Aside from being here, of course. 1. I’m still mostly on Twitter, because aside from the “fun” of watching it slowly break down, and Elon Musk and his crew fumbling about trying to understand this thing he now owns and must make debt service on, it’s still the place where I have … | Continue reading
Today — finally! — we tackle the actual meaning of life! No one has ever done this before in the history of the world! Or, perhaps, no one has done it quite like S.B. Divya is doing here, in this Big Idea for her novel Meru. S.B. DIVYA: What if consciousness is a fundamental prop … | Continue reading
Hello, everyone, and welcome to my second post over Crumbl Cookies! You may remember my post from October where I tried them for the first time while in Minneapolis. I hadn’t gotten the chance to try them again until recently, because a new location popped up not too far away fro … | Continue reading
It’s been said that fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Author Dan Rice is exploring the topic of unwanted notoriety in his newest novel, and the second installment in his Allison Lee Chronicles, The Blood of Faeries. DAN RICE: Allison Lee, the eponymous protagonist of The Alli … | Continue reading
Over on Twitter last night, Gail Simone asked: This is a fun little exercise to consider, and while I answered this briefly over on that service (because everything on Twitter still needs to be brief), I thought it would be fun to rank them out over here in more detail. I won’t b … | Continue reading
Last week I was asked to participate in a Zoom meeting about PR stuff, but when I signed in what was really going on was a bunch of librarians telling me The Kaiju Preservation Society had won an Alex Award this year. Which, I’m not going to lie, was a much better Zoom meeting to … | Continue reading
When I was on the JoCo Cruise last year I took my usual literally thousands of photos and intended to post a curated selection of the ones that weren’t blurry, as I usually do. But I went straight from the 2022 cruise into my Kaiju Preservation Society book tour (seriously; I had … | Continue reading
I downloaded a new synth and fiddled a bit with it today, and this is what came out. As the title implies, it’s a bit of a meander rather than a proper composition, but it was still fun to put together. At some point I’m going to some actual songs, with, like, lyrics and stuff. [ … | Continue reading
There’s a current kerfuffle in the speculative fiction space and some folks are wondering why certain authors/notables in that space haven’t chimed in (this has not been directed at me, as I’m not in that particular space, but some others I know of). This is a good time to link b … | Continue reading
I’ve had a ridiculously good week this week, enough so that it’s done my brain in just a bit. Some of it you know, some of it you will know soon, and some of it I won’t be able to tell you for a while. Just know I’m happy but mildly discombobulated at the moment. […] | Continue reading
I’ve mentioned on here a few times that I have a bit of a hoarding problem, and I really do mean that genuinely. My life is seriously impacted by it, and every once in a while I get a super strong urge to fix it. That feeling struck today, so, I took a big step […] | Continue reading
We were told for the last couple of days that today we could expect anywhere from four to eight inches of snow, and that we should probably all just stay in our houses and hunker down while the stuff blanketed the earth (and roads, and electrical wires, etc). So we did — I mean, … | Continue reading
The house that we bought on the property adjacent to our church is no more; neither is the rubble of that house when it was torn down. What’s left now is dirt, laid over the former basement space of the house by the machinery you see here, and soon to be blanketed in snow thanks … | Continue reading
I, like many others, have been watching The Last of Us on HBO Max. I have also been watching it with subtitles, and I’m shocked at how garbage they are. You would think that such a huge, expensive, and widely-anticipated show would cater better to its subtitle-using audience, but … | Continue reading
And as you might expect, I’m pretty damn happy about it. Not only because it’s an award named for Heinlein, who is an undeniable influence on me (you may recall that the Publishers Weekly review of Old Man’s War said “Though a lot of SF writers are more or less efficiently contin … | Continue reading
It had been on the shortlist (i.e., the step before actual nomination), but as of this morning’s Oscar nomination announcements, it’s officially a nominee. Which means Pamela Ribon, my friend who wrote its screenplay, is also an Oscar nominee! This is genuinely the best news of t … | Continue reading
And what a lovely trade paperback it is, too. It doesn’t look too much different from the hardcover, with a only a few graphic design changes to push a review quote, and to announce the book’s NYT bestseller status (thanks for that, folks, by the way). If you want to pick up this … | Continue reading
For those folks outside China who wanted to get a membership at this year’s Worldcon in Chengdu, but were stymied because the Worldcon site wasn’t accepting payments from outside China, there’s good news: The site now accepts credit card payments. I tried it myself and the site a … | Continue reading
Hey, everyone! I just wanted to come on here real quick and wish y’all a happy Lunar New Year! Today, I celebrated with my friends by exchanging red envelopes, making paper lanterns out of construction paper, wrapping spring rolls, and I even tried making Tang Yuan for the first … | Continue reading
Guess who is having a weekend off with his spouse? If you guess “Why, it would appear John Scalzi is,” then you are 100% correct. We’re off to see friends and hang about and enjoy each other’s company. Honestly, sounds ideal. I believe Athena will be posting something in the next … | Continue reading
A food influencer I follow on Instagram and Tik Tok has in fact influenced me. I have been thoroughly influenced into buying Bonne Maman’s Advent Calendar. If you have never heard of Bonne Maman, it is a jam/jelly brand that’s pretty common in most grocery stores. It’s like a nic … | Continue reading
One advantage writers get when they work in different fields of writing is more tools for their professional toolbox — but as James L. Cambias points out in this Big Idea for The Scarab Mission, not every skill is directly transferable from one medium to the next, and learning wh … | Continue reading
I heard this odd song in an animatic on Tik Tok, and I’ve been listening to it multiple times a day since I first heard it a few months ago. I have no idea what it’s about or really even from, but here it is: And here’s the animatic! I had been following this artist’s […] | Continue reading
In this photo you will see, from left, my great uncle Roy, my grandmother Jean, and my grandfather Mike. This would have been taken during World War II so my grandmother and grandfather would have been in their early 20s, which makes this officially the youngest I’ve ever seen th … | Continue reading
Welcome, everyone, to a new series I’m starting here on the blog! I’m calling this series “Close To Home”, and it’s purpose is to feature small businesses in the area, much like Small Business Saturday. This series differs from Small Business Saturday, though, because it’s going … | Continue reading
September 13, 2023 will mark the 25th anniversary of Whatever, the blog you’re reading right this very second, so I thought it might be fun and interesting, every 13th day of each month of 2023, to write a piece reflecting about the site, my life and anything else regarding the l … | Continue reading
Someone from the internet was in a generous mood for the holidays, and sent my family a box of popcorn! Specifically a variety pack of popcorn from Fireworks Popcorn, which comes with these nine different popcorns: Here we have High Mountain Midnight, Orchard Blossom, Sunset Fire … | Continue reading
Real life experiences from authors’ lives often inform their fiction. In the case of Mary Baader Kaley, her life experience, and the life experience of someone she loves, lives at the heart of her novel Burrowed. What is that experience? Read on to discover. MARY BAADER KALEY: My … | Continue reading
Our afternoon today was interrupted by a knock on the door and a young man standing on our porch. He had come to inform us he’d made a bit of a mess of our yard, down by the road. What happened was, it has been raining more or less constantly today, and the young man’s […] | Continue reading
And from Sugar’s point of view, this is exactly the way things should be, with her on the inside and the dog on the outside. Don’t worry, they switched places almost immediately thereafter. — JS | Continue reading
While it’s true that Phantom of the Opera is leaving Broadway, author Jen Comfort is here to bring a modern, gender-reversed version of it to your reading list with her newest rom-com novel, Midnight Duet. JEN COMFORT: “You know how the 2019 theatrical release of Andrew Lloyd W … | Continue reading
Recently, a reader of this blog reached out and asked if they could send me a box of old cookbooks from their 96-year-old grandmother’s collection. Obviously, I said yes, and a few days later these bad boys arrived! Before we dive into what all we have on our hands here, I just w … | Continue reading
Science fiction is just that, a blend of the science we know, and the stories we wish to tell. The mixture of these two aspects was especially important to authors Nancy Kress and Robert Lanza, who co-authored their new novel, Observer. Read on to see how they wove science into s … | Continue reading
Yes, the third installment of the New York Times best selling Dispatcher series will soon be available in a signed, limited hardcover edition from Subterranean Press. If you don’t know what that means, it means that every copy of the book will be signed by me, and that we’re only … | Continue reading
A little over a year ago, I started playing a video game called Stardew Valley. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a super cute game in which you inherit a farm in a village called Pelican Town. After moving to the farm, you spend your days farming crops, tending to animals, fishin … | Continue reading
Smudge and Charlie were playing around this morning, and at one point, Charlie was playing in a manner I thought was maybe a little too rough, so I told her to back off. She came up to me to apologize, at which point Smudge launched an unprovoked attack on her butt. So I said to … | Continue reading
Sugar speaks for the entire household today; it’s been a day of a whole lot of nothing. Part of that is due to at least one member of the clan being under the weather, which necessitated a lot of rest, and everyone else just going along with the vibe. Don’t worry, we’re all fine, … | Continue reading
You may recall that we purchased the house next to The Old Church, which was in poor repair, with an eye toward bringing it down and doing other things with the land. Today was the day it was torn down; here is the wreckage. It will not, I promise, be there long. But while it […] | Continue reading
My ridiculously talented pal Pamela Ribon, who came up with me in the (now very) old school “Online Journals” community, and has made a name for herself writing novels, humor, television and some animated films you have heard of, has an animated short titled My Year of Dicks, whi … | Continue reading
Actually a fair amount! Best Novel: The Kaiju Preservation Society, Tor Books, March 2022, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, editor; Best Novella: The Dispatcher: Travel By Bullet, Audible Studios, September 2022, Steve Feldberg, editor; Best Short Story: “Grizzly Bear Conflict Manager” (A … | Continue reading
I am feeling quite under the weather today, and though DayQuil is certainly helping, I think a nap may be in order for today. So have this photo of Charlie, who is looking very guilty, because she knows she’s not supposed to be on the furniture. And have a great day! -AMS | Continue reading
We rang it in, literally. (I did a poll on Twitter asking if I should ring the church bell at midnight. 91% of respondents said yes. So…) — JS | Continue reading
2022 is not going to go down as a vintage year in most people’s minds, and reasonably so — to be frank, very few years since 2017 have been exactly what I would call stellar — but it had its moments, both globally and personally. I have already noted my professional year, and on … | Continue reading
Some of you were outraged I didn’t post my favorite photos of the pets yesterday along with the humans. That’s because I was going to give them their own post! First, Zeus, who is gone but definitely not forgotten. Next, this adorable two-fer of Sugar and Charlie. They are cuddle … | Continue reading
We clean up okay. Also, if you’re curious as to which is my favorite picture of my and Krissy together this year, it’s this one: Yup, that’s us! — JS | Continue reading
Hello, everyone, and welcome to this year’s “Best Of” for my contributions to this site! I didn’t start posting this year until May, so I have slightly less content to choose from in terms of favorite posts of the year, but here’s a few of them: Day 3 of Santa Monica Final Day of … | Continue reading
I mean, it was pretty good, actually! Here’s some of the highlights: The Kaiju Preservation Society: It got three starred reviews in the trades, was a New York Times bestseller in two separate media categories (once for print & ebook, then again for audio), has been optioned for … | Continue reading
As 2022 heads out of the door, here are some things I liked in it, including entertainment, tech, life and other stuff. This is in no particular order: Everything Everywhere All At Once: Yes, I know, me and every other nerd in the world, but look, sometimes the nerds are right. T … | Continue reading