This motley assemblage of very large beasts greeted me at the bar I went to for an aftershow meetup, following the event with me and Andy Weir in Louisville. The bar, appropriately enough, was called Kaiju, and was possibly the hippest bar I’ve gone to in years. Which is admitted … | Continue reading
Look, up in the sky! It’s not a bird, or a plane, it’s… squid gods? Author Brandon Crilly gives us a look inside his newest novel, Catalyst, and what it means to have faith; especially in something you can see. BRANDON CRILLY: When I was a kid, I grew up with two very different f … | Continue reading
If you live in Ohio, are a US citizen and are over 18, you should register to vote. And if you are registered to vote, you should check your registration status to make sure that indeed you are still registered to vote, and if not, to re-register. Fortunately you can do both onli … | Continue reading
That’s right, you heard it here first! I finally got a chance to try Crumbl Cookies! If you haven’t heard of them, they’re a pretty popular cookie company that comes out with new specialty flavors weekly. I’ve been watching @gofredo15 do weekly Crumbl cookie reviews for a while n … | Continue reading
And I look to have parked myself (get it) across from the single largest parking lot on the entire island of Manhattan. Go, me! I am town for New York Comic Con, and you can see me today at 1pm, as I do a signing at the Tor booth (#3027, if memory serves), and then […] | Continue reading
Author Nicole Dieker couldn’t solve a mystery in her own life, so she tried to solve one in her newest novel, Ode to Murder. And as her big idea explains, there were plot twists in store for her as she made the attempt. NICOLE DIEKER: When I began drafting Ode to Murder, I had ju … | Continue reading
As readers of the site well know, over the summer I wrote and recorded a number of musical tracks and posted them here and elsewhere; it was fun for me and hopefully enjoyable for other folks too, but it also meant that the individual pieces were scattered and somewhat disorganiz … | Continue reading
Master storyteller Mur Lafferty is back, and in her new novel Station Eternity, she confronts the question of what would really happen if the one thing that always happened around you, was the one thing you wish would never happen… MUR LAFFERTY: I am of Generation X, and grew up … | Continue reading
I am someone who is a big fan of seasonal flavors. I like eggnog in the winter, floral flavors in the spring, fresh watermelon and tomatoes in the summer, and of course, pumpkin spice and warm apple-y flavors in the fall. So this Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake by Handle the Heat seeme … | Continue reading
Which is: I’ve turned it off because the AMP theme I was using wasn’t playing nice with desktop views, and I don’t really want to switch over to a new AMP theme because the primary theme I use works fine with phones/tablets and there is no longer any Google penalty for not using … | Continue reading
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another Small Business Saturday! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done one of these, but I am extra excited for today’s featured business because it’s actually local to me. So local in fact that it’s literally across the street from my house! I re … | Continue reading
We’re closing out September with this quite lovely stack of new books and ARCs! What here would you like to take into the spooky season with you? Share in the comments. — JS | Continue reading
I have two arms, so today I got two vaccines: On the left, this year’s edition of the flu shot, and on the right, the latest bivalent COVID booster. The latter is ever-so-slightly precipitate, as I caught COVID in June and therefore only barely inside the window for getting the b … | Continue reading
Rob Wilkins was close enough to beloved author Terry Pratchett that the two of them shared the same Twitter account. From that vantage point Wilkins was able to see Pratchett as a friend, as a writer and as a human being – one who had a thing for hats, magical, metaphorical, and … | Continue reading
Keep her securely in the house while these three creatures are wandering about the yard. Yes, she wanted to make friends with them, very much. However, it was reasonably certain these three would be fine not spending any time with her. Charlie is sulking about it. She will get ov … | Continue reading
I went to a local market in Troy for Kewpie mayo, but they were sold out, so I sadly wandered the store looking for something else to buy. I came across these three flavors of mustard: I’d never heard of this brand before, but these mustards looked pretty quality, so I decided to … | Continue reading
Laura Kat Young was determined to write a story that she wanted to read, even if at first it was difficult to find a place for it amongst the shelves. Read on to see how The Butcher came to be. LAURA KAT YOUNG: An Eye for an Eye A horrible crime had just shocked the nation, and [ … | Continue reading
This past weekend, I went to the ribbon cutting ceremony of a new boba tea shop. The area in which I live is not particularly well known for its boba places, so this was quite exciting as someone who loves the stuff. Prior to this place opening in Troy about thirty minutes from m … | Continue reading
The technology in question: A small drone, which Krissy’s work has given her so that she can cut down on the number of roofs she has to climb on in her role as a claims adjuster. She need to get some practice with it, but it’s an overly blustery day, so she decided to fire […] | Continue reading
Did you know (and its attendant corollary, do you care) that you can take the AI Drummer tracks in Logic Pro X, transmute them into common MIDI, put entirely different sounds on them, and then load them up with effects and filters until they’re entirely unrecognizable? Which, uhh … | Continue reading
I made cookies! And if you couldn’t guess from the title, they were oatmeal cookies. With chocolate chips. And espresso powder. And other stuff, but for some reason only those ingredients are included in the title. Anyways, as I’ve mentioned before, Half Baked Harvest is one of m … | Continue reading
Always have a backup plan. And if that doesn’t work, have another back up plan… and another after that. Let’s just say Plan A didn’t work out for the characters in William C. Tracy’s new novel, Of Mycelium and Men. Follow along in his Big Idea as he tells you of their Plan B, and … | Continue reading
Yes, I know, I’m on a bit of a tear with the music this week. My excuse for it this time is that I got a new virtual synth (this one) and I wanted to see what I could do with it. All the sounds in this composition are from this particular synth (including the […] | Continue reading
I’ve had a couple of folks I don’t know well (or at all) recently ask me if I could give them advice about getting over writer’s block. The answer is “probably not,” and here’s why: 1. I have no idea what the root of your block is, and also, the chances are reasonably good that [ … | Continue reading
It can be hard to find the right words to express yourself. For author and linguist R. B. Lemberg, it might help that they have several languages to choose from. Come along in their Big Idea as they tell you about how language can be ever-changing, adaptable, or even restricting, … | Continue reading
I believe I mentioned just recently that Webb, my high school, is the sort of place that takes its annual reunion celebration seriously, and one of the things it does during the reunion weekend is to offer up three alumni awards, for Outstanding Achievement, for Distinguished Ser … | Continue reading
The former president of Harvard has written an elegy for cursive writing in The Atlantic, noting that Kids These Days weren’t taught it (it slipped off national curriculum standards in the 2010s), don’t read it easily if at all, and wonders what this means for their ability to ac … | Continue reading
Sometimes, combining your favorite things can result in something even better than the individual things you put together. Like pineapple on pizza, or peanut butter on pickles. Or in author Jennifer Estep’s case, genres. Come along in the Big Idea for her newest novel, Only Bad O … | Continue reading
You never know when you’re gonna need a spare sunset, am I right? Enjoy, and I hope you had a pleasant Monday. — JS | Continue reading
My high school’s reunion weekend is coming up — in exactly a month, as it happens — and it’ll also be the centennial of my school, and Webb is exactly the sort of place where reunions and centennials are a big deal. I was thinking about the school and the people I know from there … | Continue reading
Hey, everyone! Welcome back to another installment of me eating snacks. More specifically, the snacks I’m eating are from the Universal Yums September box! This month is South Korea, and here’s the lineup: Today, I had the pleasure of sharing these snacks with my friend that is v … | Continue reading
I was looking for something to accompany the salad I was making for dinner, and I stumbled upon Half Baked Harvest’s “Soft Garlic Herb Cheddar Cheese Bread”. Savory bread?! I could definitely do that. I prefer baking over cooking, anyway, so this recipe seemed like the perfect th … | Continue reading
One of the interesting side effects of owning a church building is the volume of unsolicited mail that one gets from companies that specialize in church-and-ministry-oriented businesses; for example, see the above closeup of a postcard sent to us from a company that specializes i … | Continue reading
Covering Neil Young, who is also Canadian. This is absolutely one of my favorite things kd lang has recorded, which is saying something, because kd lang has recorded a large number of phenomenal songs. Enjoy. — JS | Continue reading
Author Gemma Amor was in a different state of mind when she was writing Full Immersion, and that state of mind made a mark on what she wrote… and how she wrote it. GEMMA AMOR: How much is a woman’s life worth? Not only to others, but to herself? How far would one go to […] | Continue reading
As I believe I’ve noted before, it’s kind of cool that most of the major AI art generators have at least a vague idea of who I am and what I look like. On the other hand, they never really portray me in the most flattering of lights — and this time even less so. […] | Continue reading
The third time’s the charm! Or the fifth. Or perhaps the twelfth? Or maybe, just maybe, the first time was the charm all along? Follow along in author Max Brallier’s Big Idea as he tells you about his journey to crafting the series he truly wanted to, and its newest installment, … | Continue reading
I’ve stated this before in a post from a few months ago, but I have a bad habit of following a ton of cooking/baking people on Tik Tok and then never actually trying out their recipes. Yesterday, however, I saw one of my favorite foodie Tik Tokers, Justine Doiron (@justine_snacks … | Continue reading
Another year! Another post noting today is the anniversary of Whatever! Today is anniversary number twenty four, which is quite a feat. Once again I am slightly amazed that I have done anything for two dozen years, much less a more-or-less daily repository, on which I record thou … | Continue reading
Humans can make a life in almost any circumstance, but when things get really rough, what sort of life can it be? Stacey McEwan has been thinking about this a lot, and in Ledge, she’s got a few answers, at least as they will apply to the folks in her book. STACEY McEWAN: How woul … | Continue reading
When I travel back home from the West Coast, I essentially have two choices available to me: Take an overnight flight, on which I will not rest well, and then get home early(ish) and then spend the rest of the day a bit dazed, or leave on a morning flight, which will eat up the [ … | Continue reading
Where I was in town for the Worldcon, at which I did panels, hung out with friends, and DJ’d a dance. Aside from the fact I gave myself a sore ankle from walking so much, it was a lovely time. And no, I didn’t win any Hugos; you have to be a finalist first for […] | Continue reading
I’m running around Chicago at Worldcon right now, so allow me to copy and paste the Twitter thread I used to announce it: Happy September! “Travel By Bullet” the 3rd installment of the “Dispatcher” series, is now live on @audible_com, read as always by the incomparable @ZacharyQu … | Continue reading
Author Jody Keisner comes to us today with some classic advice: face your fears. Or at least, don’t ignore them. Open up about them! Explore them. That’s exactly what she does in her memoir, Under My Bed. JODY KEISNER: My Big Idea started as My Big Humiliation. “What is your grea … | Continue reading
I’ll be at Chicon 8, this year’s Worldcon, starting tomorrow, and if you’re there, you’ll be seeing me doing public events at these times and places: Friday, September 2, 20221:00 PM CDT: 45 Panels in 60 MinutesGrand Hall LDuration: 60 mins 4:00 PM CDT: Autographing – John Scalzi … | Continue reading
For years now, Bob Smietana has been a writer, reporter and editor for the Religion News Service, and as such has had a front row view of the changes in, and challenges of, religious organizations and entities here in the United States. Where is it all going — and where should it … | Continue reading
Because we live in the country and are not hooked up to the village of Bradford water supply, we have a septic tank, and because we have a septic tank, every five years or so the county comes by to check on it and make sure it’s in working order. The last time, everything was […] | Continue reading
As summer begins to wind down, so too does the first phase of the church renovation. Things done since the last time I checked in here: Railing added to the balcony: Sanctuary floor and chancel finished (the pews, while out, are not in their final positions), new basement-level f … | Continue reading