My 2018 vintage desktop was beginning to show its age in various ways, including having an OS I could no longer update and which thus became a non-trivial security hazard, and by requiring increasingly byzantine rituals to open and operate different games and productivity apps. A … | Continue reading
My dad stole the title “24” on my actual birthday, so I have to use the words for the numbers, instead. Guess that’s a consequence of not posting my birthday post on my birthday, but let’s not dwell on it. Anyways, I turned 24 a couple days ago (thank you all very much for the bi … | Continue reading
(Photo: The Royal Society, used under Creative Commons. Additional photoediting by me) If I have one wish coming out of 2022, it’s that this is the year — finally — when the myth of the assumed competence and virtue of billionaires is buried in a shallow grave down by the river. … | Continue reading
“I could get up and do something, but… why?” Excellent question, Sugar. Let’s both nap on it and see if we achieve any clarity on the matter. — JS | Continue reading
I wouldn’t say 2022 went by quickly, but I will say that I’m still surprised we’re at the end of it. I feel like there should be at least a couple more months to go in the year, because, you know. I had plans. But here we are anyway. And here’s my annual list of […] | Continue reading
I’ve told this story before, but it’s worth telling again: When Athena was very small, she didn’t know what day was her birthday, and the way she found out was by us bursting into her bedroom in the morning with a cake and singing “Happy Birthday” to her. Well, she knows when her … | Continue reading
Here it is, the final stack of new books and ARCs for 2022 — and a pretty good one to usher the year out on. What here would like to take with you into 2023? — JS | Continue reading
Athena’s 24th birthday is tomorrow (don’t say “happy birthday” in the comments yet, she’s writing a piece tomorrow where the birthday wishes will be more appropriate), and on the occasion of it being the day before her birthday, I thought I would unearth an article I wrote about … | Continue reading
Earlier in the month I promised that if Whatever readers (and others) helped to get the Locus Magazine fundraiser to $75k by the time their fundraiser closed, I would write a Christmas story, and if it got to $85k in the same timeframe, I’d throw in an audio version as well. It h … | Continue reading
If for some reason you cannot read it, it says: “I was on deadline and forgot to buy Christmas cards, Please have a wonderful holiday and a tremendous 2023 anyway, Your bestest pal, John Scalzi.” And I mean every word. — JS | Continue reading
Don’t worry, for once, the earworm is not painful. Enjoy. — JS | Continue reading
About six months ago, my friend introduced me to a new genre of music called Phonk, and ever since then I’ve been totally obsessed. Today, I want to share some Phonk with you, since it’s my new favorite genre and I think everyone should give it a try. EDM and techno have been my … | Continue reading
Why the change? Because we can get into more trouble that way. Put it on your calendars, folks. — JS | Continue reading
As I sometimes do when I finish writing a novel, here are some behind-the-scenes notes on Starter Villain, which I have now completed and which will be available (knocks wood) in August of 2023. 1. The book took longer to complete than expected because in June I got COVID, and wh … | Continue reading
SPOILER: It’s me, hi, I finished a novel, it’s me. Starter Villain, available to you from Tor Books, probably next August. I’ll write a long piece about being finished later. For now, uhhhh, I might take a nap. — JS | Continue reading
Now I’m definitely curious about it. — JS | Continue reading
Locus Magazine, the trade magazine of the science fiction/fantasy/horror publishing field, is having a fundraiser to help it continue its work. I’m a fan and a supporter of the magazine — I subscribe to it, and I also donated $1k to this very fundraiser — and with less than a day … | Continue reading
It’s fine. Everything’s fine. Wheeeeeeeeeee! — JS | Continue reading
As some of you may know, I have a bit of a hoarding problem. I’m slightly addicted to online shopping, regular shopping, and subscription boxes, and don’t have room for everything I buy. So a lot of stuff I acquire just sits around in the boxes it came in, never to be opened, as … | Continue reading
Tor, which is the publisher of my novels, is being called out for using AI-generated art on a book cover; it appears that they got it from a stock art house. Getting graphic elements from stock art to modify on covers is a common enough practice — including on my own most recent … | Continue reading
I drowned my Fitbit Sense smartwatch over the summer — not intentionally, I just thought it was more water-resistant than it turned out to be — and as I still wanted to count steps and tell time from my wrist, was in the market for a new tracker or smartwatch. Not long after the … | Continue reading
Well, the title really says it all! If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw me tweet about these cookies a couple days ago. A few people ended up asking me for the recipe (which I will always give because they’re never mine anyways), so I figured I’d do a post over them, gi … | Continue reading
We all want to be a big success — in life, in our careers, in everything. But what if that’s not actually our best path through the universe? Nathan Tavares is here to consider alternate paths in this Big Idea for A Fractured Infinity. NATHAN TAVARES: The multiverse seems pretty … | Continue reading
Hey, everyone! I know I’ve been scarce here on the blog lately, what with the holidays and occasionally working once a week (and spending hours watching Tik Toks), I have just been swamped (and lazy)! But I’m here today to talk about being healthy, or rather one of my attempts to … | Continue reading
Author Denise Crittendon was forever changed by her trip to Africa, and she brought inspiration back with her. This led to her writing her newest novel, Where it Rains in Color. DENISE CRITTENDON: In northern Namibia where clean water is scarce, Himba women cleanse their bodies b … | Continue reading
I have been reliably informed by my editor that Starter Villain, my next novel, has to be done in the next two weeks or otherwise DOOM DOOM DOOOOOOOOOM (actually my editor was far more mellow about it than that, but it still needs to be in). So, I, John Scalzi, will be scarce her … | Continue reading
For the last four days, the Whatever Gift Guide 2022 has been about helping you find the perfect gifts for friends and loved ones. But today I’d like to remind folks that the season is also about helping those in need. So this final day is for charities. If you’re looking for a p … | Continue reading
Author Leah Vernon knows something about persistence, as this Big Idea about the years-long struggle to publish the story that would become The Union tells you. What is the story that motivated her through all this time? Read on to discover. LEAH VERNON: What would you do with bo … | Continue reading
For the first three days of the Whatever Gift Guide 2022, I’ve let authors and creators tell you about their work. Today is different: Today is Fan Favorites day, in which fans, admirers and satisfied customers share with you a few of their favorite things — and you can share som … | Continue reading
The Whatever Holiday Gift Guide 2022 continues, and today we move away from books and focus on other gifts and crafts — which you can take to mean just about any other sort of thing a creative person might make: Music, art, knitting, jewelry, artisan foodstuffs and so on. These c … | Continue reading
First: The above bit of whimsy, generated by Midjourney from the prompt “A peppermint kaiju in a gingerbread city.” Second, some thoughts about AI-generated art I’ve had recently, which I posted on my personal Facebook account but am reposting here to open up the discussion a bit … | Continue reading
It’s no surprise that today’s generation of authors might also be gamers… but the influence of gaming on their writing may be more substantial that you might suspect. Kayleigh Nicol, who co-wrote Crystal Awakening with Andrew Rowe, speaks to this integration of writing and gaming … | Continue reading
Today is Day Two of the Whatever Holiday Gift Guide 2022, and today the focus is on Non-Traditionally Published Books: Self-published works, electronically-exclusive books, books from micro presses, books released outside the usual environs of the publishing world, and so on. Hey … | Continue reading
Welcome to the first day of the Whatever Shopping Guide 2022 — Our way of helping you folks learn about cool creative gifts for the holidays, straight from the folks who have created them. Today’s featured products are traditionally published books (including graphic novels and a … | Continue reading
We’re heading into the holiday season now, and what better way to go into it than with a fine selection of new books and ARCs! What here is making you feel merry? Share in the comments! ̵… | Continue reading
I wrote on Twitter yesterday: “But Scalzi,” I hear you say, “How do we bring back that artisan, hand-crafted Web?” Well, it’s simple, really, and if you’re a writer/artist/musician/other sort of creator, it’s actually kind of essential: 1. Create/reactivate your own site, owned b … | Continue reading
Fly, turkey, fly! For those who celebrate it, Happy Thanksgiving. For those who don’t celebrate it, happy Thursday. In both cases, I hope it’s a good day for you. — JS | Continue reading
Every year as the holiday season begins I run a gift guide for the holidays, and over the years it’s been quite successful: Lots of people have found out about excellent books and crafts and charities and what have you, making for excellent gift-giving opportunities during the ho … | Continue reading
When two writers join forces… how does the work actually get done? David Sandner and Jacob Weisman get real on this topic, and how it was their collaboration on Hellhounds got done. DAVID SANDNER: “90% of the work, 50% of the profits.” I remember seeing that on t-shirts worn by … | Continue reading
Seriously, that’s all it is. Ignore it! Ignore, I say! Mastodon WHY ARE YOU NOT IGNORING THIS — JS | Continue reading
Everyone wants to be authentically themselves, but sometimes it can be dangerous to show your true colors. In author Sharon Shinn’s newest novel, The Shuddering City, everyone can express themselves as they truly are. Read on to see how they go about doing so. SHARON SHINN: A few … | Continue reading
What?!? How could this have happened?!? Well, actually, because the house we bought is directly next door to The Old Church (see said church in the right of this photo), and when it came up on the market, we decided that it would be really useful to have that land for some things … | Continue reading
I think most people in the science fiction community know this, but in case the news has missed you, Greg Bear has passed away, after complications from surgery. File 770 has the details of that, as well as a general overview of his life, so I commend you to that site for the det … | Continue reading
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another Universal Yums review! Every month upon receiving the snack box, I open it and ask my dad to guess what country it is. This month, he actually got it first try! It’s Italy! I was pretty impressed, so I let him assist me in my review. As you … | Continue reading
I have previously and briefly noted that we over here at the Scalzi Compound have had some business reorganization going on, but now that all the applicable business licenses have been filed, paperwork done and bank accounts opened, it’s time to expand on that news a bit. The sho … | Continue reading
I got some new music software and played with it to see how it sounded; this is what came out. It is good? Meh. It’s more of a fragment than a whole composition, although I like the breakdown in the middle. Is it noisy? Oh my, yes. I think I’ve learned about myself that when […] | Continue reading
One can imagine another time and place for a novel, but the when and where of one’s life will find a way into the telling of that story. Or so Elijah Kinch Spector discovered in writing Kalyna the Soothsayer. Today’s Big Idea delves into this phenomenon. ELIJAH KINCH SPECTOR: The … | Continue reading
The headline pretty much sums it up. I’m pleased on both counts. It’s nice to be appreciated here in the bottom half of 2022. That said, if you would like to vote for Kaiju for in the Goodreads Choice Awards (or for any other nominee, if in fact you prefer them better, although i … | Continue reading