hunter found a small, defenseless kitten mewing helplessly in the field near our house. Well, they're suckers for helpless kittens that co … | Continue reading
What is truth? The question is an ancient, indeed, biblical, one, and more importantly for our purposes today, goes to the heart of Jeremy Finley's new novel, The Darkest Time of Night. Does Finley have the answer? We've got the true news here. JEREMY FINLEY: It came, truly, from … | Continue reading
If you've been wondering hat we've been up to the last few days, it's this: Two of our very dear friends, Deven and Claudia, got married to each other, and we as a family were there to see it happen. We also saw a number of other, equally dear friends at the wedding and generally … | Continue reading
I'm unimaginably thrilled. Here is the speech I sent to be read at the awards ceremony, which was read by my friend Olivia Ahl, who also took the picture above: So this is a thing I do: Whenever I am nominated or am a finalist for an award, I take a look at who else… | Continue reading
"Aren't you a little early for Comic Con?" One, I'm not going to Comic Con this year (I'll be at home, not being crowded by 140,000 other people), and two, there are reasons to go to San Diego besides that convention. I'm in town for a wedding. Also, you know. Taking a few days i … | Continue reading
The Collapsing Empire has done very well for me: It sold the most in its first year of any book I've written to date, got excellent reviews in the trades and among critics, was optioned for television, and was a finalist for the Hugo Award, and also for the Locus Awards, the winn … | Continue reading
Just in time for the solstice, a baker's dozen of new books and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound. Which of these would you enjoy reading on a short summer night? Tell us all in the comments! | Continue reading
The saying "there's more than one way to skin a cat" is a terrible expression (those poor cats), but makes the point that most problems have more than one solution. In the high-tech world of Daniel Godfrey's novel The Synapse Sequence, there are very specific problems with more t … | Continue reading
https://youtu.be/g9X6Nc-tSzE Athena and I are back with our occasional podcast, this time going deep on Incredibles 2, which brought in more than $180 million on its first weekend. Is it better than the original? And what does it have to say about the world we live in right now? … | Continue reading
As I'm sure most of you have figured out by now, the Trump era is one unending shit show after another, and for a lot of people in creative fields, it's making it hard to focus on your work when you know that the world is on fire. In my case the problem is compounded… | Continue reading
For this Big Idea piece, author Todd McAulty explains his new novel The Robots of Gotham by interviewing one of our incipient robot overlords. Pay attention; what you learn here could save your life from the mechauprising! TODD McAULTY: Todd McAulty: First off, thank you so much … | Continue reading