In our front yard we have a very small garden in which we grow strawberries and oregano, and one of the things I really enjoy is for a few months out of the year being able just to step out of my house and have a fresh, tart strawberry whenever I want. The strawberries we… | Continue reading
Looking very serious, and then less so. Either way, she's pretty great. It's nice to have her home for the summer. | Continue reading
Another Friday, another ample stack of new books and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound. Lots of good stuff here -- what in this stack is catching your eye? Share in the comments! | Continue reading
Patrolling the yard, as they are wont to do. There is, after all, a lot of yard to patrol. | Continue reading
If you do, it's over here at Tor.com. As with the other covers in the series, it's done by Sparth, and as with the other covers in the series, I kinda love it. Also, I'm still writing it. It needs to be done soon. Sooooooooon. But I think you'll like it. | Continue reading
Was reading elsewhere someone noting their opinion that when people are posting online about how great their marriage is, that marriage is probably in trouble in some way, in the manner of how our online presentation of ourselves is highly mediated and controllable, unlike our re … | Continue reading
And unusually, this view is from the day I'm leaving the hotel room, rather than checking into it. What can I say, I was busy the whole weekend in Denver. Better late than never. Denver Pop Culture Con was lovely as usual, and I got to see lots of friends, and an Amanda Palmer co … | Continue reading
As May winds down and June begins, here's a stack of new books and ARCs to help you greet the new month. Which of these would you like to welcome June with? Share in the comments! | Continue reading
In today's Big Idea for her novel Shadowblade, author Anna Kashina reminds us that behind all the swashbuckling, there's often a serious purpose. ANNA KASHINA: During my Shadowblade blog tour, I have written several posts emphasizing the fun I had writing this novel, and I hope t … | Continue reading
There's a site out there that scraped Wikipedia entries from the last few years, and then put up a map of the United States where the place names were replaced with the person associated with that place (in apparently whatever capacity) whose Wikipedia article was looked at the m … | Continue reading
My mail provider is telling me they're having a major outage regarding mail services today, so if you've sent me email today it may be a while before I see it and/or am able to respond. | Continue reading
Today's the first time I've ever had three books out on the same day: Tor is re-releasing my stand-alone novels Agent to the Stars, Fuzzy Nation and The Android's Dream in spiffy new trade paperback editions. These new editions come with spiffy new covers, which all share type tr … | Continue reading
Here was the moon just before sunrise today. Not bad. Also, and somewhat unrelated, some of you may have heard there were tornados in my area last night. There were, but none of them hit anywhere around me. I'm fine, the house is fine, the cats are fine. We're good. Not everyone … | Continue reading
It was brutal. Brutal. (Actually Smudge and Roxy, the shih-tzu in question here, are very good friends. But brutal interspecies carnage sounds so much more interesting than "and then they booped noses.") Hope your Memorial Day is going well. | Continue reading
I had it when I was in California. It was fine! And I would eat another one. For those of you unawares of what an "Impossible Burger" is, it's a burger made with plant-based "meat" made by Impossible Foods. It's mostly soy and a few other ingredients, including "heme," which is w … | Continue reading
Here's a view I'm not sure I've shared with you before: a picture of Harris Creek, which more or less parallels the street I live on, from the bridge that goes over it. I took the picture as I was taking a walk yesterday (I pulled a leg muscle last week, so I've been walking… | Continue reading
Which is: Make a filter that takes any email with the word "unsubscribe" in it and punts it directly into archived mail, rather than sending it to your inbox. Since nearly all marketing email has a footer that explains (in very small type) how to unsubscribe to the mail, all of i … | Continue reading
Even when you write fantasy, the real world can influence your work. So Bryan Camp discovered when recent events caused to rethink the design of his latest novel, Gather the Fortunes. BRYAN CAMP: When I sold my first novel, The City of Lost Fortunes, I was lucky enough (and had a … | Continue reading
Here's a very excellent mid-week selection of new books and ARCs that are available for your perusal. What here would you want on your own shelf now or in the near future? Share your thoughts in the comments. | Continue reading
I figure that will hold you until my brain comes back. Also: What a great weekend at the Nebula conference, and not just because one of my best friends won the Nebula Award for Novel. It was good enough that I don't actually mind my brain is mush today. | Continue reading
Honestly, Maurice Broaddus had me as a reader of The Usual Suspects when he described it as "Encyclopedia Brown meets The Wire," but as this Big Idea shows, there's so much more going on here. MAURICE BROADDUS: The Usual Suspects is a bit of a departure for me. It’s a middle scho … | Continue reading
Seriously, this photo has everything (photographic-wise, anyway) you come to Whatever for! I'm traveling tomorrow and will be in Los Angeles through Monday, taking meetings and also taking part in the Nebula Weekend, where among other things I will be participating in the mass au … | Continue reading
Comedian Tim Conway passed away today, and I posted a thought on Facebook which I'll share here as well: "It occurs to me that one day every celebrity I ever loved growing up will be gone, and it will feel a little bit like being orphaned." I will add that at age 50, their ranks… | Continue reading
In novels, detectives follow the "big cases" -- but what about the other cases, which need solving? W.M. Akers considers them, and the person who would chase those down, in Westside. W.M. AKERS: You will probably never solve a murder mystery. You will probably personally investig … | Continue reading
My two favorite people on the planet, but of course you know that already. Happy Mother's Day to you, if you are, or have ever had, a mother. | Continue reading
Two days ago I encouraged people to donate to RIP Medical Debt, a non-profit that wipes out medical debt here in the US, and in return I would (if pledge goals were met) write a short story and do an audio version of the story as well. This pledge drive was in commemoration of my … | Continue reading
You didn't know this because I didn't say anything about it, but I recently had a brief mid-life crisis, which I thought was about turning 50. And because I was efficient about it, I had it last year. What had happened was, after I was done with my book tour for The Consuming Fir … | Continue reading
(tl;dr -- Donate to RIP Medical Debt, which forgives medical debt, then come here and tell me in the comments how much you donated. If the amount donated reaches $5k, I write brand new short story.) RIP Medical Debt is a non-profit organization that buys up the medical debt of pe … | Continue reading
If you're a time traveler, keeping the time stream clear of possible contradictions is not your only problem. Author Wendy Nikel knows another one, and it's at the heart of The Cassandra Complex. WENDY NIKEL: In my previous Big Idea entry, I talked about The Grandmother Paradox a … | Continue reading
So majestic. Truly a magnificent specimen of the common house tiger. | Continue reading
How long did it take Seanan McGuire to write her latest novel, Middlegame? It depends on how you look at it. There's the typing of it... and then there's everything else. SEANAN McGUIRE: This is the book that took me ten years of writing basically constantly before I could call m … | Continue reading
Hey! I have a book (The Last Emperox) that's due reeeeeeeeal soon, so to avoid the world pulling focus on that, for the next few weeks (i.e., probably through the end of the month, possibly shorter, hopefully not longer) I'm going to be doing a semi-hiatus from social media and t … | Continue reading
Back in October I groused about my weight and how it was making me feel physically, and proposed that I should lose twenty pounds by my birthday, which is, as it happens, this Friday. Today I'm happy to announce that indeed, I have lost twenty pounds from my top weight! So that's … | Continue reading
In this Big Idea for Million Mile Road Trip, author Rudy Rucker describes how he wrote himself into a bit of a corner -- and what it was that helped him get out of it. His path is not recommended for others, but it makes for some very fine reading here. RUDY RUCKER: I always… | Continue reading
It's a very relaxing view. No reason for this other than I thought it might be nice to a have a bit of tree and sky in our lives today. | Continue reading
For the novel Outside the Gates of Eden, acclaimed author Lewis Shiner goes back in time, just a bit, to uncover the what it is people of his generational cohort have brought into the present moment. LEWIS SHINER: As I got close to finishing my seventh novel, Dark Tangos, it was … | Continue reading
In the New York Times today, a story by reporter John Schwartz about the JoCo Cruise, which is the "nerd cruise" I and roughly two thousand other people go on every year, hosted by musician Jonathan Coulton. It does a pretty good job of figuring out what's pretty great about the … | Continue reading
(Note: No specific plot spoilers in the review, but I'm going to allow people to post spoilers in the comments, so if you're one of the three people in the world who haven't seen the film yet, you might want to skip the comments until you do.) Avengers: Endgame is a once-in-a-lif … | Continue reading
We're pretty sure that when Smudge scampered his way into the Scalzi household last year, he was around eight weeks old. Which means that he was very likely born today a year ago, give or take a few days on other side. That's close enough when it comes to cats, so I'm just going … | Continue reading
I was traveling for two weeks, so it's no surprise that we have a double load of new books and ARCs here at the Scalzi Compound this week. Which of these books is especially appealing to you today? Let me know in the comments! | Continue reading
First of May, First of May, outdoor reading starts today! Anything in this stack you would take with you for a little outside book enjoyment? Share in the comments, please! | Continue reading
When I was in Budapest, one of the folks standing in line asked me to sign his arm so he could go get it tattooed. Well, okay; I used a blue sharpie to do it. A day later I got a picture of the above tattoo, in black. And there you have it -- I'm… | Continue reading
In the immortal words of Steve Martin, "Let's get small." How small? Well, in Clark Thomas Carlton's latest novel, The Prophet of the Termite God, it's going to be very small indeed. CLARK THOMAS CARLTON: Yep, it came to me in a dream, the Big Idea about a far-flung future where … | Continue reading
One small regret I had of spending half of April away from the house is that the crabapple tree in the front yard had not yet blossoms, and I thought it was likely that I would miss them this year. Fortunately, the tree was still blossoming when I came back yesterday. They're pas … | Continue reading
Having a great time, wish you were here (this particular here is the Parliament of Hungary, which is very ornate). Tonight is for packing and tomorrow is for traveling, and I'll have a fuller update of my adventures once I'm home. The short version is that our trip to London and … | Continue reading
Today's picture taken at a later hour than usual because we got in late and went to dinner with my Hungarian publishers and translators straight from the airport. It was a fabulous dinner. I ate quite a lot. It seems unlikely I will remain awake much longer than it takes to writ … | Continue reading
For his novel All My Colors, author David Quantick had his protagonist do a very bad thing. No, not murder. No, not assault. Something much worse: Plagiarism! Of a sort... DAVID QUANTICK: There was this short story. I could remember how it began and how it ended, but that was all … | Continue reading
There are massive skeletons floating over crowds of humans while Charles Darwin looks on approvingly. As he would. Also, I have an event tonight at Forbidden Planet here in London at 6pm which you should come to if you happen to be in the area. That is all. Tomorrow in Budapest! | Continue reading